Cool City #2: Vancouver
Thom Quine
Vancouver, Canada has officially been named our Cool City #2. Especially for their efforts to make their 2010 Olympics the greenest yet. Imagine capturing methane gas from a landfill to use for heating the Olympic Village. That doesn’t sound like a fun job, but Vancouver plans on doing it. Also, their Community Centre is going to be LEED platinum, while the other buildings in the village are going to be LEED gold. Besides the Olympic efforts, Vancouver already leads the world in hydroelectric power; and is investing in solar, wave, tidal and wind power sources to reduce environmental impact. I also read that they are using solar powered trash compactors in their waste baskets to minimize the amount of times their garbage trucks have to collect the waste. Keep up the good work Vancouver.
Worth Another Look: Cool City #1… Malmo
via Dhogborg
This is a shot from the 56th floor of Calatrava’s “Turning Torso” skyscraper in Malmo. I’m still stuck on this place. It has inspired me to find some other great cities to talk about. I’ll be doing some research over the weekend, and next week we’ll talk about some of the greatest cities all around the world. If anybody has any input on some wonderful cities, please let me know. Here’s a long clip of Malmo. You have to put up with a little bit of drama, but there’s some good architecture in it.
Throwback to Segovia
Segovia, Spain
Segovia has to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth. There is an aqueduct, a cathedral, tiny streets and a castle to top it all off. I lived in Segovia for the good part of a year, and it’s just fantastic. Walking around the streets is an architectural thrill-a-minute. It’s all very old and protected so don’t expect modern, but it is very charming. This aqueduct was built about 100 AD, it stands 93.5 feet tall, and runs almost 20 miles from the source of water. I went back about 3 years ago with my wife, and I recommend it to everyone looking for old school beauty.
My Wife in a Skinny Street
Malmo, Sweden
In “all” my years as a nerd, I have never heard of Malmo, Sweden. I don’t even know how to describe my new favorite city in Sweden. I guess it all starts with a picture that I found of a development called Bo01. So I google the place and find 20 others in the same development, and find out that Bo01 is an old shipyard and industrial site that is being converted into a residential area that will use 100% renewable energy. There are lots of green spaces, water features, small streets and amazing residential architecture. Turns out Calatrava (who I love love love) has designed a skyscraper for the development, and that is the only “high density tower block.” The rest of the city is traveled by walking, riding bikes, and buses that run on a combo of natural gas and biogas. Living roofs control rainwater, the size and position of buildings control wind, the ponds and water add to wildlife, solar panels create electicity, and a heat pump 300 ft. below the surface uses the temperature of water in the limestone bedrock to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. I can’t get enough of this place.
ps. check out the song by Album Leaf entitled “Malmo.”
via BBC News
via BBC NEws
Check out the article in BBC News,
RADA 2009 Winner: Habitat 825
via BLDGBLOG
Residential Architect magazine has posted its RADA (Residential Architect Design Awards) 2009 winners, and this project here is the Project of the Year. It’s called Habitat 825, and it’s located in West Hollywood, California. BLDBLOG was about a year-and-a-half ahead of the game here. They posted on this house in September 2007! Good-on-ya BLDBLOG! I don’t know anything about it but what’s on their post, so I’ll just redirect you there. Residential Architect doesn’t have pictures posted yet, but you can check out all of the winner’s names and projects at ResidentialArchitect.com. I do love brown, white and green.
via BLDBLOG
Casa Lazo
It’s not very hard to tell when there has been A LOT of thought put into a design. Though it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what the process has been, our eyes and our minds know that somehow it’s different, and better. Such is the case with the 1700 sq. ft. Casa Lazo designed by Julio Salcedo. We begin with the fact that there is no standard “curbview” facade. The shape has been created instead by studying the climate, views and terrain and deciding how to best interact with them. It is intended that we “meander through the site” in a trail that follows a “lasso” (lazo in Spanish) pattern or a “figure 8.” Where the “figure 8″ crosses, and creates an “x,” Mr. Salcedo put two volumes- and that’s the “x” shape that you see in the picture above.
