* Residential Architecture: Smart-Stell Residence by Tonic Design + Tonic Construction

Residential Architecture: Smart-Stell Residence by Tonic Design + Tonic Construction: “..The clients wanted a new house but not a new neighborhood. On one of their daily walks they found a 40-year-old structure for sale. The house, beyond repair, occupied a promising lot with a southeast exposure to a small lake. This gave the couple the idea to build their “home and vacation home at the same time, they said..The design of the new house addresses two key site relationships: (1) the existing neighborhood and its contextual scale, and (2) the landscape of the lake. From the street, the new one-story house’s form is low, quiet, and horizontal, with the only real opening towards the street at the main entrance porch. Because this house would be a dramatic departure from the typical houses in the neighborhood, we sited it deeply into the property..The 2400-square-foot house opens up to its surroundings at the back, where extensive glazing provides constant views of the lake and surrounding natural environment. This approach maximizes the interior connection to the outdoors without sacrificing the clients’ privacy..Programmatically, the house features: an entrance foyer; an open living/dining/kitchen space suitable for entertaining, especially with access to the deck from this space; a master bedroom suite with two separate bathrooms and walk-in closets; two generous office spaces; a guest room and additional bath; and a two-car garage. Square concrete “steps” lead from the driveway to the front porch. A wooden deck spans the lakefront elevation..As both the architect and contractor, Tonic’s challenge was to maximize the view of the lake from the open “public” space (living/dining/kitchen area), while providing the clients with an energy-efficient and comfortable living space. The solution came in the form of a hockey stick-shaped roof structure fabricated of wood beams and steel plate. This composite structure, designed with the help of the North Carolina Solar Center, supports an IPE pipe trellis. The form and composition ensure that the sun’s harsh rays are blocked in the warm summer months, while the lower winter sun is allowed to penetrate and warm the interior. A band of clerestory windows above the main living space, facing the street, allow more natural light to penetrate the interior and creates a glow above the horizontal structure at night..To achieve a construction budget of $180 per square foot as requested by the clients, the building methods used in the house are standard, off-the-shelf materials that have been reinterpreted and used in inventive ways, such as the “pin stripe” siding that creates horizontal detailing for the street-facing façade..”  Extensive glazing, natural light, views..

designalog : contact

image: Courtesy of Tonic Design; article: “Smart-Stell Residence / Tonic Design + Tonic Construction” 10 Jan 2013. ArchDaily. http://www.archdaily.com/317067>

