Photographer: Makoto Yoshida | ArchDaily

Concrete Wonders: 40 Impressive Details Using the Cement-Based Building Material

Fabian Dejtiar — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 07:30:00 +0000

Due to its ability to mold and create different shapes, concrete is one of architecture's most popular materials. While one of its most common uses is as a humble foundation, its plasticity means that it is also used in almost all types of construction, from housing to museums, presenting a variety of details of work that deserves special attention.

How to Choose the Front Door of a House?

Valeria Montjoy — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 04:00:00 +0000

As much as walls, ceilings, and furniture pieces define the character and perception of an architectural project, doors play a critical role in building that style. Among all the doors used in houses, the front door is the first tangible element that homeowners and visitors will encounter, acting as the pivotal point where architecture greets the user. After all, first impressions are always important; and the entrance door is certainly one that can set the tone for the rest of the interior. However, choosing the right front door for a contemporary house can be difficult, especially with so many design possibilities. Therefore, before making that decision, it is crucial to know what those possibilities are – and how these can transform the front door into a design statement.

Ishigaki City Hall / Kengo Kuma & Associates

Hana Abdel — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Ishigaki City Hall, which was in a tsunami inundation zone, was relocated to a higher ground. The aim was to revive the Ishigaki landscape: layers of traditional red-tile stucco roofs surrounded by lush greenery. The planning was inspired by the settlement pattern of Ishigaki, where villages formed at the crossroads where rows of houses intersected.

Domain House / IN STUDIO

Hana Abdel — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 20:00:00 +0000

There was a piece of land in the Rakuhoku district of Kyoto City that had been lived in from generation to generation since the late Edo period. Each family member built a house and a place of work on the land, and they lived together and apart from each other. Although there are now institutional boundaries of ownership, until recently, people crossed the boundaries of the land and came and went as needed, and in reality, the boundaries were loose. In terms of the length of time spent here, the house is ephemeral and the land is permanent, so when you live here, you will feel like living in the land as well as in the house. The two houses and the workshop on this land were to be demolished to make way for a single house.

Pantone Reveals "Inventive and Transformative" 2022 Color of the Year

Dima Stouhi — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 06:30:00 +0000

Pantone has revealed its Color of the Year for 2022; 17-3938 Very Peri, a brand new color "whose courageous presence encourages personal inventiveness and creativity". The shade falls under the blue color family but with violet red undertones, illustrating the fusion of our modern times and how the digital world has morphed with our physical one. In architecture, shades of periwinkle blue and lavender have long been used in installations, commercial spaces, and lighting, instilling an overall calming, optimistic, and positive effect on the human mind.

Machida Shikisai no Mori / N. Yamada Architect & Associates

Pilar Caballero — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 21:00:00 +0000

The operator of this case study is Machida City, and it is a public facility operated by a designated manager.

Cultivatable House / IN STUDIO

Hana Abdel — Sun, 19 Sep 2021 21:00:00 +0000

For generations, the family of the client has maintained a farm household by cultivating their fields in this site in the central area of Saitama prefecture. Houses in this farming area used to share an orderly pattern, commonly with a water path, a farmhouse, sheds, and fields in a row from north to south, but in recent times newly built houses and car garages have disordered the overall pattern into the sprawling of suburban landscapes in the countryside.

House in Hilly New Town / IN STUDIO

Hana Abdel — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 20:00:00 +0000

The house stands almost at the top of a hilly residential area 10 minutes by train from Yokohama. Originally developed in the 1950s as Futamatagawa New Town, the land is laid out along the topography in regular rows of similarly sized residential lots. In addition to being a first-class low-rise residential area, the land is subject to strict diagonal restrictions starting at 5m on the north side. These land divisions and regulations result in a hilly area covered with small detached houses. This is a common hilly residential area that is repeated in other parts of Japan.

