Suspended bridges connect round cabin hotels in Mexico
CategoriesArchitecture

Suspended bridges connect round cabin hotels in Mexico

Mexican architect María José Gutiérrez has placed a series of round, pine-clad cabins connected by suspended bridges onto a vineyard in Mexico to serve as vacation rentals.

Located in Valle de Guadalupe, Ensenada on the Baja Peninsula, Zeuhary Hospedaje Campestre includes a community lounge and four vacation rental cabins.

Round cabin with plunge poolRound cabin with plunge pool
Top: photo by Martin Acevedo. Above: the cabins are located in Baja California, Mexico. Photo by Jonatan Ruvalcaba Maciel

“Beyond creating spaces we aim to create experiences, where nature and human beings integrate and recognize each other,” María José Gutiérrez, who leads Mexican studio Arqos Arquitectura Arte Y Diseño, told Dezeen.

“The architecture and interior design were focused on connecting with the environment and maintaining harmony with it.”

Cabin bedroomCabin bedroom
Central bedrooms feature in the round buildings

Completed in June 2022, the 250 square metres (2,690 square feet) of built area is divided into five 40-square metre (430-square foot) structures that look outward to the surrounding wine region.

The ground floor of each cabin is divided orthogonally, splitting off a portion for a partially covered exterior porch that leads into the sleeping space through a glass sliding door.

BathroomBathroom
Their interiors are sectioned into bathrooms along one side

The interiors were sectioned into a bathroom along one side, a central bedroom and a kitchenette tucked behind the headboard wall.

“In the furniture and interior decoration, we used organic materials from the region and different areas of the country, earth tones and grey contrasts, crafts, natural fibers, textiles, local wood and stone, recognizing Mexican handicraft talent and tradition,” the studio said.

“The chukum finish on the interior walls gives an organic texture and helps keep the interiors cool in summer, while the exterior coating of recycled pine wood allows the cabins to be thermally insulated in both winter and summer for greater energy efficiency.”

Round jacuzzi in cabin gardenRound jacuzzi in cabin garden
Small private gardens feature round jacuzzis

The cabins are all rotated to face a particular northern or eastern view without compromising privacy for the occupants.

A small planted garden protected by a grey wall rings a quarter of each plan, terminated by a private in-ground jacuzzi, connected to the cabin by a wooden deck with planks that align with the vertical cladding boards as if the facade radiates down the wall and along the ground.

Rooftop terraceRooftop terrace
Rooftop terraces are included atop each cabin

Up a delicate metal spiral staircase with wooden treads, the round plan becomes a rooftop terrace complete with a rope net set into the roof of the porch like an integrated hammock.

A free-swinging wooden bridge with rope netting guard rails is suspended from the roof of each cabin and leads to the roof of the common area, allowing guests to congregate in a central location.

“The circular floor plan of the cabins, together with their transition spaces such as the hanging bridges, wooden paths and spiral staircases generate fluid and dynamic routes which allow us to reconnect with ourselves and awaken our inner child through play and movement,” the studio said.

In addition to the material selection that responds thermally to the environment, the design works to preserve what little water the agricultural region has, reusing grey water for the irrigation of the vineyards.

Round cabinsRound cabins
Zeuhary Hospedaje Campestre is positioned within a vineyard

Other cabins recently completed in Mexico include a house deconstructed and separated for glamping within a forest in Nuevo León by S-AR and a brutalist cube-shaped holiday home tucked into a pine forest in Alférez by Ludwig Godefroy.

The photography is by Jonatan Ruvalcaba Maciel unless otherwise stated. 


Project credits:

Architect: María José Gutiérrez
Engineering and construction: Specialized Urban Services



Reference

Chaos Bridges the Gap Between Real-Time Rendering and Photorealistic Visualization
CategoriesArchitecture

Chaos Bridges the Gap Between Real-Time Rendering and Photorealistic Visualization

In a professional setting, the tasks of architectural design and visualization are often divided between different teams because they require different skills. This division helps designers achieve state-of-the-art rendering quality but sets up inherent workflow gaps between the two teams. Addressing this challenge, a powerful new update to V-Ray makes major improvements to the interface between that popular photoreal rendering tool and the real-time rendering program Enscape. Nicknamed “The Bridge”, this interface integrates design and visualization into the same workflow, allowing the transfer of materials, assets, lights, and more between design and visualization teams.

