Architects: RUFproject
Lead Architect & Designer: Sean Pearson
Location: Soweto, Gauteng, South Africa
Client: Nike South Africa
Local Project Manager: SIP Project Managers Ltd.
Project area: 54,800 sqm
Photographs: Allan James, Julian Abrams

Situated in the heart of Soweto, the Football Training Centre is the centre of football in South Africa, where 1200 teams and 20,000 footballers play each year. In less than 6 months, the facility was transformed into a state of the art football training centre – the first of it’s kind in Africa, and the rest of the world. Designed by the Canadian firm, RUFproject in conjunction with the Nike Global Football Brand Design, the facility encompasses 2 new full sized artificial pitches, 2 junior turf pitches, new lighting, a clubhouse & player lounge, an education facility for the Grass Roots Soccer & Life Skillz program, a Training Gym, Physio & First Aid facility, a Product Trial, Catering , Administrative Offices, Viewing Deck and new Change Rooms. The Clubhouse & Player’s Lounge house regular and in-depth tips and insights from Nike Athletes & Coaches and a place for coaches and players to focus on the tactical and strategic aspects of the game.

The concept was to create a clear but intricately woven relationship of spaces, linking the programmes of facility through visual connections created by cuts in the solid mass of the rectangular structure. Each room has views to and from other areas of the building which creates an intricate and selective transparency between functions. The facility has been design from the outset for and around the player, supporting the various aspects of their day. Everything has been considered to make the facility flow and remain open, and at the same time manage the reality of creating a secure and safe place to play football. The gym, product trial and catering functions have operable facades, opening them up to the field directly to the fields, and a player’s tunnel bisects the main building creating a direct connection from the change rooms with the field for the players.

The facade is clad in a local sandstone, and wrapped with a local timber louvre structure to mitigate the solar heat gain to the west, north and east facades. Cantilevering over the pitches, the overhang provides shade before and after the game. The south facade has it’s sandstone exposed and houses a growing list of players who distinguish themselves on and off the pitch – their names permanently apart of the building and it’s future.

The intent of the project was to provide a lasting home for football in the dynamic neighbourhood of Soweto that would continue on past the world cup.

SOURCE Archdaily

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The concept behind thomas heatherwick‘s UK pavilion at shanghai expo 2010,
is an enclosure that throws outwards from all sides, a mass of long radiating cilia.

The centerpiece of the pavilion is the seed cathedral, a six storey high cube-like structure,
pierced by approximately 60 000 x 7.5m long slim transparent acrylic rods which sway gently
in response to any wind movement. During the day each of these rods act like fibre
optic filaments, drawing on daylight in order to illuminate the interior. At night, light sources
at the interior end of each rod allow the whole structure to glow from the outside.

The pavilion is situated on a landscape which resembles paper which once wrapped
the building, but now lies unfolded on the site. The surrounding space provides an open
venue for public events and along with shelter for visitors.

SOURCE Designboom

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Rather than being conceived as a building, the german pavilion at shanghai expo 2010
is a three-dimensional walk-through sculpture with no defined interior or exterior.
For visitors the journey starts at the harbor and leads through gardens and parks, via
a town planning office and a factory and past the opera to end at the ‘energy source’,
the city’s power plant.

The 6,000-square-meter structure is germany’s largest at any expo. It showcases
german urban life and how the country’s design and products can help solve urbanization
problems.

The architecture was designed by schmidhuber + kaindl and constructed by nussli.
The exhibition space was created by milla und partner.

SOURCE Designboom

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Design: UXUS
Location: Sacramento, California, USA
Client: The Selzim Restaurant Group
Project Area: 710 sqm
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: Mathijs Wessing

The Selzim Restaurant Group commissioned UXUS to create a world class environment for their new restaurant, Ella Dining Room & Bar, located in the heart of Sacramento California, two blocks away from the State Capitol Building. The restaurant is named after the granddaughter of executive Chef Randell Selland, of the Kitchen Restaurant and Selland’s Market-Café. The 4 million dollar project has a capacity for 250 diners and serves “Modern American Bistro” cuisine. The owners wanted the restaurant to become “Sacramento’s living room,” an urban oasis where lawmakers and other diners can go and unwind after a long day’s work.

With the principles of “Rustic Luxury” in mind, UXUS designed a dining space that celebrates the essential beauty and goodness contained in simple things, a principle that is similarly reflected in Ella’s menu, which promotes local growers, seasonal ingredients and pure, simple dishes. “Rustic Luxury” synchronizes simplicity and complexity, the traditional and the contemporary, to define an elegant, relaxed lifestyle and the pleasure and sensuality of real materials.

