Pretty Architecture

After several years in the profession, by curious coincidence she stumbled upon Blender software, which has accompanied her ever since. Making visualisations became Paulina’s true passion and invaluable complement to her profession.

The designer often collaborated on projects with Modernist luminaries such as Oscar Niemeyer, as at the Cavanellas (now Gilberto Strunk) residence in Petrópolis, Brazil. Niemeyer’s grace- ful, low-slung villa is enhanced by Burle Marx’s lushly varied, polychromatic plantings.

Burle Marx’s first gardens, completed in the early 1930s, borrowed from French planning traditions while incorporating flora native to Brazil. The landscaping for the Ministry of Education and Health rooftop melded the latter tendency with a thoroughly modern sensibility.

The field chapel is dedicated to Swiss Saint Nicholas von der Flue (1417-1487), known as Brother Klaus. It was commissioned by farmer Hermann -Josef Scheidtweiler and his wife Trudel and largely constructed by them, with the help of friends and craftsmen on one of their fields above the village.

The Bruder Klaus Field Chapel began as a sketch that eventually evolved into a stylish point of reference while essential in the natural landscape of Germany. The design was done by local farmers who wanted to honor their patron saint, Bruder Klaus of the fifteenth century. " ... To me, buildings can have a beautiful silence that I associate with attributes such as composure, self- evidence, durability, presence and integrity, and with warmth and sensuality, a building that is being itself, being a building, that does not represent anything, it's just ... "(Peter Zumthor )

Want to see more? Follow @prettyarchitecture

The north part of the building contains the Musical Theatre Hall (566 seats), the foyer and several facilities, together with technical spaces for theatre machinery and various storages. The Exhibition Hall opens his great entrance with a ramp that brings visitors from the street level. The Music Theatre Hall, on the contrary, soars from the ground and allows the users staying in the foyer and in the cafeteria to have a view to the river and the skyline of the city. It is a periscope to the city and looks towards the river framing the historic core of the Old Tbilisi.

Want to see more? Follow @prettyarchitecture

Interesting views open up to city centre and even to open sea between wooden lamellas. The whole building forms also an outdoor auditorium for the future marine sports centre's activities on the sea. Löyly offers foreign visitors a public all year round sauna experience - a must when visiting Finland.

Want to see more? Follow @prettyarchitecture​

Volumes and the central public space are towered above by 11 big "petals" that are independent both formally and structurally from the rest of the building. Three of those big petals covers the central space. The petals, different for their geometry and dimension, reaches almost 35 meters and they are supported by a structure of steel pillars with a tree shape, visible, as well as the petals, externally and internally from the building.

Among the petals, that are at different levels, are the glass facades. The main characteristic of these facades is that these have been released completely from the structure of the petals, allowing relative movements between the facade and the spatial network structure of coverage. This decision was taken to prevent that any movement of the cover, mainly due to oscillations for snow loads, wind or thermal expansion, can lead to the crisis of the glass.

Want more Architecture? follow @prettyarchitecture

The rooftop garden mitigates the urban heat island effect by replacing what was a ballasted, black tar roof with green plants. The garden absorbs less heat from the sun than the tar roof, keeping City Hall cooler in summer and requiring less energy for air conditioning. The garden also absorbs and uses rain water. It can retain 75% of a 1 inch rainfall before there is stormwater runoff into the sewers.

Want to see more Architecture? Follow @prettyarchitecture

The LEED program encourages and rewards architects who create innovative, imaginative energy saving solutions. Architect Renzo Piano achieved this in his design for the living roof. Not only does the green rooftop canopy visually connect the building to the park landscape, it also provides significant gains in heating and cooling efficiency. The 15cm-thick soil substrate on the roof act as natural insulation, and every year will keep approximately 14 million liters of rainwater from becoming storm water. The steep slopes of the roof also act as a natural ventilation system, funneling cool air into the open-air plaza on sunny days. The skylights perform as both ambient light sources and a cooling system, automatically opening on warm days to vent hot air from the building.

