Iredale Pedersen Hook creates Walumba Elders Center for Australian Aboriginal community

A + Awards: An A + award was given to Architizer 2016 at this retirement home in Western Australia, designed by Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects for an Aboriginal community affected by devastating floods.

The Walumba Elders Center was built in Warrmarn (Warmun) after the floods in 2011 that destroyed the city's former facility, and damaged much of its homes and other buildings.

"About 350 people from Gija were forced to leave their homes until the houses and infrastructure were rebuilt over the next two years," said Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects, who designed the replacement care home.

The new structure is located next to a community school, and rises 2.4 meters above ground level to prevent future flooding.

The intention is for the building to "act as a focal point to bring the community together and to assist in the transmission of unique Aboriginal wisdom, Gija language and cultural knowledge to the younger members of the community," according to architects.

Its arrangement is organized as two parallel wings, united at one end by a facetted ceiling that rises through a roundabout and extends down both branches of rooms.

It offers accommodation for both personal care and high-level care. A variety of factors inherent in Aboriginal culture had to be taken into account with the design.

These include gender separation, access to public and private outdoor spaces, and hosting ceremonies that may include fire and smoke.

The concrete piloti is used to hold the raised structure, while the corrugated metal is used to coat the majority of the building. Multiple ladders lead to ground level, which is subtly landscaped.

"The concept refers to a bridge not only as physical infrastructure, but also as a step of knowledge between generations, and as a place of care and respite before the possibility of moving from this existence to the next," said the architects.

Walumba Elders Center was praised in the Health and Wellness category at the 2016 A + Awards.

Organized by Architizer, the awards promote and celebrate the best projects and products of the year.

Its declared mission is to foster appreciation of significant architecture in the world and defend its potential for a positive impact on everyday life. Learn more about the A +

The vote is open to the public to choose their favorite architecture and pre-selected products for this year's A + prizes until March 30, 2017. Cast your vote>

The photograph is by Peter Bennetts.

Jan Sofka takes the Japanese home signs for the rural residence near Cape Town

Stone, brick and wood introduce subtle textures to this house near Cape Town, which was designed by the architect Jan Sofka to resemble a spotted Japanese house in Dezeen.

Hoptoad's house was started in 2013 by businessman Sven ten Bokkel Huinink, who was looking to build a second property on his small estate in Noordhoek, a village about 30 kilometers south of the city.

Ten Bokkel Huinink was struggling with how to introduce another building into the site in a way that was not too damaging to the adjacent farm and its natural surroundings.

The inspiration came from a house in Osaka, designed by Arbol Design, which features a walled garden that surrounds it to offer views of the vegetation while protecting the interior from the view of its neighbors.

"It all started after seeing the Arbol Design project in Dezeen," said Ten Bokkel Huinink. "Its design had a very different theme to tackle, as it had to provide an oasis in the middle of a large Japanese city."

"For me it was the other way around." "I did not want to keep the exterior outside, but I needed a house that looked good from the outside, particularly from the back, as the existing house would look directly at it."

Ten Bokkel Huinink invited Jan Sofka from Sofkapatterson Architects' study in Cape Town to develop a proposal for a building informed by the Japanese house.

The resulting design provides privacy from the main house, while promoting the connection between interior spaces and the natural environment.

A high fence protects the single-story building from one side, preventing full-height windows from the master bedroom being overlooked. The fence is made of local pine which will naturally be soft over time to a soft gray similar to the trunks of adjacent trees.

A gravel-filled courtyard nestled between the fence and the glazing extends L-shaped around the bedroom. The patio is also visible through a large window in a wall of the living room, allowing daylight to enter the building.

A high wall comprising large blocks of local stone introduces an additional natural detail to the exterior which is complemented by a brick wall exposed on one side of the dwelling.

A solid pine floor in the living area provides a light, natural surface that enhances the bright feel of the interior. The rest of the house has a seamless epoxy floor that extends from the hallways into bedrooms and bathrooms.

The property has a total area of 200 square meters, including a separate wing that accommodates two more bedrooms and a large bathroom.

It was called Hoptoad after the boat captained by Pippi Longstocking's father in the stories of Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren.

De Rosee Sa uses cobbled courtyards to bring light to the West London house

A trio of cobbled courtyards surrounded by glass breaks this London house, which has cedar-clad walls that refer to the old wooden tent it replaces.

The London-based De Rosee Sa architecture house designed the home for a customer who lived across the road from the old wooden storage yard. He bought the site located between the terraces and a row of 16 garages to avoid being overdeveloped.

The architects were challenged to design an online residence with strict planning restrictions stipulating that the structure matches the height of the former single storey shed.

It was also not possible to create openings in the two boundaries of 37 meters in length since they are walls of party with the neighboring structures.

Instead, three internal courtyards and a series of skylights are used to bring lots of natural light to the long and slender residence aptly named Courtyard House.

These patios also separate the plan into three pieces: a combined kitchen and dining room, a living room and a two-story bedroom block created by digging down to form a basement.

Crittall style glazing and doors - a manufacturer of industrial windows that became popular in the 1920s but enjoyed a revival - enclose the patios, allowing views to and from outdoor space.

"The most satisfying aspects of the project are the superior light that pours into the interiors and the long views across the courtyards," said study co-founder Max de Rosee.

Once inside, you forget that this house is in London.

Doors can also be opened in warm weather to allow fresh air in the house of paved granite patios.

The living room opens directly to the front garden on one side and a patio on the other, while additional natural light is provided by two roof lights.

The patio links the living room with the combined kitchen and dining area beyond, which in turn overlooks a sunken patio located between the block of two-story bedrooms.

