Articles by Martita Vial

The site is located in a new residential area of Ho Chi Minh City, with a park on its northern side. It is a rare opportunity to get a site in Ho Chi Minh city, which is adjacent to a green public space. We therefore focused on designing a house which becomes an extension of its environment by integrating the green of the park into the interior space of the house.

The house is located on a ridge above the Lisbon estuary. It faces the Estrela Basilica on one side, and the river on the other. The house, with an extensive brief, requires the use of two circuits: one interior and the other exterior, alternating in order to facilitate the independence of the parents’ and their children’s lives. The house revives the form of a traditional streetfront house, in this case entirely in face concrete, both inside and outside. Thus, it opens up via the relationship between its constituent spaces.

How does faith take physical form? That was a question that helped guide DIALOG’s team through the design of St. Joseph Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta. St. Joseph Seminary and Newman Theological College has been educating Catholic priests in the Canadian prairies since 1927.

Rather than a typical pavilion extension where old and new are clearly delineated. The extension is extruded using the existing profile through the site with a portion of mass subtracted to house a new swimming pool and central garden. As the angle of the site narrows towards the rear the arrangement of masses edits views towards trees in adjacent sites or focuses the attention to the internal courtyard; blocking out the neighbouring houses.

Since its discovery in 8700 B.C., copper has been one of the most used metals in the history of humankind. It has a variety of uses from coins and weapons to statues and even architecture. One of its first architectural uses was in Ancient Egypt for the massive doors of the temple to Amen-Re at Karnak in 300 B.C.

The versatility of the material continues in architecture to this day, allowing for a variety of unique designs and uses. The innovative, efficient, and lightweight material is versatile in its use, ranging from facades to roofs, interior applications, and high tech solutions. Sustainable in its natural form, the material is 100% recycled. As the state of architecture becomes more focused on sustainability, copper becomes the ideal material for the buildings of today.

Below, we’ve selected 7 projects that use architecture’s original bling.

Reflects is a winner of an architect-led design build competition for a temporary “treehouse” structure that became a centerpiece of the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s 2015 summer show. The brief called for an innovative treehouse design that reconnected guests of all ages to the outdoors through interactive experiences that reveal the physical, emotional, and developmental benefits of staying engaged with outdoor environments. The chosen site was the Secret Garden, a walled court with no trees surrounded by manicured gardens adjacent to the existing Botanical Garden building. The design emerges from the challenge of imagining treehouse architecture on a tree-less site.