Designed to exude a sense of luxury living and indoor comfort amongst nature ~ Genius, Green, Gather, Glow, Gravitate..

Hakansson Tegman House based in the city of Höllviken, Sweden has been completed by Johan Sundberg. The clients commissioned a modern and nature-oriented one story house where sensuous qualities were the most important parameters throughout the design process.

The architects says:
“Höllviken south of Malmö was originally a seaside resort, but the forested rows of summer houses are continuously being transformed into a carpet of permanent housing. The site is a somewhat complicated corner plot with roads to the north and west.

The project was commissioned by a couple who wanted a modern and nature-oriented one-storey house where sensuous qualities were the most important parameters throughout the design process.

The contemporary house is angled around an inner garden and, much like the Bergman Werntoft house, rests on the tradition of the Danish atrium house from the 60s and 70s. Three small bedrooms crowd together in the northern wing of the house, while the western wing is a continuous sequence of spaces consisting of a kitchen, dining room, library, living area, and winter garden.

The outer walls along the streets are clad with Pedersen clay bricks working as a screen. The stucture is a steel-enforced timber frame. Windows and sliding glass doors are made from Schüco aluminum profiles. The front and garage doors are custom made from ammonium smoked oak. Images courtesy of Henrik Magnusson.”

Together with South Tyrolean hotelier Josef Innherhofer, the fincube was also conceptualized as a vision for future hospitality: a temporary FINCUBE village with minimum soil sealing can be placed in the middle of the most beautiful landscapes without permanently altering them. In contrast to all permanent buildings it could be easily changed, extended, scaled down or removed and the area would soon be denaturalized back to normal. These qualities turn the unit into an answer to future needs of flexible and smart tourism.

Technology wise the FINCUBE is a smart house – all vital house-functions are controlled by a central touchpanel.
The supporting structure is made of local larch and the interior is a combination of larch & stone-pine. The 3m-high space is organized in a helical structure: the entrance area blends into a generous open kitchen with an adjacent sofa living space, around the corner one enters the bedroom and further down is the spacious bathroom.

“The pier design we share here is a series of experience, including where it meets downtown, at the municipal marina, at the warm waters where the manatee swims, and at the unbelievable horizon of Tampa Bay. The experiences along the way provide an unfolding journey, and a part of the fun getting to the pier’s end. The People’s Pier culminates at what we call the St. Petersburg Eye – a totally unique structure that has four levels, each with infinite views, exceptional experiences, open-ended settings, and inspiring vistas.”

Photographs by Steve King

Before the shows as the seating fills what the viewer observes is a perfect water cube that seems to be a fountain in the bay. At the times indicated, certain sides of the reservoirs will be dammed and no water will flow over that particular side leaving an opening in the water cube. Just as a traditional curtain in a theater opens revealing the stage setting, the wall or curtain of water parts and recedes to expose the stage setting and the performers.


The design concept builds on the notion that a theaters success is associated to the strength and quality of the relationship between the audience and the performer. Acoustics amplify sound, lights direct visualizations but most other architectural elements or design features should become negligible once the performance begins.
The floating stage attempts to add a layer of this water vocabulary by resembling a cube of water. The intention of the cube is to evoke thoughts of the long standing tradition of man-made islands and waterways throughout the bay. The water cube, while being made of natural materials cries out its man-made origins. Through the use of gateways and dams, waterfalls provide the stage with curtains, backdrops, privacy screens and even a surface on which to project. The unique quality of water to absorb and mask sound and it’s amazing reflective and refractive qualities allow it to enhance the experience.

The upper floor is divided in two volumes, that intersect in the axis of horizontal and vertical circulation, conferring efficiency to the space articulation. Based on minimal intervention, the outdoor spaces promote relaxation and enjoyment of the surroundings. Bringing the interior configuration accuracy outside, the communion needed and desired in a summer house is accomplished.

dEMM Architects

The material is researched by its spatial characteristics and escapes its standard application. The transparency in the along-direction and the fixed wall in the cross-direction determine the spatiality.

By parallel stacking of the tubes as building stones a mass has been created which represents itself closed from four sides, but which is transparent, seen from the head sides. By hollowing out this mass a special residence will be created which will be provided by light seen from the head sides.”

Like many other cities in China, Hefei is undergoing a rapid transformation. The original urban fabric was torn apart and discarded, replaced by giant blocks of anonymous structures and forms. The present Hefei is just a fleeting moment on its relentless march toward the future.

So, we call it a “Momentary City”.

