Mexican studio Taller Héctor Barroso has used concrete, wood and brick to create a series of holiday homes that merge with the wooded landscape and “allow nature to act in the intimacy of the home”.
The small residential complex – called Los Helechos, or The Ferns – is located in Valle de Bravo, a scenic area that is a couple hours by car from Mexico City.
Taller Hector Barroso has created a series of holiday homes in Mexico. Top photo by Jaime Navarro
The 1,150-square-metre complex consists of four identical houses that sit side by side on a sloped property within Rancho Avándaro, a golf and recreational community.
The architecture studio designed the homes to integrate with the tree-studded landscape and to enable nature to flow indoors.
The four residences sit side by side on a slope
“Los Helechos is a group of houses designed to allow nature to act in the intimacy of the home, creating a silent architecture to accompany the beauty of their gardens,” said Taller Hector Barroso, a studio based in Mexico City.
“The four houses stealthily adapt to the steep slope of the terrain, respecting the existing topography and vegetation to minimize their impact on the site,” the studio added.
Each house faces a central courtyard. Photo by Jaime Navarro
Each house has two levels and a basement. The homes are C-shaped in plan and feature rectilinear volumes arranged around a central courtyard filled with native plants.
“The houses look inward through a central courtyard that becomes a space of transition and contemplation – an area between public and private, allowing the entire house to maintain a direct relationship with nature,” the team said.
To construct the buildings, the team used concrete, pine and red brick plastered with soil-based stucco. Windows are framed with ipe wood, and a pergola is made of laminated pine.
Interior finishes include oak doors and stucco-covered walls, along with floors covered in cantera – a type of stone that came from a local quarry.
The studio used concrete, pine and red brick plastered with stucco for finishes. Photo by Jaime Navarro
The ground level encompasses two bedrooms and a mix of indoor and outdoors spaces for cooking, dining and lounging. The upper level contains two bedrooms, and the basement holds storage space and a garage.
Founded in 2011, Taller Hector Barroso has completed a range of projects around its home state of Mexico, such as a caramel-coloured apartment complex in Mexico City and a stark tennis venue in Los Cabos made of rammed earth.
The photography is by César Béjar unless otherwise stated
Project credits:
Architect: Héctor Barroso Team: Alan Rojas, Alice Moreno, Paloma Sánchez, Salvador Saracho
Madrid-based Zooco Estudio has created a striking restaurant within the Cantabrian Maritime Museum in Santander, Spain, that celebrates the building’s brutalist architecture.
The restaurant is set within a dramatic vault of concrete paraboloids that were unearthed during the renovation, while a slatted timber ceiling pays homage to the area’s shipbuilding legacy.
Zooco Estudio added a restaurant to the second floor of the Cantabrian Maritime Museum
Overlooking the tranquil waters of Santander Bay, the restaurant is located on the second floor of the landmark Cantabrian Maritime Museum, which was designed in the mid-1970s by architects Vicente Roig Forner and Ángel Hernández Morales.
The paraboloids were an original fixture of the structure and supported the roof of what was once the museum’s patio.
Oak details were designed to contrast the restaurant’s concrete arches
The studio focused on restoring the historic fabric of the space and reviving the paraboloids, which had been concealed for around 20 years, as “a vestige of the past”.
“In 2003, the building was renovated and as part of this intervention, the paraboloids were covered with a new roof and the space between them and the perimeter of the building was closed with glass, generating a covered space where there was previously a terrace,” Zooco Estudio co-founder Javier Guzmán told Dezeen.
“We wanted the concrete paraboloids to be the absolute protagonists of the space and by removing the paint and the coating, the paraboloids are visible again and regain their full prominence.”
The renovation exposed the raw concrete surface of the paraboloids
The previous renovation also altered the dimensions of the space and reconfigured the volume as a square.
To promote symmetry, four additional concrete triangles were added to balance out the original paraboloids in the brutalist restaurant.
Slatted wooden ceiling panels bridge the gaps between the arches
Overhead, a false ceiling of slatted timber panels frames the concrete arches.
The studio designed theses triangular boards to reference the arrangement of timber across the hull of a boat, a nod to the museum and the area’s nautical past.
The panels also serve the purpose of concealing the restaurant’s mechanical systems.
“The wooden slats bring warmth and friendliness to the space while allowing us to solve all the technical needs for air conditioning, heating and lighting, leaving them hidden,” Guzmán said.
