Collection by Cedric Miller
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Italian design firm Archisbang transformed an unfinished family villa—acquired through a bankruptcy auction—into additional office space for a company called Chemsafe. The volume is wrapped in a metal mesh and the walls are clad in exposed wood fiber and concrete insulating panels and galvanized metal sheets, creating a striking contrast between precise detailing and raw materiality.
OSB was the right choice for the interiors of Shipwreck Lodge, a low-impact boutique hotel in the sand dunes of Namibia’s coastline. Designed by Windhoek–based Nina Maritz Architects, the 20-bed property was constructed on a $2,000,000 budget that relied heavily on prefabrication to minimize environmental impact, and to ensure comfort for guests in the remote and extremely harsh desert.
The roof of the garden house and main extension have been built from metal decking, which is left exposed in the interior. "Metal decking is almost never used for domestic projects but it allowed us to create an articulated ceiling with linear ‘vaults’ or ‘waves’ instead of the boring more traditional ‘cover it with gypsum boards’ approach,
The modest two-story studio building occupies the southeastern corner of the property. Downstairs it houses Caryn’s studio, where she shares her enthusiasm for the Alexander Technique with her clients. Upstairs is where Greg and his small team dream up future architectural visions. The building is made of a lightweight steel framework entirely clad in what is traditionally a roofing material: an asphalt-colored shingle, made of only two millimeter-thick recycled rubber sheets, finished with a silicate coating (with a 20-year lifespan). The circular pavers are not actual pavers, but the residue from the pouring of the coffered slabs for House Katz. Instead of letting it go to waste, Greg asked the builders to pour the small amount of concrete left over from each newly mixed batch into a circular container. Once set, these circular shapes were popped out and stored to ultimately become a playful walkway between Caryn and Greg’s studios.
Shigeru Ban, Cardboard Cathedral
A testament to the strength, skill, and poignancy of the Pritzker winner’s “emergency architecture,” this A-frame marvel of cardboard tubing and shipping containers served as a potent symbol for Christchurch’s recovery after an earthquake. In another symbolic touch, the stained glass triangle at the front of the church incorporates imagery from the former cathedral’s famous rose window.
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