President Donald Trump has passed an executive order stating new US government buildings must be "beautiful" just one month before Joe Biden takes office.

The order, titled Executive Order on Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture, was passed on Monday 21 December 2020. President-elect Biden will be sworn in on 21 January 2021.

Classical architecture to be encouraged

Trump's order stipulates that new buildings commissioned for the federal government must be "beautiful" and names classical and traditional architecture as the preferred style, but stops short of banning other styles, such as brutalism.

"Encouraging classical and traditional architecture does not exclude using most other styles of architecture, where appropriate," reads the order.

"Care must be taken, however, to ensure that all federal building designs command respect [sic] of the general public for their beauty and visual embodiment of America's ideals."

The order defines traditional architecture as "Gothic, Romanesque, Pueblo Revival, Spanish Colonial, and other Mediterranean styles of architecture historically rooted in various regions of America".

Architects must design for "the American people"

The executive order seeks to stamp out designs made for "architects to appreciate" and instead "ensure that architects designing federal buildings serve their clients, the American people".

A Council for Improving Federal Civic Architecture will also be established per the executive order, a signed and published written directive from the US president that does not require approval from Congress.

Trump, who is now in the last few weeks of his presidency, had previously threatened to insist all federal buildings be designed in a classical style only.

A draft of the executive order, called Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again, was released in early 2020 and condemned brutalist and deconstructivist architecture styles. The move prompted outrage, with the American Institute of Architects writing an open letter in protest.

Order dismisses tastes of  "architectural elite"

The final order still contains much of the earlier draft's sentiments about architecture, drawing a direct link between the architecture of Ancient Greece and Rome and the democratic aims of America's founding fathers, and identifying mid-century architecture as a deviation from this pattern.

"Federal architecture sometimes impresses the architectural elite, but not the American people who the buildings are meant to serve," complains the order.

"Federal public buildings should uplift and beautify public spaces, inspire the human spirit, ennoble the United States, and command respect from the general public," it continues.

"They should also be visually identifiable as civic buildings and, as appropriate, respect regional architectural heritage. Architecture — with particular regard for traditional and classical architecture — that meets the criteria set forth in this subsection is the preferred architecture," the order states.

The order notes that while "elite architects" liked the San Francisco Federal Building, which was designed by Morphosis and opened in 2007, local residents "consider it one of the ugliest structures in their city".

Melania Trump, the president's wife, recently completed her own architectural project in the classical style – a tennis pavilion fronted by columns in the grounds of the White House.

Image is courtesy of Shutterstock.

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The American Institute of Architects says it "unequivocally opposes" new architecture rules signed by outgoing US president Donald Trump and vows to undo them as soon as his successor takes office.

Trump signed an executive order yesterday insisting all new federal government buildings must be considered "beautiful" and ideally be designed in the classical or traditional style.

"We look forward to working with president-elect Biden"

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has publicly denounced the presidential directive.

"Communities should have the right and responsibility to decide for themselves what architectural design best fits their needs," said AIA CEO Robert Ivy.

"We look forward to working with president-elect Biden to ensure that," he added.

Joe Biden won the November 2020 election against Trump and will be sworn in on 21 January 2021. Biden has already announced he intends to sign his own executive orders, including re-committing the US to the Paris climate agreements.

Trump design mandate "appalling"

Titled Executive Order on Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture, the last-minute decree from Trump rails against an "architectural elite" and states that classical and traditional building styles are "the preferred architecture".

The AIA expressed relief that the final order was less concerning than the draft order published earlier this year, which threatened to ban modernist architecture styles such as brutalism and prompted the AIA to send over 11,000 letters to the White House in protest.

"Though we are appalled with the administration’s decision to move forward with the design mandate, we are happy the order isn’t as far-reaching as previously thought," said Ivy.

AIA backs "diversity" in architecture styles

Still, the AIA took exception to the executive order's attempt to prescribe architectural styles and establish a new design council that would report to the president.

"It inappropriately elevates the design tastes of a few federal appointees over the communities in which the buildings will be placed," the AIA statement said.

Instead, the AIA said it maintained a "style-neutral" stance on public architecture and remained committed to "diversity" in American architecture.

Earlier this month the AIA banned its members from designing spaces for execution or solitary confinement in a move to "dismantle racial injustice".

Main image of Capitol Hill in Washington DC by David Mark via Pixabay.

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Fashion designer Virgil Abloh doesn't "believe in disciplines" and instead thinks architecture should be used to explore many things. In this interview, he explains how his architectural training helped create his brand Off-White.

Abloh told Dezeen that after receiving a master's degree in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology, he chose to build a fashion brand rather than take the traditional architectural route to continue his career.

"I don't believe in disciplines," Abloh told Dezeen. "We can use our architecture brain and do many things, not just what we're supposed to do."

"I started a career to make a brand to do architecture rather than just work at SOM, or wherever I would have naturally gone starting my architecture career," he added. "I made a brand to sort of investigate architecture in a way."

AMO and OMA "leaping point for my fashion career"

Abloh, who established Off-White in Milan in 2012, spoke to Dezeen earlier this year ahead of the opening of the brand's flagship store in Miami's Design District.

To design the store, Off-White collaborated with AMO, the research arm of firm OMA founded by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. Abloh said the firms' practice underpins the concept of new architectural thinking among the next generation of architects.

"The contemporary research of AMO and OMA has been the leaping point for my fashion career," he said. "Most specifically AMO is almost the most important nucleus within this modern approach to sort of a cultural understanding of what architecture it actually is."

Abloh said the project is an example of how to challenge archetypes. Working closely with AMO director Samir Bantal, he created a flagship to rethink the typical retail store by creating a store to function as both a fulfilment centre and events space.

"What does architecture mean today?"

"Instead of us having dinner conversations at lobbies at restaurants, I said, hey, let's put something on paper, let's put some skin in the game to say, what does the retail look like and let's start challenging it," he said. "What does architecture mean today?"

The store is the most recent collaboration between AMO and Off-White, which also collaborated to design Figures of Speech – a retrospective exhibition of Abloh's career at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

It is also one of a number of projects Abloh has completed this past year – including expanding Off-White's offering to the HOME collection featuring umbrellas, dressing gowns and doorstops.

He also designed a brutalist fashion collection and a race-car version of Mercedes‑Benz G‑Class.

Read on for an edited transcript of our interview with Abloh and Bantal:

Eleanor Gibson: Virgil could you tell me about the collaboration between Off-White and AMO?

Virgil Abloh: Yeah, you know, to me, that's almost the most important part, you know, philosophically is, obviously, the history of architecture has had, you know,

We're inserting ourselves in the larger history of architecture, and, and most specifically AMO is sort of like a research thinking arm to me is, you know, almost the most important nucleus within this modern approach to sort of a cultural understanding of what architecture it actually is.

For me, the contemporary research of AMO and OMA has the leaping point from my fashion career.

In an ironic twist, obviously, I don't believe in disciplines. I only believe in theory and in sort of research and so I started a career almost to make a brand to do architecture rather than just like work at SOM, or you know, wherever I would have naturally gone, starting my architecture career. So it's like, I made a brand to sort of investigate architecture in a way.

When I met Samir, the important thing to note is that we're both a sort of like age, generation like demographic under the sort of like, contemporary layer, that's the foundation.

