AD Review: From the Archives presents a wide array of architecture to feature today. While looking back over this particular week from years past we found museum and residential projects to highlight along with religious, institutional and educational architectural works. From Poland to Israel, Chile and France, these projects are well worth a second look.
Design Museum Holon
The Design Museum Holon is intended as the national platform for the presentation of design, the creation of a significant exhibition collection, the reflection of Israeli design in the context of world design and the endorsement of the importance of design in a young emerging state.
School of Arts
Within the School of Arts is red conch music and dance theater on the first floor and exhibit space located on the second floor. The connection between these two horizontal planes is clearly the highlight of the interior. In an almost amoeba like form, the stairs transport you from the lobby to the exhibition space above. Against a white and glass canvas the balanced swirl of color adds just enough interest for a unique entrance space.
Earth House
This rammed earth house is 465sqm with an integrated landscaped garden on a 97-acre property in coastal Victoria. This holistic architectural project blurs the line between architecture, interior, landscape and furniture design. Careful consideration was made to site and context to ensure the house contributes to the rural characteristics of the area from all exterior and interior vantage points. Constructed primarily in rammed earth using local Dromana crushed rock, this split- level house seemingly rises from the landscape and cranks to capture the sweeping rural and coastal panoramic views.
Tampa Covenant Church
The program included a new 25,000sqf freestanding church building comprised of a worship sanctuary, administrative offices, and classrooms for an existing congregation of 450. In addition, the project required the renovation of two existing single level buildings, one from the 1960’s and one from the 1990’s, and a complete site redesign including parking, lighting and landscaping. The challenge was to establish an intimate church campus by creating a new exterior courtyard as a catalyst for interaction as an exterior room joining the new and existing buildings.
The Tampa Covenant Church was voted as the 2010 Building of the Year in the religious category.
Crooked House
This small dwelling located in the countryside of Switzerland boasts a strong aesthetic with a sharply angled facade. The titled upper volume (it is inclined at 40 degrees) faces south, and its geometry balances the need for privacy and light. The home was prefabricated and is clad in painted pine planks that allow it to blend in with the rural architecture of the area.
Huanacu Warehouse & Office
The institutional category Building of the Year 2009, the Huanacu Warehouse & Office explores historical forms of common architecture, a rigorous technical approach, and a strong commitment with elemental life situations that define the architecture (formal and technical approaches).
Chapel in Tarnow
This small, wooden church built on a high bank of the Vistula River, in a small village of Tarnów, Poland serves as a place of meditation and prayer for the local community. It is constructed entirely of wood, with no windows except for one glass wall, which serves as a background for the altar. Inside, you can find your peace by looking through the wall at the river and the distant horizon. The steep, wooden roof transforms unnoticeable into the side walls – the whole covering is made of the same material – laid in a pattern.
The Studio of Bark Design Architects
The elevated steel, glass and plywood studio, explores the notion of a mixed work / house typology. Designed by Bark Design Architects, a small Australian practice, the studio showcases their philosophy of design and provides a great space to work. The architects intended for the project to expresses lightness in its modular structural form, transparency, texture, and a seamless indoor to outdoor connection.
