The window

The Sant Francesc convent, located in the small Catalan town of Santpedor, was built in the early 18th century by Franciscan priests. In 1835 the convent was sacked. Thereafter began the process of progressive deterioration of the building that ended with its demolition in 2000. Only the church remained standing, but in a completely ruinous state. The project was aimed to convert the Church into an auditorium and a multifunctional cultural facility. The intervention has consolidated the church without deleting the process of deterioration and collapse that the building had suffered. The project has maintained the dimensions of the church interior space and, also, the unusual entries of natural light produced by partial roof collapses. Ra... More

This 2,000 square foot guest house is situated on a rock outcropping that overlooks a trout pond and open farmland. Designed as a contemplative retreat for weekend visitors, the house allows one to experience the expansive surrounding landscape with vast unobstructed views. The house integrates a number of sustainable design strategies including geothermal heating and cooling, radiant floors, natural ventilation, motorized solar shades, photovoltaic panels, and rainwater collection for irrigation. Paul Warchol Paul Warchol Open views to nature create a stunning backdrop for the main living and sleeping areas. A main bedroom and two ‘couchette’ nooks with built-in bunk beds provide accommodations for six overnight gues... More

It stands on a plot situated on a longitudinal north-south axis that brings sunlight into all the rooms. The slope of the land allows all the storeys to have an issue to the outside. The entire architecture appears framed within an exceptional environment: a garden of generous dimensions continues the harmonious lines of the construction, like a soft rug dotted with abundant planters and flowerbeds. A large steel beam marks the entrance via a colossal door. Inside, the window concept disappears and turns into openings. The size is suitable, proportioned and appropriate, thus conferring importance to the open spaces, the soft colours and the clean lines of the finishes.Beauty is localised in essential and simple minutiae and finds emotion in... More

The Prahran Hotel is a substantial two storey corner pub with a striking streamlined art deco facade. The rear of the venue had a poorly proportioned, internalised single storey extension and the clients brief for the project called to demolish and replace it with a dramatic double height space with a central courtyard. The use of large stacked concrete pipes for the street facade of the addition struck a chord for multiple reasons: they have a depth and can be interactive, they have a dramatic, sculptural quality, they reference existing internal circular motifs and they suggest stacked kegs or barrels. A steel glazed courtyard cuts through the interior, connecting both levels and allowing ample natural light to flood the space. A... More

A two-hour drive away from New York, UNStudio has created a holiday house that is lodged languidly between the hills. At the same time it seems to draw itself up to view the landscape. The concept for Villa NM is so simple and effective, it is almost perverted. From the hilly country grew the idea to continue the landscape by creating a split level. In the words of Mr Ben van Berkel: “The house moves on, over and with the landscape.” The first difference in level follows the slope of the hill, the second one moves away from the ground to give a view of the surroundings from a higher perspective. It is a clever idea to bridge the split level by twisting some of the surfaces a quarter turn - a wall that twists on its central axle horiz... More

What is being sought with this studio is quite simple: work under the trees. To do so, we need a roof that is as transparent as possible. Also, at the same time, we need to isolate the desk zone from direct sunlight. Hence the transparent northern part. The part that is covered with a bent sheet of 20mm colourless plexiglass on the north side. The south side, where the desks are, has to be closed in much more, but not completely, so there is double sheet of fibreglass and polyester in its natural colour on the south side, with translucent insulation in the middle. All three form a 110 mm thick sandwich. In the former case, the outward view is clear and transparent. The views in the latter case are translucent, somewhat marre... More

The geometry of the building is based on the footprint of the house that previously was located on the site. Originally built in 1984 and with many extensions and modifications since then, the new building echoes the „family archaeology“ by duplication and rotation. Lifted up, it creates a semi-public space on ground level between two layers of discretion. The skin of the villa performs a sophisticated connection between inside and outside and offers spectacular views onto the old town of Marbach and the German national literature archive on the other side of the Neckar valley. More