We have a diverse background, and we have our own sort of career and we bring that to whatever institutions we work at, you know, and so, I was like, not only is this a client, this is a conversation. And it's also the young generation, you know, I'm 30 in my late 30s. And it's like, What does architecture mean today? You know, instead of like us having dinner conversations at lobbies at restaurants, I said, hey, let's, let's put something on paper, let's, let's say, like, let's put some skin in the game to say, what's the retail look like, from those who sort of studied under, you know, spent years in normal sort of practices and let's start challenging it.

That's where, you know, the crystal starts to sort of shine with, like, why fashion is important. You know, I don't believe that fashion is needed to make fashion. That could have been 50 years before. I think our generation is more like what does fashion mean? What does retail mean? What does ground floor real estate look like in a world post-Google and Amazon.

To round out my sort of feel it's like, the ethos is important the research the logic, but then we're actually putting, you know, studs in, we're putting a material and concrete. So it's just as much theoretical, as it is practical. So Samir and I sort of formed this unit that's like, Hey, we can use our architecture brain and do many things, not just what we're supposed to do.

Eleanor Gibson: Do you think that kind of the traditional modes of architecture in architecture, education is becoming outdated? And do you think that needs shaking up in some way?

Virgil Abloh: Yeah, but I don't think it's somewhat novel. You know, I think every role through art history or architecture history needed the younger generation to sort of like feel a tension with what they were taught, you know, like, that's just humanity.

But I think it's ever more important to look at what year we're in 2020 and look at how far the ideals are from just the generation just above us. And, you know, with a man's relation to the environment, but also man's relationship to each other, we see just in a 10-year generation gap, how far off that we thought it could be.

But architecture is an industry that sort of passes through, like you can kind of be hands-off and be like, "oh, this is a client they just asked for a building" or, "they just wanted another store".

We're both niche entities, I would say AMO, Off-White, Samir and myself, so we're able to sort of wear our heart on our sleeve or brain on our sleeve.

The first slide that Samir sent for the development was like, is shopping relevant? As the brand owner, I have sort of final say but I'm not like, "oh, wait, he doesn't want to do a store". I was more like, yeah, shopping is irrelevant.

We're thought leaders, we're not just like trying to make commerce. I want to see the art of retail advance just the same way. You know, we saw the product store in the epicentres rollout and we saw, you know, just great retail, you know, across the world. So it's like pretty young architects and designers trying to provoke thinking, you know, not just commerce.

Samir Bantal: I think what is interesting, of course, in working with Virgil is that every idea that you think was kind of done or solidified, needs to be broken up again and needs to be dismantled and questioned. Whether it's through fashion, whether it's through art, whether it's through music, I think that is also what connected us that, you know, that's exactly the reason why AMO was also initiated. You can indeed work through a brief develop a design and that's it or you can basically start by dismantling the principle first and placing within a kind of larger context.

Virgil Abloh: Our generation is a little bit like we sort of poked a hole through the curtain. And we're like, "Wait a second". It's like the millennials or the internet that was like, wait, what were we taught in history? You know, hey, wait, let me see that again because there's other information that tells me there's another scenario that never crossed that path.

Off-White, you know, I made it as like this crowbar. I was like actually drawing this logo somewhere that we have to develop. Like AMO, Off-White as an actual crowbar, because that's the relationship, it's like, I made this thing to basically take the fashion industry and just like look under it.

I developed it as this brand that you don't need to wear to be in the tribe. You know, like that's, that's the literal sort of thing. It's like usually when I grew up in fashions, like, you had to sort of wear it to be like, Hey, I'm, this is my brand, you know? And amongst me and my friends and the people that develop it, it's like, no, this is not like a uniform, like you don't want to wear Offf-White. To be in the Off-White logic is just to think outside the box and you don't have to wear Off-White, you're better off wearing your own clothes. You know, the clothes are just representative of like, whatever, you know, it's a different conversation.

So that's where when I started taking the physical manifestation of this thing, it's the relationship between Samir and I that was like, okay, like, how does this manifest itself in an architecture, rather than, you know, and so we, you know, it's a part of like a whole nucleus of physical representation.

Eleanor Gibson: People are calling on the design industries, architecture, fashion, to think more about how they can be proactive in terms of improving social equity and everything. I wondered what your thoughts are on how the industry can do better in that respect?

Virgil Abloh: I have a short answer, and I'll toss it to Samir as well, but it's like it's basically you know, we're both minorities. You know, like that's just like on paper and having minority points of view in sort of mass industry or, you know, we have square footage. Both him and I have authority to sort of put our ideas to the forefront without having to run them through a filter.

I think the short answer is more like diversity is not like a novel or like a kumbaya or something nice to say. It literally means that different ideas will percolate and you'll get a, you know, a better thing. But Samir, what would you say?

Samir Bantal: Especially this strange situation that we're currently in; we not only have a kind of, you know, a global pandemic but there's also a kind of increasing awareness of that cities, the way that we live, the way that we consume, the way that we basically enjoy our lives, in a way is also kind of really scripted. According to you could almost say like a source code.

And the way that I think some time ago there was this discussion about how, you know, the fact that a lot of these tech companies produce products that actually are almost like focused towards a specific demographics, it's almost as if that can also be translated to architecture. Architecture often is, is developed and prescribed according to certain demographics and that is something that we are trying to challenge away as well. This is part of our responsibility, but also part of what we need to do in order to have architecture answer to the answer to these questions, for example, social justice.

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Architecture studio SOM has converted the Beaux-Arts James A Farley Post Office in New York into the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Train Hall as part of the renovation of Penn Station.

Standing opposite Madison Square Garden on 8th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Train Hall opened to passengers on January 1.

The 486,000-square-foot development increases the total concourse space at the largely underground Pennsylvania Station, which is New York's main inter-city interchange and the busiest station in the Western Hemisphere, by 50 per cent.

The expansion of the station occupies the James A Farley Post Office, which was built in 1913 by McKim, Mead & White – the studio that also designed the original Pennsylvania Station.

With its rejuvenation SOM aimed to capture the grandeur of the original above-ground station building that was known for its generous public spaces. The building's demolition in 1963 caused an international outcry and prompted the development of New York's architectural preservation movement.

"This is an incredibly important moment in the history of New York City," said SOM partner Colin Koop.

"We've designed a place that evokes the majesty of the original Penn Station, all while serving as a practical solution to the issues that commuters in, to and from New York have endured for too long," he continued.

"By connecting to our architectural past through the adaptive reuse of the Farley Post Office building, we are breathing new life into New York, and recreating an experience no one has had here in decades."

Built alongside the original station, the post office building stands directly above the railroad tracks. The Daniel Patrick Moynihan Train Hall now provides access to nine platforms that are used by the Long Island Railroad and Amtrak.

It is arranged around a light-filled atrium, which was the post office's original sorting room and had been enclosed since the second world war.

"One of the most remarkable things about this project is the way that it transforms an under-utilized and under-appreciated building into a new, inviting front door for this city," said Roger Duffy, the retired SOM design partner who led the design of the project.

"The train hall is at the core of this transformation. It is designed with lightness and warmth, which combine to reestablish the essence of what it means to come to New York."

The atrium is topped with a vaulted glass structure that was designed by SOM in collaboration with structural engineering firm Schlaich Bergermann Partner.

