Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects recently has completed the Fagerström House in Edsviken, Sollentuna, Sweden. A curved L-shaped house with a distinctive facade colour. The vertical boards are painted in different Falun red shades and the inspiration for the color mixture was taken from the Swedish children’s book “Where’s the Tall Uncle’s Hat?”.

courtesy Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects, photo by Åke E:son Lindman

courtesy Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects, photo by Åke E:son Lindman

courtesy Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects, photo by Åke E:son Lindman

courtesy Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects, photo by Åke E:son Lindman

courtesy Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects, photo by Åke E:son Lindman

+ Project statement from Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects

The client had split his garden city plot in two and moved the old house to the one. The other had a more embedded position, including a big old oak tree in the middle.

The gross building allowance had to be fully exploited in order to create a large enough home for the growing family. The stipulated distance to the property line of course limited the positioning from the sides, while the desire to preserve the old oak tree blocked the middle.

The curved L-shape stems completely out of the zoning regulations. The actual bend gives the house an interior spatial flow that would have been broken if we'd chosen a sharp corner. The curving of course also makes for an iconic and sculptural exterior – something that the client specifically requested.

Another distinctive feature is the facade colour. Vertical boards are painted in different Falun red shades. An irregular transition from ocher (wide boards) to dark red (narrow boards) happens from the bedroom end to the living room end. The inspiration for the colour mixture was taken from the Swedish children’s book 'Where’s the Tall Uncle's Hat? '.

The house has two floors in its tall end. That's where you find bedrooms etcetera. In the second lower end, the upper floor terminates with a balcony facing the interior living room with its high ceilings. The roof has a diagonal, pitch; from one end to the other and also backwards. This skews the house’s gables but also makes for the constant changing of room geometry as one moves through the house.

The house’s waistline houses the kitchen and, behind a bookcase, stairs. The kitchen thus is very much open while the stairs up to the more private spaces are more to the side. With its slow climb, the stairs gives a you a feeling of 'proceeding' rather than walking between levels.

All openings / glazing is carefully placed so that visibility from neighbours is avoided. This also creates a feeling that the house is located in a place far more sparsely populated than the area in reality is. As if it was just the house and the outdoors.

Instead of a larger number of conventional windows, the remaining placements are generously glazed. For example, the living room is completely glazed toward a conservatory. As an outside extension of the living room.

The entrance floor is made of Carrara marble. The tiles are laid perpendicular to the main facade, even where the room bends (like a fan). An integrated blood-red bookcase and staircase flows into an equally blood-red wood floor upstairs. The bathrooms are tiled (floor, walls and ceiling) with different patterns from Marrakech Design's collection by Claesson Koivisto Rune.

We thought of the house as if it designed itself; that it was neither particularly strange or extreme. But everyone else evidently did not agree. When the house was finished or nearly finished three cars drove into the concrete blocks placed on the street right outside to prevent high speed in the area. Three drivers, three different occasions, who could not keep their eyes on the road.

+ Project facts

Fagerström House
Location: Edsviken, Sollentuna, Sweden
Architect: Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects
Project group: Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto, Ola Rune, Lotti Engstrand
Building area: 270 m2
Built: 2012
Client: Fagerström family
Builder: Komponent Byggen AB
Construction: Wood
Photo credits: Åke E:son Lindman

+ All images and drawings courtesy Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects \ photo by Åke E:son Lindman

AND-RÉ recently has designed a design proposal for the competition entry for Setubal Public Library.

courtesy AND-RÉ

courtesy AND-RÉ

courtesy AND-RÉ

courtesy AND-RÉ

+ Statement from AND-RÉ

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

A project that depicts the essential foundations of the current office philosophy and our vision of architectural and methodological approach facing the contemporary reality.

A project developed based on concepts that favour a social architecture, embodied in a seductive and plastic language, one that responds effectively to the functional requirements.

CONCEPT

The concept is developed with the purpose of controlling the external environmental conditions in order to manipulate the internal space.

It is an introspective system, developed around a central courtyard, as indeed occurs in many examples in the history of architecture, serving a purpose of reflective internalization and privacy. It is a way to focus the architecture in itself, like the
act of assimilating knowledge.

This space is a positive affirmation of expression of society’s need to move away from an external active, stressed and noisy environment, as an opportunity to reach balance and harmony.

The building, although being an organizational system that develops itself introspectively, it also opens up strategically into the urban fabric, rising punctually at two points, as cloth, allowing passage under the object, allowing the crossing, offering the interior, creating a distinct new urban reality, a protected space, understood as exceptional moment in the sequential chronology of urban routes, an invitation for a pause, enticing the discovery, inviting the crossing, welcoming the entrance, embracing the citizen.

The conscious choice of the circular shape provides a peaceful, almost implied relation to the context of confrontation. By its natural features, form is fluid, continuous, allowing a subtle, yet direct, relation with the environment. The circular shape allows the required intelligibility for the assimilation of the building.

The shape is not an imposition in the context, but a dynamic challenge to the environment.