* Residential Architecture: S11 House by ArchiCentre

Residential Architecture: S11 House by ArchiCentre: “..The S11 house is located in an established older suburb of Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. The existing old house on the site was built in the early 1960’s and had become dilapidated and run-down over the years. A new green tropical house was planned for the site and conceptualized along the lines of a tree. The large tree canopy would cover and shelter the living spaces underneath it. The S11 House was designed to achieve the highest level Platinum rating of Malaysia’s Green Building Index (GBI)..There were five significant existing trees on the site. Three very old and sculptural frangipanis, a large star-fruit and a coconut palm tree. All these were retained and the new house was set in the midst of them. Much of the demolished old house materials were re-used. Old crushed concrete roof tiles for gravel fill, old clay bricks were cleaned and re-used for feature walls, roofing timbers were used for formwork strutting and propping, old steel were all sold off to steel yards, crushed concrete and cement aprons were re-used for backfilling aggregate..The S11 house has a clear north-south orientation for all its openings and windows. The east and west walls were deliberately void of any significant glazed openings and were constructed of better insulated aerated light weight concrete blocks. In addition they were coated in heat reflecting paint in camouflage motif and also shaded by a wire netting screen wall of fruit and vegetable climbers. These would help to reduce much of the heat gain through the east and west walls. The large tree-like canopy roof is constructed of lightweight recyclable profiled steel metal sheets coated in a light off-white colour to minimize heat absorption..The roof insulation comprises 200mm thick 50kg/m3 rockwool and two layers of heat reflective foil. A 200mm thick ventilated air space is left between the metal ceiling lining and the rockwool to further improve heat insulation. The overall roof U value is an impressive 0.14. The glazing comprises 9.38mm thick low-E safety laminated glass with a 90% openable area. The overall building envelope OTTV is 29.63..A specially designed wind turbine combined with a steel framed glazed pyramid provides the house with “stack effect” ventilation and light pipes. These 15 numbers of turbines are driven both by wind as well as convection when the air within the glass pyramids heat up as a result of the greenhouse effect. A 3 degree differential is enough to spin the turbines by convection. The large canopy roof is pitched at 5 degrees to facilitate self cleaning of roofing material and solar panels. A 5 KW peak photovoltaic installation is mounted unto the large canopy roof and the generated electricity is sold back into the national electric grid. The solar hot water heaters are also located on the large roof area..Rainwater collected on the canopy roof drains directly into the series of rainwater harvesting tanks. These are aligned in series for sedimentation control and the water from the last tank is used for all the toilet flushing, gardening and car washing requirements. All the tap fittings and sanitary wares have water saving and reduction valves..The majority of the house has bare natural finishes – raw off-form concrete walls and ceilings, cement plastered walls without paint and natural fair-faced common red clay brickwork. Stonework for bathrooms, driveway and Ground Floor living areas all come from project rejects. The timber flooring and upper decks are all Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified whilst the ground floor decking timbers are old recycled chengal collected over many years. Limited surfaces are painted with Low VOC paints. All internal joinery work has low VOC content and also water based glues. The 1m X 1m modular book shelves are all made from recycled waste plywood off-cuts with low VOC coatings and water based glues. The modules are stackable and can be relocated with ease in the boot of a car..The double volume Family room is located on the first floor and the 7m high full sliding glass walls facilitate maximum cross ventilation whilst also opening up the entire internal living space unto the outdoor deck. Lighting for the house are predominantly energy saving T5 tubes, LEDs and compact fluorescents. The house has full home office capability with Cat5 fibre-optics and broadband connections. The swimming pool and koi pond are located at the two extreme north-south ends and provide evaporative cooling for the house. Blackwater is treated in the onsite sewerage treatment plant and the recycled water is used for garden irrigation. A composting yard treats all the household organic and garden wastes and provides high grade compost fertilizer for the vegetable and fruit gardens. All new trees and plants are tropical natives that are generally maintenance free and suitable for the Malaysian climate..”  Extensive glazing, natural light, ventilation; interesting materiality, details, interior volumes and contextual sensibility; extensive green design inspiration, conception and details..

designalog : contact

image: © Lin Ho;article: “S11 House / ArchiCentre” 02 Jan 2013. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/313041&gt;

* Residential Architecture: House on Limekiln Line by Studio Moffitt

Residential Architecture: House on Limekiln Line by Studio Moffitt: “..The House on Limekiln Line sits on a 25 acre farm lot in Huron County, Ontario, Canada. The site is in constant flux due to shifting diurnal and annual conditions of weather, cultivation and occupation. The house sits lightly on the land while registering and amplifying specific conditions of this vast productive landscape: it frames expansive views of the shifting crop quilts adjacent to the house and it acts as a datum to an existing topographic shift on the site..The house is calibrated to allow views into and through the house, facilitating an interior visual spatial expansion. An extended south deck and west deck walk offer threshold spaces that extend this experiential choreography while also mediating between enclosure and exposure and extending seasonal exterior occupation of the site..The house is off-grid and utilizes a number of sustainable measures that reduce operational and embodied energy consumption. Siting and orientation facilitate passive heating and cooling. A generous south deck overhang blocks summer sun while allowing winter sun to heat the concrete thermal mass floor. Evenly distributed operable windows facilitate summer cross-ventilation and stack effect heat purging. Triple glazed windows, a highly insulated envelope detailed to reduce thermal bridging, and the use of high efficiency appliances ensure that energy consumption required to service the house is low..The house offers back to the cultural landscape in which it sits. The architectural language of the exterior, a mono­lithic galvanized steel shed, is informed by the local agricultural vernacular to ensure visual coherence within the land­scape and to facilitate construction with locally available and sourced materials. As a design-build project, construc­tion was completed largely by local farmers familiar with agricultural building practices. The rich dialogue with local craftsman ensured that the house is rooted in the building practices and conventions of context while also offering the community exposure to innovative resource and energy-conserving construction practices..The interior of the 85 sqm house is composed of a core of service spaces floating within the shed shell. Carefully calibrated views into and through this core ensure that, despite its limited footprint, the house is visually expansive. This experiential choreography, along with careful siting, with crops growing to enclosure, allow the house to act as a place of observation, a space that defers to and reflects back the annually and diurnally shifting landscape beyond. Creating a dialogue with and respect for the local culture and landscape encourages a sense of stewardship towards the larger ecological and environmental processes of the vast agricultural landscape in which the house sits..”  Interesting contemporary take on vernacular form and materials; interesting fenestration and interior volumes; sustainability..

