Search results for "Typical challenges" in Home Design Ideas
KURV Architecture DPC (Alex Hughes Architects)Located in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the building was erected on a shallow commercial lot between two 120 year old masonry buildings and a new residential rental building. 330 Grand Street is a mix of 725 SF 1BRs and 1050 SF 2BR apartments. It also contains a 1100 SF two story duplex as well as private and public rooftop space, large private balconies for most units and two large private terraces for the ground floor units.
330 Grand Street was originally designed and approved at the NYC DOB as a prefabricated modular building. During the pandemic, as shipping costs skyrocketed putting the project at risk, we suggested redesigning the building as a reinforced cast-in-place concrete structure. Concrete was readily available and prices had not been affected by the demand increase that many other materials suffered in the pandemic. We took this opportunity to raise floor to ceiling heights, enlarge high performance windows and redistribute the buildings MEPFS and Structural Systems to create very open floor plans.
The challenge was to create a luxurious sensorial living experience with very limited means. In a city with very high construction costs, low cost residential buildings in the area are usually devoid of good quality, design and character. Our approach was to aim high for the end user, prioritizing natural light, open space with long visual perspectives, high ceilings and as always, rejecting the use of predefined building templates.
Our biggest challenge was to ensure that the small spaces feel as clean cut, large and bright as possible. Several unique design decisions were made to ensure low cost and high quality;
Floor plans were laid out so that spaces were wide open and free of clutter from mechanical or structural interruptions. Therefore all infrastructure was placed in lateral demising walls, which in turn act as the unit’s storage and kitchen. The apartments feel wide open, are super quiet and have more storage space than any other comparable apartment in the city.
To solve the problem of the site’s shallow commercial lot which is typically prone to dark interior spaces we focused our attention on the building’s envelope. Instead of the usual small punched window openings, oversized high performance windows were designed to ensure that light penetrated as far as possible into the units. In the smaller 1BR units, the full 50’ depth of the lot is perceived by partitioning spaces with sliding pocket doors that can be retracted to allow deep visual perspectives, making the sight lines in the space feel longer, larger, more ample than normal. In addition to the full height glazing, each unit above the 2nd floor receives a 7 foot covered balcony, adding 120 to 240 sf to each apartment, something unusual in New York City buildings. The space is large enough for a full size dining table, when the weather permits being outside.
We also worked hard to ensure modularity. For example, all kitchen units are all identical throughout the building. The idea of modularity and the economy of the repetitive unit is exercised to the maximum through the building.
Hardware, appliances, flooring, wall coverings and material finishes are all carefully selected to feel bespoke, high quality and unique.
It was important to KURV that the result of this work manifest into something that would deeply connect with the end user and sustain relationships with the consumers of this space.
All images by KURV Architecture ©
Vetter ArchitectsThe mHouse is the brainchild of a magazine publisher intent on changing the way houses are constructed and how their owners relate to them. Named after one of the company’s website, the mHouse serves as a built manifesto of innovative panel materials such as rice hull composites and thermally fused laminate – becoming a case study house for over 30 international material suppliers.
The design challenge was quite clear – how to use a series of new materials unproven in the US building trades to create a beautiful house that meets the unique needs of today’s family. The result is a building that is highly rational in its construction systems, while encouraging social gathering.
The mHouse serves as a direct counterpoint to the typical suburban builder home – creating unique outdoor spaces in place of the typical open lawn, a variety of different views in contrast to one major view, and expressing a confidence in the future over nostalgia for the past.
Through a series of layers and nodes, the landscape grounds the house and heightens the views from inside, using indigenous plantings applied in non-traditional ways, the landscape mirrors the house in rethinking the suburban home.
The mHouse strikes a balance between proven methods and innovative solutions, resulting in one version of what is possible with these materials and setting the stage for future iterations and new possibilities.
Size
Total Finished Area: 3,405 sf
Completion Date
September 2015
Services
Architecture
Interior Design Consultant: Amy Carman Design
Landscape Consultant: Texten
AquaTerra OutdoorsA new homeowner of a beautiful Mediterranean style home requested a pool combining a variety of outdoor living amenities. The request included an infinity edge pool and spa that would accommodate an area for a volleyball net, bar top, and fire pit all within a natural environment; and of course, a budget. Needless to say, it was a challenging process combining all of these requests and blending them into a space dedicated for a pool that led us to the aquatic environment seen in these images. The project resulted in building a large free form pool with strong classical lines, shapes, and symmetry. The shape allows the pool to blend within the natural environment as well as continue to be a strong architectural element that compliments the beauty of the Mediterranean home. The infinity edge spa includes 14 waterway jets with the nearest possible equipment location that is more than 100’ away. The pool was not only an aesthetic design challenge but also required mutual respect for the project’s complex hydraulic and construction details. In the process of construction, the homeowner decided the infinity edge basin should also be designed to function as a secondary spa. This secondary basin/spa can be used in large entertaining situations or if the family wants to take advantage of the fire pit while soaking. The glass tile was selected to magnify the beauty of the infinity edge spa and the overall design. The vessel was carefully cleaned and sealed to minimize efflorescence and staining that typically occurs over time. The decorative pedestals and urns seen around the pool edge are equipped for irrigation and drainage to allow for ease of year around maintenance and combine the elegance of the landscape with the hardscape. This Mediterranean inspired project blends some of the best materials available today and is the focal point of the home owner’s new property.