Four vaults that are each made from 500 glass and steel panels are supported on three massive steel trusses that supported the original roof in the internal courtyard.

Surrounding the main hall are facilities for Amtrak including ticketing and baggage areas, a waiting room and conference spaces as well as shops.

As part of the project, SOM designed a series of new entrances to the station including one on either side of the original grand stairs on 8th Avenue and additional entrances on 31st and 33rd Streets.

Overall SOM hopes that the project will provide a celebratory entrance to New York that captures the spirit of the original station.

"On a broader level, it is a new symbol of hope for the future," said the studio.

"Moynihan Train Hall re-establishes a civic icon for New York, recaptures the original spirit of train travel to Penn Station, creates a new gateway to the city, and celebrates one of the greatest cities in the world."

SOM, also known as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is one of the largest architecture studios in the USA. Recent projects by the studio include the National Museum of the United States Army in Virginia, FBI technology building in West Virginia and a courthouse in Los Angeles with pleated glass walls.

Photography is by Lucas Blair Simpson unless stated. All photos courtesy of SOM.

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Provocative architecture studio Opposite Office has envisioned fortifying the US Capitol building in Washington DC in reaction to the invasion of the building by Donald Trump supporters last week.

Named Capitol Castle, the concept would see the neoclassical Capitol building, which is the seat of the US government, surrounded by a 1.5-metre-thick fortified wall.

"As a reaction to the storm on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump, we designed a plan to convert the Capitol into a fortress to protect democracy," said Opposite Office founder Benedikt Hartl.

"During his reign, Trump undermined the democratic system from within. To give expression to this drama, we remodelled the Capitol and built a fortress around it."

Opposite Office created the fortress following an invasion of the building by pro-Trump supporters aimed at halting the certification of Joe Biden as the country's new president.

"The architectural concept is simple: adding a second layer to the Capitol as a protective shield," Hartl told Dezeen.

"The political and social concept behind it is a bit more profound, even if it doesn't look like it at first glance – the dystopia of Capitol Castle is intended to contribute to the debate about democracy, the ability to protect democracies and, above all, the division of our society."

Although the concept is provocative and is extremely unlikely to be built, Opposite Office designed Capitol Castle to be a serious reflection of the threats to democracy.

"It's tongue-in-cheek, but the question behind it is relevant: how can we protect our democracy?" said Hartl. "Democracy is not for free. Most of us living in the USA, or in Europe, know of no other form of government than democracy."

"Therefore we cannot appreciate it, because we do not know what it is like to live in a dictatorship," he continued. "We take democracy for granted. But it is not and it was fought for over centuries. Democracy is not a gift. Democracy must be fought for, filled with life and renewed."

Capitol Castle would see the original building, which was designed by William Thornton and completed in 1800, encircled by a 1.5-metre wall made with recycled bricks from construction waste.

Designed to be "the greatest castle that was ever built", it would have rounded corner towers and projecting triangular bastions along its walls. It is depicted with armed soldiers patrolling the walls and a Trump Baby blimp flying above it.

"I looked at history and took the best parts of all castles," explained Hartl.

"With 36-feet-thick walls, Capitol Castle has thicker walls than Chateau de Ham, which was built in the late 15th century in France. Of course, it is also more beautiful than Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany."

"Because I believe in regional architecture. You can also find some architectural and stylistic elements of Smithsonian Castle, which is less than one mile away from Capitol Hill."

Although the proposal surrounds the seat of the US government with a wall, Hartl does not believe that fortification of democratic buildings will protect democracy.

"I don't think you can protect democracy with walls or architecture," he said. "The only protection of democracy lies in social justice, fair living conditions, fair wages and a real social perspective for everybody!"

"For me, architecture these days is no longer building houses, but building architectural stories," he continued. "In a western world of abundance and exuberance, it is no longer so important to build the most beautiful house, but rather give an input in social and political debates."

Munich-based architecture firm Opposite Office has previously proposed turning Berlin's Brandenburg airport into a super hospital to treat Covid-19 and redesigning Buckingham Palace into a co-living space as a solution to London's housing crisis.

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New York's government has revealed plans for a 366-metre-long elevated walkway that will connect the High Line in Manhattan to the recently extended Penn Station.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday 10 January that he plans to build an extension to the High Line – a disused railway track that was turned into a park in a collaboration between American design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro,
James Corner Field Operations and Piet Oudolf.

High Line will connect to train station 

An L-shaped walkway will be built to connect the High Line from near the Hudson Yards development to the new Moynihan Train Hall, designed as part of the expansion to Penn Station by SOM that opened last week.

Once complete, the walkway would allow pedestrians to connect straight from the parkway to the station concourse without having to cross busy roads.

A second extension to the High Line could also be built around the corner past the Javits Convention Center, to bring the pedestrian bridge down to meet Pier 76.

Walkway could connect to waterfront park

Pier 76 is currently a tow pound, where the New York Police Department keeps vehicles it confiscates for being parked illegally.

Governor Cuomo has plans to shut it down and turn the area into a waterfront park on the Hudson River.

"This will be the most ambitious redevelopment that New York City has seen in decades," Governor Cuomo said.

"When the private sector economy lags, state governments build infrastructure and spur development," he added. "This connection is part of a district-wide redevelopment of the West Side that will jumpstart the private market in a post-Covid world."

Extension part of redevelopment plans

The development in the area is funded by a mixture of private and public entities, including real estate firm Brookfield Property Group. The extension to the High Line will be part of Brookfield's Manhattan West development.

Non-profit group Friends of the Highline oversaw the conversion of the High Line.

The redevelopment of the area next door known as Hudson's Yard includes an 11-storey building full of high-end condos designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, Studio Gang's Solar Carve Tower, and a controversial structure of interlocking stairways designed by Thomas Heatherwick.

The High Line was closed for four months last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, reopening in July 2020 with timed entry tickets and green markers created by graphic designer Paula Scher to encourage social distancing.

Main image of the High Line in 2014 by Iwan Baan.

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No 33 Park Row, the first residential project in New York from British architecture firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, is nearing completion in Downtown Manhattan.

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Rogers and his co-founder Graham Stirk worked on the high-rise building, which will be clad in distinctive copper fins.

The 23-storey building will contain 30 residences, featuring floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall windows overlooking City Hall Park. At 91 metres high, the building topped out in 2020 and is due to be finished this year.

Dark-coloured steel-framing on the facade was chosen to connect the building to Lower Manhattan's industrial past.

No 33 Park Row's metal exterior is designed to recall Rogers' famous high-tech architecture project, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, while its location is reminiscent of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners' One Hyde Park.

"One Hyde Park and No.33 Park Row each face a park to the north," said Stirk.

"[Both] exhibit a similarity in terms of aspiration and quality with carefully composed facades that exhibit a richness of depth, shadow, and texture."

To make the most of the location, the residences and communal facilities will all be orientated north towards the park.

The residences, which range in size from one to five bedrooms, will be arranged between the sixth and 23rd floors and some of them will have balconies and terraces.

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners designed the project for Centurion Real Estate Partners. It will be the first residential project in New York designed by the practice, which completed the 80-storey Three World Trade Center in Manhattan in 2018.

The firm has also designed residential projects such as the Neo Bankside development in London and a trio of skyscrapers in Sydney. One Hyde Park, which completed in 2011, contains the most expensive apartment in the UK.

