Luque Housing / tda
Housing is the most powerful tool for transforming the city. In that sense, this project works on ambition.
Articles by Clara Ott
Optimo / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
For more than 25 years, Optimo has developed a cult following as a leading maker of handcrafted hats for a unique, diverse, and devoted global clientele. Located in Beverly, Illinois, an historic neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, Optimo’s recently completed headquarters consolidates its design, operations, and production spaces inside a 100-year-old decommissioned firehouse. To create a space reflective of Optimo’s ethos of craftsmanship, authenticity, and timeless luxury, the company engaged SOM—a firm which shares the same values—to develop a scheme befitting of a hat maker known for its rigorous attention to detail.
Apple Store, Upper East Side / Bohlin Cywinksi Jackson
Apple Store, Upper East Side is an adaptive reuse of the U.S. Mortgage & Trust building at Madison Avenue and East 74th Street. The building, a handsome and understated example of Beaux Arts classicism, was designed by architect Henry Otis Chapman and constructed in 1922. The following year it was featured in Architectural Record magazine.
Apartments @ 143 / Plan Loci
Designed by plan loci, Apartment 143 block is born out of rational considerations. While maximizing floor space, the facade breaks its own apparent monotony with strict geometries that do not reveal their underlying discipline. The sinuous grey metal on the outside celebrates the industrial, while not betraying the inner layer of timber-framed fenestrations which make its occupants feel the intimacy and warmth of a home. Three distinct layers of alternating planes in its balconies partly shade and partly illuminate its interiors for the west-facing plot. The windows and openings are full length, allowing uninterrupted access to the front of every unit. The extreme verticality is broken by the basic ordering element as horizontal lines.
Constant Springs Residence / Alterstudio Architecture
The opportunity to live simultaneously in the center of the city and in an isolated refuge presented a powerful circumstance for this family of four. Within a very ordinary neighborhood, this home is oriented to take maximum advantage of the unexpected escarpment, creek and natural views offered at the rear of the property.
Funenhof / Arons en Gelauff Architects
This project for eight family houses is situated near the Funenpark in the city centre of Amsterdam. The site is a small courtyard, behind a former school building turned into housing. These 8 single family houses are built on the location of a demolished small factory, which was used as a workspace and studio for a media company. The hidden and enclosed space reminds us of the typical Amsterdam courtyards from the middle Ages. The new intimate courtyard is designed together with Hosper Landscape Architecture and the inhabitants of the school. The owners have a small private outside space and the rest is communal space.
Villa Geef / Damilano Studio Architects
Villa GEEF was born in a compromised context in the first outskirts of Sondrio (Italy) within a lot that was used as a relax time place by employees of an electric company. The large lot was in fact occupied by a building and playgrounds all around.
Villa Geef / Damilano Studio Architects
Villa GEEF was born in a compromised context in the first outskirts of Sondrio (Italy) within a lot that was used as a relax time place by employees of an electric company. The large lot was in fact occupied by a building and playgrounds all around.