Photography: Daniel Driensky
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Spire Integrated Systems Inc.Sustainable Design Meets Smart Technology
This home featured a request from the client to use as many environmentally friendly materials and fabrics as possible. Many common shade manufacturers use materials with PVC plastic, which is known for off-gassing hazardous chemicals that linger in the air in the home for years. The main floor roller shades met the client’s request for an eco-friendly fabric by utilizing motorized shades with GreenScreen fabric. In other rooms, the designer and client wanted the classic look and soft fabrics with roman shades and drapery tracks on several windows in the house. By partnering with the interior designer and fabric workroom, we were able to provide a custom solution for motorization of roman shades and drapery.
Lighting Control
The client is able control all of the lighting and window treatments in the house with a single control system. This eliminates the need for extra devices on the wall or remote controls that clutter up the space and get lost. By utilizing the custom window treatments, the house is able to conserve energy by keeping the house warmer in the winter, and cooler in the summer by providing insulation and blocking sunlight. The lighting control system further helps to conserve energy by beautifully dimming LED lights as well as using quick buttons that turn off all of the lights in the house, or un-occupied rooms, with the press of a single button.
Motorized Window Treatments
Motorized window treatments add a high level of convenience to any project, especially those with many windows in hard to reach places. The challenge with many manufacturers is a limitation of style and fabric selection, some may be as basic as only roller shades. Often times these come with un-reliable, wireless controls.
On this Birmingham, MI project completed in March 2019, we partnered with the interior designer and drapery workroom to provide a truly unique solution. The homeowner and designer’s requests included many different styles of window treatments including rollers shades, roman shades and motorized draperies. Typically, this would result in a collection of various shade manufacturers with unsightly remotes scattered across each room or stuck to the wall for control. Utilizing standard offerings, coupled with an incredible team effort by the designer and drapery workroom, we provided all of the requested styles of window treatments, and were able to control them all on a single system. This means that each room has a single, elegant keypad built into the wall that controls not only the window treatments, but the lighting as well.
When leaving/entering the home, all of the window coverings can be raised or lowered with a single button press. Shades and draperies can also be set to operate based on the time of day for automatic day-to-day operation using sunlight as a guide. In the end, we achieved convenience, function and sophisticated style.
KURV Architecture DPC (Alex Hughes Architects)Located in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the building was erected on a shallow commercial lot between two 120 year old masonry buildings and a new residential rental building. 330 Grand Street is a mix of 725 SF 1BRs and 1050 SF 2BR apartments. It also contains a 1100 SF two story duplex as well as private and public rooftop space, large private balconies for most units and two large private terraces for the ground floor units.
330 Grand Street was originally designed and approved at the NYC DOB as a prefabricated modular building. During the pandemic, as shipping costs skyrocketed putting the project at risk, we suggested redesigning the building as a reinforced cast-in-place concrete structure. Concrete was readily available and prices had not been affected by the demand increase that many other materials suffered in the pandemic. We took this opportunity to raise floor to ceiling heights, enlarge high performance windows and redistribute the buildings MEPFS and Structural Systems to create very open floor plans.
The challenge was to create a luxurious sensorial living experience with very limited means. In a city with very high construction costs, low cost residential buildings in the area are usually devoid of good quality, design and character. Our approach was to aim high for the end user, prioritizing natural light, open space with long visual perspectives, high ceilings and as always, rejecting the use of predefined building templates.
Our biggest challenge was to ensure that the small spaces feel as clean cut, large and bright as possible. Several unique design decisions were made to ensure low cost and high quality;
Floor plans were laid out so that spaces were wide open and free of clutter from mechanical or structural interruptions. Therefore all infrastructure was placed in lateral demising walls, which in turn act as the unit’s storage and kitchen. The apartments feel wide open, are super quiet and have more storage space than any other comparable apartment in the city.
To solve the problem of the site’s shallow commercial lot which is typically prone to dark interior spaces we focused our attention on the building’s envelope. Instead of the usual small punched window openings, oversized high performance windows were designed to ensure that light penetrated as far as possible into the units. In the smaller 1BR units, the full 50’ depth of the lot is perceived by partitioning spaces with sliding pocket doors that can be retracted to allow deep visual perspectives, making the sight lines in the space feel longer, larger, more ample than normal. In addition to the full height glazing, each unit above the 2nd floor receives a 7 foot covered balcony, adding 120 to 240 sf to each apartment, something unusual in New York City buildings. The space is large enough for a full size dining table, when the weather permits being outside.