Richard Rogers stepped down from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners at the end of last year at the age of 87.

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The 16-storey Vessel viewpoint designed by Heatherwick Studio for New York's Hudson Yards development has been temporarily closed after a man reportedly committed suicide by jumping from it.

According to the New York Times, a 21-year-old man named Franklin Washington jumped from the Vessel on Monday 11 January. It marks the third death by suicide at the 46-metre-high structure since it opened in 2019.

Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards, has closed the tourist attraction temporarily and said it would consult with psychiatrists and other experts about implementing suicide-prevention strategies.

Dezeen has approached Heatherwick Studio for comment.

Three deaths in two years

Washington, who was a person of interest in the murder of his mother in Texas, was pronounced dead at the scene at around 11.45am on Monday.

Three weeks earlier, on 21 December 2020, a 24-year-old woman from New York also died after jumping from the the structure. The first death at the Vessel was of a 19-year-old man from New Jersey in February 2019, before the official opening.

Concerns had previously been raised that the barriers at the viewpoint are not very high and easily climbable. Writing in 2016, before Vessel had completed, Audrey Wachs of the Architects Newspaper warned: "when you build high, folks will jump".

Wachs wondered why the barriers on the structure were so low when high profile architects had been forced to retroactively install barriers over high points in buildings such as New York University’s Bobst Library after tragic deaths.

"If barriers are installed, how will they affect the views, Vessel's main selling point?" she asked.

Viewpoint dogged by controversy

Vessel's unique honeycomb design is formed of 154 interlocking staircases that meet and divide around 80 landings that provide views of New York and the Hudson River.

Expanding as it gets higher, the viewpoint has a mile of walkways for visitors to climb and an elevator that goes straight to the top. It is clad in reflective material and visitors normally register and queue up for free timed tickets to go up it.

The building has attracted criticism over its unusual aesthetic and its role as an attraction for a privately-funded development. People complained when it came to light that Hudson Yards owned the rights to photographs taken at the Vessel.

Heatherwick Studio founder Thomas Heatherwick defended the project in a talk with Dezeen in 2019.

"It's fine to not like it," said the British designer. "But the thing that should be appreciated is the ambition of people to say 'yes' to making ideas really happen."

"I think that it's possible to suspect the worst of the intentions of a property developer," he added. "But we've been lucky to work with a few who are very well-intentioned."

Photography is by Michael Moran for Related Companies.

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American studio The Brooklyn Home Company has designed a Brooklyn townhouse using Passivhaus principles in New York's Carroll Gardens neighbourhood.

The Sackett Street townhouse comprises four storeys as well as a rooftop with views of the Manhattan skyline, along with a basement and a drive-in garage.

Stairs from an outside decking area lead to a back garden, and a private terrace is accessed from the main bedroom.

Passivhaus is a recognised European energy standard for homes that require minimal energy to heat or cool and promote high indoor air quality.

For the townhouse project, The Brooklyn Home Company used an energy recovery ventilation (ERV) filtration system.

"The air quality brings health and cognitive benefits that the developer believes will become the new standard for home building in New York City," co-founder of The Brooklyn Home Company William Caleo told Dezeen.

"The homes also maintain humidity levels to prevent virus spread, which is common in both dry and cold weather. In short, our opinion is it's the best way to build new homes," he said.

Adopting Passivhaus principles addresses two of society's greatest threats, argued William Caleo.

"As society grapples with not only the current public-health crisis but the reality of climate change, builders and home designers are using Passivhaus design as an alternative technique in the wake of Covid-19."

William Caleo and his sister Lyndsay Caleo Karol worked closely with his sister's husband, Fitzhugh Karol, the studio's in-house artist, to design the interiors.

Madera white oak hardwood floors and walls painted with white Farrow and Ball paint were chosen to create a "bright and airy" home.

Hand-crafted pieces of furniture designed by Fitzhugh Karol include the wooden four-poster bed in the main bedroom.

Other one-of-a-kind pieces include a bespoke dining table and a dresser, and the elegant twin beds in the children's room were also made bespoke for the property.

The townhouse's open-plan kitchen is a mixture of exposed beams and custom built-in wood, also designed by Fitzhugh Karol. A reclaimed ceiling by The Brooklyn Home Company hangs overhead.

These rustic features are offset with sleek Pietra Cardosa countertops and a range cooker by La Cornue. Hardware fixtures by Waterworks and Restoration Hardware tie the space together.

Selected artwork is also integral to the townhouse's interior atmosphere. A notable piece is Tyler Hays of BDDW's painting of a woman, made of puzzle pieces, which hangs in the dining room.

Artistworks by Jen Wink Hays, Paule Morrot and Caleb Marcus Cain also decorate townhouse's light and open rooms.

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A pier park and a rooftop farm atop the Javits Center will be built as part of a $51 billion investment in the Midtown West neighbourhood of New York City.

Governor Andrew Cuomo earmarked a significant chunk of his $306 billion infrastructure plan for the city for the neighbourhood while laying out his 2021 agenda.

Plans for Midtown West include turning a police vehicle compound on a waterfront pier into an extension of Hudson River Park.

The pier is currently used to store vehicles confiscated by the police for being parked illegally.

Renders released by the governor's office show the park as a sprawling outdoor seating and dining area, with colourful floor murals and pedestrian and cycle paths around the perimeter.

The expansion of the Jacob K Javits Convention Center, led by design consortium LendLease Turner, is already underway and is due to complete in March 2021.

The extension to the venue, which hosts events including the annual ICFF furniture fair, will add 1.2 million square feet of gallery and events space topped by a rooftop pavilion plus an acre of urban farmland.

Further development of Penn Station, New York's intercity rail hub, is also planned, following the opening of SOM's Daniel Patrick Moynihan Train Hall earlier this month.

Dubbed the Empire Station Complex, significant reconstruction work is planned for the original building, which dates from 1910, as well as its newer underground sections. Property has been acquired to the south of the existing station for an extension and eight more train tracks.

This work on Penn Station is being undertaken ahead of the upcoming Gateway Project to dig two more train tunnels under the Hudson for westbound journeys.

A brand new bus terminal is also on the cards, to replace the ageing Port Authority Bus Terminal building.

Plans to replace the infamously hard-to-navigate bus station – described by comedian John Oliver as the "worst place on planet Earth" – have been rumbling on since 2015. Cuomo has now promised to "a new state-of-the-art facility" to replace the "outdated" bus terminal.

A total of 14 new buildings designated for a mix of residential and commercial use are planned for the area between Broadway and the Hudson river.

Up to 1,400 of the new homes built in these buildings will be affordable, the governor promised.

In addition to these projects, Cuomo began the year by announcing plans to extend the High Line elevated park to meet the Moynihan Train Hall and the Pier 76 park. Original architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and James Corner Field Operations are understood to be carrying out these additions.

Renderings are courtesy of New York governor's office.

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Consumer culture and the natural world collide in this series of sculptural furniture pieces, created by British artist Jonathan Trayte following a road trip across the USA.

Set to feature in an upcoming exhibition at Friedman Benda gallery in New York, Trayte's one-off pieces incorporate giant plant forms, vivid colours, and a clash of organic and artificial materials.

The artist found inspiration for many of these pieces following a 2,000-mile trip that he and his wife took through the western states of America.