Enscape is an indispensable tool for architects because it allows them to quickly convert their work in design programs like SketchUp, Rhino, Revit, Archicad and Vectorworks into compelling visualizations. Ideal for evaluating iterations in working meetings or facilitating client decisions on the fly, it’s easy for designers to use but isn’t intended to produce the sort of photorealistic images made possible by V-Ray. Therefore, when a designer reached the point where a professional rendering was needed, a visualization team would then be tasked with recreating their Enscape scene in V-Ray from scratch, hoping to capture the designer’s intent — until now.

A new solution to this workflow problem has arrived in the form of the Bridge between Enscape and V-Ray. Starting in V-Ray 6, designers working in Enscape for SketchUp, Rhino or Revit can open their Enscape scenes in the V-Ray tab of the same program. This allows design teams to seamlessly transfer geometry, assets, lights, and materials from Enscape to V-Ray and render them with the highest levels of photorealism. By eliminating the necessity to recreate an Enscape scene in V-Ray, the Bridge is a time-saver, offering 3D artists a head start in fine-tuning and rendering projects.

Further to this, thanks to V-Ray’s latest update, the Bridge now enables users to move projects from a CAD environment (SketchUp, Rhino, Revit, Archicad or Vectorworks) to a DCC environment in programs like 3ds Max or Cinema 4D. Designers can now utilize V-Ray within these powerful applications, greatly expanding their rendering capabilities. The key lies in V-Ray’s ability to export a .vrscene file type, which allows designers working in Enscape to move their materials, lights, and entourage directly into V-Ray for 3ds Max or Cinema 4D.

The best illustration of the Bridge’s benefits can be seen in V-Ray’s hyper-realistic lighting and material rendering capabilities. When opened in V-Ray, lights defined by designers in Enscape feature a far greater degree of control over intensity, color, and physical accuracy. Materials in V-Ray likewise exhibit more realistic interaction with light than they do in Enscape, enhancing the ability to depict translucency, subsurface scattering, tinted glass surfaces and mirror surfaces. In the hands of a professional visualization artist, these capabilities make the difference between a compelling rendering and a jaw-dropping, life-like image.

Another significant advantage the Bridge offers is the ability for Enscape users to access V-Ray’s Chaos Cosmos asset library. In contrast to the Enscape Asset Library, tailored for real-time rendering, Chaos Cosmos provides assets specifically crafted to maximize realism and detail in production renders. Additionally, V-Ray’s optimized to handle scenes with large amounts of entourage — exceeding the capacity of Enscape and any host applications.

V-Ray’s sophisticated production flexibility is a further benefit the Bridge offers design teams working in Enscape. While Enscape relies solely on a GPU for rendering, V-Ray removes all hardware constraints by offering flexible rendering options utilizing together or individually the CPU and the GPU of users’ machines. It also offers cloud rendering as well as distributed rendering, and there are no limits on the final resolution of the output images. Design teams working in Enscape can easily utilize these valuable features of the Bridge by simply opening their Enscape models in V-Ray for the purposes of rendering.

With the Bridge, design and visualization are finally brought into the same workflow, saving time for everyone involved. Having removed the need to duplicate work, design teams can now benefit from the real-time rendering capabilities of Enscape without losing anything in translation to a visualization team creating final renderings in V-Ray. The unified workflow and improved collaboration the Bridge allows is a major step forward in efficiency and cooperation, drawing together key parts of the AEC industry that would otherwise remain divided.

Curious what the Bridge can do for you? Check out the latest update for yourself over on V-Ray’s website.

Reference

Grass-topped home by RO_AR bridges “the urban and the natural”
CategoriesArchitecture

Grass-topped home by RO_AR bridges “the urban and the natural”

An undulating concrete roof topped with grass covers this house in the Czech Republic, designed by local architecture studio RO_AR.

Located alongside a wildlife corridor at the edge of the Hlubocepy district in Prague, the family home is designed to be a “bridge between the urban and the natural”.

To achieve this, RO_AR designed the house as a “clash of two geometries”: a rectilinear form facing the city that is clad in thin oak slats and a hill-like, grass-topped form facing the garden and natural landscape beyond.

Exterior of house in the Czech Republic by RO_AR
Czech studio RO_AR has created a house in the Hlubocepy district

“Urban space surrounds the site on the south and east sides,” explained studio founder Szymon Rozwałka. “It is a chaotic and random development, often adversely affecting the value of the terrain.”

