Tense Architecture Network designed the residence with an industrial aesthetic, featuring exposed concrete walls, basalt-cobble flooring and a folded steel staircase suspended by wire cables.

The ground and first floors are offset from one another and dark-tinted concrete columns support the overhanging bedroom floor.

"The main volume is vigorously elevated - nearly four metres high - in order to liberate the ground floor," architect Tilemachos Andrianopoulos told Dezeen. "The top floor's austerity towards the public facade realises an intentional contrast to the receptivity of the ground-floor spaces, which open up completely to the garden through the sliding glass panels."

A system of wires is strung up around the house, intended to encourage climbing plants around the building. "The industrial material character of the house is advantageously complemented by the greenery," explained Andrianopoulos.

A pivoting door provides the entrance and leads through to the living room and kitchen, which are divided on split levels. The steel staircase ascends towards three bedrooms on the top floor, while a concrete staircase descends to the basement.

Athens studio Tense Architecture Network also recently completed another concrete house in the Greek countryside. See more architecture in Greece.

See more photography by Filippo Poli on Dezeen or on the photographer's website.

Here are a few words from Tense Architecture Network:

Residence in Kato Kifissia, Athens

The residence's plot is small and an adjacent building almost blocks the southern sun. The complete "colonization" of the suburb has almost eliminated the previously exuberant vegetation in the rush to meet individualistic private housing.

As a first act, the desire to reside defines an area and makes a house, in it: a cubic shell of plants creates a limit for the residence, as area. In order to reside, one withdraws inward.

The residential space claims the whole field, as well as the sun; two parallelepiped volumes, one small and attached to the north, the other cantilevered and central, free the ground and enable the sun to enter.

When the plants are fully grown the green facade will be penetrated only by the black, central column of the shelter by exposed concrete. The basalt-watery surface on which it is anchored reflects the light in the interior.

Project Team: Tilemachos Andrianopoulos, Kostas Mavros, Nestoras Kanellos

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by Tense Architecture Network appeared first on Dezeen.

House in Sikamino has a 60-metre-long and narrow shape with angular edges that thrust out into the sloping topography, creating a partially submerged upper floor and a completely buried lower level.

"The composition seeks to vigorously merge the residence with its elongated site," explains Tense Architecture Network.

Grass covers the roof to create an artificial hill over the top of the house, intended to evoke the shapes of the Euboea mountains in the distance. Residents use the ground for planting herbs.

Glass walls bring daylight in along any exposed edges and open out to wooden terraces.

Spaces inside the house are broken up into a non-linear arrangement, with living spaces in the centre and bedrooms at the ends. A car parking area is also included on the lower floor.

Other recently completed Greek houses include a ridged limestone house in Milos and a weekend house in Paros. See more architecture from Greece.

See more photography by Filippo Poli on Dezeen, or on the photographer's website.

Here's a description from Tense Architecture Network:

Residence in Sikamino, Attica.

The field is elongated, rural, planted with olive trees. The land is dominant. How could a residence rise out of the ground, how could it be confined to a roof? The residence is its roof. A 60-metre-long one. While approaching the plot, it can be perceived as a slightly elevated strip of earthy crust in front of the distant mountains of Euboea. It can be walked on.

The roof is born from and returns back to the ground; it is planted likewise: helichrysum, rosanthemum, lavender, gauras, thyme. The roof's shape is rhomboid and the living space is hosted under its central, maximum width area, while the sleeping quarters occupy the edges.

The composition seeks to vigorously merge the residence with its elongated site. An additional, fully underground level has been introduced to facilitate the increased needs that the intent agricultural life requires. A curvilinear car ramp enters the rhombus in transverse, therefore creating an opening towards the cultivable part of the field. Building shell is of reinforced concrete, exposed on roofs and walls. Iron frames, sun-protecting blinds, metallic shutters palliate the sense of transparency. The sculptural clarity of the extended, concrete roof was attained by means of inversion of all beams but one, which abuts at the central column: the hearth.

Project team: Tilemachos Andrianopoulos, Kostas Mavros
Collaborating architect: Thanos Bampanelos

Above: site plan - click for larger image

Above: ground floor plan - click for larger image

Above: basement floor plan - click for larger image

Above: cross section - click for larger image

Above: south-east elevation - click for larger image

Above: north-west elevation - click for larger image

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Tense Architecture Network appeared first on Dezeen.

Completed in April, the project is the first in a three-phased office development masterplanned by Isozaki alongside former Foreign Office Architects partners Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Farshid Moussavi for a site in the industrial district of Zona Franca.

The glass-panelled facade is covered with a pattern of white and green dots, which reduce glare into the offices behind.

The building has a square-shaped plan where each level surrounds a central core containing staircases and lifts.

Offices floors have either a C or L-shaped layout and can be subdivided into two or three units.

Last year Isozaki unveiled designs for an inflatable concert hall by himself and artist Anish Kapoor.

See more offices on Dezeen »

See more projects in Spain »

Here's some text from Arata Isozaki & Associates:

D38. Zona Franca, Barcelona

DISTRITO 38 is an office-­park project of 70,000 square meters developed on a 35,000 square meter lot, which is to be built in three phases according to a master plan produced in collaboration with FOA.

The area can be found at the foot of Montjuic hill, to the west of Barcelona, in a zone abounding in office projects currently under development, thus converting the area into an important tertiary centre located close to the airport and the seaport.

There exists great diversity in office spaces at present, and since the final use and necessities of these offices are still unknown, an open system that allows for posterior reorganisation according to new and developing requirements was chosen.

The lot faces a representative part of the Paseo de Zona Franca.

