Architectural concrete

Text by Lior Galili | The new Health Clinic building in Nof-Yam is a two-story public facility built for Clalit, the main national health services provider in Israel. Located between the sea and a major highway, the building functions as an anchor of both stability and solidarity. Nimrod Levi The organization of the ground floor establishes the stable and harmonious nature of the building. Half delineated by columns, half wrapped by concrete walls, the ground plan, which is comprised of parking and reception areas, presents its visitors with the core character of the construction: a dialectic of shadow and light; of lightness and solidity; and—in a more subtle manner—of fixed and fluid structures. This former dialectic is... More

This house is an architectural reflection of an actual time . Our goal was in receiving visual balanced combination of sturdy monolithic and transparent blocks. Space, formed by concrete volumes, is fіlled by glass. Thereby, living and kitchen premises were formed. Caption   The hallway connects master block with guest bedrooms and has glass ceiling and walls. There is a home office under the garage and 3 bedrooms on the second floor. Caption The house was conceived like a durable modern building, which combaines concrete, wooden and glass volumes. Material contrast emphasizes the lightness of some and the heaviness of other architecture elements. More

Merkem is a village in West Flanders, counting 2,300 inhabitants. After having been completely destroyed in the First World War it was reconstructed in the 1920´s in a typical local building style, being a characteristic example of post-war reconstruction architecture. The village is situated along two main roads joining in a T-junction. Caption The assignment consisted of two parts: The renovation of the village centre and the construction of a community centre. The redesign of the public space included three squares, whose simple but high quality design corresponds with the sober character of the village. The community centre is located on the ‘Stationsplein’, a square measuring 150 x 40 metres flanked by two-story... More

A narrow spit of land between the eastern bank of the IJ, the railway embankment and the Piet Heinkade was part of the redevelopment of the eastern harbour area by the Amsterdam Department of Urban Planning (DRO) in the 1990s. The urban development concept included a series of interconnected building zones. In this so-called ‘train of buildings’, a part of the old warehouses was to be preserved and integrated into the planning. Caption   Rapp+Rapp created the urban design for one of these building zones, in which an extremely high building density had to be realised. Following New York’s zoning law, urban guidelines were formulated for the daylighting, the massing, and the intended robust character by which the... More

Situated between Central Station and the Spui, next to the new Ministries of Foreign Affairs, stands De Kroon, a 131m high rise residential tower including office- and commercial space. The area is bounded on three sides by busy traffic arteries. The basic principles of the building design are based on the plot settings of the early American skyscrapers. An important reference for the building was the early high-rise typology of the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century in Chicago. Kim Zwarts   The office- and residential buildings are located next to each other on a commercial plinth. The 23m high office building is organized around an atrium hall. The adjacent residential tower covers 253 apartments. The setbacks o... More

The project consists of a four-story commercial building in Ernakulam, India. The design called for efficiency-oriented structure with minimal sacrifice for aesthetics. Being in a tropical humid climate, a climate responsive façade was required to reduce operating costs. These criteria led to the conception of a perforated Corten steel curtain wall encompassing the four-story structure. In the context of an indistinguishable concrete fabrication, the building ensures a rigid identity and a probable landmark.   Facade The façade is made using weathering steel-a steel alloy which forms a stable rust-like appearance after exposure to weather for several months. The rusting process facilitated by the forces of nature and p... More

mbX produced 10.000 m2 unique double-curved precast façade elements for the largest and most impressive shopping mall in the Netherlands. Client: Unibail Rodamco WestfieldArchitect: MVSA ArchitectenContractor: Ballast NedamFacade specialist: TGM More

The House of Voids at New Amritsar Colony is nestled in an upcoming township in the city of Amritsar. The plot is narrow and deep, bounded by residential buildings on three sides while facing a beautiful park on one edge. This context challenged the possibility of opening up the interior to air and light while maintaining privacy – which became the driving force behind the layout of spaces.   A combination of passive design techniques have been used to make the enclosed spaces comfortable and open to the elements of nature. From the outside, the mass of the home is solid and unassuming, giving almost no hint of the vibrant interior. A four feet buffer with cut-outs along the south side has been introduced, which follow the sun-... More

Yoga Room is a Belgian based yoga practice company, with studios in Belgium and France.  In Lyon, Yoga Room opened in 2019 a brand new 600 square meters studio in the Part Dieu district.  To understand the genesis of the project, the information of the location is important as the new studio takes place between two hisotrical brutalist building from the 60, build by Jean Zumbrunnen.  In collaboration with Opla architecture, Ré Architecture invested this architectural heritage and remodeled this large concrete/brutalist place and turned it into a cosy zen space.  The design of the place is caracterized by its simplicity, with subtle lighting, hints of plywood and pristine drywalls, the concrete has been revealed and... More

Valentin Studio is a 3D rendering studio based in Lyon, their new office takes place in an old art deco style building.  The project spreads out on a whole groundfloor with two spaces connected by a cork covered multi usage expression unit.  The first space is dedicated to work and hosts the desks of the team, the second space is oriented towards staff well being with a lounge area, a kitchen and enough place for a table soccer table.  The cork covered unit conceals technical spaces for the copy machine, bathrooms and lots of storage.  As for the main design, like in each Ré architecture project, it can be caracterized by a clean and simple aesthetic in materials and colors choice. As a bonus, demolition works revea... More

The Residencial N 07 building consists of six residential apartments, located in Balneário Piçarras, north coast of Santa Catarina State. The land chosen is located on the main avenue, with beautiful view of the sea. It measures only 244 square meters, that is 12 meters front by 22 meters long. The proposal seeks to offer to the market a building with contemporary authorial architecture, without the vices and repetitions normally presented by the real estate market. The architectural project sought to solve the proposed program through the following basic premises: to create a clear structural solution, which can guide the way of the building, to create a ground floor as free as possible, to implant the building aiming at t... More

The history of Zhejiang Gongshang University Jiaogong Road Campus in Hangzhou dates back to the 1960s. Like many Chinese universities, the old campus has been transformed into the office parks in the city center under the double attack of urban expansion and the addition of campuses. The ladder classrooms on the ground and second floor of Building B in the campus have been left idle for a long time because their space forms can not correspond to the normal office needs. Due to the expansion of the team, line+ urgently needs more free and spacious office space. When choosing the location of the studio, we immediately noticed this highly layered and non-standardized space, as well as the entire second-story space of the adjacent female dormi... More

ENHANCEMENT OF THE SITEThe building is locatedon the Island of Nantes, adjoining the blockhouse and a suburban building.The two main facades of the building have different architectural features. On the street the facade is regular and woven. It takes up the composition of its neighbor in the suburbs, to participate in the formation of clear public space. On the side of the large site, balconies with taut shapes jut out towards the void.   LARGE BALCONIESThe balconies react to their near and far environment. On the lower floors, the curves envelop the corollas of the trees planted on the terrace. In height, the balcony lines stretch towards the sky to embrace the great void of the square and the Loire landscape. The shapes of the bal... More

Baan Bubble dome house with a magnificent sunset & lake view, designed in the spirit of retro-futurism; landscape with very special thematic terraces - a Chinese garden with a dragon trail, a classic Japanese Rock Garden, and Mediterranean line, where the Red Vine infinity pool is located. There’s a Bubble Boat attached to the house, snow-white ship with a deck terrace and romantic views of the pool and lake. Inside the ship there is a lounge zone for a beautiful, relaxing guest reception. Fotographer: Ivan Avdeenko Video Production: Oleg Malofeiev, VP Studio.   More