i29 Interior Architects have completed an office design for Tribal DDB in Amsterdam.
Tribal DDB Amsterdam is a highly ranked digital marketing agency and part of DDB international, worldwide one of the largest advertising offices. i29 interior architects designed their new offices for about 80 people.

With Tribal DDB our main objective was to create an environment where creative interaction is supported. And to achieve as much workplaces as possible in a new structure with flexible desks and a large open space. All of this while maintaining a work environment that stimulates long office hours and concentrated work. As Tribal DDB is part of an international network a clear identity was required, which also fits the parent company DDB. The design had to reflect an identity that is friendly and playful but also professional and serious. The contradictions within these questions, asked for choices that allow great flexibility in the design.

Situated in a building where some structural parts could not be changed it was a challenge to integrate these elements in the design and become an addition to the whole. i29 searched for solutions to various problems which could be addressed by one grand gesture. At first a material which could be an alternative to the ceiling system, but also to cover and integrate structural parts like a big round staircase. Besides that, acoustics became a very important item, as the open spaces for stimulating creative interaction and optimal usage of space was required.

This led us to the use of fabrics. It is playful, and can make a powerful image on a conceptual level, it is perfect for absorbing sound and therefore it creates privacy in an open space. And we could use it to cover scars of demolition in an effective way. There is probably no other material which can be used on floors, ceiling, walls and to create pieces of furniture and lampshades then felt. It’s also durable, acoustic, fireproof and environment friendly. Which doesn’t mean it was easy to make all of these items in one material! i29 always looks for choices that answer to multiple questions at the same time. They tell a conceptual story about the company, the space and the users of the space. They deal with specific practical and functional issues and they have to have some autonomous quality as well. These ‘levels’ are intertwined; one leads you to the other. If you see how smart it serves it purpose practically it leads you to the company. If you see the powerful image that is non-depended, it leads you to the functionality, and round it goes.

We believe that simplicity builds character. Compare it to a human being; strong individuals always have one or few characteristics that stand out. We all know how hard it is to stay focused on the one thing that is most important to you. The same way it is with a design. The result of being very selective is that you have to push the one choice to the limit. It also provides a field of tension, and gives energy in a space without falling into chaos. But more importantly it leaves you with a charismatic environment.

Pictures and info by I29 Architects.
Other projects by i29 Architects, click here

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Winy Maas talks about his design concepts for the Paris Plus petit.
More info on designboom

“I don’t think you can make critical architecture because, in a sense, architecture always supports someone else’s impulse. On the other hand I think our architecture is thoroughly critical because every subject, every question, every ambition is analysed and is placed on the operating table, as it were…”

The iconic buildings of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, OMA, and its core principles as embodied by Rem Koolhaas, have gained worldwide attention since it’s foundation in 1975.

Rem Koolhaas’ intensive conceptual thinking about architecture and social circumstances ran simultaneously from the very early stages of his career. With a background in journalism and scriptwriting – his curiosity, research and urge to analyse are basics of his and OMA’s working process.

It is this approach that makes him a highly debated thinker and architect – although he staunchly refutes the label “Starchitect”. This image, he feels, blinds the public to a clear view of what his and OMA’s work is really about.

Hungarian architects Plant completed this winery that sits at the foot of a volcanic hill in Hungary and is clad in concrete panels indented with the pattern of grapevines. Entertaining spaces and a laboratory are located on the ground floor, underneath which are various fermentation rooms descending into the ground.

The wines of the Laposa-Cellar following the millennium became well known amongst Hungarian wine drinkers under the brand name “Bazaltbor” or Basalt wine. Their growing regions are only on the basalt hills – in Badacsony, Somló, on Szentgyörgy-hill and Csobánc – which is the reason for the characteristic mineral aromas of the wines that mirror their terroir.

The cellar founding father, Dr József Laposa, Landscape Designer, and his son, the current manager Bence, today harvest from over 20 hectares local and international varieties, amongst others Szürkebarát, Juhfark, Olasz- and Rajnai Riesling or Kéknyelű. The market entry and dynamic growth of the cellar has also resulted in the expansion of the technological and tourism areas. During the development, besides increasing the scale, the aim on both an architectural and viticultural level was to modernise and maintain the making and presentation of the basalt wine. More info, click here

Photographs by Zsolt Batar
Via Dezeen

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Danish architects BIG have completed their 8 House residential project with a figure-of-eight plan in Copenhagen.

The building features a continuous cycle path and pedestrian walkway, winding up to the tenth floor and back down to ground level, and providing access to all residences. The structure wraps around two courtyards connected by a tunnel through the central cross, which houses communal facilities. Its height is lower on the south-west corner and higher at the north-east side to make best use of daylight.

