Vicco’s Tower
Conceptually this project frames nature in the city. It is a lightweight timber tower on an asymmetric steel stiletto.
Vicco’s Tower frames specific views and creates particular qualities of light in each space. From the study, a ‘panorama’ window frames the garden as a landscape. A double height vertical glass slot shows a London Plane — one of the original avenue planted by the Georgians. A horizontal slot at bath height allows a very private contemplation of the garden. And above the sky.
51% studios’ artist client AK Dolven says: “To be able to bathe in the moonlight and a shower under a tree is something I thought was only possible in the remote place I come from in Norway. With this inside-outside space I can continue these elemental experiences in East London.” . In a dense urban environment, nature gains in focus and beauty: architecture as lens.
Materials have been designed to wear well and age gracefully, with minimal finishing or product applications. Money was spent to ensure adequate glass insulation and a full house water purification system from the pure H2O company to support our clients health and negate the need for adding to the recycling pile with bottled water.
Vicco’s Tower won an RIBA London Award in 2008 and has been shortlisted for the Georgian Group Architectural Award and a Grand Designs Award. RIBA Awards are given for buildings that have high architectural standards and make a substantial contribution to the local environment.
“Vicco’s tower is a rear garden extension of a traditional small Hackney house to give a new stacked kitchen, study and master bathroom in that order for a Norwegian artist living in London. You cannot help being mesmerized by the artist’s own touches so a modest project becomes one of singular aesthetic consistency.
The extension addresses the back garden with an area of nearly 100% glazing in the lower ground kitchen such that it feels almost like one was cooking out of doors. Above this is suspended a two storey solid wood tower containing the more private study, entirely lined with birch plywood followed by a large bathroom which has an entire glass roof and brilliant light.
Altogether a very successful building from modest but sure means.” RIBA website
To see AK Dolvens work, please visit: www.akdolven.com Photographer Vegar Moen is at www.vegarmoen.com
Fairgrounds, Mineral County
Remediation work on this 46 acre site was completed last year, with the outdoor arena being moved to its final position on the lower bench.
The former silver mining town of Creede is located in the Alte Vista Mountains, 10 miles from the source of the Rio Grande. The fairground site’s strategic importance is its location on the floodplain of Willow Creek - it can be seen for miles from the Silver Thread Scenic Highway. The site makes an important contribution to the natural landscape and could become an iconic signature for the town.
The Mineral County Fairgrounds Association approached 51% studios to develop with them a proposal for permanent all weather fairground facilities which could be implemented over time. Each phase will need to function in its own right, allowing for the next with maximum efficiency. We developed a flexible master diagram, using remediation to create an enduring ‘functional landscape’, preserving and enhancing existing views to and from the site.
Facilities will include a multi-purpose all-weather arena, community center and publicly accessible landscape where equal importance is given, and clear distinctions made, between pedestrians, the animals and their trucks.
Local sustainable design research has included a survey of readily available local materials, efficient energy creators such as ground source, solar cells etc, indigenous building traditions such as straw bale and stucco construction, in-floor radiant heat, and natural lighting.
The Mineral County Fairgrounds Association [MCFA] has successfully secured city, county, state and federal grants for the site, as well as overseeing the Voluntary Cleanup Operation.
Baumhaus
Working with Dewhurst Macfarlane, David Bennett and Peter Deer Associates, we recently developed a GGBS concrete structure with a self finished interior to create thermal flywheel. Adjustable vertical louvres protect the exposed west façade from over heating, water is harvested for use in the garden and an airsource heat pump works with southfacing solar panels on the roof to lessen reliance on the grid.
A slim pool in the basement is planned in a later phase.
The project due on site later this year. The 51pct Project team is Cathi, Hazel, Anderson, Jack, George and Peter. The Quantity Surveor is Jackson Coles
The Green House
This was one of our first projects and still one of our favourites.
12 years ago we fell in love with this Georgian railway workers’ cottage with eccentric works, even though (or maybe because) all the best bits had been ripped out in the 60’s and it was terribly rundown … but it had a garden that had once been loved and three doors onto Little Green Street and one onto College Lane. We added a timber lined interior and started gardening even before we started the construction.
Bridging the Playground
How do you get a gang of nine-year-olds interested in the challenges of structural design, architecture and engineering?
Easy: Just add water and then challenge students to create bridges over it to take the weight of their whole class [weighing in at around a ton] using nothing more than recycled or ephemeral materials such as card, PET water bottles or paper …
The floating bridge was assembled and tested for the first time in Farmiloes’ courtyard as part of the celebrations for the first London Architectural Biennale, which was set in historic Clerkenwell, where we had studios for many years.
Water has been a centrally important part of Clerkenwell’s history, from its springs, wells and spas to the later breweries and distilleries. Clerkenwell was also the site of London’s first reservoir. Now we have little direct knowledge of where our water comes from and often no longer even consume it from the tap. Water now costs more than soda, milk and gas in the US. The fetishizing of water and its packaging is probably the single greatest threat to human and animal survival across the globe.
The design brief was for a floating structure to support the 20 strong class. We posed questions around the themes of water, volume and objects that sink, float or submerge. Experiments were carried out at home and in the classroom and recorded. From this the class’s weight was established and therefore the amount of buoyancy needed to resist that weight in water and the displacement it could cause. A calculation based on a 1.5L Evian bottle, ascertained the number of bottles needed. We began testing methods of jointing and packing. A visit was also made to Future Systems’ Pedestrian Bridge at West India Quay.
“While the project is just a teaching aid for now, its commonplace building blocks make it cheap to build. If a small-scale model can divert hundreds of plastic bottles away from a landfill, there’s no reason a bigger project couldn’t use up even more in the real world, while creating easily assembled emergency bridges, rafts or a makeshift rescue craft.”
Lot of bottle, Spark issue 3, guardian.co.uk
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