Building a new settlement tends to post war nostalgia and to the adventure of a Mars Colony. The architecture of ZieglerBranderhorst at Marker Wadden does indeed appear alien; a robot like viewing cabin and a windmill that rises from the dunes at night. At the same time, the settlement is as self-sufficient as an alien colony.
How to extend a museum housed in a traditional villa? Bureau SLA bought the neighbouring villa and built 4 bridges in between. The bridges are the largest window shopping windows in the Netherlands. The glass boxes inside, showing the glass of the National Glas Museum, are built by Piet Hein Eek. Other big names are on show behind the glass: Arnout Visser, Scholten & Baijings.
What if you want to build a holiday home in sight of the architecural highlight Therme Vals? SeARCH and CMA found underground was the respectful place. Still the space and style of their Villa Vals displays a high architectural value for itself. The process was flexibel, making room to welcome unintended presents like a hidden well, lost brick, Swiss craftmenship and child’s play.
A cardboard strip that is easy to carry, easy to fold into a chair and easy to produce. Vouwwow can be taken to the park or an event, anywhere that you would want a chair. I can also see temporary events use this cheap transportable chair. Vouwwow by Maartje Nuy and Joost van Noort won the Thonet / Mart Stam prize for innovative chair design.
On 29/9/2009 I witnessed Daniel Libeskind open a new villa of his own hand. It’s the first of a limited edition of 30 villa’s to be build all over the world. Regional exclusivity will be granted if you buy this villa made in zink. You will also keep yourself from the stress of building your own home, since the Libeskind will be delivered as you’ve seen it and fully furnished. Art or architecture?
Finally! We’ve been drewling over artist impressions and construction pictures for over a year, but Villa Welpeloo is finally ready for its occupants. The 300 m2 villa worth almost a million euros proves sustainable building doesn’t have to show. 80% of the building material is second hand, but that you only find out after gazing at its beauty.
What to do when you’re writer and are asked to make an exposition? The analogue website is the paper version of the website you’re visiting now. No fancy font but by hand, no pictures but the real thing, no weblinks but a post-it for you to take home. To be touched from August 28 at Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam in galery Aanschouw. I’m nr. 1 in 10x Van Lieshout.
The Dutch have been known to dam and polder water. In the housing project Nieuw Water, a green house area will be given back to nature. The polder fills up and functions as a water container. A housing area with appartment complex The Citadel floats atop, using 25% less energy thanks to water cooling techniques. “Stop fighting water, live with it” says architect Koen Olthuis.
Nice to see good old hero Rem Koolhaas still has his Archigram touch. The pavilion he made for Prada in Seoul (Korea) deals with heaps of money spent for just one exhibition. Turn the Prada Transformer over with a crane and up comes a new use of the building. This way there’s four uses to one temporary building.
“Take a circular piece of the forest and put it 36 meters up in the sky. From this elevated ground there is a 360 degree view over the forest,” says SeARCH architects. Trees actually grow on top. Not the hardest part for structural engineer Pieters Bouwtechniek: “That’s to avoid visitors from feeling the tower move.” The forest on the platform is engineered smallness.
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