Month: August 2021

Oppenheim Architecture have unveiled the design of the Jali Hotel and Residences, a new luxury complex on Albania‘s southern coast. The project will nestle in the site’s picturesque landscape and seaside, and provide visitors and residents with a public square, recreational amenities, and access to a vibrant beachside club that pay homage to traditional Albanian coastal structures.

Following the recent evolution of the climate crisis, policymakers and private companies are getting behind the transition towards clean energy. California is set to mandate solar panels and battery storage for new buildings in a move towards establishing a 100% clean energy grid, while across the US, public schools are redesigned to operate on green energy. In Europe, the EU launched a call to establish an offshore renewable energies working group that would help define the framework for reaching the EU’s ambition of at least 300 GW of offshore wind and 40 GW of ocean energies by 2050. At the same time, furniture manufacturer IKEA announced it would start selling renewable energy to Swedish households.

A wood-burning stove (or wood burner or log burner in the UK) is a heating appliance used for cooking. Food cooked on a wood-burning stove tends to have a more intense flavor since it requires a slow, artisanal process that results in more complex dishes. For this reason, these stoves are becoming a popular choice for people who want to create a unique environment for family and friends to gather at home for a delicious meal.

“Demolition is a waste of many things – a waste of energy, a waste of material, and a waste of history,” says Pritzker-winning architect Anne Lacaton. In recent years, refurbishment and adaptive reuse have become ubiquitous within the architectural discourse, as the profession is becoming more aware of issues such as waste, use of resources and embedded carbon emissions. However, the practice of updating the existing building stock lacks consistency, especially when it comes to Brutalist heritage. The following explores the challenges and opportunities of refurbishment and adaptive reuse of post-war architecture, highlighting how these strategies can play a significant role in addressing the climate crisis and translating the net-zero emissions goal into reality while also giving new life to existing spaces.

In this week’s reprint from the Architect’s Newspaper, author Karen Kubey, an urbanist specializing in housing and health questions if the invention of Public Space is “Invented Or Agreed Upon?” Basing her ideas on a book by Mariana Mogilevich, The Invention of Public Space, the article asks if public spaces are a product of negotiation in the city.

In a small village in the county of Cameros, La Rioja we find a very spe­cial house. Unlike the structures near­by, this house is defined by a monumen­tal, five-story high façade, composed of thick, stone walls and symmetrical openings. Each floor, which has the same distribution and dimensions, is connect­ed by a spiraling wooden staircase end­ing in a skylight that brings light in. On the ground floor of house, next to the village’s ravine, we find a narrow and long space, formerly used for stor­ing cattle and goods.

A pavilion-style house informed by the ancient Latvian farmstead – the viensēta. Designed as a holiday home, the house is free of excesses and encourages the owners’ connection to themselves, each other and the natural surroundings. It sits within a sparsely populated area of Gauja National Park where passing wildlife is more common than humans. Nature takes care of entertainment, inspires and provokes. Life doesn’t just take place indoors, it flows betweeen the exterior and interior with the terrace and windows facilitating. This is a mind-freeing weekend retreat.

After five years since we first designed this store, this is our second time to be commissioned to design the same space. We are challenged how to provide the local people in the neighborhood and the customers of the store with a fresh look and new experiences. Recent living experiences with proximity to nature give us the inspiration to integrate green plants into the façade design and throughout the entire interior space, to give people a peaceful atmosphere even though it is physically located in a busy city center of a Chinese metropolis.

A family of doctors craved for a weekend getaway to be designed at their ancestral farmlands located at Terni village. The idea was to enjoy outdoor spaces around a swimming pool nestled between sugarcane fields and mango tree orchards. The profile was to design a place that made the users feel that they are dwelling right in between the farmlands, less with themselves and more with the flora and fauna of the site.