Project: Wear House
Architects: Akitoshi Ukai/AUAU
Location: Seto, Japan
Interior Design: Akitoshi Ukai/AUAU
Landscape Design: Akitoshi Ukai/AUAU
Structural engineer: Kenji NAWA/NAWAKENJI-M
Constructional engineer: Mizuno construction company
Supervision: Akitoshi Ukai/AUAU
Project area: 182,63 sqm
Project year: 2010
Photographs: Yoshimura Masaya

Outline of design
It is a small house for two small children and a young couple. The blank and coming in succession were invented by making the best use of the vertical interval in the small hill, making “Enclosure” as the life scene place in the average of a dynamic flow that connected the earth to the sky, and dressing “Wear” the outside. This creates an inside, outside new relation and sense of distance, reinforces the subject soft “Enclosure” structurally by “Wear”, assumes the strengthened plan, and has both the role to ease the thermal environment in the environment.

Landscape
The row of houses that queues up on the opposite side of the earthenware mortar geographical features where Seto river was placed it is possible to command the town in the strait from the site where commanding to which it goes up on a steep slope in Seto city is good to the south and it can command a view of mountains in the interior in addition, and the main three axis lines of direction of the direction of Nagoya, the direction of the strait, and Nagakute can be recognized. A dynamic landscape that became like a huge gingival trough and the prefecture having woods where it is edging removed have a peculiar ecosystem for the potter’s clay mining for pottery that is called behind Grand Canyon in the strait. The road from the closest station is winding, geographical features where ups and downs are intense is characterized, and the retaining wall of a big weight type to adjust it with the vertical interval characterizes the landscape of this ground. It was thought that it wanted to make a plane a plan so that the element of these landscapes memorized in the body was reflected in the space of construction, and it tied them more directly.

Individuality that makes the best use of piece
I walked with client and town, searched for land, surrounding town was collected, the planning was decided by the process of thinking about the family’s life together, and the cooperation of labor work with the client was proceeded. It thought about the cooperation arranging the private room on the first floor, and the living space that held the view concurrently was distributed to the second floor. It composed piling up the box of each life, and considering each glance while thinking about the opening. And, the design was advanced in the process of wrapping it in the person summary with “Wore”. The ideal way to which the piece or more helped by esteeming the individuality of each life, and bringing it together by another individuality was requested. The second floor becomes openhearted at a dash, and actually feels the existence of “Wear” while the first floor is a set of the box when entering an internal space. The scenery seen from the window can be intentionally experienced as turned over.

Pile it up
The box of life fused and the fundamental form of living “Enclosure” composed by the wall, the window, the floor, and the roof was passed, and the part and the blank where the film came in succession by wrapping “Wear” from the outside were able to be done, and a little middle area was caused. This is thought to be separate the film that applies the agreement with town as the container of life. It compared it by the material feeling by using general painting in “Enclosure” and using elasticity FRP for “Wore” though it was a similar color as for two films.

This buildings are two wooden stories. It aimed at individuality as the whole and the acquisition of strength by treating wooden by bundling, that is, “Enclosure” and “Wear” two this time, and treating the relation between them. The spreading wooden frame that consists of basic vertical and the horizontal brace is adopted, and “Enclosure” part has been passed by a minimum structure. On the other hand, “Wear” part becomes because it composes of the diagonal material the streak or exist, and strengthens “Enclosure” that becomes a life scene. It did not govern in the same respect to dare to clarify that each part joint part was different, and it was assumed the held settlement from the outside partially.

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Project: Navarro Correas Winery
Architects: aft Arquitectos
Atelman – Fourcade – Tapia Arquitectos
Location: Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina
Construction Supervision: Arq. Alfredo Tapia, Arq. Antonio Funes
Construction Supervision Team: Ing. Roberto Gerotto, Arq. Sonia Enriz
Project Team: Arq. Julieta Mansilla, Arq. Federico Ferrer, Arq. Vanesa Döning, Arq. Patricio Pon, Arq. German Nieva, Arq. Jorge Casas, Arq. Enzo Binetti, Arq. Barbara Salusso, Arq. Carolina Andretich, Arq. Constanza Pelaez, Arq. Juan Duarte, Arq. Josefina Poroli, Arq. Luciana Borgatello, Arq. Gustavo Sanchez, Arq. Mariano Recalde, Arq. Paola Richardson
Client’s Project Manager: Arq. Eduardo Enriz
Contractor: SANTIAGO MONTEVERDI – Construcciones civiles
Site Area: 308.67 sqm
Phase I Area: 10,596 sqm
Phase II Area: 4,500 sqm
Project Year: 2006-2009
Photographs: Claudio Manzoni

The wine industry generates admiration. On the one hand the process is conceptually simple with centuries of tradition, but today it reaches amazing levels of sophistication by paying attention to even the smallest details. On the other hand it is an activity that intermingles the passion required by the craft traditions, with the excellence and professionalism that industrial activities demand.

