Articles by Andreas Luco

Commissioned by the Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS), this dynamic new space for arts and culture responds directly to feedback from community focus groups with an emphasis on people of color. Located on the top floor of Seattle’s historic King Street Station, the 17,500-square-foot space provides flexible, co-use areas for community gathering in addition to professional offices and a presentation gallery.

The project is located to the north of the city of Merida, Yucatan, in a land of 13 meters in front by 40 meters deep with an east-west orientation and with the particularity of having a fabulous contemplative park with incredible vegetation and ancient trees to the north which provides an absolute tranquility.

Designing a home for an architectural photographer was an exercise in simplicity and restraint. We cannot say it any better than the homeowner himself: “Early in my photography career, I took a photo of a house in a wooded area of Maine. The house was a basic shape – as one would draw as a child – just a box with a gabled roof. It fit perfectly in a square crop.

Studio dLux was hired by Ana Holanda, a published writer, to transform an old medical practice into her office, which also houses workshops during the year. Known for her workshops about emotional writing, she needed a hybrid workspace that could be transformed into an event room or open space at any time.

Casa Aglae is our proposal for a weekend house in Santo Domingo, a coastal area located 120 km. from Santiago. The strong winds that predominate in the summer from the west, made us raise the house in parallel to the length of the land, in east-west direction, forming an interior courtyard protected as the predominant area of the house. Thus, the design consists of a plant in which all the enclosures have been arranged to the north to maximize sunlight. Only the master bedroom looks towards the west, taking advantage of the views towards the sunset.

The site is located on the hillside of a small mountain overlooking the city. It is bound by two roads on the east and west side with a level difference of 16m between the two sides. In this area, from the east which is the higher part of the mountain to the west, are a retaining wall and a front road, followed by a slope covered with trees, another retaining wall and a road at the foot of it.

The new Higgins Hall Center Section is an urban insertion which draws from the sections of the two adjacent historic landmarked buildings. Floor plates of the north and south wings do not align. By drawing this misalignment into the new glass section to meet at the center a “dissonant zone” is created which marks the new entry to the school. The two masonry buildings together with the new glass insertion form an “H” in plan. New courts facing east and west are paved in the reused red brick which was salvaged following the fire that took place in 1996.

The location of the building on a small hill of the outskirts made it possible to create a 360° view of the rural surroundings and the village buildings near Heidelberg. The 2-storey building devides the hillside property into a courtyard open to the street in front of the ground floor and a private, secluded garden area behind the building. On the ground floor are the house access, garages and two offices, which are oriented to the courtyard. On the slope side storage and technical rooms are housed.

You can wander through the Dutch polder landscape while at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The landscape was the main source of inspiration behind the new Holland Boulevard, an international departures hall designed by NEXT architects and that now comprises various typical Dutch-inspired sitting rooms. These rooms are separated by low walls; together, they form the horizon of this vast space of 5,000 m2. Each room has its own atmosphere and ambiance and so the Holland Boulevard takes visitors on a real voyage of discovery.