David Chipperfield Architects has unveiled his restoration plans for the Grand Hotel in Nieuwpoort, Belgium. Started in 2019, the project converts the structure into a residential building, while seeking to reinstate its landmark status. Becoming “The Grand residential building”, the architecture will also take on an extension that underlines a “sensitive understanding of heritage value and entails reinterpretation and invention as well as restoration”.
Housing is a ubiquitous typology ripe for experimentation. Exploring form, view, materials and hierarchies, residential projects center on daily life and retreat. Designed to bring people together and provide space for isolation, homes can be open and inviting, secluded and private, or both at the same time. For unbuilt housing projects, these concepts are designed to rethink traditional forms and spatial layouts in the context of local climates and landscape conditions.
This week’s curated selection of the Best Unbuilt Architecture focuses on homes and residential projects located around the world. Drawn from an array of firms and local contexts, they represent proposals submitted by our readers. They showcase both single family and multi-unit homes, from a series of villas for three friends overlooking the Caspian Sea, to a Cambodian countryside retreat and a pine cabin in the Jezzine village of south Lebanon.
Alison Brooks Architects has created a landmark structure in the emerging area of Kings Cross in London, part of its Central Masterplan. The proposed mixed-use urban block containing 158 dwellings will reinforce the neighborhood’s “unique sense of place and celebrate its emerging and historic contexts”.
The first 3D printed residential building in Germany, built by PERI GmbH, and designed by MENSE-KORTE ingenieure+architekten is undergoing construction in Beckum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The two-story printed detached house with approx. 80 sqm of living space per floor is using a system put into practice in Germany for the first time. In fact, the construction technique has come through all of the regulatory approval processes over the last few weeks and months.
S3 Architecture, in collaboration with the Aston Martin Design Team, has revealed images of its first joint residential project, Sylvan Rock, to be built in the Hudson Valley. The modernist estate nestled in a 55-acre wooded plot generates a rural retreat that comprises a residence, a wellness pavilion, multi-functional guest "pods", treehouse, and agricultural gardens.
David Chipperfield Architects has received planning permission for Hertogensite residences in Leuven, a new 14-story residential tower in Belgium. Part of a global vision to redevelop a former hospital campus, the project is connected to nine townhouses and a four-story apartment building.
Regeneration specialist U+I submitted plans for Morden Wharf in June 2020, comprising 1,500 new homes, employment spaces, and a landscaped park along 275m of the River Thames. Located on Greenwich Peninsula in London, the mixed-use scheme designed by OMA includes more than six acres of the high-quality public realm, 12 high quality, and tenure-blind residential buildings, as well as commercial, retail, and community spaces.
Set to be one of the tallest towers in Auckland at 178.65 meters, The Pacifica will complement the existing skyline of Auckland’s central business district. Designed by Plus Architecture, the tower “allows for a deep connection and interaction at every level”, and highlights a significant shift in Auckland’s housing approach.
Houses and Villas are the most researched topics on ArchDaily. Putting together a curated selection of conceptual interventions, this week’s Best Unbuilt Architecture focuses on the residential sector. From all over the world, this group presents proposals submitted by our readers.
This article highlights a floating terraces project from India, a lodge in Ethiopia, a seasonal home for an Iranian family in Germany, and a residential compound in Saudi Arabia. Beach houses in Greece, Croatia, and the U.S. are also featured, showcasing different approaches for the same program. Moreover, more futuristic interventions include the Mountain House on the rocky cliffs of British Columbia, and the blue house, an aquarium-like type of home.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is recognizing seven new residential designs with 2020 Housing Awards. The projects are awarded across single family, production, multifamily and specialized housing. Presented by the AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community, the awards emphasize the importance of good housing as a "necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit, and a valuable national resource."
Malibu Crest, a 2019 remodeling of a 1949 International Style home, was a vital undertaking by the architecture firm Studio Bracket that aimed to expand the structure’s square footage and panoramic views of Malibu while retaining over 50% of the home’s original walls. The project was ultimately successful, not only in its refurbishment of the interior rooms and reconfiguration of the space, but in its enlargement of the windows to truly capture views of the surrounding lagoon and mountains. This expansion of the view was done in part through an open corner window scheme and floor-to-ceiling glass, manufactured by Western Window Systems. The uninterrupted glass walls afforded by this open corner technology is one of the most effective ways that architects can open an interior space to the stunning vistas of a natural environment. Yet an even more striking configuration increasingly being employed by residential architects is that of the open corner sliding glass door – a system that can even more completely open an interior space to the unobstructed outdoors. Below, we discuss this technology in more detail, alongside several examples of projects using the open corner glass door.
Zaha Hadid Architects has just unveiled Roatán Próspera Residences, its latest project with AKT II and Hilson Moran. Located on the island of Roatán in the Caribbean, the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras, the project takes on specific ecological and social criteria, to develop homes for the island.
City officials in Barcelona have found an incentive to help increase the city’s available rental housing units. Authorities are threatening to forcefully buy empty properties to create more affordable housing if landlords don’t manage to fill their vacant rental assets within a certain time frame.
KCAP in collaboration with Orange Architects, and A.Len Architectural Bureau as co-Architect, have imagined a proposal to transform the former Tovarno-Vitebskaya railway yard on Ligovsky Prospekt into a new residential district with communal facilities, retail, and extensive greenery, in the south-eastern part of the grey belt of St. Petersburg, Russia.
ODA released images of its 1,185’ mixed-use tower in downtown Seattle. Showcasing a novelty in high-rise design, the project underlines the value and importance of outdoor space. Carving out a void in the middle of the tower, the design creates a shared outdoor amenity space with impressive views to Mt. Rainier.
This week’s curated selection of best unbuilt architecture features conceptual residential projects submitted by our readers from all around the world. Highlighting innovative designs, approaches, and compositions, this roundup puts together a series of inspiring interventions that offer a fresh look on the typical house structure.
In the following article, ArchDaily has gathered ideas from Poland, France, Hungary, Iran, and the United States. Grouped under one common theme, the feature includes a new take on the typical building complex, an attempt to shorten the transitional gap between a house and an apartment, and a collection of modular residential models that can be implemented anywhere. Moreover, it also showcases Christophe Benichou’s latest intervention, “The Pleated House” located in the Hautes Alpes in France, a hyper-sustainable house on the beach and a structure completely erased and integrated into the natural landscape.
With more competition entries coming our way, our curated selection of best-unbuilt architecture features this week, exceptional projects presented in an international context. ArchDaily has rounded up another collection of proposals, gathering interventions from across the world, and highlighting never-seen-before programs, designs, and innovations from our readers’ submissions.
The article includes a couple of groundbreaking projects from the Far East with a Panda Sightseeing Tower, a production complex, and the regeneration of an industrial area in China. In addition, the selection showcases a proposal for the Jacques Rougerie Foundation Space and Sea Generation in Melbourne, Australia, and a finalist for the LACMA Not LackMA International Design Competition. Other proposals highlighted encompass a Multi-cultural Complex in South Korea, a recreational zone on an Austrian lake, a peace pavilion in Senegal, and a dream mansion "between mountain and sea" by Penda China, to name a few.
