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Interior - 16.09.2019

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 ‘Construir una casa dentro de una casa’ como concepto de reforma interior llevada a cabo en un antiguo loft madrileño del siglo XX.  El proyecto original era un loft diáfano situado en el centro de la ciudad de Madrid y construido a finales del siglo XX mediante estructura de muro de carga, estructura de pilares de madera y forjado de bóveda catalana. Los arquitectos lo reforman tratando de ‘construir una casa dentro de una casa’. Es decir, se parece más al proceso de hacer una vivienda unifamiliar que al de una reforma interior, ya que tiene su propia estructura, cerramientos e instalaciones.El concepto se basa en crear forjados a diferentes alturas que responden al programa que acogen, tanto en su parte superior como inferior, por ello las diferentes alturas corresponden con diferentes usos. Para la sujeción de dichos forjados se plantea una estructura que unas veces apoya en el suelo y otras, cuelga del techo. La estructura busca la máxima delgadez, por lo que los arquitectos utilizan un perfil metálico lacado en blanco de 8x8cm con todas las instalaciones ocultas por

Civic Centre Lleialtat Santsenca 1214

Architecture - 12.09.2019

Civic Centre Lleialtat Santsenca 1214

H Arquitectes

Ganador del Premio AADIPA en la categoría de Intervención en el Patrimonio Construido, el Centro Cívico Lleialtat Santsenca en Barcelona fue rehabilitado por el estudio catalán H Arquitectes. The project has four objectives: to take advantage of everything in the original building that can still be of use, and discard everything not reusable; to formulate a strategy of intervention identifying those indispensable actions – of a more conservationist or more additive nature – that would make it possible to recover and enhance the usability of all the spaces; to establish a dialogue with the context; and to draw up a sustainable proposal that involves preexisting elements and new installations at once.The program is organized in three volumes connected by an atrium: a main one harboring the auditorium and the old store, which are the two principal spaces; a central volume; and the only one with no direct access from the street, forming an L with the other two. The atrium presents a successions of voids in which one can discern physical traces of the building’s life. This succession of voids is something like an interior street connecting the three volumes and all the halls, in
The Imprint at Paradise City

Architecture - 09.09.2019

The Imprint at Paradise City

MVRDV

Located close to South Korea’s largest airport, the project is part of the Paradise City entertainment and hotel complex, to which it adds two new buildings: a nightclub and an indoor theme park. The facade of The Imprint forms entrances evocative of golden theater curtains opening up from the bottom, and which create the surrealist impression of a building that takes off from the ground to draw the attention of visitors. Designed by the Dutch studio MVRDV, the complex consists of two buildings – a nightclub and an indoor theme park – included within the larger Paradise City, an entertainment and hotel complex in close proximity to Seoul’s Incheon Airport.This type of program does not require natural light, so the facades are windowless structures and feature imprints of the façade features of surrounding buildings using fiberglass-reinforced concrete elements. As the shape of many of the 3,869 panels is unique, these were individually produced using 3D technology. Once installed, the panels were all painted uniformly to emphasize the relief and generate an abstract image that places the project on the boundary between architecture and art. A large golden dot is ca
Kuala Lumpur

Travel - 07.09.2019

Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

Beyond the Petronas Towers, the capital of Malaysia is a vibrant multicultural mix of tradition and modernity. 

Casa Rosario

Architecture - 05.09.2019

Casa Rosario

Rojkind Arquitectos + DOSA Studio

Designed by DOSA Studio and Rojkind Arquitectos, Casa Rosario is one of the reconstruction projects carried out to help families affected by the earthquake that shook Mexico in September 2017. After the Mexican earthquake of 2017 and in lieu of governmental support for people who whose houses were destroyed, the organization PienZa Sostenible invited a number of architects to reconstruct damaged dwellings. One fruit of this project was Casa Rosario, the new home of a family of three that cultivates plants for a living. Having met the family, the architects designed a house with four separate parts built with high-resistance ecobloks of wood. They are cubes, but differ in height and each has its own identity. The blocks are interconnected by open-air circulations, give out onto a central courtyard by means of large wooden openings, and engage with the surrounding nature through secondary apertures that frame views of it. “Casa Rosario embraces and gives equal importance to the interior and the exterior space, as much in the use of nature as in the elements built to mark spatial boundaries.”
Gunni & Trentino Flagship in Madrid

Architecture - 02.09.2019

Gunni & Trentino Flagship in Madrid

Cosentino

Inspired in the scaly skin of a fish, the facade of the new Gunni & Trentino headquarters has transformed the existing building into an icon that reshapes the urban landscape of this central location on Paseo de la Castellana and Paseo de la Habana in Madrid.  The serial pattern of hexagonal panels wraps a windowless volume that rests on a neutral black base. To reflect company values such as quality, exclusiveness, rigor, elegance, and timelessness, the interior design company has worked with the architecture studio Mendoza + Simal, choosing Dekton, the ultracompact surface developed by Cosentino, for cladding. Because it is perfectly moldable and has a limited weight and volume, this material manages to adapt to the unique design complying with high-precision standards. Marking a contrast with the bright main facade – built with 600 square meters of Dekton in the tone Popular Warm – the rear façade of the building, which surrounds an interior courtyard, is designed as a sober enclosure with more than 100 square meters of Dekton in the dark hue Domoos. The possibility of manufacturing large-format pieces that adapt to all sorts of dimensions simplifies the detailing of the facades and reduces the joints between panels, creating a smooth and unif
The Potemkin Village