We also worked hard to ensure modularity. For example, all kitchen units are all identical throughout the building. The idea of modularity and the economy of the repetitive unit is exercised to the maximum through the building.
Hardware, appliances, flooring, wall coverings and material finishes are all carefully selected to feel bespoke, high quality and unique.
It was important to KURV that the result of this work manifest into something that would deeply connect with the end user and sustain relationships with the consumers of this space.
All images by KURV Architecture ©
KURV Architecture DPC (Alex Hughes Architects)Located in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the building was erected on a shallow commercial lot between two 120 year old masonry buildings and a new residential rental building. 330 Grand Street is a mix of 725 SF 1BRs and 1050 SF 2BR apartments. It also contains a 1100 SF two story duplex as well as private and public rooftop space, large private balconies for most units and two large private terraces for the ground floor units.
330 Grand Street was originally designed and approved at the NYC DOB as a prefabricated modular building. During the pandemic, as shipping costs skyrocketed putting the project at risk, we suggested redesigning the building as a reinforced cast-in-place concrete structure. Concrete was readily available and prices had not been affected by the demand increase that many other materials suffered in the pandemic. We took this opportunity to raise floor to ceiling heights, enlarge high performance windows and redistribute the buildings MEPFS and Structural Systems to create very open floor plans.
The challenge was to create a luxurious sensorial living experience with very limited means. In a city with very high construction costs, low cost residential buildings in the area are usually devoid of good quality, design and character. Our approach was to aim high for the end user, prioritizing natural light, open space with long visual perspectives, high ceilings and as always, rejecting the use of predefined building templates.
Our biggest challenge was to ensure that the small spaces feel as clean cut, large and bright as possible. Several unique design decisions were made to ensure low cost and high quality;
Floor plans were laid out so that spaces were wide open and free of clutter from mechanical or structural interruptions. Therefore all infrastructure was placed in lateral demising walls, which in turn act as the unit’s storage and kitchen. The apartments feel wide open, are super quiet and have more storage space than any other comparable apartment in the city.
To solve the problem of the site’s shallow commercial lot which is typically prone to dark interior spaces we focused our attention on the building’s envelope. Instead of the usual small punched window openings, oversized high performance windows were designed to ensure that light penetrated as far as possible into the units. In the smaller 1BR units, the full 50’ depth of the lot is perceived by partitioning spaces with sliding pocket doors that can be retracted to allow deep visual perspectives, making the sight lines in the space feel longer, larger, more ample than normal. In addition to the full height glazing, each unit above the 2nd floor receives a 7 foot covered balcony, adding 120 to 240 sf to each apartment, something unusual in New York City buildings. The space is large enough for a full size dining table, when the weather permits being outside.
We also worked hard to ensure modularity. For example, all kitchen units are all identical throughout the building. The idea of modularity and the economy of the repetitive unit is exercised to the maximum through the building.
Hardware, appliances, flooring, wall coverings and material finishes are all carefully selected to feel bespoke, high quality and unique.
It was important to KURV that the result of this work manifest into something that would deeply connect with the end user and sustain relationships with the consumers of this space.
All images by KURV Architecture ©
Vetter ArchitectsThe mHouse is the brainchild of a magazine publisher intent on changing the way houses are constructed and how their owners relate to them. Named after one of the company’s website, the mHouse serves as a built manifesto of innovative panel materials such as rice hull composites and thermally fused laminate – becoming a case study house for over 30 international material suppliers.
The design challenge was quite clear – how to use a series of new materials unproven in the US building trades to create a beautiful house that meets the unique needs of today’s family. The result is a building that is highly rational in its construction systems, while encouraging social gathering.
The mHouse serves as a direct counterpoint to the typical suburban builder home – creating unique outdoor spaces in place of the typical open lawn, a variety of different views in contrast to one major view, and expressing a confidence in the future over nostalgia for the past.
Through a series of layers and nodes, the landscape grounds the house and heightens the views from inside, using indigenous plantings applied in non-traditional ways, the landscape mirrors the house in rethinking the suburban home.
The mHouse strikes a balance between proven methods and innovative solutions, resulting in one version of what is possible with these materials and setting the stage for future iterations and new possibilities.
Size
Total Finished Area: 3,405 sf
Completion Date
September 2015
Services
Architecture
Interior Design Consultant: Amy Carman Design
Landscape Consultant: Texten
Spire Integrated Systems Inc.Sustainable Design Meets Smart Technology
This home featured a request from the client to use as many environmentally friendly materials and fabrics as possible. Many common shade manufacturers use materials with PVC plastic, which is known for off-gassing hazardous chemicals that linger in the air in the home for years. The main floor roller shades met the client’s request for an eco-friendly fabric by utilizing motorized shades with GreenScreen fabric. In other rooms, the designer and client wanted the classic look and soft fabrics with roman shades and drapery tracks on several windows in the house. By partnering with the interior designer and fabric workroom, we were able to provide a custom solution for motorization of roman shades and drapery.
