The Whispering House by Czech architectural office mjölk architekti is one of the shortlisted design for the architectural competition “A Room for London” commissioned by Living Architecture.

Visibility and exposure are major character traits of the location on the roof of Queen Elizabeth Hall. The feature to present oneself to other people to built by this an interconnection between them and others is inherent in human nature.

Mjölk architekti

A Room for London - The Whispering House, render courtesy Mjölk architekti

+ Project description by Mjölk architekti

Concept

Visibility and exposure are major character traits of the location on the roof of Queen Elizabeth Hall. The feature to present oneself to other people to built by this an interconnection between them and others is inherent in human nature.

A Room for London - The Whispering House, render courtesy Mjölk architekti

But with the developement of societies and ongoing civilization also grows also the need for privacy. In this area of conflict of opposed needs are placed the individuals of a society. Aim of the design is to predefine the position of the inhabitants of the hotelroom without grossly unveiling there private sphere. They are so offered the possibility of experiencing an enhanced visibility during their stay. For the body/community of the city, londoners arise insights into other people's every day life. Which is, despite it's ordinaryness usually of great interest. You compare and find out common habits. And despite physical seperateness forms a contact akin to that between an actor on stage who puts parts of himself into the role and the audience. A commutation takes place between the two, even if the audience stays hidden to the actor. Above the physical design of the dwelling unit this immaterial stress field between the protagonists is formed.

A Room for London - The Whispering House, render courtesy Mjölk architekti

At night, when the material inhabitants of the hotel room retire to privacy and become invisible to the outside world, another group of protagonists takes over the occupancy of the room. Ghostly light outlines, invisible in daylight and then only noticable by their whispering bits of bygone conversations into the inhabitan's ears start to wander around the house when it gets dark and influence by their play of structures and colours the mood of the inhabitants. When the inhabitants have retired, the shilouettes start reliving their day but in perfect innocence of rules of physics or logic. These ghostly silhouettes can be observed by Londoners in large distances.

Private spaces to retire can be created by the inhabitants of the hotelroom by means of blinds, pulled up from floor level. Is the dweller agreeable, sequences of his life in the flat are recorded on film and audio track. After some time, the collection of audio tracks is growing. Random outtakes can be replayed to future occupants of the room. They make aware of the fast changing, large number of inhabitants in a hotel room. The filmed people are shown as light shilouettes as soon as it starts to get dark and until daylight is reached again. They are displayed randomly and in a modified way. By modification we understand for example multiplication, repetition, suspension or contortion.

A Room for London - The Whispering House - Floor plans, drawing courtesy Mjölk architekti

A Room for London - The Whispering House - Section, drawing courtesy Mjölk architekti

Description of the building

The building is entered via a disabled ramp to the main entrance at the backside of the building. The building therefore is first taken in by its backward construction that resembles of classic large rooftop billboards. Entering the hall, the new inhabitant for the first time gets aware of the great view over London the apartment offers to him. He takes in the plywood walls with white scumbled finish and the fine plywood flooring. In this light showcase are put some affordable bits of fine perhaps reused furniture like exhibits. To his right, he finds the toilet that pays due to needs of disabled people, an area that can be visibly protected from the outside. To the left is situated the scissor lift which serves as lift to the upper floor. It is followed by a large pull-out wardrobe.

Behind it, a little fridge with table completes the dining area which is dominated by a 3,25m long dining table. Next to it starts the living area. It is equipped with an expansive sofa and a library where you can borrow and also add favourite books about London. All the area is to the north glazed from floor to ceiling and therefore offers a great panoramic view of the city. Reaching the upper floor by the elevator an eight square metres balcony that is open towards north and south is found. In the other direction, the inhabitant finds a toilet room followed by another large pull-out wardrobe. Behind it, the bathroom is located with a free-standing tub. It is followed by the sleeping area from which you have eyesight to the house-high living area below. Both Bathroom and sleeping are can either provide a panoramic view over the city or can be shut from insight by means of blinds that are pulled upwards from the floor level as high as wished by the occupant of the room.

