Archidiaries is excited to share the ‘Project of the Week’ – Chapel and Meditation room by architecture firm Studio Nicholas Burns. Along with this, the weekly highlight contains a few of the best projects, published throughout the week. These selected projects represent the best content curated and shared by the team at ArchiDiaries.
Three Tree House designed by Gallardo Llopis Arquitectos takes the volumetric axioms of this vernacular Mediterranean architecture as a starting point to initiate its own compositional process with a contemporary architectural language: a set of white prisms on a masonry wall base. Thus, a dialogue is established between architectural abstraction and the tradition of dry-stone construction on which it is based.
Designed by MAYU architects & Mecanoo, Tainan Public Library has an inverted stepped shape as its most striking feature. Slender columns support the cantilevers in rhythmically placed quartets, giving a feeling of weaving your way through a modern bamboo forest. The striking crown of the building is surrounded by vertical aluminum slats with carved flower patterns, which are reminiscent of the decorative latticed windows in the old town.
MAYU architects is an interdisciplinary practice based in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.The scope of MAYU architects’ works spans from large-scale civic projects to small scale ones. The studio recognizes the importance of teamwork in the creation of architecture, while maintaining the individuality and artistry of each project.
In Preamble Junction Boarding House, Andyrahman Architect diminishes boundaries between Outside and Inside taking cues from Candi Borobudur Temple. So this boarding house prioritizes the communal space, to give the users a gathering space, as well as socializing and interacting with each other. This boarding house prioritizes the communal space, to give the users a gathering space, as well as socializing and interacting with each other.
Kastelaz Hof is a residential project designed by Peter Pichler Architecture. The geometry of the villa evolves from local site conditions. It creates a flowing and harmonious transition with the landscape and is barely noticeable from the close village. The ribbon-like structure that emerges from the natural landscape creates an internal courtyard that offers protection from the strong wind coming from Garda Lake.
Peter Pichler Architecture is a young, dynamic and experimental team dedicated to developing an innovative and contemporary approach to Architecture. Understanding tradition is the key to radical evolution. Hence, we incorporate close familiarity with local culture and respect for the natural environment into every single project.
Doubravka is a lookout tower designed by HAMR Hut Architektury Martin Rajnis built using non-traditional building material – thin twigs not usually used for this type of structure, inspired by natural forms from Papua New Guinea and real birds’ nests. The lookout tower stands firmly on three legs. Easily renewable black locust timber predominates. Black locust is the best material in terms of durability, and it will require minimal maintenance. We used four kilometres of twigs, complemented by a spiral staircase made of larch and connecting elements from galvanised steel.
In House of Earth and Stone, Studio Motley’s approach was to create a relatively small house but with large semi covered areas which could house the larger gatherings. The idea here was to use simple, traditional techniques for construction with all its inherent benefits of passive systems to ensure comfortable living. The idea here was to use simple, traditional techniques for construction with all its inherent benefits of passive systems to ensure comfortable living.
Studio Motley looks for a notional centre in each project – a central idea which is derived from a combination of factors like context, climate, culture and of course the client and the program. At its core architecture is about problem solving and while there may exist several solutions to a particular problem, we have to look for one that is consistent with our central idea.
Skalvi International School designed by DS2 Architecture is split into THREE PHASES. PHASE 1 and PHASE 2 stay grounded while PHASE 3 is lifted up to a higher level. A play in volumes and levels is apparent throughout the loop with the introduction of large double height open masses at strategic locations. Below PHASE 3 is the Open Air Theatre and Cafeteria. The threshold of the institute starts with an entry court. This converging point of the public and private evolves from a double height space to an intimate humanscale proportioned ball court.
MoDus Architects adopts a subtle design strategy for the renovation of, and addition to the Cusanus Academy, a center of learning dedicated to the exchange of ideas at the intersection of the religious and secular worlds. For the purpose of better engaging the Academy with the city, the project tackles the heterogeneous ensemble of seminar venues and guest accommodations with a spectrum of interventions – mimetic to overtly new – that form a more organically connected complex that invites the community in.
