Ibizan architecture influences white walls of Casa Elisa in Argentina

Architecture studio Grupo Boreal has completed a house in Argentinian mountains with Mediterranean-style white walls and red-brick steps up to a roof terrace.

Grupo Boreal designed Casa Elisa in the mountainous area of San Clemente, which is southwest of Córdoba, with a completely bright white exterior.

The studio chose the highest point of the site to build Casa Elisa

"The markedly Mediterranean style was inspired by Ibizan architecture, with white walls, with wavy plaster and rounded edges," said the studio, which is based in Córdoba.

The house is designed to make the most of views

The 170-square-metre residence was designed in a U-shape to wrap around a north-facing patio, which the studio included to provide natural light to the interiors during winter months. The outdoor area is also topped by a roof of colonial clay tiles to offer shade during the summer.

Casa Elisa has just one storey and a staircase carved into the exterior that leads onto the rooftop with views of the surroundings.

The kitchen has a curved island

"The implantation was chosen looking for the highest point of the entire land, which consists of seven hectares of mountain ranges, with native forest and a stream that defines it in a large part of its perimeter," Grupo Boreal added.

"In this way we achieve that the inhabitant can enjoy beautiful views of the mountains, giving priority to the main rooms of the house."

The stair treads are herringbone-patterned red brick. This also forms the flooring for outdoor areas and adds to the house's Mediterranean aesthetic, alongside tiles in a matching reddish hue covering the floor of the accessible roof deck.

Wood beams and arched doorways give a rustic feel

Other areas of the roof are fitted with photovoltaic panels to provide the house with electricity as part of a more environmentally friendly approach to creating energy for the house – there is also a solar hot water tank to heat water.

Doorways are wooden

Inside, the studio has created white walls and ceilings with rustic, farmhouse details such as arched wood doorways and openings between different rooms, and exposed tree trunk-like beams across the ceilings. Wood floors run throughout.

White-painted brick walls feature in the bathroom

Kitchen cabinets are made from wood and the island is topped with a curved, stone counter. Similar wood is used to create the sink in the bathroom, while the walls are formed from white-painted brick and the floor is covered in stone.

Other houses recently completed in Argentina include a property just outside of Buenos Aires by V2 Arquitectos that contrasts charred wood with concrete and the El Quincho guesthouse in Córdoba, which was designed for asado and family gatherings.

Photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

---

Project credits:

Architects in charge: Arq. Federico Olmedo, Arq. Emiliano Torres
Design team: Arq. Federico Olmedo, Arq. Emiliano Torres, Arq. Consuelo Linares, Florián Lopez.

The post Ibizan architecture influences white walls of Casa Elisa in Argentina appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/39Ha4cV

Wick portable lighting fixture by Graypants

Dezeen Showroom: Lighting design studio Graypants has created a portable lamp, which offers a modern, LED-powered reinterpretation of traditional chamberstick candle holders.

Called Wick, it features a carrying ring and brass-plated body, which tapers off into a cylindrical LED tip that can be ignited simply by tapping a touch sensor on its rim.

A slick, newly released graphite colourway further modernises the design, allowing it to work in a range of settings from the bedside table to garden and kitchen to campsite.

Wick can be used both indoors and outdoors

The design combines "the romance of a candle with the utility of a flashlight", thanks to three different lighting levels from the soft, warm glow of a flickering fire to a bright reading light.

It is USB-C chargeable battery can last up to 100 hours per charge on the lamp's highest setting and a minimum of 12 hours at its dimmest.

Product: Wick
Studio: Graypants
Americas contact: seattle@graypants.com
EMAE contact: amsterdam@graypants.com

About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen's huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.

The post Wick portable lighting fixture by Graypants appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/3lxrDhI

Rancho Sierra Allende is a gabled Mexican holiday home wrapped around trees

Local studio Fabián M Escalante H Arquitectos has designed a steel-clad holiday home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, which wraps around existing trees to fit in with the surrounding area.

Fabián M Escalante H Arquitectos created the retreat for a client who owned a large plot of land with a dam and wanted a building that wouldn't disturb the environment around it.

Top and above: the owner requested that no trees be taken down to make space for the building

"The most important requirement was to keep, completely, all trees in the plot," studio founder Fabián Marcelo Escalante Hernández told Dezeen.

"Therefore, the first approach to the project was to know perfectly the site and the exact position of the vegetation."

The holiday home in San Miguel de Allende was designed as a place for rest

The resulting building in Guanajuato, Mexico was thus built around the trees and designed as a place for rest and social activities.

It has two entrances, with a footbridge leading to the house from the east and a large terrace providing space for socialising to the west.

A terrace entrance hall has space for socialising

The terrace also functions as an entrance hall and has a grill and food preparation area, while the main gabled volume in the house, which is built above the water, houses the family room, dining room and a double-height bar.

"We wanted to create a subtle intervention in the landscape, but at the same time a space for multiple activities," Hernández said.

"The entire public programme allows us to experiment with the space," the architect added. "The bar space was hierarchizing through a double-height, that’s the gabled steel volume."

One of the gabled volumes is partly open to the outside

The studio designed the inclined planes of the gabled roofs to have views of the treetops, and their form also references the local architecture in the rural part of Mexico where the Rancho Sierra Allende is located.

"This shape allowed us to play with two transversely intersected triangles, the largest symbolically embracing the void outside, leaving a tree in an indoor/outdoor game and the second triangle embraces the interior space," Hernández explained.

A tree stretches through the larger triangle, which is partly open to the outside.