Today’s viticulture world encloses this duality: the rigour of the industrial production combined with the conglomeration of little details that build up the identity of a winery and the wines it produces.

Our proposal for the New Navarro Correas Winery is in a way the result of this duality; it is both an efficient infrastructure of industrial production and a project that embodies the values promoted by the company, the character of its most exclusive wines and the respect for its outstanding geographic environment.

The new building, set in the centre of a 50-hectare vineyard is destined to host the production of the red Premium wines in a building with an area of just over 15,000 m² and an annual production capacity of 4 million litres.

The configuration of the project arises from the materialisation of the three main sectors that identify the process of a winery: the grape harvest and fermentation area, the sector for storage in barrels and the area for aging in bottles, all three organised in a triangular plant that optimises the functional relations among each other, and also defines a singular and distinctive form.

The relative location of each of the sectors of the programme, the design in general and the respective details, result from the need to provide an optimal answer to the specific qualities required in each area, rather than from arbitrary aesthetic decisions. This decision, far from being a flaw, is a quality that adds legitimacy to each of the project’s decisions.

In this way, for instance, the aisle with barrels characterized by a large thermal mass, is located on the western side of the building to function as a protection barrier from the strong afternoon sun and the undesirable “sonda” wind (hot and dry wind characteristic of the area and coming from the Pacific Ocean). The grape harvest area, which needs to remain fresh in the summer (the actual harvest time), has a south-east orientation in order to minimise the effect of the sun and its temperature gain. The visitor area is located in the north-west sector to avoid interfering with the industrial activities concentrated in the southern area, and to take full advantage of the magnificent views of the Mendoza mountain range. At another decision scale, for example, the roof strategically opens up towards the south through skylights cleverly located to permit the inflow of natural light, simultaneously providing the essential ventilation required to eliminate the potentially lethal carbon dioxide produced during the fermentation process.

Materials / Concrete and Corten Steel
The most representative decision of this strategy might be the choice of a reduced palette of materials but with a highly symbolic content; a prefabricated exposed-concrete plinth that adapts perfectly to the industrial character of the project, and a complex roof unified in only one material, Corten Steel.

Corten Steel is a special alloy characterised by a high content of copper, chrome and nickel, due to which the layer of corrosion formed over the metals when exposed to atmospheric agents (rain, relative humidity) is particularly dense, highly adhesive, stable and self-regenerating.

This property translates into a multiplicity of qualities that defined it as the ideal material for our project. Its characteristic colour and textures relate amazingly with the natural Mendoza context. Besides, its appearance is the result of a natural process of continuous change, which makes it a living material that also relates directly with the properties of wine, which is also a product in constant evolution. Thirdly, because it does not require a special protection against corrosion as most other metals do, the need for maintenance is drastically reduced, and the highly contaminating processes of galvanization and application of protective paints are eliminated.

It is thanks to this combination of conceptual and material characteristics that the project achieves a recognisable and unique identity, which defines it as a new landmark in the region, and allows it to become the new image of the renowned brand Navarro Correas.

Visitor Area
The area intended for Reception of Visitors completes the dual character of the project, and is organised as a sequence of different spaces, with well-defined singular characteristics that try to predispose the visitor to enjoy a personal experience with a combination of stimuli.

The flowing water will be a recurrent resource along this sequence of spaces, underlying metaphorically the value that this resource has in the desert Mendoza context. Sometimes the water will be channelled along irrigation ditches, and others it will be present in small fountains, show movement in changes of level and small falls, humidify the air under certain conditions, and contribute with its characteristic and soothing sound, but always by means of actions that do not require disproportionate resources.

