This is a home that can endure the tropics with minimal environmental impact, by tapping on available resources. Four levels make up the building, each catering to various social and entertainment needs while also accommodating each family member’s individual need for solitude.

Achieving space maximization and privacy were also factored into this design, in view of the house’s proximity to neighboring units. As a result, the internal spaces face inward into a multifunctional courtyard which acts as circulation pivot and light well, while also serving as a visual focal point. Dense foliage also provides a natural means for additional privacy.

The building’s slimmer east and west facades are a contrast to the wide-open north and south ones. This regulates natural lighting and wind ventilation for efficient thermal circulation. A pitched roof, with a series of repeating slopes, also generates additional skylight openings.

And let’s not forget that this is first and foremost a home for an active couple and their kids. For this, a lap pool and training
room ensure their fitness needs are adequately taken care of.

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Client: Optima Capital Pte Ltd
Location: 72 Sentosa Cove, Singapore
Completion: 2009
Architect: ONG&ONG Pte Ltd
Design team: Maria Arango, Diego Molina, Camilo Pelaez,
Structural & Civil: JS Tan & Associates
Mechanical & Electrical: Rankine & Hill (S) Pte Ltd
Quantity Surveyor: Rodney Chng & Associates Pte Ltd
Main Contractor: Lifestyle Renovation & Construction Pte Ltd

London, 13 October 2011: Zaha Hadid Architects and Roca are delighted to announce the opening of a brand new flagship space, the Roca London Gallery, at Imperial Wharf close to Chelsea Harbour. Zaha Hadid Architects were commissioned to create this unique concept which takes its inspiration from the power of water as a transforming element and which will bring the Roca Gallery to life.
Zaha Hadid and her team have created a design that is not just purely visual, it also uses the art of precision and control to help the visitor understand the relationship between the architecture of the space and the design of Roca bathroom products.

Miguel Angel Munar, Senior Managing Director, Roca Bathroom Products Division commented: “For Roca it is essential to have a presence in a city like London which is a benchmark for design and innovation on a global level. London is also of strategic importance to our future business development since it allows us to be close to our top international distributors and clients. At the
Roca London Gallery, Zaha Hadid has perfectly interpreted all our brand values as well as our company philosophy in a singularly exciting and tangible way.” “Our work imbues architecture with the intricacy and beauty of natural forms. Using a formal language derived from the movement of water, the Roca London Gallery has been eroded and polished by fluidity; generating a sequence of dynamic spaces carved from this fascinating interplay between architecture and nature.”

The Roca London Gallery consists of a single floor measuring 1,100m2, where, as the Zaha Hadid studio intended, it appears that water has sculptured and defined each and every detail of the Roca‟s commitment to design and innovation is clearly visible in the exterior of the building with its distinctive and unique façade which gives the Roca London Gallery its identity. Three almost organic portals which appear to have been shaped by water erosion open up this space to the city. The movement of water is the overriding theme in the Roca London Gallery – flowing and merging exterior and interior spaces. The interior is sculptured white concrete and its state of the art lighting connects each of the different areas whilst serving as a central axis around which the Roca London. The interior is fabulous, functional and flexible, featuring cutting-edge, modern, audiovisual, sound and lighting equipment. This technology provides interaction with the brand and the opportunity to discover the company‟s history, its landmark achievements and the values on which all of Roca‟s work is based: the commitment to sustainability and particularly to innovation, design, wellness and

The Roca London Gallery is intended to be much more than just a display space. Available to an extensive audience that will include everyone from design-savvy architects to design-hungry students, it will become a London hub hosting a wide range of activities such as exhibitions produced in-house or externally, meetings, presentations, seminars and debates, the criteria being a celebration of design in keeping with the Roca brand and company values.

The Roca Galleries represent an investment in the brand on a global scale, with the aim of creating unique spaces facilitating social and cultural encounters in the cities that play host to them. The Roca London Gallery joins the elite Roca Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon Galleries. For a multinational company of Roca‟s stature, the creation and inauguration of these spectacular venues is a source of great pride. At the same time it allows the brand to convey its significance and values to a wider society, as well as providing the opportunity to communicate and highlight its ever-growing list of industrial and cultural achievements.

