Straw-bale house in Dornbirn

Ecological and inexpensive – these two criteria are not always easy to reconcile with exacting architectural demands. In the planning for a residential building in Dornbirn, Austria, Georg Bechter Architecture has come up with a convincing solution that does not compromise on design, namely by using straw walls for insulation and as a load-bearing structure.

Architect: Georg Bechter Architektur + Design, Langenegg, Austria
Location: Dornbirn, Austria

Photo: Adolf Bereuter

At first glance it is hard to tell that the idyllic building – with its exterior lime plaster finish and interior clay rendering – incorporates straw as its basic material. Simply the surface texture of the outside stands out in contrast to the immaculately machined wood elements of the roof and façade, lending the building a touch of natural charm. According to the architects the whole wall structure is compostable. While walls in this form and of a comparable thickness would be barely conceivable in inner city areas, here they not only create a cosy atmosphere through incorporation of niches but also fulfil necessary insulation requirements. The wooden roof structure is also insulated with straw.

This particular choice of material offers the additional advantages of being rapidly renewable and low in cost, and moreover does not require treating. The upward-angled canopy roof shelters and frames terrace areas that are to provide shade in summer and enable ample solar radiation in winter. Indoors a screed floor conjoined with the floor slab serves as a natural heat reservoir, whereby a simple tiled stove acts as the sole source of heating.

Foto: Adolf Bereuter

Foto: Adolf Bereuter

Foto: Adolf Bereuter

Foto: Adolf Bereuter

The interior of the house is characterised by an open room concept, with the ground plan featuring four wooden cubes and room-high sliding elements for a flexible and individual division of space. The 1.20-metre-thick outer walls made of stacked straw bales not only form the facade of the single-storey building without any need for a wooden structure but in the area of the wall openings enable cosy niches for passing the time and relaxing.

Photo: Adolf Bereuter

Photo: Adolf Bereuter

Harmoniously matched building materials create a consistent look both indoors and out. The overall height of the roof and its shape were chosen to ensure ideal exposure to light and heat according to the time of year. Moreover, the deep reveal of the roof forms a pleasant design counterpart to the "naturally formed" straw walls. Although the core material – straw – is not visible as such, it pervades the atmosphere of the house and is not only inexpensive but also sustainable.

Project data
Structural engineer: Eric Leitner, Schröcken, Austria
Construction: 2013/2014

Football stadium by OFIS

Nowadays, a football stadium is an absolute statement structure. This one has just been completed in the city of Barysaw, Belarus.

The stadium, which looks like a UFO, was created by OFIS. For this design, special attention was paid to preserving as much of the natural landscape as possible, meaning that both the approach to the building and the parking lot are surrounded by forest.
Along with 13,000 seats, the stadium offers an additional 3,000 m² of space for shops, offices, bars and toilets. In terms of its UEFA ranking, it stands among other 4-star facilities.
The stadium’s frame features a textile exterior cover which is characterized by asymmetrical openings providing views to both the inside and outside. In the forest location, these “splotches” call to mind the colouring of a fire salamander.


































by editorial office Detail Daily on 12/16/2014

Holiday home on Texel island

Sheep farming and fishing have long been replaced by tourism as a means of livelihood on Texel, a Dutch island in the Wadden Sea. What were once important ways of making a living subsist today between picturesque exploitation and subsidised preservation, like all other places where holiday-makers spell a stream of revenue for local coffers. It can thus be seen as a positive exception to the rule when a touristically motivated project takes a stance against this pseudo-idyll. The respective holiday home with ample windows and truncated hip roof by Benthem Crouwel Architects quotes local features without any attempt at ingratiation, offering a facade that reflects and laconically elevates the genius loci while providing multiple views onto the landscape.

Architect: Benthem Crouwel Architects, Amsterdam
Location: Texel, The Netherlands

View from northwest. Photo: Jannes Linders

Many sheep barns – the so-called boeten typical of the Wadden Sea islands – are still to be found on Texel. Consisting of solitary small and practically windowless buildings in the open landscape, located far from the farms they belong to, they have a truncated hip roof with the slanting side facing southwest, the most common direction of the wind. The entrance, on the other hand, is situated on the flat, northeast side of the building, out of the wind.

