THE DIANE MIDDLEBROOK MEMORIAL BUILDING BY CCS ARCHITECTURE

“The project consists of four new studios for The Djerassi Resident Artists Program, a place where visiting artists from around the world are provided room and board to concentrate on their work for an extended period of time.

The property consists of over 600 acres of rolling hills, forests and meadows high in the coastal hills of Woodside, CA.

The new building extends the existing campus over a meadow approximately 100 yards from the main building, which was originally a cattle barn dating back from when the property was a working ranch.

The project was conceived as a memorial to Diane Middlebrook, an accomplished writer and teacher, and late wife of program founder Carl Djerassi.

Though the studios are designed to be used by artists of all disciplines, special attention was made to cater to the specific needs of writers, where quiet contemplation, free from distraction, is a welcome amenity.

The building itself is actually a cluster of four separate one-room studios, grouped together under a fifth structure, a free-standing steel canopy supporting a solar panel array over the eastern ends and pedestrian pathway connecting the four studios.

The siting of building takes advantage of uninterrupted views of the Pacific coast to the southwest, and the coastal ridgeline to the east.

These views are captured within each studio by the strategic placement of doors and windows, where the distractions of the everyday movement of cars and people are unseen.

This siting was also designed to address energy consumption by positioning the largest wall openings within the units to the southwest for passive solar gain, and by tilting the canopy roof plane toward this same direction in order to optimize exposure of the solar panel array.

The building materials are designed and selected to achieve the highest ratings for green construction, exceeding the recommended guidelines of the county of San Mateo’s “Build-it-Green” program.

The exterior walls and roof are all FSC-certified clear cedar boards, laid out to follow the unique slopes and tilts of the roof and wall planes.

Interior finishes consist primarily of materials collected from within the architects sample library to the effect of creating a patchwork pattern in the main room and bathroom floors, while the walls are kept simple and painted white, so as not to compete with the views beyond.”

The mission of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program is to support and enhance the creativity of artists by providing uninterrupted time for work, reflection, and collegial interaction in a setting of great natural beauty, and to preserve the land on which the Program is situated.

Sculpture by Bruce Johnson at Djerassi Resident Artists Program

The Djerassi Resident Artists Program is internationally recognized as one of the eminent artist residency programs. We strive to provide the best possible residency experience for artists of superior talent from a diverse range of backgrounds and geographical locations.

Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi

As stewards of a unique and beautiful property, we also seek to preserve the land and use our facilities wisely and efficiently for maximum benefit to the artists and with the least impact on the environment. 

Location: Woodside, California, USA
Architect: CCS Architecture

Area: 280 sqm
Photographs: CCS Architecture

AA HOUSE BY OFFICE OF ARCHITECTURE IN BARCELONA

"The design scheme for House AAresponds to simple geometric rules.

 

 The footprint of the building uses a superimposed 7×7 meter skewed grid to support the program in a composition similar to a musical score.

The diagonals serve as a roof system that ungulates like an artificial topography, creating skylights in some cases, while in others situations, rising up double the height of other rooftop peaks.

At the base floor, the program develops a direct relationship between the interior and exterior through the abundant use of glasswork, trellises, and sliding panels.

This allows a visual connection to the garden for the following spaces: the rooms, halls, library, dining rooms, kitchen, main bedroom and guest suites.

Vertically consistent relationships exist between the main floor and adjacent floors, always responding to the programmatic demands, and therefore completing the three dimensional continuity of the building.

The areas on the lower floor are service areas of the main program, such as a cellar communicating directly with the dining room, a video library communicating with the library; an inside swimming pool and Turkish bath, an extension of the main bedroom, and a service flat leading directly to the kitchen areas.

The upper level serves as the Piano Nobile, or private level, from which a direct relationship to the surrounding landscape is still maintained through the use of glazing.

The layout is completed with private access to the patio. Its secluded position contrasts the luminous presentation of the house.

Ceramic tiles are used as cladding on the rooftops as well as the perimeter walls.

Light enters at specific points of the program where large sections of glazing complete the building."

Name: AA HOUSE

Situation: Barcelona

Area: Private Housing

Construction: 2006 - 2010

Architects: Xavier Martí Galí, Carlos Ferrater

Team: ESTRUCTURA: PONDIO

ARGANZUELA FOOTBRIDGE BY DOMINIQUE PERRAULT

“The burying underground of the highway that ran along the edges of the Manzanares river provided the opportunity to open up a new urban territory to the inhabitants of Madrid: the Manzanares Park.

A series of bridges over the river will allow passage from one side of the park to the other. Designed to link the neighborhoods on the right and left banks of the river, the Arganzuela Footbridge is the longest of all the built bridges.

The bridge is for both pedestrians and cyclists. The footbridge enables people to cross from one side of the park to the other while also providing direct access to the park below.

Cone like in structure, the bridge has two interlocking metal spirals, wrapped by a metallic ribbon. Spaced wooden slats make up the floor of the bridge, allowing the rays of the sun to penetrate through to the park below. 

The cones' geographic location creates a belvedere over the park and the surrounding city as well as an exceptional location from which it will be possible to admire the famous Toledo Bridge. Shaded during the day, the promenade becomes luminous at night.” D. Perrault

Forming a major element in the new urban strategy for the city named “Madrid Rio”, the Arganzuela Footbridge is already called “the jewel of the Rio” by the residents.

