* Residential Architecture: 150M Weekend House by Shinichi Ogawa & Associates

Residential Architecture: 150M Weekend House by Shinichi Ogawa & Associates: “..Overlooking the rich natural environment, the world’s longest house tops a hill in the Khao yai forest complex, Thailand..Through the water fall as a entrance gate, the road leads you to the main house extending east and west on the left, and on the opposite side, a glass house in the forest as a guest house. The main house is simply composed of a white cube and 2 horizontal plates of 11m wide by 150m long..All rooms for owner family are put linearly between the plates, opening to both north corridor and south deck terrace. A glazed room for spa&fitness at the east end, 6 bedrooms with exclusive bathroom and living room, a family living/dining room, and storages or maid rooms at the west end. This extremely long planning takes advantage of the beautiful landscape, gaining a panoramic view and a dynamic scale space as the very long deck terrace. At the same time, it regards a airy comfortable living environment..Above the private rooms, there is a roof top terrace covered with sand and the swimming pool of 40m long. It’s like a floating sky beach surrounded by mountains. The white cube as formal living/dining room has 6M high ceiling. The stairs from the hall below divides the large room into southern living space and northern dining space..150m weekend house – the longest house in this century –  was born by admiring the mountain scenery as a given condition and imagining a seascape as the contrastive view..”  Rather extraordinary form; extensive glazing, natural light, views; indoor / outdoor sensibility..

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image: © Pirak Anurakawachon; article: Cifuentes , Fabian . “150M Weekend House / Shinichi Ogawa & Associates” 26 Sep 2012. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/275192&gt;

* Architecture: Busan Cinema Centre by Coop Himmelb(l)au

Architecture: Busan Cinema Centre by Coop Himmelb(l)au: “..Architects Coop Himmelb(l)au have completed a film and theatre centre in South Korea with a steel and glass cantilever that’s wider than the wings of an Airbus A380..As the home to the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), the Busan Cinema Centre sandwiches a 4000-seat outdoor cinema between the two halves of the building, while the column-free roof measures 85 metres from end to end..“Once we build architecture like aircraft wings we will no longer need columns,” Coop Himmelb(l)au Principal Wolf D.Prix told Dezeen. ”The cantilevered part of the roof with its 85 meters is twice as long as one wing of the Airbus 380.”..LED lights glow from behind the canopy’s glass underside, creating a rainbow of colours over the heads of visitors and guests arriving across the public square at the front of the complex..A funnel-like structure punctures the roof on one side, while a ramp spirals around it to create a red carpet route into the reception hall in the south-eastern block..A triangulated metal lattice clads this column, concealing a cafe at ground floor level and a staircase leading to a bar and restaurant above..An indoor cinema and theatre are contained within the north-western block and are stacked on top of one another..“The basic concept of this project was the discourse about the overlapping of open and closed spaces and of public and private areas,” said Prix. ”While the movie theatres are located in a mountain-like building, the centre’s public space is shared between an outdoor cinema and a huge reception area.”..Prix recently caused a stir by launching an attack on this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, claiming it’s “no longer about lively discussion and criticism of topics in contemporary architecture.”..”  (Article contains a 13 image slideshow featuring the interior and exterior of the Busan Cinema Centre.)..

image: Duccio Malagamba; article: Dezeen

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* Residential Architecture: House in Sendai-Kasumi by Kiyonobu Nakagame

Residential Architecture: House in Sendai-Kasumi by Kiyonobu Nakagame: “..The house sits on the hill top that overlooks the city of Sendai, situated within the area called Yakiyama offering magnificent views of cliffs that rise from the Hirose River running at the bottom..The site has an elongated configuration in a North/South orientation, adjoined by existing houses on both sides..The site planning was conceived in relation to the density of neighboring houses and consisted of the elongated volume placed along the site and the large garden adjoined to it..While the site descends towards the cliff side the house volume is lifted up, creating the gap between them in which the garden, the living room and even the marvelous view of Sendai integrate with each another and become a large unified site as a whole..In terms of HVAC, we contrived effective heating systems. Although Sendai is not fully a cold district adequate heating devices were still necessary, considering the frequent strong north winds blowing up the hill. Hydronic radiant floor heating was applied to the entire floor area in the large room on the 1st floor. Furthermore, hydronic heating is also provided on the walls in each room, creating comfortable spaces with the radiant heat..”  Interesting stepped form and interior volumes; extensive glazing, abundant natural light, views, interesting fenestration; materials sensibility..

image: K.Torimura; article: Dezeen

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* Residential Architecture: Grove House by Jun’ichi Ito Architect & Associates

Residential Architecture: Grove House by Jun’ichi Ito Architect & Associates: “..The site is a residential area near a station in Asaka City of Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It is elongated to the east and the west directions and has 4m roads on the west and east sides, a 2.5m road on the north side, and two-story wooden apartment on the south side. Many two-story wooden buildings surround the site across the road. The site is the typical dense residential area..We achieved a column-free space by creating gate-style frames using laminated lumbers of red pines of 40 x 180 mm slender cross-section structure and arranging them in 303 mm pitches. The interior has movable pertaining walls and the floor plan can be freely changed. The crossed joints of pillars and beams sandwich steel plates with 9 mm thickness internally and fix them with drift pins. This succeeds beautiful appearance as well..A successive balcony from a living room is a wooden cantilever of 2,275 mm tall with no reinforced steels. This perfect wooden structure is noteworthy..We achieved the standardization of members and dimension by designing successive frames of same shapes. In addition, simple structure with pillars and beams shortened the construction period and low-cost construction..Adopting the external wall insulation method, we enlarged the opening of the windows for the joint of sash of frame-type housing. The gaps due to enlargement are utilized as PS partially. We avoided unnecessary piping and enhanced antifouling and weather resistance. Further, we achieved longevity of the building by drying heat-insulating materials owing to the liquidity of the air in the walls. The wooden frames wrapped in the external wall insulation are exposed in the rooms and this develops the heat-storage function of the wooden materials and energy conservation in the rooms. In addition, humidity-conditioning effect of the materials controls humidity and drying..”  Interesting fenestration; extensive interior wood including exposed beams and rafters..

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image: © Naoomi Kurozumi; article: “Grove House / Jun’ichi Ito Architect & Associates” 01 Sep 2012. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/267010&gt;