Tag Archives: concrete

This concrete floating home in Ho Chi Minh City is designed to mitigate the effects of flooding

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Architecture studio SDA designed a concrete-frame home called the Floating House. Perched on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, the Floating House has been raised above the ground, to protect the home against the effects of flooding. The home is located in the Thu Duc district, which faces flooding quite frequently due to a nearby river. By elevating the home one meter above the ground, the studio was able to mitigate the adverse impact of flooding.

Designer: Studio SDA

The home is marked by its exposed concrete framework, which provides protection to the house from the elements. About 70 percent of the home is filled with spaces that are quite open to the outside, through the integration of cantilevered balconies and a rooftop terrace. This creates a serene indoor-outdoor connection. The rest of the home is closed off to the outside with the help of wood-framed windows.

“We composed the house as three slabs floating above the ground. The gap between each floor creates a diversity of spaces indoors and outdoors. Each slab is extended toward the garden, cantilevering in multiple directions, and serves as a terrace or outdoor space, an eave for an opening, and a roof to cover an outdoor staircase,” explained Studio SDA. The home features three levels, which are connected via an external staircase that is sheltered overhead by overhanging floor plates. The interiors of the home are enclosed by folding glass doors with dark-wood frames. This enables the spaces to be deftly interconnected to the balconies. However, the bathroom is fully enclosed and private.

The lower level of the home includes the bedroom. The bedroom is linked to the kitchen, living room, and dining area on the upper floor by an internal spiral staircase. A rooftop terrace is placed atop the home, and it holds seating and outdoor cooking spaces. “In Vietnam, where everything is packed tightly together, including people and things, we believe it is essential to design outdoor spaces that serve as ‘blank spaces.  This house focuses on the active outdoor life in Vietnam, with a new frame and structural design to realize it,” the studio concluded.

The post This concrete floating home in Ho Chi Minh City is designed to mitigate the effects of flooding first appeared on Yanko Design.

This concrete floating home in Ho Chi Minh City is designed to mitigate the effects of flooding

Posted on by

Architecture studio SDA designed a concrete-frame home called the Floating House. Perched on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, the Floating House has been raised above the ground, to protect the home against the effects of flooding. The home is located in the Thu Duc district, which faces flooding quite frequently due to a nearby river. By elevating the home one meter above the ground, the studio was able to mitigate the adverse impact of flooding.

Designer: Studio SDA

The home is marked by its exposed concrete framework, which provides protection to the house from the elements. About 70 percent of the home is filled with spaces that are quite open to the outside, through the integration of cantilevered balconies and a rooftop terrace. This creates a serene indoor-outdoor connection. The rest of the home is closed off to the outside with the help of wood-framed windows.

“We composed the house as three slabs floating above the ground. The gap between each floor creates a diversity of spaces indoors and outdoors. Each slab is extended toward the garden, cantilevering in multiple directions, and serves as a terrace or outdoor space, an eave for an opening, and a roof to cover an outdoor staircase,” explained Studio SDA. The home features three levels, which are connected via an external staircase that is sheltered overhead by overhanging floor plates. The interiors of the home are enclosed by folding glass doors with dark-wood frames. This enables the spaces to be deftly interconnected to the balconies. However, the bathroom is fully enclosed and private.

The lower level of the home includes the bedroom. The bedroom is linked to the kitchen, living room, and dining area on the upper floor by an internal spiral staircase. A rooftop terrace is placed atop the home, and it holds seating and outdoor cooking spaces. “In Vietnam, where everything is packed tightly together, including people and things, we believe it is essential to design outdoor spaces that serve as ‘blank spaces.  This house focuses on the active outdoor life in Vietnam, with a new frame and structural design to realize it,” the studio concluded.

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This 3D printed sculptural concrete bench is designed to enhance the Southampton Skate Park

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Rich Holland has designed multiple skateparks around the world, and he’s now busy working on an inclusive new park in Southampton. The new park is meant to elevate and revamp Southampton’s skating scene, and Holland has rejuvenated the space with a series of super interesting furniture objects!

Designer: Rich Holland

Holland has been known for his skateboard-centric designs and landscapes since 2000, and one of his recent works involved strategizing and designing the Nike skate landscape in the brand’s Netherlands headquarters.  And, his collaboration with Skate Southampton involves renovating and transforming the pre-existing space at Guildhall Square, and creating a skating area that is much more open, spacious, engaging, and visually and aesthetically pleasing! And Holland recently unveiled one of the pieces – the PSFF Bench. The PSFF Bench is a prototype and is a furniture piece with a sculptural appeal to it.

