Eneco Headquarters

Hofman Dujardin Architects and Fokkema&Partners have completed the design for the Eneco headquarters in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

The interior of the headquarters has undergone a revolution to create the perfect working environment, complete with solar power, natural light and oxygen from internal vegetation, echoing Eneco’s vision of sustainability. “Eneco’s new building is also the perfect example of how clever and efficient office design can offer employees the possibility to work flexibly in a dynamic, open, sustainable and healthy environment”.

“The heart of the building is a central atrium surrounded by a light-filled meeting centre with a reception space, meeting rooms, working areas, informal meeting areas, lounges, a restaurant, a service desk and an auditorium. Sun collectors on the south facade and on the roof track the sun throughout the day, absorbing the maximum amount of solar energy”.

“From the entrance, employees and visitors have a clear view of the centrally placed espresso bar - this is another island but one designed not so much with colour but with relaxing blonde oak floors and tables, making a warm and inviting destination”.

“The ground floor meeting island has lush and vibrant red, purple, beige and orange carpets, equally colourful chairs and, as a calming contrast, subtle oak tables. To boost the design diversity still, the beige carpets are furnished with white tables and chars, and the entire experience is enhanced by lighting designed by Studio Rubiek which brings out the rich hues and textures of the space.

Special thanks to Contemporist for the above images and information.

Are Solbringen Residences

The Stockholm based studio Waldemarson Berglund Arkitekter have designed the Are Solbringen Residences in Northern Sweden. These three timber residences have been built to follow the steep slope of the landscape on which they sit, boasting a strikingly slanted effect.

“Partly the houses’ shape is a consequence of urban regulation. Partly, the form is also the consequence of a discussion on the site. The commission was to divide the plot into three equal ones where houses for recreational use would be built”.

“The property is located just outside Åre’s centre, in Åreskutan south-facing slope, overlooking the river and the mountains. Building designs in Åre are often half buried houses in 1 ½ plans with a sloping roof and big gables facing the views down the mountain, resulting in houses with only one really profitable floor. The half-buried level is partly windowless, and the upper level is limited by its low, sloping ceilings”.

The building was built to lay over the ground without disturbing the mountain, where all the rooms would have a generous height and windows with views. “A connection axis extents along the building’s long side, divided in four generously sized sets of stairs. This space allows a view of the whole house from the entrance to the opposite end”.

“The house is completely built in a wooden frame system. Due to the limited width of the house it was possible to use standard pieces everywhere but in the floor slabs, built in glued laminated timber. The wooden construction rests over brick slabs located across the longitudinal axis of the houses. A wide vent runs along the axis, allowing the eaves to meet the ground cleanly and “tightly”. Wooden panels are the facade’s material, which will darken and turn greyish as they age. The wooden windows and doors have a painted steel exterior framing and the roof is built in painted, folded metal sheets”. Large wide oak flooring is used, whilst the walls and ceilings are finished in white plasterboard.

Special thanks to HomeDSGN for the above images and information.

CGM House

The CGM House is a contemporary residence by Richard Torrejon that features curtain walls overlooking the wild terrain of Los Aromos, Limache in the Valparaiso Region of Chile.

Measuring 3,336 square feet, this 2012 project was designed to accommodate both a social and private, family oriented lifestyle.

“The main challenge of this house was making a ‘primary residence’ compatible with the context and environment of a vacation house’. There were two basic requests at the beginning of the design process:

• The house should be able to facilitate an intense social life with relatives and friends, adults and kids 
• At the same time, it has to be able to house ordinary family life, with all the intimacy and privacy that involves”.

“Hacienda Los Aromas is a private urbanization  20Km away from the central Chilean coast. The lots spread along the peninsula, surrounded by the ‘Embaise Los Aromos’, a regional water reservoir, which is also used for recreational purposes”.

“The building site is a 5.000 sqm, continuous 30º slopped lot, facing east, with great views towards the local mountains and over the reservoir. The first step was to build a large platform by means of a zigzag concrete retaining wall, which provides resistance but also allows oriented views”.

On principle, the house was ‘made in place’ with materials used to sustain significant abuse, so it would ‘age’ and not merely be ‘ruined’ over the time.

40m3 of recycled 2" red oak was used from demolitions nearby. “The wood was scraped off and used primarily as the outer covering of exterior ventilated walls. The best pieces were used in the interior as exposed timber and upper level flooring”. With the shorter ones stairs, interior veneer, doors, guardrails, and kitchen and bathrooms countertops were made.

“Lower level paving runs all along the house, even in the kitchen and bathrooms, and is made our of polished quartz stained concrete”.

Special thanks the HomeDSGN for the above images and information.

The Almyra Hotel

"High quality craftsmanship and an aversion to last minute trendiness guide the clean, terraced architecture of Cyprus’s Almyra Hotel. Following a major renovation by Thanos Michaelides, the hotel has undergone an ultra-clic metamorphosis and now features sleek interior elegance inspired by the island’s patron goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite".

