Architecture – SpecNews

Ambrosi Etchegaray inserts homes behind old Mexico City facade

Architecture studio Ambrosi Etchegaray has slotted four new homes behind a historic facade in Mexico City, but left enough space for three secluded patios (+ slideshow).
“The [facade] condition inspired us to rethink life inside the old house and translate the schema into the new building,” explained Ambrosi and Etchegaray.
“The project’s intention was to create interior spaces emulating the original patios, while maintaining privacy of these spaces from the other apartments,” they added.
The first of the four homes sits directly behind the facade, occupying the first, second and third floors.
Known as the Antonio Sola Townhouses, the four-storey block is located in the Colonia Condesa neighbourhood, near where architects Jorge Ambrosi and Gabriela Etchegaray are based.

This week’s biggest architecture and design stories on Dezeen

The cover of David Bowie’s Blackstar album, released just days before his death, was designed to reflect the musician’s mortality, according to his graphic design collaborator Jonathan Barnbrook.
This week on Dezeen: the designer behind David Bowie’s Blackstar album artwork revealed its true meaning in an exclusive interview and we looked ahead to the era of the “megatall” skyscraper.
More architecture | More interiors | More design | More news
Rotterdam-based architecture firm OMA also released images of its renovation plan for Berlin’s KaDeWe department store.
Rotterdam is fast becoming a centre for innovation, according to architects we interviewed this week.

London house extensions awarded by Don’t Move, Improve!

Dezeen promotion: a south London residence updated with new living spaces, custom-built furniture and a two-storey lightwell has been named winner in a competition to find London’s best house extensions (+ slideshow).
Designed by Tsuruta Architects to reveal “memories of place and construction”, House of Trace is a two-storey addition to a Victorian property in south London.
The prize for Best Historic Intervention was scooped by Fitzrovia House, a project by West Architecture that involved inserting a new residence behind the Georgian facade of a bomb-damaged west-London house.
Dezeen’s architecture editor Amy Frearson and RIBA London Director Tamsie Thomson were among the judges, who were chaired by NLA director Peter Murray.
“The standard of Don’t Move Improve continues to rise each year,” commented Murray.

Indian pool house by 42mm Architecture has a concrete frame

A thick loop of concrete forms the walls, flooring and roof of this pool house, completed by Indian firm 42mm Architecture in the garden of a New Delhi residence (+ slideshow).
The pre-stressed concrete structure made it possible to slightly cantilever the structure over the edge of its sloping site.
Other recently completed pool houses include a bulky concrete structure in Madrid and a building with a folded wooden ceiling in Melbourne.
“This combination of wood and concrete renders an expression which welcomes its guests while dazzling them,” added 42mm Architecture.
“Asserting its presence with a singular, bold and robust frame, this house sits impressively within its surroundings,” it added.

Tesla windscreen factory in Peru features coloured glass fittings

A strip of double insulated U-glass brings natural light into the production hall from the south, while protecting it from summer sun exposure.
Black glass walls enclose a showroom where a movement-activated system plays atmospheric music when someone enters the space.
“The white walls, floor and ceiling polarise the dark entry funnel.”
Tinted and textured glass delineate areas inside this office and factory completed by V.oid Architecture for the Lima-based company that manufactures car windscreens for Tesla (+ slideshow).
The production offices are suspended over the vast machinery hall, giving employees clear views of the production line.

Prefabricated Architecture and Product Design

In a recent article posted on Core77, Gordon Stott argues for a transition in design thinking around fabricated architecture.
The Unity Home design was developed in collaboration with the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and is reportedly outfitted with the largest collection of Cradle to Cradle (C2C) certified building products in a residential project.
Prefabricated modular methods of construction also bring additive manufacturing techniques, including 3D-printing, into play.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s recent report, Delivering the circular economy: A toolkit for policymakers, looked at issues of prefabrication and construction in a policy context.
The focus of off-site construction has been to replicate standard building processes, rather than taking advantage of the potential opportunity in aiming to replicate a product manufacturing mindset.

Tributes after leading architect Gareth Hoskins dies aged 48

TRIBUTES have been paid to the Scottish architect Gareth Hoskins, who died at the weekend aged 48.
Scottish architecture is much the lesser with his parting.”
Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs, said: “Gareth Hoskins was an outstanding architect.
She tweeted: “Very sad to hear of the death of Gareth Hoskins, one of Scotland’s finest architects.
Hoskins trained as an architect at the Glasgow School of Art and at Florence University.
Hoskins Architects issued a statement confirming his death, adding: “It is with great sadness that we confirm that Gareth Hoskins OBE, the founder and Managing Director of Hoskins Architects, has died.
“Gareth, who was 48, took ill at an event in Edinburgh on Sunday 3rd January and, despite receiving the best care possible in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, he passed away on Saturday.

“Everyone at Hoskins Architects is deeply shocked and saddened by this untimely loss.

Chicago Architecture Biennial has half a million attendees

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015: organisers of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial have counted more than 500,000 visitors and the city has renewed its commitment to host another edition in 2017.
“The first-ever Chicago Architecture Biennial was an unequivocal success, exceeding our expectations for attendance and bolstered Chicago’s reputation as the vanguard of architectural thinking on the national and international stage,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The Chicago totals far exceed those of the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, which counted 228,000 visitors.
Writing in Dezeen, Sam Jacob hailed the biennial as being “rooted in the visionary, imaginative tradition (rather than history) of Chicago itself.”
An outgrowth of the city’s Cultural Plan, the city created the biennial to showcase Chicago’s legacy as a birthplace of modern architecture and reassert its centrality to global architectural discourse.

AMD Soon to Announce Highly Efficient Polaris Architecture

We were promised more information will be revealed as we get closer to the release of Polaris graphics products.
Getting finny AMD says Polaris chips have been designed specifically for fabrication with FinFETs.
These two changes combined promise to offer the biggest improvement in performance per watt, generation to generation, in AMD’s history.
During a press briefing, AMD product marketing manager Adam Kozack boasted that Polaris is a “historic leap in performance per watt” (via GamesBeat).
The Polaris card drew just 83W, while the GTX 950 drew 140W. But Raja Koduri, who runs the new Radeon Technologies Group, said it’s not unlike the situation ATI faced in 2001.

Puzzles Architecture adds rusted steel extension to Belgian barn

Puzzles Architecture designed this weathering-steel extension for a barn in Belgium, converting it into an annex for the adjacent 18th-century farmhouse (+ slideshow).
Belgian architects Thomas Gillet and Mathieu Henquet added a single-storey extension made from Corten steel to the rear facade of the barn and converted it into a self-contained two-bedroom annex.
The pre-rusted steel cladding is intended to homogenise the extension with the grey, brown and red tones found in the existing stonework.
“The tonality of colours are perfect and match the existing regional stone,” said the architects.
Tall ceilings and an open stairwell help to open up views between the different levels of the barn, while a wooden frame distinguishes the kitchen from the rest of the living space.