Bagsvaerd Church

From Archdaily: The Bagsværd Church by Jørn Utzon was completed in 1976. Though not his most famous work, the church is an example of the architect’s inventive work at a different scale. Utzon designed the church with an unassuming exterior that merely hints at the stirring forms he created inside. The Bagsværd Church was Utzon’s first work after returning to Denmark from Austrailia and the Sydney Opera House, which he designed. It is located on the northern outskirts of Copenhagen in a suburban setting. The church stands almost unassuming as a simple, modern structure amidst birch trees, with its back to a local street. It is with knowledge of the interior that the exterior becomes more intriguing. The orthogonal form is clad in white precast concrete panels and glazed white tiles attached to a frame. Utzon positioned the reflective glazed tiles to relate to the celebrated sinuous concrete curves occurring in the interior sanctuary. Early sketches suggest rolling clouds were the inspiration for the interior of the Bagsværd Church. Utzon designed soft curves to control the light, and act as a visual masterpiece in this small church. White concrete was molded in place to create the interior sanctuary’s ceiling, where the curves rise from their lowest point above the congregation, to their highest point above the altar. The exterior of the Bagsværd Church is much more austere than the views from within, where white concrete is complimented by pale beach wood. The curving white concrete overhead is matched with white concrete walls, and floor tiles, as well as a delicate white screen of triangles behind the altar. The freestanding pews are constructed out of wood, and another screen isolates the sanctuary from the rest of the building through pale vertical wood pieces. Utzon carefully considered daylight in the Bagsværd Church. It is brought in at the highest point of the curving ceiling, and softened along the curves. It is also filtered in through glass ceilings above corridors and hallways of the Bagsværd Church. Elsewhere, the church has an aluminum roof. The Bagsværd community had not had a church since the 16th century prior to Utzon’s timeless design, and his resulting building has certainly left its mark. The plain exterior contrasts an incredible sanctuary space that encourages a calm feeling for parishioners. The building holds extreme merit as a whole, but it is the interior section by Utzon that has been world renowned since its completion.

Douglas House

From the architect. Hovering over the shores of Lake Michigan, the Douglas House was built by Richard Meier in 1971-1973 for Jim and Jean Douglas. The house is gently placed on a steep slope over the water, almost as if it is floating amongst the trees. As Meier stated about the house, "So steep is the slope to the water that the house appears to have been dropped into the site, a machine-crafted object that has landed in a natural world. The dramatic dialogue between the whiteness of the house and the primary blues and greens of the water, trees, and sky allows the house not only to assert its own presence but to enhance, by contrast, the beauty of its natural environment as well." Due to its location, Meier layered four floors and anchored the house into the hill. The entry is on the east side of the house facing the road, which Meier considers the "private" zone and is expanded by a roof-level bridge. Once inside the entry vestibule there is a continuation to a roof-deck, and the living room and kitchen are seen two stories below with the fire place in view across from the entry, typical in homes designed by Meier. The "public" zone of the house, including the living room and dining room, faces Lake Michigan and gives the impression of a completely different place when compared to the deceiving one-story entry space. The living room is open to the surrounding landscape with three large floor-to-ceiling windows, which was heavily used on the western side of the house to take advantage of the view. It also receives sunlight through a skylight that further separates the public and private zones. The bedrooms were designed small and cabin-like, intimate for their private function. The layers of the floors are read on the exterior through these window mullions, and the interior public and private zones can also be determined depending on the number and sizes of the windows. Circulation through the house is primarily horizontal with the open floor plans except for two staircases, one interior and one exterior, on the corners of the house. Their placement was intended in order to not interrupt the horizontal views towards the outdoors. As is typical of Meier buildings, the house is completely white made with reinforced concrete and glass except for two steel pipes that extend from the chimney up to the roof, framing views at the entry level. The white of the house allows it to stick out as a man-made object on the landscape during the changing colors of the seasons, which can be experienced inside through the large glass panels. These natural surroundings were also taken into consideration during the construction of the house where as few trees were removed as possible in order to leave the landscape in its most natural state while forcing the house to integrate with it. After a three year construction period, the Douglas House was completed. Meier furnished the home with furniture designed by Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and himself, and when completed it needed no ornamentation other than the nature it was designed around. Meier's work enabled the house to extend with the natural horizontals of the shoreline, the lake's surface, and the horizon while following the pattern of the trees with vertical mullions, creating generous spacious continuity from interior to exterior.