Lighting Control
The client is able control all of the lighting and window treatments in the house with a single control system. This eliminates the need for extra devices on the wall or remote controls that clutter up the space and get lost. By utilizing the custom window treatments, the house is able to conserve energy by keeping the house warmer in the winter, and cooler in the summer by providing insulation and blocking sunlight. The lighting control system further helps to conserve energy by beautifully dimming LED lights as well as using quick buttons that turn off all of the lights in the house, or un-occupied rooms, with the press of a single button.
Motorized Window Treatments
Motorized window treatments add a high level of convenience to any project, especially those with many windows in hard to reach places. The challenge with many manufacturers is a limitation of style and fabric selection, some may be as basic as only roller shades. Often times these come with un-reliable, wireless controls.
On this Birmingham, MI project completed in March 2019, we partnered with the interior designer and drapery workroom to provide a truly unique solution. The homeowner and designer’s requests included many different styles of window treatments including rollers shades, roman shades and motorized draperies. Typically, this would result in a collection of various shade manufacturers with unsightly remotes scattered across each room or stuck to the wall for control. Utilizing standard offerings, coupled with an incredible team effort by the designer and drapery workroom, we provided all of the requested styles of window treatments, and were able to control them all on a single system. This means that each room has a single, elegant keypad built into the wall that controls not only the window treatments, but the lighting as well.
When leaving/entering the home, all of the window coverings can be raised or lowered with a single button press. Shades and draperies can also be set to operate based on the time of day for automatic day-to-day operation using sunlight as a guide. In the end, we achieved convenience, function and sophisticated style.
Vetter ArchitectsThe mHouse is the brainchild of a magazine publisher intent on changing the way houses are constructed and how their owners relate to them. Named after one of the company’s website, the mHouse serves as a built manifesto of innovative panel materials such as rice hull composites and thermally fused laminate – becoming a case study house for over 30 international material suppliers.
The design challenge was quite clear – how to use a series of new materials unproven in the US building trades to create a beautiful house that meets the unique needs of today’s family. The result is a building that is highly rational in its construction systems, while encouraging social gathering.
The mHouse serves as a direct counterpoint to the typical suburban builder home – creating unique outdoor spaces in place of the typical open lawn, a variety of different views in contrast to one major view, and expressing a confidence in the future over nostalgia for the past.
Through a series of layers and nodes, the landscape grounds the house and heightens the views from inside, using indigenous plantings applied in non-traditional ways, the landscape mirrors the house in rethinking the suburban home.
The mHouse strikes a balance between proven methods and innovative solutions, resulting in one version of what is possible with these materials and setting the stage for future iterations and new possibilities.
Size
Total Finished Area: 3,405 sf
Completion Date
September 2015
Services
Architecture
Interior Design Consultant: Amy Carman Design
Landscape Consultant: Texten
AquaTerra OutdoorsA new homeowner of a beautiful Mediterranean style home requested a pool combining a variety of outdoor living amenities. The request included an infinity edge pool and spa that would accommodate an area for a volleyball net, bar top, and fire pit all within a natural environment; and of course, a budget. Needless to say, it was a challenging process combining all of these requests and blending them into a space dedicated for a pool that led us to the aquatic environment seen in these images. The project resulted in building a large free form pool with strong classical lines, shapes, and symmetry. The shape allows the pool to blend within the natural environment as well as continue to be a strong architectural element that compliments the beauty of the Mediterranean home. The infinity edge spa includes 14 waterway jets with the nearest possible equipment location that is more than 100’ away. The pool was not only an aesthetic design challenge but also required mutual respect for the project’s complex hydraulic and construction details. In the process of construction, the homeowner decided the infinity edge basin should also be designed to function as a secondary spa. This secondary basin/spa can be used in large entertaining situations or if the family wants to take advantage of the fire pit while soaking. The glass tile was selected to magnify the beauty of the infinity edge spa and the overall design. The vessel was carefully cleaned and sealed to minimize efflorescence and staining that typically occurs over time. The decorative pedestals and urns seen around the pool edge are equipped for irrigation and drainage to allow for ease of year around maintenance and combine the elegance of the landscape with the hardscape. This Mediterranean inspired project blends some of the best materials available today and is the focal point of the home owner’s new property.
Photography: Daniel Driensky
ATA Architects IncFunction meets form in the Delta House, which incorporates innovative building solutions for our challenging rural Canadian climate. Perhaps more akin to aeronautics than architecture, biomimetic processes drove the problem-solving approach while seeking multiple functions for each component. A typical Canadian home grows up and out of the site, exposing more of the facade to the elements. Instead of building up, the focus here was to make better use of the lower level. A section of the house was dug out on the south side, making room for three main glazed boxes. The spaces and bedrooms of a typical second floor were transferred to the more protected basement, thus lowering the volume of conditioned air within the dwelling.
