PS House / Iwamoto Scott
Architects: IwamotoScott
Location: North Beach, San Francisco, CA, USA
Principals in Charge: Lisa Iwamoto & Craig Scott
Collaborators: Dan Sullivan & Blake Altshuler
Diagrams: Ryan Gollenberg
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Craig Scott
Monterey Residence / Forward Design Office
California-based Forward Design Office shared with us their design for a Monterey Residence in California. More images and architect’s description after the break.
Leading Edge Student Design Competition
The Leading Edge Student Design Competition seeks to support and enhance the study of sustainable and energy-efficient building practices in Architectural Education. We invite students and instructors of Architecture and Design to use the competition as a framework to explore the use of new materials and strategies for building and the integration of aesthetics and technology for high-performing, cutting edge architecture.
This year the competition focuses on the coastal city of Long Beach, California. Students entering Challenge 1 will design a zero-net energy Workforce Training Center; students entering Challenge 2 will design a zero-net energy Student Residence. A zero-net energy building generates enough on-site renewable energy to equal or exceed the amount of energy needed to operate the building.
More information on submission and requirements on the competition’s official website. Seen at Architecture Week.
“Safe Trestles”: Coalition Launches Two-Stage Design Competition
Access to Trestles, one of North America’s most celebrated waves, is under threat due to safety and environmental concerns. Currently, over 100,000 people each year follow informal trails through marshlands and over active train tracks to gain access to the surf breaks at Trestles. These impromptu manmade paths present a safety hazard with passing trains and threaten the fragile ecosystem of Trestles.
In response, a coalition of concerned groups organized by the volunteer non-profit organization Architecture for Humanity, are launching “Safe Trestles,” an open-to-all, two-stage design competition to create a safe pathway to serve surfers, the local coastal community and day visitors to San Onofre State Beach.
For more information on submission and requirements, click here. Watch a video after the break.
Gravatt 48 / Debbas Architecture
Architects: Debbas Architecture
Location: Berkeley, CA, USA
Client: Charles & Amal Debbas
Project Area: 320 sqm
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Nic Lehoux & Cesar Rubio
Rosa Muerta / Robert Stone
After visiting his website, I got in touch with Robert Stone and exchanged a few emails… He is a reader of ArchDaily and was very excited to share his work with the readers, and I was also very excited about it after learning more about him and what is behind Rosa Muerta and other projects he has been working on in the California desert.
Robert was born and raised in Palm Springs, Ca. in a decent copy of a Craig Ellwood house and across the street from a real Schindler house. After his masters degree at UC Berkeley, Robert spent over a decade in a studio in Los Angeles making experimental social-sculpture projects that were exhibited internationally. I mention this because it’s a clear influence on Rosa Muerta and Acido Dorado, two projects that came out of Robert’s passion for art, his architectural background, and his D.I.Y. punk roots:
Instead of looking for a client, Robert went solo to the desert to build vacation houses for rent, turning into an entrepreneur with Pretty Vacant Properties and probing that independent D.I.Y. architecture is possible.
It is basically the American punk D.I.Y. approach that has engendered all contemporary independent music and film since the 1970′s. . . now finally applied to architecture.
The passion Robert puts on his work is really inspiring, specially for young architects that debate between working at some else’s practice or kick start their own firm/business.
I hope to bring you more about Robert’s work in the near future. In the meanwhile, more about Rosa Muerta after the break:
Diamond House / XTEN Architecture
Project Name: Diamondhouse
Location: Santa Monica, California, USA
Architect: XTEN Architecture – Monika Haefelfinger & Austin Kelly (AIA, LEED AP)
Client: Aisha Ayers
Project Completion Date: Dec 2009
Project Size: 820sqf Interior, 500sqf Roof Deck, 1200sqf Exterior Terraces / Firepit Area
Landscaping/ Site Pieces: Mark Motonaga
Photographs: Art Gray Photography
On Grape / Sebastian Mariscal Studio
Architect: Sebastian Mariscal Studio
Location: San Diego, California, USA
Designer & Builder: Sebastian Mariscal Studio
Design Team: Sebastian Mariscal & Dominique Houriet
Structural Engineering: Omar Mobayed
Project Area: 472 sqm
Project year: 2006
Photographs: Hisao Suzuki
Orange Memorial Park / Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects
Architects: Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Owner: Sharon Ranals
Structural Engineer: Umerani Associates
General Contractor: RGM & Associates
Landscape Architects: Gates & Associates
Project Area: 595 sqm
Budget: $5.3 M
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Billy Hustace & Sharon Risedorph
Six / Sebastian Mariscal Studio
Architect: Sebastian Mariscal Studio
Location: La Jolla, California, USA
Designer & Builder: Sebastian Mariscal Studio
Design Team: Sebastian Mariscal & Jeff Svitak
Structural Engineering: Omar Mobayed
Project Area: 1,546 sqm
Project year: 2007
Photographs: Hisao Suzuki
Caverhill Residence / SPF Architects
Architects: Studio Pali Fekete architects
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Project Team: Zoltan Pali, FAIA, Judit Fekete, Siddhartha Majumdar, Brian Di Maggio, Mark Meyer, Matt Lunn, Yvonne Wong, Gregory Fischer, Richard McNamara
Structural Engineer: John Labib and Associates
Landscape Architect: Korn Randloph Landscape Architects
Contractor: William Kent Development Inc.
