Mirrors create a reflective facade on this pair of holiday homes in the South Tyrolean Dolomites, but have been coated with a glare-reducing film to help prevent bird collisions.

Designed by Italian architect Peter Pichler, the Mirror Houses are two adjoining guesthouses for short-term rent on a farm outside the city of Bolzano, north-east Italy.

Pichler chose to clad the west facades of the two blocks with mirrors so that they reflect the surrounding mountains. It also makes them less visible from the client's residence – a neighbouring 1960s farmhouse.


"The client asked us for maximum privacy and wanted the visual impact of the structure to be kept to a minimum," said Pichler.

To deter birds from mistaking the reflections for open space and accidentally flying into the surfaces, the mirror-wall is coated with a specially designed film that reduces UV light and glare.

"The mirrored glass is laminated with an UV coating, preventing bird collisions," explained Pichler, whose past projects include a converted 14th-century farmhouse featuring perforated shutters.


"From certain views of the client's garden the old existing farmhouse is mirrored in the new contemporary architecture and is literally blending into it rather then competing against."


The two blocks are slightly staggered in height and alignment to visually separate them.


Both feature floor-to-ceiling glazing on their eastern facades so that guests can take in panoramic views of the sunrise.


Combined living and dining spaces are positioned directly behind the glass. They open out to small terraces that are slightly raised above the landscape.


"Guests have their small autonomous apartment and can fully enjoy the experience of living in the middle of nature," added the architect.


Cantilevered roof canopies shelter the terraces, with smooth profiles that curve down to form a divider between unusually shaped window sections and the black aluminium-clad sidewalls.


A bedroom and bathroom sit behind the living room of each unit, illuminated by skylights, and temporary storage areas are provided by small basements.










Photography is by Oskar Da Riz.

Site Plan


Lower Flor Plan

Ground Floor Plan

Cross Section

Long Section


There is a new era in architecture and design that involves nothing more or less than printing, 3D printing. Believe it or not, these are the first steps towards rendering the old traditional world of building with ordinary materials, kind of obsolete. The practical applications are although in particular for creating homes in an emergency situation like disaster areas, where time is of the essence. So, regular architects can rest assured, for now. 
The new technology has proved efficiency in other areas as well. Developing and under-developed countries worldwide can provide instant affordable homes, with walls proved to be sturdier than the ones built in a conventional way. The truth is that the possibility of more large residences or buildings raised in the manner of 3D printing is very high, and it has more to do with science and economics than Science-Fiction. The device was developed by Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis (and his team) with the purpose of slashing time and costs of constructions significantly.

Contour crafting, as it’s now known, is composed out of two rails laid out on leveled construction site. This allows the movement of a computer-controlled arm that shapes the outlines of the structure, while a nozzle fills them with concrete This will create an entire house in no time, comparing to traditional building methods. By crafting sturdy structures and, in the end, houses in few time, the giant 3D concrete printer can easily come up wit a 2,500 sq foot house in no more than a single day, in any design. And if you want to change it, simply change the program on the machine. It’s so easy and convenient for any builder.






When we featured the first renders of the UK Pavilion back on August, 2009, many readers doubt that Heatherwick Studio’s design could be done (or at least look like the renders). The Shanghai World Expo 2010 has started and the UK Pavilion has become a favorite to many of you. Now you can see the complete projects.
More images, plans and architect’s description after the break

The UK Pavilion has been designed by Heatherwick Studio. Led by the internationally-acclaimed Thomas Heatherwick, his design team won the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) commission to create the Pavilion following a competition that attracted a shortlist of ambitious architectural proposals from other teams led by Zaha Hadid Architects, John McAslan + Partners, Marks Barfield Architects, Avery Associates, and DRAW Architects with dcmstudios.
Heatherwick Studio’s initial design strategy for the UK Pavilion established three aims to meet the FCO’s key expectation that the pavilion should become one of the five most popular attractions at the Expo. The first aim was to design a pavilion whose architecture was a direct manifestation of what it was exhibiting. The second idea was to ensure a significant area of open public space around it so visitors could relax and choose either to enter the pavilion building, or see it clearly from a calm, non-queuing vantage point. And thirdly, it would be unique among the hundreds of other competing pavilions, events and programmes.

