KLOSTER BY TORSTEN OTTESJÖ

"Kloster is a strip of land on the edges of the west coast of Sweden designed by Torsten Ottesjö. Two years ago he selectively cut trees from the landscape to create a vision for what the rolling southern ends of the scandinavian fjords could look like. 

Kloster is an idea - built for a new class, a new market - It is complex, beautiful, biomorphic. It considers its environment and can house physical manifestations of online networks. 

It is a centre, a place where we believe that networks of people could meet during conferences, banquet dinners, residencies or summer residences, which would allow for the understanding of what a house placed within a landscape could be.

The idea is that cattle would be allowed to free graze the landscape, slowly transforming the former forest floor to a grassland and with fertile gardens. Situated on the 62 acre landscaped property on the Swedish West Coast, Torsten Ottesjo. Christian Strömqvist, and David Relan have come up with an idea of luxury. 

The two houses are situated above a slope leading down to a dock and private beach, and are aligned to incorporate the ideal light conditions for the morning and scandinavian evenings respectively.

The idea is to provide a shelter for networks to manifest, for conferences and classes, and generally to provide a means of inspiration to occur within groups and to the landscape they find themselves in. 

The structure of the complex is the curling of a leaf - a single surface extended above itself. It is the extension of a floor into a building. Buildings which are built facing the rise and fall of the light in summer. Windows which will diffuse light in at all times of the day and the play of perspectives. Kloster can be adjusted to any needs, but maintains its place, it's context.

It is an environment - landscape and housing - designed for how we move, and how we may meet and we believe that considering these factors might change the depth of the meeting. Kloster is a new opportunity for connected living."Description of Architects.

Location: Swedish West Coast

Architect: Torsten Ottesjö

Projet Team:Torsten Ottesjö, Christian Strömqvist, David Relan

Year: 2012

SHOFFICE BY PLATFORM 5 ARCHITECTS

Shoffice (shed + office) is a garden pavilion containing a small office alongside garden storage space located to the rear of a 1950's terraced house in St John’s Wood with the brief requiring the shoffice to be conceived of as a sculptural object that flowed into the garden space.

The glazed office space nestles into an extruded timber elliptical shell, reminiscent of a wood shaving, and forms a small terrace in the lawn.

The interior is oak lined and fitted out with a cantilevered desk and storage. Two rooflights - one glazed above the desk with another open to the sky outside the office bring light into the work space.

The lightweight structure, formed with two steel ring beams, timber ribs and a stressed plywood skin, sits on minimal pad foundations.

Much of the project was prefabricated to reduce the amount of material that needed to be moved through the house during construction.

 

Location: London, England

Architect: Platform 5Architects

Structural engineer: Morph Structures

Design development & Fabricators: Millimetre

Client: Private

Year: 2012

VILLA SSK BY TAKESHI HIROBE ARCHITECTS

“The location for this project was adjacent to the calm and tranquil waters of Tokyo Bay. When we first visited the site, we were immediately overwhelmed by the presence of the ocean.

Soon, however, we became attuned to the subtle cues coming from the surroundings, such as the movements of the sun, the flow of the wind, the scent of the tide, the stirrings of the plants, and the presence of the rocky mountain.

We were particularly impressed by the sea and the soaring verticality of the sky overhead, as well as the rocky mountain on the opposite side and the vegetation growing on them. For this reason, we decided to design a building that would serve to connect these mountains to the imposing expanse of the ocean.

The client requested a comfortable, generously proportioned living, dining and kitchen area, a bathroom overlooking the ocean, a guest room, and a spare room that could be used to display his beloved car.

The portion of the house encircled by the central area, guest room and spare room was turned into a tiled central courtyard where dogs can play. The courtyard also serves as an outdoor living room where large numbers of guests can gather and mingle.

Water can also flow into the courtyard to create a basin that reflects the subtle nuances of the surrounding light and wind. Timber panel wall-building and timber space trusses were used to create a structure that connects the ocean-facing side and mountain-facing sides of the house.

Although the trusses themselves occupy a wide space, gaps have been left in between the different materials. By angling the walls obliquely in accordance with the necessary spacing and throat gaps required for the truss structure, we were able to eliminate a certain oppressiveness from the interior.

Architecture ought to be rooted in the place it occupies. The architectural form of this building somehow emerged during the long process of analyzing and studying the location.

Although the design process was supposed to have entailed a frantic accumulation of decision-making and choosing between possible options, the finished building gives one the strange, lingering impression of having been constructed according to some law or other.

By combining rigid timber panel wall-building (a type of laminated veneer lumber) and truss arches, we were able to create a tunnel-shaped space with almost no right-angled walls despite the wide span of the building.” Description of Architect.

 

 

Location: Chiba, Japan

Architects: Takeshi Hirobe Architects

Structural Engineer: Akira Ouchi /S FORM

Area: 105.05 sqm

Year: 2012

Photographs: Koichi Torimura

CHURCH WALK BY DAVID MIKHAIL AND ANNALIE RICHES

This new build scheme, situated on one of the oldest streets in Stoke Newington, provides two 3-bedroom houses, a triplex and a 1-bedroom flat. Through design ingenuity quality housing is achieved at a relatively high density, carved out of a troubled and awkward brownfield site.

Significantly overlooked and overshadowed to the rear, the low-rise building form has been closely calibrated using the BRE daylighting guide to avoid injuring the surrounding neighbours’ amenity.  

Unconventional roofs have been carefully shaved and angled to achieve maximum daylight levels and privacy.   Along the street, planted terraces and green roofs step up in a ziggurat form to ensure an animated and unusually green streetscape.

At the heart of each dwelling is a double height family room. North facing windows provide ample natural light, aided further by clerestory glazing at the terrace level above.

Living rooms address the street, providing surveillance and security.  The rear ‘concertina’ elevation is clad in lime washed softwood timber, achieving a both visually and acoustically soft elevation to the neighbouring buildings.

Construction is of pre-fabricated cross-laminated timber, exposed internally where possible with bespoke Douglas Fir skirting boards and timber flooring throughout.  Along the street elevation, brick set in lime mortar is chosen for its robustness.

Whole-house ventilation with heat recovery, triple glazing and high levels of air tightness ensure that Church Walk acts as an example of how careful, sustainable design can greatly enhance the value of difficult inner city sites.

 

Location: London, England

Architect: DavidMikhail and Annalie Riches

Year: 2012

DESERT HOUSE BY JIM JENNINGS ARCHITECTURE

On a desert site of undisturbed native vegetation, the modest retreat is defined by an 8-foot-high concrete wall that supports a steel roof structure and encloses two courtyards.

Everything inside the containment wall functions as living space, making it a 2,900-square-foot, rather than a 730-square-foot (of climate-controlled area), house.

In the traditional post-and-beam model, glass expanses blur the boundary between landscape and building. 

In contrast, this retreat is about the walled enclosure marking the building as volume and mass.

What is adapted from mid-century design is the logic and clarity of an unconventional residential structural system — and the virtue of supreme indoor-outdoor living on a small scale.

 

 

Location: Palm Springs,USA

Archiect: Jim Jennings Architecture

Year: 2003