The intervention develops the necessary adaptions to reuse an old abandoned building like a senior residence.

We propose a better relation between the garden-courtyard space and the building by itself, and the improvement of the principal access. We facilitate the movements in the parcel with clarity for its users. The access to the hall is resolved for vehicles buses, taxis. Also, the special vehicles like ambulances and services facilities are resolved by the east side entrance.

It is performed a public access from the north side, with a ramp to the ground floor level. In the primitive basement is organized the lobby with an entrance porch before, reception, telephone booths, toilets and access to elevators and access to the staircases.

From the lobby, through a ramp, is possible to enter to the lounge, which is at the level of the main garden. This room is proposed surrounded by an open green space and also a café and snack bar. The garden is adequate space for the development of outdoor activities, and is equipped with bar facilities, dance floor, and pergolas to support a walkabout, bocce games and other entertainment areas. The entire garden is at the same level, in order to ensure proper accessibility in the arrangement of the elements, establishing the connection with the initial level (lobby) by a ramp protected.

The two main stairs on both sides keep the rule requirements – protected enclosed stairs – and do not require structural changes in the main building, because they are external elements. The west-facing one is more public, and the east one connects to the service access accompanied by a forklift and service spaces on each floor to support the rooms.

The circulation in the room floors improves its clarity by the elimination of the ancient central core. The small single rooms are eliminated and a floor general room is proposed opened to the views of North Mountains of Malaga.

Rooms change by the elimination of its balconies, becoming a good diaphane interior space. Bathrooms changes to adopt the necessities of it use: special showers for elderly, non-skid pavement integrated with the rest of the local, and in the same level and others. Totally, there are 98 rooms, 6 are single rooms and 92 double rooms, for 190 residents maximum.

The room floors (2º to 7º) are complemented with special assisted bathrooms. Also, In all floors of the building, there are offices and auxiliary work rooms to have a correct working.

Service spaces are in the basement floor, and there, there are groups of rooms for facilities by type, warehouse and laundry

This transformation of the building layout allows getting a wrapped final image, with a skin which attenuates the denticulate. Creating surfaces where the reflection of the light is clear-cut.

+ Project facts

Building rehabilitation for a senior asisted residence. ISDABE complex

SITUATION INFO:
National road 340 km. 175. Estepona. Málaga. (Spain)

COMPLETE NAME AND BIRTH DATE OF THE AUTHORS:
Enrique Abascal García (3/10/1953)
Miguel Díaz Zulategui (19/9/1954)

COLABORATORS:
Estudio Enrique Abascal Arquitectos. GEYPE, Germán Álvarez de Cienfuegos.

TECHNICAL ARCHITECTS:
Gerardo Sandar Núñez.
Antonio Lastres García-Testón

PROMOTER/OWNER:
Dirección General de Patrimonio
Consejería de Economía y Hacienda
Junta de Andalucía

MANUFACTURER:
Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC)

DATES:
Executive project: DECEMBER 2003
End of construction: JULY 2008

TOTAL BUDGET (EUROS):
14.037.397,14

BUDGET/m2:
783,14 €

FLOOR AREA:
17.924,43 m2

+ All images and drawings courtesy Enrique Abascal Arquitectos

WAMHOUSE of Karina Wiciak recently has designed Ubojnia & XII collection. The collection consists of 12 thematic interior designs, together with furniture and fittings, which in each part will be interconnected, not only in terms of style, but also by name. This is a combination of design and art.

In December, the 'Jardin Urbain' Association together with the Town Council of Lausanne announced that Balmori Associates is on the shortlist to create one of twenty-five mobile gardens in Central Lausanne, Switzerland. Selected from a pool of over 400 applicants, Balmori enters the second phase of the competition with the task to re-use an existing rooftop under the program's broader concept 'Landing'.

We are very excited to participate in this project within the historic city of Lausanne," says Diana Balmori, FASLA, founder of the international landscape and urban design firm. "Temporary gardens offer a unique opportunity for experimentation that we really enjoy.

Since the early 2000s, Balmori has garnered global recognition for the development of alternative forms of landscape. The firm is the creator of the largest green rooftop in New York City, a 35,000 square foot "fifth facade" at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City. In 2009, Balmori realized Jardin: The Garden That Climbs The Stairs in Bilbao, Spain, which was built with local materials and craftsmen. This has since become an annual event, with new temporary installations expanding the possibilities for landscape interventions in otherwise unused places.