“In this way, we ensure that all these elements do not interfere with the dialogue of concrete and wood, which are presented as continuous and clean elements.”
Walls of floor-to-ceiling glazing offer views across the bay
The interior layout was largely dictated by the low arches of the elliptic paraboloids that dominate the brutalist restaurant.
“The geometry of the existing structure conditions the space, because its height in its lower part is impractical, so a large bench is arranged around the entire contour that allows us to take advantage of that space and organise the distribution of the rest of the floor plan,” added Guzmán.
Grey porcelain floors mirror the concrete paraboloids
Like the ceiling panels, the interior finishes and furnishings allude to the maritime history that the building commemorates.
“The use of wood and steel for all the furniture is reminiscent of the materials used in shipbuilding – the furniture has slight curvatures that are reminiscent of the aerodynamic shapes of boats,” explained Guzmán.
“Likewise, the lamps are inspired by the masts for ship sails.”
Zooco Estudio also designed the restaurant’s curved timber furniture
Another key change was the replacement of the perimeter glass wall.
The inclined glazing was swapped for vertical glass, a decision that reclaimed external space for the patio, which stretches the length of the restaurant and overlooks the harbour below.
“When we are inside, the feeling is the same as when we are inside a boat, there is only water around, and that is why we used clean glass from floor to ceiling, generating a perimeter terrace as happens on boats,” said Guzmán.
The terrace features green curvilinear outdoor furniture
Other projects by Zooco Estudio include a renovated house in Madrid and a co-working space with a kids’ play area in California.
Dutch firm UNStudio has revealed a two-storey flagship store for Chinese technology company Huawei in Shanghai with a facade clad in ivory-coloured petal-like forms.
Drawing from Huawei’s global operating system, named Harmony, UNStudio‘s design aimed to generate biophilic associations between the brand and its technology by integrating organic geometric shapes throughout the scheme.
UNStudio has completed the Huawei flagship store in Shanghai with a petal-like facade
“Among the many interfaces found in retail nowadays, the flagship store we have created for Huawei in Shanghai is one that blends interactive experiences, technology and community creation,” UNStudio founder and principal Ben van Berkel said.
“The new store reimagines modern retail spaces as inviting environments that promote a sense of community and provide a contemporary venue for consumers and visitors to meet, share and innovate,” he continued.
The store’s southern facade integrates undulating floor-to-ceiling glazing. Image courtesy of Huawei
The store’s double-height frontage is defined by a series of overlapping elements that the studio described as “petal-like”, which fold together to form a raised band across the facade glazing.
Each ivory-coloured ‘petal’ weaves down to meet the ground as ‘stems’, configured to hide the structural mullions between glass panels and create the sense of a frameless facade.
Soft lighting was also integrated between the petal edges to illuminate the store’s exterior at night.
A spiralling column was positioned as a visual marker within the central atrium
Positioned directly behind the facade, a spiralling column named the Tree of Harmony continues the organic geometries internally.
The column was positioned to the side of the central atrium as a focal point for visitors and is wrapped by stairs that lead to the upper mezzanine floor.
To further the store’s biophilic character, the southern facade was finished with undulating glazing and seating that folds around the building’s curves.
The studio used neutral and clean internal finishes to complement the ivory-coloured store frontage
Internal finishes were kept warm and neutral to match the facade’s clean tones and extensive white overhead lighting.
The studio used wood and glassfibre-reinforced cement for the store’s ceilings, floor and columns, while product tables and furniture were also made from wood and natural-toned materials to add to the organic feel of the space.
According to UNStudio, the store integrates high-performance materials and prefabricated, detachable finishes to increase the building’s longevity, while the quality of the air inside the store is monitored by climate control technology.
“Huawei TKL flagship store re-crafts Huawei’s innovative technology into a design aesthetic,” UNStudio partner Hannes Pfau said.
“It seamlessly creates a unified facade and interior narrative, while using high-performance, certified and recycled materials.”
A central product display avenue spans the length of the store
The store has a central product display avenue that spans the length of the ground floor, with two further experiential zones interspersed for increased user interaction.
A Signature Experience zone will host featured events and exhibits, while the Consumer Full Scenario Experience zone lets visitors use and test Huawei products.
Undulating floor-to-ceiling glazing was used for the store’s southern facade
Both floors were designed with open and flexible spaces in which the store can host lectures, activities and classes.
