Sliced Up

The Greater Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA, 1993 designed by Eisenman Architects with Richard Trott & Partners

From the opposite side of High Street, one can see how the building's façade is separated into different volumes (perhaps in an attempt to bring the elongated building which covers 600,000 square feet, down to human scale), much in the same manner as the façade in Cincinnati was treated. -- galinsky

Source: Herzog & de Meuron

M.H. de Young Museum, San Franciso, California, USA, 2005 designed by Herzog & de Meuron

We thought of a kind of organism with several limbs or extensions, like the fingers of a hand. We arranged the building in three parallel bands (or fingers) so that the park fills the spaces in between and reaches all the way into the heart of the new building where it forms inner courtyards. Nature, trees, plants, and water, in various forms, are an integral part of the building. -- architect's web site

Source:  Iwan Baan archdaily.com

Four Sport Scenarios, Medellín, Colombia, 2010 designed by Giancarlo Mazzanti + Felipe Mesa (Plan:b)

...a geometrical roofing system of parallel strips, aligned with the sun path to control it. These parallel bars act again as technical, spatial and bioclimatic patterns. They can stretch in the east-west direction, and they can be added or repeated in the north-south direction. They can also gain height to fit the different sports requirements (basketball, gymnastics, fight and volleyball), or go down to make a cover from the sun. -- ArchDaily

Sourec: Tomáš Malý archdaily.com

Indoor Swimming Pool in Litomyšl, Litomyšl, Czech Republic, 2010 designed by Architekti DRNH

The overall volume of the hall is reduced as much as possible by fragmenting into several structural modules softly modelled into organic curved lines so that the shell of the building is visually linked to the Cerná Hora slope. The grass-covered areas smoothly merge into the metal-sheet-covered roof. -- ArchDaily

Source: Koichi Torimura archdaily.com

Sowa Unit, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, 2010 designed by Kensuke Watanabe Architecture Studio

The building is composed with six bands that shift its position one by another. Openings to the direction of street are clearly open while the crossing direction to the neighbor has no widows. This allows the activity and space of the building to be connected each other or to street and town while having appropriate distance and buffer to the adjacent resident. Ceiling at second floor are also shifted vertically so natural light comes through the high side slit window. -- ArchDaily

Source: Thomas Jorion archdaily.com

Marcel Sembat High School, Sotteville lès Rouen, France, 2011 designed by archi5 with B. Huidobro

The main ideas of our proposal are; to find a unity and identity of the school in the whole site, to integrate and connect the high school and the park with the particular shape of the “blades”.

....restoring the views and transparency to the outdoors, and perspectives on public space and landscapes. For that we used glass and translucent polycarbonate on the frontages. We also created some little patios between the “blades” to make skylights. -- ArchDaily

Source: J Collingridge archdaily.com

Drents Museum, Assen, The Netherlands, 2011 designed by Erick van Egeraat

In the design of the in 2011 re-opened Drents Museum, the existing Koetshuis has been given a new function as the Museum’s main entrance. The staff building is put on a glass plinth. In addition, underground spaces have been added, connecting the old and the new part. -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

Zamet Center, Rijeka, Croatia designed by 3LHD

This center includes a public square, a Sports center, a public library and shops. This new urban piece connects the complex topography of Zamet, a district inside Rijeka. A pentagonal stone pattern covers both ground, walls and roofs, and the variation of tone gives dynamism to this project. The interior of the sports center is flexible, and while it is aimed for training, it can also hosts matches, shows and other activities. The differences between the “fingers” of the project bring natural light into the interior. -- ArchDaily

 Source: Mr. H Lin Ho archdaily.com

The POD, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2011 designed by Hijjas Kasturi Associates Sdn with Studio Nicoletti Associati

The POD futuristic landmark design is reflective of Mother Nature’s water droplets with a form that demonstrates sophistication and elegance. The unique elliptical form of the POD enhances the building to be stood up from the surrounding atmosphere. -- ArchDaily

Source: Igor Palichev, Dima Zeibert archdaily.com

Summer Cafe, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia, 2012 designed by DarkDesignGroup

