Sunday, July 8, 2012

Virtual Philadelphia by GeoSim

Source: GeoSimPHILLY.com
Virtual Philadelphia by GeoSim Systems based in Israel
Virtual Philadelphia is a leading 3D online virtual city mirrored off the Center City of Philadelphia, PA, full of historical landscapes and buildings, hundreds of years of culture and one of the most beloved US cities.
Today, Philadelphia is a vibrant city cultivated with restaurants, boutiques, museums, nightlife, modern residences and developed commerce – definitely a premier place to live in or to visit.
GeoSim compiles gigabytes of aerial photos, street images, laser scans and geodetic measurements of Philadelphia to build an accurate 3D city model, capable of providing a genuine life simulation of the physical streets, buildings and urban landscape with the "look and feel" of a real city. -- official web site

Saturday, July 7, 2012

UpNext: Enhanced 3D Maps

UpNext: Found in 2007, UpNext was started by four high school friends who wanted to make better maps.
Maps redefined. Fully searchable tappable, beautiful maps for the entire United States. Over 50 cities rendered in 3D with 23 enhanced 3D cities with full textures and roadways. Interactive 3D maps for exploring and discovering cities. Our maps are fast, seamless and smooth. UpNext HD Mpas takes mapping to the next level with rich visual detail and personalized options. -- official web site
Amazon buys 3D mapping startup UpNext -- gigaom

Friday, July 6, 2012

Cylindrical 11

Source: botta.ch
Leeum – Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul , South Korea, 2004 designed by Mario Botta Architetto
The building emerges from the ground as a set of two simple linked volumes: a parallelepiped linear building in the upper part and an inverted cone volume (wider on the top) in the lower part, which enters the ground near the low road. -- architect's web site

Source: Paul Andreu Architecte archdaily.com
Taiyuan Archaeological Museum, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China, 2007 designed by Paul Andreu Architecte
....the five oblique volumes of the museum are equipped with vertical kliplock sheets enhanced by glass panels. -- ArchDaily

Source: Norbert van Onna construction.com
Plan, Source: construction.com

Town Hall, Vught, The Netherlands designed by De Twee Snoeken
Located in the center of Vught amid a clutch of historic buildings, the elliptically shaped new town hall stands out both for its striking shape and site. Its inclining structure flows from five to six levels. The ground floor looks transparent, which gives rise to the feeling that the main tower floats above it. A large natural lake, symbolizing "Vught," which means "moisture," surrounds the complex. -- Architectural Record

Source: Tord-Rikard Soderstrom archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Kuggen, Lindholmsplatsen, Göteborg, Sweden, 2011 designed by Wingårdh Arkitektkontor
A cylindrical, distinctive building in the middle of the town square is an urban planning motif with roots in the Italian Renaissance. The form offers lots of floor space in relation to the amount of exposed exterior wall surface, and the upper floors project out over the lower—more on the south side than on the north, so that the building partially shades itself when the sun is high in the sky. A rotating screen shades the top floors, following the sun’s path around the building. -- ArchDaily

Source: Tuomas Uusheimo archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Kamppi Chapel, Simonkatu 7, Helsinki, Finland, 2012 designed by K2S Architects
With its curved wood facade, the small sacral building flows into the city scape. Simultaneously the chapels gently shaped interior space embraces visitors and shields them from the bustling city life outside. The sacral space is a calm space, in which the lively neighborhood seems distant. Light touching down on the curved surface and the feeling of warm materials define the space. The chapel’s inner walls are made of thick oiled alder planks. The furniture is also made of solid wood. The facades are made of sawn-to-order horizontal finger jointed spruce wood planks, which are treated with a pigmented transparent nanotech wax. The constructive frame consists of cnc-cut gluelam elements. -- ArchDaily

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Skin of Architecture: Double-skin 9

