Alvaro Leite Siza / Tolo House

The “Tolo House” build by Alvaro Leite Siza is based in Lugar das Carvalhinhas - Alvite, Cerva Parish, Ribeira da Pena Commune, Vila Real District with an area of around 1000m2. The house is build on a sharply inclined hill. Its fragmentation, necessary due to the steep topography, transforms the whole into a composition of small linked and interconnected volumes, creating an unevenness that allows for a more secure and rational use of the lot. In this way the house’s various functions are clarified with each elevation corresponding to a single compartment.

The project consists of a holiday home with three bedrooms, a social bathroom, a living room, a dinning room, a small kitchen with a support washbasin, pantry, and even a small outdoor swimming pool. The terrain is sharply inclined and has a particular configuration: it is very long and narrow. However, the fact that it faces south allows it to receive optimal solar exposure and to enjoy a particular natural view. The living area does not exceed 180m2.

About Álvaro Leite Siza Vieira

Álvaro Leite Siza Vieira was born in Porto, Portugal in 1962. He worked as a curricular trainee at the architecture studio of Eduardo Souto de Moura in 1992, and graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Escola do Porto in 1994. Before that, he collaborated with his father, architect, Alvaro Siza Vieira on a first project in Lisbon in 1987, a competition for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki in 1992 and the Olympic complex of the University of Palermo in 1995. He has participated in competitions, exhibited his own works at international design exhibitions, and designed many houses around Portugal.

For reasons of functionality and integration, it was opted to organize the main entrance based on the street where car transit was possible. This road leads to the northern higher part of the lot. Nevertheless, it is possible to access the house from a more rustic footpath from the south. Its fragmentation, necessary due to the steep topography, transforms the whole into a composition of small linked and interconnected volumes, creating an unevenness that allows for a more secure and rational use of the lot.

In this way the house’s various functions are clarified with each elevation corresponding to a single compartment. The roof functions simultaneously as pavement support for the gardens: similar to the traditional threshing floors and patios in the northern regions of the country with hilly terrain.

Project Detail :
Architects: Alvaro Leite Siza
Client: Luís Marinho Leite Barbosa da Silva
Location: Lugar das Carvalhinhas - Alvite, freguesia de Cerva, Ribeira da Pena District
Site Area: 1000 sqm
Constructed Area: 180 sqm
Contractor: Óscar Gouveia
Landscape: Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira
Materials: Concrete
Services: GOP
Project Start: 2000
Project Complete: 2005
Photographers: Alvaro Leite Siza / F&S Guerra

Modular Office Furniture System

Looking for an office furniture system that can enabling theusers to work together in a team, to enjoy dining together or to organize various activities of everyday life ..? This office furniture system could be the answer. This office furniture system has a flexible system and can be adapted to different requirements in workspaces or private areas. All elements can be combined modularly; tables can be placed as extension elements or freestanding, and cabinet elements can be modularly combined with doors, drawers or top pieces in various design types. With movable wall elements, workspaces can be divided according to individual requirements. As such, conference rooms can be flexibly arranged right next to single office spaces. This office furniture system was designed by Aksusuardi Studio and Manufactured by Nurus.

The bright coloring of this product line contributes to a modern stylistic ambience, which adds zest to everyday life. Details in the design like slim silver-coloured table legs or embedded silver strips indicate high-grade workmanship and additionally set effective accents.

Shigeru Ban Architects | Metal Shutter Houses

This is a new under construction project on West Chelsea [ 9 unit condo ] that was designed by japanese Shigeru Ban Architects. The project is located on the south side of West 19th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in West Chelsea’s art gallery district, right next to the High Line, the Hudson River Park, Ghery´s IAC Building and Jean Nouvel´s 100 11th.

On this building, Shigeru Ban once again innovates on the material use by incorporating motorized perforated metal shutters on its -dynamic- facade, which act as light-modulating privacy screen at the outer edge of each residence’s terrace adjacent to the double-height living rooms.

