Entre Cielos by A4estudio

The spring of architectural creativity is in full flow, with a number of offices internationally adding value to the age-old practice of therapeutic bathing. Architonic’s Simon Keane-Cowell presents our selection of the best of the latest spa and wellness architecture. Go ahead. The water’s warm.

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The official partner of ‘Salon Suisse’, initiated and organised by Pro Helvetia, is the Swiss bathroom specialist Laufen; photo by Laufen

Salon Suisse, the early evening event programme accompanying Miroslav Šik’s Swiss Pavilion exhibition at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia - returns tomorrow (16 October) with the second event block under the heading ‘Talking architecture practice,…and a touch of the Swiss.’ Curated by the London-based editor Robert Guy Wilson and held at the Palazzo degli Ulivi Trevisan, the series of readings, presentations, performances, panel discussions and workshops will ‘devote itself to architectural practice’ and ‘highlight the peculiarities of Swiss architecture’ while ‘drawing comparisons with the situation in the UK.’

For detailed programme and to register visit www.salonsuisse.laufen.com

A pile of prefabricated concrete beams form the structure of Antón García- Abril’s Hemeroscopium house Antón García- Abril 2008 Photo: courtesy Ensamble Studio

When architects such as Jean Prouvé and Charles Eames began experimenting with buildings made using off-the-shelf components following the second World War, little did they know that technology would one day allow buildings to be created from kits cut by a computer anywhere in the world. Architonic looks at some of the more radical examples of contemporary prefabricated architecture, and the materials and technologies making these possible. (by Alyn Griffiths)

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view the ‘Prefabricated Architecture’ photo album

Monte Elbruz Building by Garduño Arquitectos, Mexico City 2008. Photos: Sófocles Hernández, Paul Czitrom. Garduño Arquitectos.

Mexico-based Garduño Arquitectos have designed a 24-unit housing development project: the Monte Elbruz building of 6 floors (local regulation) on a small site located in Polanco, Mexico City. The linear courtyard is introduced in between two linear apartment blocks.

The lot was located in a difficult area, originally classified as high-density and already fully developed, with adjoining buildings 14 to 30 storeys high. Designing a linear façade would have led to 60% of the apartments having an interior view. Taking these variables into account, Garduño Arquitectos opted for designing two side blocks within a 60 cm distance of the borders, thus generating a central courtyard to play the role of green area, access and lighting center, but that would also generate facades proportioned in terms of the project’s scale.

All apartments are two-leveled.

The first eight units are provided with a private garden and the last eight with a roof garden. In addition, all apartments are two-leveled. The street access becomes a stroll past a reflecting pool and gardens, employing 90% of the available space as green area. The project includes a rain water recycling system for irrigation and car washing. The front façade boasts two slim vertical concrete sand-colored beams separated by the volume containing the home. These pieces were cast with a double concrete face and marble grain and were later finished with a marteline, bringing out a tree that begins with the trunk at the level of the first beam and continues the trace in the second one.

Transversal Section. Exterior finish: Glass, Aluminium, Concrete.

One of the main goals of this proposal is to generate the illusion of slimmer volumes, avoid noise and incorporate and proportion the project with its environment in a positive fashion. The inner façade was designed as a city within a city, striving to achieve the residents’ movement and interaction by means of exposed circulations and aluminum panels containing glass frames and tilting vents. At the back of the building a vertical opening in the elevator cube was designed, covering it with an image of the sky that is part of a story in which a group of children invent a flying umbrella.

to Garduño Arquitectos

seen @ plusmood

Social Housing by MVRDV and Blanca Lleó. Photo: Ricardo Espinosa

In Madrid-Sanchinarro the first residents received the keys to their apartments in the just completed Celosia building. Jacob van Rijs of MVRDV and Blanca Lleó have completed the social housing block near the Mirador Building, which is an earlier collaboration. The perforated block of Celosia, commissioned by public housing corporation EMVS, comprises 146 apartments, communal outside areas throughout the building, and parking with a commercial program in the plinth all across a total floor area of 21,550 sq m.