Source: Jonathan Wallen archdaily.com
The New 42nd Street Studios, New York City, New York, USA, 2000 designed by Platt Byard Dovell White Architects
In place of the conventional illuminated signage called for by the 42nd Street redevelopment project, the Studio Building’s façade is a collage of metal and glass, with sun-catching dichroic glass at the base, a 175 foot high-tech vertical LightPipe and an array of perforated metal blades presenting an infinitely variable display of colored light projected from ranks of programmable theatrical fixtures. Behind the blades, the transparent glass of the building adds the animation of the lights of the studios and the actual movements of the dancers at work and at the barres. -- ArchDaily

Source: betterbricks.com
Wessex, Water Operations Center, Bath, UK, 2000 designed by Bennett Architects
The building is organized as a series of three south-facing office wings off a central 'street' containing shared and social functions. Each south face has a steel and aluminum brise soleil for sun shading and daylight redirection. The office spaces are naturally centilated via operable windows and use exposed thermal mass to help moderate the interior temperature. During summer months the thermal mass is naturally ventilated during night hours to remove excess heat. -- betterbricks.com

Source: Roger Casas archdaily.com
Radio Nacional de España Headquarters, Barcelona, Spain, 2007 designed by Ravetllat-Ribas
The façade has a unique modular system capable to provide thickness to the envelope and to incorporate elements for solar light control. That module also involves the solution for the interior screens, dividing the different programs. A service footbridge for cleaning and maintenance covers the perimeter of the four sides of the building, acting also as “brise-soleil” on the required parts. We searched to give natural illumination to every space. -- ArchDaily

Source: Robert Benson Photography
The new addition to the Cambridge Public Library, opened in October 2009, was a LEED Silver building designed by William Rawn Associates based in Boston. It received the 2010 Harleston Parker Medal for the "Single Most Beautiful Building" built in the metropolitan Boston area in the past 10 years, from the Boston Society of Architects. Article from Architectural Record in October 2010.
a double-wall assembly, 180 feet long and 42 feet tall, with an outer skin of 1/2-inch tempered low-iron glass and an inner, thermally broken skin of 1-inch IGUs. The two layers define a 3-foot-wide, two-story cavity that serves as a thermal flue: Depending on the season, louvers at the top and bottom of the wall can be opened or closed, to vent or to warm the air within. -- Architectural Record July 2010.
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Source: Frederick Charles archdaily.com
Learning Spring School, New York City, New York, USA, 2010 designed by Platt Byard Dovell White Architects
To protect the façades of the building from the unobstructed southeast exposure to the sun, and to provide a valuable visual buffer from the busy intersection, the building is draped with an aluminum and stainless steel sunscreen supported by an external steel armature. Behind is an aluminum, glass and zinc curtain wall. Flanking the adjacent buildings to the north and west and extending along the base of the building is a terracotta rainscreen. Between the two systems is a vertical band of tubular channel glass marking important circulation spaces within. The resulting architecture provides a welcoming and dignified representation of a group of children and their educators long underserved by the city’s schools. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jesus Granada archdaily.com
Police Headquarters, Granada, Spain, 2010 designed by Juan Alberto Morillas Martín
....large expanses of glass allow as much natural light capture as possible and a system of tall, wide aluminum slats are vertically positioned to prevent direct entrance of sunlight. These blades are motorized and operate with a solar sensor system that controls the orientation of these blades, changing the image of the building continuously. An automated system regulates the artificial lighting and the movement of the slats.  In the exterior, opaque surfaces, a ventilated façade is achieved by employing a highly finished natural limestone. -- ArchDaily

Source: José Hevia archdaily.com
School Isabel Besora, Tarragona, Spain, 2012 designed by NAM Arquitectura
The whole building is constructed with concrete and formwork wooden tablet (vertical and horizontal). Once posed this simple and basic structure , the construction is completed by the use of glass as an enclosure in various sizes and finishes , and the vertical steel trusses of dark gray that allow entry and control of light in classrooms and other spaces . -- ArchDaily

