Residential Church XL by Zecc Architecten

Dutch practice Zecc Architecten has completed Residential Church XL an abandoned church located in Utrecht, Netherlands which has been repurposed and converted into a single family residence. hundreds of empty churches are scattered throughout the Netherlands and since 1970 more than 1000 churches have been closed by communities with over 1/3 of those structures being demolished. Re-use is the only way to prevent long-lasting vacancy or destruction of the historical layer within the city. The purpose of the re-use of the St-Jakobuskerk was to revalue the dignified monument with little interventions as possible. The facade stands inconspicuously along a street at the Bemuurde Beerd in Utrecht city. Religious services have not occurred at this location for twenty years and was even used as an antique furniture showroom. The church also served as meeting place and venue for small concerts and dictated the implementation of a large mezzanine floor. This floor was an important factor in the designing process and has been substantially modified to recover and enlarge the interior spatial qualities. Partial removal of the floor generated interesting sight lines allowing light to permeate the ground floor. Underneath the manipulated floor reside the bedrooms, study and a bathroom. Ambient daylight enters through vacant spaces in the floor and openings in walls.

At the rear of the dwelling, the functional section of the kitchen is adjacent to a dining table created from old pews. To strengthen the relationship with the backyard and to provide additional daylight, three new fenestrations were added. the sleek transparent facades contrast the original stained glass windows allowing colored light to stream through the preserved exterior. The existing wooden floor and doors were retained and repaired where necessary. the new white floor sculpture is pulled away from the original walls, columns and arches. The sleek stucco volume is constructed from steel, wood and sheet metal. Closed parapets guide sight lines and encompass the living areas. Transparent surfaces within the volume constantly offer another insight of fragments in the interior while simultaneously reflecting historical elements, fusing the old and new.

Residential Church XL, by Zecc Architecten, Photography by Frank Hanswijk,
via: designboom

Under Pohutukawa House by Herbst Architects

The property was 90% covered by Aukerlands native Pohutukawa trees, which created a challenge for Herbst, a New Zealand based architecture firm founded in 2000 by Lance and Nicola Herbst. “In order for the home to exist it would require the destruction of a large number of mature trees. To do this we looked to the trees themselves to give us the cues that we needed,” the two architects explained.

“We separated the brief loosely into private and “public” components, giving us smaller individual masses with which to articulate the forms. The private functions of bedrooms and garage are housed in two towers which are construed as freshly sawn stumps of the trees that were removed. To allude to the bark of the stumps the skins of the towers are clad in black/brown stained rough sawn irregular battens. The interior spaces are then seen as carved out of the freshly cut wood, achieved by detailing all the wall / ceiling and cabinetry elements in the same light timber.”

After working around the tree issue, Herbst put their minds together to design the interiors. Warm woods were used on the walls and furniture with a complementary color scheme of oranges, tans, and browns to keep the interiors cohesive with the exterior architecture. The living room became the featured space of the home, with its large ceilings, fireplace, welcoming furniture, and unique lighting; Herbst created a comfortable and contemporary place for story telling and hosting. Part of the living room opens up to the forest, letting natural light and ventilation to breathe into the space. The living room and other piblic spaces are the main areas that link the private spaces of the home. A walkway links the towers at the upper level allowing engagement with both the natural and man made canopies. The Pohutukawa home is designed to be the perfect get away, secluded, a chance to re-connect with nature.

Under Pohutukawa House, New Zealand, by Herbst Architects, Photography by Patrick Reynolds, via: KNSTRCT

Aluminum Stool #1 by Monstrans

The idea for the aluminum stool came from a fascination with airplane, bridge and ship building parts that plainly display the way the industrial machine body is assembled. Made from five 18 gauge bent and riveted aluminum pieces, the stool is naturally strong and light and weighs less than 2 lbs., which makes it inexpensive to ship to you and easy for you to carry around. Once assembled, the metal parts are power coated, then the seat is cut from 1/4” thick natural wool felt, and adhered to the stool to serve as a soft resilient pad for the body.