Roca is dedicated to the design, production, sales and marketing of bathroom products as well as ceramic wall and floor tiles for the architecture, building and interior design sectors. The company employs over 20,200 people, has 72 production plants and is active in more than 135 countries As world leader in the definition of the bathroom space, Roca works closely with prestigious designers, architects and interior designers such as Moneo, Chipperfield, Herzog & de Meuron, Benedito, Giugiaro and Schmidt & Lackner, to name just a few. Through constant research and development, Roca promotes initiatives which help protect the environment. This commitment is reflected in the continuous development of new products designed to reduce water consumption.

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The Net Metropolis, 5th Ave.

Scope:     1,550,000 SF mixed-use, office/retail complex occupying a 3-acre block.
Master Planning/Architecture.
Date:    Estimated completion of 1st building, Net Lima, 2011.
Estimated final completion of complex 2014.
Location:    Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Philippines.
Architect: Oppenheim Architecture+Design  LLP (www.oppenoffice.com)

Situated in the prime center of the country’s main CBD, The Net Metropolis was conceived as a landmark to represent the developers’ next generation of iconic and ecologically responsive buildings.

The Net Metropolis superblock has 3 office towers ranging from 24 to 40 stories that rest on 6 levels of above-grade parking, and a fully-arcaded retail and parking podium enhanced by 2 amenity parks which function not only as open amenity spaces but also as landscaped focal points. Derived from a study of solar conditions and outward views, the towers are orientated so each is rotating off the other’s axis, with each subsequent structure fanning out in a dynamic and non-monotonous cascading direction. Each tower is wrapped with leading edge diagonal aluminum solar screen overlays to minimize incident solar heat gain and optimize natural light while preserving the scenic views. These screens form over sails that define the aspirational form of the towers that point to the heavens above.

The Net Metropolis “leads” the way by being the World Green Building Council’s (WGBC) sole Pilot Project for the Philippines. The WGBC promotes design, construction, and management methods that are ecologically and socially responsible, safe and healthy. More specifically it transforms internationally accepted green building practices into a national set of standards that are adapted to the local conditions and environment.

Product of a collaboration amongst some of the most reputable professionals in the industry, from the developers/investors, to the architects, engineers, consultants, project managers and constructors, The Net Metropolis has not only achieved its objectives but also created a truly unique gem.

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Nowadays obsession for ethnicity seals national identities. Most people seem to ignore the erratic unfolding of ancient fluxes which moulded European lands. Lost in their dull present, they forget the rich pathways leading from the past to our time.
Just a few memories. By the middle ages, between 1130 and 1194, England and to some extent Wales and Ireland, shared with Sicily a common Norman domain: Byzantine mercenaries and recognizers of Arabian culture after capturing Sicily, these conquerors from the North Sea introduced a fascinating network between the shorelines of the north and Mediterranean. Making British history for the first time since the Roman era, they broke once more the islands’ isolation. Introducing the number zero and many innovations from Middle-Eastern regions into Europe – not least bringing back ancient Greek and Roman classical text manuscripts – they laid the foundation for the birth of a Modern European era.

But history is full of violence: the dominant possession of a submissive culture manages to disguise the larceny by carefully rewriting history; and where memory lacks misunderstandings begin. Learning from this, might architecture heal history’s wounds? Might it have the power to awake the missed routes concealed behind day-to-day life, revealing the whole cloaked behind the gloomy curtains of ignorance?

Purple House represents an unconscious and personal language trip into the Norman legacy: exploring diverse elements, following paths empirically, re-evoking remote visions, aiming to find a common lost sense: what were the forgotten exchanges between England, Wales, Ireland and Sicily?Encircled by massive carved walls and coordinated by an interior symmetrical façade with crystal domes at the corners, the architectural forms investigate what unites us in this history. Compactly, complex, oppressive, expressionistic, the hollow interior of this cave sculpture inhales light: a light which swells the curves and the bulkheads, it coagulates at the corners and slips away, amid the interstices. It brightens up an ample adamantine vault, creating shades and dilating it.

