Montecito Residence | Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

I love steel and I love Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects more every day, so this project makes me wanna carve their and mine initials in a heart on a tree. The Montecito Residence is a family home located in Toro Canyon, Montecito, CA. The environmental conditions in the area are challenging and a fire can get started in no-time, so the design solution is a house that functions as an umbrella to shield itself from the sun and allows naturally cool offshore breezes to move through the space. So pretty. The steel and concrete work perfectly with the landscape/ environment. What do you mean I haven’t been posting lately?! Stop being silly…

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(via: Noticias Arquitectura, photos: NY Times)

Home in Antwerpen – Sculp(IT)

Silvia Mertens and Pieter Peerlings of the Belgian architecture studio Sculp(IT) designed a building for living and working between two existing buildings. In fact, it was made in a 2,4m by 5,5m gap. It is a home for two that is nothing more than a steel frame with double wooden floors. The building has 3 floors (60m2): downstairs is for working, the first floor is for eating and cooking, the second for relaxing and the upper floor is a bedroom/bathroom area. The roof, of course, has a bath tub built in. Once the construction was completed, the staircase was put in place in one piece. The building has some symbolism in it as well – the street used to be a prostitution area of Antwerpen. I do have a slight problem with the bathroom, especially the toilet, but the house is tailored for the couple and is therefore perfect.

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(via: Archinect, all photographies by Luc Roymans)

Piel.Skin | An Online Book For Students by Ethel Baraona Pohl

Piel.Skin is an online publication, written in english and spanish, showing various projects from around the World and their skins/ facades. All of them are linked to Google Maps to show you their exact location. Hats off to the author. Enjoy!

Piel.Skin

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(via: Noticias Arquitectura)

Kinderstad | Sponge Architects & Rupali-Gupta

Does it get any sweeter than this? Kinderstad is an addition to the old VU Medical Centre in Amsterdam, designed by Sponge Architects & Rupali Gupta in cooperation with IOU Architecture. This was the winning entry of the Young Architects Competition of the Dutch National Board of Architects (BNA) and the penthouse now serves as a visiting area and offers a great space for the parents and their sick children to spend their visiting hours in. It hovers above the existing hospital building on the 9th floor of the East wing and is made out of titanium and glass that make it appear light and elegant. Absolutely wonderful.

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(via: dezain)

Bryghusgrunden Project | OMA

So I decide not to write anything about Dubai, Zaha, Gehry (!?), Nouvel or the Milano Design Week and all of a sudden – there’s absolutely nothing to post. Any of you fucking pricks write more news about Milano Design Week and I’ll execute every motherfucking last one of you. (Was that.. too harsh? Pulp Ficiton style?  *pretty smile*  I like ponies.) I mean it’s mad. It’s been all mad – the pre-pre 2007 Milano, the pre Milano, the right before omg omfg Milano, the right freaking now Milano and I’m sure the after Milano madness will clog the internets as well. So out I dug one bit of news that might interest you…

Right… So this is the newest addition to the Copenhagen waterfront. OMA designed (and I’ll stop using that verb in sentences containing ‘OMA’ pretty soon, I think) a new building that will house ”new facilities for the Danish Architecture Center (DAC), the headquarters of the Realdania Foundation, along with a distinctive mix of residential units, public program and playground facilities.” I’m not sure what to make of this one. Do I like it, will it work? I like blocks stacked together, I do. But I’m a little disappointed in the Office for Metropolitan Architecture lately, it seems to me like they could do so much better. At least it’s not that violent.

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(via: Noticias Arquitectura)

A House Among Trees | Martín Fernández de Lema

There isn’t much information about this project but it’s amazing and I’ll post the photos I found. The house is situated in a forest site on the beach of Mar Azul, Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was designed by Martín Fernández de Lema and that’s pretty much all I know. Here’s a slideshow of Archinect photos and a (pretty bad but okay) video. I hope I’ll get to see this baby in person and if not, I’ll have to use my emergency semi-automatic on my non-architectural co-traveler friends *pretty smile*.

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(via: Archinect)

Haus H | Syntax Architektur

Designed by Syntax Architektur and completed in 2007, the H house is now a family owned home in Hadersfeld, Austria, that’s been transformed from an old inn. The inn was renovated and now offers the best views from the house but in addition to the existing building, two new volumes were built by the entrance. The idea of the project was to keep the existing trees and place the new structure around them. That yielded a unique design that makes the house look as though it’s crawling into the nature. The copper roof slowly touches the ground at one point where a private terrace is formed. The white walls were painted that way with the purpose of making contrast between the man-made and the nature. All in all, a project that really respects the site and that’s what it really comes down to.

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(via: Noticias Arquitectura)

Guggenheim Hermitage Museum | Zaha Hadid

I usualy wouldn’t do this but… Zaha Hadid Architects won the competition to design the new Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania, overtaking the boys – Daniel Libeskind and Massimiliano Fuksas, somewhere along the line, where the Guggenheim Foundation and the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, Russia, both agreed that her design was the best damn thing to happen to the city. The building will be the new international art centre and will house works of art from collections of the NYC Salomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the St. Petersburg based State Hermitage Museum. I just… I don’t know. I’m so bored.

Presentations: Zaha | Libeskind | Fuksas

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Orquideorama | Sustainable Botanical Garden

The town of Medellin, Colombia, got another architectural addition. First the Leon De Greiff library and now a new installation in the existing botanical garden – Jardin Botanico de Medellin. The renovation was done by Plan B architects and the idea was to make a structure that looks like trees growing together at the branches. The strucutre is modular and made out of steel and resembles the honeycomb. The plants at the feet of the trunks are being watared through the roof and at the same time protected by the pine wood weave. The project serves as a showrrom, concert area and an exposition area. So beautiful.

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(via: Inhabitat)

The Barn House | Buro2

This is one of my favourites. Completed in 2005 the Barn House, designed by the Belgian Buro2, used to be an old barn and they decided to make something of it. Rita Huys, the architect for the project, wanted to keep the building in touch with the surrounding landscape. Her aim was to make a residential building without disrespecting the culture, history and land in which it is embeded. She says ‘After all, the house’s best room is, in a way, the outdoors.’ In an era where architects are forgetting about local identities and hardly realize that they are the co-creators of the cultural environment, it’s very refreshing to see that somebody still handles all those things delicately. Check out the slideshow and the floorplan presentation…

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Floorplan presentation: click

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(via: Noticias Arquitectura, Wallpaper*)