Heatherwick Studio sought an approach that would engage meaningfully with Shanghai Expo’s theme, Better City, Better Life, and stand out from the anticipated trend for technology driven pavilions, filled with audio-visual content on screens, projections and speakers.
In collaboration with a wider project team, the studio developed the idea of the UK Pavilion exploring the relationship between nature and cities. Rather than creating a conventional advertisement for the UK, this was a subject that could make a real contribution to the Expo’s theme; London is the greenest city of its size in the world, the UK pioneered the world’s first ever public park and the world’s first major botanical institution, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.
From here came Heatherwick’s idea of involving Kew Gardens’ Millennium Seedbank whose mission is to collect the seeds of 25% of the world’s plant species by 2020.
The design process evolved to produce two interlinked and experiential elements: an architecturally iconic Seed Cathedral, and a multi-layered landscape treatment of the 6,000m2 site.

The Seed Cathedral sits in the centre of the UK Pavilion’s site, 20 metres in height, formed from 60,000 slender transparent fibre optic rods, each 7.5 metres long and each encasing one or more seeds at its tip. During the day, they draw daylight inwards to illuminate the interior. At night, light sources inside each rod allow the whole structure to glow. As the wind moves past, the building and its optic “hairs” gently move to create a dynamic effect.
Heatherwick previously experimented with texture and architecture at a much smaller scale with his Sitooterie projects. The Seed Cathedral is the ultimate development of this.
Inside the darkened inner sanctum of the Seed Cathedral, the tips of the fibre optic filaments form an apparently hovering galaxy of slim vitrines containing a vast array of embedded seeds. The seeds have been sourced from China’s Kunming Institute of Botany, a partner in Kew Royal Botanic Gardens’ Millennium Seed Bank Project. Visitors will pass through this tranquil, contemplative space, surrounded by the tens of thousands of points of light illuminating the seeds.

These fibre optic filaments are particularly responsive to external light conditions so that the unseen movement of clouds above the Seed Cathedral are experienced internally as a fluctuating luminosity. The studio’s intention is to create an atmosphere of reverence around this formidable collection of the world’s botanical resources; a moment of personal introspection in a powerful silent space.
The Seed Cathedral is made from a steel and timber composite structure pierced by 60,000 fibre optic filaments, 20mm square in section, which pass through aluminium sleeves. The holes in the 1 metre thick wood diaphragm structure forming the visitor space inside the Seed Cathedral were drilled with great geometric accuracy to ensure precise placement of the aluminium sleeves through which the optic fibre filaments are inserted. This was achieved using 3D computer modelling data, fed into a computer controlled milling machine.
This accuracy ensures that the Seed Cathedral’s fibre optic array creates an apparent halo around the high structure, with the fibre optic filaments rippling and changing texture and reflectivity in the gentlest wind. The wavering external surfaces of the Seed Cathedral form a delicate connection between the ground and the sky.

Among the Expo’s sea of hard surfaces, the Seed Cathedral’s surrounding landscape is conceived to act as a continuation of the building’s texture. A special artificial grass surface has been uniquely developed to act as a welcoming and restful public space for Expo visitors. Beneath the Seed Cathedral and the landscaped surface area is a canopied and naturally ventilated entrance and exit sequence for the Seed Cathedral. This circulation zone, running along three edges of the site, contains a narrative of three innovative environmental installations designed by London-based design studio, Troika. They are: Green City, Open City, and Living City.
Below the circulation zone is a further layer of spaces which can be used for cultural and commercial events hosted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and is available to hire by other organisations throughout the duration of the Expo.

The creation of the extraordinary and complex Seed Cathedral structure and the landscape architecture was achieved through close collaboration between construction managers Mace, lead engineers Adams Kara Taylor, services engineers Atelier Ten and highly skilled Chinese engineers and contractors. In order to reduce unnecessary transportation, 75% of the materials for the UK Pavilion have been sourced from within a radius of 300km around Shanghai. It is also the British government’s intention that most of the materials of the UK Pavilion will be reused or recycled at the end of the Expo.
The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office believe that the Seed Cathedral and UK Pavilion site will prove to be one of the Shanghai Expo’s star attractions. Even before the start of the Shanghai Expo, that belief already has some substance; ever since Heatherwick Studio’s design was first publicised in Shanghai in 2009, along with the scores of other national pavilion designs, it has been consistently ranked in the top five in terms of public popularity, and the Seed Cathedral has already been nick-named Pu Gong Ying, translated as ‘The Dandelion’ by the Chinese public.

After the Expo just as dandelion seeds are blown away and disperse on the breeze, the Seed Cathedral’s 60,000 optic hairs, each one containing the huge potential of life, will be distributed across China and the UK to hundreds of schools as a special legacy of the UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo.











