Young Disabled Modules and Workshop Pavillions by José Javier Gallardo ///g.bang/// You can’t miss this bright red psychiatric centre in Spain, where the differently pitched roofs are meant to reveal how much mental activity takes place in each room. Completed by Spanish architect José Javier Gallardo of ///g.bang///, the new youth facility in Zaragoza connects to the existing Nuestra Señora del Carmen Neuropsychiatric Centre through an underground tunnel. Roofs with the steepest pitches are located above shared common rooms, while shallow gables correspond to patient bedrooms and staff quarters are located beneath flat roofs. The red powder-coated zinc sheets cover the entire exterior, interrupted only by frameless windows.
In the past we've also featured a mental health clinic where the doors don't open but the walls do instead - take a look here. Photography is by Jesús Granada. Here's a longer description from architects: Young Disabled Moduls and Workshop Pavilions 'Módulo Para El Tratamiento De Jóvenes Con Discapacidades Conductuales' Click above for larger image. ASK Hertford by Gundry & Ducker. London studio Gundry & Ducker have added oak booths and stencilled tree-like graphics to the interior of an Italian chain restaurant in Hertfordshire, England. Bauble-shaped pendant lights are clustered in each of the three dining rooms of ASK Hertford, two of which feature deep green walls. Oak tables and chairs are either laminated or painted in green and white, arranged randomly around the restaurant. Wine bottles displayed on the walls behind the wooden bar appear to have bright white shadows. The restaurant is one of a few ASK outlets that the architects are upgrading.
You can see a couple more projects by Gundry & Ducker here, including a pub inside a cardboard box. Photography is by Hufton + Crow. Here's some more text from Gundry & Ducker: Ask Italian Hertford As part of a major refurbishment program Gundry & Ducker were asked to re-design Ask Italian in Hertford.
The second space is a vertical volume with a vaulted ceiling and central lantern light. Pombal Castle Hill by Comoco Architects. Portuguese architects Comoco have added a weathered steel cafe and a wooden gazebo on the hill of a castle in the town of Pombal. The two new structures accompany a set of repaved pathways, as well as a new castle entrance and reconfigured parking area. The two-storey cafe is clad in Corten steel and features large windows that overlook the surrounding town. Located near the bottom of the hill, the rectangular timber pavilion is constructed from evenly spaced wooden slats.
This isn't the first castle project we've featured by Comoco Architects - read about a visitors centre with walkways built through and around a castle here. Photography is by Fernando Guerra. Here's a more detailed description from Comoco Architects: Reorganization of Pombal Castle’s Hill. Previous State Throughout the last decades, Pombal Castle and its surrounding area have been doomed to seclusion from the core of the city at its feet. From that street, some connections with the walled precinct were possible. Macquarie Group Offices - London. Last year, we covered Macquarie Group's massive Sydney headquarters designed by West Hollywood-based Clive Wilkinson Architects.
Earlier this year, the same two players completed another spectacular office project, this time in London. Macquarie, a global provider of banking and investment services, gathered up its various divisions from several buildings under one roof in the brand-new Ropemaker Place. Macquarie occupies 217,500 square feet (20,207 square meters) on six floors in the 20-storey, LEED Platinum building designed by Arup Associates. Wilkinson's team took its cues from the new trend of transparency in financial services and balanced that with the more traditional and practical needs of prestige and privacy. The beautiful, open space is a triumph of simplicity.
A skillful and meaningful use of bright colour, combined with the all-white inner structure gives the open plan a sense of delight and order. Red Bull's New Headquarters - Amsterdam. After several months of construction, Red Bull’s Dutch subsidiary, Red Bull Netherlands, has settled into its new headquarters on the North side of Amsterdam’s Port area. The almost 1000 square-meter (about 10,763 square feet) office is part of the 7800 square-meter (83,958 square feet) Media Wharf complex at the NDSM Wharf, on the shores of the river IJ.
The office was designed by Sid Lee Architecture of Montreal and Amsterdam. The theme of the space is duality and polarity -- reason and intuition, light and dark, art and business, public and private. Much of the space is undefined, seemingly unfinished, with a feel of street culture and the rough edges of the shipyard’s past echoed in the design. Red Bull Netherlands’s director Jan Smilde was quoted as saying that the company wanted a location with an entrepreneurial spirit where they would have the freedom to develop innovative ideas and events. ANZ Centre - Melbourne. We are cautiously nursing a glimmer of hope that even the most corporate of the corporate world could start taking design seriously. And that they could really start understanding and taking advantage of the effects that great head-office design has on staff creativity, productivity and comfort; which, in turn, leads to either staff loyalty or revolving doors.