MoDus Architects distinguishes itself within the international architectural panorama by the bold and heterogeneous body of work that intertwines the founding partners’ two different formative and cultural backgrounds. Since its inception, MoDus Architects addresses multiple topics, scales and programs – from infrastructure to school buildings – and pursues a design process that holds steadfast the relationship between ideas and buildings.
Three Yellow Circles is a restaurant designed by Compartment S4. The design tries to create a visual style for the chain restaurant which can become their identity and can be later re-imagined in different ways in their other branches. Three large yellow circles floating in the midst of infinite matter, collide and stick to one another to form a glowing center. This little whimsical story forms the basis of the design idea of the project.
Les Bains de Saillon designed by RDR architectes aims to design a different hotel complex, modernising the image of hotel services in the Valais plain, and with a modern design, while continuing to ensure integration into the local environment linking the new hotel to the older one. Materiality and expression: For the new hotel, the first sketch featured a wooden structure of the kind found in Austria. But building regulations at the time set a limit to the number of storeys. So a permanent structure was built in a semi-circle on five levels, displaying the 140-metre façade from the entrance.
Combining creativity and professionalism, the skills of RDR architectes cover the fields of architecture, urban planning, and interior design, mastering all phases of the project process, from preliminary studies to construction and site management. Comprising more than 15 nationalities, RDR’s teams perpetuate the multicultural character that contributes to the practice’s identity. This openness to the world underlines the current and future international vocation of RDR architectes.
KAMPUS is a new neighbourhood located at the former Manchester Metropolitan University campus in the heart of the city designed by Mecanoo. The architecture expresses the individual building blocks with variations in height to make each facade legible. The alternating positions of accentuated apertures in the facade work to reduce the scale of the brick mass while the light pixel elements add relief and balance to the facades.
Erva Santa Emporium is a natural products emporium designed by Moca Architecture. The project was conceptualised as 3 parts using different colors for each. First part was the bistrot, in the exterior of the property. Second part was the lounge and the third part was the area for events, located at the back of the property. Family memories and vintage aesthetics are the protagonists of this multifunctional space. Through colors and details, this Brazilian emporium tells its story and perpetuates the harmonious relationship between food and well-being.
Moca Architecture is an architectural studio that believes in collective. They work on projects that result from collaboration and the exchange of ideas. They have no strings attached and seek constant challenges and, therefore, deliver creative answers that have the power to surprise.
2xm is a residence designed by TDA that reflects on compactness which proposal rethinks coexistence based on practicality in the face of the fear of abandonment and, above all, of oblivion. Considering the functional requirements and, above all, the spatial qualification rather than the quantification of m2. Abstraction and structural dignity, rich spatiality, controlled lighting and human scale.
Chapel and Meditation room is a chapel designed by Studio Nicholas Burns intends to create a series of inward-facing contemplative spaces without impacting the historical buildings of the place and the natural context. The building is designed to be quiet and disappear into the site; over time, the vegetation will shroud the built forms, growing around, over and on the building—a ruin.
Studio Nicholas Burns is an architectural studio that designs the space by combining elements to place the structure in the landscape sensitively. The studio also focuses on prioritizing the client’s experience, enhancing the quality of life and a sense of wellbeing. The experience of working in different parts of the world creates a unique perspective, starting with a honed understanding of the local conditions and then drawing references to design typologies from other places and cultures, deepening the scope and richness of design potentialities.
Archidiaries is excited to share the ‘Project of the Week’ – Viettel Academy Educational Centre by VTN Architects. Along with this, the weekly highlight contains a few of the best projects, published throughout the week. These selected projects represent the best content curated and shared by the team at ArchiDiaries.
Return Restaurant II is designed by an architectural firm Return. The design team wanted to create a dining environment that naturally triggers emotional reactions in this underground space. The design team brought in a large area of blue as the highlighted visual element. It’s like an invitation that the sea sends to people, conveying calmness and restraint under the dynamic ocean surface. The overall spatial expression is intended to invite people to “slow down and stop for a rest”.