A Room for London - The Whispering House, construction diagram courtesy Mjölk architekti

The construction

The proposed volume could be abstracted into a box of the basic dimensions 20.00 x 6.66 x 2.50 meters.

The paramount construction is considered as an outdoor temporary aluminium truss system. Such method; generally known from temporary roofing, rigging towers, stages roof and floor trusses and retail displays; would implement its purpose without sacrificing strength and stability. The actual price and possibilities of transport would be at affordable stance. The essential structure is being articulated by the ten truss frames of Æ shape. The proposed framework seating reflects entirely the Queen Elizabeth Hall's reinforced concrete structure that bears the whole roof. So when the front leg of the frame is restrained precisely on the nearest load bearing-wall to the roof's edge, the rear leg is held by displaceable system weights again on another parallel bearing wall. The entrance pathway considered as disabled ramp will be also part of above mentioned scaffolding system.

The actual wall of the proposed 'hollow billboard' will be fabricated from the softwood stud walling cast by waterproofed plywood. It is extremely important to design the wooden inset in the lightest version possible. The same attitude would apply for the front glazing. This transparent front side, facing the south bank of the Thames River, is assembled from the 16 system double glazing panes. The loggia located on the north-east part of the 2nd floor is provided with diagonal stainless steel net.

Our team is ready to cooperate with Price Myers consulting engineers as well as with highly experienced aluminium truss system Milos Structural Systems. The proposed framework had been open-eyed discussed and calculated with British standards educated structural engineer.

A Room for London - The Whispering House, diagram courtesy Mjölk architekti

24h concept

The 24h concept can mainly be split up into three phases.

The daylight phase starts at full daylight. The northern facade is transparent in nearly all its parts, according to the spirit of the inhabitant. It reveals its interior and its inhabitants in their everyday life. At the same time, it provides the occupants with great panoramic views over daylight-London and the people on the streets below.

Eventually, long- established Londoners watch the occupants of the roof-flat standing at the windows, pointing to this and that and regain themselves a fresh interest in their city.

A transitional phase follows where it is neither completely light nor dark. Most likely, the occupants are still up and about. As it gets darker, the ghost outlines of former inhabitants of the hotel room that before only made themselves recognizable by occasionally whispering to the present occupants become visible and influence the atmosphere with their play of light and colours.

In the evening hours, an elderly couple shares the large sofa, enjoying the by now large collection of favour ite books on London when a couple of mild silhouettes starts slowly dancing to inaudible music. The reading couple finds this a good idea and joins in. The silhouettes grow gradually and turn into birds. Then disappear.

When the habitants of the hotel room finally turn down the lights, go to bed or leave the building, their echo-time shifted outlines join the other ghost to relive the past days in a playful, dreamy and abstract way. They can be observed by Londoners to a great distance.

While the occupant of the room, a businessman from Chicago meets his English colleagues for a dinner in Hoxton, the silhouettes of former parties held in the apartment take over. They jump on the table and in the tub, grow large heads and lead conversations floating two metres above the sofa.

With beginning sunrise, the transitional sequence repeats itself in the opposite direction. The ghostly outlines
slowly fade and hand over the apartment to the people.

+ All images and drawings courtesy Mjölk architekti

Office A, image courtesy Takeshi Hamada

Takeshi Hamada has completed the interior design “Office A“.

+ Project description by Takeshi Hamada

Key word
Interior design, Adaptable Office

This is a law office planned in the first floor in social building, located in the suburb of Osaka.

The concept of this plan is "Adaptable Office".
There are a lot of situations, and no exception for law office.

For this business, it is necessary to meet with a lot of divergent clients and the number of clients is different. And sometimes, it's required to talk about serious topics such as law counseling and debt, and by this reason, it's better to have space that we could relax at the room.