Source: David Frutos archdaily.com
Tecnova Headquarters, Parque Científico Tecnológico de Almería, Spain designed by Ferrer Arquitectos
These building are laid out according to a strip arrangement, creating an ordered and functional design which sets out clear entrances and highly versatile, multi-purpose spaces. There is a main communications strip, which is the backbone of the design, created as a glazed area with climbing vegetation and scattered courtyards that provide interesting sequences for the visitor/user. -- ArchDaily

Source: archrecord.construction.com
Zhengzhou Greenland Plaza, Zhengzhou, Henan, China, 2013 designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill
The 2.59-million-square-feet (240,169-square-meters) building houses a mixed-use program of offices on its lower floors and a 416-key hotel above. Daylighting was a key driver of the building’s design. Sophisticated three- to five-story-tall light-gauge painted aluminum screens are configured at an outward cant that enhances interior daylighting through scientifically calculated reflections while protecting the all-glass exterior from solar gain. The screens provide multiple performance and aesthetic-related roles. The same outward cant that aids daylighting allows for a nuanced approach to artificial lighting, providing outboard locations for dramatic nighttime lighting of the building that make the tower a beacon. -- ArchDaily
Read an article from Architectural Record 

Source: Angus Martin archdaily.com
University of Queensland Global Change Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 2013 designed by HASSELL
The GCI Building also represents the first Australian use of structural Geopolymer concrete, a low-carbon product produced with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional concrete. The building features an operable sun shading system that tracks the sun and protects the glass louvres which encourage natural ventilation. The air flows across occupied spaces to the central atrium which acts as the building’s lungs, discharging warm air through its thermal chimney. -- ArchDaily

Source: Marcos García archdaily.com
LoMa Chapalita, Guadalajara, JAL, Mexico, 2013 designed by Elías Rizo Architects
The office levels are wrapped in a double skin that works for sunlight control and natural ventilation. The passive systems aim to take advantage of Mexico’s temperate weather. The inner layer in this double skin is made of floor-to-ceiling sliding glass panels. The outer layer is made up of vertical mesh louvers made of perforated aluminum. The translucent panels can be freely adjusted to aid in controlling sunlight incidence on the office space. The movement of the exterior louvers will grant the building dynamic component and a constantly changing façade that answers to the specific needs of temperature and ventilation control. -- ArchDaily

Source: BAT archdaily.com
Healthcare Center and Regional Government Offices, Cuenca, Spain, 2013 designed by BAT
The facade of this building is surrounded by a skin made of slats that fulfils a double function; climatic and lighting control. Those slats are adjustable so they can work properly, independently of the season of the year or the orientation. Behind those slats it has been placed a second skin with storage capacity and big modulated panes of glass, to offer multiple choices of inner redistribution, without affecting in any way the correct building operation. -- ArchDaily

Source: Takuji Shimmura archdaily.com
Mantois Technology Centre, Pole DD – IUT Mantes-en-Yvelines, 78200 Mantes-la-Jolie, France, 2013 designed by Badia Berger Architectes
The mineral-like quality and irregular apertures of the horizontal volume contrasts with the vertical volume suspended above the balcony, with its façade dressed in long thin timber profiles. This strong visual element placed on the corner signifies the square’s fringe. Two envelopes, both sensitive to their environment, offer very different solutions to protect the interior of the building: the timber profiles create a vertical dynamic, while the horizontal element clad in self-levelling concrete addresses the horizontality. -- ArchDaily

Monday, July 2, 2012

H

Source: Heneghan Peng archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Aras Chill Dara, Naas, Co. Kildare, Ireland Designed by Heneghan Peng architects
The two bars that form the civic offices enclose and are a continuation of the civic garden. Building and park no longer read as two distinct elements but rather combine to create an outdoor room. The ramps that connect the bars are a transitional space with loose environmental control that allow the park/amphitheatre to visually flow through, while internally the ramps serve as the primary circulation space in the building creating a clear navigation route. -- ArchDaily

