The three balconies envelop the hall in a horseshoe-like enclosure. Each balcony is broken down into a series of steps cascading from the center rear balcony to the individual boxes on either side of the stage. The stepping enhances sightlines and provides for a sense of intimacy and connection with the action on the stage. The balcony balustrades are a contemporary reinterpretation of the gilded, glittering, candle-lit balconies of 18th and 19th century theaters. The lights reflect through the glass-like enclosure to form an ever-changing chandelier-like surface.

The hall’s acoustic enclosure is composed of undulating walls, shaped like vertical stacked barrels and designed by Toyota for optimal sound reflection. To integrate these shapes into the whole, a series of slats provide a screen-like enclosure. A series of murals, conceived and designed by the students of the Kansas City Art Institute, are painted and illuminated directly on the acoustical structures. The overall effect is of a dynamic mural, rich in reds, greens, blues and yellows, fused into the geometry of the room.

Architects : Moshe Safdie and Associates
Location    : Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Ergonomic and innovative, this flexible office workstation presented by Abstracta. This “Mobi” work furniture consists of a work surface and a sound-absorbing partition on locking wheels, so it can be easily moved by one person. Besides the workstation is modular. You can combine several desks to adapt to any space and capacity requirements by simply adding or removing units. Mobi’s partitions are fabric-covered and are vailable in a dynamic range of colours and in two standard heights. The fixed leg has an adjustable foot, so the work surface can be leveled on uneven floors.

The four platform program required a connecting element, which is why a never ending stairway picks up each one of the floors, and in parallel, a diagonal elevator gives easiness to tough distances. Due to the program features, the house hosts in its center one of the family’s most precious places: the wine cellar. Perfectly set within the mountain, it fulfills all the requirements to be so: controlled temperature, humidity and lighting, whereas it allows place for a wine bar and the capacity to add up to other public areas such as dinning and living room by a retractile door piece.

With this terrace connotation that moderates the land slope, the inserted to the mountain house turns also into a Santa Anita landscape belvedere, where looking outside in is watching it go into mimesis with the topography. Whereas seeing inside out, is enjoying this wonderful view as time, light, Sun and vegetation transform throughout each season of the year.

Being the last terrain of the Santa Anita suburb in both, lateral and back limits, it is exempted of any vicinity whatsoever, other than that of the La Primavera forest at its highest peak. Nevertheless it is somehow whimsical because even though it is generous in matters of space area, its street front is barely 12 meters wide. Therefore this condition commands the entire program. Parking and pedestrian walk entries are thus placed there, and knowing beforehand this is the way the project is going to develop, the rest is about stealing spaces from the mountain according to the client’s will and the site inspiration.

• Architects : Agraz Arquitectos
• Location : Santa Anita Golf Club. Tlajomulco, Jalisco, Mexico
• Images : Courtesy of Agraz Arquitectos

The house opens with a long and folding window system in the background, integrating the garden into the interior, making social spaces in a fully integrated large terrace with a garden and pool, this allows to live the cool and privileged Guadalajara’s weather, the dining room looks out above the terrace and communicates above the garden with the kitchen and studio, the two stairs set off from the basement to the second floor, one leads to the services and the other weaves the social and private spaces of the house.

The entrance platform is elevated because the house has a semi-basement, thereby it allows to generate different uneven levels opening the flow in several directions, the inside is completely open, with almost all the walls in the same direction, this is quite evident from the courtyard entrance, which is a well it double height gap, where the main circulations converge, one vertical and the other a translucent glass bridge connecting the two ends on the first floor.

The roofs are flat on the front but slightly declined on the back due to construction regulations covered with coated yellow ceramic, the walls are mostly smooth, floors are marble and wood, the carpentry is all in dark colors, using white steel on many elements of the house.