To complete the store’s functional offerings, UNStudio also created a minimalist interior cafe to blend with the rest of the store for customers awaiting after-sale services.
The store hosts flexible spaces to be used by the community
UNStudio was founded in Amsterdam in 1998 by Van Berkel and Caroline Bos.
The studio has also recently completed the Booking.com headquarters in Amsterdam and the YG Entertainment headquarters in Seoul featuring metallic surfaces and geometric forms.
The photography is by Wen Studio unless otherwise stated
American architecture studio Kohn Pedersen Fox has unveiled images of a supertall skyscraper that is currently being built in Midtown Manhattan.
Commenters analysed the structure, with one praising the “contextual design approach” while another questioned: “Can we declare this day the end of messianic Miesianism?”
However, a commenter thought the design “kind of falls apart when you look at the details.”
Rafael Viñoly Architects unveils plans for vineyard-covered airport terminal
Other stories in this week’s newsletter that fired up the comments section included Rafael Viñoly Architects’ plans for a vineyard-covered airport terminal, a pavilion designed for The OWO hotel in London and the news that Elon Musk’s company Neuralink has implanted a brain chip into its first human patient.
Dezeen Debate
Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Debate or subscribe here.
You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Agenda is sent every Tuesday containing a selection of the most important news highlights from the week, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design.
Greek architecture offices K-Studio and Monogon have converted the abandoned Manna Sanatorium in Arcadia, southern Greece, into a luxury forest hotel.
Originally built in the 1920s to give tuberculosis patients access to the healing power of nature, the historic structure is now a five-star wellness retreat.
Manna offers 32 rooms fitted out with natural materials and neutral tones, plus gym and spa facilities and a restaurant focused on local produce.
Manna hotel is housed in a former sanatorium for tuberculosis patients
The building sits within a fir forest on Mount Mainalo, the tallest peak in the mountainous region.
The design vision set out by Athens-based K-Studio was to amplify the sense of sanctuary offered by the remote location and enhance the feeling of connection to nature.
Manna owner Stratis Batayas, a Greek entrepreneur who had spent his childhood summers in the area, wanted to create a year-round destination that stayed true to the building’s history.
The building is set in a fir forest in Arcadia, a mountainous region of Greece
“The client’s ambition was to reinterpret the concept of a sanctuary in the mountains with contemporary terms,” reads K-Studio’s design statement.
“The hotel would have to be a place for isolation, as well as community-making and participation in the primary activities of everyday living.”
Design details include columns with curved corner reveals and ornate gridded ceilings
The renovation was overseen in collaboration with Athens-based Monogon and involved significant building work, including the reconstruction of a derelict rear wing and the installation of a new roof.
When the sanatorium closed – made obsolete following the introduction of penicillin in 1938 – the building had been emptied to prevent looting. Stone window sills were stripped out and relocated, while the original roof was removed and repurposed on a hospital in nearby Tripoli.
Concrete was used to replace the old sills, while the new timber roof was installed over rendered brickwork.
The bar features neatly crafted joinery
A reconfigured layout provides a new entrance on the side of the building.
This leads through into a series of elegant reception and lounge spaces where details include columns with curved corner reveals, ornate gridded ceilings and a herringbone-patterned fireplace.
Manna’s bar can also be found here, featuring neatly crafted joinery. Elsewhere, the restaurant run by chef Athinagoras Kostakos has a more casual feel thanks to an open kitchen.
Bedrooms are located on the upper floors of the main building, including a new attic level, and on all levels of the rebuilt northern wing.
Attic rooms offer the most modern feel, extending out to balconies set within large gable-ended dormers.
Interiors feature natural materials and neutral tones
The materials palette combines brushed timber with earth-toned textiles. Standout features include the elaborate privacy screens that form a backdrop to the beds.
Terrazzo flooring is inlaid with marble to define different zones, matching the stone used for wash basins. Room numbers are carved into the floor surfaces in front of each room entrance.
“Local craftsmen were involved in all construction phases, as they bear the knowhow of stoneworks, joinery and even the characteristic engraved grouting of the exterior stonewalls,” said K-Studio.
Terrazzo flooring is inlaid with marble to define zones
Manna opened its doors in the summer of 2023 and is represented by Design Hotels, a booking company that specialises in design-led retreats.
K-Studio co-founder Dimitris Karampataki presented the project at the 2023 edition of The Lobby, an annual hospitality conference in Copenhagen.
