Completed in the late 19th century by architect Henri Labrouste, the library is considered a masterpiece of the Beaux Arts style, with vast, skylit reading rooms framed by slender steel columns and highly decorative arches.
“I think most electric vehicles will have a solar roof in the future,” he told Dezeen. “It’s a topic that all big car manufacturers are working on.”
Integrated solar panels could help electric cars rival their fossil-fuel counterparts by making them less reliant on charging points and potentially free to run, says Lightyear‘s Emanuele Cornagliotti in this interview as part of our Solar Revolution series.
Lightyear 0’s in-wheel motor technology sets new industry standards and offers greater control on tricky terrains. Not only is our drivetrain in pole position for the highest efficiency, but it also reduces the number of rotating components, meaning much lower maintenance!
Dezeen architecture reporter Lizzie Crook picks of the 12 most interesting architecture projects slated for completion in 2022, including an underwater sculpture park and a pair of towers linked by a skybridge for drones.
Architecture firm ODA has completed a luxury residential building in Brooklyn that features Jenga-style facades made of concrete and glass.
Called 98 Front, the condominium building occupies a corner lot in Dumbo, a waterfront neighbourhood that has seen a flurry of new development in recent decades. The building is a short walk from Brooklyn Bridge Park, which stretches along the East River.
Designed by New York-based ODA, the project is intended to combine “sophisticated, innovative architecture with superior craftsmanship”. Roughly rectangle in plan, the building rises 10 levels and totals 189,000 square feet (17,559 square metres), Made of concrete and glass, the building’s exterior consists of irregularly placed cubic volumes that recall a game of Jenga. The projecting blocks create numerous overhangs and terraces.
Read more on Dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/?p=1608959
This video produced by Dezeen for TP Bennett reveals how the architecture practice has transformed an old building in Manchester into an “ultra sustainable” mixed-use office building.
Called Windmill Green, the office building is a conversion of an unused 1970s structure in the heart of the city that was due to be demolished. The site has been transformed into a mixed-use co-working space fitted with several sustainable additions geared towards carbon reduction and biodiversity, such as solar panels, beehives, and “Manchester’s largest living wall”.
“Sustainability was a key driver with this scheme and we transferred a derelict and vacant building into an ultra sustainable and high-spec workplace” said Yvette Hanson, the principal director of TP Bennett, in the video. “At TP Bennett, we bring a deep commitment to carbon reduction to deliver buildings that better reflect the way people live, work and interact, while at the same time fostering a positive social impact,” she added.
Developed in collaboration with real estate investment boutique FORE Partnership, the building features a ground level dedicated to retail and a facade covered with the green terracotta tiles that are typical of buildings in Manchester.
A linear red-brick wall obscures the textured interiors and art-filled courtyard hidden inside McLean Quinlan’s low-rise Passivhaus home in Devon, UK. The energy-efficient dwelling, aptly named Devon Passivhaus, nestles into a sloped walled garden that was once owned by an old English country house that fell into a state of disrepair.
The overall design is simple and clean. An elegant brick front complements the brickwork of the old garden wall and a discrete front door opening references the gate in the garden wall. Further down, an oriel window breaks through, hinting at what is behind. Elsewhere, external surfaces are dark render, designed to recede visually in deference to the surrounding garden.
Tucked within, the house has a glass roofed courtyard at its centre, a winter garden flooding light into the interior. Spaces are arranged around this central core so the building functions both as a home and a gallery for our clients, great collectors of pottery and art, with spaces to display and curate.
Comfortable and serene interior spaces are punctuated with tactile and textured materials: reclaimed terracotta, rough sawn oak and clay plaster, to ensure that internally the building feels connected to the garden that inspired it.
The importance of touchless bathroom and kitchen products during the coronavirus pandemic is highlighted in this video interview with Patrick Speck from Grohe, as part of the brands takeover of Virtual Design Festival Today.
Speck is the the vice president of design consumer experience for the EMENA region of Japanese water technology brand Lixil, which is the parent company of bathroom and kitchen brand Grohe. Speck told Dezeen that following the coronavirus pandemic, the brand has seen an increased demand for products that limit the spread of germs and diseases.
“With the increased demand for hygiene we’re having right now, we know that to minimise the risk of spreading germs and also cross contamination, we need to reduce contact with any surface as much as we can,” Speck explained in the video. According to Speck, the solution could be touchless products such as faucets and toilets that rely on sensor technology.
Read more on Dezeen: http://www.dezeen.com/vdf
In the second talk as part of our Virtual Design Festival collaboration with Architects, not Architecture, architect Richard Rogers discusses his reluctance to enter the Centre Pompidou competition and liking the Lloyd’s building. The idea behind Architects, not Architecture is for architects to discuss their path, influences and experiences.
In his lecture in November 2017, Rogers explained that he’d been told he couldn’t use buildings for his talk, as the main rule of the series is that architects aren’t allowed to discuss their projects. “I said: That’s like saying I can’t use my two hands,” Rogers said.
“Architecture is part of me. And architecture is not just about buildings, it’s about spaces and places.” Born in Florence, Rogers moved to England with his family and studied at the Architectural Association School in London, where he founded Richard Rogers Partnership with Su Rogers, now Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, in 1977.
From a Dezeen.com online article (March 28, 2020):
“The detached homes have been conceptualised to visually appear as one single volume defined by its traditional triangular architecture,” said the studio. “Only from up close will the observer notice a crisp breakpoint between the properties.”
Canadian firm Ancerl Studio has designed a pair of houses in Toronto to make them look like a single building.
Both properties include three bedrooms. In Sorauren 116, the master suite occupies the entire top floor of the house. A balcony opens from the bedroom towards the backyard, and the bathroom is separated from the bedroom by a spacious walk-through closet.
The two houses are located on very tight lots on Sorauren Street in the city’s Parkdale neighbourhood, as is typical in Toronto’s residential neighbourhoods.
Composed of three pavilions connected by a series of glass hallways, the single-story residence seeks to create a residential oasis in the heart of Los Angeles.
The Western Red Cedar lined guest house/garage pavilion establishes a datum line that carves and connects the two larger volumes of the living and sleeping pavilions, comprised of oversized charcoal-colored board, batten extira and cement board siding. A deep overhang mitigates solar heat gain and shields from the sun exposure.
A walkway of concrete pavers, lined by wild grasses leads to the front door, passing a tranquil courtyard with olive trees. The entry to the house is located within a glass hallway connecting the living pavilion to the west and the sleeping pavilion to the east, establishing a sense of intimate scale before engaging with the other parts of the house.
The fluidity between the kitchen, breakfast room and family room, designed for uninterrupted entertainment, creates a harmony of transparency and lightness.
Boomers Daily 