Red cedar slats line the walls of the patios as a reference to the old site use as a wood storage yard and a contrast to the minimal interiors, which have clean white walls and patterned floor patterned on tang.

The red dye cedar liner continues inside to surround two small boxes that contain a study niche, laundry room and a toilet.

"We wanted to contrast the white walls and ceiling with some strong materials, so we spent a considerable amount of time considering the detail of western red cedar slats and granite cracks on patio surfaces," Rosee said.

Glazed doors bring light into the two bedrooms, which are set one above the other next to their bathrooms.

A third patio, which is much smaller than the other two, also cuts between bedrooms and bathrooms to provide more lighting.

De Rosee Sa was founded in 2007 by Max de Rosee and Claire Sa and is based in North London Kensington.

House in Nara of Keiichi Sugiyama has a raised cedar terrace

A raised terrace stretches along one side of this narrow house in Nara, Japan, providing residents with glimpses into the neighborhood (+ slideshow).

House in Nara is grooved on a thin sloping plot between a road and a neighboring house west of the Nara basin.

The thin rectilinear volume of Keiichi Sugiyama, architect of Kobe, measures five by 17 meters and is covered by a combination of cedar wood and muted brown brown.

An old masonry retaining wall was removed from the site to improve views of the city and a nearby reservoir. Instead the architect designed a filtered terrace. Open at each end, it gives visits to residences in the surrounding neighborhood.

The upper branches of a small tree protrude from the deck, which runs alongside an open space of two levels.

"After demolishing the old wall, I built a new short retaining wall with a warm-looking wooden screen along the border and scraping the floor," explained the architect. "I floated the deck using cedar scaffolding boards at the same level as the ground floor."

Two bedrooms are joined to the living room at ground level, while the master suite and a study are set on the first floor. A garage is minted under living space at the lowest point of the site.

Wooden floors and beams are exposed throughout the interior, which acquires an aesthetic similar to an architect's house designed in suburban Kube.

The master bedroom and study sit on either side of an atrium overlooking the two-level living room and are connected by a long hallway.

This hallway is illuminated by floor level windows and a narrow rectangular skylight that protects the area from being overlooked by neighbors.

Wood blinds can be drawn through the openings in the walls of the room and the study to provide a degree of privacy of common spaces on the ground floor.

"By taking full advantage of the slim site, several scenes of a long line are comforted by light and shadow, low and high, wide and narrow, opening and closing," said the architect.

The photograph is by Yoshiharu Matsumura.

Diagram - click for large image

Site plan - click for larger image

Basement Plan - click for larger image

Ground floor - click to enlarge

First floor plan - click for larger image

Section - click to enlarge

Micro apartments could help cities preserve their diversity says Ian Schrager

The growing luxury apartment market in New York "is a problem" that could damage the city, according to hotelier and real estate developer Ian Schrager - and micro apartments could be the solution.

Speaking to Dezeen, Schrager said that the influx of rich people to New York and other cities threatened their diversity.

"I think that not having diversity in the cities is a bad thing," he said. "And just being rich is not a good thing."

He added: "I think that an area of gentrification and having rich people is fine, as long as the area has diversity, it is a diversity that brings energy and brings greatness to a city.

Ian Schrager told Dezeen that micro-apartments are "potentially a great solution" to reduce diversity in cities

Schrager, one of the most influential hotel and developer residents, spoke amid concerns that the super rich are pricing everyone else outside of Manhattan.

In a column for Dezeen last year, architect Stephen Holl wrote that "astonishingly uneven incomes have begun to take on architectural form," while critic Aaron Betsky wrote that Manhattan is becoming somewhere "there is no place for people Poor, for production or even for conflict. "

There have even been protests in the streets of New York against the eruption of supertall residential buildings that rise in the city.

Architect Steven Holl and critic Aaron Betsky expressed concern about Manhattan's boom in expensive condominium towers

Schrager, who has launched changing nightclubs, hotels and more recently condominium buildings, said a new generation of "micro-apartment" developments could help cities conserve their mix.

The first micro-apartment building in New York, called My Micro NY, has recently been completed. Contains 55 units between 250 and 370 square feet (23 and 35 square meters).

Completed earlier this year, My Micro NY of nArchitects is the first micro-apartment building in New York

The building, at Kips Bay in Manhattan, was the result of a competition initiated by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who saw micro apartments as a way to alleviate the shortage of affordable housing in the city.

"People around the world want to live in New York City, and we must develop a new scalable housing model that is safe, affordable and innovative to meet their needs," Bloomberg said when the Kips Bay contest was launched in 2012.

In the same year, San Francisco city bosses voted to allow the construction of apartments as small as 20 square meters to help alleviate the shortage of affordable housing.

The 55 apartments in My Micro NY range from 23 to 34 square meters with built-in furniture to convert living rooms into bedrooms

Other similar developments are now being built in New York and other cities.

"You know I think these micro-apartments they're building are potentially a great solution," Schrager said. "They're doing it in San Francisco, I think there's a design problem to make these places efficient, and I think that's a very exciting prospect."

The heads of the city of San Francisco voted to allow the development of apartments as small as 20 square meters to cope with the housing shortage of the city

Schrager made the comments in an interview with Dezeen, in which he talked about his career and his collaborations with leading architects and designers such as Arata Isozaki, Philippe Starck and Herzog & de Meuron. Key Schrager projects include Studio 54 and Palladium nightclubs and Morgans hotels, the first boutique hotel, the Royalton and the Delano.

"I think we all do [miss the past.] I think my parents did. You know I remember driving with my parents with them saying they used to. F Scott Fitzgerald said it used to be better, people always say that.