Moliere 209 Building - SCAP

Placed in a constant traffic corner, in front of a shopping center access square and Sordo Madaleno’s San Ignacio Church. The project plays the condition of being a building that takes control of the urban life and the best views in this sector of Mexico City, at the same time, is a private building and in a neighborhood scale that conserves the Polanco Colony character. The project is constituted by 6 luxury departments, of diverse dimensions to offer each one of them different qualities.

Formally, we look for a proposal that made few concessions to the fashion tendencies, a non-time project compromised with the time passing, a calm volumetry and modern tectonics. The spirit is a fine silversmith box, where the materials are fundamental: exposed concrete, along with metal skins and wood conform a moderate assembly. The concrete is a discreet but very expressively element in all building work. It is the one that gives form and structure to the expressive concept.

In the back part of the plot are 4 departments, one in per level formed in two volumes; the first one contains the public and service area, while the second the private areas. At the front of the building, 2 departments are interlace in 4 levels communicated by internal stairs. In the lower level has a exposed concrete living room, open to a English yard who allows to enjoy the outdoors safely and with privacy. The views toward the street are focus on catching the urban life generated in the shopping center access square.

Finally, the top of the building is constituted by plentiful terrace of more than 100 sqm completely open to Polanco skyline, enjoying one of the zone’s best panoramic.

The building was laboriously worked in all details in the design studio, the carrying out of all executive planes, to the development of all building work details, an interdisciplinary teamwork that included bio-climatic and illumination architects, engineers and building contractor; the result is a whole set that offers subtle signs, with sophisticated design elements. Despite these subtleties, the space qualities are convincing and appreciable to any user, in a building that is at the same level of the framework that inspired it and which greatest achievement is the satisfaction of a well planning and executed work.

Architects: SCAP Arquitectura – Homero Hernández, Juan Carlos Alvear

Location: Polanco, México DF, México

Collaborators: Cesar Heredia, Mauricio Ramírez, Pedro Pizarro, Laura Arriaga, Isabel Llaca, Juan José Martínez, Bernardo Torres, Israel Nava

Construction: SCAP, Constructora RODAR, Grupo Constructor Mar

Construction inspection: SCAP

Structural Engineering: Proyectos y Construcciones Forsbach

Services: Bufette IngenieríaLighting: Arten

LuzProject year: 2006-2007

Constructed Area: 1,250 sqm

Photographs: Paul Czitrom

VIA : TECNOHAUS

M house - Architecture W

Located in one of Nagoya’s more attractive residential neighborhoods, but with only 2.5 meters of dead end street access and set on a difficult site that steps down from this access level a total of 7 meters, M-House is designed to both address the site conditions that rendered the site “unbuildable” by the local real estate community and provide for a simple, modern lifestyle for the American owner/architect and his family.

In addition to the challenge provided by the site itself, the house also addresses the conceptual challenges of planning for a multi generational/multi national family, as well the even bigger challenge of securing precious views, sunlight, and breezes in the context of a cramped traditional Japanese neighborhood. Despite the difficulty in accessing and actually building on the site, it was the property’s one redeeming feature – its location at the edge of a cliff that hovers over the northern part of Nagoya – that inspired the design of the house.

A hybrid structural system made up of simple reinforced concrete, concrete incased steel, and a pair of 3 meter tall steel trusses – all running inside the east and west walls of the house – allow the design to accommodate a variety of site and program conditions while also allowing for the north and south elevations to be composed entirely of sliding glass walls that capture the views, sunlight, and breezes(essential to surviving the smog & humidity present during Nagoya’s summer months) that make this building site so special.
At the lowest level, this structure is tied into additional retaining walls to carve out an independent apartment that is a modern take on the Japanese notion of looking after one’s parents as they get old.

At the entry level, column free space is provided for both parking and turning the owner’s automobiles, as well as for the house’s entry, bedrooms and main bathing area. A small pool is situated underneath the cantilevered top level to reflect sunlight into the bathing area where a single glass wall is all that separates this center of Japanese family life – complete with its wooden soaking bath -from the entry area.

The top level of the house is virtually a single open space that serves as the house’s main living space. The steel trusses that allow for the 5+ meter cantilever are buried behind 2 walls of storage and kitchen cabinetry so that the remaining 2 sides of the steel box – the north and south elevations – can be composed entirely of sliding glass walls. These 2 walls slide into pockets and allow the entire room to become an “outdoor” family room from which spectacular views and pleasant breezes can be enjoyed.

A roof deck caps off the house and accommodates another large outdoor gathering space for entertaining. The main stair well, with its yellow wall slices through the residence to visually tie the different levels together and to allow sunlight down into the main entry level of the house.

The project’s simple architecture – exposed concrete walls & floors, galvanized metal siding, plasterboard infill walls and white laminate cabinetry – provide a neutrality that is animated as much by the Japanese and Western influences of the the client’s family as it is animated by the site’s vistas, breezes, and passing sunlight.

Architects: Architecture W

Location: Nagoya, Japan

Project Team: Michel Weenick, Yukiko Iwanaga, Brian White

Client: Michel Weenick

Project Year: 2005

Constructed Area: 320 sqm

Structural Engineer: Structure NANA

Photographer: Andy Boone

Villa B te O - Bureau B+O

Light, space, landscape, modern, and romance are a few of the themes that have served the foundation for the creation of this house.

Bureau B+O has managed to combine all these themes into a exceptional design for this rural area. Across the house are two sight lines that connect the inside and the outside together.

The living room and the kitchen have big glass facades that flows the landscape seamlessly into the interior. The rooms are ordered around a patio and gives the residents a private space in this open landscape.

The big flat roof with enormous nosing lies on the brown black walls. These walls continue from the interior to the exterior. A little office is also placed underneath the roof, placed separate from the house but is still part of the whole.

Architects: Arnoud Olie, Bureau B+O Architecten
Location: Oldeholtpade, Netherlands
Project Team: Remco Siebring, Klaas Kloeze
Site Area: 4630 sqm
Constructed Area: 545 sqm
Project Year: 2008
Photographer: Harry Cock

M1 Residence - Skylab Architecture

This house in Portland´s Forest Park was designed by US Architects Skylab Architecture.

M1 is a private residence at the border of Portland’s Forest Park. The residence provides a venue for interplay between the vibrant outdoor environment and dramatic interior spaces that simultaneously shelter occupants, and frame the expanse of the surroundings. The sloping site presented technical challenges, and demanded an innovative approach to marry a desire for a relatively small building footprint and generous and flowing spaces.

Living volumes are cantilevered in order to simultaneously minimize the building footprint, and heighten the light tree-house experience of the principal interior spaces. The residence melds the technological and the primitive in its materials and systems. The home features daring cantilevers, advanced building systems and controls, and cutting edge details- yet the surfaces, textures and spaces are natural and intuitive.

Daylight and electric light play quietly against the warmth and textures of natural materials, but are modulated by surprising and inspiring geometries. This duality is mirrored in the dwelling’s flowing spaces, moving between crisp and deftly angular details, and framed views of the forest canopy or the primeval boulders upslope.

M1 features an extensive system of decks and patios connected to the interior spaces by floor to ceiling openings. These outdoor living zones are located strategically in opposite cardinal directions from the core living spaces, to provide generous outdoor spaces useable at different times of day and through different seasons. Occupants may seek shelter from or open themselves to the sun and rain, light and shade, depending on need or whim. At once urban and wild, the residence is in harmony with, and a reflection of its location at the border of Portland and Forest Park.