He was fascinated by the natural landscape forms he found there but was equally captivated by manufactured objects, from product packaging to advertising graphics.

This clash of contrasts materialises in his work in the form of unusual juxtapositions, whether it's a cowhide sitting alongside neon plastic, or pendant lights embedded in a nest of raffia.

"It was just so rich, visually and culturally," Trayte told Dezeen. "I feel like it's going to have a legacy that lasts quite a while, in terms of how the work develops and what I make in the future too."

Trayte has made a wide variety of pieces for the exhibition, set to be titled MelonMelonTangerine. He describes the process as creating "a cast of characters".

"Quite often I will work on a group of things at the same time, and they come together like a weird bunch of misfits," he said.

By far the largest and most striking piece he has created is Sundown Swing, a swing bench attached to an abstract palm tree form, with a serpentine trunk.

"I wanted to make something outrageous," said Trayte, citing the late Austrian artist Franz West as an inspiration.

Trayte chose to give the tree black rubber leaves so that the piece could live outside in the future, but these elements also give the design a dark character.

"You can only use black rubber outside, because of the UV exposure," he said. "So it looks a bit more menacing than it was meant to be. It's scary, but it's still fun and ridiculous."

Some of the pieces are very blatant in their references to nature, such as the Atomic Double bench, the Black Dakota floor lamp and the Velvet Solar Star ceiling lights.

Others are more subtle in the way they bring together different colours, textures and forms, including the nest-like Jelly Baby seat and the furry orange chaise longue, Kula Sour.

"I hope these pieces transport the viewer to fantastical places," said Trayte.

"I wanted Kula Sour, for example, to look magical in its colour and its textures. Hopefully, the end-user will live with this, and it will transport them to wild landscapes and colourful Hawaiian Islands."

Trayte is very open about his intention to create function – and often multiple functions – in all of his works, even though he sees himself as a sculptor, not a furniture designer.

This tendency began with a cafe he created back in 2016, in collaboration with fashion designer Kit Neale. Trayte found it liberating to create works that could actually be used, not just sit in a gallery.

Since then he has incorporated furniture in many pieces, such as The Spectacle, a seating composition he created for London's Sculpture in the City series in 2016, and the first collection of works he presented at Friedman Benda, in 2018.

"I want to be as ambitious as possible, but also to make pieces that will find homes and get used," he said.

MelonMelonTangerine will be on show at Friedman Benda in New York from 15 February until 13 March 2021. For more architecture and design events, visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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A central courtyard brings daylight into an inward-facing, cedar-clad home in Salt Lake City that was designed by American architects Kipp Edick and Joe Sadoski for a ski coach.

The Host House sits within a residential neighbourhood in Utah's capital, along the western front of the Wasatch Mountains.

The client was the late Alan Hayes, a computer engineer who helped establish the local Rowmark Ski Academy. Hayes passed away in 2019, but the project continued and was completed last year. The home was sold in August to a new owner.

For decades, Hayes provided mentorship for young skiers, many of whom he hosted at his home. His protégés included alpine ski racer and Olympic medalist Tommy Moe and road-racing cyclist Levi Leipheimer.

To design his new residence, Hayes had contacted two architects whom he had mentored years ago – Edick, cofounder of Architect Associates in New York, and Sadoski, a project manager at Signal Architecture + Research in Seattle. They aimed to "create a spatial expression to help and encourage room for students to grow".

"Creating space to host kids was a central concern in the design of this home," the architects said.

Long and rectangular in plan, the two-storey dwelling stretches deep into a relatively slender lot. Host House totals 4,460 square feet (414 square metres).

Facades that are visible from the street are mostly opaque, thus concealing the home's size and interior activities. The entrance facade, which looks west, features a solid black door and no windows.

"The client was a very private individual who supported a design approach that located the glazing in specific zones of the house to provide ample daylight and privacy," the architects said.

The limited glazing also helps reduce solar heat gain during the summer, when temperatures can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), the team added.

Exterior walls are wrapped in rough-sawn, western red cedar that has been attached with a rainscreen system. The same siding clads the garage door on the south elevation. When closed, the door seems to vanish and merge with the surrounding walls.

In contrast to the closed-off exterior, the interior appears to be fluid and open.

The ground level holds the public areas and a master suite, while the upper floor encompasses two bedrooms and a lounge. A small basement contains a wine cellar, food storage and a utility room.

Upon entering the home, one steps into a 110-foot-long (34-metre) corridor that runs along the north side of the plan.

"All ground-level spaces and the stairs extend off of the corridor for a clear circulation diagram," the architect said.

At the heart of the main floor is a landscaped courtyard, which is encircled by glazed walls that usher in natural light. Beyond the courtyard is an open area for cooking, dining and lounging.

"The homeowner valued observing a set dinner time, so the dining room became a central space," the team said.

The second level is accessed via a stairwell illuminated by a skylight. The upper floor is meant to act "as a separate wing of the home, where guests can experience privacy while still being connected to the public spaces of the house".

Throughout Host House, the team used a trio of contrasting materials – white oak, blackened steel and polished concrete.

"White walls reflect light and provide a blank backdrop for the client's art collection," the team added.

Designed to be a net-zero building, the residence has a range of sustainable features. Among the passive strategies are a high-performance building envelope and triple- and quadruple-pane windows.

Active measures include a ground-source heat pump for radiant heating, a heat-recovery ventilation system and a nine-kilowatt photovoltaic array. Moreover, smart controls help manage shading devices and operable skylights.

The residence also has a 3,000-gallon (11,356-litre) cistern that stores rainwater for irrigation purposes.

"The homeowner was very open to innovative efficiency ideas," the architects said, "and willing to invest in solutions that would pay off over time."

Known for its rugged mountains and scenic vistas, Utah is home to a number of distinctive, modern-style buildings. Other projects there include a sprawling residence by Olson Kundig that consist of three pavilions connected by covered walkways, and a series of cedar-clad chalets by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple that form a mountaintop retreat.

Photography is by Lara Swimmer.

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Architect Gerhard Heusch has completed a subterranean extension for his own 15-year-old home that sits atop pilotis over a hillside in California.

The home office space is an addition to the architect's Oak Pass Residence in Beverly Hills, which was originally completed in 2006.

"I now have the most serene office commute that I could have ever imagined," said Heusch, who was born in Germany and started his eponymous LA studio in 1991.

Heusch's main dwelling is a single-storey bar, elevated above a sloped site by a series of thick, steel columns.

Below the house is a paved parking area and garden, along with a slender lap pool. The residence is surrounded by grasses and oak trees.

When Heusch purchased the property two decades ago, his aim was to create a house that respected and embraced its natural context.

Several years ago, he decided to add an office to the residence. Following in line with his overall vision, Heusch wanted an addition that did not disrupt "the architectural balance between the fully-built house and the natural beauty of the land".

He opted to place the office below the paved area and garden – an undertaking that began with the excavation of 80 truckloads of dirt.

The pool remained intact, and the main support columns holding up the house were largely left undisturbed. The foundation of one column was integrated into the new space.

To form the 1,500-square-foot (139 square metres) addition, Heusch and his team used concrete for the walls, floor slab and ceiling. Special measures were taken to incorporating electric wiring and lighting into the concrete structure.

Several windows are incorporated into the space, including two glazed skylights. Visible in the garden above, the skylights can be walked upon.