How would you describe this building? The Artist’s warehouse is a monolithic Modern structure. Its orthogonal plan is divided into 3 zones: Firstly, the cantilever with the balcony in the South, where the entrance is situated, secondly, the artist’s workspace and finally the attic in the North which serves as a storage space. A straight staircase connects the two levels, while the cantilevered concrete steps can serve as exhibition stands for the artist’s work. What were the most important wishes of the client? The most important demand was an open space structure of a significant height suitable to the needs of the Artist in order for him to hang paintings and construct huge sculptures. Another wish has been the integration of the... More

Casa V consists on the rehabilitation, adaptation and expansion of an existing house, designed and built in the early 1960’s. The family that inhabits the house has been spending the holidays in it for almost fifty years. In that time, even though the number of family members has increased, the house had remained the same, being unable to fulfill current and future needs. The intention of the project is to make a place where three generations of one same family can enjoy their holiday simultaneously. For that purpose, a new house is made for the two younger generations, which consists on a side wing that articulates itself with the old building on the northeast. The rooftop of this new house serves as a private garden for the pre-existing h... More

The building site is situated at the end of a small street in the small village of Horebeke in the Flemish Ardennes, next to a restaurant. The view from the site is splendid: the landscape slopes slowly and offers an overview to an untouched agricultural area spread over two kilometers. This kind of impressive landscapes asks for discrete admiration, just like the design assignment itself. A notary must be a building that establishes itself in a neutral way and it should be accessible for each type of visitor. We believe building in a landscape like this asks for the same kind of neutrality. This was translated in a rough brick volume which is semi-closed to the street side and the restaurant. The entrance to the building is marked... More

"The slim, long building with its smooth, specular surfaces widens the site. material,light and transparency create wide and open spaces" The building is located on a south-hillside above esslingen am neckar within a grownresidential area. the extremely slim and sloping land has since been used as adriveway road and was considered unbuildable. The just 4,70m wide and 14m longbuilding pushes out of the long, slim body between the neighboring houses into thehillside. The support structure of delicate fair faced concrete divide the space and arecovered with thin, high-performance curtain facades. Transparent glass facades openthe building to the narrow eaves sides. The interior is based on the green of the garden and far-sighted from the ne... More

When Caltech’s senior administration suddenly changed, REX’s design for the Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology was canceled. Two months later, the CEO of Vakko (Turkey’s pre-eminent fashion house) and Power Media (Turkey’s equivalent of MTV) approached REX with plans to design and construct a new headquarters by the year’s end using an unfinished, abandoned hotel. The requested timetable would normally have been absurd. However, the unfinished building fortuitously had the same plan dimension, floor-to-floor height, and servicing concept as the Annenberg Center’s “Ring” (the so-called “Sheep”). By adapting the Construction Documents produced for the Annenberg Center to the abandoned concrete hotel skeleton, constr... More

The Rieteiland House was designed on a plot of land that is part of a newly established island at IJburg on the outskirts of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It asked for a house that is completely orientated on the panoramic views to the park and the landscape. The boxlike street façade is completely cladded with perforated horizontal aluminium panels, of which some can open automatically to make way for the windows behind them. The façade on the waterside is completely made out of glass sheets and sliding doors. The house is an alongated rectangular block of three floors and a basement. Inside, the space literally opens up. Most of the floors have a double hight and are open. In this way the house can be seen as a sort of spatial grandsta... More

Villa Roces is integrated in an oblong terrain of about 70m long and 30m wide, situated in the forest surroundings of Bruges. The concept consists of a 50 m long and a 4.20 m high wooden wall flanking 6 m wide glass box is disposed. The house is built along a wall with the intention to meet the lack of light and reflect the presence of the forest, the verticality of the trees, etc. The 54m long wall functions as a background for the transparant volume in front. The wall is not only visible at the outside, but also continuously visible at the inside. As the transparent volume is conceived as a box, the inside space is filled in with clearly defined boxes and volumes and incorporate the structural elements. The g... More