Collage Urbain by Maison Edouard François

French studio Maison Edouard François has completed a new housing scheme in Champigny-sur-Marne. You could be forgiven for thinking it looks like a pile of houses, because in fact it is! Maison Edouard François has designed a hodge-podge of building units- townhouses at the bottom, a housing block from the 1950s in the middle, and single family homes balanced on the roof. The studio was inspired by the ensemble of building on the site built in the 1970s: a large zone of housing filled with towers and multi-story housing blocks near the old town centre.

The scheme provides 114 new residences as well as new retail shops and alleys that open up the building units. The studio won the  €14.3 millionproject in a competition in 2006.

Image: © Paul Raftery for Maison Edouard François

 

Ant House by mA-style architects

Japanese architects mA-style have recently completed their 'ant house', a windowless cube in omaezaki-city, Japan. The single family residence confronts the street with dark metal panels, but inside the light plywood is lined with voids and holes for storage, creating a warm internal space with a gabled roof and skylights above. 

Images

JOH 3 by J. Mayer H. Architects

I recently wrote a post about J. Mayer H. Architects' recent work in Georgia (here). The Berlin-based practice have now realised a residential building in their hometown, situated between Museum Island and Friedrichstrasse. The most striking feature of the building is the sculptural design of the suspended slat facade that envelops the glass; the pattern mimicking the natural shapes of the green interior courtyard within. This is something that has become something of a trademark for the architects. The quirky pattern in this building is even extended to the tiling of the bathrooms. 

Images

Glass House by Naf Architect & Design

Japanese practice Naf Architect & Design, based in Tokyo, have recently completed this seaside house in Etajima, Hiroshima. The structure is formed partly from chunky 1x1x1.5 concrete blocks, echoing the adjacent retaining sea walls that protect the coastline from storm waves. They were manufactured at a  low cost from surplus cement and unused concrete from a nearby factory, and will be reinforced with metal bars during seismic events. The result when stacked together, is a private inlet away from the seaside walkway, that protects against the wind and direct sunlight. 

Images

Stealth Barn by Carl Turner Architects

Shortlisted for the Architects' Journal Small Projects Award, Stealth Barn by Carl Turner Architects is a robust, black mass on the Cambridgeshire fens. The black-stained timber addition sits perpendicular to a converted brick barn and features an interior clad in oriented strand board, reminiscent of traditional farm straw bales.

Images: by Tim Crocker and Jeremy Phillips for Carl Turner Architects

Fabric Facade Studio Apartment by CC-Studio, Studio TX and Rob Veening

Almere, a short distance from Amsterdam in the Netherlands has ambitious plans as the youngest city in the country. The city, which has existed for less than two decades, has shown a commitment to architectural innovation and experimentation. Self-build projects are actively encouraged, making personal visions reality, in tight budgets and affordable plots. One such project is the Fabric Facade Studio Apartment by Dutch Architects CC-Studio and Studio TX and artist Rob Veening. The house is built on one of the 350 plots designated for construction by private builders, an initiative driven by Alderman Adri Duivesteijn, in the Homerus quarter in Almere. Strips of perforated fabric, made of teflon, are designed to flap and move in the wind, creating a dynamic fluidity to the facade; "The extremely durable, non-combustible, residual material comes from rolls of PTFE (Teflon) coated fiberglass fabric, used in the industrial manufacture of conveyors belts for the food industry. This special material was completely sponsored by Verseidag-Indutex from Krefeld, Germany. The 5m long rolls (about 1200m2 gross) were cut by the principal and cc-studio into strips and placed as overlapping shingles and tacked on a backing of osb panels. The flexible material moves with wind, creating a lively image."

Images: Dezeen