A staircase leads from the garden down to the basement. Squarish in plan, the building encompasses an open work and lounge area, along with a bathroom.

Exposed concrete walls and flooring give the space a cool, crisp feel. Furnishings include a desk designed by Heusch and a plush couch from B&B Italia. The desk lamp was created by Michele de Lucchi for Artemide.

Above the subterranean addition, Heusch re-introduced the pavers and sand that were in place beforehand. He also added small boulders that were found during the excavation.

Heusch said living and working at his Oak Pass Residence helps spark new ideas for his design practice.

"There is a definite professional advantage to living within the built environment that I have created," said Heusch.

"The success of the project, and the natural beauty of my surroundings, inspire new ideas every day for advancing the integration of architectural design into the natural environment."

Beyond his studio in LA, Heusch has offices in Paris, Buenos Aires and Hồ Chí Minh City.

Other California projects by his firm include the overhaul of the mid-century Edwin Residence, which is located high up in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Photography is by Federico Zignani and Gerhard Heusch.

Project credits:

Architect: Heusch
Client: Gerhard Heusch
Contractor: Owner/builder
Concrete contractor: Toltec Concrete

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CLB Architects co-founder Eric Logan has renovated his self-designed home in Jackson, Wyoming, adding a cold-rolled steel gabled roof and a new kitchen.

Logan originally built the home, appropriately titled Logan Pavilion, for his family in 1997.

Its long, low form and gabled roof echo the hay sheds that populate the rural landscape in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.

The new roof is made of corrugated cold-rolled sheet steel that is naturally weathering to an attractive ruddy hue. Deep overhangs shelter the house from sun and snow.

Logan had always wanted a metal roof for the house, but had originally been thwarted in this plan and forced to adopt a shingle roof.

"The house was originally designed to incorporate a metal roof, however that proposal was rejected unanimously by the homeowners association design review committee," Logan told Dezeen.

"When it was time to replace the roof, the demographic makeup of the committee had changed and we were able to receive approval for what was originally intended," he added.

"It only took 20 years!"

When the house was first built two decades ago, it was done on a tight budget and constructed in only four months.

Its kitchen was beginning to show signs of wear and tear, so Logan renovated the room using more robust materials this time around.

"The kitchen was suffering because of the cost-conscious materials that were originally chosen, which did not hold up," said Logan.

"The finish selections that were employed in the renovation are a complement for the refresh and include black steel and white lacquer."

Black steel is complemented by the house's original material palette, which includes oiled concrete floors and wall panelling made from oiled masonite, a kind of engineered wood.

Floor-to-ceiling glazing in the living areas frame views of the Teton mountain range.

Logan also re-stained the house's exterior and added new decking as part of the renovation. There are four decks, one on each side of the house.

"The weather in the Rocky Mountains is fickle," said Logan. "Sometimes we are looking for sunshine, and other times shade or shelter, so having multiple decks on different elevations allows for more options."

The largest deck is semi-sheltered by the house's roof, which overhangs by several metres supported by slim columns.

"Being your own client comes with pros and cons. On one hand, you don’t have an outside client to answer to for approvals, however, the client's perspective helps enrich the work, so the process is cut short when there is just one perspective," said Logan.

"Being the owner and designer also adds pressure to the situation, as you are spending your own time and money."

Previous additions to the plot include a guest house clad in oxidised metal and a garage where Logan stores his collection of cars, motorcycles and vinyl records.

Founded in 1992 and lead by John Carney, Eric Logan, Kevin Burke and Andy Ankeny, CLB Architects is based in Wyoming.

Previous projects in the American West from the practice include a ski resort and a house screened in oxidised steel.

Photography is by Kevin Scott.

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Demolition of the Paul Rudolph-designed Burroughs Wellcome building in North Carolina has gone ahead, despite attempts to protest the destruction of the Brutalist landmark.

Heavy machinery has been photographed dismantling the former medical facility where AZT, the first antiretroviral drug approved to treat patients with HIV, was developed.

AIDS activists famously broke into and occupied the building in 1989 to protest the company's price gouging of the lifesaving medicine.

 

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United Therapeutics Corporation obtained a permit to demolish the building in September 2020.

A spokesperson for the biotechnology company told local paper The News and Observer that the site will be cleared by April.

"The destruction of Burroughs Wellcome is a deep wound to this country's cultural heritage," the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation wrote in response to the news.

"That makes us even more committed to keeping urging, advising, and campaigning for the preservation and proper care of Paul Rudolph's architectural legacy."

The foundation launched a campaign to try and save the Burroughs Wellcome building last year, after receiving a tip-off that a demolition permit was being sought.

United Therapeutics Corporation, which obtained the building in a land deal with GlaxoSmithKline, had originally planned to restore the concrete building but decided it was too costly.

"We looked for ways to incorporate the building into our plans," the United Therapeutics Corporation spokesperson said in September.

"After conducting exhaustive studies, we have concluded that the building is unsafe, not environmentally sound, and functionally obsolete."

The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation argued that this failed to take into account the environmental impact of demolition over adaptive reuse, and the cultural significance of Rudolph's design.

Rudolph designed the building to be adaptable, with hexagonal volumes that could be added to over time.

Also called the Elion-Hitchings Building, the facility was commissioned in 1969 as the headquarters for the Burroughs Wellcome Company. The building was named for Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings, a pair of chemists who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for their work on discovering new ways to develop drugs.

Azidothymidine, or AZT, which was developed in the building, was initially created by scientists for the Burroughs Wellcome Company as a cancer treatment, before being approved for use in treating AIDS patients.

But the Burroughs Wellcome Company set the price of AZT at $10,000 per patient per year, putting it out of reach of the vast majority of HIV patients.

AIDS activist group ACT UP organised protests against the pharmaceuticals company, including barracading themselves inside an office of the Rudolph-designed headquarters in 1989. The prize of AZT was subsequently lowered to $6,400.

The Burroughs Wellcome building also occupied a place in popular culture. Its futuristic interiors and exterior served as a set for the 1983 science fiction film Brainstorm, which starred Christopher Walken and the late Natalie Wood.

Despite the loss of this historic building, The Paul Rudolph Foundation swore it would only work harder to protect the architects' surviving works.

"After so much writing and pouring over drawings of the building, it feels like losing a family member," said the foundation.

"But there are other Rudolph designs — right now — that are threatened, such as the Boston Government Service Center," it added.

It is not the first building by the architect to be lost to the bulldozers. In January 2020 demolition work restarted at the Paul Rudolph-designed Shoreline Apartments in Buffalo, after work was halted in 2018 when a resident refused to move out.

Photos courtesy of Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

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Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry has revealed his ideas for updating the masterplan for the Los Angeles River, which include platform parks on stilts bridging the waterway.

The American architecture studio is working with landscape architect Laurie Olin and engineering firm Geosyntec Consultants to update plans to revitalise a 51-mile stretch of river drainage in Los Angeles (LA).

Draft plans released last week by LA County are now open for comments from local people for 60 days. Once finalised, the LA River Master Plan will stand as a development guide for the area over the next 25 years.

In an interview with the LA Times, the 91-year-old Frank Gehry spoke about his idea for building public parks raised on platforms over the riverbed.

Concrete stilts would support deep, soil-filled concrete troughs of earth planted with plants and trees, perched four metres above the lip of the concrete-walled channel.