designalog : contact

image: © Shai Gil; article: “House on Limekiln Line / Studio Moffitt” 03 Jan 2013. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/314277&gt;

* Residential Architecture: Studio R by Marcio Kogan

Residential Architecture: Studio R by Marcio Kogan: “..Facing a small urban square, the Loft Studio opens entirely to the outside. The inner space of this photography studio flows into the side gardens of the building and into the urban space, establishing a spatial continuity between the square and the building. The façade, an aluminum gate is recessed into the concrete binding, integrating the front patio with the square; further, two large swinging metal gates – each more than 11 meters wide – permit fluidity between the gardens and the open space of the studio..Opened, these swinging gates make all visual barriers between internal and external space disappear. Closed, they allow the light in the Photography Studio to be controlled artificially. In the opening of the ground floor, there is a box clad in formica-china, where we have the lavatory, dressing room and the technical area.  In this space, there is no interference of the structure, which is built into the side walls of the building. Behind the green box, the stairs – lighted by a skylight – leads to the first floor, where we find the offices and the library..A volume with metallic material organizes all the space on this floor, separating the rooms and corridors.  On this floor there is a kitchen, the lavatories and the stairs that lead to the top floor. The negative of this volume is the work rooms which can be opened or closed – depending on the desired privacy – through sliding panels which are built into the central box. In the main office a fixed mashrabiya panel filters the light, while simultaneously opening a beautiful view of the large trees in the square.  On the top floor, there is a social room positioned over the front garden. This space opens with folding wooden panels, painted red, onto a deck where you can once again see the tree tops: a pleasant space for meetings on sunny days..The material used internally displays an industrial aesthetic, appropriate for the intensive use of a photography Studio that needs to constantly transform itself, depending on the situation. The floor of the large opening is of white resin which also becomes the endless back and the wall.  On the other floors, the wooden floor warms the ambient..Externally, the metal doors join the exposed concrete and the different colored wooden panels..”  Extensive glazing, natural light, views, privacy; interesting form and details..

See some of our other posts on work by Marcio Kogan and Studio MK27:

•  Residential Architecture: Casa Cubo by Studio MK27 – Marcio Kogan
• Residential Architecture: Toblerone House by Marcio Kogan – Studio mk27
• Residential Architecture: V4 House by Marcio Kogan – Studio MK27
• Residential Architecture: Ipês House by StudioMK27 – Marcio Kogan
• Residential Architecture: Cobogó House by Marcio Kogan
• Residential Architecture: Osler House by Marcio Kogan
• Residential Architecture: House 6 by Marcio Kogan
• Residential Architecture: BR House by Marcio Kogan
• Residential Architecture: House 53 by Marcio Kogan
• Architecture: Interview: Márcio Kogan by Studio MK27
• Residential Architecture: Punta House by Marcio Kogan
• Residential Architecture: Chimney House by Marcio Kogan
• Residential Architecture: Paraty House by Marcio Kogan
• Residential Architecture: Bahia House by Marcio Kogan
• Residential Architecture: Brick House by Marcio Kogan

designalog : contact

image: © FG+SG – Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra; article: “Studio R / Marcio Kogan” 04 Jan 2013. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/314332&gt;