Dutch landscape architect Karres en Brands landscape architecture and urban planning has designed Langedijk Cemetery in South Scharwoude, The Netherlands.

For the new Oostervaart cemetery in Langedijk we decided to divide the cemetery into small, enclosed outdoor 'grave chambers'. Connections to the 'grave chambers' were made by means of a public park network. Within this network, sightlines provide the relationships with the surrounding area; and a connection to the park-like environs.

Karres en Brands

Langedijk Cemetery - Conceptual diagram, drawing courtesy Karres en Brands

A cemetery intended for 2,500 graves and 180 children's graves is not a straightforward commission. In this location the cemetery forms a green recreational structure within the municipality. The task was to ensure a firm consolidation of the cemetery to the surrounding landscape.

Langedijk Cemetery - Master plan, drawing courtesy Karres en Brands

For the new Oostervaart cemetery in Langedijk we decided to divide the cemetery into small, enclosed outdoor 'grave chambers'. Connections to the 'grave chambers' were made by means of a public park network. Within this network, sightlines provide the relationships with the surrounding area; and a connection to the park-like environs. The cemetery borders a recreation area, containing parkland, sports fields, allotments and similar facilities. A striking aspect of this area is the presence of water. Not only with the presence of a large pond, but in particular the long straight-edged watercourses, that are a characteristic of the surrounding region, which gives the area its structure. For technical reasons, the cemetery will be laid out higher than the surrounding area. Graves will be dug in three layers and, depending on the ground water level, each 'grave chamber' will be given its own elevation.

Langedijk Cemetery, image courtesy Karres en Brands

The total number of graves will be divided into seven 'grave chambers'. These will be surrounded by high hedges, creating intimate and enclosed spaces. Every 'grave chamber' will have its own atmosphere, with an appropriate design. The planting, trees and manner of placing the gravestone are different for each chamber.

Langedijk Cemetery, image courtesy Karres en Brands

The park network forms the connection between the cemetery and its surroundings, and in between the different 'grave chambers'. The entrances to the cemetery are linked with this network, so that a direct route is created. This network is created with the use of lawns, raised mounds and widely spread trees that lie lower than the 'grave chambers'. The parks connecting network becomes a separate element of the cemetery. From the park network, sightlines create new relationships with the surrounding area. Where the landscape necessitates an opening, the system response by opening out into its 'environs' adding special elements like: stairways, viewpoints and balconies.

Langedijk Cemetery, image courtesy Karres en Brands

A covered waiting area is situated at the entrance to the cemetery, which is open to all. The design for the waiting area was created in partnership with Onix. The cemetery's maintenance building is positioned on the other side of the site.

Langedijk Cemetery, image courtesy Karres en Brands

+ Project credit / data

Project: Langedijk Cemeter
Location: South Scharwoude, The Netherlands
Area: cemetery total 6 hectares, 1st phase 2.7 hectares
Budget: € 1,200,000
Design: 2005-2007
Construction: 2008-2009

Landscape architect: Karres en Brands landscape architecture and urban planning | http://www.karresenbrands.nl/
Team: Sylvia Karres, Bart Brands, Lieneke van Campen, Joost de Natris, Alejandro Noe Guerrero, Andre Baldisiute
Design of waiting area and maintenance building: Onix
Specification and implementation supervision; Rod'or Technical Advice Bureau
Client: Langedijk Local Authority

+ All images and drawings courtesy Karres en Brands

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For the new maintenance area at De Nieuwe Ooster Cemetery, Karres en Brands landscape architecture and urban planning designed a new maintenance building to complement an existing building.

Standing on two sides of the maintenance area, the two buildings constitute one of the spatial boundaries of the cemetery. The new building has a total floor space of 285 m2 and is used to maintain equipment, prepare tools and carry out minor technical work. It also contains garaging, storage space, a control room, and a workshop.

Maintenance Building in Watergraafsmeer, image courtesy Karres en Brands

Maintenance Building in Watergraafsmeer, image courtesy Karres en Brands

The construction combines steel with timber-framing. Like the existing building, the facade is finished in black timber. The weatherboard walls and roof are joined seamlessly at gutter level, the guttering being concealed within the timber roof area. Due to its variable gutter height and forward-leaning facade, the building is oriented towards the yard. Light enters through skylights and openings in the facade. The exterior of the building is black; the interior is finished in untreated timber.