22 Skinny Houses With a Narrow Footprint and a Broad Impact

María Francisca González — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 06:00:00 +0000

Skinny houses have a wider appeal than their footprint would suggest. With cities becoming denser, and land becoming rare and expensive, architects are increasingly challenged to design in urban infill spaces previously overlooked. Although designing within these unusual parameters can be difficult, they often require an individual, sensitive response, which can often lead to innovative, playful, even inspiring results. With that in mind, here are 22 houses with a narrow footprint, and a broad impact.

Roadside House / Naf Architect & Design

Cristian Aguilar — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 20:00:00 +0000

A house was built with a big roof and a wide opening to a private road branched from the frontal road.

BLOOM / Hiroyuki Ito Architects

Cristian Aguilar — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This is an apartment building which contains ten units including duplex apartments. As a variety of households are living around the site, the building provides different types of rooms in it. Balconies are sticking out from the stair-formed volume. Each unit has a balcony which has rather high walls with openings so that exterior spaces are experienced in a continuation of the interior space.

House in Ofuna / LEVEL Architects

Jonathan Alarcón — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 01:00:00 +0000

This design, which cuts away the Western corner from this extruded volume of the site, created a focal point within the house, while still enabling a connection to the surrounding exterior environment. The cutaway corner is able to establish a direct view onto the small hills west of the house, as well as retaining privacy from the street below. The use of natural wood material for the extruded volume itself allowed the design to incorporate a hard edge at the cutaway corner, creating a sharp and distinct separation from the rest of the design. This triangular surface edge also helps to break up the solid aspect of the design and somewhat control its presence onto the street.

House in Fuji / LEVEL Architects

Megan Jett — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Since the house is surrounded by attractive scenery with a park nearby and distant views of the snow-capped Mt Fuji, we designed each section to be connected with the outside environment. On the south side of the building, the roof slab was extended, creating an eave to protect residents from direct daylight in summer months. On the north side, areas were cut from the volume to allow daylight the daylight to enter the space.

Reflection of Mineral / Atelier Tekuto

Christopher Henry — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The site is located near the center of Tokyo. It is a small 44m2 corner plot bounded by two streets. Conforming to legal conditions and in response to the client’s wish for a ‘roofed garage’ the volume was trimmed from various directions. Using the words ‘Mineral’ and ‘reflection’ as guiding concepts, Atelier Tekuto proceeded to use subtraction as a positive tool for design.

Twin Bricks / Atelier Tekuto

Christopher Henry — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Twin Bricks, consists of two wings - A five unit rental dwelling and the owner’s own two-family house. It is located in a quiet residential area, just 20 minutes by train from Tokyo. In order to secure some space for the owner’s car collection, the owner’s wing (RC Wing) stands closer to the road than the rental wing (S Wing). The rental wing is clad in both autoclaved lightweight concrete (ALC) panels as well as glass blocks.

Lucky Drops / Atelier Tekuto

Christopher Henry — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Among the increasing number of houses planned on small plots of land, this is out of the ordinary in shade and size, A 20-minute train ride from downtown Tokyo, 15-minuite walk from the station. It is a long, narrow trapezoid with a lower base of 3.2m as the frontage, height of 29.3m as the depth, and upper base of 0.7m at the very end of the site. Moreover, there is a local ordinance requiring a 0.5-meter set-back of external walls from the adjacent land. Conditions are extremely tough. From the moment Atelier Tekuto had looked through the site's situation, Atelier Tekuto organized a collaboration system consisting of the client, design, structure, construction and maker, then started off planning.

Magritte’s / Atelier Tekuto

Christopher Henry — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Magritte’s is situated in the middle of Tokyo, on a tiny 45.61 m2 of plot of land. The width of front road restricted the size of construction machinery. The conditions made it extremely difficult to build the residence. The client was a married couple in their thirties, and their simple request was the use of concrete for every part of the house including floor, wall, tables etc. They didn’t even care for storage space to satisfy this request.