Manna’s restaurant features an open kitchen
He said the design for Manna “embraces the wear and tear, embraces the natural patina”.
“When we first arrived we saw something, which took about a century to make,” he said. “We didn’t want to clean it too much, to be selective of its heritage. It was more important for us to embrace the whole story.”
The design aims to reconnect people with nature
Other destination hotels to open recently include the Six Senses Rome, designed by Patricia Urquiola, and the Sanya Wellness Retreat in Hainan, China, designed by Neri&Hu.
The world’s first full-scale timber wind turbine has started turning in Sweden, with a tower built by wood technology company Modvion.
The 105-metre-tall tower, located in the region of Skara, is Modvion‘s first commercial wind turbine tower, and follows on from a smaller 30-metre-high demonstration project the company completed in 2020.
While its rotor blades and generator hub are made of conventional materials, the tower is made of laminated veneer lumber (LVL), a type of engineered wood made of thin veneer strips glued together and often used for beams and load-bearing building structures.
The tower of a wind turbine in Skara is made of engineered wood
The company says that this type of wood is not only strong enough to withstand the forces of a turning turbine, it is much more environmentally sustainable to build with than the currently used steel.
While wind power plays an important role in providing the world with green renewable energy, there are still ample carbon emissions created during their construction — in part because of the steel towers.
Modvion describes its wood towers as reducing the carbon emissions from wind turbine construction by over 100 per cent, due to the combination of a less emissions-heavy production process and the carbon storage provided by trees.
“Our towers, just in the production of them, they emit 90 per cent less than a steel tower that will do carry the same work,” Modvion chief financial officer Maria-Lina Hedlund told Dezeen. “And then if you add the carbon sequestration, then you actually end up with a minus — so a carbon sink. This is great if we want to reach net zero energy production, and we need to.”
The type of wood used is laminated veneer lumber
Hedlund, who is also an engineer, describes LVL as having a construction “similar to carbon fibre”, with strips of veneer just three millimetres thick sandwiched and glued together, giving it a high strength-to-weight ratio.
This lightness is a benefit, reducing the amount of material needed overall. With a heavy material, there is a “bad design spiral”, says Hedlund, as the weight of the tower itself adds to the load that it needs to carry.
And while some LVL has all their veneer strips facing in the same direction, Modvion uses its “own recipe” specifying the directions of the fibres, improving the material’s performance even more.
The turbine tower is the tallest so far built by Swedish company Modvion. Photo by Paul Wennerholm
The production process involves timber boards being made to order in a standard LVL plant and then delivered to Modvion’s factory. There, they are glued together into larger modules and bent into a rounded form in a step called lamination, and then very precisely machined to fine-tune the shape.
“In the wood industry, you usually see centimetre tolerances, while we are in the sub-millimetre scale,” said Hedlund.
The modular nature of LVL construction addresses another problem Modvion has observed with steel: that with turbines getting ever bigger to give more power, it’s becoming impossible to transport steel towers to site.
They are built as essentially large cylinders and transported by truck, but the base diameter desired for the tallest towers is getting to be taller than some bridges and roads can allow.
The timber is laminated into modules at Modvion’s factory
“We’re now reaching a point where they will not get through anymore,” said Hedlund. “So we will see a transition in the wind power industry to modular construction, because this is the way to get them there. And one of the big advantages of building in the material we do is that it’s naturally built modular.”
While steel could also be built modular, it would require bolts rather than glue to join it together on site, which Hedlund says is a disadvantage.
“Bolts are not very nice when you have so much dynamic loading, because it will loosen over time,” she said. “So first of all, you have to have to put them in place which is a lot of work, and then you have to also service them over the lifetime.”
The modules were assembled and glued together on site
On the outside, the tower has a thick white coating that makes it look similar to steel, and it’s rotor blades and generator hub, which are not supplied by Modvion, are made of conventional materials like fibreglass. This may change in the future, however, with another company, Voodin Blades, working on the technology for wooden blades.
Modvion was founded in 2016 by university peers David Olivegren and Otto Lundman. While its current focus is wind turbines, it is dedicated to wooden technology more broadly, and Hedlund told Dezeen that the team believes it has “the world’s strongest joint for timber construction”, which could also be put to other uses.
Another recent milestone for wind power came in the form of a wind-powered cargo ship, which had been retrofitted with two 37.5-metre-tall sails.
The Sims has been allowing players to act out their architecture and interior design fantasies for more than two decades. Jane Englefield finds out how the makers of the iconic life-simulation video game keep up with shifting trends.