Source: Steve Mayes archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Harton Staithes, South Shields, UK, 2011 Designed by Plus Three Architecture
The building occupies a prominent position in one of the key, gateway approaches to the town centre and takes maximum advantage of its magnificent river frontage through a simple layout of two wings of office accommodation linked by a central atrium which contains vertical circulation and meeting spaces. -- ArchDaily

Source: Mike Sinclair archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Camp Prairie Schooner, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, 2012 Designed by el dorado
The new building is positioned to provide a continuous drop off zone along northern face that directs the girls toward a courtyard space which service as the entry to both the dining hall and the trail center. Its proximity to the road also serves as a way-finding mechanism to girls residing at other portions of the camp. -- ArchDaily

Source: Åke E:son Lindman archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
H House, 590 14 Malexander, Sweden, 2012 Designed by Björn Lundquist Arkitektur
Its floor plan layout forms a symmetrical capital H with the volume facing north containing private spaces, while its twin volume facing south gather interlocking social spaces turning towards the vast view of the lake. -- ArchDaily

Source: Bercy Chen Studio archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Cascading Creek House, Austin, Texas, USA Designed by Bercy Chen Studio
The primary formal gesture of the project inserts two long native limestone walls to the sloping site, serving as spines for the public wing and private wing of the house. The walls and the wings they delineate shelter a domesticated landscape that serves as an extended living space oriented towards the creek below and protected from the torrents of water draining from the street above during sudden downpours characteristic of the area. -- ArchDaily

Source: Derek Swalwell archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Sugar Gum House, Otways, Victoria, Australia Designed by Rob Kennon Architects
The design of the new house comprises two pavilions, one sleeping and one living. The house, which is made to cater for a broad range of visitors, comprises an open plan kitchen, living and dining area, three identical bedrooms with a shared bathroom, master bedroom with an ensuite and walk in robe.  There is a separate powder room, laundry and mudroom. To the east of the living pavilion and adjoining the kitchen is a deck which captures the eastern morning sun, ocean views, and provides protection from the north winds in summer. To the west of the sleeping pavilion is the deck through which one enters the house, sheltered from ocean winds and bathed in northern sunlight, with views both up to the contoured green hills, and sheltered views to the ocean through the heavily glazed living pavilion. -- ArchDaily

Source: Greg Richardson archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Two Hulls, Canada, 2011 Designed by Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects 
The two pavilions float above the shoreline like two ship’s hulls up on cradles for the winter, forming protected outdoor places both between and under them. This is a landscape-viewing instrument; like a pair of binoculars, first looking out to sea. A third transverse ‘eye’ looks down the coastline, and forms a linking entry piece. -- ArchDaily

>Source: Burk & Jagger archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Hillside Hall, University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island, USA, 2012 Designed by LLB Architects
Two bar-shaped wings are sited along the sloping hillside and connected by a glass bridge which houses stacked sky lounges and a monumental circulation stair. Light floods the interior and is animated with a rhythmic pattern of colored glass, creating a diverse array of shadows that constantly change. -- ArchDaily

Source: Fernando Alda archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
20 VPO, Calle Trece Rosas, 6, 11140 Conil de la Frontera, Cádiz, Spain, 2013 Designed by Kauh Arquitectos
The housing units and their assembly is simple and repetitive. The typology itself follows a single-bay, cross-ventilated layout. Two geometrically defined blocks are generated, which optimize both the built surface area and its use. The clarity expressed in the floor plans, crossed with the planning code, allowed flexibility when it came to composing the final volumes, hence the materialization of a generic block was avoided. -- ArchDaily

