Tag Archives: Wood

Single-room cabin by JacobsChang is set among trees in upstate New York

July 9, 2017

Manhattan studio JacobsChang designed this tiny blackened timber cabin on a shoestring budget for clients who built it in a forest in upstate New York with the help of their friends.

The structure called Half-Tree House, is located in the woods in Barryville, roughly 100 kilometres north of New York City.

It encompasses a single 360-square-foot (33 square metres) room built on a budget of $20,000 (£15,500).

“From the outset, the project outlined two formidable directives: to design a structure that can be constructed by two amateur weekend builders and to consider a budget of $20,000 ($50 per square foot),” said the architects.

“The topography presented a difficult challenge. In an effort to minimize sitework – in this case, shovels by hand – and to eliminate the need for large footings, retaining walls and pumped concrete, the architecture is lifted above the ground and relies upon support from the trees,” they added.

“The entire construction was performed by its two owners, and in the true spirit of New England barnraising, with a team of dedicated weekend support.””The entire construction was performed by its two owners, and in the true spirit of New England barnraising, with a team of dedicated weekend support.”

At one end of the structure, simple concrete footings are anchored into the ground, while at the opposite end the cabin is held up by adjoining trees via a specialised anchoring system called a Garnier Limb. This consists of a metal element bolted into a tree, which in turn supports the building’s wooden frame.

“The Garnier Limb is a patented slip-joint connection allowing the tree and the structure to behave independently,” explained the architects.

The diminutive cabin is just large enough to fit a bed, an armchair and a small area for preparing basic meals, with heating provide by a wood-burning stove.

Three floor-to-ceiling pivoting windows provide views to the woods, and let air circulate when they are open. The southern aperture also serves as the entrance.

The materials used were largely sourced from the property’s 60-acre site, including the wooden cladding, which is made from pines felled from the surrounding woods.

Traditional Scandinavian pine-tar was used for the outside, giving it a dark black colour. This contrasts the treatment inside, where the walls were whitewashed and the floors sealed to retain a natural tone.

Studio Padron recently completed a similar project, also in upstate New York. Called Hemmelig Rom, it consists of a one-room library and guest house that was completed with excess lumber from the construction of a nearby property.

Blackened timber cabins are enjoying a moment of popularity, with other recent examples ranging from a small lakeside cabin in Canada to a prefabricated model recently unveiled by Muji that will sell for £21,000.

Source: www.dezeen.com

Architecture students build latticed-wood community centre in German refugee camp

February 23, 2017
Architecture students from Germany’s University of Kaiserslautern have built this wooden community centre for a refugee camp in Mannheim, which is fronted by a latticed screen.
The pavilion, designed by students Sandra Gressung, Sascha Ritschel and Tobias Vogel, provides a sheltered communal area for refugees arriving in the camp located on the former US Army’s Spinelli Barracks in Mannheim.Eighteen students from the University of Kaiserslautern‘s architecture department worked with 25 refugees and local building companies to build the centre in three months.

“Due to bureaucratic procedures, refugees arriving in Germany are condemned to sustain a long period of passiveness,” said the team. “They are well provided with the bare essentials but the immediate area is quite desolate and lacking of quality common spaces.”

“The residents at the preliminary reception centre had the opportunity to actively shape their environment and create a quality place for common or individual use,” they continued.

Aside from creating the pavilion, the Spinelli project also aimed to provided refugee volunteers with basic building skills.

“The refugees improved their knowledge of the German language, experienced conditions and working standards in Germany and acquired new skills which will be useful even if they can’t stay in Germany on a permanent basis,” said the team.

The centre is made up of a series of courtyards and covered spaces, which are oriented towards the tree-lined road and open fields west of the camp.

Cross-laminated timber walls, which are clad in Douglas fir, make up the main walls of the centre, while the latticework walls provide structural support. They also create a dappled lighting effect against the spaces behind.