“People laugh when I mention playing The Sims, but it was hugely significant in terms of spatial planning and was a key part of how and why I have ended up in the line of interior design work that I have,” interiors stylist and editor Rory Robertson told Dezeen.
“The Sims offered people the opportunity to get a feel for design,” he reflected. “You could be as extravagant and outrageous, or as briefed and restricted as you liked.”
The Sims was first released in 2000 with three sequels since developed
Created in 2000 by American game designer Will Wright, The Sims is a video game where players make human characters – or “sims” – and build their virtual houses and lives from scratch, catering to their needs and desires.
With four iterations of the main game and dozens of themed expansion packs focussing on topics such as university, parenthood and cottage living, The Sims is one of the best-selling video-game franchises of all time.
“It’s really accessible”
Architecture and interior design has been a major part of The Sims experience from the very beginning.
Having previously created the city-building game SimCity in 1989 – which itself has been credited with inspiring a generation of urban planners – Wright was originally motivated to develop The Sims after losing his home in the Oakland firestorm of 1991 in California.
Design remained a core part of the offering, however, and the interface features tools that allow players to instantly build structures and decorate and furnish them from an extensive inventory of items.
Players can choose from a wide inventory of decor and furnishing options
“It’s really accessible, so I think a lot of people get into it without even realising that they’re playing with architecture and playing with space,” said video-games expert and historian Holly Nielsen.
“While it was like catnip for design budding minds, it was also just a wonderful opportunity for procrastination and frivolity for people who aren’t particularly confident or tuned in to interiors or architecture,” echoed Robertson.
Since the original The Sims, a broad set of options has been available for players to suit their tastes and imaginations.
Possibilities have ranged from minimalist bungalows filled with neutral furniture to more outlandish dwellings, such as castles defined by Dalmatian-print wallpaper or hot tubs parked in the middle of multiple living rooms.
“We’ll take any source”
The team behind these possibilities described how they ensure that the architecture and interior design options stay feeling fresh and contemporary with each new game in the series.
“Since we’re a game about real life, anytime we step outside our door we have inspiration by just looking at what’s in our immediate environment,” game designer Jessica Croft told Dezeen.
Art director Mike O’Connor added that he and his team scour the real world and the web for up-to-date references.
“We’ll take any source,” he said. “We’re looking for patterns. If we start to see round furniture, or bouclé, or whatever the trend is, [we ask] has it already gone?”
“The internet doesn’t scrub old ideas. So you know, it’s seeing if there’s a trend, is it sticking, does it apply to what we’re doing now?”
The in-game design possibilities have evolved over time to keep up with trends
Furniture and appliances within the game are regularly revised over time to reflect cultural and technological progression in the real world, Croft explained.
“In Sims 2 [released in 2004] I would not be surprised if there was a landline phone – and there definitely isn’t a landline phone in my own house, or Sims 4,” she said.
“Even things like VR [virtual reality] didn’t really exist back in The Sims 2 days, so things like VR consoles, computers – we just added dual-monitor computers, and LEDs are now in most households,” she continued.
That in turn sees the team take a surprisingly deep dive into how interiors are changing, O’Connor acknowledged.
“Over the life of this game, you see an evolution,” he said. “Electronics are probably the biggest category [of change]. Even just how people use TVs, how they place them, has changed.”
The idea, says Croft, is to ensure that The Sims players feel a close connection to the world they are building for their sims.
“The most fun thing for me is being able to allow players to craft stories that are relatable to them,” she said. “So, looking for opportunities to make players feel seen.”
“An element of freedom and fantasy-building”
But, as Nielsen points out, there is an additional aspect to the game’s architecture and design possibilities that is central to its appeal.
“In one sense, it’s reflective of society, but in another way, it’s aspirational,” she said.
“There’s an element of freedom and fantasy-building to playing The Sims,” she continued. “Homeownership is a thing that a lot of us will not get to do.”
As in real life, everything you build or buy in The Sims has a cost.
However, unlike in real life, punching “motherlode” into The Sims cheat-code bar will immediately add a healthy 50,000 simoleons to your sim’s bank account, putting that luxury sofa easily within reach.
The game offers people “the opportunity to get a feel for design”
That possibility remains central to Robertson’s nostalgia for playing The Sims as a young would-be interior designer.
