Floating Houses in IJburg / Architectenbureau Marlies Rohmer

That's cool!!! Just like a boat on the water!!

But I choose a boring designed site... But it is also nessisary to redesign the old building I lived in...ugly building...

Architects: Architectenbureau Marlies Rohmer

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Design team: Marlies Rohmer and Floris Hund, Michiel van Pelt, Ronald Hageman, Marc de Vries, Charles Hueber, Martin Koster

Client: Ontwikkelingscombinatie Waterbuurt West and Woningstichting Eigen Haard

Project area: 10,652 sqm

Project year: 2001-2011

Photographs: Marcel van der Burg, Luuk, Kramer, Roos Aldershoff

Is it a boat? Is it a house? Is it romantic or is it pragmatic? 

It is a hybrid. It is not what you think it is. Seventy-five floating homes and waterside dyke houses in the private (rental and owner-occupied) sector.

Building on the water is a different story

The Netherlands has a history of living close to water and of coping with its caprices. That means living on land protected by dykes, on mounds, on shore or floating. Only recently have floating homes been eligible as a significant solution to Holland’s modern housing needs. Canals with houseboats are of course a familiar sight in Dutch cities and one may find the occasional floating hotel or restaurant. But these are always individual units and bear more resemblance to boats than to houses.

In recent years, however, there has been an increase in the number of water-based housing developments that share more characteristics with land-based housing. These floating dwellings form part of an urban design. They are financially classified as immovable properties, and compete with land-based accommodation in their interior volume and comfort level. The new water-based developments can incorporate several forms of living with the water. Besides floating homes, they may include amphibious homes and homes that stand free of the water on mounds, dykes or other waterside situations. The IJburg district of Amsterdam is to have complete floating neighbourhoods, with jetties instead of paved footpaths and city plazas.

The growing enthusiasm for living beside or on the water has two pragmatic motives. Firstly, rising sea levels and increased precipitation will make it necessary to dedicate ever larger areas of land to water storage basins and peak overflow zones. Secondly, some hold that there is already a crucial shortage of new building land. Not everyone shares that view, however: the strategic consolidation of existing towns produces a sharper urban/rural contrast, making many greenfield developments superfluous or even detrimental. Living – and working – on the water is in effect the multiple utilization of space. It is also a way of redeveloping obsolete dockland areas and flooded quarries. Another, more aesthetic, argument in favour of living on the water is that it fosters a feeling of liberty and of closeness to nature.

The New Old / Jessica Liew

Like this style quite a lot !!!!!!!!!!!!

But it would be too expansive to built a student accommodation for Chinese universities...

Architects: Jessica Liew

Location: Inner city Melbourne, Victoria

Area: 360.0 sqm

Year: 2012

Photographs: Jaime Diaz-Berrio, Jessica Liew

A house that maximizes a relatively small 385m² site in inner city Melbourne, providing bright but private living spaces. There is simple, relaxed feel about this house,  loaded with character from the natural materials used including concrete, recycled tumbled bricks and hardwood timber. These provide an honesty and rawness so rarely seen these days – an antithesis to the glitz, luxe and glamour often seen in popular magazine and tv programs. To the architect/owner, the aim was to build a relaxed, private home that was energy efficient, practical and imbued with character from the all-natural materials used – complementing their extensive collection of art and antiquities from their travels. The result is remarkable. A home that has outwitted even other architects who have mistaken it for a renovation, rather than a newly-built dwelling on what was previously the neighbors tennis court.

    

Accommodation: double storey dwelling comprising formal living, library, cellar, study, casual living and dining, separate laundry, rumpus, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 3 car accommodation.

6 star energy rated: double glazed windows and skylights, double hung ceilings, double insulated stud walls,reverse brick veneer walls, underground water tank, hydronic slab heating, recycled bricks, custom double height pile wool carpet, regenerative hardwood timbers throughout.

‘Switchable’ spaces including a study turning into a guest bedroom (murphy bed); rumpus or second study on level 1; and studio or 3rd bedroom upstairs.

A courtyard sized to a car space for future additional parking requirement. Hidden storage and joinery throughout.Custom steel framed glass pivot doors replacing a conventional front door, the recessed floor mat is the only give away.