Using this as a reference point, a 7.5 x 7.5 meter grid defined by a structural mesh has been deployed, from which point the parking area as well as the six planned buildings will be developed.

Building 1 has been conceived as a parallelepiped, measuring 52.5 x 52.5 meters on the sides with a height of 46.5 meters, and featuring a central core from which parts will be subtracted perimetrically from the volume.

This ‘subtraction game’ leads to better location adaptation, a hierarchy in the different façades, and easier adaptability in the creation of office settings, ideal in this highly fluctuating market.

The office floors are available in two distinctive types: the L and the C shape, and the interior of each may be organised into and sold as one,two or three units.

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by Arata Isozaki appeared first on Dezeen.

The four concrete wings of this house in Girona, Spain, appear to hover in the air above an underground entrance (photographs by Filippo Poli).

Completed in 2010 by Barcelona studio Hidalgo Hartmann, the single-storey Casa Pocafarina has a cross-shaped plan that sits on four pillars and hovers a metre above the lawn.

The underground driveway tunnels down beneath the floor of an en suite master bedroom to arrive at a staircase that ascends into the heart of the house.

Two children’s bedrooms and bathrooms are situated in the wing opposite, while a living room and a dining room occupy the remaining two sides of the cross.

A square courtyard surrounded by glass is concealed at the centre of a building.

Photographer Filippo Poli also shot a concrete centre for rescued turtles, dolphins and birds by the same architects - see it here.

Here's some more text from Hidalgo Hartmann Arquitectos:

Memory

The house is situated on a corner plot with some good views over the distant landscape.

In order to enjoy these views and avoid the neighboring buildings, the ideal configuration for the house was to create a compact form of cross which is placed at the center of gravity of the plot.

The four wings are oriented in a way that ensures the selected views from inside the house.

The whole volume is supported by four pillars and cantilevers out over the garden level at a hight of one meter.

The pillars itself are based on the lower ground floor of 8x8m that contains access to housing, the porch, garage and laundry.

On the top floor, the cross-shaped plan organizes the four wings around a central space, an exterior courtyard, that provides sunlight into the heart of the house.

The four wings contain the different functions of the house with the living room area and the kitchen-dining area connected with each other through the transparency of the courtyard.

Distributed on both sides of this main space there is the master bedroom with it’s own bathroom and the two children's bedrooms also with a bathroom hidden by a concrete wall.

The use of concrete in its natural colour and made with wood slats all over the house reveals visibly the powerful construction that is needed to realise the idea in a coherent way.

Authors of the project: HIDALGO.HARTMANN, Jordi Hidalgo Tané, architect, Daniela Hartmann, interior designer.
Technical Architect: Rafel Serra Torrent, Technical Architect.

Collaborators: Torrent Rafel Serra, Technical Architect, Ana Roque, architect.
Promoters: Xevi Bartrina i Alba Sarola.

Construction: Estructures Olot S.L (concrete) LI-BRA S.L (general constructor) Fusteria Serra (Word furniture) Plantalech (Aluminium charpenter) Cuines Santi, Olot (Kitchen) Electrica Masaló (fluids instalation) Electricitat Quim (electrical instalation)

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Photographer Filippo Poli has sent us these images of a Milan church with a grey, striped exterior by Italian studio Cino Zucchi Architetti.

The striped facade is composed of vertical panels of concrete, white stone, zinc and glass.

Containing both a church hall and a parish centre, Christ’s Resurrection Church replaces a warehouse church that previously occupied the industrial site.

The otherwise rectangular building has an angled wall and roof that create a point at one corner, framing the main entrance.

Inside the church hall two concrete walls curve up to the ceiling, creating the illusion of a pitched roof.

More stories about churches on Dezeen »

More projects in Italy on Dezeen »

The following information was provided by the architects:

“Christ’s resurrection” Church, Sesto S. Giovanni (Milan) 2004-2010

Cino Zucchi Architetti with Zucchi & Partners

Closed competition –first prize

The new church and parish center is located in a narrow plot of Milan’s industrial periphery.

The hard townscape of the neighbourhood and the story of the previous church (a warehouse-like building built in the sixties by workerpriests) suggested the simplicity of its design, which emerges from the surrounding fabric only by few strong gestures.

The street façade bends inward to acquaint for the main diagonal view, and the high hall takes the shape of a large rectangular box enriched by two large “sails” embracing the assembly.

The fronts are panelled in vertical strips of different materials (concrete, white stone, zinc, glass) whose rhythm responds to the different edge conditions.

Credits:

Client: Diocesi di Milano
Dimensions: 6.570 m³

Preliminary design project: Cino Zucchi Architetti
Cino Zucchi, Helena Sterpin, Filippo Carcano, Cinzia Catena, Silvia Cremaschi, Cristina Balet Sala
with Anna Bacchetta, Annalisa Romani, Martina Valcamonica, Valentina Zanoni

Definitive and executive design project: Zucchi & Partners
Cino Zucchi, Nicola Bianchi, Andrea Viganò, Leonardo Berretti, Ivan Bernardini

Click above for larger image

Manager of works: Zucchi & Partners
Nicola Bianchi, Marcello Felicori

Click above for larger image

Rendering: Filippo Facchinetto
Model: Filippo Carcano, Paola Andreoli, Roberto Rezzoli

Click above for larger image

Consultants
Liturgist: Don Giovanni Mariani, Don Giovanni Zuffada
Cost estimate: Zucchi & Partners
Structural engineering: Mauro Giuliani, Redesco srl
Ligh engineering: Cinzia Ferrara, Ferrara Palladino srl
Plant engineering: Gianfranco Ariatta, Ariatta ingegneria dei sistemi srl

Click above for larger image

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by Cino Zucchi Architetti appeared first on Dezeen.