It is 3D printed using concrete! Besides adding character to the square and enhancing its overall appeal, the bench aims to function as an off-the-shelf solution for providing public skateboard-focused furniture to places all over the world. 3D Printing is truly gaining more momentum and popularity than ever. Designers and architects all over the world are now adopting 3D Printing for the creation of almost all types of products and structures. It’s a technique that is being widely utilized in product design, owing to its simple and innovative nature, so it’s no surprise that it’s being introduced to the world of sports as well.

With this project Holland hopes to bring iconic sweeping skate landscapes, and minimal concrete design to the skating world of Southampton. It includes a collection of 3D-printed furniture pieces that are wholly focused on skating. The objects are created using concrete, and no other material. The 3D-printing process used to produce the pieces was brought to life in collaboration with the Eindhoven University of Technology and contractor BAM Infra. The process is supremely optimized and produces premium-quality construction products. The furniture is quite sports-centric and has a rather minimalistic and unassuming appeal to it, allowing the material, the form, and the sturdiness to speak through.

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This concrete holiday home in the Korean mountains resembles a stoic stone fortress

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Located outside the South Korean city of Chuncheon-Si, tucked away in a valley beneath the imposing mountains is a modern mountain house called Uirim Inn. Designed by 100A Associates, the minimal home is discreetly nestled away and looks like a walled concrete fortress. It has a rustic yet contemporary appeal to it!

Designer: 100A Associates

The home is a great resting location for travelers traveling through the rural area. It serves as a warm and inviting space, where travelers can rest and recuperate. Although the exterior is quite introverted and subtle, the home itself is meant to be a safe haven, where guests are always welcome. The structure is divided into two elements – a permanent residence for the host, where he stays year-round, and two suites for the guests. The home is connected with the forest, as it opens towards the slope, but at the same time, it is provided privacy from the valley.

The home has a rather poetic concept to it, which is highlighted by the team, “An exceptionally bright chestnut tree was situated as if it were the owner of the land. The traveler in the forest humbly accepted it, and the chestnut offered him the comfort of silence. That’s how Uirim Inn was settled under such a beautiful and peaceful chestnut tree.” Wood was used generously throughout the home. The tranquil timber interiors allow wood to resonate throughout the space. Sunlight streams into the home throughout the day, creating a comfortable and cozy respite for travelers. The interiors feature a reddish wood, which beautifully contrasts against the concrete exterior, and the rusted steel detailing of the home.

The guest bedrooms proudly open up to their own private garden via a full-height glazing wall, and sliding glass doors, that provide views of the gardens even when they’re closed. This allows for a wonderful indoor-outdoor connection and lets the quietness of the forest descend into the home, lending it an air of tranquility as well. If you look at the holiday home closely, you’ll realize it really looks like an enclosed and private stone fortress, but once you enter it, you are instantly put at ease with its warm wooden interiors.

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This monolithic black concrete home in the mountains of Argentina is modern brutalism at its best

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Nestled in the mountains of Córdoba is a black-stained concrete home called The Black House. Designed by Argentinian studio AR Arquitectos, the home occupies 550 square meters, and was commissioned to be built by a family. It is located in the small mountain town of La Calera, on the outskirts of Córdoba.

Designer: AR Arquitectos

“The principal idea was to break with the traditional premises. Our attention was placed on the choice of concrete as the protagonist material in all its senses,” said the studio.

The exterior of the home is marked by black-stained concrete, providing the home with a rather stark and bold aesthetic. It imparts the home with a sense of permanence and individuality. The home features two storeys, with the lower level partially sunken into the ground. Sturdy stairs lead to the main entrance, while a garage designed as a breezeway provides a lovely view of the home. The garage is populated with cars arranged like a ramp. The ground floor of the home showcases an open-concept layout and functions as the communal space of the home. This space is defined by sliding glass walls that open out to stunning views of the surrounding mountains “The ground floor, undermined in the terrain, gives visitors the experience of going through the project and framing the views it suggests. The interior and exterior merge thanks to the permeability that is achieved through large glazed surfaces, with windows that connect the interior space with a large gallery, pool, garden, and the view,” said the studio.

The back of the house features a covered space that enables the residents to lounge about in the outdoors while being protected from harsh sunlight. A double-height area equipped with a staircase is located next to the garage. This area boasts monolithic wooden treads cemented into the concrete wall.

“The staircase is one of the main elements, with the idea of expressing a material’s lightness over the robustness of another material, such as black concrete,” AR Arquitectos said.