The given volume of the city block was divided into 30 small blocks of apartments. These blocks are positioned in a checkerboard pattern next to and on top of each other, leaving wide openings for communal patios throughout the building with views to the city and mountains. 146 one, two and three-bedroom apartments are all accessed via these communal spaces. Most apartments offer additional private outdoor space in the shape of a loggia right behind the front door. The façade is made of coated concrete which was from the ground floor up constructed in a complete mould system, an efficient and clean way to cast concrete, keeping the construction cost to a minimum. The polyurethane coating allows the façade to shimmer and reflect depending on the light conditions.

A system of power efficient boilers is used in the building; solar panels on the roof heat water reducing energy consumption further.

seen @ worldarchitecturenews

HL23 by NMDA. Renderings by Hayes Davidson

Developed by Alf Naman and currently in construction, HL23 is a 14 floor condominium tower that responds to a unique and challenging site directly adjacent to the High Line at 23rd street in New York’s West Chelsea Arts district. Partially impacted by a spur from the elevated tracks that make up the High Line superstructure, the site is 40′ x 99′ at the ground floor.

NMDA's work with clients is based on a mutual need to make design a key element in solving problems and in projecting an image.

The site and the developer demanded a specific response, yielding a project that is a natural merger between found and given parameters and architectural ambition. For the client, the question was how to expand the possible built floor area of a restricted zoning envelope. For the site, a supple geometry must be found to allow a larger building to stand in very close proximity to the elevated park of the High Line. Together, the demands produced a building with one unit per floor and three distinct yet coherent facades, a rarity in Manhattan’s block structure.

Renderings by Hayes Davidson, London / copyright 2008

With a custom non-spandrel curtainwall on the south and north facades, and a 3D stainless steel panel facade on the east facing the High Line, the project’s geometry is driven by challenges to the zoning envelope on the site and by NMDA’s interest in achieving complexity through simple tectonic operations.

to NDMA

The new project on the roof of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris

Nomiya restaurant is replacing the Hotel Everland on the roof of the Palais de Tokyo for one year. Designed by the artist Laurent Grasso, the glass cube is part of the ‘Art Home’ culinary project by Electrolux and the Palais de Tokyo.

Nomiya

Nomiya owes its name to the Japanese micro restaurants. In the kitchen star chef Gilles Stassart, former manager of the Transversal au Mac/Val, demonstrates his skills. Nomiya was created in cooperation with the architect Pascal Grasso. The programme offers tours and cooking ateliers, workshops and breakfast and dinners with breathtaking views of France’s capital city.

View over Paris from the restaurant

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Passive Solar Design House in Otake, Japan, by Suppose Design Office

The Otake house is located in the West of Hiroshima prefecture, on a high plateau that neighbors the Kamei Park of the Kamei Castle Ruins. To the South is an industrial region and a beautiful mountain range, and to the North a remarkable view of the Seto Inland Sea and Miyajima. Japanese architects from Suppose Design Office created a design fitting to these two contrasting and beautiful scenes. Structurally they divided the area between load bearing zones and free zones to make a place that could have two personalities at once.

Suppose Design Office created a design fitting to two contrasting and beautiful scenes.

The North side is open even while closed, with the bedrooms, kitchen, dining area, and wide apertures to view the distant scenery, which at the same time are functional as load bearing parts of the structure. Suppose Design Office wanted the South side to be as close as possible to being outside, eliminated some structural elements and designed a living area and terrace with a 6 meter eave, treating the terrace and living area as equal to create a free space with no division between inside and out. By covering the entire building with water proof material used in ship construction the unique and detailed building doesn’t require sealants or tiling. Furthermore, because the glossy, water proof material wraps around the building inside and out uninterrupted, a nature-like space is created where you can take in the outside scenery and the building and surroundings seem to blend together.

Rethinking standard practices in structure, utility, form, materials, interiors, and exteriors.

Suppose Design Office mentiones: “By rethinking standard practices and personal opinions about structure, utility, form, materials, interiors, and exteriors, we think we can find new possibilities for materials, the relationship of form and space, and the building and its surroundings, in a planning environment that opens up new wonders not found in traditional buildings. By combining traditional values and new, and breaking down not just the border between inside and out but between the values themselves, we hope to create the buildings of the future.”

to Suppose Design Office