From dawn to dusk, its backlight changes the sense of space and the perception of the forms: at midday it dims the bulkheads curving in the living room. The light perforates the trapezoidal apertures carved in the heavy walls; close to the ceiling, the light transmutes itself into rapid blades cut by a magnified brise-soleil. At sunset, however, the hall darkens. The parts, now obscured, counterpoint distant glares spread around and inside the hollowed-out base: below a burning cave, above a giant brazier glows into the vault.
During the course of a solar day light and dark swap roles, interpreting the drama of an architecture monolithic and fragmentary, made of stone, cement and purple.

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Architect : Antonino Cardillo Architect
Site: Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK
Date: December 2009 – June 2011
Built surface: 200 sm
Total surface: 350 sm
Max height: 9,5 m
Cubature: 1500 cm
Storeys: 3

Following their appointment as architect by winning an international competition in 2010, SPPARC Architecture has secured Stage 1 planning consent establishing the use mix and masterplan principles for an iconic development in the ancient city of Tbilisi.

The scheme is to be found directly above old Tbilisi, with the historic 800 year old baths and classical buildings. The Mirza Shafi project is at the heart of the Georgian Capital,located in the middle of the Botanical Gardens with a wide panoramic view over a large
12th century castle, the Presidential Palace and long views down the River Mtkvari and across the city toward the mountains, the proposition has become locally acknowledged as the ‘New Heart in the Old City’.

Informed by the narrow sloped street pattern and fragmented scale of the ancient City from which the area originates, the adopted 400,000sq/ft mixed use project includes boutique hotels, a new high end retail street connecting into the Botanical Gardens, apartments, villas and cultural quarter for artists with galleries and a museum set within a new green landscape.

The project continues to evolve in collaboration with a local team ensuring the sensitive balance of history is integrated into the final façade solution celebrating the historic fabric that defines the ancient bath district.

The success of the scheme is an architectural response that acknowledges the past, and successfully cohabitates with it by creating a character that reflects the classical architecture and cultural assets of ‘Old Tbilisi’ whilst defining a scheme with its own essential unique character, sense of place and destination that integrates into the established urban framework of the City and its green landscape.

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SPPARC Architecture

SPPARC is a prominent London based architectural firm. The practice has an exciting UK & International portfolio of completed and live projects across a multiple of sectors ranging from £120,000 to £220 million in value.

SPPARC prides itself in not having a house style but thoroughly explores the brief to create innovative and bespoke solutions from inception to completion.

SPPARC Architecture’s approach combines the commercial requirements of a scheme with a high quality design to create vibrant, attractive and economically viable developments.

Architect: Manuel Clavel Rojo
Website: http://www.clavel-arquitectos.com/
Facebook: Clavel Arquitectos
Collaborators: Robin Harloff, Mauricio Méndez, David Hernández
Construction: July 2010 – September 2010
Construction Company: INTERSA
Photos: David Frutos Ruiz

In this project we worked with two images.

The first one was the medieval unfoldable boards, which used to work as removable façades or altarpieces, and now get remade in the zigzag façade. Death inspires human beings with something between mystery and fear. To die means a transition between this world and others that nobody knows. The tomb is where this transition takes place.

According to this situation, tombs should be closed forever, and their doors should never be opened. It should be impossible to open them, even if you want, so there are no handles or locks. The doors insert themselves in the walls, merging together. Therefore, the entrances are secret, just like the transits that occur inside. In fact, the façade can be only opened in a specific way, almost a combination that only the owner knows.

Inside we find a cloud that gets crossed by sunbeams: an atmospheric situation that can be found in the nature and that, linked to our cultural references of the Divine, stimulate our spiritual side. That moment gets crystallized in the abstraction of the white cloud, the end of a way that, starting from the basement ascends to the intermediate platform and goes on until the cloud’s space, where our sight gets lost in the abstract and unreal atmosphere that fills the place.

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In the area of Petaling Jaya, west of Kuala Lumpur, a great urban development is under way for the establishment of a new urban centre. As a landmark for this area, the Developer wanted to host his on-site offices and sale’s showroom in an iconic pavilion that would reflect the spirit and the architectural style of the whole development.