+ Project facts

SETUBAL PUBLIC LIBRARY
A social place, a space for culture and knowledge

Type: Competition Proposal for the Setúbal Public Library
Location: Setúbal – Portugal
Date: 2013
Area: 2.398 m2
Promoter: Setúbal Municipality
Architecture Team: Bruno André, Francisco Salgado Ré, Catarina Fernandes, Fernando Ferreira, Filipe Paixão
Engenieering & sustainability: AFA consult

+ About AND-RÉ

THE OFFICE
AND-RÉ is an award winning international office dedicated to the study, research and practice of architecture, design and art.

VISION
The office success has its base on the objective vision that addresses key issues of contemporary challenges.

The office marks its position in the emerging architectural panorama through innovative methods, creative spirit, pragmatism and a critical active attitude towards established contexts.

The constant goal is the pursuit of positive differentiated responses in a time of rapidly changing paradigms.

FIELDS OF ACTION
The studio is involved in projects of various scales and programs, with various examples of reference works and award-winning projects in the areas of architecture and design.

The office works with corporate, government and private clients, which have constant support in all phases of design, from concept to construction. This reflects an action based on dialogue, accountability and attention to detail, allowing high levels of quality, innovation and creativity in all projects.

TEAM
The office has a multidisciplinary team, which brings together several generations and specialties, able to respond quickly and innovatively to various programs, typologies and the multiple demands of the contemporary world.

The company has the best partners and consultants and engineering specialties, who works in permanent dialogue in finding the best technical solutions.

The office collaborates regularly with international partners, allowing contextualized results and effective support to the clients.

The company is directed by the founding partners, the architects Bruno André and Francisco Salgado Ré.

H Architecture shared with us their competition entry for Sejong Art Center Competition in South Korea, collaborated with Haeahn Architecture. It is for the new cultural hub of Sejong city, featuring a 700 seat theater for classical concert, ballet and musical, a 300 seat black box theater, a cinema, and gallery spaces, and a 1,500 seat opera theater as an extension.

courtesy H Architecture + Haeahn Architecture

courtesy H Architecture + Haeahn Architecture

courtesy H Architecture + Haeahn Architecture

courtesy H Architecture + Haeahn Architecture

courtesy H Architecture + Haeahn Architecture

+ Project statement from H Architecture

Sejong Art Center is the new cultural hub of Sejong city, featuring a 700 seat theater for classical concert, ballet and musical, a 300 seat black box theater, a cinema, and gallery spaces, and a 1,500 seat opera theater as an extension. The complex is vibrantly open to the community with indoor and outdoor cultural venues for multipurpose performance activities.

The project aims to embrace the polarity of the city and nature.It was initiated from a scrupulous speculation concerning the dichotomy between them since the site is located at the edge of the city. As a result, the contemporary complex sits oriented toward its natural setting. Spaces between the individual programs actively bring nature into the complex, making way for sunlight, wind, and foliage to infiltrate.

Gallery and cinema spaces located at the outer edge of the complex allow visitors to easily utilize the program. While gallery and cinema spaces are everyday facilities, theaters for performances are event facilities in which extraordinary experiences take place. These event facilities are located at the inner layer of the complex, maximizing direct contact with the surrounding park, river, and hills. Intermission during a performance becomes an opportunity for people to enjoy nature while taking a break. ?an? a Korean expression for a place of public activity, embodies the spirit of each outdoor space and landscaped area. Each zone is carefully designed to accommodate numerous outdoor performances such as a concert in the forest, a traditional parade, or a summer night film festival.

+ Project facts

Architects: H Architecture + Haeahn Architecture
Location: Sejong, Korea
Client: Multifunctional Administrative City Construction Agency(MACCA)
Program: Performing art center including a 700 seat theater for classical concert, ballet and musical, a 300 seat black box theater, a cinema, and gallery spaces, a 1,500 seat opera theater as an extension, a restaurant, a cafe and parking
Gross Area: 11,138 m2(119,888 sf)
Status: Competition, submitted 2013

+ All images and drawings courtesy H Architecture + Haeahn Architecture

Uruguay-based architectural firm jaf architecture + design recently has completed the colorful fencing for the Peach Sports Complex in Durazno, Uruguay.

courtesy Javier Villasuso Multimedia & jaf architecture + design

courtesy Javier Villasuso Multimedia & jaf architecture + design

courtesy Javier Villasuso Multimedia & jaf architecture + design

courtesy Javier Villasuso Multimedia & jaf architecture + design

+ Design statement by jaf architecture + design

Peach Sports Complex is a campus of about 40,000 m2 in which develops a variety of sports such as soccer, basketball, swimming, biking and skate boarding, gymnastics, handball, triathlon, athletics, etc.. This makes this complex a major sporting and social center of the city.

At the request of the municipality of Durazno, there is an enclosure in its 600 m. in length, in addition to providing security to users, creates a strong visual identity and intensifies the inclusive nature of the resort.

A set of multicolored strips articulate varying width and color to achieve a composition playing with sports that take place in the complex, taking hues regarding each of the disciplines it contains. This is how the shades of blue are highlighted in the pool industry, the orange in the field of basketball, the green on the football field and gray on the bike and skatepark industry.

+ Project facts

Architect: jaf :: architecture + design (www.jaf.com.uy)
Location: Durazno, Uruguay
Client: Administration Department of Durazno
Year: 2013
Length: 600 m.
Photographs: Javier Villasuso Multimedia (www.javiervillasuso.com) jaf :: architecture + design

+ All images and drawings courtesy jaf :: architecture + design