Office A, image courtesy Takeshi Hamada

Planning Point
(1) I chose solid woods for furniture and floor so that clients could relax in the office. And the wall and ceiling are painted "white". I tried to create simple and soft space.

(2) I didn't design lighting only from one direction, but set up some lights with low color temperature and planned that we would change the brightness of the lights depending on the situation.

(3) I considered that we would deploy furniture freely by using movable casters on all tables and shelves. Therefore, we could make office layout freely, not limiting office space by the deployment of furniture.

(4) We could create divergent office scenes by mixing the deployment of furniture and lighting pattern that I mentioned above, and the office would be adaptable to daily work functionally. I call the office "Adaptable Office".

Office A, image courtesy Takeshi Hamada

Meeting Space
The floor and table are both made of solid oak.
The above picture shows usual deployment of furniture.

the deployment of large space for large meeting.
By moving shelves and tables, the office can be adaptable to the large meeting with many people.
The furniture has a caster and a woman can move it easily.
Three directional lighting make people calm.

Office A - Layout plan, drawing courtesy Takeshi Hamada

+ Project credits / data

Architects: Takeshi Hamada | http://www.hamada-design.com/
Project: Office A
Location: Neyagawa City, Osaka, JAPAN
Construction: April 2010 – May 2010
Floor Area: 54.50 m2

+ All images and drawings courtesy Takeshi Hamada

House D, image courtesy Takeshi Hamada

Japanese architect Takeshi Hamada has completed the House D in Osaka, JAPAN.

+ Project description by Takeshi Hamada

Key word
Narrow Housing,, Young Owner

Background and Environmental Atmosphere
The housing is located in the place from one block from the main street in Osaka's suburb, and I cannot say it's a calm.

There are a lot of different buildings such as an iron factory, an elementary school, and a parking space near the housing.

House D, image courtesy Takeshi Hamada

House D, image courtesy Takeshi Hamada

Architectural Planning
In this planning, I call the garage in the building site "Light Well" and I deploy the building in L type around the garage.

There is only road in the north side and I intentionally didn't make a window in this side and planned that all rooms can take lights and air from this "Light Well". I put Gal-Barium Steel Plate on the road side of the housing and it configures the feature of this housing with wooden doors.

House D, image courtesy Takeshi Hamada

Inside
I planned simple space structure that all rooms enclose "Light Well".

First Floor: Western Style Room *2
Second Floor: Living, Dining, Kitchen, and Bathroom Third Floor: Children’s Room *2, Free Space

Second Floor: Living, Dining, Kitchen (LDK) The floor is lime stone, and we could feel at home of our families by open design of stairs.

Second Floor: Bathroom and Toilet
The floor is lime stone as same as LDK, and it's open space faced with "Light Well".

I planned children room in the third floor, and it's next to free space and separated by wooden sliding door. There is no wall in this floor so that we would arrange the space depending on the change of family structure in the future and daily intended use.

House D - Floor plan, drawing courtesy Takeshi Hamada

+ Project credits / data

Architects: Takeshi Hamada | http://www.hamada-design.com/
Project: House D
Location: Daito City, Osaka, JAPAN
Construction: April 2010 – July 2010
Structure: Wooden Structure, Ground three floors
Site Area: 66.00 m2
Building Area: 38.88 m2
Floor Area: 100.53 m2  | 1F (30.87 m2) 2F (38.88 m2) 3F (30.78 m2)

+ All images and drawings courtesy Takeshi Hamada

German design studio dan pearlman has designed the COEO – House of Good Deeds in Berlin. COEO is a store concept for sustainable consumption, which establishes the issue of corporate social responsibility to the principle of the business. The modern design and the architectural concept of the store divide the spacious retail space in four areas: In Good Community, Well done, Fair is good, and Good reading. Each of these four areas has its own colour.

