Haus am Horn by Georg Muche

In 1919, at a time in which Germany was still in upheaval over its defeat in the First World War (and compounded by the loss of its monarchy), the Academy of Fine Arts and School of Applied Arts in Weimar, Germany, were combined to form the first Bauhaus. Its stated goal was to erase the separation that had developed between artists and craftsmen, combining the talents of both occupations in order to achieve a unified architectonic feeling which they believed had been lost in the divide. Students of the Bauhaus were to abandon the framework of design standards that had been developed by traditional European schools and experiment with natural materials, abstract forms, and their own intuitions. Although the school’s output was initially Expressionist in nature, by 1922 it had evolved into something more in line with the rising International Style.

An exhibition of work produced by the Bauhaus in 1923 perfectly embodied this changing perspective of design. True to the institution’s roots, the exhibition was not merely a gallery of objects or images, but an entire house filled with works by Bauhaus students. The Haus am Horn, as it was named, was designed by Georg Muche and Adolf Meyer as a prototype for affordable housing which could be quickly and inexpensively mass-produced. The use of experimental building techniques and materials not only helped to achieve this goal, but dovetailed perfectly with the increasing focus on functionalism in the Bauhaus curriculum.

Muche, who was a painter and teacher at the Bauhaus, had already been in the process of designing a house for himself and his wife when the school announced a competition for a model residence. His winning entry was bold in its simplicity: a square plan, with a ring of rooms surrounding a central living room. Each space was designed with an explicit program in mind, and intentionally specialized so that it could not be used for any other purpose.[3] Aside from the living room, the house comprised a room for the man, a room for the lady, a room for children, a guest room, dining room, kitchen, and a work niche.

Haus am Horn, Am Horn 61, 99425 Weimar, Germany, by Georg Muche
via: archdaily
Photography by Cameron Blaylock

Casa Maria & José by Sergio Sampaio Arquitetura

The owners – an elderly couple with four children – require that the house should be single-story due to the reduced mobility of some family members, demanding attention to accessibility standards – ramp, lift, accessibility bars in bathrooms, etc. The main program of social housing, leisure, and intimate areas – were distributed in a single pavilion that subtly lands under the ground, without effectively touching the ground. Such subtlety is due to the structuring of pillars and metal beams.
 
The service and garage areas are located under the main pavilion, occupying the void coming from the natural slope of the land. At the same time that the facade of such a volume presents itself as a closed box for its surroundings, internally there is a large patio that allows the visual integration between the environments of the house, besides ensuring the entrance of permanent natural lighting. The large pool made of prestressed concrete connects to the main volume of the house with the purpose of integrating leisure activities with the social life of the house, facilitating the circulation and access of the residents of the house.

Casa Maria & José, by Sergio Sampaio Arquitetura
Photography by Leonardo Finotti

Photography: Vending Machines by Benedikt Partenheimer

Japanese architecture is marked by vending machines. You can find them on almost every street corner and they have become an integral part of Japanese culture. Especially at night they become a visible reference of energy consumption and likewise emanate an absurd surreal and sad beauty.

Japan has the highest amount of vending machines in the world, about 5.6 million. That’s about 1 for every 23 people. Vending Machines sold more than $42 billion worth of goods in 2015. The Fukushima nuclear crises has changed the debate over energy policy, raised public awareness about energy use and sparked strong antinuclear sentiment.

Japanese vending machines consume about as much energy as one nuclear power plant produces. The Series calls attention to energy consumption and consumerism – do we need all the machines we create and do we want to live in a world that is becoming more and more “convenient”?

Vending Machines, by Benedikt Partenheimer

Jackie by Studio Joanna Laajisto

Jackie, Iso Roobertinkatu 21, Helsinki, Finland, by Studio Joanna Laajisto

Waterside Buddist Shrine by ARCHSTUDIO

This is a place for Buddhist mediation, thinking and contemplation, as well as a place satisfying the needs of daily life. The building is located in the forest by the riverside. Along the river, there is a mound, behind which is a great stretch of open field and sporadic vegetable greenhouses. The design started from the connection between the building and nature, adopts the method of earthing to hide the building under the earth mound while presenting the divine temperament of nature with flowing interior space. A place with power of perception where trees, water, Buddha and human coexist is thus created.

To remain trees along the river perfectly intact, the building plan avoids all trunks. Shape of the plan looks like branches extending under the existing forest. Five separated and continuous spaces are created within the building by two axis, among which one is north-south going and another one goes along the river. The five “branches” represent five spaces of different functions: entrance, Buddhist meditation room, tea room, living room and bathroom, which form a strolling-style experience together.