Source: C.F. Møller Architects archdaily.com
Plan, Source: archdaily.com
Danish Meat Research Institute, 2630 Taastrup, Denmark, 2014 designed by C.F. Møller Architects
.... the individual institutes are designed in a simple and austere architecture with red brick and exposed concrete lintels. The new building is based on the same simple design idiom, but with more modern twists such using pre-fabricated brick reliefs, and incorporating bay windows. -- ArchDaily

Source: Adrià Goula archdaily.com

Plan, Source: atchdaily.com
House in Front of a Stream, 17244 Cassà de la Selva, Girona, Spain designed by 05 AM Arquitectura
The whole house is in developed in the ground floor level, and is defined by two volumes that are adapted to the irregular shape of the plot, one of them is parallel to neighbour limit, and the other one is perpendicular to the street, being a little turned respect the other one, defining between them a protected space, sunny, saved from the vision from the public spaces, and open to the green plants of the stream. -- ArchDaily

Friday, June 22, 2012

Skin of Architecture: Double-skin 8

These are projects with wood screens: 

Source: Colomès + Nomdedeu Architectes archdaily.com
Agence Commerciale Opac de l’Aube, Troyes, France, 2007 designed by Colomès + Nomdedeu
Architectes
The façades are glazed to allow users to work under a natural light. On the street side and part of the courtyard side, the building hides behind a wooden double-façade, light and changing, yet affirming its autonomy, allows to keep the contrast with the wood frame building to a minimum.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Adrià Goula archdaily.com
Can Font Cultural Center, Les Franqueses del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain, 2007 designed by taller 9s arquitectes
The project on the facades tries to combine a contemporary intervention with the respect to the traditional image. And this double challenge was translated into a double skin. The historical skin remains as it was and the south facade was rehabilitated integrally. The second skin, a grid of wood slabs,  was overlapped over the former volume, without modifying it,  and appears as an added intervention, hiding the new windows and controlling the entrance of light. These new ‘holes’ keep the proportion of the existing ones. -- ArchDaily

Source: SOM archdaily.com
US Census Bureau Headquarters, Suitland, Maryland, USA, 2007 designed by SOM
The curved office buildings have two enclosures. The outside edges that face the woods are covered in a brise soleil of laminated, wooden pieces that create dappled patterns of shadow and warm light inside the offices, suggesting a forest interior. Their size and frequency is determined by the scale of the human body; occupants can view the exterior clearly while being shielded from the sun. The FSC-certified – marine-grade, white oak – is harvested according to sustainable guidelines. Underlying this “wood veil” is a system of green tinted precast spandrels and glazed vision panels that match the cast of the landscape. -- ArchDaily

Source: Hervé Abbadie archdaily.com
Ecole Maternelle La Venelle, Épinay-sur-Seine, France, 2008 designed by Gaetan Le Penhuel Architectes
The project provides a simple volume, easily identifiable, which accompanies the new way and create a frontal face to the stadium. This building, surrounded by trees has a façade punctuated by vertical wooden structure at R +1. -- ArchDaily

Source: Nicolas Caceres + Paula Marchant archdaily.com
NOI Hotel, Vitacura, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile, 2009 designed by Jorge Figueroa + Asociados
Like a continues and uniform screen, the wood lattices of Oregon pine constitute the facade and covers the main windows of the bedrooms. This lattice with a format of 0.95 x 2.90 meters provides two qualities to the building: First, windows modules from the floor to the ceiling with a format of 0.95 x 2.60 meters, making possible the entrance of more natural light to the rooms and a controlled view  from the exterior to the interior thanks to the wood lattice. Second, filter on a controlled way the light, personalizing the spaces and making the guests feel the presence of a noble material as wood. -- ArchDaily