In keeping with these principles, UXUS beautifully intertwines the old and the new. 500 salvaged antique Hungarian shutters line the walls and ceiling, enveloping diners in rustic textures and colors, whilst billowing white curtains punctuate and soften the space. Plush, luxurious ottomans and a light, contemporary palette balance reclaimed wood stools and traditional country tables. Simple white pendants dramatically sweep through the space; their gold interior complementing the custom LED gilded steel discs on the wall.

Rustic Luxury, as defined by Ella’s, offers its guests an experience that combines the simple and natural pleasures of dining at a dear friend’s home, at their table d’hôte or host’s table. The “Host’s Table” is a French tradition of eating in the kitchen while the chef is preparing dinner. It is a very welcoming and intimate experience, usually reserved for honored guests and close friends. The owners of Ella wanted to create that level of intimacy at their restaurant. UXUS cleverly opened the kitchen to the dining area with two large communal tables forming the table d’hôte area. Diners can experience the thrill of watching the chefs at work, and taste the results of their culinary efforts.

Next to the table d’hôte, ensconced within the 4-meter high white pantry, a glass door leads to the private dining area: a luxurious yet whimsical space lined with hand-screened wallpaper by English designer Tracy Kendall, where guests dine amongst images of giant golden knives, forks and spoons. In line with the restaurant’s mood, the private room provides a feeling of elegance and relaxed intimacy.

All of these elements come together at Ella Dining Room & Bar to form an intimate and convivial dining experience, the embodiment of “Rustic Luxury” right at the heart of California’s State Capital.

SOURCE Archdaily

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Architects: Parasite Studio
Location: Timisoara, Lulius Mall, Romania
Project Area: 2,000 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: DUMITRAŞCU Marius & Parasite Studio

The brief of the project asked for the design of a games club located in one of the most significant spaces of the building. The main requirement was to obtain a space with a completely controlled atmosphere with no relation with the outside world in which you are not aware of the time passing.

The design proposal started from generating a completely black box, as well as a shape and as a concept, an abstract space that doesn’t breathe towards the outside world but keeps locked within the memory of events. Therefore the existing windows become showcases for exhibiting and communicating towards the outside, a sort of dynamic information screens.

The inside, although a vast in surface (2,000 sqm) proved to be difficult to configure and especially to organize within a coherent unique concept, due to the existing random layout of technical areas and the crisscrossing massive steel structure. In the first design concepts we tried to cover and hide the existing structure, then tried to ignore it but came to realize that the best solution is to integrate the structure within the general interior design and to multiply it as a deformed projected image on the perimeter walls.

Over the actual structure we imposed two elements with the intention of unifying the interior – one is the continuous strip of the perimeter walls that wraps up the entire space, comprising gaming as well as technical areas, and the other one is the artificial lighting that through its dynamic, intensity and color scheme modifies the space and in the same time divides it discrete in different areas. The spaces that make up the interior are thus differentiated in dynamic areas for gaming, static areas for bar and seats, intermediary areas for communication, etc.

The technical areas and supportive functions for the club have been enclosed within the perimeter wall strip, forming punctual landmarks for the bar area, the circular projection wall, the smokers area, bowling or gaming area. The central cylinder is the only place where a filtered contact with the exterior is possible within the abstract interior – natural light enters at the base of the wall discretely indicating time’s passing, while the video projections above the wall distort the interior atmosphere. The entire furniture has been custom designed for this project, following the same conceptual design theme. Each piece of furniture serves its functional role and follows the concept: the dynamic bar counter made of kerok, the facetted sinks with inclined margins, the tables in the seating areas and the counters in the gaming areas with dynamic insertions that reproduce the wall prints.

The flux of movements in the interior space has been a major theme from the beginning on, and the carpet was personalized as an interior map that charts the different functional areas by the use of printed texts and paths. This adds to the fact that the entire space can be read as a communicating body that facilitates the movement within it and the reading of the separate areas. The strong colors chosen for highlighting the space set landmarks in the black surrounding.

For the whole interior design we strived to create a strong conceptual identity around the theme of the Blackbox, defining all the elements that make up the whole, the logo, the furniture ant the entire interior context.

SOURCE Archdaily

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Architects: Maziar Behrooz Architecture
Location: Amagansett, NY, USA
Project Area: 840 sq ft
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Dalton Portella & Francine Fleische

The client needed an art studio close to her house (which we renovated in 2008). Her requirements were for a space of about 700 sf and a stringent budget of $60,000; and for a simple structure that would be both inviting and reflective.

