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This is where we post updates on our latest projects and ideas, an insight into what we do and how we could work with you.
A fun little video that visual artist Qubo Gas made to illustrate their work with Diptyque. This gives some insight about the way they use traditional media — such as ink and watercolours — which also plays an important part in our collaborative art performance project Ooo-Ya-Tsu.
Musique: Antoine Pesle — Video : Justine Pluvinage
Our client and his family have now moved into their new self-build house on a hillside in Eidsvoll, Norway. Here are some early interior shots of the finished house.
Photo @ Caroline Prøven Brohaug, CABRO Photo
We have just sent in a prequalification entry for the reconstruction of the Tungestølen turisthytte. This mountain refuge stood at the foot of Jostedalsbreen — Europe's largest glacier — for a hundred years until destroyed by the Dagmar storm in 2011.
We have teamed up (once more) with Norwegian architect Brit Sejersted Bødtker to create our vision and practice presentation for the jury. Five teams of architects should be shortlisted sometime next month to start the design competition. We would love to be on that list!
The prequalification application had to be very concise (two A4 pages), explaining what we would bring to the project. You can view our application below (in Norwegian), with an extract translated into English underneath...
Jostedalsbreen glacier (Photo: Alberto Abouganem Stephens)
Click image to view the original prequalification application (in Norwegian)
We imagine Tungestølen as the intersection of two eroding forces.
One force, exterior, created by the natural elements in all their rawness and their monumental scale, shaping this man-made shelter. As the great Jostedalsbreen erodes a valley out of the surrounding mountains. As wind and precipitations sweep the plateau. Responding to these, Tungestølen stands, as carved out of the site by these tremendous forces.
The other, carved softly from the inside, by the haptic movements of the countless visitors seeking shelter. Not just physical shelter, but also an emotional shelter. One that redefines a human scale in the midst of Nature’s grandiose setting. One that reconnects both casual visitors and explorers of Europe’s greatest glacier to the long tradition and history of the site, as a refuge and as a place of gathering.
Converging on the site, these two forces are carving a place of rest and awe. Of calm and conviviality.
These two forces are carving Tungestølen.
The dramatic natural setting of the site, with its extreme exposure to the elements, calls for innovative structural forms that are both distinct and recognisable. From folded structures to aerodynamic forms, we will apply our wide theoretical and practical experience in the field of advanced structural formfinding techniques to create striking architecture that will subtly merge into the materiality and the social context of its site.
With our extensive research into the field of prefabrication in architecture and experience in timber construction, we understand the design and cost implication of integrating prefabrication from the outset of the design process. We believe that this skill is essential for this remote site, with innovative design that is easy to build. Combined with our love of craftsmanship and our understanding of materials and traditional detailing, we will create a tactile architectural design that is both durable and cost-effective.
We have successfully designed and built architecture that achieves zero energy-in-use and total energy self-reliance. We focus on passive environmental design strategy (meeting PassivHaus standards), complemented by discrete harvesting of local energy using proven technologies. We are confident that we can design a new striking cabin that meets the highest standard of comfort — year round — while keeping a minimal energy footprint throughout its lifespan.
Our strength is an ability to deeply integrate these architectural, construction and sustainability aspects into a coherent design strategy, expressed all the way from the initial concept down to the detailed design of every component.
But most importantly, we thrive in designing architecture in sensitive environments. Through our practices, our team has constantly explored the ambivalent relationship between man-made structure and fragile natural settings, between tourism and nature preservation. Thinking at the intersection of natural and social patterns. On the thin edge between architecture and nature.
An edge on which Tungestølen still stands.
Under English planning laws introduced in 2011, local communities are able to put together a Neighbourhood Plan. This is a planning document with 'teeth' in the system, which can set out policies formulated by the local community for their particular area.