With a given task to design a temporary summer outdoor cafe with a very limited budget,DarkDesignGroup decided to use basic materials for the walls and roof slabs, which will allow the cafe to be more easily dismantled in the fall. Through the creative use of the OSB on a wood frame, they are able to create a dynamic form which invites the public inside and also allows them to enjoy the outdoor atmosphere. By manipulating the wood frame, they take advantage of the different ways to create openings, which make for an exciting piece of architecture. -- ArchDaily

Source: Sergio Pirrone archdaily.com

Caterpillar House, Lo Barnechea, Santiago de Chile, 2012 designed by Sebastián Irarrázaval

....the strategy for improving air movement through the house consisted in organizing the program along stripes and keeping interstitial spaces among them for the circulation of both; the inhabitants and the cool air that comes from the mountains. At the same time, the proposed interstitial spaces increases the house perimeter which allows most of the times to have light and air entering the spaces from at least two opposite sides. As a consequence of this will, windows and doors are aligned along axes that cut the stripes, easing therefore air movement and also creating visual integration -- ArchDaily

Source: Jesús Granada archdaily.com

Waste Treatment Plan, Quart de Poblet, Valencia, Spain, 2012 designed by Israel Alba

The fragmentation of the main building in four linear strips responds both to the internal logic of the waste treatment process and to the need to have natural light for the work carried out inside. These strips, which are extended into the ground with coloured gravel and natural grass in continuity with the façades and roofs of the main building, fit in with the landscape and forge a link between the project and the land and its immediate surroundings. -- ArchDaily

Source: Paul Kozlowski archdaily.com

Site Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Salle Festive Succieu, Succieu, France designed by Guillaume Girod Architecture

The projet is based on  a contempory interpretation of the traditional farm. Its shape and materiality are the starting point for the layout. The basic shape of the long picth roof is manipulated and stretched to become hybrid unit. Its scale is voluntary small regarding the surrounding buildings. The municipal leisure is made of four hybrid units sliding next to each other in order to offer a low scale facade. -- ArchDaily

Cantilever 2

Source: officeda.com

TongXian Gatehouse, Beijing, China 2003 designed by Office dA

The gatehouse will serve as an entry into the site, and includes apartments and double-height studios for two artists-in-residence. -- architect's web site

Source: archdaily.com

Element house, Anyang Park, Anyang, Seúl, Republic of Korea 2006 designed by Sami Rintala

Main space is a larger steel cube. Four smaller wooden rooms are connected to this space in different floors. In each of these small rooms there is the presence of one nature element; In cellar water, on courtyard soil, in first floor fire and in the attic air.  -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

Amalia House, Styria, Austria, 2007 designed by GRID Architects

Located on top of a hill in Styria, overlooking the valley of Kirchbach Amalia offers space for up to six people, without having to spare any comfort.

Organised in 2 levels, one of them split, she lets the landscape float in and gives view to her surrounding from everywhere within. -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

Metamorphosis 1, Tunquén, Casablanca, Chile 2008 designed by Jose Ulloa Davet + Delphine Ding

The project is organized according to a new helical path which, through the extension of an existing deck and the overhang of the new room, allows the user to go up to two new panoramic terraces on the house.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Shigeru Fuse archdaily.com

House in Abiko, Abiko, Chiba pref., Japan 2011 designed by fuse-atelier

....the upper structure was cantilevered. Then, the walls in varying volumes and the roof slab were made into three-dimensional continuous slanted surface and the stress transmission was rationalized, which became a characteristic form.  -- ArchDaily

Primitive Hut

Source: wikipedia.org

Primitive Hut

The primitive hut had been standard in architectural theory since Vitruvius. Marc-Antoine (Abbe) Laugier brought the idea to life with an image of the hut as the frontispiece for the second edition of Laugier's Essay on Architecture (1755).

It was sought to be the ideal principle for architecture or any structure at the time. Laugier believed it was the standard form which all architecture embodied. -- Wikipedia

Source: Åke E:son Lindman archdaily.com

House Karlsson, Tidö-Lindö, Västerås, Sweden, 2002 designed by Tham & Videgård Hansson

A starting point has been the simple constructions of rural buildings and the architecture of Swedish barns and warehouses, some traces of which can still be seen within the type house sprawl of Tidö-Lindö.  -- ArchDaily

Source: MVRDV

Hagen Island, Ypenburg, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2003 designed by MVRDV

