courtesy Oliver Starke

In the rural surroundings of Bodelshausen two spotless white structures stand out – the Factory Outlet and the new headquarters of the fashion company Marc Cain. The clear white architecture and the green environment have a mutually enhancing effect and form a prestigious platform for Marc Cain fashion.

courtesy Oliver Starke

courtesy Oliver Starke

Modern design in spotless white is the key to the whole complex. The highest demands with regard to design, quality, materials, state-of-the-art production techniques and optimum fit are the company's mission. The architecture of both buildings incorporates the company's philosophy. Its pureness and naturalness is impressive. The new headquarters' modern structure with its façade of white ALUCOBOND® and glass comprises a light-flooded atrium 13 meters in height with a glass roof, a show room and staff canteen and spans 12.000 m². The penthouse on the third floor protrudes impressively above the lower floors and seems to float over the whole structure. The dynamic shape enhances the impact of the existing lake. Gently curved elements closely follow the building's contours. The showroom complies with the highest requirements. An important part of the concept is to enter into a dialogue with nature – generously proportioned doors offer easy access to the exterior world, and on the upper floors there are inviting leafy patios. The facilities are high-tech, air-conditioned, and elaborately detailed: LED-lights, acoustical ceilings serving as cooling elements, automatic sun-blinds. With regard to energy, the building demonstrates highest possible efficiency with regenerative waste heat recovery.

courtesy Oliver Starke

The single-storey, compact factory outlet is situated in an exposed position on the site and its two wide open sides create a light and friendly appearance. The visual axis leads the eye from the entrance through the sales room to the green shop-window at the rear of the building. The surrounding upstands and massive roofs encompass the different projecting and recessed parts of the volume and the façade on the second floor. The heating system in the building is supplied by long distance heating. Free-standing constructions and adaptable built-in components facilitate flexible use of the sales room without columns. Air-conditioning in the sales room and Fashion- Café, visitor-friendly and barrier-free accessibility and the generous design of the whole outlet ensure both staff and customers benefit from the quality of the architecture.

+ Project facts

Project: Headquarters & Factory Outlet Marc Cain, Bodelshausen, Germany
Architect: Hank + Hirth Freie Architekten, Eningen u. A, Germany
Interior Design: Marc Cain Interior, 72411 Bodelshausen
Fabricator/Installer: Fa. Wittenauer, Sasbach, Germany (Headquarters) & Schneider Fassaden GmbH & Co. KG, Rheinstetten, Germany (Outlet)
Year of Construction:2010 (Headquarters) – 2008 (Outlet)
Product: ALUCOBOND® Pure White
Photos: HANK + HIRTH, Freie Architekten
Photographers: Oliver Starke, Marc Cain Advertising + PR, Bodelshausen

+ all images courtesy Oliver Starke

Long and far goes the golden time of the Oporto's industrial era during the so called 1st Modernity and with it the deurbanization of some parts of the city. It's legacy has invariably been the malfunction or inadaptation of the big industrial buildings and so they are left to its own tragic fate… This shrinking "rusty" areas are real urban and architectural lab's waiting for a new life. This fact sets on track a real opportunity to experiment and to explore new topologies and forms of living that only this kind of space can render.

courtesy Alexandre Loureiro

courtesy Alexandre Loureiro

Right at the heart of Oporto's Oriental Neibourghood (Bairro Oriental), the most economicaly and socialy depressed part of the city, the project gives a new hope for a couple of coal warehouses. The objective of Loft Miraflor (LMF) is to rehabilitate and refunction the- centenary warehouses for dwelling purposes.

The project takes in account some specific particularities of this, long, narrow and double heighted building where everything can happen. Without changing its morpho-tipology, the idea is to "simply" hang-up 6 wooden boxes in between the roof trusses in order to maximize the area for social interaction on the ground floor.

courtesy Alexandre Loureiro

On the ground floor, the 31m long warehouse is colonized by the social areas like living-room, kitchen, dinning-room and, at the end, a patio. These functional areas naturally share the open plan of the loft in a way that they continuously succeed each other with no phisical barriers.

courtesy Alexandre Loureiro

On the wooden mezzanines, up on the air and hovering over the social areas, are located the private areas allowing the zenital light to come down to the social areas due to the voids in between them. This also enables the vertical comunication with the first floor which is asured by three elicoidal stairs that conects the rooms to the first floor. Each room has its own private wc and window on the roof.

courtesy Alexandre Loureiro

+ Project facts

Colophon
LMF Loft Miraflor (Construction Phase)

Architecture: Alexandre Loureiro
Engineering: SOPSEC
Total Area: 318m2
Year: 2013
Renders: Rui Quaresma

+ All images and drawings courtesy Alexandre Loureiro

courtesy EASTERN design office, photo by Koichi Torimura

Japanese architectural firm EASTERN design office recently has completed the Step tower in Osaka, Japan.

A stark white ship that sails in the middle of the bustling sea of colors.

The ship floating on the ocean suddenly appears in a shopping center. It evokes a feeling not of a resort area, but of an exotic corner of a town in some southern country. A feeling of a ship that comes across this area by chance.

courtesy EASTERN design office, photo by Koichi Torimura

It makes you imagine the wave splashes that occur when the bow heads-on through the sea. It is a pencil building of 9.7 meter width and 21.6 meter depth. Big holds are designed for the balconies at the southwest corner. These holes become bigger as the floors go upwards from the bottom. You can have the same image when you look up the bow from under it.

courtesy EASTERN design office, photo by Koichi Torimura

It is simple, neat and clean.

You look up the smooth and pure white exterior wall. This reminds you of a cool life style in some southern country, or of being on a trip, and spending days at a tropical land in a quest of change of air.

courtesy EASTERN design office, photo by Koichi Torimura

It is an apartment house for rent built at Ibaraki-city in Osaka, a town with a population of 270,000. This town is not only a residential one, but it is now calling for the development of industrial areas for research and development facilities of universities and industrial firms. Therefore, the population is also increasing as an industrial town. This architecture is built at the shopping district, the center of this town, which is located in front of the JR station.

courtesy EASTERN design office, photo by Koichi Torimura

It is a building of 10 stories of RC structure consisting of:?a tenant spaces at the first floor, one room apartment houses for singles at 2-4 floors, and 2LDK and 3LDk for families at 5-10 floors.

The surrounding buildings are 4-5 stories height. So it is not proper to have a big slit (opening section) for this building. The open space of each floor gets wider as the floor level becomes higher, and you can get a wider sky view. This idea is reflected in the design of this building.

+ Project facts

Step tower
Osaka, Japan

Designer: EASTERN design office
Site Area: 384.38 m2
Total Floor Area: 1,548.85 m2
Structural Engineering: IHARA STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS
Contractor: Matsumotogumi Co., Ltd
Photographer: Koichi Torimura

+ All images and drawings courtesy EASTERN design office \ Koichi Torimura