On the edge of wilderness
An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about on the edge of wilderness
Project • By Steven Holl Architects • Exhibition Centres
Knut Hamsun Center
Knut Hamsun, Norway's most inventive twentieth-century writer, fabricated new forms of expression in his first novel Hunger. He went on to found a truly modern school of fiction with his works Pan, Mysteries, and Growth of the Soil. This center dedicated to Hamsun is located above the Arctic Circle near the village of Presteid of Hamarøy near the farm where the writer grew up. The 2300-square meter center includes exhibition areas, a library and reading room, a café, and an auditorium equipped with the latest film projection equipment. (Hamsun's writings have been particularly inspiring to filmmakers, which is evident in the more than 17 films based on his work.)
The building is conceived as an archetypal and intensified compression of s... More
Project • By Carvalho Araújo • Private Houses
De Lemos
Answering the request for the conception and design for a Gourmet Restaurant, we developed the project with the idea of a Guesthouse, private equipment as complement of the first. The group intends to relate to the wine production, and to frame this investment in a global brand strategy, instead of an isolated act in the territory.
The Guesthouse doesn't have a formal reception; the services create an intimate atmosphere, family like and exclusive. The bedroom is not just the private domain; it includes other spaces of social character, which makes this equipment different from the usual offer of temporary lodging. The bedroom is really a small house.
The association established with the wine production justifies the restaurant. It in... More
Project • By Diller Scofidio + Renfro • Exhibitions
BLUR BUILDING
The Blur Building is an architecture of atmosphere—a fog mass resulting from natural and man-made forces. Water is pumped from Lake Neuchatel, filtered, and shot as a fine mist through 35,000 high-pressure nozzles. A smart weather system reads the shifting climatic conditions of temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction and regulates water pressure at a variety of zones. Upon entering Blur, visual and acoustic references are erased. There is only an optical “white-out” and the “white-noise” of pulsing nozzles. Contrary to immersive environments that strive for visual fidelity in high-definition with ever-greater technical virtuosity, Blur is decidedly low-definition. In this exposition pavilion there is nothing to see but our dependen... More
Project • By Arya Architects • Heritages
Mewar Complex
The Mewar Complex is intended to resonate with the qualities of the life of the legendary king of Rajasthan, Rana Pratap. Designed to commemorate the brave, frugal and hard life of the Rana, the project also projected his strength. Symbolic of his rebellion, as architects, we resisted the making of the memorials and tourism facilities to become pastiche and clichés of a ‘Rajasthani’ architecture, replete with battle scenes, chattris, walls with crenellations, jharookhas. On the contrary, the textured walls rose like the Rana, battle marked and hardened, rough and strong. Thus, a texture of large and small pieces that resonates with the tones of the hills and mountains around is created. It is reminiscent of the rugged terrain of the battlef... More
Project • By General Architecture • Private Houses
Sauna
The small building is built as a uniform volume, clad in larch wood. When not in use the house is completely closed, giving it an appearance of the archetypal house. When open, the warm un-weathered finish of the larch gives the sauna a friendly and welcoming character.
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Project • By PLAN 01 architects • Museums
Vendée's historical museum in Lucs-sur-Boulogne (France)
No description More
Project • By GEZA Architettura • Private Houses
GP Mountain House
Project of a detached holiday house on the slope of a hill in Hohenthurn, Austria.
The project is aimed at complying with the type of a mountain house for both design and materials used.
The volume stretches east to west parallel to the contour line and lies on a reinforced concrete basement, which makes the building foundations and underground floor.
The masonry is made of reinforced concrete walls and a hardwood frame coated with typical local wooden tiles.
The saddle roof too is coated with the same tiling method, so that the roof and perimeter walls look like a whole surface.
The south-facing protruding balcony overlooking the mountains emphasizes that the building entertains a direct relation with the landscape, and becomes an... More
Project • By Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor AB • Visitor Center
Tåkern visitor centre
All the way out where the forest ends and the reeds begin, a visitor center hovers low on piles set carefully into the water’s edge. The building is clad in thatch, camouflaged like a birdwatcher’s blind, hiding its contents from the natural world that surrounds it. This is quiet architecture, using traditional local materials to break new ground with its crystalline geometry. Steep roofs transition seamlessly into walls. The steep pitch gives them longevity. The ridge, where a thatched roof is most vulnerable, is transformed into a glazed skylight.