Building houses that avoid detail (one material, one type of doors, no gutters) reduces the costs. At the same time this leads to houses with a strong almost archetypical appearance. It's an ironic gesture to the omnipresent demand for the same type of houses in the Netherlands.  -- architect's web site

Source: Preston Scott Cohen archdaily.com

Goodman House, Pine Plains, New York, USA, 2004 designed by Preston Scott Cohen

The enclosure wall with windows wraps the peripheral steel frame. It is as if nostalgia caused the emergence of a Modernist paradigm of construction more fitting to a commercial building than to a house. The relationship between compartmental and open spaces, small and large windows, refined and rustic structural components creates a rich and variable environment for living, entertainment, artistic production and exhibition.  -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

Ternat House, Ternat, Belgium, 2005 designed by V + bureau vers plus de bien-être

V+ bureau vers plus de bien-être (=V+, proud to be an architect/towards more than just well-being) proposed not to argue with local officials about an alternative appearance – bureaucracy is slow and rigid – but designed an entire different world in the interior, free of its ordinary shell.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Florian Holzherr archdaily.com

Floating House, Ontario, Canada, 2005 designed by MOS Architects

This project intersects a vernacular house typology with the site-specific conditions of this unique place: an island on Lake Huron. The location on the Great Lakes imposed complexities to the house’s fabrication and construction, as well as its relationship to site. Annual cyclical change related to the change of seasons, compounded with escalating global environmental trends, cause Lake Huron’s water levels to vary drastically from month-to-month, year-to-year. To adapt to this constant, dynamic change, the house floats atop a structure of steel pontoons, allowing it to fluctuate along with the lake. -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

Fjällhus Residence, Härjedalen, Sweden, 2005 designed by PS Arkitektur

The Mountain Lodge is a modern take of a traditional barn of the region in Härjedalen, Sweden. The Lodge comes as prefabricated wooden units. It was originally designed in 2005 by architect Peter Sahlin for his own family, as a vacation retreat in the fells of Härjedalen. Five houses have since then been produced in the region. The typical clients are urban professionals who desire a simple, compact, yet comfortable and modern vacation retreat.  -- ArchDaily

Source: HVP archdaily.com

Wurth House, Wormeldange, Luxembourg, 2007 designed by Hermann & Valentiny and Partners

The residents of Wormeldange quickly gave this house a nickname “the praying hand in the vineyard”. This is derived from the articulation of the building volume into “fingers” that only touch each other on the slope side. This treatment allowed the architect to introduce a great deal of light to the house. Two bands of windows in the roof and the façade interrupt the skin of the building, which is otherwise homogeneously clad with Corten steel. -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

House Dijk, Blauwestad, The Netherlands, 2007 designed by Jager Janssen architecten

The facades and the roof of this dwelling comprise one entity. The skin, consisting of anthracite-coloured corrugated sheets, is open in strategic places in order to let the environment in. Maximizing this effect, the entire dwelling is positioned one meter above ground level, resulting on a spacious lower ground floor.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Paul Warchol archdaily.com

Louver House, Long Island, New York, USA, 2007 designed by LSS

To satisfy a client’s passion for barns, we sought to capture the qualities of traditional barn structures (generous spaces; repetitive timber frames), while developing a modern building responding to the demands both of a residential program, and a site’s dramatic views of the adjacent corn field and nearby moody Atlantic coast.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Kaj Lergaard archdaily.com

Sinus House, Denmark, 2007 designed by CEBRA

The concave cuttings in the long side of the wing house function as large reflectors of light, and irrespective of the position of the sun in relation to the house they secure that daylight is being let into the house – either directly through the large glass areas or reflected by the white surfaces opposite the glass areas. Even when the sunlight falls longitudinally on the façade the home will be filled with warm light. -- ArchDaily

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: Iwan Baan archdaily.com

Concrete Slit House, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, 2008 designed by AZL architects

The entire structure and roof are made from concrete pressed into a custom mould, handmade from five-centimeter horizontal wood strips to remain in scale with the adjacent century-old brick buildings. The slit in the concrete creates transparency as it responds to interior circulation, and provides different programmes with differing interior heights & elevations, thus crates in upper bedrooms half floor volume shifting for its privacy.  -- ArchDaily