A composite board of recycled plastic and saw dust, with an uncanny ability to bend, will softly weather and provide the museum with a tough, durable, maintenance-free skin for a lifetime. As the skin wraps around the building, it pushes out and opens up, allowing sunlight to penetrate spaces that are not light sensitive. This board also has the visual characteristics of the old barn and western town. It is both familiar and new at the same time – the Old West meeting the New West.

The building is designed to be approached from many directions. Emphasis is placed on a “human scale” ground plane experience that is both welcoming and engaging to the downtown visitor. Arriving from the east, the guest is greeted by a large covered “front porch” and an outdoor gathering space adjacent to the interior lobby.

As the front entry recedes from the street, it offers respect to an existing visual connection through the site to the adjacent transit station and its dynamic clock tower. If arriving from the existing underground parking garage to the west, the guest ascends an existing stair shaded by the new building. Emerging from below, they are greeted by a vibrant plaza activated by a new museum cafe and retail shop. The west entry to the museum is at the opposite end of the plaza.

The design team plans on setting an architectural precedent for environmental responsibility in a New West building. In the Old West, the sun was used to grow crops. At the Scottsdale Museum of the West, a wonderful roof terrace/sculpture patio will be shaded by a canopy of energy producing photovoltaic panels. In the Old West, water was a precious commodity – conserved and respected. This New West building will have the same attitude toward water. The entire roof will channel rain and equipment condensate to an underground storage tank, creating a small, soothing entry fountain, and irrigating the surrounding landscape.

The architectural language is totally modern and the design process is explained in terms of rational responses to site and climate, but ultimately the house is a visually delightful place with a myriad different moods and emotions. The barrier takes the form of a high wall and the service functions of the house tucked into the northeast corner of the site.

The second layer is the “west lawn” that distances the main pavilion at the center of the plan from the noise source. The third layer is the linear structure of the central pavilion, with its elevated studio and roof garden, and the final layer, the “east lawn” between the central pavilion and the swimming pool. Notes in the margin of the architect’s sketches dispel the notion that the layering is random for there is a distinct hierarchy of privacy and formal zoning of uses.

“There appears to be underlying rationale derived from a traditional Balinese compound, where family activities are assigned to different pavilions, but any resemblance to the traditional form is subverted by what at first sees a random arrangement of sinuous curved walls that serve to unify the various elements but simultaneously to separate the activities.”

[Toscoquattro]

New spaces were created wherever possible such the new dining room was created by enclosing a part of the rear garden,the grand spiral marble staircase fell a victim to the reorganizing,replaced instead by a sleek metal and stone one, in a different part of the house. The 10′ diameter hole left in the sloping slab as a result of this got transformed into a skylight, and the roof got sheathed in a layer of black slate.

The owner had expressed their preferred palette of materials- adding to that further,we worked with a range of materials such as grey granite,silver-grey travertine,white marble ,blonde woods, steel and glass,to create a bespoke house that imparted a ‘fresh’ and ‘cool’ feel. The large garden too underwent a complete make over with the addition of a new pool and a pavilion with it.

Architects  : Rajiv Saini & Associates
Location     : Hyderabad, India
Photos        : Sebastian Zachari

The concept behind the River Towers is clear and simple: organizing spaces according to their main functions and distributing between two big rings: the service ring and the living area ring. The most inner ring organizes the service functions, were one can find the entrance to the apartments, wardrobes, bathroom, sauna areas and in most cases the kitchen area. All infrastructural elements are located in this area, providing economical advantages by its installation and acting as a noise barrier to the lobby.

The exterior ring is made up of the living areas found in houses, offering enough sunlight exposure and vast landscape views. Since the structural elements are concentrated in the inner ring, the area is more open, offering flexibility with the organization of its spaces.

The thin movable walls are simplified to meet the needs of its changeable inhabitants over the years. The exterior ring is surrounded by a continuous balcony and through its irregular shape creates an authentic space that offers each house a completely different private outdoor area. This type of balcony was designed in order to lighten the visual volume of the building and integrate it into the landscape. [Atelier Thomas Pucher]