The local area around the 2hD HQ, the Sneinton neighbourhood of Nottingham, is getting together to produce their own Neighbourhood Plan, and 2hD are signed up as members of the Sneinton Neighbourhood Forum which will produce it. I'm giving support as a Steering Group member and helping with the consultation process, mapping, graphics and communications. To explain the big idea of Neighbourhood Planning, I put together the short video below.
The Plan has evolved from the Sneinton Vision project, which 2hD also supported. We're delighted to see that the visioning work is going to be continued and gain real traction in the planning system. We've built up considerable expertise in meaningful consultation during the process and it's great to see our local community becoming more empowered and engaged as a result.
We're delighted that Chris Heuvel is set to join the 2hD team!
Chris is joining us as a specialist in architectural project and practice management, and is keen to promote ‘design technology’ – the integration of elegant detailing with overall architectural vision. He has over 30 years of experience in several different kinds of architectural practice, and possesses additional qualifications in town planning, management and education. Within 2hD, Chris is extending our project base and setting up a branch in Norwich.
The Geze sliding door works like a charm and has appropriately minimal lines.
Our clients have sent us these pictures following the successful completion of their "porch that turns a house around".
The porch features a brick plinth that creates a seat within the space, and a superstructure made of standard sized galvanised steel channels. At the top of the structure, the channels form structural gutters which carry the rain away without the need for an overhang.
The overall effect is of a large three-sided window frame: one window faces the sky to allow natural light into the existing kitchen window, one holds the welcoming entrance door and the third frames views down the garden from the kitchen sink.
Simple looking projects are not always easy to complete, and the glazing contractor found it impossible to get the right door components from Geze UK for this one. However a couple of nicely worded emails to the uber efficient head office in Germany unlocked the supply chain and the key component eventually made it to site.
In place, the sliding door works like a charm and has appropriately minimal lines... Everyone happy in the end!
The upper channels are structural gutters, channeling water away without requiring an overhang.
The porch has a brick plinth/seat with the main structure in galvanised steel. A high proportion of glass allows plenty of daylight in through the kitchen window and maintains views down the garden.
The French digital creation centre Le Cube hosted us for a week last April in Paris, to continue developing our live drawing and music performance Ooo-Ya-Tsu.
As part of this artist residency, the Franco-German cultural TV channel Arte came to film us and interview our collaborators, the collective Qubo Gas, discussing how the Ooo-Ya-Tsu project fitted in their wider practice as visual artists.
Qubo Gas collective interviewed by Arte, during our artist residency at Le Cube, in Paris (photo © Qubo Gas)
This video is also available online on the Arte Creative website (photos above © Atelier A).
On Sunday I revisited the memorial project for the Nottingham Progressive Jewish Congregation. It was finished three years ago, and the beauty of the stone is now really coming through.
The Clipsham limestone we specified has mellowed down in colour and is showing a nice patina whilst the twisting coping stones and faced block to the interior look as crisp as ever.
Clipsham is a local stone with a noble pedigree- quarried less than 40 miles from the site of the memorial, it was used in the construction of Windsor Castle in the 14th Century and at King's College Chapel in Cambridge.
The coping stones were 'spun' into shape on site from a harder york stone, giving them a sharper line, greater weathering resistance and a darker blue/brown appearance.
The Master level architecture studio project that 2hD's Tom and Alina ran at Nottingham Trent University this year has concluded with an exhibition in the University's Arkwright building.
The exibition was designed by Alina and featured a dress by fashion designer Kula Tsurdiu (the project client) alongside selected work from the architecture students.
We're very proud to say that the low energy house 2hD designed for a Nottinghamshire village has been shortlisted for an RIBA East Midlands 2014 award!
The annual awards celebrate architectural excellence in the region, and the New House in Maplebeck is one of just eleven projects on the shortlist.
Replacing a 1980s bungalow, the design of the house had to complement the Conservation Area setting whilst achieving extremely high performance as a “zero carbon in use” eco-home. Designed using the PassivHaus Planning Package and executed in a palette of brick, oak, slate and zinc, the house includes a central frameless glazing porch and open stair, an integrated balcony and an extensive built-in photovoltaic array.