Aluminum Stool #1, by Monstrans

Exhibition: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Bivouac

The Centre Pompidou-Metz presents the first major exhibition in France dedicated to the work of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.

A fabulous Bivouac, staged across 1,000 square metres in Galerie 3 of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, this exhibition of works by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec sets out the result of almost fifteen years of mutual collaboration. Their first major solo show in France, Bivouac highlights an exceptional international career, during which the two brothers have worked with some of the greatest names in design, been crowned by numerous awards and the presence of their work in public collections.

Imagined as a temporary encampment – hence its name – Bivouac is deliberately divested of scenographic elements other than the Bouroullecs’ work. Movement is imparted by contrasting scales, transparency and superpositions. Visitors are invited to wander around the gallery, moving between prototypes and finished objects, mass-produced and hand-crafted works. Bivouac highlights the immense diversity of these creations and economies achieved in production. It also addresses key concepts in the Bouroullecs’ research: objects which are nomadic, ephemeral, modular, organic, flexible.

The exhibition is neither an inventory nor a retrospective of their work. Rather, it illustrates the current state of their designs and research, in constant evolution.

Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Bivouac, 7 October - 30 July, at Centre Pompidou-Metz

Residence in Belo Horizonte by Anastasia Architects

Due to the reduced size of the site, residual and crossing spaces were practically left out (for example, there is no entrance hall, in behalf of a visual permeability with the entrance garden, achieved through large pivotal doors in the facade).

The floor plan is rectangular and compact, stretching till the site’s sidelines. The rooms are illuminated by large doors front and back facades and also by matted glass locking (u-glass that acts as a good thermal insulation due to the existence of an air layer between the glass sheets) between the lagged cover labs. A glass cover over a concrete pergola complements the illumination through an indoor garden. Therefore, the house is flooded by zenithal and indirect natural light that besides avoiding artificial lighting during the day, also avoids excessive heat from direct sunlight. The prevailing wind comes from the street, thus the entering doors work as regulators of wind speed. Totally opened in the summer, praise cross ventilation, or closed in the winter, or even semi opened if little ventilation is desired.

The residence was established in the street level, one meter above natural ground, in order to avoid unevenness and improve accessibility of the social areas. And, it also let the house more protected from the soil moisture. It is important to remind that one of the reasons for the implantation of compact field, reducing its footprint, was to increase the permeability of the ground, something really needed in our cities.

Solar collectors (that meet the house and the pool) occupy the most of the cover slab which prevented the use of this area initially contemplated. Due to the large spans desired, supported by few points of foundation, and also to the large porch swing, the upper walls are concrete beams built by ripped forms of wood left apparent. Its aesthetics comes from a structural option, hence follows that it is not decorative. This structural gymnastics was important, as the support pillars on the porch would be contrary to the intention of integration between interior/exterior desired. The result was a lightweighted residence (despite its aesthetics of exposed concrete), lighted and ventiladed, with pleasant and proportional spaces that puts into to practice the initial desire to the best possible use of external area.

Residence in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, by Anastasia Architects, via: Contemporist

Villa Rotonda by Bedaux de Brouwer Architecten

Addressing security and privacy for the inhabitants, the strategic arrangement of the perimeter walls creates an introspective atmosphere. A vernacular appearance and stone gable roof was maintained to reference the zoning requirements of the established residential fabric. A shallow pool surrounds the home while a void between the masonry walls allows fish to swim freely into an open air court and abut the large glass windows bordering the ground level.

Outward views from the interior consist of a palette of gray brick and green leafy vegetation mirrored within the reflective water. The solid walls enable natural light to filter inward providing a soft ambient illumination. The closed front elevation is contrasted along the rear of the structure, surfaced with glass windows to provide views of the expansive private garden. Rooms are configured to overlook the grounds producing a feeling of isolation within the densely developed neighborhood.

Villa Rotonda, Goirle, Netherlands, by Bedaux de Brouwer Architecten
Photography © Michel Kievits, via: designboom

Books: London Unfurled by Matteo Pericoli

London is divided and united by its river; one of few cities in the world to find its essence in two profoundly different, yet nearly touching, urban characters. So the Thames provides the perfect vantage point for telling the most comprehensive story of this complex city.

