VAME house by SAOTA

a couple from New York built a holiday home in Yzerfontein along the West Coast of South Africa for summer vacations. Aware of contemporary architectural trends, they requested a sculptured building with clean horizontal lines, large areas of glass and screens creating a space that is ‘open as well as private’. Their brief was a 2-bedroomed home with indoor / outdoor living spaces and a studio to be used in their photographic and film related occupations.

The site is one of a prize number located immediately behind the never-ending line of dunes on one of the few remaining sea-front stretches on the West Coast to be developed. The climate on the West Coast can at times be idyllic and other times extremely harsh.

To maximize the views of the sea and waves over the dunes, the Ground Floor living areas were elevated above natural ground level. The L-shaped concept of two intersecting rectangular forms allow two full glazed sides to face the view and at the same time create a sheltered courtyard overlooking a long, rectangular pool. Sculptured rectangular forms, linear elements, expansive areas of horizontal glazing, sliding timber screens and the feature fireplace are the principal elements of the design.

New Toronto Park is a storm water treatment in disguise

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) has taken its talents up north to Canada with the new Corktown Common park in Toronto. The 18-acre public space—which is part of the burgeoning, 80-acre West Don Lands neighborhood—was created with Arup and developed by Waterfront Toronto, the government-funded corporation spearheading the revitalization of the city’s waterfront.

The Common has all the requisite features and amenities to attract Torontonians and their kids to what was, until recently, a brownfield site. Using Brooklyn Bridge Park and Hudson River Park as reference points, the reclaimed space has an array of natural plants, landscapes, ecosystems as well as lawns, athletic fields, picnic tables, play areas, and a pavilion that includes a community kitchen. That can all be seen at first glance, but the $27 million park was built as more than a play area—it was built to work.

Representatives from Arup told AN that the park is designed as a “cistern” that stores and treats stormwater to protect the surrounding neighborhood from flooding. This is done through natural elements like plantings, bioswales, a landscaped berm, and a living marsh. But the play areas do their part as well. Water used at the large splash pad, for example, is treated and then directed back through the marsh.

“An expansive urban prairie on the berm will respond to changing water levels and frame the more active areas of the park,” MVVA said in a statement on its website. “To the west, lawns, marshes, and woodlands will provide settings for walking, cycling, sledding, sports, sunbathing, and public art, with a multifunction pavilion at the center.” This was all part of a vision to create a park that acts like a cistern, but doesn’t necessarily look like one. This was the team’s challenge: mask all the tricks and tools that make the park sustainable within the park itself. “If a mechanical engineer does her job right everything she does should be invisible,” said Jennifer McArthur of Arup.

Shoprite Palanca DC in Luanda Burn't down.

The Biggest Shoprite distrubution centre in Luanda, Angola burn't down on friday the 25 July 2014. Check out the video link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVkSIfWc0qo

EDITIONS DE PARFUMS FRÉDÉRIC MALLE

EDITIONS DE PARFUMS FRÉDÉRIC MALLE is a perfume store that is based at 94 Greenwich Avenue in New York City by Steven Holl Architects.

The 400sf Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle shop is an abstract insertion into the historic fabric of Greenwich Village. It is envisioned as an integral material/spatial whole.

An imagined geometry for olfaction, a slipped disk characterizes the facade, the main cabinetry, the furniture, and the secret garden beyond. If smell could have geometric properties they might come in all scales and textures. Similarly, the "slipped disk" geometry is textured, porous and reflective (foamed aluminum); dense, smooth and opaque (black walnut); transparent (glass); or soft and rough (wool carpet). In the Secret Garden, which is paved in schist, the gentle sound of water emanates from a cast brass slipped disk.