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    House 1736

    A house in the middle of the city.

    The regulations allow the construction of a ground floor and two floors, with a considerable depth that perfectly meets the needs of the client’s program, but at the same time this very deep condition suggests that it could be a house with an interior area that is too dark and bad ventilated. The project begins with the challenge of qualifying the centre, prioritizing it and turning it into the best place in the house.

    Converting the centre into a space much more connected with the outside, full of light and with the possibility of opening up and ventilating the whole house. A space in between that – although programmed and deeply architectural – lets in the natural intensity of the climate from the roof and divides the house in half, emptying it, making it more spacious and letting it breathe. A space that, due to its less domestic conditions of height, light and ventilation, manages to convey a feeling of being outside. The verticality of the central space and the zenith opening organize air and light. They make the invisible visible by sliding natural light to the bottom of the atrium while stimulating the speed of ventilation and the exit of hot air upwards to the exterior.

    Barcelona, Spain.

    By H Arquitectes

     

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    TIANJIN BINHAI LIBRARY

    MVRDV and Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute (TUPDI) have completed Tianjin Binhai Library as part of a larger masterplan to provide a cultural district for the city. The 33,700m2 cultural centre featuring a luminous spherical auditorium and floor-to-ceiling cascading bookcases functions not only as an education centre but as a social space and connector from the park into the cultural district.

    Tianjin, China

    By MVRDV + Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute

     

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    Corsican convent

    French studio Amelia Tavella Architectes renovated and extended a 15th-century convent on the island of Corsica, adding a perforated copper volume.

    Built in 1480, the part-ruined Saint-Francois Convent is positioned on a hill overlooking a village and mountainous landscape.

    Read more

    By Amelia Tavella Architectes

     
  4. Miner Road

    Orinda, California.

    The clients are a couple of environmental scientists who, along with their two sons, relocated from the Oakland Hills to the warmer climate of Orinda. Their commitment to sustainability, including a request for net-zero energy performance annually, was evident in their thinking throughout the design process. A three-bedroom program began as a remodel of a 1954 ranch house at the foot of a hill next to a seasonal creek. After finding the existing structure and soils to be unsuitable, the direction settled on reusing the existing footprint under the shade of a Valley Oak that had grown up close to the original house. The surviving portion of the original house is the fireplace which was wrapped in concrete and utilized for structural support. This made additional grading unnecessary and allowed the new house to maintain the same intimate relation to the old oak.

    By Faulkner Architects

     
  5. Dibujo de la planta de las torres blancas

    By Sáenz de Oiza

    Sáenz de Oíza (Cáseda-Navarra 1918 - Madrid 2000) es uno de los arquitectos españoles más destacados del siglo XX, premio Nacional de Arquitectura (1945), Medalla de Oro de la Arquitectura (1989) y Premio Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes (1993). Decía que había nacido en la Edad Media y vivió las vanguardias del siglo XX. Arquitecto, profesor, conferenciante, viajero infatigable, aficionado a la navegación a vela, los automóviles, las motos, la pintura, la fotografía, el cine, la lectura y los trabajos manuales, fue padre de siete hijos, y vivió junto a su mujer, María Felisa, una existencia plena y atareada.

     Via metalocus

     
  6. Remodelación Repensando Torres Blancas

    Realizar un proyecto de reforma de una vivienda en el edificio Torres Blancas implica dialogar con las ideas originales de su arquitecto Francisco Javier Sainz de Oiza, el estado de sus elementos construidos y el valor de la preservación en su narrativa más contemporánea

    By Studio.NOJU

    Photos via Archdaily

     
  7. QUINCHO TÍA TECHI

    Paraguay

    By Oficina de Arquitectura X

    El acto creativo es inversamente proporcional al valor monetario de la oferta.

    …Con el suelo arcilloso como materia prima en abundancia y la utilización de mano de obra no especializada y local en su fabricación , el material por excelencia que resolvería la ecuación sería el ladrillo macizo cerámico.

    image by NOVARQ

     
  8. Valley Towers 

    The building distinguishes itself in several ways: firstly, it combines offices, shops, catering, cultural facilities, and apartments in one building; secondly, unlike the closed-off buildings elsewhere in the Zuidas, the green valley that winds between the towers on the fourth and fifth floors is accessible to everyone via two external stone staircases. The building’s extensive planting, designed by landscape architect Piet Oudolf, hosts approximately 13,500 young plants, shrubs, and trees. As these mature over the coming years, they will give Valley an increasingly green appearance, making the building a manifesto for a greener city.

    Valley is an attempt to bring a green and human dimension back to the inhospitable office environment of Amsterdam Zuidas. It is a building with multiple faces; on the outer edges of the building is a shell of smooth mirrored glass, which fits the context of the business district. Inside this shell, the building has a completely different, more inviting natural appearance, as if the glass block has crumbled away to reveal craggy rock faces inside replete with natural stone and greenery.

    Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

    by MVRDV

    via Archdaily

     
  9. CASA NAMORA

    By David Bilo & Filipe Pina

    GONÇALO, PORTUGAL

    Situated in a natural shelter of a valley at the foot of the Serra da Estrela, close to the parish of Gonçalo, in a place also known locally by the name of Mora, this agricultural property has approximately 18ha of area, and is surrounded by a dense pine tree forest. (…)

    The name NaMora has a double meaning in Portuguese. It refers to the location of the project, where “Na Mora” would translate into “In Mora” (Mora being the place where the property lies), but “namora” in Portuguese means literally “flirt” or “date”. (…)

    Inside, we sought the neutrality given by the simplicity and purity of the materials and by the illusion of the absence of detail. The idea of interiority translates into openings towards landscapes, frames, and courtyards strategically located.

    Read more Archdaily

     
  10. Cañada House 

    by Escobedo Soliz

    Mexico

    The plot of the house is narrow and has a significant slope. In front of the property, there is a natural reserve that covers part of the ravine and the river.

    via Archdaily