The owners and their guests can fish from the terrace

Fabián M Escalante H Arquitectos created both indoor- and outdoors activity spaces. "The terrace is kind of floating above ground," Hernández said. "This avoids inundations in the raining season and allows the inhabitants to fish in the dam from the terrace."

The lower part of the terrace rests on concrete piles, while the upper is built on steel columns.

The studio used local materials for the project

Rancho Sierra Allende was constructed from a combination of steel elements and wooden beams, and the studio worked with materials from the region, including wood, clay and basalt, for the project.

Its striking rust-coloured steel exterior was a request from the client, who wanted a low-maintenance material and originally asked for Corten steel for the facade.

The exterior is clad in cold-rolled black steel sheets

"Budget was an impediment to achieve the use of this material," Hernández said. "Therefore, we had to choose to use cold-rolled black steel sheets. The cold rolling increases the strength and hardness of steel and decreases its ductility."

As the building process and time aged the house, the exterior, which was finished with a sealer, achieved the reddish hue it has today.

Rainwater is harvested on the roof

Fabián M Escalante H Arquitectos also designed the house to take advantage of natural resources. It reuses rainwater for toilets, sinks and showers, while wastewater is treated through a biodigester and used to irrigate garden areas.

The rainwater is harvested on the roof through perimeter channels, which lead to tubes hidden in the columns and further down to underground pits. Here, it is filtered and stored before being pumped and reused.

Other recent Mexican projects that blend the outside and inside include architecture studio Palma's design for a holiday house with a circular opening and Casa RA, where each bedroom opens onto a patio.

Fabián M Escalante H Arquitectos was founded by Fabián Marcelo Escalante Hernández in 2009 as E | Arquitectos and has been known under its current name since 2018. The studio is based in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Photography is by Jorge Succar.

The post Rancho Sierra Allende is a gabled Mexican holiday home wrapped around trees appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/33EwjMB

Architects Declare "disappointed" with Foster + Partners' decision to leave climate action group

Climate change action network Architects Declare has expressed its regret that founding signatory Foster + Partners has withdrawn from the group due to a disagreement over the future of aviation.

Responding to the decision announced this morning by Foster + Partners to leave the group, Architects Declare said that although it was not happy with the move it would welcome a discussion with the studio over its reasoning.

"We are disappointed that Foster + Partners has chosen to withdraw from the declarations and we would welcome a conversation with them on the points raised," said a statement from Architects Declare.

Foster + Partners withdraws due to disagreement over airports

Foster + Partners was one of the founding signatories of the group, which launched in 2019. However, it made the decision to leave after less than two years due to a difference in viewpoints on designing airports.

Announcing the decision to withdraw his studio from Architects Declare, studio founder Norman Foster stated: "we believe that the hallmark of our age, and the future of our globally connected world, is mobility."

"Mobility of people, goods and information across boundaries," he continued. "Only by internationally coordinated action can we confront the issues of global warming and, indeed, future pandemics. Aviation has a vital role to play in this process and will continue to do so. You cannot wind the clock backwards."

"Climate change challenges current business models"

In response, Architects Declare acknowledged that the expansion of aviation was a challenging subject, but that system change was needed to address climate change.

"We recognise that addressing the climate and biodiversity emergencies challenges current practice and business models for us all, not least around the expansion of aviation,"

"We believe that what is needed is system change and that can only come about through collective action. Architects Declare is not a 'protest' movement but a collaborative support network to innovate positive transformation.

Foster + Partners and Zaha Hadid Architects under fire for designing airports

Since its foundation, the UK branch of Architects Declare has gained over 1,000 signatories, while its international sister group has almost 6,000 signatories in over 20 countries.

Over the past year, Foster + Partners and fellow founding signatory Zaha Hadid Architects have come under fire for their decision to keep designing airports.

Zaha Hadid Architects was criticised for designing Western Sydney International Airport, while Foster + Partners' decision to design an airport for a luxury resort in Saudi Arabia led Architects Climate Action Network, another group that advocates more radical climate action, to call on the studio to withdraw from the project or from Architects Declare.

In an interview with Dezeen last week, Architects Declare said that the network's message was being "undermined by a few practices" that were "clearly contravening" their climate pledges in an apparent reference to Foster + Partners and Zaha Hadid Architects.

Photo courtesy of SevenStorm.

The post Architects Declare "disappointed" with Foster + Partners' decision to leave climate action group appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/3qtAhBJ

Pantop light by Verner Panton for Verpan

Dezeen Showroom: Verpan has rereleased the Pantop light, created by renowned midcentury Danish designer Verner Panton in 1980, in a joyous palette of eight new colours.

Its playful, bell-shaped metal shade is accentuated through a high gloss finish, rendered in forest green, mustard yellow, soft baby blue and pink, as well as a variety of neutral shades.

The Pantop light comes in eight shades including baby blue (above) and forest green (top image)

"Each colour was carefully curated from a wide colour palette in our design space," explained head of Verpan Malene Nielsen. "It was important for us to create a contemporary colour palette ranging from popping vibrant to calm natural tones that can work in any interior setting."

The shade is either propped up on a skinny stand to form a table lamp or dangled from the ceiling as a pendant, with its wide, flaring silhouette creating lighting that is both ambient and functional.

Product: Pantop
Designer: Verner Panton
Brand: Verpan
Contact: ditte.pedersen@verpan.com

About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen's huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.

The post Pantop light by Verner Panton for Verpan appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/3g25rv1