“We designed a building that was created by the method of land deformation. The terrain was to transition smoothly from the north-west side into an artificial ‘hill’ into which the house was to be placed,” he continued.

On approach, the ground floor has been carved out to create a garage and entrance sheltered by the overhanging first floor. Here, a paved path leads around the side of the home into the garden.

Home with glazed facade and green roof
It has an undulating concrete roof topped with grass

While the front of the dwelling is more austere, finished in white render and clad with oak battens for privacy, the rear opens onto the garden through fully-glazed facades beneath the curving roof.

“The home seeks to extend the natural context into the interior of the site and into the interiors,” said Rozwałka. “It becomes an abstract body that, through its form and scale, corresponds to the surrounding rocks in the background.”

A paved patio outside the living area overlooks a small pond, and on the first floor, one of the bedrooms opens onto a small terrace that is concealed from the adjacent properties by a section of concrete wall.

Internally, the home’s undulating roof is expressed as an exposed, board-marked concrete ceiling, with large skylights created in the areas where its curves intersect.

Entrance to family house in the Czech Republic by RO_AR
An overhanging first floor creates a sheltered entrance

The concrete structure has also been left exposed for the internal walls, contrasted by wooden ceilings and staircases and black-metal frames, fittings and furniture.

Concrete interior of Czech house by RO_AR
The concrete structure has been left exposed

Based in Brno, RO_AR was founded in 2011 by Rozwałka and operates in both the Czech Republic and Poland.

Elsewhere in the Czech Republic, local studio Architektura recently completed a brightly coloured kindergarten that is intended to echo childhood playfulness.

Reference

shail patel imagines pods under bridges to tackle homelessness
CategoriesArchitecture

shail patel imagines pods under bridges to tackle homelessness

shail patel imagines an eco-friendly solution to homelessness

 

Imagining innovative solutions to address complex social issues, Shail Patel takes on artificial intelligence design tool Midjourney to conceptualize a series of modular pods that tackle homelessness. The architect offers a sustainable solution to the issue by activating ignored urban spaces and utilizing modular design to create a safe and dignified environment for the homeless population.

 

Each of the proposed pods are designed to be self-contained living spaces that provide residences privacy and comfort year-round — integrated with ample natural light, ventilation, and heating and cooling systems, and built out of eco-friendly materials.

self-contained living pods by shail patel activate vacant lots under bridges to tackle homelessness
series of pods floating above the stream | all images by Shail Patel

 

 

ai-generated modular structures for year-round comfort

 

Architect Shail Patel designs the modular form of the bridge pods to allow for easy construction and assembly, making it possible to quickly expand the project and offer housing for more individuals in need. In their forms, the pods are built with durable and sustainable materials, ensuring their longevity. The structures are also designed to include energy-efficient features such as solar panels and rainwater harvesting systems, ensuring they sit with a reduced carbon footprint.

 

To ensure the safety of the residents, the sites are envisioned to be fitted with a state-of-the-art security system. They will further be staffed by social workers and healthcare professionals who provide critical support services, such as counseling, job training, and healthcare for rehabilitation. Additionally, Shail Patel imagines that the design could be replicated in other cities and communities, offering a new approach to addressing homelessness across the country.

self-contained living pods by shail patel activate vacant lots under bridges to tackle homelessness
Shail Patel takes on Midjourney to imagine innovative solutions to complex social issues

self-contained living pods by shail patel activate vacant lots under bridges to tackle homelessness
each of the proposed pods are designed to be self-contained living spaces for comfort and privacy

self-contained living pods by shail patel activate vacant lots under bridges to tackle homelessness
modular structures create a safe and dignified environment for the homeless population

self-contained living pods by shail patel activate vacant lots under bridges to tackle homelessness
the sites are envisioned to be fitted with state-of-the-art security systems

self-contained living pods by shail patel activate vacant lots under bridges to tackle homelessness
the pods are built with durable and sustainable materials, ensuring their longevity

self-contained living pods activate vacant lots under bridges to tackle homelessness
the project offers a sustainable solution to homelessness by activating ignored urban lots

self-contained living pods activate vacant lots under bridges to tackle homelessness
integrated with ample natural light, ventilation, and heating and cooling systems

ignored urban spaces bridge pods for homeless communities 4

 

 

project info:

 

name: Pods Underneath Bridges for Homeless Communities
designer: Shail Patel

 

 

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

 

edited by: ravail khan | designboom



Reference