“Once you double-clicked The Sims graphic on your Microsoft desktop, a multi-roomed mansion cost nothing to design,” he said.
This aspirational element has become an increasingly large part of The Sims’ commercial model over the years.
The Sims 4, as an example, is accompanied by 19 purchasable “Stuff Packs” that expand the options of items available to buy, including “Perfect Patio”, “Cool Kitchen” and one based on the products of Milan fashion label Moschino.
And the latest of the more extensive expansion packs is For Rent, which allows players to build rental houses where some sims are landlords and others are tenants.
Within the game, landlords encounter various true-to-life issues, including the potential for toxic mould build-up in their properties – although, unlike in the real world, the mould feature can be toggled on and off.
For Nielsen, that traces back to a significant foundational element of the game’s widespread appeal – as well as being one of the reasons it has had such strong interior-design influence.
“It didn’t feel like it was aiming for anyone,” she explained. “One of the things that people bring up a lot is that it has a very female player base.”
“For me, it was a big turning point – it was getting to create the spaces but also play around with the people inside them. It felt like a socially acceptable way to play dollhouses.”
Dezeen In Depth If you enjoy reading Dezeen’s interviews, opinions and features, subscribe to Dezeen In Depth. Sent on the last Friday of each month, this newsletter provides a single place to read about the design and architecture stories behind the headlines.
The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Agenda newsletter features an apartment block in California constructed like a “real-life Lego-kit”. Subscribe to Dezeen Agenda now.
Florida-based manufacturer Renco has completed a Palm Springs apartment complex that was made using Lego-like blocks made of repurposed materials and designed by architecture studio Arquitectonica.
Constructed from a composite blend of glass fibres, resin, and stone, the blocks were designed to be stronger, less energy-intensive and more affordable than conventional materials.
“Revolutionary force” Lesley Lokko wins 2024 RIBA Royal Gold Medal
This week’s newsletter also featured Ghanaian-Scottish architect Lesley Lokko being named the recipient of this year’s RIBA Royal Gold Medal, the reveal of plans and the architect for this year’s Serpentine Pavilion and a “first aid kit” for furniture designed by Yalan Dan.
Dezeen Agenda
Dezeen Agenda is a curated newsletter sent every Tuesday containing the most important news highlights from Dezeen. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Agenda or subscribe here.
You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features the hottest reader comments and most-debated stories, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design.
A private roof terrace enclosed by greenery features in Hidden Garden House, a Sydney home reconfigured by Australian studio Sam Crawford Architects.
Situated within a conservation zone, the home has been updated by Sam Crawford Architects to brighten its dark interior and transform it into an urban “sanctuary”.
An open-tread staircase has been added to the hallway
Alterations to the 198-square-metre home’s interior are first seen in its entrance, where a stair with open treads and a white-steel balustrade replaces a solid timber structure that previously restricted light from a skylight above.
Down from the entry hall is a spacious ground-floor kitchen and dining area, which is illuminated by 4.5-metre-high glass openings that lead out to a landscaped patio. The patio is paved with limestone tiles that extend out from the interior.
A curved concrete roof features in the kitchen
“By extending the ground floor finishes through the full-width doors into the rear yard, the garden and high-level green trellises at the rear of the site form the fourth wall to the rear wing,” studio director Sam Crawford told Dezeen.
“They create a sense of enclosure that draws the occupant’s eye up to the expanse of the sky rather than surrounding suburbia.”
Angled timber screens and greenery ensure privacy for the bathroom
A concrete ceiling in Hidden Garden House’s kitchen curves upwards to help draw in the winter sun and provide summer shading, while operable clerestory windows allow natural ventilation.
Above, this curved ceiling forms a sloped roof terrace filled with plants, which is situated off the main bedroom on the upper floor.
An ensuite bathroom, also lined with limestone floor tiles, has expansive openings offering a scenic yet private bathing experience enabled by angled timber screens and the terrace’s greenery.
“The rolling green roof serves as a visual barrier to the surrounding suburb, whilst allowing the occupants to occupy their private garden oasis,” added Crawford.
White walls and wooden furniture feature throughout the interior
Hidden Garden House’s consistent material palette of bright white walls and wooden furniture ties its living spaces together, while decorative square tiles line both the kitchen and bathrooms.
Curved details, such as the patio’s shape and the kitchen island and splashback, also feature throughout.
The home aims to be an urban “sanctuary”
Other alterations that were made to improve Hidden Garden House’s layout include the relocation of entrances to the ground floor laundry room and bathroom.
