Month: September 2022

This project involves the conversion of a space that formerly housed an office into a house for a couple. The space enjoys unique views of the Gava Mar Beach. A picture in continuous transformation, formed by pines that allow a glimpse of the sea between their trunks. The main concept of the project is to generate a natural interior landscape that is in harmony with the exterior environment. The horizon line draws the changing duality between the sky and the sea, so sensitively reflected in Hiroshi Sugimoto’s work Seascapes. The design highlights this horizontality through a game of levels at different heights, giving rise to a succession of horizons inside the new house.

The Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, opens The Energy Show and the Solar Biennale on Friday, September 9, 2022. In collaboration with The Solar Biennale designer and curator Matylda Krzykowski and solar designers Marjan van Aubel and Pauline van Dongen, the exhibition presents a series of projects that explores the sun’s meaning and possibilities in society, the environment, and design. With Europe in the midst of an energy crisis, The Energy Show and the Solar Biennale is an opportunity for designers and the general public to examine the transition to solar energy and technology as we move towards a post-carbon future.

Far beyond its decorative features, landscaping brings with it biological and cultural issues that need to be addressed in projects. However, what can be seen in most public, residential, condominium, commercial and business gardens is a series of approaches that distance landscaping from all its attributes, reducing it to a decorative layer in the construction. Next, we have put together strategies to avoid the main problems of landscape design, joining aesthetics with its environmental and cultural possibilities.

These days, wellness is a commonly-used word in design and other areas, but what does it truly mean? According to the National Wellness Institute, the concept is defined as “an active process through which people become aware of, and make choices toward, a more successful existence.” It can be viewed from different perspectives, such as environmental, intellectual, spiritual and physical factors. Although these elements can be integrated separately into one’s life, they can also complement each other and work together. For example, exercise does not only provide physical benefits; it contributes to emotional wellness as well.

­­­Housing is a mess in Northwest Arkansas. The metropolitan area between the college town of Fayetteville, the buzzing art hub of Bentonville, and the bedroom communities of Rogers and Springdale are expected to double in size over the next two decades, and like many quickly growing urban areas across the country, there aren’t enough places to live.

This is a plan for a house with an attached dental clinic. The dentist, who has worked as a director in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, intends to lead a second life in the city of Tanabe, not far from Shirahama, in the Wakayama Prefecture. The site has the Minami Wakayama Medical Centre on the west side, and the area along the street is home to medical institutions, while a little further south a nature‐rich area with the Tanabe City Museum of Art and Shinjo General Park can be found. The first thing we thought was how the dental clinic patients would feel when on their first visit. We thought it would be best to create a simple and relaxing environment stripped of stress and fear, an easy place for patients to visit.

Our practice often undertakes infill projects of varying scales within established suburbs and with each project, we seek to challenge the business-as-usual approach. This project provided the opportunity to address the battleaxe block subdivision which too often sees the replacement of an ex-backyard with structures that cover the majority of the site and leave little room for gardens, a poorly defined entry sequence neglecting the home presence in the neighborhood, and a laneway lost to car parking and solid fencing.

Pu’er is a small city in southern Yunnan Province. The region enjoys an agreeable climate and a preferable natural environment. The client had asked for a house in which three generations of her family would live together. The site is in an affluent area with freestanding villas, mostly three stories high. The new house is a three-story structure of grey off-form concrete walls textured with rough wooden formwork. This direct expression of concrete and a refusal to express a preference for color marks a humble but uncompromising posture against the light pink and yellow buildings nearby. A curved boundary wall on the north side acts as a buffer against traffic noise. Major spaces of the house are oriented to the hill on the southwestern side of the site since this orientation is relatively private and related directly to nature.