Studio R / StudioMK27

Appreciation towards StudioMK27 for providing the following description: 

Facing a small urban square, the Loft Studio opens entirely to the outside. The inner
space of this photography studio flows into the side gardens of the building and into the
urban space, establishing a spatial continuity between the square and the building. The
façade, an aluminum gate is recessed into the concrete binding, integrating the front
patio with the square; further, two large swinging metal gates – each more than 11
meters wide – permit fluidity between the gardens and the open space of the studio.   

Opened, these swinging gates make all visual barriers between internal and external
space disappear. Closed, they allow the light in the Photography Studio to be
controlled artificially. In the opening of the ground floor, there is a box clad in formica-
china, where we have the lavatory, dressing room and the technical area.  In this space,
there is no interference of the structure, which is built into the side walls of the building.
Behind the green box, the stairs – lighted by a skylight – leads to the first floor, where
we find the offices and the library.  

A volume with metallic material organizes all the space on this floor, separating the
rooms and corridors.  On this floor there is a kitchen the lavatories and the stairs that
lead to the top floor. The negative of this volume is the work rooms which can be
opened or closed - depending on the desired privacy – through sliding panels which
are built into the central box. In the main office a fixed mashrabiya panel filters the light,
while simultaneously opening a beautiful view of the large trees in the square.  On the
top floor, there is a social room positioned over the front garden. This space opens with
folding wooden panels, painted red, onto a deck where you can once again see the
tree tops: a pleasant space for meetings on sunny days.  

The material used internally displays an industrial aesthetic, appropriate for the
intensive use of a photography Studio that needs to constantly transform itself,
depending on the situation. The floor of the large opening is of white resin which also
becomes the endless back and the wall.  On the other floors, the wooden floor warms
the ambient.  Externally, the metal doors join the exposed concrete and the different
colored wooden panels.

project > studio R
location > são paulo . sp . brazil
project > fevereiro . 2008
completion > september . 2012
site area > 338,15sqm
built area > 373,00sqm

architecture > studio mk27
architect > marcio kogan
co-architect > gabriel kogan . oswaldo pessano
interiors > diana radomysler
team > beatriz meyer . eduardo chalabi . eduardo glycerio . eduardo gurian  . elisa
friedmann . gabriel kogan . lair reis . luciana antunes . marcio tanaka .
maria cristina motta . mariana ruzante . mariana simas
samanta cafardo . suzana glogowski
collaborators > fernando falcon . fabiana cyon

photographer > fernando guerra
email > sergioguerra@ultimasreportagens.com

landscape architect > passe_ar verde
joão fausto maule filho

structure engineer > leão e associados
eng. joão rubens leão

general contractor > lock engenharia
eng. marcelo ribeiro

air conditioning > grau engenharia

installations > grau engenharia

gates > s. naldi

Buda Art Centre / 51N4E

      Appreciation towards 51N4E for providing the following description:

  Buda Art Centre

         51N4E

         The last remaining textile factory on Buda Island - an area destined to become the
         cultural heart of the city - has been transformed into studios and exhibition spaces for
         artists in residence. This large volume, situated in the middle of a city block, has been
         adapted through two main interventions:

         The first hollows out a large void in the centre of the building, bringing daylight deep into
         the vast floor plan. This pentagonal void houses a public staircase that gives access to
         a diverse range of spaces on four levels: a laboratory for manufacturing, multifunctional
         spaces of varying sizes and lighting conditions, music venues and a roof terrace. The
         biggest part of the structure is reused. Besides saving resources, the reuse allows for a
         large cultural building within a limited budget.

         The second intervention adds an open pavilion as an entrance hall from the street. Built
         from the yellow brick discovered in the original interior, this pavilion becomes the new
         facade of the complex: the tip of the iceberg. The pavilion itself functions as an
         antechamber, giving a foretaste of events inside.

         The Buda Art Centre is a new type of cultural space. Making reference to its past, it
          remains a workshop of production. The materials and details make it an approachable
          space for all kinds of activities and users. The warm palette of colours and the series of
          rather informal spaces invite people to appropriate and discover the building for their
          own production, exhibition, and casual interaction. 