Arts - 27.08.2019

The Potemkin Village

Gregor Sailer

For two years Sailer photographed about twenty ‘Potemkin villages’ in countries like the United States, Sweden, or France, exploring the features that define these simulated towns that are only facades. The work of the Austrian photographer and designer Gregor Sailer (Schwaz, 1980) has reflected an interest in architecture from the beginning of his career. Between 2015 and 2017 he completed ‘The Potemkin Village’ series, a research on this concept inspired in the Russian myth according to which marshal Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin built fake settlements to conceal the ruinous state of the newly annexed Crimea from the Russian Empress Catherine the Great. The result is a showcase of counterfeit architecture that includes vehicle test cities or combat training centers. The chromatic uniformity and the geometric balance of the photographs in ‘The Potemkin Village’ series together create an oneiric atmosphere that underscores the ambiguity between reality and appearance.In his projects, the Austrian photographer Gregor Sailer documents unusual places like Tiefort City, where more than 500 buildings recreate an Iraqi city that US troops use as combat training grou
Aesop Stores

Style - 20.08.2019

Aesop Stores

Taxonomy of Design

Founded in 1987 by Dennis Paphitis as a product line in a small beauty salon in Melbourne, the company is present today in 50 countries with more than 220 stores.  In the digital commerce era, the Australian skin, hair, and body care company Aesop pays special attention to in-store experience through art, architecture, and design. The brand’s philosophy – based on principles of quality, honesty, and sensibility – pervades each one of its spaces, but the projects are designed with the creative freedom needed to adapt to the character of the place. Fearing precisely that global expansion could turn the brand into a ‘soulless chain,’ founder Paphitis decided to work with local architects, young emerging teams in most cases, to design the stores. The result is an extraordinary collection of designs that pursue not only a visually attractive image but also calibrate factors such as lighting, scent, and sound to apparently imperceptible levels. To celebrate this process, Aesop launched the web Taxonomy of Design in 2015, where they inform about their products, materials, and strategies, and include the designers and architects of the spaces that

Paredes Pedrosa & Dal Co

Interview - 13.08.2019

Paredes Pedrosa & Dal Co

In Dialogue

During an encounter with Francesco Dal Co in Milan, Ángela García de Paredes and Ignacio García Pedrosa discussed the essential aspects of their work from a chronological, thematic, and ideological view. The Mondadori Editorial Office, built between 1968 and 1975 by Oscar Niemeyer, holds the conversation between the architects Ángela García de Paredes and Ignacio García Pedrosa and the historian Francesco Dal Co, director of Casabella magazine and great connoisseur of their work.Francesco Dal Co: You both studied at the Madrid School of Architecture, during what years?Ángela García de Paredes: Yes, we started in 1975, a crucial year in Spain. Franco died in November, so the School was closed until January. We met because our last names went together on the class list. We were destined by alphabetical order. FDC: What were the most interesting experiences during this period and what teachers influenced you the most?Ignacio García Pedrosa: We were lucky to be students when three critical professors were still teaching: Francisco Javier Sáenz de
Slate Cabin

Architecture - 06.08.2019

Slate Cabin

TRIAS

The inspiration for this small cottage in a valley surrounded by green hils and pastures came from the bedrock of Wales, a country built with and built on slate. Thus, the project’s name. Slate Cabin is a refuge built for a writer, located on the edge of Snowdonia National Park in Mid Wales. The landscape is exceptional, strewn with rocky mountains, abandoned quarries, and old slate homes. It was clear to the architects what material to use and how to name the project. Obtained from nearby farms and recycled, slate dominates the building’s exterior.The exterior is dark and cold-looking, but the inside is a bright and cozy small space. As a refuge, it has everything essential for short getaways, and has more storage capacity than it may seem to, the architects having exerted much effort in making the most of every square millimeter. The result is a continuous balance between efficiency and comfort. The windows are carefully considered, either framing small sceneries or forming a horizontal line below the roof to bring in all the daylight possible.The architects’ intention was to explore “the tension between permanence and impermanence, the efficient act
C14 Architecture & Everything else

Paper - 02.08.2019

C14 Architecture & Everything else New C Magazine's Issue Presentation

The latest number of the magazine, C14, with the cover featuring Gunni & Trentino Flagship in Madrid, a project by the firm Mendoza + Simal collaborating with Dekton by Cosentino. The Martinez Cosentino family has always applied itself to meeting the most ambitious challenges. From 2014, with C magazine, Cosentino set out to contribute anew to the world of architecture but from a different field, that of communications, through information on the best and latest innovations, designs, and projects that make for a more sustainable and more beautiful world.