Steel, wood, stone and glass merge to form a simple structure

Steel, wood, stone and glass merge to form a simple structure

Having been entrusted to carry out a residential project on this site, the architects decided to explore the posibility of designing a house that would generate the least impact possible and could be adapted in the best way to the natural conditions of the site.

This is how the architectural concept of this house was born: a lineal spatial organisation with platforms on different levels and with different angles that allowed Gomez Crespo Arquitectos to adapt and integrate architecture to nature.
The architectural design consists of areas built with steel structure and glass. This evokes a sense of lightness, transparency and harmony with the surroundings. Wooden beams were used to give warmth to these open spaces.

The colours chosen played an important role in the design process: the metal structure painted as the colour of tree trunks, the concrete sections coloured to reflect the earthy shades of the area, the stone walls and flooring chosen in earth tones and glass used to allow total transparency and integration. Water treatment, solar energy and passive ventilation were considered in the design.

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Site-sensitive design creates New Charles River landmark in Cambridge

Site-sensitive design creates New Charles River landmark in Cambridge

Architect Kyu Sung Woo has designed a new graduate housing complex for Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. The 115,000 sq ft project is a part of University's ongoing effort to house 50 percent of its graduate, professional and doctoral students, further supporting a strong residential campus community and helping to alleviate pressure on the local housing market. The scheme houses 215 beds in over 30 different suite types, and includes a faculty director's suite, a fitness room, study lounge spaces, a multipurpose room, and a garage that extends under the building, its courtyard, and a new public open space along Memorial Drive.

The 10 Akron Street project occupies a prominent location on the Charles River, at the corner of Memorial Drive and Akron Street and is one of a series of new residences for Harvard affiliates as well as low and moderate income units built for local residents. Adjacent is Peabody Terrace Housing by Jose' Luis Sert, with whom Woo studied and worked. Visible from across the Charles River, the simple and elegant design composition is a seamless extension of the campus, recalling the scale, massing and textures of Harvard's traditional brick river houses, wood-frame neighborhood context, with references to Sert.

From the river side, the six-story brick block with glassy bay windows, is appropriately scaled to active Memorial Drive and the river. Along Banks Street, the siding on the low-rise wood-clad building refers to adjacent three-story wood frame houses and Peabody Terrace's vertical concrete formwork. The massing composition of these two building elements forms a courtyard open toward the public open space, Harvard provided to the City of Cambridge. Together, the courtyard gesture and the park establish a contemporary and welcoming gateway to campus. The entry portal at 10 Akron Street frames an axial view of the Sert complex through the courtyard and the park, and a section of the building cantilevers dramatically over the outdoor deck to preserve sightlines from the community to the river at street level. Projecting bay windows create shade and shadow, animating the façades, and capture remarkable views of Charles River and Boston beyond.

At the individual scale, architectural detail and discerning material selection and color palette create familiar yet contemporary textures and surfaces. Double height curtain wall windows at the corners reveal two-story study lounges. Internally, to foster a sense of community, studies and other public spaces distributed throughout the floors and the extra wide open stair are opportunities for spontaneous encounters. Subtle changes in material and the use of localized intense colors at unit entries punctuate corridors which terminate with striking views of the outdoors. Apartment are designed for maximum flexibility in furnishing and partitioning, made more spacious with generous glazing and bay windows.

In keeping with Harvard's university-wide commitment to sustainable building and campus operations, the project was designed to achieve a high level LEED certification. Green-minded finishes include regionally-sourced siding with recycled content; renewable bamboo flooring and wall paneling, and low-VOC finishes; building systems are designed and engineered to minimize energy usage. Landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates designed a graceful seasonal garden with groupings of trees and clumped plantings native to New England, connecting the courtyard to the riverfront terrace. In the courtyard, serrated and diagonally laid paving edged with large river smoothed rocks recall peaceful stone gardens.

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Joel Sanders completes eco-friendly NYC penthouse

Joel Sanders completes eco-friendly NYC penthouse

This Noho loft for real estate developer Matthew Blesso offers a fresh take on green architecture, demonstrating that you don't have to forgo high style in the interest of saving the planet.

Designed by New York architect Joel Sanders with associate architect Andrea Steele and landscape designer, Balmori Associates, the design of this 3200 sq ft loft is predicated on the notion that if you merge building and landscape, by bringing nature in and pushing living space to the outdoors, unexpected things can happen.

The loft's interior is awash in lush vegetation, sustainable woods and natural fibers. Exterior wood decking and plants flow into the heart of the penthouse forming a "planted core" that separates the private and public realms. A glass wall separates the bathroom from the planted zone, allowing the owner to bathe surrounded by vegetation. This "living wall" links the interior to the roof. An open staircase provides access to a rooftop garden planted with grasses and sedum, which has been transformed into a veritable "living" room furnished with a mini-kitchen, a large movie screen, and an outdoor shower surrounded by lush vegetation.

Sharon McHugh
US Correspondent

(Associate Architect Andrea Steele www.andarchitects.com

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Exclusive insight into changing market conditions: WAN talks to Davis Langdon and Norman Foster

Exclusive insight into changing market conditions: WAN talks to Davis Langdon and Norman Foster

As the collapsed residential markets around the world show no sign of life, so architects are increasingly forced to look to other sectors to fill the gap. This week, both camps in the US Presidential race announced huge plans to invest in the rebuilding of much of America's crumbling infrastructure. At the same time, Gordon Brown the UK's Premier and London Mayor, Boris Johnson confirmed plans for major infrastructure projects, including Crossrail, would go forward.

Speaking to WAN in Barcelona last week, Lord Norman Foster expressed that this same investment has been true in past crises: "If you look at past periods of (economic) distress, or recessions, some of those have been typified by investment in infrastructure. If the private sector is not able to keep the construction industry in employment, thriving, then you are forced to turn to the public sector."

But while plans such as Crossrail and Building Schools for the Future, two key UK infrastructure pushes, promise to deliver billions of pounds worth of investment into the industry, they have been under planning for years with the timing being inconsequential, although convenient. Any economic boost in the industry that these schemes would have had therefore has been traded down as a band aid to the gaping wound of the crunch and one that Steve Waltho, Head of Infrastructure at Davis Langdon, says cannot compensate for the losses occurring in the housing, commercial and office sectors.

Across the pond, however, investment in infrastructure has been rebranded as a sales tool for elections. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) last week highlighted the importance of infrastructure in an advancing society as their President, David G Mongan, addressed the US House of Representatives.

"The dangers of the nation's crumbling infrastructure to our economic health are as great as those posed by the current financial crisis," he said. "The nation's infrastructure is the foundation on which our economy stands. Without a modern, functioning system of highways, bridges, mass-transit, drinking-water systems, sewage systems, levees, dams, school and other elements of the infrastructure, economic recovery will be impossible. Simply put, without proper investment and attention to these networks, our nation's economic health, competitive advantage, and quality of life are at risk."

And this is a message that both the Republican and Democrat camps have taken on board creating policy and investment proposals in response but the treatments are polar. While Obama pledges major investment ($60 billion over ten years) to rebuild roads, bridges, ports and rail McCain would put investment into energy by upgrading the national electric power transmission system instead. The contrast leaves further insecurity hanging over the question of infrastructure's ability to save the market.

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