House NA

Designed for a young couple in a quiet Tokyo neighborhood, the 914 square-foot transparent house contrasts the typical concrete block walls seen in most of Japan’s dense residential areas. Associated with the concept of living within a tree, the spacious interior is comprised of 21 individual floor plates, all situated at various heights, that satisfy the clients desire to live as nomads within their own home. Described as “a unity of separation and coherence”, the house acts as both a single room and a collection of rooms. The loosely defined program and the individual floor plates create a setting for a range of activities that can take place at different scales. The house provides spaces of intimacy if two individuals choose to be close, while also accommodating for a group of guests by distributing people across the house. Sou Fujimoto states, “The intriguing point of a tree is that these places are not hermetically isolated but are connected to one another in its unique relativity. To hear one's voice from across and above, hopping over to another branch, a discussion taking place across branches by members from separate branches. These are some of the moments of richness encountered through such spatially dense living.” Ranging in size from 21 to 81 square-feet, each floor plate is linked by a variety of stairs and ladders, including short runs of fixed and movable steps. Stratifying floor plates in a furniture-like scale allows the structure to serve many types of functions, such as providing for circulation, seating and workings spaces. The short-spans allow for the thinness of the white steel frame. Complemented by the thin white-tinted birch flooring, many wonder where the utilities are hidden. Some floor plates are equipped with in-floor heating to help during the winter months, while strategically placed fenestration maximizes air flow and provides the only source of ventilation and cooling during summer.

Casa Malaparte

Casa Malaparte is a red masonry box with reverse pyramidal stairs leading to the roof patio. On the roof is a freestanding curving white wall of increasing height. It sits on a dangerous cliff 32 metres above the sea overlooking the Gulf of Salerno. Access to this private property is either by foot from the Town of Capri or by boat and a staircase cut into the cliff. Casa Malaparte's interior and exterior (particularly the rooftop patio) are prominently featured in Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film, Contempt (Le Mépris). The house can only be reached by traversing the island. The last twenty-minute walk is over private property, belonging to The Ronchi Foundation. It takes an hour and a half to walk there from Capri's Piazzetta at the summit of the funiculare from the Marina Grande. The house can be reached by sea, on calm days only, as the waves are cast upon treacherous rocks and there has not been an official pier for many years. From the sea, one must climb 99 steps to reach the house. Malaparte gave his friend and boatman money to open a restaurant which is run by the boatman's son today.

Goldstein House

The Sheats Goldstein Residence is a house designed and built between 1961 and 1963 by American architect John Lautner in Beverly Crest, Los Angeles, California, just a short distance from the Beverly Hills border. The building was conceived from the inside out and built into the sandstone ledge of the hillside; a cave-like dwelling that opens to embrace nature and view.[1] The house is an example of American Organic Architecture that derives its form as an extension of the natural environment and of the individual to whom it was built. Typical of Lautner's work, the project was approached from an idea and a unique structure was derived that solved the challenges of the site.

8 Spruce Street

For his first residential commission in New York City, master architect Frank Gehry has reinterpreted the design language of the classic Manhattan high-rise with undulating waves of stainless steel that reflect the changing light, transforming the appearance of the building throughout the day. Gehry's distinctive aesthetic is carried across the interior residential and amenity spaces with custom furnishings and installations. Gehry's innovative incorporation of bay windows creates the tower's dynamic silhouette as well as an exceptional variety of panoramic views from within the residences. By shifting the bay windows from floor to floor and tailoring their configuration for each residence, Gehry has given residents the opportunity to, as he puts it, "step into space." The rippling stainless steel exterior covers three faces of the tower and creates bay windows for some of the 903 apartments inside.