Elsewhere, Sam Crawford Architects has also created a restaurant topped with an oversized steel roof and a bridge modelled on the curving shape of eels.
Climate fatalism stands in the way of a sustainable future but designers and architects are in an ideal position to overcome it, writes Katie Treggiden.
The mainstream media is finally waking up to the realities of climate change. As wildfires, floods and storms wreak havoc across the world, journalists and activists far braver than me are speaking truth to power to make sure we all know just how serious this thing is. And that is vital and right and proper.
However, fear doesn’t motivate action. The biggest obstacle for the environmental movement is no longer climate-change deniers – the evidence is incontrovertible to all but conspiracy theorists. It is those who are fully on board with the fact that humans are the root cause of some very real problems, but just don’t believe that we have what it takes to solve them. Our biggest climate challenge is no longer denial, but despair.
Fear doesn’t motivate action
To spark meaningful change, we need hope. We need to believe not only that a better world is possible, but that we each have the power to help bring it about.
I’m not talking about blind faith or passive optimism. I’m talking about active hope. I’m talking about waking up every morning and making a choice to believe that we can solve this wicked problem, and then choosing to act accordingly. And in today’s climate – political, economic and social as well as environmental – hope is an act of defiance.
So, how can architects and designers inspire defiant hope?
The Berkana Institute’s “two loops” model of systems change proposes multiple roles that people and institutions can play in the transition from a declining system to an emerging one. As the dominant system begins its decline, “stabilisers” keep what is required in place until something better is ready, while “hospice workers” support the process of decline, minimising harm to those still within it.
In turn, the emergent system gathers pace as “pioneers” come up with new ideas, products and systems and they are joined together into networks by “connectors”. Together, they form supportive “communities of practice” that enable them to grow their influence and, eventually, rise up to replace the old system.
In the transition from the declining linear take-make-waste economy to an emerging regenerative and circular economy, we might cast architects and designers in the role of “pioneers” – problem-solvers who can create pragmatic ways to move society towards a better world.
And that is valid; if architecture and design solve problems, then surely they should contribute genuine, impactful, and replicable solutions to arguably the biggest problem ever to have faced humanity.
In today’s climate – political, economic and social as well as environmental – hope is an act of defiance
However, I believe they can also play another part. On the emerging-system loop, there is a role for “illuminators”: people who paint a picture of what a better world might look like.
You see, there is no point in the model where the two loops touch, no simple juncture where people can step off one system and onto the next – they must take a leap of faith. Illuminators are the people who can give them the courage to do that.
One of the questions I get asked most often when I speak at conferences about craft and design in the transition to a circular economy is: “Okay, but how does it scale?”
Firstly, I would contend that scalability is what got us into this mess, and what we need instead are locally replicable solutions, but increasingly I am questioning whether everything we propose as an industry even needs to do that. Perhaps part of our role is simply to inspire hope – defiant, stubborn, active hope.
Kyloe Design’s kelp chair, showcased recently as part of Green Grads at the London Design Festival, may never make it into production and it’s highly unlikely that it will drive the wholesale replacement of leather across the furniture industry. But it does showcase the potential of this incredibly renewable, climate-positive, underutilised material, while provoking the curiosity to learn more.
From responsible material sourcing and advocating for worker welfare to using smartphone components anyone can switch out, Fairphone is offering real-world solutions. But its founder, Bas Van Abel, was realistic about what he could achieve directly, so launched the company with the stated aim of motivating the rest of the industry.
Part of our role is simply to inspire hope – defiant, stubborn, active hope
Zaha Hadid Architects principal Patrik Schumacher might have criticised the “lack of architecture” at last year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, but what if contributions such as the German pavilion (pictured), which he described as nothing more than “piles of construction material”, are exactly what we need to inspire alternative ways of working? Entitled Open for Maintenance, the exhibition was billed as “an action framework for a new building culture” and collated materials recovered from previous installations to be used for repairing and upgrading buildings and public spaces all over Venice.
One of my favourite quotes about hope is from the author Arundhati Roy, who says: “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” The question I would like to pose is: how can we, as an industry, help everyone to hear the sound of her breath?
Dezeen In Depth If you enjoy reading Dezeen’s interviews, opinions and features, subscribe to Dezeen In Depth. Sent on the last Friday of each month, this newsletter provides a single place to read about the design and architecture stories behind the headlines.