The upper storey of the home features two bedrooms, a home office, and a long corridor. All the rooms have access to views of the city of Còrdoba. The master bedroom has a connecting terrace. It is also lined with a beautiful wood paneling. The wood used for the paneling is stronger and lighter than pine boards. The subtle and minimal materials used to create the interiors, perfectly contrast the dark exterior. A wood called Kiri was utilized to build slatted screens which cover up the windows.

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This distinctive coffee table blends contrasting elements to give it a unique character

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Coffee tables today do more than just hold your coffee or your coffee table books. They have become both literal and figurative centers of a room, providing visual impact through their eye-catching appearances. Some coffee tables grab your attention with their exquisite shapes, while others prefer to do it through remarkable materials. This unique coffee table does both, creating a piece of furniture that could almost be described as sculptural art. What’s more noteworthy, however, is that it uses what seems to be opposing or contrasting materials, giving it a distinct personality that’s like a Yin and Yang of furniture design.

Designer: Donatas Žukauskas

There are some materials, both natural and man-made, that seem to be associated with certain emotions and concepts. Water, for example, can be calming and cleansing, while plastic is soft and pliable. Wood is warm and cozy, while stone, in its many forms, is cold and impersonal. These latter two might seem to stand on opposite ends, but they come together in a harmonious and even artistic way in this sculptural coffee table made of natural wood and a new concrete-like material.

The very shape of the table itself seems to convey this character of combining contrasting elements. The wide, irregularly-shaped wooden top is held up by three conical legs that end in very thin feet that seem to test fate. Its form has elements of both stability and irregularity as if challenging the mind to decide whether the table is steady or is ready to collapse on one end.

What makes this table even more interesting is that its concrete legs aren’t exactly made from actual concrete. Instead, it is a solid yet elastic mass that is actually closer to wood but was designed to look like concrete. It is made from paper mass, which is again the opposite of the rigidity of concrete, but mixed with various other materials to give it the desired texture, water resistance, and rigidity. Fusing this wet mass, which is poured into a mold, with the wood top proved to be a tricky task, but the result was well worth the trouble.

This sculptural coffee table of opposites is definitely a sight to behold in a room, and of course, it’s quite functional, too. So yes, you can place your favorite mug and books on top without fear of breaking down. Its special character, however, doesn’t stop at its aesthetics. Recycled materials were utilized in creating this table, making it a sustainable piece of furniture and sculptural art as well.

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An orange – concrete speaker is a refined output from the bare aesthetics

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The Brutalist architectural technique comprising exposed and unpainted concrete, reminiscent of post-WWII United Kingdom, forms inspiration for a state-of-the-art concrete speaker. The monochrome color palette of bare structures is carried onto the base of this speaker, but it’s the bright orange top that adds an element of modernity to the brutalist-esque speaker system.

Clever engineering and design have made possible speakers whose housing is made of concrete. The idealistic purpose of replacing wood or plastic with concrete has allowed audiophiles to realize the considerable difference in sound. Concrete creates a robust housing for a speaker and this element forms the essence of Orange – Concrete Speaker.

Designer: Duc Vu Anh

To retain the robustness of the construction material; Duc has kept the interaction with the concrete speaker very physical. A tap on the top, springs open the head and turns the speaker on. Knock it back to switch the speaker off.

On the concrete base (ideally shaped as one of the Brutalist structures from the bygone era) you have four physical buttons for volume, play/pause and Bluetooth. Presumably, the chunky speaker connects wirelessly over Bluetooth to any mobile device. It also gets a USB port on the left side to recharge the probable built-in battery.

The concrete housing makes the speaker an interesting addition to your desk, but it’s the incredible orange finish that adds a refined ingredient to the bare aesthetic. Resilient, durable, and portable, the concrete speaker, by its virtue, produces music that sounds like original without distortion.

Concrete as a material, by its weight and high density – prevents speaker from vibrating, but its pour and finish mean the shape and surface have symmetry. The grains ensure no two speakers have the same acoustics (there will be the minutest of differences, but you will never notice anything).

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This brutalist concrete villa in New Delhi boasts a ramp-like cascading green roof

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Nestled in hot and hectic New Delhi, India, is a beautiful concrete home with a majestic terraced roof, rising up like a gentle wave from the landscaped ground. Called Villa KD45, the imposing villa was designed by Studio Symbiosis for a large joint family, that wanted a home that could hold its own on an angular property surrounded on three sides by other villas. With its rather unique form, impressive green roof, and brutalist-like vibe, Villa KD45 does just that!

Designer: Studio Symbiosis

“In urban settings, there is a disconnect between the user and nature. With this project we are looking at creating green urban living, to rekindle the relationship of the residents with nature in their immediate surroundings,” said Studio Symbiosis.

