Positioned beside the Dolomites, the three-storey Dolomitenblick building contains six holiday homes that each face north-east towards the mountains.

A diagonal recess slices down the centre of the facade, separating the balconies of different apartments and breaking down the volume of the building.

"This incision becomes the main defining element of the building," explains Plasma Studio. "From the cut at either side a strip unfolds that forms the balustrade of a generous covered balcony and ends into the surrounding topography."

The whole facade also slopes backwards to match the incline of the sloping land, finishing with an asymmetric interpretation of a traditional gabled roof, which the architects were asked to incorporate by the local planning authorities.

"Slightly deformed, it merges with our design intention but also with the traditional typology of pitched roofs," say the architects, explaining how they wanted to explore the "new potentials of a traditional typology".

Inspired by local farmhouses, the architects used larch to clad the walls behind the pre-oxidised copper balconies, as well as the floors and walls inside each apartment.

They also made various depressions into the ground, adding low-level windows and a tunnel leading into an underground parking area beneath the building.

Above: balconies design concept

Plasma Studio have completed a few buildings in northern Italy, including a hotel with stripy timber cladding and a housing block in South Tyrol. See all our stories about Plasma Studio »

Above: vertical incision design concept

Photography is by Hertha Hurnaus.

Here's some more information from the architects:

Dolomitenblick

The building is located on a hillside in the Dolomites, at the end of a residential area.

Above: location plan

The volume has been developed mainly from its pragmatic functional request to host 6 independent apartments with one common circulation: through a cut that marks the main access and the division of the units the volume is splitted into 2 halves. Besides its functional meaning this incision becomes the main defining element of the building: from the cut at either side a strip unfolds that forms the balustrade of a generous covered balcony and ends into the surrounding topography. Following the steep natural hillside with each floor the strips and the façade jump back.

Above: site plan

Programme

The building hosts 6 generous holiday homes, all directed to the sun and the panoramic view of the Dolomites. Each private unite is designed to get a maximum of privacy: through the division of the whole building volume into 2 parts, through the stepped balustrades which avoid insight from the above unit and from the passing by street. Each apartment gets an extension of the internal living area by a covered sun and view facing terrace which at each floor ends in a small private garden. Local larch wood defines internal and external living areas. Floor to ceiling glazing allows the maximum view and energetic gain as directed to south, external sun blinds and the overhangs of the above balconies minimize overheating during summertime.

Above: apartments level one plan

The main circulation is very compact and a continuation of the volume defining gap and repeats the use of the local larch wood and the color code of the façade.

Above: parking level plan

Material

Sitting at the edges of a residential area with a very eclectic and non-coherent appearance we focus to contrast these surroundings by simply generating a volume which grows out of its natural surrounding topography and blends again into it, by minimizing the used materials to a very local, almost vernacular code: larch wood and pre oxidised copper. Both the copper and the larch wood are exposed to a natural change of colour by the atmospheric influence of sun, rain and snow. Through the repetition of the colours of old, close-by farmhouses with dark, sunburned larchwood facades this building volumes blends into its natural surroundings.

Above: front elevation

Focus was given to the design of the copper balustrades which start from the natural topography, grow, become balustrades, attach to the building where the gap defines the volume, peel again off and end finally in the surrounding topography. When peeling off, the metal sheets which are divided into horizontal strips describe a curved hyperbolic-parabolic geometry: crafts knowledge is brought to its extreme.

Above: side elevation

The dark copper surrounds the volume from all sides, the strips form a second layer which gives shelter from and insight and finally define the roof as a continuation of the overall façade and volume. The form of the roof itself derives from local planning regulation which allows only a pitched roof in this specific building plot: slightly deformed, it merges with our design intention but also with the traditional typology of pitched roofs by not simply repeating but rather exploring what new potentials of a traditional typology can be.

Above: rear elevation

Project: residential building with 6 units and underground garage
Client: private
Size: 1.050 sq m
Location: Sexten / Sesto Italy
Completed: Summer 2012

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by Plasma Studio appeared first on Dezeen.

This illuminated, webbed steel structure at the 2011 Xi’an International Horticultural Expo in China is the second project to be featured on Dezeen this week by London architects Plasma Studio.

The structure is named the The Guangyun Entrance, as it frames the main visitor entrance to the expo site.

It is anticipated that climbing plants will grow over the trellis frame and create a green roof.

See all of our stories about the 2011 Xi’an Expo on Dezeen »
More projects by Plasma Studio on Dezeen »

The following details are from the architects:

The Guangyun Entrance

The Guangyun Entrance operates as infrastructure and fulfils the role of bridging the main road that dissects the site. It channels visitors from the plaza at the entrance where they congregate and orient themselves, plotting their direction. Their path over the bridge rises 7m and offers vantage points to gain an overview of the different zones of the Expo displayed ahead.
Bridge design often has two lanes: one for incoming and another for outgoing traffic. However in this case, the flows are uneven and change throughout the day.

With inspiration taken from rush hour escalator traffic in the London Underground stations, the bridge has been devised with three lanes, so the middle lane can switch direction from incoming in the morning to outgoing later in the day.
 These three bands read as interwoven braids, and together with a surrounding trellis roofed structure, they give the appearance of bands of landscape peeling off and rejoining the mass at the end of the journey. Between the three bands are green areas and a water feature for visitors to stop, rest and enjoy the view.

Above, an open trellis steel structure forms the shading device that is intended to become naturally overgrown with climbing plants, thus forming a green roof, and suggests the theme of the Expo to distant onlookers.
The lightweight roof has been developed together with Arup engineers as an innovative integral structure that appears as beams seemingly free-floating in space.