The platform parks would span the width of the river, forming green bridges. These parks could stretch for up to a mile, with enough space for ponds and horse riding trails. Green areas will also be landscaped in corridors alongside the river.

Gehry has also drawn up plans for a $150-million cultural centre that would be accessible by public transport and provide arts and education facilities for local children.

Although some environmental groups are campaigning to return the river to its natural state, the LA River Master Plan group concluded that on the rare occasions the river does run fast and high, the risk of flooding is too great to the urban areas.

Instead, community parks and facilities will be built over the channel. The park plans could take a decade to come to fruition, but Gehry said he hoped the culture centre could be built sooner.

"The river has long created a dividing line down the county, acting as a barrier to equity and opportunity for those who live along it," Gehry said in a press statement.

"It has been a privilege to work with the county on this cohesive vision of the river which aims to reconnect, revitalise, and strengthen these communities using the river as the conduit."

Following a series of floods in the 1930s, engineers concreted over the riverbed, leaving a small channel of water running through the centre.

In the ensuing decades after the floodproofing was completed, local government agencies segregated housing along racial lines, systematically denying black, Asian and Latino American residents living along the river access to facilities in a process known as redlining.

The masterplan for the LA River seeks to redress this legacy.

"Communities along the Los Angeles River, especially those near the Lower Los Angeles River, are in desperate need of investment," said LA County board of supervisors chair Hilda L Solis.

"These park-poor neighbourhoods have always had the Los Angeles River in their backyard, but up until now, they have had their backs turned to it," added Solis.

"The LA River Master Plan will encourage residents to turn around and embrace the river as part of their homes."

The LA River Plan is the guiding document for projects aimed at revitalising areas for the communities who live along the Californian waterway.

This updated masterplan has identified 20 sites that could be used for new projects. There are some public funds available, but there are also plans to seek grants and fundraising opportunities.

Frank Gehry was appointed to his design role in the masterplan in 2015. His position proved controversial, with critics arguing that the architect lacked any expertise in landscape architecture.

In 2017 seven proposals to redesign the area were released in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the  Los Angeles River Revitalisation project.

Images courtesy of LA River Master Plan.

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New York City's mayor has revealed "radical" plans to turn vehicle lanes into cycling paths on two bridges across the East River and build five bicycle streets across the city in response to the pandemic.

Improved cycle routes are part of the city's plans to help the city recover from coronavirus by investing in public health.

Historic bridges to have cycle paths

The scheme, called Bridges for the People, was unveiled on 29 January as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's State of the City 2021 address.

"The Brooklyn Bridge (above) and the Queensboro Bridge are iconic and deeply intertwined in the daily lives of countless New Yorkers," said De Blasio.

"Now, it's time to bring them into the 21st century and embrace the future with a radical new plan."

Cars will be banned from the innermost lane of the Manhattan-bound side of the 152-year-old Brooklyn Bridge, which will be turned into a two-way cycle path.

This path will be protected from traffic, and the existing walkway will become pedestrian-only. Currently, foot and bike traffic has to share.

On the 112-year-old Queensboro Bridge, the outer road heading north will be turned into a two-way cycle lane and the southbound outer road will be given over to pedestrians. Construction to create the cycle lane and pedestrian-only lane will begin this year.

"Converting car lanes into bike lanes on two of our most important bridges is a giant leap forward for New York City," said campaign group Transportation Alternatives.

"We are thrilled that Mayor de Blasio has taken up our Bridges 4 People campaign with his Bridges for the People plan."

Five Bike Boulevards will prioritise cyclists

The mayor also pledged to build five so-called Bike Boulevards in 2021 – streets where bicycle traffic will have priority. He promised these roads will feature "unique design elements" to slow traffic and protect cyclists.

Open Streets, where roads were closed to vehicle traffic to give city residents more space to socialise and exercise in an open-air setting, will be kept even when the need for social distancing is over.

"While we leave the rest of the pandemic behind, Open Streets will become a permanent part of our landscape," said the mayor. "The Department of Transportation will also open applications for new streets."

Cities around the world have embraced cycling in response to the coronavirus pandemic, with cycle-friendly routes opening up in London, Paris, Berlin, Milan and Bogata.

Earlier this month New York's governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed plans to turn a police vehicle compound on a pier in the Hudson River into a waterfront public park.

Main image by Roberto Cortes from Pixabay.

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A lake house in the Pacific Northwest has received a complete overhaul by American studio Graham Baba Architects, creating a "quiet refuge" that prioritises views of the water.

The Lakeside Residence is nestled into a sloped site on Mercer Island, surrounded by a freshwater lake just east of Seattle.

The project involved the full revamp of a 1960s beachfront cabin that underwent a series of piecemeal renovations over the decades.

"By the time our client acquired the house, its design integrity had long ceased to exist," said Seattle firm Graham Baba Architects.

"The forested property, however, was ideally suited to the creation of a quiet refuge with direct connections to nature."

The building was stripped down to its studs, and the interior layout was completely rearranged. A key goal for the design team was to provide a strong visual connection to the lake, which the original dwelling lacked.

The architects sought to make the most of a somewhat challenging site, which slopes down toward Lake Washington. The terrain drops a total of 60 feet (18 metres).

Great attention was placed on the entry procession, which begins with a driveway that winds through the woods and arrives at a carport located uphill from the house.

A walkway travels down through intimate gardens and terminates at the home's entrance, which is marked with a double-height glass wall. Glimpses of the lake can be seen through the glazed aperture.

"The passage from street to house is conceived as a journey, where work and public life gives way to nature and private reflection," the team said.

Roughly rectangular in plan, the home is clad in dark-stained cedar that provides "subtle dimension and shadow effects."

In certain parts of the exterior, the team incorporated Corten steel siding to help articulate the home's massing.

Large stretches of glass lend a sense of transparency to the dwelling and usher in ample daylight. On west-facing windows, sunshades and fins help mitigate direct sun exposure. Roof plantings atop the house help the building blend with its verdant setting.

Within the residence – which has two levels and a basement – one finds rooms awash in neutral colours and earthy materials. Many of the spaces are oriented to provide expansive vistas of the water.

The ground floor contains the entrance, a galley kitchen with a breakfast nook, an open-plan living and dining area, and a guest room.

Rooms are fitted with contemporary decor that is both streamlined and comfy. In the main living space, bi-fold doors lead to a patio that pushes out toward the water.

The second floor holds a generous master suite and two bedrooms for children. Special features in the master suite include a Japanese soaking tub and sliding pocket doors with leather panelling.

"Concealed doors and integrated handrails reinforce the minimal aesthetic without sacrificing rich materiality," the team said.

A variety of spaces are located in the home's lowest level, including a den, playroom, exercise room and wine cellar.

"Previously closed off from the waterfront, the basement now opens directly to the waterfront, enabling activities to flow from inside to outside," the architects said.

Throughout the dwelling, the team aimed for "crisp and spare detailing." Warm materials, such as fumed white oak, are paired with industrial finishes like polished concrete and blackened steel. No detail was overlooked.

"Everything from door pulls to sink faucet levers were meticulously designed, detailed and fabricated," the team said.

Founded in 2006, Graham Baba Architects has completed a number of distinctive projects in the Pacific Northwest, ranging from a moody speakeasy at Amazon's Seattle campus to the rural headquarters for the Washington Fruit and Produce Company.