Occupied by an extended family of eight members, the home includes a rather impressive garden and was built while taking into consideration the large trees surrounding it. The trees in fact aided in the construction of the garden, owing to their tactile location which influenced the home’s positioning at the northeast corner. The roof of the home cascades down in a rather ramp-like form, scattered with steps, that hold concrete planters. The terrace also features a landscaped garden, that provides lovely views of the neighborhood park.

The ground floor of the home has been lowered a little, while the upper level is cantilevered, to provide shade against direct sunlight. The first floor has been amped with windows at angular recesses to minimize the heat gain. These precautions are necessary since Delhi can get supremely hot during the summertime, reaching unbearable temperatures. The plants on the rooftop reduce heat gain as well. The ground floor houses the double-height kitchen, dining, and living area. They serve as spaces for the family to gather and spend some quality time. Sliding doors create an alluring indoor-outdoor connection between this section and the garden.

A rather imposing floating staircase joins the living area to the first floor, followed by a mezzanine with a glass balustrade that allows the two spaces to remain visually connected. Another rather interesting feature of the home is a swing seat tucked away in a corner of one of the first-floor bedrooms. It looks out onto a tree canopy and is a rather cozy space to grab some me-time in.

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This modular concrete stool blends contrasting elements in a brutalist package

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Concrete is not something you’d immediately associate with flexibility and comfort, especially as applied to chairs and tables. The material is great for making outdoor furniture that remains rooted in place until they’re damaged beyond use and repair. They often have fixed forms, too, considering they’re not the easiest things to move or change anyway. That, however, means lost opportunity in shattering expectations and pushing the envelope of what you can do with the material. Fortunately, not everyone is easily intimidated by concrete’s rough demeanor, and this modular stool system demonstrates what’s possible when you start playing around with shapes, colors, and materials.

Designers: one J, Jeongjin Ko, Jinsu Du, Keetae Kim (Superkomma)

In its most basic configuration, the CONECTO stool looks like any ordinary cylindrical stool with a colorful top. That, however, is an illusion, given that the seemingly whole concrete base is actually two half cylinders joined at their flat side. You might take for granted how this “half shape” can be used in a modular fashion, but almost like LEGO, they can become the building blocks of larger stools that can accommodate more people at once.

Joining the two halves on their curved side allows a square “cover” to be put on top for a more traditional stool. Putting half a cylinder on one side extends it a bit for a more comfortable arrangement, but adding yet another half on the opposite side creates an oblong bench. If, on the other hand, you put three full cylinders together in a triangular formation, you can have a bench that can accommodate as many as three people.

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Part of the CONECTO’s modularity is thanks to the acrylic top that joins different pieces together. This material also provides a striking contrast to the concrete base, creating a visually interesting outdoor furniture design. Where concrete is cold, raw, and rough, the translucent acrylic top is softer, colorful, and alive. The stool, whether alone or with others, provides a mix of brutalism and minimalism that could attract people to look and even sit.

The concept for CONECTO’s design also has sustainability as its goal from the get-go, using high-strength UHPC concrete with no harmful compounds. It the future, it is planned to also make use of recycled waste materials, creating an ecosystem that is not only free in its flexibility but also free from negative effects on the environment.

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This raw + rugged concrete home floats on top of a hill in Mexico

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Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao built a massive family home that floats above a forested hillside and provides stunning views of the city of Monterrey, Mexico. Built from concrete, the brutalist-looking home was created while maintaining an interesting relationship with the topography of the site. Called Casa Ventura, the home was designed to flow horizontally, and present a very open and fluid vibe.

Designer: Tatiana Bilbao

Bilbao, basically, broke down the volumes of the home, and seamlessly connected them together, so each volume effortlessly transitions into another with the help of a few steps. The volumes are shaped like pentagons, and follow the uneven and jagged topography of the landscape, giving the impression that the home is floating amidst the trees of the steep hill. The pentagonal volumes also feature cantilevered structures, equipped with full-height glazing, and beautiful terraces that give access to panoramic views of the city.

The material of choice for building Casa Ventura was raw concrete, to perfectly complement the climatic conditions of the site, as well as the structural requirements. Since the weather is quite erratic and extreme in the area, concrete was an excellent choice to efficiently control the intense weather changes. Aesthetically, concrete also imparts the home with a sense of rawness and honesty. It gives the home a monolithic quality, as well as a rough yet powerful exterior.

Since the home comprises of individual volumes, it can be sectioned off into different public and private spaces. A spiral staircase provides access to and connects the multiple levels. The lower levels of the home function as communal areas, whereas the upper levels house the private rooms.

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