Category: Building Design

The interesting combination of a boomerang-shaped plan with a shed roof to create a  modern summer residence belongs to Japan-based architecture firm Haretoke studio  headed by architect Tatsuya Nagasaki. The aim of this project was to design a single family house that maximize the richness of the location with minimal intervention. Developed in Chiba, Japan, at eighty minutes from the city center by car, Seaside Boomerang residence is surrounded by a privileged natural setting with specific topographic features, monopolizing the best views facing the Pacific Ocean.

From far, this modern home resembles a boomerang structure that seems to be part of the landscape itself. Respecting the terrain entirely, the project was imagined as a simple configuration with rich interactions that varies both indoor and outdoor, in total communion with its beautiful natural surroundings. Different spaces featuring wood structures are blessed with plenty of natural light coming from large windows, whlist  the stairs and bridge let your eyes cross each other at different angles, and give stereoscopic visual sequence.

From morning till night, living space imprints changing of nature in various ways, this relationship between the house and the ocean transforming wonderfully the place. The interiors are yet to be decorated, but you can tell that the house does not lack space or surprising details. On the outside a wooden deck creates a gently surrounded “another living room” to fully enjoy the ocean and the sky.

Photos © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

Project details:

Location: Chiba, Japan
Type: Summer Residential -Single family house
Building status: Completed in July 2008
Site size: 244.86 m2
Construction area: 79.75 m2

RGR House in Rimini, Italy is a private house with a 500mp area, which has been completely restructured and renovated in 2011 by architects from ARCHINOW. Suitable for people who are into modern and urban décor details, this residential project is showcasing dynamism and spatial complexity through the use of two units with contradictory elements that interact in stringent concordance: symmetrical volumes with simple forms supported by a compact mass on the ground highlighted by contrasting materials  especially used to accentuate the notion of volumes.

Architects opted for plaster when created the upper volume is created using plaster, while for the basement they used stone of Trani and for the ground floor they designed a wooden deck which integrates well with calcarenitic gray stone used in the pathways. Its striking simplicity reveales a special attention for energy efficiency and different strategies that minimize the annual discharge.

So, the building features a cooling and heating system which is joined to an absorption system through solar panels. The energy to make use of the equipments comes from a small photovoltaic system, settled on the roof. A home automation system links the motorized sun screens at a light sensor that automatically manage the shielding in function of the contribution of solar lighting required.

Photos © Daniele Domenicali

Project details:

Program: residential
Architects: archiNOW
Location: Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Architect In Charge: Alessandro Gazzoni
Design Team: Stella Andriani, Marcello Dellarosa, Luca Foschi
Contractor: Gaetano Battistoni
Area: 500 sqm
Year: 2011

Source @archdaily.com

Michael Jantzen, artist and inventor, as he likes to say about him, envisioned some really innovative designs,  like this pavilion concept, well known around the world as they appeared a lot in both written and audio-visual media and have also been exhibited at the Canadian center for Architecture, the National Building Museum and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Using architecture as an art form, Michael Jantzen try to show new thinking, firstly through the re-discovery of the built environment in an eco-friendly manner.

This creative and eye-catching wind shaped pavilion is a design proposal  for a large fabric edifice either private or public. When you look at the construction, it seems like any other building with a relatively symmetrical shape, but in fact the unique design is dynamic and changes continuously as wind blows. This process is possible due to the fact that the fabric structure, contrary to appearances, is lightweight so it randomly rotates each of the six sections around a central open support framework.

What is more interesting is that this continuous shape’s alteration generates at the same time electrical power for its nighttime illumination. Once started this process, it’s unlikely to return to the original symmetry, but this was the purpose and the resulted building design  is amazing. The construction could be transform in a commercial building or an apartment complex if the structure’s materials and scale would change, so the six sections could be rotated by occupants themselves according to their desires and needs. Have a look and use our comment area to express your opinions.

Photos © Michael Jantzen