Tag Archives: Residential

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Comments on Queensland Courtyard House / Plazibat & Jemmott Architects | ArchDaily

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Queensland Courtyard House / Plazibat & Jemmott Architects | ArchDaily – The Queensland Courtyard Houses are row houses with a thoughtful twist. The spatial organization of the house is based around an open alley way that climbs the grade of the site. This opens onto an exterior courtyard near the rear of the building that then becomes the entrance to the interior of the house. This spatial arrangement gives the house a layer often missing from row houses, the exterior and allows for more light and air to penetrate the house. Living in New York City, I see townhouses all the time that are long, dark and narrow feelings. The Queensland Courtyard Houses don't suffer from this problem.

Add in the focus on sustainable, durable construction that at the same time, give the house a materiality beyond a simple contemporary gypsum box and these houses really show off what a row house can be.

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Comments on TN House / Miyahara Architect Office | ArchDaily

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TN House / Miyahara Architect Office | ArchDaily –

A house designed for two sisters and their families with busy thoroughfare in the front and overlooking the Tama River. The house is built as two separate dwelling units in the single building, yet a few spaces between can be jointed when the occasion fits. The exterior matches the mostly industrial nature of the surrounding area by using zinc siding and perforated steel sheets.

The project seems to do a good job of addressing the contextual problems of the area as well as the programmatic challenge of separate but connected dwelling units for this extended family.

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Commentary

Comments on Pachacamac House / Longhi Architects | Arch Daily

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Pachacamac House / Longhi Architects | Arch Daily – Architecture of the Earth is such a rare thing in our contemporary times. Too often building try to float free of the constraints of gravity in an attempt to challenge our perceptions. However the Pachacamac House in Peru by Longhi Architects, which is intimately tied to the Earth seems more foreign and challenging to our modern eyes. To be from and of the Earth is no small feat and the Pachacamac House seems to flow and sculpt the ground into a terraced construct that both blends with and contrast with the barren hills rising from a lush valley.

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Comments on Naha City Gallery & Apartment house / 1100 Architect | Arch Daily

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Naha City Gallery & Apartment house / 1100 Architect | Arch Daily – Though very simple, the Naha City Gallery & Apartments by 1100 Architect is an excellent example of an architecture of the ordinary that doesn't compromise becoming the banal. Made of common materials, concrete, aluminum and glass, the building still spatially engages its surroundings. The gallery on the main floor juts out from the rest of the building, pulling in the exterior and the sunken parking beneath gives the building a firm stance on relationship to the earth, something often not thought out in contemporary buildings.

Though perhaps a building designed to closely to my own biases, I can't help but feel that carefully designs like the Naha City Gallery could do more for the urban fabric of our cities than the singular designs of many of the big name architects that gain so much press these days.