To minimize energy losses through the glazing, ATA centralized the windows on the south side of the building, while minimizing the glazing on other facades. The centralized windows became the “three sisters” allowing the winter sun into the main floor and lower level of the house. The aerodynamic delta shape of the building was tested in a wind tunnel and was designed to minimize energy loss due to contact with the turbulent winter wind. The sisters are tilted 10 degrees towards the sun, leveraging the properties of glass as a reflector, when the sun is at a high angle of incidence in the summer.
The house also contains an innovative thermal mass battery in the basement slab and a connected radiative masonry fireplace. Excess heat, gathered at the top of the tent-like roof is directed down and reheated through the chimney before being drawn into the basement slab for storage. Openings in the floor areas ensure the energy is equally distributed throughout the dwelling.
Read an article in the Globe and Mail about ATA’s Delta project here.
Banker WireWhen envisioning the Hygeia Lot 3 single family residential home in Encinitas, California, Lindsay and Rory Brown of The Brown Studio sought to weave unique architectural details throughout the minimalist design scheme. To add depth to the overall look and feel of the space, and to complement the home’s existing ‘hard’ angles, the team selected Banker Wire’s IPZ-25 woven wire mesh. Specified in a stainless steel and brass finish, the wire mesh was utilized to create the interior stairway railing, which functions as the focal point of the lower lounge room area.
Adding an elegant touchpoint to the space, the wire mesh reiterates the angular look and feel while providing much-needed depth through the stainless steel and brass finish. Similarly, for the project-at-large, the design team favored a seamless indoor/outdoor design scheme, with the Banker Wire mesh application helping to achieve this; the exterior of the home features Gabion rock walls, created using an enclosing wire structure to secure the rocks into a wall formation. By adding the wire mesh interior stairway railing, the design team was able to create an indoor/outdoor connection through highlighting these unique wire touchpoints.
“The Hygeia Lot 3 house is full of unique angles and architectural details—it’s two levels of playful design and carefully crafted architectural details,” says Loryn Cook, Designer, The Brown Studio. “We wanted to use materials that reflect this line of thinking, and Banker Wire’s architectural mesh provided the stability and breathability we were after.”
The simple, lightweight material of the IPZ-25 wire mesh pattern—which has a 54% open area—utilizes a mixture of stainless steel to achieve balanced sturdiness; when mixed with the copper-based alloy of brass, a beautiful contrast occurs, while the team’s custom system holds the wire in place. Through utilizing different wire diameters for the warp and shute—achieving balanced stiffness in both directions—the intercrimp surface gives the material a high degree of reflective energy. As a result, the mesh pattern imitates an array of colors that changes as the viewer moves throughout the space.
“For this project, we wanted a material that was permeable enough to see through, but detailed enough to catch the eye,” adds Cook. “IPZ-25 provides a myriad of different textures and colors, depending on the perspective from which it is viewed from—we love it specifically for this effect.”
In regards to the fabrication process, Robert Richter, Owner of Flur Metals, notes that although it was initially a challenge, this project is proof that the outcome is well worth it.
“We typically utilize more rigid mesh types for this kind of application, but because of how unique IPZ-25 is, The Brown Studio came to us asking if we could make it work,” says Richter. “We did not shy away from the challenge; this project was exciting, as we were able to utilize such a delicate, beautiful mesh, but a non-traditional way. Once one side was ‘tac’d in,’ we pulled it tight, and ‘tac’d’ the other side to the frame. Then, the border was welded to another frame that sandwiched the mesh in place,” adds Richter. “This application is proof that it can be done! It’s still one of my favorite projects we have ever worked on.”
Grand Appliance and TVPlacement of your TV relative to your furniture, speakers, etc. is crucial to the overall design aesthetic. If your TV will be mounted above a cabinet with nothing on top of it, we typically recommend the bottom of the TV be no less than two inches and no more than six inches from the top of the cabinet. The latter, six inches, should only be with very large TVs and/or very tall ceilings.
If there will be a speaker or some sort of decoration on top of the table, we typically error on the side of less space from the top of whatever that is to the bottom of the TV rather than more.
This job was particularly interesting because we were dealing with a curved TV mounted above a soundbar with the added design challenge of incorporating the existing chair rail on the wall.
In the end, we decided to marry the bottom of the soundbar with the top of the chair rail.
From that decision, we could determine the top of the soundbar and place the TV wall bracket in such a way that there would be a 1-2 inch gap between the bottom of the TV and the wall mounted soundbar.
Note that your TV mount comes in two parts. One part attaches to the wall, the other part is usually two arms that connect to the TV. The two parts essentially hook together for an easy hanging installation. Its important to measure according to where the hooking will take place (rather than the outside edge of the TV per se) in order to achieve proper spacing.
KURV Architecture DPC (Alex Hughes Architects)Located in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the building was erected on a shallow commercial lot between two 120 year old masonry buildings and a new residential rental building. 330 Grand Street is a mix of 725 SF 1BRs and 1050 SF 2BR apartments. It also contains a 1100 SF two story duplex as well as private and public rooftop space, large private balconies for most units and two large private terraces for the ground floor units.