The uses of these spaces will be varied and dynamic. Some will be more solemn and symbolic, whereas others will be identified by a more practical and relaxed image. In some of the spaces it will be possible to observe the operation of the winery without interfering with it, enjoy the wonderful characteristics of the natural environment, attend a concert, contemplate an art exhibition, read a book, eat a barbecue, meet with friends and, of course, enjoy excellent wine from this prestigious winery.

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Gerald Liebminger

Project: MP09 Headquarters
Architect: GS Architects
Location: Graz, Austria
Photography: Gerald Liebminger

Gerald Liebminger

Nicknamed the ‘Black Panther’ by designers GSarchitects, the brief was to construct a landmark building which reflected the products the company designs, as well as its culture and philosophy.

Gerald Liebminger

To achieve the sculpture-like aesthetic with dynamic sharp edges and imposing angles, the practice opted for a ventilated rainscreen cladding system from Sto. This mechanical system allowed for the highly ambitious design, as well as a pure, black finish. From the start, GSarchitects wanted a protective glass system to characterise the nature and purpose of their client. The StoVerotec Glass system provided all the functional and aesthetic design elements they required.

Gerald Liebminger

The interior of the building is equally striking with sculptural elements throughout. The client demanded a tranquil, beautiful space to inspire creativity. The materials specified to achieve the highly contemporary look posed a significant acoustical issue. StoSilent Panel Alu was chosen to adequately deal with the reverberation of the reflective materials. The selling factor to both client and system designer was the ability of the acoustic system to add to, rather than subtract from the other interior elements.

Gerald Liebminger

Via: Contemporist

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© Belzberg Architects

Project: Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH)
Architect: Belzberg Architects
Principal: Hagy Belzberg
Project Manager: Aaron Leppanen
Project Team: Andrew Atwood, Barry Gartin, Brock DeSmit, Carina Bien-Wilner , Christopher Arntzen, Cory Taylor, Daniel Rentsch, David Cheung, Eric Stimmel, Erik Sollom, Justin Brechtel, Philip Lee, Lauren Zuzack
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Year: 2010
Status: Completed
Project Type: Cultural
Construction Type: New
Size: 27,000 ft2
Structural Consultant: William Koh & Associates
Mechanical Consultant: John Dorius & Associates
Electrical Consultant: A&F Consulting Engineers
Plumbing Consultant: Tom Nasrollahi & Associates
Soils Engineer: Irvine Geotechnical
Methane Engineer: Carlin Environmental
Environmental Engineer: Enviropro, Inc.
General Contractor: Winters-Schram
Special Fabrication: Spectrum Oak Products, Swiss Woodworking
Photography: Belzberg Architects, Benny Chan – Fotoworks, Iwan Baan

© Benny Chan-Fotoworks

Contextual Strategy:
The new building for the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH) is located within a public park, adjacent to the existing Los Angeles Holocaust Memorial. Paramouont to the design strategy is the integration of the building into the surrounding open, park landscape. The museum is submerged into the ground allowing the park´s landscape to continue over the roof of the structure. Existing park pathways are used as connective elements to integrate the pedestrian flow of the park with the new circulation for museum visitors.

© Belzberg Architects

The pathways are morphed onto the building and appropriated as surface patterning. The patterning continues above the museum´s galleries, further connecting the park´s landscape and pedestrian paths. By maintaining the material pallet of the park and extendind it onto the museum while maintaining the parks topography and landscape. The museum emerges from the landscape as a single, curving concrete wall that splits and carves into the ground to form the entry. Designed and constructed with sustainable systems and materials, the LAMOTH building is on track to receive a LEED Gold Certification from the US Green Building Council.

© Benny Chan-Fotoworks

Circulatory Strategy:
Patrons begin their procession at the drop off adjacent to the park. Their approach is pervaded by sounds and sights of laughter and sport of kids playing in the park and picnicking with their families. Because the building is partially submerged beneath the grassy, park landscape, entry to the building entails a gradual deterioration of this visual and auditory connection to the park while descending a long ramp. Upon entering, visitors experience the culmination of their transition from a playful and unrestrained, public park atmosphere to a series of isolated spaces saturated with photographic arhival imagery. As part of the design strategy, this dichotomus relationship between building content and landscape context is emphasized to bolster the experience inside the museum and allegorically correlate the proximity with which German forest revelers enjoying public parks were to sites of horrific and inhuman e acts being carried out in 1930′s and 40′s. Visitors exit the museum by ascending up to the level of the existing monument, regaining the visual and auditory connection with the park environs.