The visitor center is the main feature of a series of measures that celebrate Tåkern’s qualities. The path to the building passes a number of landscape exhibits that reveal, for example,... More
Project • By Saunders Architecture • Individual Buildings
Fogo Island, Long Studio
The Shorefast Foundation and the Fogo Island Arts Corporation has commissioned Todd Saunders to design a series of six artists’ studios on various Fogo Island locations. The organization is committed to preserving the Islanders’ traditions and aims at rejuvenating the island through the arts and culture.
The solitary, off-the-grid Long Studio, Located near the Newfoundland community of Joe Batt’s Arm hovers on a series of stilts that lifts the structure above the ground to frame a view of the North Atlantic Ocean. More
Project • By Ensamble Studio • Sculptures
The Truffle
The Truffle is a piece of nature built with earth, full of air. A space within a stone that sits on the ground and blends with the territory. It camouflages, by emulating the processes of mineral formation in its structure, and integrates with the natural environment, complying with its laws.
We made a hole in the ground, piling up on its perimeter the topsoil removed, and we obtained a retaining dike without mechanical consistency. Then, we materialized the air building a volume with hay bales and flooded the space between the earth and the built air to solidify it. The poured mass concrete wrapped the air and protected itself with the ground. Time passed and we removed the earth discovering an amorphous mass.
The earth and the concr... More
Project • By BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group • Housing
8 House
The 8 House in Copenhagen, Denmark, which allows its residents to bike all the way from the street up to its 10th level penthouses, receives the 2012 AIA Institute Honor Award for Architecture that recognizes achievements that elevate the general quality of the architectural practice. The 8 House which entails 650,000 ft² is honored by the jury panel for the buildings distinctive design and ability to contribute to the city and its surroundings.
“The 8 House masterfully recreates the horizontal social connectivity and interaction of the streets of a village neighborhood through a series of delightful accessible ramps in a mixed use, multifamily housing project. The skillful shaping of the mass of the facility provides an invigorating sc... More
Project • By Werner Tscholl architekt • Pavilions
Bärenstall
The Timmelsjoch is the deepest, non-glaciated indentation in the main Alpine ridge between the Reschen Pass and the Brenner Pass.A road, once a mule track, links the Passeiertal valley and the Ötztal valley. Over thousands of years, unique similarities between the two valleys evolved, triumphing over the natural boundary created by the mountains.Since 2010 architectural sculptures located at several stopping places along the road, enlighten travellers about the natural surroundings, the history, the culture, the communities and the economy of the region.All together there are 5 sculptures to be explored, two on the Austrian side called walkway and smuggler and two on the Italian side of the road named telescope and garnets. On the highest p... More
Project • By TYIN Tegnestue • Boathouses
Naust paa Aure
The boathouse is a cultural and historical hallmark of Norways coastal regions, where fishing used to be the primary profession. They have traditionally been used for storing boats and fishing gear, but today many of them are being converted for recreational summer use. This particular boathouse is located on the outermost reaches of the Moere-coast, and it hails from the middle of the eighteenth century.
It was in such a bad state that the owner decided to tear it down and build it anew. The simplicity of the old building, its good placement and honest use of materials would become key sources of inspiration for the design of the new building. Great emphasis was placed on the main construction, the gates of the gable wall and the adapt... More
Project • By Agence Guilhem Eustache • Private Houses
FOBE House
This modestly proportioned building visually occupies the whole plot. The house; The house is placed against a backdrop of two parallel concrete walls forming acoustic and visual protection to the west. A vertiginous staircase runs up between the two walls to the roof terrace opposite the grandiose panorama of the Atlas moutains, a view especially clear in sping . With is tall volumes, flui internal divisions , play of light and shade in the surroundings, this house flows through tje land scape and melts into it. Amid olive, palm, eucalyptus, mimosa and fruit trees. More
Project • By TYIN Tegnestue • Libraries
Safe Haven Library
In January 2009, TYIN invited 15 norwegian architect students from NTNU to participate in a workshop at the Safe Haven Orphanage. The workshop was led by Associate Professor Hans Skotte and architect Sami Rintala. The most immediate needs of the orphanage was a library and a new sanitary building.
TYIN worked on the bathhouse with the Karen workers from Noh Bo, while at the same time workshop participants put their efforts into the library. The concrete base of the library was cast onto a bed of large rocks gathered on-site. Walls were made from plastered concrete blocks, cooled the building during the day. While the open bamboo facades provided good ventilation throughout the building. The 'Iron wood' made up the solid frame construct... More