View from norteast. Photo: Jannes Linders

Entrance. Photo: Jannes Linders

View from southeast: Photo: Jannes Linders

Built in the timber framing approach and provided a partially hipped roof, the holiday home recalls local building traditions but couples them with contemporary standards. Floor-to-ceiling glazing on the ground floor and windows in the roof provide scenic views of the unspoilt landscape, merging inside and outside in contrast to the building type on which the holiday home is based. The combined kitchen and living room enables an outlook onto the open landscape, whereas the dunes and the sea are visible from the gallery, and the open sky can be seen from the bedroom.

Photo: Jannes Linders

Photo: Jannes Linders

The simple layout offers a living area, bedroom and sanitary facilities on the ground floor and work areas and additional places to sleep up on the gallery; storage rooms are situated in the basement. Interior finishes and details are plain and reticent in character and thus seem to direct attention to the landscape all the more.

Ground floor plan: (1) Living room, (2) Kitchen, (3) Bedroom, (4) Bathroom, (5) Toilet, (6) Closet, (7) Basement window well, (8) Slope, (9) Terrace. Diagram: Benthem Crouwel

Second floor plan: (1) Gallery, (2) Void. Diagram: Benthem Crouwel

Longitudinal section: (1) Corridor, (2) Kitchen, (3) Corridor, (4) Basement, (5) Second floor. Diagram: Benthem Crouwel 

Section: (1) Living room, (2) Bathing room, (3) Corridor, (4) Second floor, (5) Base,emt, (6) Basement window well, (7) Terrace. Diagram: Benthem Crouwel

View from southwest. Diagram: Benthem Crouwel

View from northwest. Diagram: Benthem Crouwel

The facades and roof merge seamlessly, forming a monolithic unit out of the timber frame structure covered in tar paper. Red, green and blue fishing nets are stretched over the outer surfaces, whereby the colours on the southeast and northwest sides reflect the interior spatial organisation of the house. Black netting forms a second layer over this colourful mesh and in conjunction with the tar paper lends cohesion to the individual areas of the facade.

Photo: Jannes Linders

Photo: Benthem Crouwel

Photo: Benthem Crouwel

Photo: Jeroen van Hattum/Benthem Crouwel

Despite the simplicity of the construction means the architects have achieved a precise and functional building complete with cosy indoor spaces. Details, as seen in the interior tiling and the netting on the gallery balustrade, are consistent with the design concept. The netting motif presents itself as the keynote design theme, lending the building a down-to-earth and modest touch while integrating it into the landscape context in terms of colour and theme.

The indoor tiles not only take up the design theme but also refer to the colour of the netting on the outside. Photo: Jannes Linders

In view of the fact that the small holiday home takes its inspiration from the typology of the old sheep barns, the sure-handed way in which it expresses vernacular features is surprising – whether in terms of free interpretation or as a subtle sideswipe against romanticised stage set architecture.

Photo: Jannes Linders

Project data
Gross floor area: 135 m²
Completion: 2014
Project management: Mels Crouwel
Project team: Mels Crouwel, Pia Hanhijärvi, Jos Wesselman, Volker Krenz

Artist’s House by Kat O’Sullivan

Photo: Kat O’Sullivan

It is nothing new that the legendary Woodstock, located in New York State, is still home to some unusual personalities. But this project could blow the minds even of the most hard-core characters.

Kat O’Sullivan, alias Katwise, specializes in the art of upcycling and life itself. She has now transformed a dilapidated farmhouse from 1840. The house, which is in High Falls and therefore not far from Woodstock, has been reinterpreted in a new, colourful way.
The project, known as Calico, has all the colours of the rainbow and is an unexpected eye-catcher in the idyllic, hilly landscape. O’Sullivan and her partner Mason Brown have been working on this house project since 2009. Like O’Sullivan’s main area of work – upcycling textiles into new, sought-after garments – the house project has taken an old, discarded object and resuscitated it.
As shown in the photos below, the interior of the house matches its exterior in terms of its fairy-tale style.

Photo: Kat O’Sullivan

Photo: Kat O’Sullivan

Photo: Kat O’Sullivan

Photo: Kat O’Sullivan

Photo: Kat O’Sullivan

Photo: Kat O’Sullivan

Photo: Kat O’Sullivan

Photo: Kat O’Sullivan

by editorial office Detail Daily on 12/09/2014