© Iwan Baan

The firs room is titled, “The World That Was”, and incorporates a large, single interactive table, mimicking a conceptual “community” or dinner table. The exhibit brings a large group of patrons together around one interacvie exhibit. The lighting of the interior galleries dim as the visitor steps down into the subsequent rooms where two separate exhibits depicting “Kristallnacht” and “Boo Burning” display divide the singular crowd dimishing the “community” provided by people nearby. Through the third room and into the fourth, the floos continues to step down as ambient lighting becomes scarcer leading individuals to the room titled “Concentration Camps.” The ceiling is low, and the room is almost entirely illuminated by individual video-monitors about the size of a notebook which limits viewing to a single spectator. The visitor is now confined to the most isolated, darkest and volumetrically concentrated undergound area in the museum. the journey from this point forward is one of ascension and of finding the comfort of familiar spaces as floor levels begin to rise and natural lights begins to penetrate the interior once again. The final ascent up to the existing monument is filled with sights and sounds of unrestricted park land.

© Iwan Baan

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© Iwan Baan

Project: Giant Interactive Group Corporate Headquarters
Architects: Morphosis Architects
Location: Shanghai, China
Client: Giant Interactive Group
Project area: 253,300 sqm
Project year: 2006 – 2010
Photographs: © Iwan Baan

© Iwan Baan

The Giant Campus project is a compact village that accommodates diverse functions in a flexible framework of forms that move in and out of a folded landscape plane. Situated amid existing canals and a new man made lake, the undulating office building interacts with an augmented ground plane, joining architecture to landscape and environment to site. The East Campus office building contains three zones: open, non-hierarchical office space; private offices, and executive suites, which cantilever dramatically over the lake.

© Iwan Baan

Additional program is integrated into the lifted landscape, including a library, an auditorium, an exhibition space, and a café on the east campus. On the West Campus, additional program space-submerged below an expansive, undulating green roof- includes a pool, a multi-purpose sports court, and additional relaxation and fitness spaces for employees. The landform culminates to the west at a company guest hotel where glass-floored private bedroom suites project over a wildlife pond.

Several plazas, carved from the landscape, provide outdoor break and recreational spaces for employees. At the south edge of the campus, a pedestrian plaza steps down to the water’s edge in a continuous outdoor walkway that provides pedestrian access to the lake. The main circulation spine, an enclosed walkway located outboard of the office building, bridges over the street connecting the east and west campuses.

© Iwan Baan

A range of features on the project maximize both energy efficiency and occupant comfort. The West Campus’s landscaped green roof provides thermal mass that limits the heat gain and reduces cooling expenditures. The façade’s double skin and insulated glass curtain wall minimize solar heat gain and improve overall efficiency. The central circulation spine, along with the recreational amenities and plazas provide opportunities for chance encounters and places for employees to gather without the confines of cubicles or unnecessary divisions. The narrow profile of the office building combined with a system of skylights ensure that employees have continuous access to natural daylight.

© Iwan Baan

Via: Arch Daily

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Architect: HyoMan Kim – IROJE KHM Architects
Location: GuMiDong, BunDang, SungNam, Korea
Project Manager: SuMi Jeong
Site area: 608 sqm
Bldg. area: 273 sqm
Gross floor area: 330 sqm
Photographer: JongOh Kim

Because of contact with the nature and city, this site is the place where enjoy the sweet smell of the nature and pleasant sound of the nature and the convenience of the city. This house is formed of two masses, one is the main house and the other is the guesthouse which is to be the representative image of this house.

The cozy outdoor space between the two masses and dynamic space of main garden interact through the open framed wall which function as picturesque frame and landscape formative element.

Several open framed walls made of zinc-plate and wood panel make the dramatic inner space of this house with the character of that walls, semi-closed or semi-opened. As using the same materials inside and outside of the house, we got the spreading space with vague border between in and outside of this house.

Mountains by the rear-side and the context of surrounding condition of the site made the form of this house to the various composition of inclined metal roofs which are spread dynamic and horizontally.

The name of this house, NOKsSUNGHUN, means “The house to think the future of life with hearing the sound of nature”.