Critics and practitioners of architecture often convey a contradictory message in a quest to comprehend the essence of iconic architecture. The notions of many recent international projects strive to be iconic, but few actually become truly successful from the point of view of the ultimate critics, the people who use them.

We propose the need to solidly reestablish the qualities of what defines iconic architecture.  The first step of our process began with the interrogation into the nature of iconic architecture and its role today. We asked ourselves, what is needed to create an architectural icon for a city, a task that is both complex and delicate.

Our approach is one that rejects grand architectural gestures that deliberately exist out of context for the sole intent of making a grandiose statement. We reject the use of elaborate sculptural forms that are fashionable, or are required to compensate for poorly planned design that does not respond to the local environment.  We favor an architecture that portrays a creative, site specific design that is “grounded” in the local context.

Massing
The massing of the project begins as a simple, monumental white stone object positioned to mark the entrance ofKeelungHarborlike a beacon.  The object is broken into slices, revealing a highly contrasting inner material of glass. Each fragment is rotated and pulled apart to obtain the best views of the landscape while allowing sunlight to enter.

A single element is displaced to the end of the site, creating a central open space, framing the views of the mountains at the scale of the harbor, and balancing the overall composition.

In separating the program masses, the profile of each tower speaks to the other in composition, establishing a synergy between the two towers that could not exist in the case of a single element. Formally, the vertical elements of the towers define the edges of the view of the landscape, while the plinth of the terminal elevates the horizon line.  This building-scale optical device deeply frames the views of the landscape, elevating the presence of the mountains and the sea.

The massing and proportion of the towers are geometrically calm to deliberately contrast rather than duplicate the organic forms of the adjacent mountains and local complex urban fabric.  The image of the highly refined, rectilinear white boxes layered against the mountains, suggest a monumental presence on the horizon of the harbor.

In using highly contrasting design elements, the project achieves the maximum architectural impact while employing simple massing strategies, a minimum number of materials, and allows the use of economical structural systems.  Parallel to the development of the architectural concept, the overall approach strives utilize a form that respects the construction budget, the extremely tight construction time-line, and the challenging phasing strategy.

Pedestrian paths traverse the elevated topography as wooden boardwalks guide visitors around the site recalling the characteristics of a classic wooden pier.  They two exterior pedestrian paths also define and connect two types of parks, one active and one passive.



The terminal forms a large civic space that re-introduces water to the site in forms that are accessible to the people. Water fountains for children to play in and pools of water to stand in, create an interactive experience for visitors.  Conversely, the urban park proposed adjacent to the terminal takes a more traditional approach with a natural and ‘’romantic’’ aesthetic inspired by Claude Monet paintings. Both parks are fully accessible to the public and offer notably different experiences that strengthen one another in their presence.


Materiality / stone-glass, wood
Materials play an important role in the project.  Along with the memory and human associations attached to particular materials, the physical properties and their behavior in the environment ofKeelungHarbourwere carefully considered.  Large modules of stone, coursed in a traditional manner, were selected to contrast with the aesthetic of the monolithic surfaces of the seamless glass.


The checker pattern of the stone façades dictate the location and quantity of fenestration allowing a functional amount of natural light for the office program while framing views of the landscape. Conversely, the pure glass façades open to panoramic unobstructed views of the water of the civic space and harbour.




The shimmering glass facades of the project draw their inspiration from the presence of water on, and around the site.  The composition of the façades with the reflecting pools raises the visual presence water to the urban scale. Bronze tinted stainless steel fins fixed to the vertical curtain wall components are distributed across the façade in a pattern that captures and reinterprets the image of rippling water.


The use of water in various forms elevates the sense of theatrical drama and prestige 
The extensive use of water in the overall composition reflects the need to return access to water back to the people of Keelung Harbor.  Large exterior reflecting pools on the roof of the terminal capture and dramatize the reflected images of the towers.  Spray fountains elevate the experience of water from purely visual to tactile, while moderating temperature of the micro-climate of the site and the public gathering spaces.


The sound of water falling will also contribute to the park-like atmosphere of the civic space while masking traffic and cargo port noise. While playful, this concept will provide a fully immersive and memorable experience of water, engaging all the human senses for the ferry terminal passengers, people who work at the complex, and the local community.








  • Architects: ACDF Architecture
  • Project: Keelung New Harbour Service Building – Phase 2
  • Location: Keelung, Taiwan
  • Architect of Record: Hoy Architects and Associates
  • Engineering: CECI Consultants

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