And, most important, that all of this inevitably filters down to how the customers experience the company. Some banks in Australia are giving us reason for this hope. We observed Macquarie investment bank’s new harbourside office building in Sydney some time ago. We are now looking at the ANZ Centre in Melbourne’s Docklands and our hopes rise up further. The design centers around a common hub that on the ground level includes cafes, a visitor centre and public art.
The floor plan maximizes flexibility and daylight penetration, and fosters collaboration and varying work styles. Azure Office. This streamlined and crisp office environment in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, is the work of Sergey Makhno’s design and architecture firm. The play between soft and hard, round and angular, plain and colorful creates a sense of whimsy and energy, but does not overpower the space. The Kiev-based Makhno and his partner Vasily Butenko have used their own distinctive furniture throughout the interior. The wine-colored, square-form Origami chairs in the small meeting room contrast beautifully with the azure walls and simple, white table. Black, padded Blobby office chairs give a soft touch to the sparse individual office areas, while the shiny blue rounded sofas add a playful touch to a flexible, multi-use area. Corian walls “buckle” on top of wood paneling, exposing the wood and creating nooks for storage and soft, undulating features for the eye to follow.
Makhno’s work has been featured in local and regional publications, but we expect to see more of it around the world. - Tuija Seipell. Bank of Moscow’s Offices. The interior design of Bank of Moscow’s offices in central Moscow’s Kuznetsky Most area (Kuznetsky Most street 13) retains the building’s great historical bones and matches customized adornments to them.
The office — one of the Bank’s many offices — occupies 7,000 square metres on the third floor and in the previously unused mansard (attic) space. Moscow-based designer, Alexey Kuzmin , retained by architectural office Sretenka for this assignment, used the space’s key feature, the large, hexagon-shaped central hall, as the defining point. He placed the client services functions in this grand, open area to evoke and retain the elegant feel of the entire building. It is windowless, so Kuzmin created a stained-glass ceiling, that echoes the forms and style of the building. Kuzmin located the staff offices on the wings or balconies surrounding the client zone. The attic had no historically significant features and it was designed as a typical, effective office. Skype's On Cloud Nine In A Historical Brewery, Stockholm, Sweden.
As recently as in October 2010, the Luxembourg-based Skype’s Stockholm office in Slussen housed only 35 employees. But the video- and audio-focused team’s digs were bursting at the seams and new offices were needed. Skype found its next Stockholm home in a completely restored massive historical building, Münchenbryggeriet, a landmark of Stockholm’s skyline. Built in 1846 as a clothing factory, the building became Sweden’s largest brewery in 1857 and operated as a brewery until 1971.
Skype’s new offices in the München Brewery now have room for 100 employees. Head architect Mette Larsson-Wedborn of PS Arkitektur with team members Peter Sahlin, Thérèse Svalling, Beata Denton and Erika Janunger, was charged with expressing the Skype brand’s playful spirit and its mission to connect the world in the working environment. To do this, the designers used round shapes, fun light fixtures and bright-color furnishings in an otherwise almost completely white space.
Photography: Jason Strong. Villa BH’s Transparency Leading To A Freeing Lifestyle [Video] Rotterdam-based studio Whim Architecture created a stunning semi-transparent residence in Burgh-Haamstede, the Netherlands. Known for their persistent lack of curtains, the Dutch people enjoy a freeing lifestyle. This particular residence – Villa BH – although nestled between three other residence and surrounded by trees, displays a stress-free transparency and an inviting interior design.
