Articles by Fernanda Castro

At first, books were kept in chests but as they became published in bulk they moved into the cupboard. The doors came off and the bookcase began to evolve. Today, bookcases can be integral architectural elements that shape space and, in some cases, even light. In celebration of International Day of the Book on April 23rd, ArchDaily compiled this round-up of architecturally, innovative bookcases.

Scroll down to see inventive architectural book storage from Alberto Kalach, ARCHSTUDIO, Toyo Ito, and more. 

Kamikatsu in Tokushima prefecture is committed to zero waste, aiming to become a sustainable recycling society. The town has already attained an 80% recycling rate by sorting its waste into 34 categories. Used items are displayed at the recycle center like a store. As mass-production and mass-consumption society reaching an impasse, the world holds great expectations for this movement.

Located in residential area in West Jakarta, basically the building is not supposed to be created “pompous”, “arrogant” and impressed the enormous weight. Asking and persuading the client about the truly needs is one of solution. With clients who are enthusiastic and helped by the intens communication, the value of understanding the need of space is fulfilled. Since breaking down the building into several main masses was not enough to prevent the building to be impressed pompous, we use horizontal clear lines to break the scale. 

The fifth house. A house similar to stem and leaves, gratitude house. This is a house of multi-cultural family of Korea and Vietnam. It’s a house that has the biggest area of 6 house and two families parents, children, and marriage couple, total of 7 people will live. Considering two families parents’ line of flow, no private space for marriage couple before, no bathroom for the children, we agonize how to arrange the space.

The architecture facing and adjusting the nature

The architecture facing and adjusting the nature

The power station is sited at a highly visible location at the corner of Ring Road III and the Porvoonväylä highway. The construction project dealt with the expansion and renewal of Fingrid’s 400 kV Länsisalmi electric power station. Electricity is transmitted from Fingrid’s main grid through the power station to the 800 000 residents of Vantaa and Helsinki.

Located at the heart of the historic Zuiderpark, the €50m sports campus is an innovative collaboration of alliances between education, sport, sport science and the community, for both the municipality of The Hague and its private partners: the Haagse Hogeschool and ROC Mondriaan. 

From MIA Design Studio’s perspective, Louvers house is not only a living shelter but also reflects our client’s living style. Our client wanted to make a great combination of spaces to keep traditional communication between generations of a traditional Vietnamese family. That is how we simply started designing a house with a big void in the middle as a bridge to connect all the spirits of the house. This void with water scape and skylight creates a natural connection between bedrooms, living room, Spa, Gym and even the parking area. This principle has an ingenious use of natural ventilation to keep the building cool and give the family refreshing experience. With local plants and overflow water, the void inside this house becomes a healing environment as the living soul of the house.

March 22 is World Water Day, an annual international celebration launched and organized by the United Nations. The goal of the day is to raise awareness about a wide range of water-based issues from around the world. This year’s theme is “Nature From Water”, which invites everyone to think about how nature can provide solutions to the water challenges we face today.