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Project: The Actelion Business Center
Architect: Herzog & de Meuron
Location: Allschwil, Switzerland
Client: Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd
Construction time: August 2007 – December 2010
Program: Office building for 350 workplaces
         2 basement floors
         6 upper floors
         Auditorium (seating for 120 persons)
         Restaurant (seating for 230 persons)
         Cafeteria150 parking spaces
Plot area: 7,610 m2
Building footprint: 3,190 m2
Building dimensions: Length: 80 m Width: 80 m Height: 21 m
Building volume: 104,500 m3 (65,900 m3 above ground, 37,600 m3 below ground)
Gross floor area: 27,470 m2
Gross floor area above ground: 15,020 m2
Photos and text: Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd

The Actelion Business Center is the heart of the Actelion Center in Allschwil, Switzerland. It offers 350 offices for employees from central functions. The building, a creation of the Basel architects’ office of Herzog & de Meuron, stands for innovation and openness and thus stands for the core values of Actelion. The futuristic architectural concept symbolizes the company’s future-oriented business activity. The building combines functionality and creativity. It offers employees an inspiring working environment that fosters communication.

Communication as an underlying theme
The architectural concept is guided by the underlying theme of communication. The open, angular steel construction consists of supports stacked on top of each other. Every floor is laid out differently. This fundamental principle is based on a strict regularity: in the four corner points, where the “office beams” meet, are the core zones through which access is provided to the whole building. Here, elevators and stairs link the various floors with each other. This gives rise to natural communication zones where employees’ paths cross. In these zones there are kitchens, meeting rooms and training rooms. Seating islands invite people to sit down and exchange ideas.

The glass facades allow communication through eye contact and underline the transparency, both inwards and outwards, as well as upwards and downwards. To ensure that this openness is consistent throughout, all installations were laid in the floors and ceilings, and it was decided to avoid any ducts and piping in walls.

The stacking principle provides for free roof areas, which are planted with grass or conceived as roof terraces on the third and fifth floors. This ensures that the eye is treated to a varied landscape of architecture and nature. The theme of ‘communication and openness’ is continued in the general, cross-shaped foyer. The central point in the hall is the reception area. In the four open side wings is the auditorium with seating for 120 people, the staff restaurant with seating for 230 that opens onto the inner courtyard, the cafeteria, meeting rooms and training rooms and an open, variable area for events.

Functionality meets creativity
The structure of the building and the office units arranged as modules in the various beams show a high degree of functionality. This functionality is underlined by the use of simple materials. The room modules take the form of single office units, offices for two people or manageable open-plan offices that meet the different needs of the various work areas and allow a flexible use of the space. Besides the open-plan office areas, privacy rooms offer places of retreat, where people can work or talk without being disturbed. The load-bearing structure is subdivided by the office arrangement into different sections, so that every office has a very different facade section. In this way, each office has its own individual character despite the linear arrangement of the rooms.

Steel construction as an architectural and structural challenge
The load-bearing structure of the building consists of steel frames measuring a total of 3.8 kilometers in length. Altogether about 2,500 tons of steel were processed. The steel bars that make up the framework are straight, K-shaped or X-shaped, depending on the static requirements. For fire safety reasons, the steel construction is plastered and painted white. In this way, the characteristic steel elements underline the light visual identity of the building. The construction of the complex load-bearing structure was fraught with numerous challenges, because there were no previous examples to work on. In the course of construction, problems kept arising for which completely new solutions had to be found.

The art of botany
The greening concept of botanical artist Tita Giese takes up the transparency of the building. There is a mix of various kinds of ivy and horsetail in the shaded outdoor zones around the entrance area. Inside the building are three carpets of ferns, ivy, low-growing palms and Anthurias that spread outdoors, thus blurring the boundary between inside and outside.

In sunny areas the roofs are planted with prairie grass, which changes in the course of the seasons from light green to dark red, retaining this color in the winter. The other roof areas were provided with a plant substrate that grows independently according to climatic conditions. Depending on the sun and rainfall, a low-growing carpet of stonecrops alternate with unplanted gravel areas.

Energy concept
The energy concept of the building is based on the combined use of electricity, natural gas and renewable energy in the form of solar power. The aim is to meet the demand for heating and cooling in a way that conserves resources and is largely carbon neutral.

The essential components of the climate concept are:

• Triple glazing of office windows that offer a high degree of insulation. In the gap between the two outer panes are louvers for sun protection that automatically adjust to the position of the sun, but can also be controlled manually by the office staff.
• The glass facades are also designed in such a way that the exposed surfaces on the upper floors are inclined downwards and the shady surfaces on the lower floors are inclined upwards, in order to reduce the heat input from the sunlight.
• Photovoltaic cells as supporting technology for energy production.
• Thermal activation of the solid ceilings.
• Individually controllable heat distribution equipment in each individual office.