Source: moomoo Architects archdaily.com

L House, Lodz, Poland, 2008 designed by moomoo Architects

It is the first house whose elevation has been made entirely of a plastic insulating material -Thermopian. Usually, this material has been used only for roofing. Thermopian has good thermal, acoustic and insulating properties and it can have any required colour. We were intent on the house form to relate to the proportions of a Polish house but at the same time we wanted it to be simple and redefined. One distinctive leaning wall is a result of a compromise between a simple shape and the local law, which requires building in line with plot borders. -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

Oeken Pavilion, Oeken, The Netherlands, 2008 designed by FARO

The pavilion represents modern rural architecture: simple, practical and eloquent. Black and white are the traditional colours. The pavilion shows how minimal means can lead to large results. The building leaves a poetic impression of purity. The no-nonsense manner in which this ‘simple barn’ has a large panoramic window shows a pleasant openness to conventional styles.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Tomas Soucek archdaily.com

Country House In Tupadly, Tupadly, Czech Republic, 2008 designed by OV-A

Our goal was to find the right measure of new elements and to maintain the original picturesque character of the country house. The old living part was only renovated, the cowshed, barn and attic were turned into new living spaces, their farm character was maintained.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Herzog De Meuron

St. Jakob Tower, Basel, Switzerland , 2008 designed by Herzog & de Meuron

The tower's massing responds to the particular features of the site, the occupancy types, visual axes and shading requirements. The building houses apartments mainly on the southern elevation and upper tower levels, coupled with offices on the northern elevation. The tower reads as a crystalline glass volume with openings for balconies to serve the apartments.  -- architect's web site

Source; archdaily.com

The Dairy House, Hadspen Estate, Somerset, England designed by Skene Catling de la Peña

It was to be discreet with the intervention to appear as a natural extension of the existing structure. The design set out to appear ‘un-designed’.

The design was to combine privacy and seclusion with openness to the wider landscape. The inspiration was both literal, in the stacked timber in the yard opposite, and literary, in the 18th century ‘La Petite Maison – An Architectural Seduction’, architectural treatise and erotic novella by Jean-Francois de Bastide. -- ArchDaily

The Mill House, Malmö, Sweden designed by Wingårdhs Architects

Located in south Sweden near the city of Malmö, the Mill house is annexed to a old farm house. Designed by Scandinavian practice Wingårdhs architects, the vacation house was built to celebrate the ritual of sauna and bathing. -- archiechnophilia

Source: Edmund Sumner archdaily.com

Balancing Barn, Suffolk, UK, 2010 designed by MVRDV

The traditional barn shape and reflective metal sheeting take their references from the local building vernacular. In this sense the Balancing Barn aims to live up to its educational goal in re-evaluating the countryside and making modern architecture accessible.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Ivan Nemec archdaily.com

Family Houses, Popovicky, Czech Republic, 2010 designed by Jan Stempel

New family houses for different private clients are situated in a small village close to Prague. This location is very popular with young families with children. The parents work in Prague, but live in the country in a family house with a garden. This strong trend in the Czech Republic represents mainly standardized houses from catalogues. Those two presented houses – designed as an archetypal form of a house in central Europe – stand out of this mass production. -- ArchDaily

Source: MSB Architects archdaily.com

Rehabilitation Of The Old Butter Factory, Calheta, Madeira Island, Portugal, 2010 designed by M.S.B Architects

Located in a residential neighborhood of single family houses, the old butter factory has the characteristic image of the other houses surrounding it, defined by a typical architecture, with simple constructive technics. The existing buildings are in an advanced state of disrepair. However, taking into consideration the architectural interest of the volume of the former factory it is our desire to recover what currently exists. -- ArchDaily

Source: Ulia Maysova archdaily.com

Standless Steel, Nikola-Lenivets, Russia, 2011 designed by FAS(t)

This project is simple and traditional in form, standing as an iconic image. From a distance the standless steel can be perceived as a monolithic laconic volume, with a rectangular plan, no doors, sloping roof and a maximum height of 5m. When viewed closely, the unsteady permeable characteristics are hard to miss, with curtains of metal chain. The surface is an opalescent and oscillating surface, responding to touch. Visitors can enter from anywhere with the subtle clanking of chains all around and rustling gravel beneath their feet. -- ArchDaily

Source: Filip Dujardin archdaily.com

House Bernheimbeuk, GB., Belgium, 2011 designed by architecten de vylder vinck taillieu

