Modern wood architecture

Tla’amin “Our House” -- Ɂəms ʔayɛ –celebrates cultural renewal for this northern Coast Salish Nation who has lived on their ancestral lands for over 10,000 years. It offers a class A museum and repository, ethnobotanical garden, community kitchen, language lab, recording studio, and cultural gathering space linked to a traditional food processing facility. Tla’amin citizens were engaged in all aspects of design and construction, building careers within the Nation while providing access to healthy traditional foods and cultural practices.  Andrew Latreille Andrew Latreille Andrew Latreille The building is made from rot-and fungus-resistant Western red-cedar, the “Real Tree” in Co... More

As a practice, we firmly believe in the importance of a profound analysis of all the factors that surround each new project we face. In that sense, we understand inspiration as a creative interpretation of the client’s requirements and the particular conditions of the site. Undoubtedly, this creative response is highly conditioned by our understanding of dwelling and modes of inhabiting a living space; a striving to create unexpected conditions; and of course, our aesthetic preferences and inclinations.  Pablo Casals Aguirre Pablo Casals Aguirre Pablo Casals Aguirre In the case of Casa Morla, where the brief called for maximizing the efficiency of the space, the driving force behind the layout of the program was c... More

Casa Kuvo was commissioned to us in 2021 for the coastal locality of Matanzas in Chile, known for its weather conditions that favor the practice of water and wind sports. The brief called for a small unit of only 70 m2, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, suited for a younger population and preferably spread across two stories to make the most of the views towards the ocean. Manu Granados Manu Granados Manu Granados Volumetrically and chromatically reduced to a white prism of 6 x 6 x 6 m, the outward expression of the house is rather abstract and barren. The compact form has to do with extreme rationalization of the layout in order to maximize the available floor space, while the chromatics enters into a dynamic interplay w... More

In the Haus am Lubowsee, three generations find a spatial surprise staging under five roofs, which is primarily intended to create desire in the use of indoor and outdoor space. © Thomas Heimann On a long, narrow plot of land, to the south of a wetland forest, there is a meadow and a house, and to the north of the forest there is Lake Lubow. The lake and meadow are connected by a path and footbridge through the fairytale forest. Stepping out of the forest onto the meadow, the five house volumes are grouped village-like into a courtyard that welcomes you with open arms. This intimate gesture of sheltered space completely hides the neighboring heterogeneous developments. © Thomas Heimann The landscaping supports the path... More

Le campus de Live Oak Bank à Wilmington, en Caroline du Nord, célèbre son site serein et boisé tout en répondant à l'objectif de la société de créer le meilleur environnement de travail possible pour ses employés. Les bâtiments s'inspirent d'une palette de matériaux commune composée de cyprès, de verre et d'acier pour s'intégrer à l'environnement naturel tout en créant une esthétique moderne.  Le premier bâtiment du campus est ancré par un salon central surplombant la cour centrale et la terrasse ; les ailes de bureaux élancées de deux étages créent un sentiment de transpa... More

Villa Deer is a combination of an old summer house and it’s modern extension. Existing 1960’s cabin was built to lakeside in a former municipilaty of Kisko in Southwest Finland. Now a part of municipality of Salo, Kisko is known for it’s old copper mines but these days it’s mainly habited by summer residents.The old cabin was relatively small consisting only of one room and a sauna and bathing spaces. The lone room was for both sleeping and livingroom purposes. New habitants needed more space for family members and visitors, so they decided to make an extension of two bedrooms.Idea for the extension was to make a modern and radical architecture compared to the modest gable roofed summer house architecture of the 1960’s. Slanted end wall and... More

Base Street Trio is a three-apartment row house situated in Tammisalo neighborhood of eastern Helsinki, Finland. Tammisalo is an old residential area with mostly single family homes and row houses built after 1950’s, but the history goes beyond that as the area was a part of 19th century mansion grounds. Being an island Tammisalo is surrounded by water and small forests. Nature is present everywhere as characteristic old and tall pine trees grow on many yards of many homes.   As the city grows and needs more space for it’s recidents, properties in the loosely built residential areas are being coped with denser land to building ratio which allowed building three apartments to a small lot instead of two. On the steep site, approach was for ho... More

The residential area where the site is located abuts a high-speed motorway in the Nishi ward of Niigata, Japan. The area was embanked with concrete retaining walls over 50 years ago and with age, these walls have weakened. Our design approach to alleviate the stresses incurred by these walls was to reduce the soil inside the site and convert the space into a courtyard. We chose to create a scenic space within these walls for the generation to come, who will inherit this site for the next 50 years.     By removing the soil and freeing up the space to create a new basement, a new benefit revealed itself. The height of the retaining walls not only reduced the noise coming from the high-speed motorway, it also blocked the stron... More