"Combining beauty with goodness" was the motto for the opening on 19 November 2010 from the house of good deeds in Berlin. The new retail concept is a "pilot project" because it combines products from four different sectors under one roof: In addition to fair trade products and goods produced lovingly in workshops for people with disabilities, there are a generous selection of books and a café on more than 500 square meters which invite everyone to stay.

dan pearlman

COEO - House of Good Deeds, image courtesy dan pearlman | Photo by diephotodesigner.de

+ Project description by dan pearlman

COEO, Home of Good Deeds: Creating a fairer world.

COEO – Home Of Good Deeds, is a sustainable and socially responsible retail concept for people who want to live well and do good.

Opened recently in the center of Berlin, the fresh COEO pilot project brings together products from four different areas in one location: fair trade products, a workshop space for people with disabilities, a book store featuring an extensive selection of reading material for conscientious minds and a café with exclusive products. Berlin based agency dan pearlman designed the store interiors and created the branding concept.

COEO - House of Good Deeds, image courtesy dan pearlman | Photo by diephotodesigner.de

Emphasizing the unique project values was the German agency's primary concern. By joining the COEO objectives and dan pearlman expertise, it was not long until this project wows public and business people.

COEO is Latin for "unite" or "come together": much more than the consumption of products, COEO is about communicating the joy of doing something meaningful and opening up new horizons. The wide-ranging assortment features products that create a sense of pleasure and joy.

As the Home of Good Deeds, COEO connects people to an awareness of values, reliability, and sustainability, and also aims to win over friends and advocates for this social movement. The COEO brand was designed to communicate a zest for life, a sense of responsibility, sincerity and social engagement. As a non-profit organization, COEO is committed to use its proceeds for selected social projects worldwide and develop its business concept further.

COEO - House of Good Deeds, image courtesy dan pearlman | Photo by diephotodesigner.de

The organization aims to develop potential out of a love for people in four different dimensions: in the "In guter Gemeinschaft" or "In Good Company" section, fair trade coffee, snacks and other products are available.

COEO - House of Good Deeds, image courtesy dan pearlman | Photo by diephotodesigner.de

In the "Gut Gemacht", or "Nicely Done" section, products made in workshops by people with disabilities are presented.

COEO - House of Good Deeds, image courtesy dan pearlman | Photo by diephotodesigner.de

In the "Fair ist gut", or "Fair is Good" section, products that have been created according to the principles of fair trade are sold. This ensures the creation and sustainability of jobs that pay equitable wages.

Conventional products can also be purchased and their proceeds are donated to social-oriented projects.

In addition, COEO offers people with disabilities the opportunity to integrate themselves into the primary marketplace. This also applies to high-school graduates who have difficulties in finding employment.

COEO - House of Good Deeds, image courtesy dan pearlman | Photo by diephotodesigner.de

The store’s fourth area, called "Gute Lektüre" or "Good Reading", offers books addressing life’s questions, spirituality and inspiration.

All involved in Fair Trade accept that it has to include: paying fair prices to producers which reflect the true cost of production, supporting producer organizations in their social and environmental projects, promoting gender equality in pay and working conditions, advising on product development to increase access to markets, committing to long-term relationships to provide stability and security and campaigning to highlight the unequal system of world trade which places profit above human rights and threatens our environment. With COEO the public can be part of this sustainable chain and help create a fairer world.

+ Project credits / data

Project: COEO – House of Good Deeds
Location: Forum Steglitz, Schloßstraße 1, 12163 Berlin, Germany
Area: 524 sqm
Date of opening: 19th of November 2010

Design: dan pearlman Markenarchitektur GmbH | http://www.danpearlman.com
Client: COEO Shop der guten Taten gGmbH
Shopfits: Maier Shop Design GmbH & Co. KG
Flooring: Bamboo Concepts, Toucan-T (carpet in lounge area)
Furniture: Schwerdtner Holzdesign, Berlin
Lighting company: D & L Lichtplanung
Signage: Guttenberger + Partner GmbH
Frames: Mavis GmbH
Photography: diephotodesigner.de

+ All images courtesy dan pearlman | Photo by diephotodesigner.de