Water droplets in nature was the inspiration for ‘The Pod’ pavilion structure creating a dynamic spherical form resulting in a primitive building archetype with a modern twist. The round and soft shape of The Pod is formed as a series of elliptical sections of variable widths and heights. Slithers of windows brings natural daylight into the spaces below

Internally the pavilion is divided into two parts: one zone is dedicated to the office area and the other contains the main showroom. The building appears to be sliced diagonally into a series of ribbons which wrap up and over the building creating a dynamic space within, forming a layered protective shell.

The structure is fabricated from tubular steel members with the exterior skin made of spectrally reflective aluminium panels. The exterior skin colour shades change’s depending on the reflection of the sun, dynamically.
The Pod is surrounded by a greenery with a  reflective water pool wrapping around the edges that will contribute to the Bioclimatic behaviour and wellness of its inhabitants.

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N.E.M.O. is an entreprise that enables people to illegaly migrate to the United Kingdom.We propose to design the locus of the organisation, within the architectural vocabulary of the WW2 bunker to camouflage the real function of this secret base.

Located near the city of Calais, where most of the migrants end-up, the facilities are only 42km away from the British coast.You can book a ticket for the crossing, with optional extras including fake passports and onboard English lessons, using the project website.

The pair created the project while studying at the Ecole Speciale d’Architecture in Paris of architecture students Felix de Montesquiou and Hugo Kaici.

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from left to right: Gratitude Open Chapel, Sanctuary Estanzuela, Lookout Point Espinazo de Diablo, Shelter Estanzuela, Crosses Lookout Point, Void Temple.

Easter Pilgrimage 2011 at Ruta del Peregrino, the important event of the year, HHF Architects are has updated with us their work as well as other architects involved in this project.

This year, for the first time, the pilgrims were able to use the finished viewpoint by HHF Architects, offering a new way to experience the site.

The sanctuary by Tatiana Bilbao and the viewpoint by Christ&Gantenbein are under construction; their presence will mark the completion of the entire Ruta within a few months.

Sanctuary Estanzuela by Ai Weiwei / Fake Design

Crosses Lookout Point by Elemental

Void Temple by Dellekamp Arquitectos+Periférica

Gratitude Open Chapel by Dellekamp Arquitectos + Tatiana Bilbao

Lookout Point Espinazo del Diablo by HHF architects

Shelters Estanzuela+Atenguillo by Luis Aldrete (photo Shelter Atenguillo)


CREDITS AND DATA

Program: Masterplan of Route of Pilgrim

Location: From Ameca to Talpa de Allende, Jalisco, Mexico

Curatorial team: Tatiana Bilbao+Derek Dellekamp

Masterplan+project coordination: Rozana Montiel | Periférica+Derek Dellekamp

Investigation team: Adiranne Montemayor, Carlos Zimbron

Basic-services- various: Godoylab (Mexico)

Environmental Strategy: TOA | Taller de Operaciones Ambientales (Mexico)

Invited architects and designers: Ai Weiwei / Fake Design (China), Luis Aldrete (Mexico), Tatiana Bilbao (Mexico), Christ & Gantenbein (Switzerland), Dellekamp Arquitectos (Mexico), Elemental (Chile), HHF architects (Switzerland), Periférica (Mexico).

Client: Secretaría de Turismo de Jalisco

Sugamo Shinkin Bank / Shimura branch – open 2011/3
Client: Sugamo Shinkin Bank
Concept: Rainbow mille-feuille
Architect:Emmanuelle Moureaux
Photos©Nacasa & Partner

Rainbow mille-feuille

A rainbow-like stack of 12 colored layers, peeking out from the facade to welcome visitors. Upon entering the building, three elliptical skylights bathe the interior in a soft light. Visitors spontaneously look up to see a cut-out piece of the sky that invites them to gaze languidly at it. The open sky and sensation of openness prompts you to take deep breaths, refreshing your body from within. The ceiling is adorned with dandelion puff motifs that seem to float and drift through the air. Three long glass airwells thread through the first and second levels of the building, flooding the interior with natural light as well as “blowing” air through it.

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