Arriving with little previous knowledge of London, Matteo Pericoli made an intensive 20-mile journey along the river, from Hammersmith Bridge to the Millennium Dome and back again. Over two years later, he leaves behind the most astonishing document of his journey: two 37-foot-long pen-and-ink drawings depicting the city’s north and south banks. Each drawing presented on one side of this beautiful single-sheet accordion-style book — is rendered with loving and essay-like detail, revealing a distinct profile of London in all of its diversity: a dozen boroughs, nineteen bridges and hundreds of buildings, including the Houses of Parliament, Tate Modern, Battersea Power Station and Millennium Wheel.

London Unfurled: Matteo Pericoli, with essays by Will Self and Iain Sinclair, Published by Picador, iPad Version, Buy it here: Amazon

Cronotime Desk Clock by Pio Manzù

The Cronotime clock was designed by Pio Manzù as a promotional item for Fiat, later produced by Ritz-Italora in 1966. It was re-issued by Alessi from Italy. The shape of Cronotime is toric (part of a circular section ring) totalling a 1/6 of circumference. The shape in turn separated into two equal parts which swivel, allowing you to modulate the direction in which the dial is pointing with respect to the support surface. Part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Cronotime by Pio Manzù

Observation Tower in Jurmala by ARHIS Architects

Latvian practice ARHIS Architects has completed the Observation Tower in Jurmala positioned within the Dzintaru park in Jurmala, Latvia. The 38-meter tall structure is enclosed with an open-air cage allowing screened views of the encompassing nature reserve. Lifted on steel pilotis, visitors enter the construct through a discreet stair and continue climbing towards the pinnacle deck positioned at a height of 33.5 meters, exposed and visible from the ground. Twelve balconies capable of accommodating one or two individuals cantilever outside the rectangular faces, allowing a sweeping vista of the landscape.

The metal framework is clad with narrow wooden strips secured with vertical bands of lumber. The transparency of the elongated quadrilateral form maintains a delicate presence, minimally imposing on its natural surroundings. The floors are comprised of an industrial steel grate to maintain an outdoor experience during ascent.

Observation Tower in Jurmala, Latvia by ARHIS Architects, Photography © arnis kleinbergs, via: designboom

Bisiluro Racing Car by Carlo Mollino

More than half a century after its debut, Chris Bangle, former chief of design at BMW, reviews the Bisiluro, the legendary but ill-fated racing car designed by Carlo Mollino for the 1955 Le Mans 24-hour endurance race.

They say that the earliest design language for the primitive is that of repetition and symmetry. Regarding the design of “things that move”, history gives us quite a catalogue of proposals to improve the breed by echoing a form across some sort of bridging element. With names like “twinpod”, “twin-boom”, “twin-fuselage”, “doublehull”, or “catamaran”, the designer’s fascination with mirroring a good idea has been around ever since the Garden of Eden, when God decided two breasts looked seriously cooler than one.

Car Designers owe the origins of their craft to the hull-lofting techniques of naval architects, and while it is true that for centuries there have been parallel-hull designs for boats (from a Tahitian out-rigger to a divided hull that Da Vinci sketched), the real inspiration for modern twin-fuselage wheeled machines are the aircraft of World War II. (To be fair, the twin-boom Fokker M.9 was of World War I vintage.) Pilot and aircraft aficionado engineer Mollino must have been highly influenced by innovations from the War, and perhaps he knew that German engineers had prototyped a Messerschmitt Bf 109Z-1 “Zwilling” with a single pilot flying a two-fuselage fighter. Certainly, the sexy Lockheed P-38 inspired his generation of Car Designers as did the F-82 “Twin Mustang”, which was built from 1946 to 1953.

Read more at domus: The Asymmetric Racer by Chris Bangle, Bisiluro Racing Car, by Carlo Mollino, for the 1955 Le Mans 24-hour Endurance Race.