A small site. A small house. The small budget. An even smaller house. Square metres don’t matter. Mechanics of living versusunexpected sense of space. A small site. And huge trees. Tree in house. Tree in room. Room outside.The drawing. Or, rather, the tree.Or,rather, the column. That drawing. Is the sectionof the column on which andaround which the house rests. A column that has become atree.Among the other trees. Structure. As starting point. As finishing point. What is inbetween is a quest for makingand imagining. So howa column might be. Mightbecome. -- ArchDaily

Source: Mike Sinclair archdaily.com

Willoughby Design Barn, Weston, Missouri, USA, 2011 designed by el dorado

Complementing an existing 1880’s farmhouse on a working farm outside of Kansas City, Missouri, Willoughby Design Barn is utilized as an event space in connection with the client’s work as a graphic designer / business identity consultant. Aside from the industrial and agricultural functions that comprise the entire lower level of the barn, the program includes an open event space, an insulated and climate controlled utility / toilet room area, and a sleeping loft.  -- ArchDaily

 Source: James Ewing archdaily.com

Hudson River Education Center And Pavilion, Beacon, New York, USA designed by Architecture Research Office

The barn is the sole survivor of Beacon’s industrial riverfront. This renovation preserves its simple, elemental structure but transforms its interior into a loft-like art studio. The program includes a new ground floor multipurpose space for lectures and exhibitions, two classrooms on the second floor, and support spaces. An artist’s studio is located in the top floor. -- ArchDaily

Source: Miljenko Bernfest & Marko Salopek

Gizmo, Shenzhen, China, 2011 designed by STUDIO UP

Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale takes place since 2005, with ‘urbanisation’ as a set long-term theme. In his curatorial statement for the 2011 Bienale, Terence Riley conceived a rather simple, axiomatic but powerful theme: Architecture creates cities – Cities create architecture. Setting the theme of lightness, Riley asks the pavilions to explore the idea of ‘light’ in both construction and concept, referencing also the (today much abused) theme of sustainability. As part of the UltraLight Village exhibition, STUDIO UP’s GIZMO questions the concept of lightness not as a physical condition, but as an experience. It serves as a device, challenging the ideas of interior and exterior, public and private space, nature and manufactured landscape. -- ArchDaily

Source: Laura Stamer archdaily.com

Mirror House, Copenhagen, Denmark designed by MLRP

Funhouse mirrors are mounted on the gabled ends of this playground pavilion in Copenhagen, as well as behind the doors. This engages a play with perspective, reflection and tranformation. Instead of a typical closed gable facade, the mirrored gables creates a sympathetic transition between built and landscape and reflects the surrounding park, playground and activity. -- ArchDaily 

Read an article from Architectural Record

Source: Martin Weiß archdaily.com

Summer House In Southern Burgenland, Oberbergen, Austria designed by Judith Benzer Architektur

.... the building’s design is oriented by the cubature of the Kellerstöckel(wine house) typical of the Southern Burgenland region. -- ArchDaily

Source: Alison Andersen archdaily.com

Warburg House, Alberta, Canada, 2012 designed by bioi

As an extrusion of an iconic “house-shaped” form, the new house floats 200mm off of the ground. Positioned along a large clearing to the south of the farmyard, the new house opens itself to the southern sun and completes the enclosure of a small meadow to the east. -- ArchDaily

Read a post from Jetson Green 

CASsAPANCA, Ameno, Italy designed by ES-arch

As the 5th edition of the “Paesaggi Mirati” exhibition invited architects and designers to work on the idea of “diffuse museum”, they created an experience of a journey dedicated to multi-sensible tourism, made by cultural, responsible, sustainable and artistic choices. Their project is a space for art and sociality with a structure that allows people to sit, socialize, and look outside, but that has an interior, a room of diffuse museum, where it is possible to place artwork. -- ArchDaily

Source: core77.com

A Better Post-It? And made from wood waste

Shibuya-based Naruse-Inokama Architects, comprised of Jun Inokuma and Yuri Naruse, takes wood waste from houses and turns that into paper. The resultant paper is then formed into a stack of Post-It-like sticky notes that are in turn shaped like little houses. (They're called IE-TAGs as "ie" is Japanese for "house.")  -- Core77