Our solution was to use two 9’-6” x 40’ x 8’ shipping containers (cost: $2,500 each, delivered) perched over a 9’ foundation wall/cellar. By cutting 75% of the floor of the containers, we were able to move the painting studio to a lower level via a wide staircase and take advantage of a high ceiling. The staircase itself acts as a transitional space for viewing art work.

The upper floor provides a more intimate work area and a sitting area.

The containers were painted dark charcoal to maintain continuity with the original house and to recede in the shadows of a dense wooded site.

SOURCE Archdaily

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Here’s a very interesting idea that could mess with one’s mind. Imeüble  shelving system comes from designer Bjørn Jørund Blikstad and at the first glance it appears to be just another picture on the wall. Its creator says that the concept behind the idea works with your mind the way associating words with their meaning works. He says that when you read the word “cornfield,” you imagine a field full of corn, not the word “cornfield”. In this particular case, the shelving system looks 2D, but as you get closer you will see storing is possible so the logical thing is that it is actually 3D. On Freshome we treat optical illusions and mind games with a high amount of fascination, so we hope you enjoy this one as well.

SOURCE Freshome

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Iron Man 2 continues the adventures of billionaire Tony Stark and his superhero alter ego Iron Man. The main character is played by Robert Downey Jr. and the whole movie features amazing effects and state-of-the-art technology. But the home of the character is by far the most interesting aspect of the movie- from our point of view at least. This may come as a huge disappointment to some of our readers, but what you see in the photos below is digitized fiction. Jon Favreau, the director of the film explains that the home was falsely positioned on a site in Malibu. It is forbidden to build an architecture project there, so they came up with a different solution: computer graphics. The interiors were built on a sound-stage area in Los Angeles and everything was synchronized with the computer plans. When I’ve saw the movie the house was so real but it seems that movies can trick us very easily ..like this one did.

SOURCE Freshome

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Architects: Jensen & Skodvin Arkitektkontor
Location: Gudbrandsjuvet, Norway
Design Period: 2004-2007
Construction period: 2007-2008
Client: Knut Slinning
Project Architects: Jan Olav Jensen (pl), Børre Skodvin, Torunn Golberg Helge Lunder, Torstein Koch; Thomas Knigge
Budget: 1.000.000 EURO (US $1.28 millions)

Constructed Area: 800 sqm
Photographs: JSA
One of the local residents at Gudbrandsjuvet, Knut Slinning, is building a landscape hotel. The idea emerged at another site, Aurland, but was not realized there.

Basically each room is a detached small independent house with one, or sometimes two of the walls constructed in glass. The landscape in which these rooms are placed is by most people considered spectacularly beautiful and varied and the topography allows a layout where no room looks at another. In this way every room gets its own surprising view of a dramatic piece of landscape, always changing with the weather and the time of the day and the season.

SOURCE Archdaily

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Vitra Haus, the new home of Vitra’s Home Collection, has been covered widely by design media, and not in vain. It is a beautiful example of Jacques Herzog’s and Pierre de Meuron’s ability to take the ubiquitous stacked-houses concept and still make it look new, interesting and inviting.

Reaching five storeys in height and containing 12 separate houses, Vitra House is geared toward the general public, design-aware consumers who will appreciate the building as well as the Vitra products inside. The entire contraption appears both grandiose and intimate at the same time, with the gray exterior disguising the disheveled heap within the site, while the open glass-walled ends and stark, white interiors facilitate the presentation of residential-scale displays.

Vitra House is the latest addition to the ever-expanding Vitra Campus that started as an industrial park with the manufacturing facilities. Now the Vitra Design Museum–Frank Gehry’s first European building opened in 1989 — the Conference Pavilion by Tadao Ando (1993) and the Fire Station by Zaha Hadid (1993) already provide magnificent visual attraction. Vitra Haus and a new circular manufacturing facility by Kazuyo Sejima/SANAA are this year’s entrants to the site.

Weil am Rhein is a German town and a community that is a suburb of the Swiss city of Basel in Switzerland. Weil am Rhein is located by the River Rhine, close to the meeting point of the Swiss, German and French borders. The Vitra Design Museum is the town’s biggest draw.

The Basel-based architecture firm Herzog and Meuron was established in 1978 by Jacques Herzog (born 19 April 1950), and Pierre de Meuron (born 8 May 1950). It is known for many prominent international commissions, including the Beijing Olympics’ “Bird’s Nest.” – Tuija Seipell

SOURCE Thecoolhunter

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