“Structural elements, wall and ceiling surfaces, flooring and furnishings are made of untreated timber,” said the team. “Its intimate warmth, aesthetics and haptics acts as invitation.”

“The ornamental structure with its varied play of light is recognised by the refugees as a reminder of oriental ornaments, and as an inviting gesture of identification in a foreign place.”

The large outdoor events space has south-facing seating niches built into the wall on side. The seats are protected from the rain by a two-meter-wide canopy and partitions between the niches.

A latticed screen overhangs on the front of the sheltered common room, which features a raised platform and can be used as either a stage or auditorium.

A 14.5-metre-long gridded screen backs this space. Another screen overlaps the wall, to disguise the entrance to the garden courtyard for retreat and silence.

The area is completely enclosed by four walls apart from the 7-metre-wide latticework opening that brings light into the space.

The centre also features two storerooms that will be used as a kiosk and workshop in the future.

In order to build structural elements like walls and roofs in the short period of time, large-format components were prefabricated in an unoccupied hangar at the former military facility.

This protected the structure from moisture during processing and enabled the elements to be assembled on site quickly and precisely.

The refugee crisis has become an increasingly important topic for architects and designers, who have unveiled a multitude of proposals for shelters including rapidly deployable hexagonal dwellings and adaptable shelter systems.

Photography is by Yannick Wegner.

Source: www.dezeen.com

O’Neill Rose creates elongated wooden home in the Berkshires

October 10, 2016

A long cypress-clad volume that projects from a hillside in rural Massachusetts forms this home, designed by US studio O’Neill Rose Architects for a nature-loving couple.Undermountain by O'Neill Rose Architects

Called Undermountain, the house is located in Sheffield, a town in the Berkshires region in western Massachusetts.

A popular getaway destination for city dwellers, the picturesque area is known for its tree-covered hills, sparkling lakes and swathes of farmland.Undermountain by O'Neill Rose Architects

The architects “took a simple house to the extreme” in order to strengthen the building’s relationship to its setting.

Studio Mumbai presents MPavilion 2016 built using seven kilometres of bamboo

October 4, 2016

Studio Mumbai founder Bijoy Jain has unveiled his completed MPavilionin Melbourne – a square structure built from bamboo and wood, but not the cow dung originally planned (+ slideshow).

The Indian architect used seven kilometres of bamboo, 50 tonnes of stone and 26 kilometres of rope to create this year’s MPavilion, an annual commission billed as Australia’s answer to London’s Serpentine Pavilion.

Jain had also planned to use karvi panels, which are made by mixing cow dung and earth. But this material – in use in India, and tested on several prototypes built in Mumbai – would have taken too long to dry in the Melbourne climate.

The completed 16.8-square-metre structure features an intricate bamboo framework pinned together with approximately 5,000 wooden pegs.

Its awning-style roof canopy is made from Karvi sticks, which extend down at the corners to create dramatic points, while the flooring is bluestone, sourced from a quarry in Port Fairy – about 300 kilometres west of Melbourne.

Source: www.dezeen.com

House Zilvar by ASGK Design is an angular wooden home in the Czech countryside

August 1, 2016

A+Awards: next up in our collaboration with Architizer is this energy-efficient wooden home on the outskirts of a small village in the Czech Republic, which was one of the private houses recognised in this year’s A+Awards (+ slideshow).Energy Efficient Wooden House Zilvar by ASGK Design in the Czech Republic

Designed by Prague studio ASGK Design, Energy Efficient Wooden House Zilvar occupies a site surrounded by fields and forest on the outskirts of the village in the eastern Bohemia region.

The clients – a couple with a young child – asked the firm to create a low-energy house with an open-plan interior that would make its inhabitants feel more connected to the surrounding landscape. They also specified the use of wood.Energy Efficient Wooden House Zilvar by ASGK Design in the Czech Republic

In response, the architects created a house with a larch timber frame, completely clad in vertical planks of larch that have been burnt and stained to make them more hardwearing.