Articles by Paula Pintos

Inspired by traditional shapes and the surrounding nature, the chalet design is a unique architecture tailor-made for its residents. The owners wanted a warm space, fit to host family and friends, in harmony with the environment, a space that breathes fresh air and replenishment. The GRAND PIC cottage offers, through simplicity and sober physicality, a unique experience of symbiosis between nature and architecture.

In 2018 a new restaurant opened its doors at Lowlands Festival: Brasserie 2050. In 2050 the world needs to feed an estimated 10 billion people. To make this possible, the world’s population need to start eating in a more sustainable way. The dishes served at Brasserie 2050 prove this doesn’t mean food will be boring or tasteless in the future, on the contrary. On the menu are, among other dishes, No Waste bread made of potato peels, salad Biddinghuizen as a local bread variety on salad Niçoise and steak tartare with 50% less meat.

The Scandi House features pared back, simple geometric forms that evoke Scandinavian precedents. The gabled roofline coupled with sympathetic use of Australian timber results in a focused and deliberate façade. Little is revealed to the street, but behind the finely battened entry gate, the house opens up to a large, dynamic space and draws in the outside.

Rotterdam has a growing demand for student housing. To address this shortage, Mecanoo was asked to design a student housing complex on a prominent location of the Erasmus campus: at the intersection of Abram van Rijckevorselweg and Burgemeester Oudlaan. The prominent corner site, while offering an opportunity to strengthen the campus’s visual identity, also came with the challenges of a limited building envelope and noisy traffic.

Carney Logan Burke has collaborated with one family on a 180-acre Jackson Hole property over a period of twenty-plus years. The breadth of work — five projects in a wildlife-rich riverine ecosystem — depicts the evolution of one couple’s aesthetic: it has carved a steady arc from traditional to modern.

Prominent appearance: The new church convinces through its self-confident appearance at this busy location in the industrial area at the edge of the city of Murten.

Plot B3 south is interpreted as a small housing complex. From a generously proportioned, shared lobby, two stairwells each provide access to four residential units per storey. A half-storey offset between the two halves of the building results in different room heights on the ground floor. The ground floor has a room height of 4.3 m towards Spinnereiplatz. It is home to a bakery cum café and the common room for all non-profit housing cooperatives on the site. Smaller studios are located in the northern section of the ground floor with a room height of 3.6 m.

Set in a Victorian neighbourhood, this backland site is overlooked on all sides. Our response was to develop a low, inward-looking courtyard house, offering both visual and acoustic privacy. The design is a composition of pavilions. This breaking down into the elements allowed us to respond to an irregular site boundary and to create an ensemble that looks onto a calm pool of water within a tranquil courtyard. 

Costa Rica Treehouse is inspired by the jungle of this densely forested site on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Built entirely of teak wood harvested on-site, the retreat engages with the jungle at each of its three levels: at the forest floor, the middle floor is nestled within the trees, and the top level rises above the tree canopy with views of the surf at nearby Playa Hermosa beach.

The Ring House is located on the southern coast of Crete only 165 nautical miles from the Sahara desert. Two concrete beams follow the topography of the hill to define the outline of the house. The ring is articulated by these concrete beams. It provides protected shaded areas, well-ventilated interiors, surfaces for solar collection panels and protects an inner garden planted with varieties of citrus trees and edible plants. Altogether the house and its garden are designed to form a temperate microclimate, an oasis within an intensely beautiful but physically demanding environment.