Waterside Buddist Shrine, Tangshan, Hebei, China, by ARCHSTUDIO
Photography by Wang Ning, Jin Weiqi

Elephant Sofa by Christian Haas for Karimoku New Standard

Elephant is a compelling, versatile upholstery range, designed to function both in private and in public places. Its simple and calm, yet soft forms suggest timeless comfort and an unobtrusive cosiness.

The curved armrests invite to relax and allow different sitting postures. Together with its elaborate details, such as the feet crafted from carved solid wood, they make the sofa a unique piece of furniture. The different modules, consisting of a 3-seater, 2-seater, Ottoman and Chaiselongue, complement each other and allow for various combinations and a wide range of applications.

Elephant Sofa, by Christian Haas, for Karimoku New Standard

Harpel House by John Lautner

High up in the Hollywood Hills sits the Lautner Harpel House, an unrivalled example of signature Californian architecture. Since it was built in 1956, the design of architect John Lautner, an apprentice of the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright, the building saw dramatic changes, including a second storey addition and other features deemed ill-fitting to its style.

After acquiring the house in 2006, design restorer and Resurrection Vintage co-founder Mark Haddawy took on the mammoth task of restoring house to its original glory. For the latest episode of In Residence, Haddawy invites director Victoria Hely-Hutchinson into the expansive, impeccably restored hilltop pad where he talks through the poetic nature of the forensic refurbishment.

Harpel House, by John Lautner, Film Directed by Victoria Hely-Hutchinson
via: NOWNESS

Copper in Motion by Larose Guyon

Larose Guyon developed a design for New York-based Rockwell Group’s brand new EMC2 Hotel in Chicago and came up with an interactive sculpture that combines ingenuity, art and science.

An Old Technology Born Anew
In revisiting the zoetrope, a forerunner to cinema invented in 1834 by William George Horner and Simon von Stampfer, Larose Guyon were inspired to create their own new way to animate objects. Forty-four pairs of laser-cut copper wings are arranged inside a large wheel which is cranked by hand. Looking inside while turning the hand crank will give life to the otherwise motionless display.

The usually cold and inert materials suddenly become light and alive. The crank handle, itself a lacework flower, brims with femininity and romanticism. The wings move in three dimensions, leaving the onlooker in awe of such a captivating sight. This work is a mere reminder that inventions of old are still something to marvel at, if you only let your inner child take over for a little while.

Copper in Motion, by Larose Guyon

Lake Cottage by UUfie

Lake Cottage is a reinterpretation of living in a tree house where nature is an integral part of the building. In a forest of birch and spruce trees along the Kawartha Lakes, the cottage is designed as a two storey, multi-uses space for a large family. The structure composed of a 7m high A-frame pitch roof covered in black steel and charred cedar siding. A deep cut in the building volume creates a cantilever overhang for a protected outdoor terrace with mirrors to further give the illusion of the building containing the forest inside.

Lake Cottage, Bolsover, Kawartha Lakes, ON, Canada, by UUfie
Photography by Naho Kubota

E20 Private Residence by Steimle Architekten

Facing the street, the new building presents only a few openings cut deeply into the solid concrete shell. While the crystal-shaped house still relates to the existing built context due to its parallel elongated sides, it contrasts distinctly with the neighboring buildings by virtue of the tapered ends formed by its shorter sides. It is this oblique arrangement of the facades that enables the building to open out to the surrounding outdoor spaces and to offer its inhabitants unexpectedly expansive views in the distance. A conventional gable roof and the gently rising terrain reinforce the angular, sculptural effect of the house, which is designed on a hexagonal ground plan.

Upon entering the house through its entrance cut deep into the concrete mass, you first reach the garden room. From here, a single-flight stair leads up to the residential level. The quite narrow and high entrance area morphs into a space that opens upward but is clearly bounded by the multiple folds of the roof form: as you move through the house, constriction and expansion, enclosure and openness enter into an exciting, constantly shifting dialogue. The window openings set horizontally into the 50 cm thick concrete shell create a framed view of the surrounding, gently undulating landscape. All the rooms of the house correlate with its crystalline form: the trapezoidal layout of the walls yields a diversity of new spatial relationships that have a special character induced by the upward-sloping ceiling surfaces. The individual rooms for the children and the parents lie directly adjacent to the living space and, as opposing parallelograms, divide the open floor plan into zones for the kitchen and the dining area. The result is a sensuous, atmospherically dense place of dwelling.

In its minimalism and robustness, the insulating concrete is a monochrome, massive shell that defines the essence of the house both inside and outside. Outside, thanks to the rough-sawn wooden board formwork, the concrete has the appearance of a solid, lively textured, and protective enclosure. Inside, the folded concrete surfaces are smooth by design and contrast with the warm hues of the solid oak fixtures.

E20 Private Residence, Pliezhausen, Germany, by Steimle Architekten
Photography by Brigida González