         While the majority of the building is hidden from its surrounding context, the roof terrace
         provides a sudden confrontation with the city of Kortrijk. The building is a tool to look,
         not an object to look at. It avoids becoming an image but instead creates an
         environment..

         Author:
         51N4E

51N4E

Buda Art Centre – Kortrijk Belgium

General information

project name:   Buda Art Centre

name of building in use: Budafabriek

location:   Kortrijk, Belgium

programme:   exhibition & event facilities, artists’ studios

built surface:    4.240 m²

budget:   € 2.000.000

design period:   2005 (competition) – 2007

construction period:  2010 – 2012

Project authors

51N4E partners  Johan Anrys, 

Freek Persyn, 

Peter Swinnen 

51N4E team   Tine Cooreman

    Aline Neirynck    

Bob De Wispelaere

    Karel Verstraeten

    Jan Opdekamp

    Joram Van den Brande

    Marc-Achille Filliol

    Chris Blackbee

    Emmanuel Debroise

copyright photographs: Filip Dujardin (www.filipdujardin.be)

(see file name)   Paul Steinbrück

copyright images  51N4E

(collages/ renderings)

Client    City of Kortrijk / AGB Buda

Engineers

structural engineering  BAS / Dirk Jaspaert – Leuven, Belgium

technical engineering  Studiebureau Boydens – Groot Bijgaarden, Belgium

                          MORE:  51N4E

Millbrook House / Thomas phifer and partners

     Appreciation towards Thomas phifer and partners for providing the following description:

     All photo © Scott Frances 

           The journey of arrival at the Millbrook House is an unhurried ascent, focused on experiencing 

              and re-experiencing the land. On this 200-acre site, an architecture of discrete geometric objects
              set within a heroic landscape choreographs the route, mediating an unfolding sequence of
              thresholds and views. Up a rambling drive, through a forest to a small, gravel car park, the
              approach shifts to a footpath, rising along a hill’s ridge. In spirit, the progression recalls the
              seemingly meandering, yet deftly orchestrated path to an Ancient Greek temple, engaging the
              visitor with a landscape held even more sacred than the building itself.

              At Millbrook, the first glimpse of built form is a cantilevered, weathering-steel box, the
              guesthouse, hovering over an edge of the car park. Deep red, patinated steel panels form a
              retaining wall, extending from beneath the studio straight up hill, rising with the regular rhythm of
              metal plates beside bluestone treads, set into the slope like stepping stones on a pool of water.

              The ascent reaches the hill’s crest, a grassy promontory, flanked by a rectangular glass pavilion
              along one side and, on the opposite edge, a series of four low, mahogany-sheathed volumes—
              as pure and distilled in their geometric repetition as a Minimalist sculpture. This arrangement
              around the clearing frames long, perspectival views of the Hudson Valley, reminiscent of the
              vista-capturing gestures of Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia and Louis Kahn’s Salk
              Institute.

             The glass pavilion at Millbrook sits so lightly and with such transparency that its floor seems to 

              flow uninterrupted from the surrounding carpet of lawn. Once you’ve crossed the threshold, into
              the living-dining-kitchen space, full panoramic views open up, dramatically and in all directions.

  

              This clear volume plays against the wood-clad monoliths, windowless from the approach, their
              opaque, mahogany shells echoing the rich, earthy hues of the weathered steel. Though
              seemingly freestanding, the pavilion and its wood counterparts all connect indoors, beneath the
              grassy precinct. Each mahogany box, partially embedded in the sloping terrain, forms a private
              cabin for sleeping and bathing, entered one level below the glass pavilion. As if emerging from
              the earth, these high-ceilinged cabins have an intimate rapport with the landscape. In counterpoint 
              to the visually expansive hilltop perch, they open only eastward, to the morning sun,
              each to its own bamboo garden and the meadows beyond.

              Your perception of the house and site evolve: not simply as you cross the land, but also as you
              move through the interior, from grand communal to quieter private zones. Outside, the
              experience crescendos as you crest the hill and step across the high lawn. But only when you
              venture into the glass pavilion does the journey reach its climax, from contained space opening
              to the vastness of the landscape. 

       More: Thomas phifer and partners