Via: ArchitectureLab

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Architects: BOB361 Architects
Location: Niklaas, Belgium
Project Architect: Jan Opdekamp
Collaborators: Eveline Vyncke, Maarten Deconinck, Gunther Slagmeulder, Nathan Ooms, Bram Aerts, Maureen Heyns
Project Area: 3,838 sqm
Budget: $5,500,000 Euro
Project year: 2005
Photographs: André Nullens, Jan Kempenaers & Frederik Vercruysse

Concerning the implantation of the building, the volume is entirely concentrated on the street side. This offers several advantages in the field of compactness, economy and energy assessment, acoustic comfort for the offices on the garden side, large distances to the neighboring houses and avoids fragmentation of the open green space. For the acoustic comfort on the street side, patios were added. As a result, a simple image of the emplacement between the built and green space appears.

Because of the excavating cost the lightly polluted soil, the actual volume to be removed is minimized by mooring the parking into a slope. The remaining volume of soil extracted is used to form a landscaped garden and is naturally purified by the use of fotoremediating plants. The open and slightly sloped car park, offers thus, a pleasant solution that is naturally lit and ventilated, with clear views on the garden and other open spaces. Furthermore, the principal interior distribution passage way of the building, runs from the ground level to the first floor along a slope that is parallel to the parking space; This walkway links the public spaces on the ground floor in a natural and spatial manner with semi-public spaces on the higher levels.

Circulation, access
As described above, the angle on Noordlaan and Driekoningenstraat is a natural anchor point for the site. It is thus obvious to locate the main entry and reception desk at this point. This desk is laterally backdropped, so that the street appears to be literally drawn into the building, where a bike stall for visitors is also installed.

This corner is on the other hand not appropriate for the access of cars and bicycles of the staff. This access is situated to the long end of the building. The staff parking space is situated under the building, with the bicycle stall next to the vertical circulation; the visitor’s car park is located at the beginning of the slope, and identified by grass tiles. The visitors can enter the facility, from their parking spot, either from the street or from the garden side directly to the lobby. The staff members can reach the lobby or their offices by the means of the internal staircase or directly from the garden.

Open house, privacy, transparency, recognition, charisma, communication
The project’s developed configuration has been based on the communicative and open character of the building. The fluidity between inside- outside is highlighted in the reception desk zone of the main lobby by the gradation: “outside – covered outside space – inside” and generates openness between the street, the lobby and the garden. Locating the common functions on the upper floor, above the reception, reinforces this notion of openness. By the specific organization of the services, the transverse openings in the circulation area, and by the slope solution of the main distribution, various panoramic views are created. Along with the area where the garden is in contact with the street, all these elements form the base for the open character and the “embracing image” of the design that can be symbolized by the built branch and the green branch embracing each other.

Structural organization
On the second floor, functions that receive a lesser public audience are concentrated. These functions include offices for the Executive Board, staff services. A general meeting room forms the head of the building. The space next to the vertical staircase, can be used as individual conversation areas, by all staff members.

On the first floor, a number of common functions are settled. Directly above the reception hall, the cafeteria that includes a small kitchen, a smoking lounge, and a meeting room. The financial and facility services offices are situated, centrally in the building.

The parallel walls of the corridors are smooth, the flooring consists of concrete tiles and the respective portals of the varied coloured offices are drawn back from the wall line. Because of this the public functions are as if located with their front door to the circulation area: thus the small scale and a sense of intimacy are reinforced.

The lobby hall on the ground floor, regroups the three basic functions, firstly, the employer line, secondly the central administrative cell, which is linked with the counter and thirdly the employee line. From the reception one has a direct view on the garden as well as on the entrance hall. The offices in the left wing of the building are organized around a central patio.

The jobseeker line is organized on the ground and first floor around the central pedestrian sloped walkway, which offers a spatial and physical connection between all the functions of the building. The staff services and administrative support facilities have been situated along the slope.

Firstly the building has been modulated on a 1,25 m, grid, secondly, the circulation area was positioned asymmetrically. Due to this, a large range of possible properties and surface of spaces arises.