The firm also designed a Seattle cannabis dispensary that features dark metal cladding, wooden decor and glass vitrines.

Photography is by Kevin Scott.

Project credits:

Architect: Graham Baba Architects
Architecture team: Brett Baba, design principal; Francesco Borghesi and Noreen Shinohara; project team
Interiors: Terry Hunziker
Civil engineer: CPL
Structural engineer: Carissa Farkas
Geotechnical engineer: Geotech Consultants
Landscape architecture: Rich Haag and Associates, Anne James Landscape Architect
Lighting design: Brian Hood
Contractor: Lockhart Suver

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Chicago studio Kwong Von Glinow has built Ardmore House to prove it's possible to design a high-quality home for a standard city lot.

Studio founders Lap Chi Kwong and Alison Von Glinow acted as both architects and developers for this project, their first built work since founding their studio in 2017.

Located on a standard residential plot in Edgewater, north Chicago, the house has a simple, vernacular form, with a rectangular footprint and a standard pitched roof.

However, inside the building feels modern and spacious thanks to a curved, double-height atrium and light-filled, open-plan living spaces.

Kwong and Von Glinow, who were awarded the New York Architectural League Prize for Young Architects in 2018, wanted to offer an alternative to the standard houses being built by developers in the city.

"Chicago is saturated with many standard developer-driven housing projects that are fuelled by real-estate market demand, profit, and little else," the pair told Dezeen.

"In Ardmore House, we designed the home with values rather than checklist criteria," they continued. "We considered what the future of housing could be, and what kind of values the architecture of the home could bring to how the future residents would live."

Key to the design is an upside-down layout, placing bedrooms on the ground floor and living spaces upstairs. There's also a partially sunken basement level that is able to accommodate flexible uses.

This arrangement made it possible to create a highly open interior, where the upper level feels more like a mezzanine. This floor is completely open-plan, divided only by the triangular roof trusses overhead.

"The upside-down layout is the obvious choice for a house along an alley, to give privacy for the dweller," said Kwong and Von Glinow.

"This sectional flip allows more light and a more generous ceiling height," they explained. "The goal is to optimise the space where the residents will spend most of their time to the maximum potential. This means bringing in light and air to create a healthy living environment."

The structure of the house is relatively simple, built using standard materials. The base is concrete, while the upper levels are clad in an Accoya wood facade system in two different shades.

Like many American homes, the house has a wood-frame construction. But instead of taking a typical approach, Kwong and Von Glinow chose to use a balloon frame – a system that was first developed in Chicago.

With this method, wooden members span the full height of the building, supported by the four trusses that frame the roof.

These trusses are clad in oak tongue-and-groove boards, allowing them to become a solid presence within the living spaces.

"Since the upper level living spaces are open to one another, we use the trusses to define each of the spaces below: living room, powder room, dining room, kitchen island and the kitchen," said the architects.

Three bedrooms are located on the ground floor, with bathrooms slotted in between. They are accessed via the curved atrium, which is also where the staircase is situated.

This double-height space was designed in this way to make it more functional than a standard corridor would be.

"For a lot of our projects, our priority is how can we minimise or eliminate hallways and corridors," said the architects. "In most cases they do not add spatial value besides providing a means of circulation from point A to point B."

"In Ardmore House, the curved atrium acts as an interior courtyard that allows circulation to each of the bedrooms, but also becomes a space itself," they added, suggesting it could be used as a space for reading a book, or for children to play.

This space is flanked by a high-level window with a width of 56 feet (17 metres ), as well a square picture window below. This ensures that both the ground and first floors are flooded with natural light.

A similar level of care is given to windows in other rooms too. The kitchen window lines up with the position of the worktop, while the bedroom windows are positioned with privacy in mind, either facing towards a brick wall or to a secluded rear courtyard.

Kwong von Glinow has previously designed conceptual Hong Kong high-rises with multi-storey homes for the Dezeen x MINI Living series as well as a conceptual modular building system for New York for the same series.

Photography is by James Florio.

Project credits

Client: Kwong Von Glinow, Enjoy Architecture Development
Architect: Kwong Von Glinow
Structural engineer: Goodfriend Magruder Structures
Contractor: Oslo Builders

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Coronavirus pushed Las Vegas' annual Consumer Electronics Show online, but there was still plenty to see. Here are seven highlights, including heated sex toys, an AI pet robot and a toilet with its own app.

Drift, Sway and Tilt by Lora DiCarlo

LoraDiCarlo has produced three new sex toys, named Drift, Sway and Tilt. Designed to recreate "the warmth of human touch," the products use thermally conductive plastics to increase users' blood flow and enhance sexual pleasure. Sway is pictured here.

The women-led sex-tech company made headlines at CES in 2019 after winning a CES Innovation Award in Robotics for its Osé massager, only to have the award revoked.

Organisers claimed that the product was "immoral." Lora DiCarlo successfully campaigned to have the award reinstated, claiming that gender bias and sexism within the tech industry had led to the company initially losing its award.

Wellness Toilet by TOTO

The world's largest toilet manufacturer brought a new lavatory concept to CES this year. TOTO's Wellness Toilet is designed to analyse its user's faeces, their "key outputs," in order to access their health.

An accompanying app allows you to view the toilet's assessments and offers information about how to improve your diet in the form of meal-planning suggestions.

The Wellness Toilet is expected on the market within several years.

MOFLIN by Vanguard Industries

Vanguard Industries received the Best Innovation Award in Robotics for MOFLIN, the company's AI pet robot. MOFLIN uses an algorithm to allow the robot to learn and develop an individual personality from interactions with its owners.

Soft and warm, MOFLIN is like a real pet animal that is programmed to make loveable sounds and charges in a wireless charging cradle resembling a basket.

Health Smart Trainer by Samsung

Samsung Health has designed a new Smart Trainer function for Samsung 2021 televisions. Intended to operate as a personal trainer, the function tracks users' movements and analyses their posture in real-time.

Video and interactive training are provided by voice control using Bixby, Samsung's intelligent assistant. Detailed feedback is also provided in order to help users improve their workouts.

Project Hazel by Razer

Tech company Razer unveiled Project Hazel at CES 2021, which Razer describes as "the world's smartest face mask" that is "safe, social and sustainable."

The concept design includes detachable active ventilators that can be recharged, with a transparent and light-up design means that users would be able to communicate with people around them more easily.

Read more about Project Hazel here ›

Beauté Rouge Sur Mesure Powered by Perso by L'Oréal

The Yves Saint Laurent Beauté Rouge Sur Mesure Powered by Perso is an AI-powered lipstick mixer. It contains three different coloured lipstick pods of YSL Beauty Velvet Cream Matte Finish.

Distributed by L'Oréal, the lipstick mixer allows users to create their own individual lipstick shades.

An app lets users experiment with making shades onscreen, and can create new colours based on users' outfits and images that they upload.

Bot Handy by Samsung

Another concept Samsung brought to CES 2021 was Bot Handy, a one-armed robot with the ability to move around your house on a rolling base, and assist with housework. With a clamp-like hand, this robot can even bring its owner a glass of wine.

The robot has cameras on its body and single hand that interpret its surroundings. The project is currently in development.

CES 2021 was a digital event ran that ran from 11 – 14 January 2021. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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