330 Grand Street was originally designed and approved at the NYC DOB as a prefabricated modular building. During the pandemic, as shipping costs skyrocketed putting the project at risk, we suggested redesigning the building as a reinforced cast-in-place concrete structure. Concrete was readily available and prices had not been affected by the demand increase that many other materials suffered in the pandemic. We took this opportunity to raise floor to ceiling heights, enlarge high performance windows and redistribute the buildings MEPFS and Structural Systems to create very open floor plans.
The challenge was to create a luxurious sensorial living experience with very limited means. In a city with very high construction costs, low cost residential buildings in the area are usually devoid of good quality, design and character. Our approach was to aim high for the end user, prioritizing natural light, open space with long visual perspectives, high ceilings and as always, rejecting the use of predefined building templates.
Our biggest challenge was to ensure that the small spaces feel as clean cut, large and bright as possible. Several unique design decisions were made to ensure low cost and high quality;
Floor plans were laid out so that spaces were wide open and free of clutter from mechanical or structural interruptions. Therefore all infrastructure was placed in lateral demising walls, which in turn act as the unit’s storage and kitchen. The apartments feel wide open, are super quiet and have more storage space than any other comparable apartment in the city.
To solve the problem of the site’s shallow commercial lot which is typically prone to dark interior spaces we focused our attention on the building’s envelope. Instead of the usual small punched window openings, oversized high performance windows were designed to ensure that light penetrated as far as possible into the units. In the smaller 1BR units, the full 50’ depth of the lot is perceived by partitioning spaces with sliding pocket doors that can be retracted to allow deep visual perspectives, making the sight lines in the space feel longer, larger, more ample than normal. In addition to the full height glazing, each unit above the 2nd floor receives a 7 foot covered balcony, adding 120 to 240 sf to each apartment, something unusual in New York City buildings. The space is large enough for a full size dining table, when the weather permits being outside.
We also worked hard to ensure modularity. For example, all kitchen units are all identical throughout the building. The idea of modularity and the economy of the repetitive unit is exercised to the maximum through the building.
Hardware, appliances, flooring, wall coverings and material finishes are all carefully selected to feel bespoke, high quality and unique.
It was important to KURV that the result of this work manifest into something that would deeply connect with the end user and sustain relationships with the consumers of this space.
All images by KURV Architecture ©
Spire Integrated Systems Inc.Sustainable Design Meets Smart Technology
This home featured a request from the client to use as many environmentally friendly materials and fabrics as possible. Many common shade manufacturers use materials with PVC plastic, which is known for off-gassing hazardous chemicals that linger in the air in the home for years. The main floor roller shades met the client’s request for an eco-friendly fabric by utilizing motorized shades with GreenScreen fabric. In other rooms, the designer and client wanted the classic look and soft fabrics with roman shades and drapery tracks on several windows in the house. By partnering with the interior designer and fabric workroom, we were able to provide a custom solution for motorization of roman shades and drapery.
Lighting Control
The client is able control all of the lighting and window treatments in the house with a single control system. This eliminates the need for extra devices on the wall or remote controls that clutter up the space and get lost. By utilizing the custom window treatments, the house is able to conserve energy by keeping the house warmer in the winter, and cooler in the summer by providing insulation and blocking sunlight. The lighting control system further helps to conserve energy by beautifully dimming LED lights as well as using quick buttons that turn off all of the lights in the house, or un-occupied rooms, with the press of a single button.
Motorized Window Treatments
Motorized window treatments add a high level of convenience to any project, especially those with many windows in hard to reach places. The challenge with many manufacturers is a limitation of style and fabric selection, some may be a s basic as only roller shades. Often times these come with un-reliable, wireless controls.
On this Birmingham, MI project completed in March 2019, we partnered with the interior designer and drapery workroom to provide a truly unique solution. The homeowner and designer’s requests included many different styles of window treatments including rollers shades, roman shades and motorized draperies. Typically, this would result in a collection of various shade manufacturers with unsightly remotes scattered across each room or stuck to the wall for control. Utilizing standard offerings, coupled with an incredible team effort by the designer and drapery workroom, we provided all of the requested styles of window treatments, and were able to control them all on a single system. This means that each room has a single, elegant keypad built into the wall that controls not only the window treatments, but the lighting as well.
When leaving/entering the home, all of the window coverings can be raised or lowered with a single button press. Shades and draperies can also be set to operate based on the time of day for automatic day-to-day operation using sunlight as a guide. In the end, we achieved convenience, function and sophisticated style.