That is all great stuff, but it wouldn’t mean a whole lot without the amazing house to back it up. One of the most unique things to me is that there’s not a typical “front door” that I always think of. As we meander through the lot, we can access the house through one of several doors. And how about the thin ribbon of block that rises and folds over to create support for the balcony trusses?? There is a disciplined balance of window vs. block, control in the height and width of the different elements, and little details that keep me looking at the pictures. So many things make this house incredible, proving that we can have different and beautiful together. Even if we don’t have the fantastic views I hope innovative home designs, like this one, start appearing more often. So who wants to go to Trasierra, Spain??
Another Throwback!!
Today’s Thursday Throwback goes to front porches. I couldn’t love them more. Though it’s difficult to imagine them on a beautifully modern house, I have to think that there’s a way. The picture below gives a pretty good interpretation, but it has that screen that I’m not so much in love with. I’ve worked on a house where the owners were outside on a porch every morning at 8:00 am, when we got there. The porch was actually off of their bedroom, and they would watch the sunrise together and eat their breakfast. Another couple in a neighborhood we used to live in was very similar, and they would talk to us (from their porch) about how in the “good ol’ days” streets were so much more social because of front porches. They said that people started putting patios in the backyard for more privacy and now neighbors don’t have the same opportunity to converse. I want a really great house someday, but I’ll tell you one thing: ugly or not, I’ll have a front porch with a swing on it.
The Sauber Residence
When I look at Michael Ryan archtiecture I can’t help but ask myself, “Why shouldn’t we all live inside a piece of art?” Like a Mark Rothko painting, it is the detail that makes these simple shapes exciting. The elements seem to relate to one another in an effortless manner. Color, texture, height, pattern… I could go on and on. And to top it all off, the firm seems to be really cool to work with. They told me that the 3 bedrooom house won an AIA NJ(New Jersey) Merit Award for Exellence in Design in 2008, and that the wood that is used for the facade is Atlantic White Cedar with a fiberglass trim. That tall tower is exactly that: an observation tower… I wonder what they’re looking at. Maybe the ocean? Does it matter? I’d wouldn’t mind “observing” a landfill from up there. But anyway, I’ve looked at their website about 30 times since I found it. They probably think I’m psycho.
Check out the little hatch window
Throwback Thursday
Even though we’ve all seen “Falling Water” ten thousand times, I just can’t get enough of it. We were introduced to this video by our friends over at GrassrootsModern.com and it’s a whole new realm of “Falling Water.” Last time I watched this I told my wife that I viewed Frank Lloyd Wright architecture the same way I view a Range Rover: it’s so beautiful that I’d gladly put up with all of the headaches that come with it.
Falling Water from cihanozdemir.com on Vimeo.
Drew Heath’s Zig Zag Cabin
So what can you buy for US$20,000? How about a 269 square ft. minimalist cabin named after the pattern of its windows? Yes please. The Zig Zag cabin is located 2 and a half hours north of Sydney, Australia outside of a place called Wollombi. Upon arriving, you have to “unpack” the house because it basically doubles as a closet while you’re not there, you sleep in one of three small beds (one of which is hung from the ceiling), and the water that you use is collected rain water. When you wake up, you make one of the beds and then set up the kitchen to cook breakfast on top of that bed. So maybe the term “cabin” is not one that we should use here; perhaps, it’s more of a tent-trailer. But if this is any insight into the future of camping, count me in.
Most of the design was conceived on a single beer coaster, and it was very different than what the client was anticipating. They requested a normal house. He responded, ““We are disgusting as human beings the way we live – we really have lost control… there’d be more space in the world for us to go walking if we reduced our consumption of everything.” I guess that was that. But I doubt they look back. Heath’s attention to detail is what makes this small space interesting. It’s an amazing retreat, and I can’t stop thinking about reading a book on that deck.
