Fosters and Partners

http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/0411/Default.aspx

The 'House in Japan' by Fosters and partners is like all Fosters projects, inspirational and iconic. Although this has been built in 1992, this is still a contemporary design, and covers many traditional Japanese ideas.
Connecting the exterior to the interior, use of lines and allowing large amounts of light into the home. the Modular look and shape has once again derived from the Farnworth House, even the use, shape and function of supports, the integration of glass walls, the use of stairs is indeed inspired by the Farnsworth house. The House in Japan was a key motive to researching Japanese design for me, ever since I had seen this design previously.

Boso House

http://www.homedesignfind.com/architecture/7-clean-minimalist-homes/

Again from the same website

Boso house by Kiyonobu Nakagame Architects  


This house again is an incredible design, but simple. Relating strongly to the Farnsworth house (pictured right) The Boso house, is again a modular home, with walls of glass, minimal façade and a clean bright colour scheme.


using support posts, the walls of glass ar encased by 'C' shaped walls, that act as a wall, ceiling and floor, which is a great idea and stylish to. I plan to incorporate this into my final design.

Contemporary Japanese Design

http://www.homedesignfind.com/architecture/7-clean-minimalist-homes/

From a blog website, I discovered this showcase of Contemporary Japanese homes.

The Garden and Sea by architect Takao Shiotsuka   is incredibly inspirational, in terms of top heavy looks/illusion, use of glass walls, large panels of glass, the idea of having glass roofs to allow light into rooms below, this is an idea for the bathroom, to allow privacy and to be able to place my bathroom anywhere, I plan to incorporate a skylight into my roof, to allow light in and keep the area private. This will now allow my to perhaps place the bathroom in the middle of the 1st floor, instead of  having to place it to and exterior corner. This again will be ethical, as the bathroom will not be cold  or as cold if it were placed by an external wall.

London Trip

I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in London, on a college trip, aswell as looking through various art galleries, I also had the chance to visit the NLA Building Centre, where sustainable housing materials and products were on show.

I also visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, where I thought was an exhibition on sustainable living, however I found that the Medevil architecture exhibition had been extended to the end of this month. although I did find the general architecture exhibition very useful and informative.

The highlight of the trip for me personally was visiting the Gherkin Building. I did not realise how large it actually was. I did know the dimensions and facts about the building, but nothing can actually contemplate the size of the building in the flesh, I am still amazed at how big it actually was.

I also had the priviledge of viewing the Loyds Building, by Richard Rodgers, a building that I was not intentially interested in, due to my interest entirely on the Gherkin, however viewing and knowing about the functioanlity if the build, I now appreciate the whole structure.

Flood proof housing - Rises with flood water

As researched before, the idea of a house that rises when an area of land gets flooded

Here the technical background and solution behind this idea is put into practice and explained, again within the Netherlands

Floating Homes - Karsten Trabitzsch

Karsten Trabitzsch, from Forster + Trabitzsch architects explains their award winning Floating homes.

When they released their concept, they had 200 queries asking could they make these homes smaller.

With a competition winner in Berlin, and a smaller previous construct in Hamburg, the amphibious builds are built no
limit to materials, as seen in the video, a large amount of glass is used, folding floor to ceiling doors are used also, as a transition from the living area to an outdoor patio area, that could be described and looks like a deck from a ship.

The Second floor in the building plans is in fact called the top deck

The house itself has one bedroom, two baths and two Living areas,

TNA Architects

TNA Architects, have designed a weekend retreat.

The ' Ring house '  is located outside of Tokyo, and provides a 360 degree view on each floor,.

however due to this, the occupant does not have a great amount of privacy. What I have found interesting is the concept of having an en suite bathroom/shower room, on a raised platform, within the bedroom, with a shower segregated by a piece of glass

http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2008/01/11/ring-house/

CURIOSITY INC

CURIOSITY INC, architects, based in Tokyo, Japan  


Have designed a minimalist House, even down to the name, CP-1. What alerts me about this house is that it doesn't seem to have any stairs, just ramps, but this has got me wondering does a house really have to have stairs?


with it's clean minimalist look, this could be a turning point for my project.


http://www.curiosity.jp/eng/works/details.cgi?cp=1;s=3;t=26;cq=1

Floating Houses - Dutch Architecture

As Holland is  1/3 below sea level, Dutch architects  have tried several ways to successfully keep water out of their country, the most successful way, is the use of  dikes, in which they maintain land, and pump water back out to the sea, however with climate change, sea levels are rising, and this method is not viable any more.

Therefore, the idea of building on top of water is a practical one, but with anything new, people are worried and anxious about what if's and how exactly does this work

This is where Water Studio, architecture firm, based in the Netherlands, claim to build safe housing built on  water, as many people are cautious and afraid of living on water.

There are no limits to design or materials, as I would have thought glass would be unsuitable to use, as it may smash when rising, but this is not the case, as a large amount of glass has been used within numerous designs, and in fact look like modular homes or like any other conventional, contemporary construct.

This is due to the hollow foundation in which enables the house to float, with reinforced polystyrene, encased in concrete, the underneath of a floating house, looks like an empty basement.

The theory behind this is that of a ship, the lower part of the ship is filled with air, therefore it is then able to support the weight above and still be capable to float.

the following video explains the key ideas in which makes this possible and why.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb3q2n_climate-change-the-netherlands-floa_tech

Final Major Project

The Final Major Project has arrived, and after numerous ideas, aspirations, university preparations and conversations, I have decided to research and base my project on floating homes.

After an article from the Observer, floating homes are a solution towards, the problem of flooding. People are describing this as a way of living with water, as opposed to fighting it.

The idea of  a floating home is, when a flood comes in, the house will rise with the tide, then return to its original position as the flood water level decreases, therefore, preventing people's homes from becoming flooded and people are able to live in a conventional house, without having to live on stilts, or  on one floor, above the flood level.

This revolutionary, and life changing architecture, is even backed by Brad Pitt, he is interested in what is happening in New Orleans. A number of famous and successful architects are designing for the area also, including my favourite contemporary architect David Adjaye

here the article is explained in more depth
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33199555/ns/us_news-life/