Maintenance Building in Watergraafsmeer, image courtesy Karres en Brands

Maintenance Building in Watergraafsmeer, image courtesy Karres en Brands

Maintenance Building in Watergraafsmeer - Floor plan + elevations, drawing courtesy Karres en Brands

+ Project credit / data

Project: Maintenance building in Watergraafsmeer
Location: Watergraafsmeer, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Total floor area: 285m2
Program: office, garaging and workshops
Budget: € 160.000,00
Design: 2005 – 2007
Construction: 2007 – 2008

Design: Karres en Brands landscape architecture and urban planning | http://www.karresenbrands.nl/
Design team: Sylvia Karres, Bart Brands, Monica Popczyk, Joost de Natris
Client: De Nieuwe Ooster cemetery, crematorium and garden of remembrance
Engineering: Rod'or advies

Dutch designer Marc Th. van der Voorn has designed the Disque pendant light. Disque is made of two translucent bowl-shaped discs which are tied together with nothing more than a 65 meter long thin string. The construction is screwless! The string is beautifully wrapped around both discs, giving the Disque its modest look.

+ Designer: Marc Th. van der Voorn | http://www.marcvandervoorn.nl/

Disque, image courtesy Marc Th. van der Voorn

Disque, image courtesy Marc Th. van der Voorn

Disque, image courtesy Marc Th. van der Voorn

Disque, image courtesy Marc Th. van der Voorn

Earlier this month, we featured the winners and honorable mentions of the 2011 Skyscraper Competition. Today we are pleased to share with you 15 finalists that include underground cities, vertical farms, bio-fuel power plants, and contemporary skyscrapers that would redefine the city of Paris. Other proposals use laminated wood as building material, propose hydro-thermal high-rises, redevelop abandoned oil rigs, and use shipping containers as habitable units for the modern urban nomad.

+ For more information, visit eVolo.

+ All images courtesy eVolo

As trailblazers of their industry both Berlin based photographers invite you to experience their virtual gallery with works for BMW, MTV Networks or Mont Blanc. Ken Schluchtmann and Dirk Dähmlow, both born 1970, have specialized in architectural and design photography since 2001. Perfection and sensitivity are traits characterizing diephotodesigner.de's approach to work. Moreover they are also "soft at heart"  as they are honorary committed to the charitable organization Sage Hospital e.V., whose event series is stewarded by Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit.

We’ve just installed this app by diephotodesigner.de, it is cool and interactive, you can browse through their works in your iPad/iPhone, the app is free and available in iTunes store, have fun!

Image courtesy diephotodesigner.de

Image courtesy diephotodesigner.de

Image courtesy diephotodesigner.de

+ Press release

Ten years of work and three months development time are behind the new, free app from diephotodesigner.de. Called Programm, it is an app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that invites you to explore the world of architecture, design, and landscape photography. As a whimsical add-on, a link to Google Maps offers the possibility of navigating the world map.

The Photographer's Portfolio With a Difference. Celebrating ten years of existence, diephotodesigner.de present their work for such clients as BMW, MTV Networks, or Mont Blanc. The gallery and databank consisting of more than 8,000 photos demonstrates the commitment of both photographers to the highest professional standards. As such, Dirk Dähmlow and Ken Schluchtmann count among the trailblazers of their industry – which is entertainingly presented in their portfolio using the most up-to-date communications technology.

For both photographers the app is more than just an electronic business card: "We show that we can meet our clients' demand for our work on and offline," says Schluchtmann. And Dähmlow adds: "We had to familiarize ourselves with the new technology, but now we're a leap ahead of our industry." In addition to the website, the blog, and the Facebook profile, the app as "virtual art gallery" is another building block in their medial presence on the occasion of their ten year anniversary.

The diephotodesigner.de app was programmed in collaboration with Branko May. It's an alliance that has proven its worth over the years: since 2003 May has been responsible for the website of the charitable organization Sage Hospital e.V., whose event series is stewarded by Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit. The photo agency diephotodesigner.de provides consultation to the organization on conceptual and organizational questions and handles the distribution and updating of the entire presentation and press material as well as communications planning.

Image courtesy diephotodesigner.de

Image courtesy diephotodesigner.de

Image courtesy diephotodesigner.de

Image courtesy diephotodesigner.de

+ About diephotodesigner.de

Perfection and sensitivity are traits characterizing diephotodesigner.de's approach to work. Ken Schluchtmann and Dirk Dähmlow (both born 1970) have specialized in architectural and design photography since 2001. They don't reproduce things, they penetrate their subject matter. Employing both analog and digital means they emphasize light and color in their compositions, lending their images an uncommon sculptural depth. Some say they stage design like others shoot fashion. Architects and clients with international reach such as dan pearlman, Art & Com, Plasmastudio, VW, Puma, or Samsung have appreciated this quality for years. Their work has appeared throughout the spectrum of international blogs, design and lifestyle publishers. In the last several years their photo spreads have been featured in magazines like Wallpaper, AD, Vogue, Frame and many others.

http://www.diephotodesigner.de/

Image courtesy diephotodesigner.de

+ About Sage Hospital e.V.

