Decorative tiles: cement tiles and other options

With this post we want to open a new section of the blog where we will be giving you some tips and ideas for your projects.

Today we will talk about decorative tiles: an old fashion that is coming back. We can find this type of tiles at different prices and used in different ways giving a touch of colour to our homes.

• Cement Tiles

In this project Foreign Bear Studio uses hydraulic cement tiles to mark out spaces. On the left image the tiles are defining a semi-exterior space connected to the courtyard and on the right image the tiles mark out the dinning area like a rug would do.

Cement tiles used by Foreign Bear Studio 

In both cases the cement tiles are combined with concrete flooring.

Mosaic del Sur not only offers a great variety of patterns but they also offer the possibility to design your own mosaics and they will manufacture them in 3 to 5 weeks. These tiles are made in Spain, a country with long tradition in manufacturing this type of tiles. 

U House

We can now see the skeleton of Casa U

Picture by @alambiLAB

U House

The construction of  Casa U continues at a good pace.

Picture by @alambiLAB

In this picture you can see the garage which is almost finished and how the foundations are laid for the rest of the house.

Extension of the Cultural Centre in Pedreguer

A while ago we announced that alambiLAB would be the architectural practice to design the new extension of the Cultural Centre in Pedreguer.

Today we would like to show you and image that suggests how this extension is going to be.

Extension of the Cultural Centre in Pedreguer. Image from @alambiLAB

This is a humble project that will not only provide the Cultural Centre with an extra classroom and some storage space but it will create a small public space to carry out some of the activities of the Cultural Centre. We are providing the town with a different classroom that will allow the contact with the outdoors.

The storage area will have a U-glass cladding that will work as a lantern and will light up the square at night.

With the new extension and public space we hope to reinvigorate this forgotten space in town.

We hope you like it! 

U House

We are on-site!
We have now started the construction of the U House in Beniarbeig (La Marina Alta)

Picture by @alambiLAB

Grand Designs Live, London

Yesterday, taking advantage of the bank holiday, we went to Grand Designs Live in London. The Exhibition will be on until the 11th of May so if you'd like to visit it, there is still time to go.

I am sure that most of you will be familiar with the Grand Designs Show from Channel 4 presented by Kevin McCloud. For those who don't know what I am talking about, Grand Designs is a TV series, first aired in 1999, that features unusual and often elaborate contemporary architectural homebuilding projects.

The Exhibition is held at ExCel London  and is organized in 7 themes (each one of them represented by a different colour carpet): Interiors, Build, Bathrooms and Kitchens, Gardens, Technology and Village.

Map of Grand Designs Live London 2014

This show is mainly addressed to people that is looking to build or to renovate a house but it is always useful for an architect to have a look at what is shown at these places.

Our favourite parts of the exhibition where the areas were some small projects were showcased. 

In the Village area you could visit different small houses: one made of straw, one made of hexagonal rooms that could be added up, a compact house in 12 sqm, a dynamic house, etc,... Some of them were for sale at the end of the exhibition but I have to say that I was very disappointed by the finishes of most of these prototypes. 

Kitchen at the Hivehaus

Shigeru Ban (or the Architect that builds with paper) wins Pritzker Prize 20014

Shigeru Ban
picture extracted from Dezeen

This morning I've had a very nice surprise when I saw that the the Japanese Architect Shigeru Ban has been awarded the Pritzker Prize, the most important Architecture Award.

Shigeru Ban is an architect that I've admired since I discovered his work back in 2002 when I was studying my second year at the architecture school.

What it surprised me the most was the use of paper and cardboard as a construction material and his interest in volunteering by designing shelters to help people that had been hit by natural catastrophes and therefore, lost their homes.

His first designs for paper-tube structures were used to provide temporary homes for the refugees after the Kobe earthquake in 1995.

Paper Log Houses. Kobe, Japó. 1995

Sketch 1: Jorge Oteiza Museum. Alzuza, Navarra.

Sketch 1: Jorge Oteiza Museum. Alzuza, Navarra.

With this post we would like to start a new section in our blog where we will be posting different sketches that we've been doing for years.

Edifici de la Fundació Oteiza per @alambiLAB

This is a drawing that I made when I visited the Oteiza Museum with some friends from University.
It was a very hectic 24 hours return trip by bus from Barcelona where we spent the night in the bus and woke up in the cold Pamplona. The building designed by the architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza was completely surrounded by snow. As you can imagine, this was a very very quick sketch because it was freezing outside and our hands could not cope with so much cold,...

Architecture, Design and Feng Shui

Today, in alambiLAB Architects, we have started a Feng Shui course.

Some of you may already know what the Feng Shui is and in fact there are many definitions out there. Some define it as the ancient art that uses the available elements in our surroundings to make the energies of the planet more favourable to us. Some others define it as the philosophy that analyses our dialogue with the surrounding environment, considering this a reflection of our soul.

I will use the occidental definition of Feng Shui which I think it is easier to understand for us:
"The Feng Shui is the Chinese art of designing interior and exterior spaces harmonizing the human existence with the surrounding environment"

We could say that the Feng Shui's objective is to identify and interact with the surrounding environment in order to live harmoniously with it.

Image from salikatdesign

The architects work with spaces and spaces are surrounded by different sort of environments, sometimes more natural, sometimes more urban. Is that why we think that learning about this Asian art that relates spaces with landscape in order to create habitable spaces that are in harmony with our surroundings it is something that interests us.

Trips & Architecture: The Architecture of Berlin and the surroundings.

In this post I would like to show you some images from the buildings I visited when I went to Berlin. Most of the pictures were taken in September 2004 and February 2006.

My intention is to provide you with a mini-guide to the modern architecture of Berlin.

1- Berlin Philharmonic / Hans Scharoun

Berlin Philharmonic @alambiLAB 2006

2- National Library of Berlin / Hans Scharoun

Berlin National Library @alambiLAB 2004