Project Area: 418 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: John E. Linden
Tafoni Floating Home
The Tafoni Floating Home is a conceptual project from designer Joanna Borek-Clement. The primary goal is to change the attitude towards living on a houseboat and promote a lifestyle that limits disruption of the environment. Tafoni is spacious, yet compact. Typical houseboats have low ceilings and often feel cramped, which can detract from comfort many residents desire of their homes. In contrast, even though Tafoni has a relatively small floor plate, it is spacious because of the high ceiling and the minimal amount of full-height interior partitions.
The partial-height sculptural walls divide the space visually and increase the interaction between people without limiting views. Tafoni is a multi-purpose living pavilion that serves as a permanent house, a weekend retreat, a relaxing summer destination or a place to entertain friends and hold business parties. In the current era of overpopulation and decreasing greenfields, building houseboats is a solution we should consider. More after the break.
Mississippi Blues / Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects
Architects: Stanley Saitowitz / Natoma Architects
Location: San Francisco, California, USA
Project Team: Stanley Saitowitz, Alan Tse, John Winder
Construction: Lyon Construction
Project Area: 167 sqm
Project Year: 2008
Photograph: Rien van Rijthoven
Casa Grande Senior Apartments / Archumana
Architect: Archumana
Location: Petaluma, California, USA
Lot Area: 2.33 acres
Gross Building Area: 42,242 s.f.
Owner: PEP Housing
Year of completion: 2008
Photographs Aerial archives, Archumana team
Casa Grande Senior Housing has won the 2009 Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award. This annual award, bestowed by Governor Schwarzenegger is “California’s most prestigious environmental honor, given only to Californians who exemplify exceptional leadership for protecting and enhancing the environment while at the same time promoting economic growth.”
PEP Housing was also named a National Green Building Award Finalist by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) for Casa Grande Senior Apartments. The project received a score of 103 points, more than double the points needed to earn a Petaluma Build It Green certificate.
Otter Cove Residence / Sagan Piechota Architecture
Architects: Sagan Piechota Architecture
Location: Carmel, CA, USA
Principal in Charge: Daniel Piechota
Project Team: Jaeson Greer, Ben Frombgen
Collaborators: Mike Eggers, Tim Whitehill, Audrey Hitchcock, Jeremy Tsai
Interior Designer: Jorie Clark
Structural Engineer: Alex Rood, Fulcrum Engineering
Landscape: Christian Lemon
General Contractor: McLeod Construction
Project Year: 2005-2008
Photographs: Joe Fletcher
Art Bridge / wHY Architecture
wHY Architecture has shown us their expertise on cultural projects at different scales: the Grand Rapids Art Museum (the first LEED Gold certified museum) on the large scale in one side and the Royal/T Gallery on a smaller scale, among other cultural projects shown on their website.
And now they share with us a cultural project on the infrastructure scale that I had the chance to see when I visited their office early this year, which got green light and enters construction phase in 2010: the Art Bridge.
The project is located over the Los Angeles river and it’s very related to it, as most of its structure will be built from trash salvaged from the river itself. This project will achieve what many have been looking for, and that is to reconnect with the river that crosses LA. And I think that it will make it.
You can also watch our interview with Yo-ichiro Hakomori from whY Architecture, filmed at Postopolis! LA earlier this year.
Project description and more images after the break:
Treehouse / RPA
Architects: RPA
Location: Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Project Area: 16 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Eric Staudenmaier
Lofts @ Cherokee Studios / Pugh + Scarpa
Architects: Pugh + Scarpa
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Client: REthink Development Corp.
MEP Engineers: Cobalt Engineering
Structural Engineers: BPA Group
Builders: JT Builders
Landscape: FormLA Landscape
Project Area: 1,905 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Tara Wujcik
Deegan Day Design
Deegan Day Design, an architectural installation at the SCI-Arc Gallery in Los Angeles started on October 23 and will be available to everyone till December 13 with changing visual media throughout and public discussions with artists, architects and critics, including: An Te Liu, Bettina Korek, Andrea Fraser, Rhea Anastas, Bennett Simpson, Josh Melnick, Lauri Firstenberg, Sarah Morris Richard Massey, Eric Owen Moss, and Joe Day.
You can learn more at the exhibition’s official website. Watch a video after the break.
Prism Gallery / PATTERNS
PATTERNS has designed a new three story cultural center for West Hollywood, California. The center, known as Prism, will become a cornerstone of artistic experimentation, carving a new niche for the arts in Southern California. The facade will be the first in the nation to be constructed entirely out of a resin based composite polycarbonate. Inspired by automotive design supple forms, streamlined detailing and plastic finishes; the façade has a dual aesthetic performance associated to its plastic materiality and responsive to the lively energy of its context: it behaves as a reflectively glossy surface during daylight and as a translucent skin at night.
More about Prism after the break.
California Senior Housing Design Competition
Two San Francisco Bay Area housing non-profits, Suburban Alternatives Land Trust (SALT) and Northbay Family Homes (NFH) have, in the past 30 years, facilitated the building of 4,000 homes – half of them affordable to low-moderate income families. Together, SALT and NFH are sponsoring an open competition to develop ideas that optimize their site’s potential uses, including ideas that address the need for senior housing in a suburban setting.
The Project site is located in the City of Novato, Marin County in a recently developed area known as “Bahia.” Construction is planned to begin upon securing financing. Registration is until November 16 and registration is due un December 14. For more information on submission requirements, go to the official website. Seen on Bustler.