The lower level includes storage rooms for archives, some technical spaces, a fitness area next to a covered pedestrian ramp, and to the half open car park for 43 vehicles that is linked to 12 parking places in open air.

Via: Arch Daily

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Project: Pixel 57
Architect: Darkitectura
           Julio Juárez Herrera
Collaborators: Rossy Chaidez, Alejandro Solano, Joel Zacate
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Plot area: 240 m2
Built area: 480 m2
Houses: 2
Date: 2009
Photography: Yoshihiro Koitani

Located south of Mexico City, with a lakeside subsurface inheritance of the legendary Aztec lake, it develops this 480m2 duplex in a slim residual plot.

Given the extensive program that customers requested, the 2 houses are resolved intertwined and interspersed within the maximum permissible restrictions, generating a large cube that blends with its dense urban environment “kitsch-ecléctico-chilango” developed in the 70′s and 80′s.

The cube floats to accommodate the access, parking and green areas, it’s separated from their adjacencies to become transparent, giving way to natural light and vertical circulation; also it’s subtracted to create a courtyard and as the exterior faces they parametrically pixel to locate the windows, balconies and skylights. The materials used on the facades cause a scene of brightness and opacity, reflections and shadows that combined with the irregularity of some canopies enhance the effect of asymmetry.

Hanging from the top of the rear facade, a staircase reminiscent of a New York alley leads to the roof terrace that houses a pair of fake containers superimposed for services, this in the midst of a huge terrace where grows a micro-forest of “liquidambares”, typical tree species of the area. This terrace reinforces the idea of roofs used as a method for reforestation of the city and gradually improves the quality of life for users to have these spaces, denied in 90% of the outbuildings that are volumetrically similar.

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Architects: Elenberg Fraser Architecture
Project: St. Falls
Location: Falls Creek, Victoria, Australia
Client: Zacamoco
Project team: Callum Fraser, Valerie Tan, Hazel Porter, Frank Olbrich, Lorenzo Nuti, Kathrin Wheib, Marcus Ieraci, Caroline King, Iva Foschia, Andrew Prodromou, Beth Solomon, Karl Engstrom
Project Management: PDS Group
Structural consultant: Bonacci Group Pty Ltd & VSL Australia Pty Ltd
Builder: LU Simon
Quantity Surveyor: Slattery Australia
Building Surveyor: Gardner Group
Budget: AU $24 millions
Project year: 2007
Construction year: 2009
Photographs: Peter Bennetts, Tony Miller & Peter Clarke

Situated in Falls Creek, the development is an essential and exciting new Gateway concept for the Village. Com- prising two elegantly formed buildings emerging from the landscape, the view on arrival is complimented by the clearly framed aspect up to the ski fields beyond.

At ground level there will be a new retail strip fronting Bogong High Plains Road enlivening the street frontage and creating weather protected spill out zones for visitors to the Village. Entries to the upper level apartments are integrated into this dynamic facade language with prominent entry canopies announcing the unique interiors of the St Falls lobbies.

The winding ramp system moves the visitor up through the two buildings and the broad central public staircase brings visitors up between the two buildings. Both paths of movement pass several retail and amenity spaces nestled into the rock faced walls, arriving at the elevated level of the revitalised Slalom Plaza and the expansive north facing terraced cafe´ & restaurant areas.

At Slalom Plaza level there are large commercial tenancies opening directly onto the large public meeting place. From the Plaza looking out over an endless view to the Valley and Mount Spion Kopje below, the buildings offer a multitude of spaces and programmes from which to relax and enjoy the surroundings. Plaza level entries to the upper level apartments are again integrated into this dynamic building language.

Within the two buildings the apartments are unique in their concept, reflecting the exclusive nature of the overall St Falls concept. Expansive views through generous windows orchestrate the light filled interior spaces. Dining zones move into living spaces that flow to external balconies. The balconies all hold a hot tub and extend beyond the beautifully articulated timber building skin to present maximum availability to the views beyond.

The apartment materials exude a luxury reflective of the design quality and inspired approach to the idea of hotel apartment living. First class appliances and fixtures and fittings are used throughout. Furniture is included as part of a considered overall designed aesthetic.

The development is respectful of the natural environment within which it is situated and recognises the work that Falls Creek Resort Management Board has put into maintaining these values. The development will utilise passive techniques such as solar orientation and thermal massing, as well as more pro active measures where viable.

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