The shortlisting is credit to a great client and consultant team, including:
The house in Eidsvoll we designed last year is nearing completion now.
Our self-builder client has been hard at work finishing the house's timber frame (all using pre-cut I-joists), now well insulated with blown-in cellulose insulation.
The cladding of the facades is also underway, using wood shingles made of untreated malmfuru, a species of local pine grown slowly in the Norwegian mountains, which is rich in heart wood and naturally resistant to weather.
The family is planning to move in later this summer.
The Fabrica Art Gallery, Brighton's famous visual arts organisation, has offered to host our Ooo-Ya-Tsu performance for the Brighton Digital Festival 2014, next September.
Fabrica Art Gallery (Photo by Dominic Alves)
Based in a former Regency church in the heart of Brighton, Fabrica commissions contemporary visual art installations specific to the building.
As part of the presentation of the project, we prepared this short description of the project, for once in English:
Constructed as a cycle, the Ooo-Ya-Tsu performance sketches a poetic landscape around the interactions of visual art collective QuboGas, designer Thibaut Devulder, musician Olivier Durteste and a custom-made computer programme.
Ooo-Ya-Tsu takes inspiration from phase music and conjures up the imagery of mobile collages, in which new strokes, colours and sounds are overlaid and combined at each sequence.
The performance develops in three phases:
While based on a complex technical system, Ooo-Ya-Tsu keeps at its core the visual universe of the QuboGas collective: hand-drawn sketches on paper, in pencil, ink and watercolour. Digitised, these shapes and colours are combined with the soundscape composed by Olivier Durteste.
Ooo-Ya-Tsu offers a contemplative take on a collective artwork, where human gestures bring forth an infinite virtual fresco, an autonomous universe of sounds and graphics.
We have just sent an application for the Nasjonale Turistveger prequalifications, teaming up with three talented Norwegian designers: Mona Kramer Wendelborg (landscape architect), Brit Sejersted Bødtker (architect) and Thea Collett (architect and lighting designer).
The Haptisk team (from left: Thea Collett, Thibaut Devulder, Brit Bødtker and Mona Wendelborg)
This prequalification is organised by the National Tourist Routes of Norway, looking for teams of young and creative professionals to design fifty new resting places and viewpoints along its touristic roads, winding through landscapes of outstanding natural beauty.
These types of projects are close to our hearts: designing intimate spaces strongly anchored in their context, merging landscape and architecture, involving local communities and artists...
To illustrate the diverse and interdisciplinary skills and experiences of our team, we presented ourselves around three themes — thinking on the edge, togetherness and material tactility — choosing as our motto the word HAPTISK (Norwegian for haptic).
Thea is a creative lighting designer working for Rambøll Norway and both Mona and Brit share with me an office space in Oslo. It is great to collaborate once again with my co-worker from Sommerrogata 17!
We are delighted to be awarded the prestigious DICRéAM grant from the French Centre National du Cinéma et de l'Image Animée, for the production of our multimedia art performance Ooo-Ya-Tsu.
In collaboration with art collective Qubo Gas and musician DDDIXIE, Ooo-Ya-Tsu is also supported by L'Aéronef, the French Civil Society of Multimedia Authors, Pictanovo and La Malterie.
Following our first artist residency last June, I joined in with the QuboGas team and musician DDDIXIE for a second work session on our Ooo-Ya-Tsu performance at music venue L'Aéronef, in Lille.
We started refining our projection video setup and doing the first animation test for the visual elements. As we were ironing out some technical problems with the dual projector setup, DDDIXIE's intriguing sounds also started to fill the air... We even got to show our work to a group of school pupils visiting the venue on the last day.
Many thanks to the team at L'Aéronef for their enthusiastic support and to Petit Seb of Digital Vandal for the video tweaking!
Photos © QuboGas.