From their website: This subtle “removable skin” echoes the neighboring gallery after-hours shutters, subtly contextualizing the building within its site. The building can literally become a uniform minimal cube, or it can open completely (as well as virtually unlimited permutations between). South of the loggia, twenty foot tall, upwardly pivoting glass walls open completely, thus blurring the boundary between the inside and outside – the double height living room and loggia become one.

Similarly, a series of interior sliding glass doors create an open “universal floor” in each of the duplex houses – one vast and uninterrupted expanse which transitions seamlessly from inside to outside, or partition the space into private areas.

Jaime Rendon Arquitectos | Sereno House

This Sereno House is a beautiful house that was designed by Jaime Rendon Arquitectos and located at the suburbs of Medellín (Colombia), 2,150 meter AMSL (Above Mean Sea Level). The outstanding visual over the valley (named Valle del Aburrá), and the native forest that surrounds the house make this site unique in its type. The longitudinal house location in reference to the plot enables walking trough while enjoying the exterior outlook.

The built-in white concrete volume encloses the social and the service zones, as well as the bedrooms. The built-in black stone volume surrounds the master bedroom and the private study (wood-box), both are linked by a iron built-in bridge.

Sun-light and shade splits the social zone in summer time, as result of the patio, the study, the bedrooms location against south and east facades.

At the end of the year, the sun is south located and the whole area has a steady shade over the social zone, not only because of the house location but the native forest sun shade effect.

The entry is a dual connotation, i.e., colossal and tiny, which best elucidates the “zaguán y el alero” (hallway) very popular in the traditional Colombian houses.

Architects: Jaime Rendon Arquitectos
Location: Medellín, Colombia
Project Team: Jaime Rendon, Felipe Campuzano, Fernando Zapata
Structure Engineer: Luis Bernardo Gonzalez
Contractor: Luz Estella Orrego
Soil Study: SOLINGRAL LTDA
Electrical Design: INGELECTRICA LTDA
Construction year: 2006-2007
Photographs: Sergio Gomez, Felipe Campuzano

Hong Luo Club House / MAD

The expansion of Beijing city has intensively accelerated the development of its periphery area for the last few years, which thereby helped develop the first space typology in China. In the meantime, the suburbia emerged gradually. Enclosed by grand natural environment, Hong Luo Villa district is a popular residential area in north Beijing‘s Miyun-district, which is within one hour’s drive away form the heart of the city. As Hong Luo’s popularity keeps growing, the promise of its rapid development in the foreseeable future has attracted huge investment into the district.

Hong Luo Villa district is a three-phased project. The sites for each phase are allocated along Hong Luo Lake, reflecting the grand view of the mountains sitting behind it. Hong Luo Club floats on the lake, creating an easily accessible public space at the center of the district.

A wood bridge was introduced as an access to the Club House. The house has two branches, one is a swimming pool floating on the lake, the other is an underwater platform. The architectural form is shaped by people’s circulation. Two major roads converge at the center of the house and reach all the way up along an ascending roof. The ever changing water surface joins the ascending roof, expressing the transition from liquid to solid. The space structure and the functions of the house are integrated naturally.

The main access to the house will bring the visitor to 1,300 mm under water, where people feel like walking in the lake. The access road ascends to the ground level gradually as it nears the house, which reveals the main function of the building — a gathering space. The roof shape is a projection of the linear, functional organization of the ground level’s program. The outdoor swimming pool is built into the lake, which keeps the surfaces of the natural and the artificial water at the same level. The architecture explores the city dwellers’ understanding of the nature.

Hong Luo Club House creates an ever changing space that echoes with the surroundings, where people and the nature are united. The mountain and the water provide hope and inspirations for people who live in concrete woods.

Architects: MAD Office
Location: Beijing, China
Construction year: 2006
Constructed Area: 487.2 sqm
Interior Area: 189.7 sqm
Project Directors: Yansong Ma, Yosuke Hayano
Project Architect: Florian Pucher
Design team: Shen Jun, Christian Taubert, Marco Zuttioni, Yu Kui
Associate Architects & Engineers: IDEA Design Studio
Photographs: Shu He