Green numbers:

90% of all demolition materials were recycled

32,000 tons of sand from foundation excavation applied to dune restoration projects in San Francisco

95% of all steel from recycled sources

15% fly ash (a recycled coal by-product), 35% slag in concrete

50% of lumber harvested from sustainable-yield forests

68% of insulation comes from recycled blue jeans

90% of office space will have natural light and ventilation

60,000 photovoltaic cells; 213,000 kilowatt-hours

30% less energy consumption than federal code requirement

Want to see more photo’s? Surf to @prettyarchitecture​

Skylights dot this rooftop landscape to bring natural daylight into the gym and cafeteria below. The garden collects and recycles rainwater, and serves to reduce the urban heat island effect in a way that reinforces the educational mission of the youth center.

On the exterior, a rainscreen cladding system of brightly colored fiber cement panels reference the brightly-colored flags and uniforms of the drill team, and speak to the center’s youthful orientation. The cement board panels are arranged in a random pattern to allow for panels to be replaced over time in response to damage or vandalism, without drawing attention to replacement. An 80-foot tall mesh tower surmounted by an LED sign announces programs and events, serving as a visual marker for the community.

Want to see more photo’s? Surf to @prettyarchitecture

This project have gained much experience on how to grow crops on 20 meters, right in the center of Rotterdam. The growing conditions are similar to a Mediterranean climate: very dry and windy. Therefore, they grow many herbs (mint, lemon verbane, lavender), tubers (Jerusalem artichoke, beetroot, carrot, radish), allium vegetables (onion, leek, garlic) and strong plants like zucchini, rhubarb and pumpkin. In 2014 was started with various types of edible flowers. 

Besides the rooftopfarm a botanical garden has also been realized. This flowery herb-mixture creates and stimulates the biodiversity in the city centre environment.

Want to see more photo’s? Surf to @prettyarchitecture

Each pair of the six towers is connected by landscaped sky bridges on three separate floors. The skybridges on each tower pair are characterized by distinct geometric planters. (jigsaw, strip and oval) 

The tennis court, substations and bin centre at the ground level are aesthetically  covered with green walls and green roofs to create a verdant ambience. More than 1,600 trees and countless shrubs and groundcovers were used to create a distinctive green environment. 

The Vieux Port pavilion forms part of a masterplan of public realm projects that Foster + Partners has been working on along the seafront of the French city to tie in with its role as European Capital of Culture 2013. Other improvements includes new surfaces, wider pavements and a series of nautical pavilions.

The design is characterized by the ground and top floor which both will be used for business purposes. The main entrance for these business units is on the west facade. The floors are designed as student dwellings. Consisting both non-independent units and independent student units. The entrance of students is located on the public area on the east side. 

Want more Architecture? see @prettyarchitecture

WaterCampus Leeuwarden plays an important role in training future water technologists and other water technology professionals. In fact, WaterCampus is increasingly becoming the European meeting point for water technology talent.

The WaterCampus offers room to starting entrepreneurs as well as already established businesses who wish to research and test their innovations and/or who want to progress the (further) development of new products.

The most distinctive feature of the project is the height of the building, a 50-metre-tall slab that stretches for a length of 130 metres and rises above the former electricity power plant. The 11-floor structure contains office space and live-work units that are accessible from a gallery faced in a specially woven stainless-steel screen. Attached to the gallery are storage units, which are normally hidden away in the basement, but are now positioned opposite the front doors as eye-catching objects. All spaces on the west side of the building are fitted with glazed facades. From here, occupants enjoy a spectacular view of the River Nieuwe Maas and the port. Floor-to-ceiling harmonica doors front the live-work units and can open to turn the apartment into an enclosed and sunny terrace.

Want more Architecture? Follow @prettyarchitecture

For a company consolidating its offices for the first time, the move brings a new opportunity to review its values and identity. Through literally opening up the office, this establishes visual transparency to create a feeling of connectivity, which greatly benefits the development of (inter)personal relationships.

By physically sharing social spaces, staff from the various regional offices not only interact with each other socially and professionally, but also contribute to the new shared identity of the headquarters and company.

Want more Architecture? Follow @prettyarchitecture