Source: Roman Keller archdaily.com
Private House, Uster, Switzerland, 2009 designed by Gramazio & Kohler
This dwelling, which reinterprets the typology of the surrounding gable-roof houses, gains its marked design by adapting form to context parametrically. 315 vertical wooden slats, affixed to the surface of the wall, completely envelope the facades. By milling the edges, the cross sections of the slats were modulated in correspondence with the window strip so that requirements of sight and sun protection were fulfilled, and various, flowing levels of transparency could be set. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jaime Navarro Soto archdaily.com
Chipicas Town Houses, Valle de Bravo, México, 2009 designed by Alejandro Sanchez Garcia Arquitectos
The vertical design was used to salvage most of the vegetation, as well as, a solution to the small footprint. Each house is a three-story house plus a roof garden; displaying two sides of the façade with floor to ceiling windows and two sides with a skin made of wooden lattice to gain a sense of privacy. -- ArchDaily

Sonoma Residence, Geyserville, California, USA, 2010 designed by Cooper Joseph Studio
The balcony is the iconic form that redefines the image and focus of the house. Ipe is used as a screen and framing device. This material brings warmth to the cool California light, creating a more intimate setting and focusing views on the surrounding landscape. Ipe was chosen specifically for its strength and ability to span the entire depth of the porch without intermediate support. It will weather naturally over time, resulting in a more artistic patina against the dark background. -- ArchDaily

Source: Frédéric Gémonet archdaily.com
Wooden Frame House, Sèvres, France, 2010 designed by a + samuel delmas
The house closes in the street side: on the ground floor, which hosts local schedules behind a facade in glass appearance. The wooden floor frame wears a filter perforated in wood (untreated) passing in front of the woodwork. -- ArchDaily

Source: Gürkan Akay archdaily.com
Office Building, Istanbul, Turkey, 2010 designed by Tago Architects
South façade is placed in front of a glass surface as a seconday façade. Geometric wooden panels strengthen the perception of the building from the main road and the solid-void relationship brings a comfortable office ambiance by the control of sunlight and sound. -- ArchDaily

Source: Scenic Architecture archdaily.com
The Green Pine Garden, Qingpu, Shanghai, China, 2010 designed by Scenic Architecture
On the “wood building”, a screen of local pine battens folds vertically on the east part of the building to give sense of privacy for the internal VIP dining rooms and create exterior cavity space for air-conditioning machine. This wood screen therefore achieves a visual effect for views between inside and outside. -- ArchDaily

Source:  Juan Eduardo Sepúlveda Grazioli archdaily.com
CPT Office, Puerto Montt, Chile, 2011 designed by Rodrigo Araya Manzanares
The building also incorporates a second wood skin to avoid the excess of heat and light during the summer season. Wood was thought as the predominant material in exterior coatings and interiors, as a means of recognizing it as the most outstanding element of the regional architecture. -- ArchDaily

Source: Cosmin Dragomir archdaily.com
Residential Building, Bucharest, Romania, 2011 designed by Synthesis Architecture
....the vertical timber fence pattern, which is omnipresent in the context of the slums. Also, the vertical louvers (local stained pine slats attached to steel frames) were chosen for their better maintenance, compared to the horizontal ones. -- ArchDaily

Source: Pedro Pegenaute archdaily.com
Cluny House, Singapore, 2011 designed by Neri & Hu Design and Reserch Office
The layering and overlapping of materiality in the house is a key strategy in reinforcing the notion of continuity, from the uninterrupted vals quartzite ground plane with glass enclosed public areas to the wood-clad private spaces above. The ebonized teak louvers enveloping the bedrooms on the second level are all operable to allow individual inhabitants of each of the thirteen bedrooms to adjust the degree of their connection to the outside, both climatically and visually. -- ArchDaily

Source: Forward stroke Inc archdaily.com
IS, Saitama, Japan, 2011 designed by Yo Yamagata Architects
There is an intermediate region between the inner spaces that make up the facade with wooden louvers at BUFFER of the road side. There is a courtyard, a outside room, and a terrace. This space can be used as an extension of interior space while controlling light and look for louvers. -- ArchDaily