In recent years, Lausanne has aimed to integrate contemporary 21st century design into the historic fabric of the city. In 2010, the Rolex Learning Center, designed by SANNA, opened at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne opened. In 2011, international teams were called upon to master plan the Pôle Museal et Culturel, a tight urban arts district adjacent the city's central train station. Competitors included Allied Works (US), Kengo Kuma (JP), Nieto Sobejano (ES) and Gigon/Guyer (CH), among others. Sir David Chipperfield (UK) served as the chair of the jury.

Lausanne Jardin 2014 aims to investigate the potential for creating and planting temporary gardens that will form a route through the 15th century city. A public exhibition of the submitted designs is scheduled for April 2013.

Newly built terraced house still in raw state fell into the hands of Pozna? based architects from mode:lina just in time because it turned out that:

These structural concrete elements are just beautiful!

and the lack of any walls immediately gave future users an overview on ground floor space.

We love open space but is has to be cosy. We also like raw materials but they need to get some warm natural accents because of our small child. Do you think there’s still room for some furniture we inherited from our parents?

Architect’s recipe for a cosy open space was to create different zones for different functions by changing material both on the floor as well as on the ceiling.

In order to bring more nature into this urban house, floor in the living room was covered with cow hide and bathroom sliding door are raw MDF with old plank print. The owner was really enthusiastic about the idea of making a tree branch chandelier:

It can not be just any branch! I will bring one from the place where I used to spend my childhood holidays.

Even purely functional aspects are matching the overall atmosphere of the house:

(He) We have a growing collection of books. The collection of clothes grows too (fast!)
(She) Yes, I want my wardrobe in my bedroom and it need to be very special.

The wardrobe gets closer to nature too as it looks like a mysterious forrest with hidden doorway (the mirror).

This house feels like a forester close to the city centre.

+ Project facts

Urban Forester House
house in Pozna?, Poland

Design: mode:lina architekci s.c.
Project team: Pawe? Garus, Jerzy Wo?niak
Complete: September 2012
Photo: Marcin Ratajczak

+ All images courtesy mode:lina architekci

The 2 storey house is located on an 8 x 40 meters (24 x 120 feet) lot in the historical urban fabric of the city of Cartaxo, Portugal. It presents itself as a white volume over a transparent ground floor.

A central patio and a garden allow the light to enter the different spaces of the house during the day. This central patio plays an important role in the organisation of the house, designing a void, around which the house develops itself.

The project explores the length of the site. The inhabitants of the house move around the interior spaces according to a long axis. This axis emphasizes the visual relations between the interior spaces of the house and the garden. The depth of the site is explored and underlined by the presence of a white wall, accompanying the main circulation axis. While moving along this axis, the visual relationship with the garden is always maintained.

The family's main social areas, which are located on the ground floor, are characterized by different ceiling heights, thus presenting different ambiances.

The stairwell articulating the different floors presents different materialities. It is composed of a floating stair, playing with transparencies and creating a visual filter on the upper part, and a more massive and sculptural lower part.

Large windows emphasize the relation between the interior spaces, the garden and the courtyard that brings light to the kitchen and to a small office.

The first floor accommodates the bedrooms and a more intimate living room with a playing area for the children. The courtyard brings light into this space through a large glazed wall and connects it to the more social spaces of the family located on the ground floor. A second patio, painted in strong yellow, reveals itself through a slit in the wall which connects both patios.

The smaller rooms of the house such as the kitchen and bathrooms are characterized by particular space and light conditions. These rooms display textures and warm colours, contrasting with the social rooms of the house.

+ Project facts

Jarego House
Cartaxo, Portugal
Private commission 2005, completed 2008

Total Built area: 350 sq m (3 767 sq ft)
Construction cost: 270 000,00 Euros ($ 372 508,00 USD)
Design team: CVDB arquitectos
Diogo Burnay, Cristina Verissimo, António Cotrim, Sofia Brogueira, Tiago Santos, Mireia Cases Sampere
Structure, foundations and services:
Aedificandi, Estudos & Projectos, Lda
General Contractor:
Contentor de Ideias. Lda
Photography:
FG + SG | Fernando Guerra e Sérgio Guerra

+ All images and drawings courtesy CVDB arquitectos