Tag Archives: concrete

villa altona.

Villa Altona is located on a dramatically sloping site in Sweden, with villas on one side and forest on the other. These site characteristics have clearly generated the form, placement and tones of the building. It is a bold, modern structure, with a low pitch roof, covered in sedum. Designed by The Common Office, it is considered one of Sweden’s most interesting buildings by the Swedish Association of Architects. And it’s for sale.

The interior is almost one continuous room, rising up over several levels, connected by a thinly profiled metal stair. At the top, a large, central retractable skylight (providing access to a roof terrace, of course), fills the interior with light and adds transparency to the building. Light abounds, with window walls everywhere. Family and private zones are separated, or not, with large sliding walls.

Floor and roof slabs are concrete, cast in situ and left raw. Slender steel columns offer support.
A perforated metal floor gives an industrial feel, with the main floor of oak parquet. This is the least successful material to my mind: the sections of parquet too small for the scale of the building. Otherwise the materials are used boldly – stainless steel, mirror, brushed concrete.

What do you think?

Villa Altona, The Common Office, for sale here, via

house of concrete and corten.

covert house.

the anatomy of a building.

2 Replies

Sir Denys Lasdun created a radical new headquarters for the Royal college of Physicians 50 years ago. Unlike anything else in the classical, verdant green surroundings of Regent’s Park, his building was bold, restrained and unashamedly modern. He is also the architect responsible for one of my other favourite of all London buildings, the National theatre, Southbank.

Lasdun’s building is comprised of three contrasting materials, expressing the form of the building and defining the three distinct zones. The grand, ceremonial areas are clad in off-white mosaic, appearing to float above the lower administrative areas constructed from dark blue engineering bricks. Concrete was used for the fire escape and functional, hard-working parts of the building.

This extraordinary building is the subject of a current exhibition, now until 13 February 2015.
‘The anatomy of a building: Denys Lasdun and the Royal College of Physicians’, Royal College of Physicians, St Andrew’s Place, Regent’s Park, London. More, here

Photograph via and RCP

slip house.

9 Replies

An apt successor to the concrete-and-pink gallery house of my previous post, Slip House comprises ‘a simple, sculptural form of three cantilevered boxes (or slipped) boxes’. The shifting planes break up the bulk of the building, adding to this sculptural quality. Largely constructed from glass, steel and concrete, these raw materials are evident inside and out. This is architecture in its raw form, designed by an architect as his own home. It was also an RIBA award winner – best house in the UK for 2013. It is also nobly eco friendly, sustainable and energy efficient with triple glazing, solar panels and wildflower roofs all contributing to its performance.

The house is arranged over three floors with a large roof garden on top. Full-height glazing at either end together with an open plan layout (the perimeter walls carry the load) allow the light into the centre; necessary in an infill site with neighbouring terraces in close proximity. It has the requisite architectural details – shadow gap at the junctions between vertical and horizontal surfaces, and where elements of different materials conjoin. It is minimal in its use of materials and finishes, with an utterly retrained palette.

Could you live here? It’s marvellously accomplished, but personally I find the purity a little relentless. I’m also not keen on the pinkish hue of the birch plywood, seen on much of the bespoke joinery, as it sits alongside the dull grey of the exposed concrete. I’d have to add some disharmony – lots of textures, some colour.

Slip House by Carl Turner Architects for sale, here. Photography: Tim Crocker

a madrid penthouse in white.

4 Replies

Coolness and light abound in this split-level penthouse in Madrid. All access areas to the property were conceived as outdoor spaces to increase privacy and a sense of seclusion. Terraces on different levels are fed with a natural irrigation system and rain water from the roof tops; these terraces of warm earth along with the concrete structure also serve as insulators.

Internally, white walls provide the backdrop, pale wood floors and stone offer coolness under-foot. Seamlessness is created with flush, built-in cupboards and shadow gaps where level changes meet the floor. I spy: light wood Wishbone chairs, Eames DSW and Catifa chairs with their shells in white; a George Nelson clock, Panthella table lamp. The simplest metal handrails.

Which details do you like best?

Split-level penthouse in Madrid by Abaton Architects, here.

More wonderful, cool, white spaces, here.

open and close house.

13 Replies

It begins as a linear box, then, a system of wooden, slatted blinds create a dynamic, evolving facade. The blinds and openings operate separately and so allow for different compositions, sometimes controlled and sometimes random. At any given moment and for whatever reason (privacy, protection from the sun) the facade can change. Thus: ‘we can achieve a composition that is balanced, dynamic, haphazard, closed or open within the same framework’.

Within, the space is simple. White perimeter walls, dividing walls that don’t meet the ceiling, others that shoot past. Linear slots in the ceiling contain the lighting. A poured concrete floor provides a seamless transition throughout. The stair comprises timber treads cantilevered off a concrete wall, with formwork bolt holes forming the decorative element on the surface of the concrete in a controlled pattern. The balustrade comprises sheets of iron-free glass (so are transparent, not green in colour) which are without frames or evident fixings.

The furniture is classic and simple – Eames DSR chairs, a Barcelona coffee table, a parasol-like pendant over the solid wood dining table (I’m not familiar with this particular pendant, but it’s rather lovely).