The Guangyun Entrance has been conceived as a landbridge with a tensegrity trellice structure that will gradually become overgrown by greenery.

International Competition: 1. Prize, 2009
Project: 2009-2011
Opening: April 28th 2011
Completion: March 2011
Client: Chan-Ba Ecological District
Architecture: Plasma Studio, BIAD
Landscape Design: GroundLab, LAUR Studio, Beijing Forestry
University 
Engineers: John Martin and Associates, Arup

See also:

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The Creativity Pavilion by Plasma Studio	Hotel by Plasma Studio	Tetris Haus by Plasma Studio

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This pavilion by London architects Plasma Studio is located at the heart of the 2011 Xi’an International Horticultural Expo, which is currently taking place in China.

The Creativity Pavilion is formed of three angular volumes that cantilever out across the lake, creating a shelter for visitors to walk or sit below.

The shape of the building follows the lines of landscape project Flowing Gardens, also designed by Plasma Studio alongside landscape architects Groundlab, which is a series of jolting pathways directed towards the pavilion.

More stories about the 2011 Xi'an Expo on Dezeen »
More projects by Plasma Studio on Dezeen »

Here are some more details from the press release:

Opening of Xi'an Expo
 Press Release

The next big event in China after the Beijing Olympics and Shanghai Expo with a projected 12 Mio visitors for the coming 6 months, Xi’an International Horticultural Expo has officially opened.

The ancient city of Xi'an- home to the Terracotta Army and many buildings of unique historical significance- is using this opportunity to focus on the current challenges from its recent growth and transformation.
The expo is situated in the Chan-ba Ecological District, a former sandpit where the water was severely degraded in the 1980s. Two decades of work has restored the ecosystem and this expo is able to demonstrate what can be accomplished through the use of the most advanced technology, ideas, and material.
Another challenge that the Expo is starting to address comes from the context of China’s rapid urbanisation process: how to create a sustainable urbanism and provide universal access to open space and nature?

The Creativity Pavilion is located on the edge of the lake as the endpoint to the central axis that starts with the Gate Building, and is the starting point for the water crossing by boat. It ties in with a series of piers that follow the landscape jutting out into the water. The built volume is interwoven with the articulating ground, producing continuities on many levels integrating the landscape and building together.

From this flows the organization of the building massed as three parallel volumes within the landscape, flowing through and underneath, leading to the piers, the volumes themselves hover as cantilevers over the lake. The fluid experience of passing through the landscape continues inside, where all zones are interconnected through the looping system of ramps.

Through its materiality the building again manifests itself as an extension of the ground with its floors and interior walls made from concrete and bronze is used as expression of local identity.

See also:

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Garden of 10,000 Bridges by West 8	Tetris Haus by Plasma Studio	Strata Hotel / Königswarte by Plasma Studio

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Architects Plasma Studio of London, Beijing and Bolzano have designed this LED street lamp in collaboration with lighting company ewo.

Called Tagliente ('sharp' in Italian), the lamp has a faceted surface, twisting from the vertical pole to horizontal light source.

More lighting on Dezeen »
More about Plasma Studio on Dezeen »

The information below is from Plasma Studio:

PLASMA STUDIO and ewo present 'Tagliente'

With the advent of LED lighting units suitable for outdoor lighting, ewo, the Bolzano-based, international manufacturer of high quality lighting systems asked Plasma Studio to develop a new type of street light for this radically new technology.

Starting from the conceptual diagram of the street lamp as a combination of vertical shaft and horizontal light-emitting beam and looking at birds and flowers for reference, Plasma developed Tagliente as a fluid transition between the vertical and horizontal directions.

Challenging the omnipresent and generic status of street lamps, this angular multi-facetted sculpture appears different from every angle and invites the casual passer-by to wander around it in order to grasp its form. By being ambiguously between industrial and natural form, we experienced that the object's relationship to context has been surprisingly versatile.

The light was first exhibited at Plasma Studio's Nodal Landscapes exhibition at the DAZ Berlin where it formed a dynamic extension to the orthogonal grids of a typical Berlin "Hinterhof" around it. It is now displayed in front of ewo's headquarter building, a contemporary context that enables it to articulate the link between the natural rocky backdrop and the man-made orthogonal structures.

See also:

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Solar Tree by Ross Lovegrove	Alphabet City Lights by JDS Architects	Luz Interruptus by Luzinterruptus

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Here are photographs of a second project by Plasma Studio, provided by photographer Cristobal Palma.

The Strata Hotel/extension to Residence Königswarte is clad in horizontal timber slats and was completed in November last year.

See Dezeen's earlier story on Plasma Studio's Tetris Haus.

The following information is from Plasma Studio:

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Located on a steep hillside in the Italian Dolomites this new-built hotel has been developed as the interweaving of the free-flowing topography- indexed and organized by series of timber strips- and the serial sequence of apartment units perpendicular to it.

Skin organisation as strata

Since the overall shape was developed from the local planning guidelines, the linear distribution of units and the views and sun directions, it is a resultant of the constant negotiations among all these parameters as well as a topological answer to the picturesque typologies frequently built in the area.

From applying the logic of topographical mapping ie. the indexing of horizontal sections as continuous lines, the volume is formed as a series of strata that as an artificial entity maintains a dialogue with its natural environment. In addition these horizontal sections operate as control lines, enabling the generation of curved hyperbolic-parabolic geometry.

The bands surround the volume at different scales, peeling off from it, flowing into the landscape and blurring the boundaries of the building.

The balconies become in-between zones that negotiate the internal rationale of the apartments ruled by efficiency and the repetition of parts with the exterior as extension of the topography.

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