Source: Li Xiaodong archdaily.com
LiYuan Library, Beijing, China, 2011 designed by Li Xiaodong Atelier
The building blends into the landscape through the delicate choice of materials and the careful placement of the building volume. Especially the choice of material is crucial in blending with the regional characteristics. After analyzing the local material characteristics in the village we found large amounts of locally sourced wooden sticks piled around each house. The villagers gather these sticks all year round to fuel their cooking stoves. Thus we decided to use this ordinary material in an extraordinary way, cladding the building in familiar textures in a way that is strikingly sensitive. -- ArchDaily

Source: Pedro Iván Ramos Martín archdaily.com
Boecillo Municipal Civic Centre, Boecillo, Spain designed by José Martínez + Inés Escudero + Fernando Nieto
The entrance courtyard located on the main facade is an outdoor shade structure through which the prevailing east-west winds transport fresh air to the adjoining courtyard, cooling the atmosphere by generating a stream of air. In turn, west courtyard facade has a second skin separated from the glass facade, avoiding direct solar incidence and allowing air exchange. -- ArchDaily

Source:  Kopty Architects and Engineers archdaily.com
Y Project, Ya’el, Nazareth Illit, Israel, 2012 designed by Rami Kopty
Rooms Floor is a conceptual wooden box wrapped in profiles made of rice husk (wood). The facade has two main roles: the first is – giving the facade of the architectural aspect. While the second, the green aspect and environmental – energy conservation (green architecture). The material selection process was toward a green material and recyclable natural materials, requiring minimal care for future treatment of dyeing or other, the material is relatively light weight and of course looks good.  The house envelope serves an important role in area climates – (Mediterranean), and has a dual role – the core space get less heated in summer, so the sun does not directly warm these walls by being cooled by the air gap betwean the wood and the interior walls by natural ventilation. And in winter the facade can be opened and lets the sun’s rays get in and heat the interior. -- ArchDaily

Source: Stephane Chalmeau archdaily.com
Maison 2G, Orsay, France, 2012 designed by Avenier Cornejo Architectes
Flirting with the building regulations of the materials and the context of the landscape led a project of “total look” wood. The volume is simple and one-piece, the  wood cladding envelope dramatic. Composed of strips of cedar crate, this one allows omnipresent light, to be so over-input and redirected the angular pants interiors. The volumes are designed and vibrate throughout the day. -- ArchDaily

Source: KG Studio archdaily.com
The Shelter, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, 2012 designed by KG Studio + Associates
The House is surrounded by an intermediate and transitional space protected by a second skin, which controls and take advantage of the maximum efficiency of ventilation and natural lighting. Providing total privacy to the interior of the House, but at the same time total opening from the inside to the outside. -- ArchDaily

Source: Marek Novotný archdaily.com
Villa Charles, Prague, Czech Republic, 2012 designed by QARTA Architektura
The house is divided into two volumes (the branches of “L” shape), which are separated by a common communication kernel. The first volume is airy and movable. The facade is made of sliding wooden sunshades and thanks to them may constantly change. The second volume is contrary solid, firm, and is made of sand stone. -- ArchDaily

Source: Clément Guillaume archdaily.com
Les Coccinelles Nursery School, Saint-Gratien, France, 2012 designed by SOA Architectes
The buildings facade is made up of uniform linear wooden slats that are interrupted by pierced openings introducing a playful rhythm in elevation. The wooden double skin also allows filtering of the sun in summer, guaranteeing the children’s comfort. -- ArchDaily

Source: Denilson Machado archdaily.com
BT House, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2012 designed by Studio Guilherme Torres
....a chequered wood design, a kind of brise soleil called muxarabie, which is a classic feature in Eastern architecture. It was later assimilated by the Portuguese, who brought it to Brazil. This element, with its powerful aesthetic appeal, was adapted to this residence in the South of the country, and acts as a wooden ‘curtain’, allowing air flow, dimming light and also serving as a security feature. -- ArchDaily