The 2,874 square feet contemporary residence is home to a couple 60+ of age, who are lucky enough to enjoy a splendid display of space, light and surrounding nature. The single level floor plan allows the inhabitants to move freely around the bright spaces. The main living space has a high ceiling covered with a sloping roof and large glazed walls ensure brightness and a seamless connection to the outdoors. An interior courtyard allows the bedroom to be directly connected to the outside, making the resting experience even more relaxing. Willy Wonka House - Tribeca, New York. This six-floor, 15,500-square-foot warehouse built in 1915 in TriBeCa does not match everyone’s idea of a perfect family home. Mixed Greens gallery owner Paige West, her husband and their three sons thought otherwise. They summoned their many-time design magician Ghislaine Viñas to create their most imaginative project yet while Peter Guthrie handled the renovation of the actual structure. This is the kind of home where you imagine Willy Wonka to live, or some other out-there character who throws crazy dinner parties that are talked about months afterwards.
West’s family occupies the top four floors that are capped by a green roof. The lower two levels are taken up by a guest duplex that is not your typical guest house either. The old frame has been restored in a subdued style leaving a suitable background a lots of room for the wild interiors. Integral House, Toronto - Canada. Math professor Dr. James Stewart, who is also a former violinist with the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra near Toronto, Ontario, has made millions writing calculus textbooks. When he decided to spend most of his fortune on a residence, he could have used any architect anywhere in the world. Instead of an international star, he selected the then-relatively unknown pair, Brigitte Shim and Howard Sutcliffe of Shim Sutcliffe to create his residence in a ravine in the posh Toronto neighborhood of Rosedale.
Stewart was not looking to build just a residence, though. A decade after the initial discussions with Shim and Sutcliffe, the $24 million US, 18,000-square-foot Integral House was completed. The house exudes a patina, a classic semi-Scandinavian simplicity that makes it seem older, more established and mature than a brash, brand-new house. The house has already been on the Architectural Digest annual Toronto tour and it has become a part of the city’s must-see architecture. L House - Buenos Aires. This residence was completed in January this year, yet it exudes a classic, modernist elegance that will ensure it will look just as timeless 50 years from now. Located in Buenos Aires, the “L House” by architect Mathias Klotz and associate architect Edgar Minond is the main residence of a small family. Although this could be categorized as yet another grouping of concrete boxes representing the tiresome trend that just does not seem to want to die, this residence avoids all of the pitfalls most of such houses fall into.
In contrast to the stacked-concrete-boxes syndrome, not one section of this residence sticks out over anything, nor jut in an odd angle. No vanity ideas, no statement characteristics, no ego trip. The house looks unpretentious and serene. European modernist sensitivities are apparent both inside and out. Without being too severe or controlled, this residence is composed of order. This kind of simplicity is difficult to achieve and therefore it is so rare. Yellow Brick House - Vilnius, Lithuania. This residence in the Pavilniai Regional Park, near the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, is one of those that we just have to point out, although it is neither brand-new nor unfamiliar to many readers.
The confident combination of history and modern needs of an upscale family was achieved by the architectural firm G. Natkevicius & Partners. Located by in the valley of river Vilnia that gave the city its name, the park and the city have a rich history with the oldest written records dating back to 1323. The Puckoriu escarpment in the park has rare rock formations from the Ice Age. A large munitions factory on the site dates back to the 17th century. It seems that in Vilnius private residents can buy pieces of such storied land, and when the current owner of the site - a banker and collector of antique books - bought it, a single bright-yellow building stood on it.
Nobis House - Minimalist Boathouse Residence Near Munich, Germany. Susanne Nobis has the enviable privilege of living in this gorgeous, tranquil house in Berg by Lake Starnberg (Starnberger See), a popular southern Bavarian recreation area for the residents of the nearby city of Munich. As both the client and the designer, engineer/architect Nobis designed the home and office for her own four-member family and for her architectural practice. It is a beautifully minimalist, modern take on a traditional twin wooden boathouse, popular by the lake.
While the boathouses are on stilts over the water, Nobis’s house is on 60-centimeter high illuminated legs. This gives the house its wonderful, impermanent, hovering feel but it was in fact a necessity in this location where the ground water rises very high. This also meant that everything must fit in the space above ground — no basement or cellar possible. The structure, mainly of wood and glass, includes two separate but connected houses. Photography by Roland Halbe. Catamaran Cabin Floats Complete with Deck & Crow’s Nest. UTS Great Hall and Balcony Room / DRAW - UTS Great Hall and Balcony Room / DRAW (9) (201984) - ArchDaily. Archdaily. Swellendam House by GASS. Mosewich House by D’Arcy Jones Design. Abu Samra House by Symbiosis Designs.