The overwhelming portion of western Africa is marked by poverty, illness, and, as a result, a sense of despair. Based on the desire to want to help in a direct and sustainable way, Sage Hospital e.V. was founded in October 2003 with the purpose of underwriting a hospital in Senegal. Its primary ten-year mission is to refurbish the hospital, maintain and expand it.

http://www.sagehospital.de/

Further to our announcement of design competition ONLY FOR WOMEN third edition last year, Area Declic is pleased to announce the winners of ONLY FOR WOMEN 2011, INTERNATIONAL DESIGN AWARD. The winners will be awarded during the Milan International Furniture Show, on Sunday, April 17, 2011 at stand Area Declic at 3 p.m.

+ Press release

This year one hundred and forty-two designers have given voice to their creativity by submitting their designs to North and South America, Japan, Europe, North Africa, Russia and all over the continent.

In addition to the northern areas, the provenience from Mediterranean area has been consolidated with appearances from the Mediterranean from Turkey, Greece, Spain and Italy, and Eastern Europe with participants from Ukraine, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Hungary. Among these, excluding the leadership of Italy, Spain and Russia, they emerged in the number of accessions, configuring two epicentres of interest. Also interesting is the fact that Italy is represented from north to south without a Milan pre-eminence. As for training, there are above all professional architects and designers and they are comparable. In addition there are about twenty students, a decorator, a craftswoman and an artist.

Please note that ONLY FOR WOMEN, in addition to money, offers a real opportunity to join the team of Area Declic designers because, annually, it is put into production one of the projects submitted. The jury, composed by Tiziano Vudafieri, Arianna Malagoli and Mirko van den Winkel, aside from the owners of the company, has unanimously decided:

CIRCLE LINE, image courtesy Area Declic

1st prize: 1,500 €
Sara Passalacqua with CIRCLE LINE, a family of objects whose appearance is close to the identity of the production by Area Declic: visual lightness, simplicity of construction, functionality. It is a contemporary interpretation of traditional cantilever chair made of bent tubular and grid. The ability to compact chair, stool, and coffee table makes it a winner product.

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FOLD, image courtesy Area Declic

2nd prize: 1,000 €
Kazuko Okamoto with the table FOLD, a project close to the identity of Area Declic, either as formal as possible constructive solution. Simple only in appearance, it allows unusual aggregations thanks to the top shape. It is functional as a removable and stackable. Original, it is also characterized by discrete and refined image.

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PASSO di DUE, image courtesy Area Declic

3rd prize: 500 €
Van Heel & Serowiec with the folding chair PASSO di DUE that, innovative in its finishes, recalls the functional beach chair, reinterpreted in materials responsive to Area Declic – grid and metal pipe. The thinness of the structure and the practicality of the object are the characteristics that approach it to the company's identity.

There will be honoured with an honourable mention:

Anna Ojajarvi with ROUGH PALE FAMILY, family of chairs that captures the formal language of contemporary life. Irregular structural elements become modules to compose the entire collection, whose components are removable and stackable: a rational approach to an original result in the form and concept.

Anne Sofie Lefèvre with ACQUA CALMA, a chair interesting in the shape and rational construction. The distinctive pattern that modulates the plate and lighters it; the reduction in the number of building components is remarkable. Designed for public and transit spaces, robust and easy to clean, it plays this role in a rational manner.

Anna Vestrucci with DIVA, a very communicative item. The curvy shape and deformation of the printed sheet are significant formal features of this chair, particularly successful in the armchair version. Evocative of a model of chair typical of the fifties, which reads and interprets it with relevant materials and finishes.

A REFLECTION

Promoting a competition of Design addressed exclusively at women’s designer can be considered an innovation or partiality? How to place ONLY FOR WOMEN INTERNATIONAL DESIGN AWARD within the Design world? Area Declic sees in ONLY FOR WOMEN an opportunity to explore their identity through the sensibility of women; the answer is always massive and unexpected, evoking the emptiness of the few opportunities offered by the industry to the creativity of women.

The collection of Area Declic includes already many products designed by woman. Among these worth mention “Lace” and “Sunny”, chairs designed by the Friulian designer together with Roberto Foschia, “Gino”, the clothes hanger of Francesca Petricich, another local talent, and “Belt”, stool designed by Cinzia Mondello together with Ettore Tricarico, Knit Knot, outdoor chair and armchair designed by Alessandra Pasetti.