“We have now completed three remarkable buildings in Orestad, the VM Houses, The Mountain and finally the 8 House – which is the sole result of a good and constructive collaboration with talented young architects who had a good understanding for the economical aspects,” Per Hopfner, Hopfner Partners

The 8 House creates two intimate interior courtyards, separated by the centre of the cross which houses 500 m2 of communal facilities available for all residents.

Photographs by Jens Lind

Video on youtube by Channelbeta

Other stories of BIG on archiDE:
- EXPO 2010 DANISH PAVILION by BIG, Shanghai, China
- BIG wins International Competition to design Tallinn’s new City Hall
- BIG and Michel Rojkind Win Cultural Competition, Mexico
- Mountain Dwellings by BIG Architects, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Zira Island masterplan by BIG architects
-VM Houses by PLOT = big + JDS in *COPENHAGEN, Denmark*

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BOB361 Architects completed this multifunctional building, that is located in Dendermonde, Belgium. It’s situated between the main of the city and the green bank of the river called ‘Dender’.

Three urban strategies lead to the creation of a new connection of these two contrasting atmospheres.

1. The historical fortifications are transformed into a greenbelt around the centre of the city. The green passage along the library completes the missing link in this structure.
2. Within the urban fabric the complex introduces a new hangout-place, enriching the social network. The presence of schools and the diverse program will activate the site day and night.
3. By creating a physical pedestrian walkthrough, connecting the main shopping axis and the recreational green area, a critical mass of people can penetrate the site.

   The passage gives the building four active façades. For more info, please click here

Via Archdaily
Pictures by Andre Nullens

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VIA NOWNESS

Photography by Elizabeth Toll

In 1955, Gerrit Rietveld (1884-1964) designed a pavilion for the display of small sculptures at the Third International Sculpture Exhibition in Arnhem’s Sonsbeek Park.

This ‘Sonsbeek Pavilion’ was intended as a temporary structure, and it was dismantled when the exhibition was over. However, many people had been greatly impressed by its simplicity, and ten years later, on the initiative of several Dutch architects, the building found a permanent home in the Kröller-Müller Museum’s sculpture garden, under a new name: the ‘Rietveld Pavilion’. On 8 May 1965 the pavilion was officially inaugurated with an exhibition of sculptures by Barbara Hepworth.

Today, in 2010, the museum has rebuild the structure with new materials, while adhering as closely as possible to Gerrit Rietveld’s original design. Wherever possible, parts of the 1965 pavilion that were still in adequate condition have been reused. Construction work began in January 2010 and finished in September of this year. More info, click here

Rietveld Pavilion by Gerrit Rietveld, at the Kröller-Müller Sculpture Garden
Photography by Pedro Kok

Via ArchDaily

PEDRO KOK ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Paris  firm Jacques Ferrier Architectures completed this amazing multi- storey car park, that is located in Soissons, France.

Called Lez Yeux Verts, this car park can house 600 cars and forms part of a development of former barracks into a business park. The building has a concrete structure, galvanised-steel framework, and is clad in vertical spruce timbers that vary in angle and spacing to create a ripple effect.

The timber facade is punctuated by eye-shaped openings that afford views over the town, and behind which new planting will eventually grow to form hanging gardens. More information, click here

City : Soissons, France
Programme: parking, 600 spaces
Competition: projet lauréat en 2007 / winning project in 2007
Completion: mars 2010 / March 2010
Area: 12 250 m²
Cost : 6.6 M Euros

Photos are by Jacques Ferrier Architectures/photo Luc Boegly

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Dutch firm Bakers Architecten completed these brick-clad apartments in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Its appear to float above a curtain wall of glass.

Het Zwarte Huis, or The Black House, is spread across three storeys with the upper two, which comprise six apartments, finished in Kolumba bricks. The ground floor, which forms an office, has become the architect’s new premises. The block sits on the apex of a curved street with a double-height bay window affording panoramic views.

Here’s some more from the architects:

In Utrecht’s museum quarter, just south of the city centre, there was for many years a vacant plot on the corner of Lange Nieuwstraat and Vrouwjuttenstraat. This site in the midst of historical buildings is now occupied by ‘Het Zwarte Huis’ (The Black House), a complex containing six apartments with semi-underground parking and the new premises of Bakers Architecten.

The streetscape is characterized by heterogeneous, lot-by-lot development with distinctive corner buildings. Het Zwarte Huis is a contemporary addition to the existing urban fabric, in which the notion of ‘living above work’ has been accentuated by placing the dwellings in a solid volume on top of a glazed podium. More..

Photography by Maarten Noordijk

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