The neighborhoods that were demolished and the new sites that are under construction fill this “Momentary City” with scabs. We try to design such a place that creates peace and tranquility for people’s souls. It filters out the noise and dust from the outside world, but retains light and its shadow, water and its ripples, wind and it’s sounds, plants and their aroma, a series of momentary phenomena to create a memory that lasts.

A sequence of courtyards, each hosts one of these phenomena are inserted between the indoor space and outdoor city environment, become a visual connection between the building and the city. The ends of these courtyards are enclosed by industrial fibre glass screens which are hung in two layers. On the courtyards’ side, the colors of the screens change to reflect the various themes of the courtyards. On the city side, the screens remain clear and translucent. This variation in color creates a subtle effect when they are viewed from city side. When they are seen from different points of view and distances, the screens’ appearance are also shifting. At night, when the courtyards and the trees are lit, the screens glow quietly to cast a faint color on the sidewalks.

The layout of the courtyards is the foundation of an internal logic that informs the transition of the spaces. Sunlight reaches the interiors spaces directly or indirectly through the clerestories on the northern wall. The light made the spaces and time inseparable. With the light changing thorough the day and the seasons, the spaces take on different expressions. Maybe such ever-changing and irreplaceable moments are the precise definition of eternity?

Vector Architects

Photographs by Shuhe Photo.

Jensen & Skodvin Arkitektkontor

The Spain Pavilion is designed to be a hand-weaved wicker basket structure supported by the steel framework inside. “The Basket,” as some have dubbed the pavilion, is “dressed” in more than 8,000 wicker panels in brown, beige, and black. Wicker weaving is a tradition in both Spain and China and the pavilion is like a bridge connecting the two nations. The panels were handmade by craftsmen in Shandong Province, each one unique in design.

Photographs are copyright Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre

The South Pond Pavilion for yoga and other uses at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois by Studio Gang Architects, 2010. The project transforms a picturesque urban pond from the 19th century into an ecological habitat buzzing with life. With the design’s improvements to water quality, hydrology, landscape, accessibility, and shelter, the site is able to function as an outdoor classroom in which the co-existence of natural and urban surroundings is demonstrated.

A new boardwalk circumscribing the pond passes through various educational zones that explicate the different animals, plants, and habitat found in each. A pavilion integrated into the boardwalk sequence provides shelter for open-air classrooms on the site. Inspired by the tortoise shell, its laminated structure consists of prefabricated, bent-wood members and a series of interconnected fiberglass pods that give global curvature to the surface.

South Pond Pavillon

This Art Warehouse building was designed by A31 Architecture for painter and sculptor Alexandros Liapis. A part of the landscape was incorporated in the open-space sculpture gallery, hosting the artist’s creations.

Between olive, oleander and cypress trees, in a 4000 m2 plot and a few meters away from his dwelling in Dilesi, Boeotia, the ancient Delion, the erection of the new workshop of painter and sculptor Alexandros Liapis was determined. A part of the landscape was incorporated in the open-space sculpture gallery, hosting the artist’s creations. The basic criteria of the new structure’s synthesis were: the economy of its realization means, its construction honesty and discipline, its plasticity which would converse with the spirit of the Greek landscape. The new structure is a shell comprised of fair-faced reinforced concrete, completed in three separate phases. The dome, a timeless and interregional architectural coronation element spanning from antiquity to Modernism, interacts with the intimate space of the artist’s house, the “cell”.

The new structure is located in the North-South axis, while the orthogonal plan view is divided into 3 zones: Firstly, the cantilever with the balcony in the South, where the entrance is situated, secondly, the artist’s workspace and finally the attic in the North which serves as a storage space. A straight staircase connects the two levels, while the cantilevered concrete steps can serve as exhibition stands for the artist’s work. The wall openings, which relate to the Sun’s trajectory, the interior lighting and the ventilation, stem from transverse horizontal sections in the building shell. The sliced concrete blocks that are removed now function as benches for people and pedestals for sculptures.

A31 Architecture
Via [Colorfullhome

Plaster finishes were pigmented with sand from the site. The development of the design and detail, which resulted from collaboration between the architect and the craftsmen, took on tested techniques, both local and foreign, and raised them to a finer construction resolution.

The house is well-adapted to its environment: the louvres on the elevations enable passive cooling, as does the extensive shade provided by the coconut trees above; water for the house is harvested from three on-site wells, filtered and stored at the top of a water tower and fed by gravity to the house. The result of these measures is a quietly compelling project that is fully integrated into its landscape.