"Banquette sofas and low irokko and oak wood tables face windows that afford the first glimpse of the breathtaking ocean views available throughout Almyra. Sleek modern furniture and black and white interiors have been selected by Tristan Auer and Joelle Pleot, who designed one of Karl Lagerfeld’s houses, vamped up by hand-assembled Byzantine chandeliers that hang in both the lobby and the Mosaics restaurant. Splashes of  1970’s boldness - such as white leather sofas and ottomans - are enhanced by a combination of natural and artificial lighting. Seeing as the hotel places as much emphasis on a successful family experience as on good design, the concept also focuses on practicality. All of Almyra’s guestrooms and suites are generous in size, so as to provide ample space for families".

"Auer and Pleot have selected lots of natural materials in addition to glass and Carrara marble to create a calming effect in the rooms. Charming small details such as room numbers engraved on the floor are enhanced further by the freedom of guest’s being encouraged to move around the artworks on display at whim. Wide terraces, covered with glowing white trellises surround the pool area and afford sweeping views on Paphos harbour. The landscape gardens with lavender walkways surrounding the design hotel complete the picture perfect setting".

Special thanks to Contemporist for the above images and information.

Schein Loft

The New York based studio  Archi-Tectonics have designed the Schein Loft. Originally completed in 2006, this 3,2000 square foot loft is in a former warehouse and is located in the edge of Soho, New York City, USA.

“The interior spaces are intended to be comfortable and relaxing, withdrawing the residents from the busy urban environment below. Natural materials inundate the spaces while the spine, a scupltural structure that runs through the loft, defines boundaries softly rather than rigidly and provides an aesthetic language that is casual and warm. The structure is composed of a thin black metal frame and recycled bogwood veneer, an oakwood that, after having been buried in peat bogs and preserved from decay, is naturally stained by tannins in a blond and black pattern.”

“As the main artery of the loft, the spine distributes the private spaces adjacent to its organic structure and moves light and air from one end of the residence to the other. It holds a freely suspended ceiling plane, which provides cooling, heating and fresh air, thanks to a built-in humidifier and air purification system. The music room, guest bathroom, master bedroom and adjacent bathroom grow from this smooth and softly lit axis”.

“Essentially an extension of the living quarters, the master bathroom has a spa-like and escapist quality, complete with overflow bath and steam shower. Other interior features include a 7 ft long fireplace, built from materials from local stone quarries, and art storage areas that are integrated into the anatomy of the residence, either as extensions of the bogwood structure or as spaces concealed by pivoting walls that seamlessly blend into the space”.

“All these elements combined - the environmental, spatial and aesthetic considerations - make of the Schein Loft a most adequate place for finely-tuned living, a sense of balance and order pemeating the whole”.

Special thanks to HomeDSGN for the above images.

Summerhill House

This contemporary take on the farmhouse is a 2010 project by Boyd Cody Architects and is set against a idyllic country background in Summerhill, Ireland. The two story home occipies an area of 3,440 square feet.

“Located in a field, subdivided by a hawthorn hedge, the house consists of two distinct slipped parallel forms; a pitched, double height, slate-clad, timber framed ‘house’ which contains the main living rooms and a lower rendered concrete block that contains the bedrooms. The former is visible from the road while the latter remains obscured by the hedge. The house is placed parallel to the hedge, the field around it manipulated by level changes to establish different uses ancillary to the house. There is a terrace, sunken and raised lawns, paddocks and a yard of black tarmacadam. The surrounding paths define the cut lawns and six apple trees are to be planted in the sunken garden. A large elevated terrace is located over the bedroom wing the level of its balustrade determined by the height of the hedge”.

“Expressed externally as a simple form, its materiality and details are restrained. The combined kitchen, dining and living room is one double height space plastered internally with oak floors while externally the walls and roof are clad with slate. The bedroom block and external retaining walls are rendered and painted white. The long glazed strips of windows and doors maintain a continuous level of transparency and connection between inside and outside”.

Special thanks to HomeDSGN for the above information and images.

Tea House

Located in a garden setting in Prague, Czech Republic, this minimalist tea house was designed by David Maštálka of A1 Architects. Originally completed in 2008, the tea house occupies an area of 23 square feet and is constructed from natural materials.

At the foot of the hill dividing Hioubetin and Aloisov, there is a small garden. “The garden is unostentatious, slightly wild but even so graceful, each spring apple and cherry trees blossom and when summer swiftly blows upon us our sight of the passing clouds is surrounded by slim blades of grass”.

“The Tea House as a typological kind follows the Japanese tradition of minimising space and is intended as place to meet with guests”.

“From the outside, an inconspicuous structure is ready to surprise its visitors arriving inside, giving them a different perspective of the garden. A world hidden inside, where time flows at its own pace, a vacant space leaving an impression just by its spaciousness”.

“The oak construction stands on stones from a nearby pond. Burnt larch facing creates a mimic colouring effect of a building in a garden because the attention of the gathering itself is focused on the inner world, which one discloses only upon entering”.
Special thanks to HomeDSGN for the above images.