    

Antique Chinese screen doors framing the fishpond corridor , mural by celebrated Melbourne street artists Ghostpatrol and Miso; retention of the original chain wire mesh tennis court fencing and tennis court roller; all rooms feature a garden, fishpond or courtyard aspect. 

Honesty: respect and transparency for all natural materials used – predominant palette comprising black concrete, white painted tumbled bricks and natural timber finish waiting to age with the house.

    

        

      

Biotehniska Fakulteta / Arhitektura Krušec

Architects: Arhitektura Krusec

Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Directors in Charge: Lena Krušec, Tomaž Krušec and Vid Kurinčič

Collaborators: Vanja Milosavljevič , Jan Šavli, Domen Fučka , Tina Mikulič, Jurij Nemec , Nina Polajnar, Miha Prosen

Investor: University of Ljubljana and Biotechnical Faculty

Project Area: 2,700 sqm

Design Year: 2007-2008

Construction Year: 2009–2010

Photographs: Miran Kambič

The building is constructed within a large area in which various buildings of the Biotechnical Faculty are positioned as pavilions among groves of fruit trees. The building is a functional and conceptual continuation of the existing faculty complex.

It houses a large representative lecture hall, the dean’s office and central library.

In spite of the poor construction state of the existing building, it is the only context of design and organization the new building design could relate to.

In accordance with the above, all communication passages in the new building are connected to hallways in the existing building.

The main entrance is designed from the western side, combining with the existing building entrance to create a large entry platform with benches. The entry platform serves to functionally and perceptively combine two dislocated entries into a unified whole.

The connection to the existing building is also obvious at the level of façade design, as it resumes the composition scheme of the existing building. The façade dynamics reflect the functional layout of internal premises and load bearing construction.

The library, acting as the “house of learning” is symbolically placed above the main entrance. As the sanctuary of all written knowledge of the faculty, the library has a dominant position both in the direction of the main entrance and in the direction of the main hall.

Special attention is paid to orientation of the halls that never end as “blind alleys”. They are rather closed by glass walls that allow users a view into the surroundings.

Hotel Well / MVA

Architects: MVA

Location: Tuheljske Toplice, Croatia

Architect In Charge: Marin Mikelić, TomislavVreš

Collaborators: DubravkaPerica, IvanaKrneta, IvanaDrviš, SilvijaPranjić, Sara Pavlov, StjepanBirač (Architecture)

Client: TermeTuheljd.o.o.

Area: 12,250 sqm

Year: 2012

    

The addition to an existing congress/wellness hotel is located in the thermal complex “TermeTuhelj”, Croatia, next to theprotected historical park and baroque Curia “Mihanović”. The starting point of the project was the idea of connecting all the existing and new facilities and integrating theminto anewand meaningful ensemble.

With respect to the existing pavilion-likeorganisation, the architects developed a concept of a “detached” hotel, providingthe users a connection with naturefrom all the inside spaces. The program of the new part of a hotel is clearly vertically separated (public + accommodation). 126 rooms are divided into three smaller pavilions (along to the three old ones) and the “public” facilities are organized into elongated ground base. This base assimilates some of the existing “public” spaces and connects all old and new accommodation pavilions.

    

This organisationprovided natural light even in congress halls with beautiful views to the Zagorje landscape.Dividingtheaccomodation facilities into three pavilions provided all of the rooms with nice views to the scenery.

     

Terrain configuration is used to form an amphitheater in the center that provides a visual and spatial communication of the congress center and hotel lobby with the baroque Curia in the background. This space,besides the added value for the hotel and convention center, can adopt a whole range of different activities and could contribute to the social life of local community.

The selection of materials for the facade envelope marks the theme of duality (light / heavy). Side facades are “wrapped” with the envelope of lightweight aluminum composite panels colored in gold whose perforations allow views from the rooms.The rest of the facades and roof surfaces are covered with precast concrete panels, partly opening as perforated ‘eyelids’in front of the windows. This intervention enters the dialogue with the existing context by using contemporary architectural language.Through that dialogue, without“blending-in”, it aims to establish new and more complex spatial relations.

Landscape Architecture: AmalijaDenich

Signage, Design: TatjanaPetric

Interior Consulting: Iva Baković

Building Physics: Mateo Biluš

Structural Engineering: Mario Todorić, Toding

Electrical Engineering: SrećkoZubak, Shema ZS