Over 270 meters long, the Arganzuela footbridge is located between the historic Toledo bridge and the Praga bridge which leads to the cultural centre of the capital. It links the Arganzuela and Carabanchel neighborhoods.

The Arganzuela Parc, which hides some of the buried highway’s technical infrastructures, has an irregular topography.

Playing with that topography, the two cones join above the curve of a hill, and are offset to create a new entrance point to the park.

The first cone – to the south – spans from the Avenida de Manzaranes, crosses over the river and then joins the top of the hill. Placed offset to the first cone, the second cone – to the north – passes over the other side of the park to reach the Paseo de Yeserias.

This positioning creates a platform over the park and the surrounding city, and an exceptional vantage point from which to admire the famous Toledo Bridge.

Each cone rests upon two pillars laid at each end, giving the impression that the footbridge is floating in the air. Made in steel, the self supporting main structure has two interlocking metal spirals that cross diagonally.

A silver ribbon, made of metallic mesh, wraps this structure and protects the users from the sun and the bad weather. “Sewn” like a spiral, this ribbon creates a rhythmic and dynamic line to the Arganzuela Park.

The metallic mesh, a favored material of Perrault, transforms and changes the footbridge depending on the time of the day; alternating between filtering, reflective and opaque.

Shaded during the day, the promenade becomes luminous at night, like a lantern. It’s impossible to capture all those visual possibilities in one single glimpse, as the metallic mesh turns the footbridge into a living object.

client: Madrid City Council, Madrid, Spain

architect: Dominique Perrault Architecture, Paris, France

engineering: MC2 / Julio Martínez Calzón, Madrid (stucture); TYPSA, Madrid (mechanical engineering)
location: Parque de la Arganzuela, 28045, Madrid, Spain

site area: 10 ha

built area: footbridge 150 m (section 1) 128 m (section 2) length, 5 to 12 m width

beginning of conceptual design: February 2005

beginning of construction: February 2010

inauguration: 24 March 2011

LEVENE HOUSE BY NO.MAD

"In designing this home, we asked ourselves whether we were capable of building something that really respected its natural surroundings and did not just pay politically correct lip service to issues like sustainability, alternative energy and ecology.

Perhaps ultimately it was a question of making the most of the qualities of the given natural environment, maintaining the utmost respect for what nature offered, and impacting this as little as possible.

We thought a good way to start might be to adapt the volumetric line of the building to the existing forest, leaving the trees to choose the way they should be experienced.

As the starting point for this process, we identified the clusters of trees that work together in the forest and then dared call everything outside that “anti-forest”, or a construction-susceptible void that required no removal of trees.

We generated a flat geometry on top of this void avoiding the trunks, measuring heights from the existing ground level and the slope of the roof planes to comply with building regulations.

This was an immensely complex part of the process. We had to do numerous tests before arriving at a solution that met all the parameters throughout the final volume.

What appeared was a non-Cartesian geometry, a faceted volume that complied both with topographic conditions and planning requirements: an exciting brief in an exciting space.

This geometry helped us define and discover ways of experimenting with built spaces and their relationship with the outside landscape.

Accommodating both forest and building regulations proved a surprising and fruitful experience.

The personal circumstances of the owner prevented conventional configuration and use of the home.

We had to generate spaces whose programme could be adapted over time to the owner’s idiosyncrasies.

So we set about defining the possibilities afforded by the resulting geometry, dividing space into what we called “specialised fingers”, each of which would house a specific programme with ad hoc spatial resolution.

The height differences on the allotment indicated the half-storey step solution, which made the interior two dwellings in one.

On the highest level, with independent entrance, we located the main entrance, family living rooms and games room. As the building descends, volumes become increasing private.

First comes the living room/bar and projection room/studio; on the next level is a leisure programme with a heated indoor pool, then a kitchen-dining-general purpose room with a large covered outdoor terrace.

At the bottom is the master bedroom with bathrooms, a gym/general purpose room and sauna.

We determined to make the most of the fabulous landscape, its geometry, light and spatial conditions.

As the house has become gradually enveloped, its glass and stone skins have been transformed by the proximity of the trees, the shade they provide and the way they interact with the specific programme of each specialised finger.

In order to bring all the rooms into direct, intimate contact with the exterior, the skins that define the broken volume have etched transparencies, opacities or screenprints of varied density.

In this way, the forest has been able to imprint itself on this strange object that has encroached on its tranquillity.

 

Inside, floors, walls and ceilings are covered with amber coloured resin-coated wood, bringing the forest into the interior and blurring outside/inside divisions.

The interior space is almost like a fossil, there even before the house was built. A novel feature slides along the upper floors, a reflection of the owner-collector himself: a polycarbonate cabinet structure with iridescent sheens to contain a mass of tiny inhabitants; a way of using staid collector habits to create a unique, highly personal environment.

Three years later... elevation, elegance, enthusiasm, grace." Eduardo Arroyo architect

Architects: No.mad

Location: San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid

Country: Spain

Year: 2006

Typology: Single Houses