Spire Integrated Systems Inc.Sustainable Design Meets Smart Technology
This home featured a request from the client to use as many environmentally friendly materials and fabrics as possible. Many common shade manufacturers use materials with PVC plastic, which is known for off-gassing hazardous chemicals that linger in the air in the home for years. The main floor roller shades met the client’s request for an eco-friendly fabric by utilizing motorized shades with GreenScreen fabric. In other rooms, the designer and client wanted the classic look and soft fabrics with roman shades and drapery tracks on several windows in the house. By partnering with the interior designer and fabric workroom, we were able to provide a custom solution for motorization of roman shades and drapery.
Lighting Control
The client is able control all of the lighting and window treatments in the house with a single control system. This eliminates the need for extra devices on the wall or remote controls that clutter up the space and get lost. By utilizing the custom window treatments, the house is able to conserve energy by keeping the house warmer in the winter, and cooler in the summer by providing insulation and blocking sunlight. The lighting control system further helps to conserve energy by beautifully dimming LED lights as well as using quick buttons that turn off all of the lights in the house, or un-occupied rooms, with the press of a single button.
Motorized Window Treatments
Motorized window treatments add a high level of convenience to any project, especially those with many windows in hard to reach places. The challenge with many manufacturers is a limitation of style and fabric selection, some may be a s basic as only roller shades. Often times these come with un-reliable, wireless controls.
On this Birmingham, MI project completed in March 2019, we partnered with the interior designer and drapery workroom to provide a truly unique solution. The homeowner and designer’s requests included many different styles of window treatments including rollers shades, roman shades and motorized draperies. Typically, this would result in a collection of various shade manufacturers with unsightly remotes scattered across each room or stuck to the wall for control. Utilizing standard offerings, coupled with an incredible team effort by the designer and drapery workroom, we provided all of the requested styles of window treatments, and were able to control them all on a single system. This means that each room has a single, elegant keypad built into the wall that controls not only the window treatments, but the lighting as well.
When leaving/entering the home, all of the window coverings can be raised or lowered with a single button press. Shades and draperies can also be set to operate based on the time of day for automatic day-to-day operation using sunlight as a guide. In the end, we achieved convenience, function and sophisticated style.
Banker WireWhen envisioning the Hygeia Lot 3 single family residential home in Encinitas, California, Lindsay and Rory Brown of The Brown Studio sought to weave unique architectural details throughout the minimalist design scheme. To add depth to the overall look and feel of the space, and to complement the home’s existing ‘hard’ angles, the team selected Banker Wire’s IPZ-25 woven wire mesh. Specified in a stainless steel and brass finish, the wire mesh was utilized to create the interior stairway railing, which functions as the focal point of the lower lounge room area.
Adding an elegant touchpoint to the space, the wire mesh reiterates the angular look and feel while providing much-needed depth through the stainless steel and brass finish. Similarly, for the project-at-large, the design team favored a seamless indoor/outdoor design scheme, with the Banker Wire mesh application helping to achieve this; the exterior of the home features Gabion rock walls, created using an enclosing wire structure to secure the rocks into a wall formation. By adding the wire mesh interior stairway railing, the design team was able to create an indoor/outdoor connection through highlighting these unique wire touchpoints.
“The Hygeia Lot 3 house is full of unique angles and architectural details—it’s two levels of playful design and carefully crafted architectural details,” says Loryn Cook, Designer, The Brown Studio. “We wanted to use materials that reflect this line of thinking, and Banker Wire’s architectural mesh provided the stability and breathability we were after.”
The simple, lightweight material of the IPZ-25 wire mesh pattern—which has a 54% open area—utilizes a mixture of stainless steel to achieve balanced sturdiness; when mixed with the copper-based alloy of brass, a beautiful contrast occurs, while the team’s custom system holds the wire in place. Through utilizing different wire diameters for the warp and shute—achieving balanced stiffness in both directions—the intercrimp surface gives the material a high degree of reflective energy. As a result, the mesh pattern imitates an array of colors that changes as the viewer moves throughout the space.
“For this project, we wanted a material that was permeable enough to see through, but detailed enough to catch the eye,” adds Cook. “IPZ-25 provides a myriad of different textures and colors, depending on the perspective from which it is viewed from—we love it specifically for this effect.”
In regards to the fabrication process, Robert Richter, Owner of Flur Metals, notes that although it was initially a challenge, this project is proof that the outcome is well worth it.
“We typically utilize more rigid mesh types for this kind of application, but because of how unique IPZ-25 is, The Brown Studio came to us asking if we could make it work,” says Richter. “We did not shy away from the challenge; this project was exciting, as we were able to utilize such a delicate, beautiful mesh, but a non-traditional way. Once one side was ‘tac’d in,’ we pulled it tight, and ‘tac’d’ the other side to the frame. Then, the border was welded to another frame that sandwiched the mesh in place,” adds Richter. “This application is proof that it can be done! It’s still one of my favorite projects we have ever worked on.”
Vetter ArchitectsThe mHouse is the brainchild of a magazine publisher intent on changing the way houses are constructed and how their owners relate to them. Named after one of the company’s website, the mHouse serves as a built manifesto of innovative panel materials such as rice hull composites and thermally fused laminate – becoming a case study house for over 30 international material suppliers.