Source: Knut Hjeltnes archdaily.com
House Sømme, Astrids vei, Oslo, Norway, 2012 designed by Knut Hjeltnes
A more closed wooden box, clad in bamboo, contains the kids section, while the lower part of the house is a secluded area for the adults. -- ArchDaily

Source: Antonini + Darmon Architectes archdaily.com
Saint Denis Archives Building, Saint Denis, France, 2013 designed by Antonini + Darmon Architectes
The building has a function “tarchives-premises” it is the heart and memory of the network media libraries Plaine Commune. We designed it like physical memory: a “hard drive”, its architecture is thaught as contemporary and ambitious. It’s goal is to be an icon, a signal in the city.This induces the expression of contemporary architecture, dynamic and unifying for the neighborhood. The building is massive in order inertia and saving the project while having a significant environmental writing (wooden facades). -- ArchDaily 

Source: Adrià Goula archdaily.com
Dwellings in Barcelona, Passatge Marimon, 5, Barcelona, Spain, 2013 designed by Josep Lluís Mateo
....the façade as a succession of layers: one interior, of glass and stainless steel, and another exterior, close to it, of wood that opens and closes at will. It protects us from noise and inquisitive eyes, acts as a filter between inside and outside, and gives the building an urban image. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jean-Michel André archdaily.com
New University Library in Cayenne, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 2013 designed by rh+ architecture
.... the building is wrapped up with a peripheral space of variable dimensions called “gallery” or peristyle. This gallery is an open space, a place where the students meet and pass through, an extra room between inside and outside, sheltered from sun and rain. This one is made of a filter : a slope of wooden lace carefully placed around a concrete core. -- ArchDaily

Source: Leonardo Finotti archdaily.com
Xan House, P.A.C.T de Guyane, Cayenne, French Guiana, 2013 designed by MAPA
Visual filters in expansion spaces next to bedrooms allow open air experiences of another nature. -- ArchDaily

Source: Key Operation archdaily.com
Komachi Building, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, 2013 designed by Key Operation
A lattice spacing that satisfied the opening requirement for exterior stairs would be too broad for commanding a uniform façade across a large surface. As a solution, the density of the lattice was gradually increased from the front of the staircase across the façade to express unity and variance. Wood was selected as the material for the lattice to impart warmth, and coated with traditional Japanese red-ochre paint, a natural material used for a long time as a preservative. -- ArchDaily

Source: On Stage archdaily.com
Block 32, La Duchère, Lyon, France, 2014 designed by Tectoniques Architects
The facades are composed of a wooden frame. The wood was chosen first and foremost for its qualities as a material, but also for the way it could be used in the prefabrication of the components that make up the facade. The curtain facade is composed of alternating sections of pre-weathered timber cladding boards and wide glazed strips. They form overlapping, offset pieces which interconnect like large scales. This gives the covering a textile-like appearance, lighter and less constructed than the housing block. -- ArchDaily

Source: Michael Moran archrecord.construction.com
Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, USA, 2014 designed by Shigeru Ban Architects
From the exterior, the museum’s main feature is the basket-weave cladding that covers its two street-facing facades. The slats, “woven” together on-site, are made from a paper-and-resin composite sandwiched between two thin layers of brown okoume wood protected with a UV coating. The density of the weave changes from top to bottom and as it moves away from the corner of the building. Practically, the screen provides shade from the intense Colorado sunlight. Aesthetically, it helps give the museum a craftsy, homemade quality, despite its bulky presence. -- Architectural Record
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Source: Edmund Sumner archdaily.com
Lattice House, Sidhra, Jammu, India, 2015 designed by Sameep Padora & Associates
The façade of the house is also a response to the climatic severity of the region which experiences extremely hot and dry weather for 8 months of the year and hence the horizontal bands of vertical wood lattice screens act as light filters. -- ArchDaily