The design challenge was quite clear – how to use a series of new materials unproven in the US building trades to create a beautiful house that meets the unique needs of today’s family. The result is a building that is highly rational in its construction systems, while encouraging social gathering.
The mHouse serves as a direct counterpoint to the typical suburban builder home – creating unique outdoor spaces in place of the typical open lawn, a variety of different views in contrast to one major view, and expressing a confidence in the future over nostalgia for the past.
Through a series of layers and nodes, the landscape grounds the house and heightens the views from inside, using indigenous plantings applied in non-traditional ways, the landscape mirrors the house in rethinking the suburban home.
The mHouse strikes a balance between proven methods and innovative solutions, resulting in one version of what is possible with these materials and setting the stage for future iterations and new possibilities.
Size
Total Finished Area: 3,405 sf
Completion Date
September 2015
Services
Architecture
Interior Design Consultant: Amy Carman Design
Landscape Consultant: Texten
Vetter ArchitectsThe mHouse is the brainchild of a magazine publisher intent on changing the way houses are constructed and how their owners relate to them. Named after one of the company’s website, the mHouse serves as a built manifesto of innovative panel materials such as rice hull composites and thermally fused laminate – becoming a case study house for over 30 international material suppliers.
The design challenge was quite clear – how to use a series of new materials unproven in the US building trades to create a beautiful house that meets the unique needs of today’s family. The result is a building that is highly rational in its construction systems, while encouraging social gathering.
The mHouse serves as a direct counterpoint to the typical suburban builder home – creating unique outdoor spaces in place of the typical open lawn, a variety of different views in contrast to one major view, and expressing a confidence in the future over nostalgia for the past.
Through a series of layers and nodes, the landscape grounds the house and heightens the views from inside, using indigenous plantings applied in non-traditional ways, the landscape mirrors the house in rethinking the suburban home.
The mHouse strikes a balance between proven methods and innovative solutions, resulting in one version of what is possible with these materials and setting the stage for future iterations and new possibilities.
Size
Total Finished Area: 3,405 sf
Completion Date
September 2015
Services
Architecture
Interior Design Consultant: Amy Carman Design
Landscape Consultant: Texten
KURV Architecture DPC (Alex Hughes Architects)Located in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the building was erected on a shallow commercial lot between two 120 year old masonry buildings and a new residential rental building. 330 Grand Street is a mix of 725 SF 1BRs and 1050 SF 2BR apartments. It also contains a 1100 SF two story duplex as well as private and public rooftop space, large private balconies for most units and two large private terraces for the ground floor units.
330 Grand Street was originally designed and approved at the NYC DOB as a prefabricated modular building. During the pandemic, as shipping costs skyrocketed putting the project at risk, we suggested redesigning the building as a reinforced cast-in-place concrete structure. Concrete was readily available and prices had not been affected by the demand increase that many other materials suffered in the pandemic. We took this opportunity to raise floor to ceiling heights, enlarge high performance windows and redistribute the buildings MEPFS and Structural Systems to create very open floor plans.
The challenge was to create a luxurious sensorial living experience with very limited means. In a city with very high construction costs, low cost residential buildings in the area are usually devoid of good quality, design and character. Our approach was to aim high for the end user, prioritizing natural light, open space with long visual perspectives, high ceilings and as always, rejecting the use of predefined building templates.
Our biggest challenge was to ensure that the small spaces feel as clean cut, large and bright as possible. Several unique design decisions were made to ensure low cost and high quality;
Floor plans were laid out so that spaces were wide open and free of clutter from mechanical or structural interruptions. Therefore all infrastructure was placed in lateral demising walls, which in turn act as the unit’s storage and kitchen. The apartments feel wide open, are super quiet and have more storage space than any other comparable apartment in the city.
To solve the problem of the site’s shallow commercial lot which is typically prone to dark interior spaces we focused our attention on the building’s envelope. Instead of the usual small punched window openings, oversized high performance windows were designed to ensure that light penetrated as far as possible into the units. In the smaller 1BR units, the full 50’ depth of the lot is perceived by partitioning spaces with sliding pocket doors that can be retracted to allow deep visual perspectives, making the sight lines in the space feel longer, larger, more ample than normal. In addition to the full height glazing, each unit above the 2nd floor receives a 7 foot covered balcony, adding 120 to 240 sf to each apartment, something unusual in New York City buildings. The space is large enough for a full size dining table, when the weather permits being outside.
We also worked hard to ensure modularity. For example, all kitchen units are all identical throughout the building. The idea of modularity and the economy of the repetitive unit is exercised to the maximum through the building.
Hardware, appliances, flooring, wall coverings and material finishes are all carefully selected to feel bespoke, high quality and unique.
It was important to KURV that the result of this work manifest into something that would deeply connect with the end user and sustain relationships with the consumers of this space.
All images by KURV Architecture ©
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