Inspiration

The permanent establishment of lawns, perennials and shrubs, and even trees on roof areas requires a green roof build-up with a high water storage capacity, achieved with appropriate drainage elements, and a substrate layer of between 15 cm and 100 cm, depending on the vegetation required. Frequently, pathways, terraces, play areas or ponds are installed on intensive gre...

Think of a restaurant that all the seats are window seats! This is possible with LIBART retractable enclosures. This restaurant is located in Turkey, below an office and residential tower. The office workers and house owners love to eat and spend time under the atmosphere that LIBART created. The restaurant is designed to maximize the usage of the open area, and with LIB...

Ege suits apartments have chosen Libart systems. A lean-to system covers the pool from rain and bad weather conditions. When the enclosure is closed the pool provides indoor comfort, with internal heating system that was built by the client the clement of the pool can be controlled. During the winter the area is heated and during the hot summer the area is cooled down. T...

Located in Marinstaden, Sweden, AquaVilla has unveiled the completion of its largest floating home. The unique and remarkable property named ‘Sjövilla 210’ perfectly embodies Scandinavia’s ambitious design culture, constructed with materials chosen to function to the highest standard in marine conditions. Complementing AquaVilla’s dynamic design ethos, Kebony, a beautifu...

In Nickby, about 35 km northeast of Finland’s capital Helsinki, we find Nickby Heart – a school that used STENI Colour and STENI Vision in combination with interesting architecture to create a unique designed and vivid expression Weatherproof! “We wanted each area of the schoolyard to have its own identity, and STENI façade panels gave us just what we wanted. The colou...

In Temse – by the sea – we find this modern block of flats clad with STENI Colour façade panels. The building was designed by Conix RDBM Architects. You can actually see that the artist’s idea and expression and the real building are virtually identical. White STENI façade panels of various sizes, together with glass balconies, provide a unique expression –...

At this innovative student residence, the load bearing construction, constructed with CLT (Cross laminated timber), serves as a central part of the architectural design, as well accentuating the project’s sustainable profile. The facades are clad with heart pine in combination with brightly colored STENI Colour facade panels, which are a fibreglass reinforced poly...

An old and slightly worn-down shopping centre in Trondheim has given way to a brand new, tasteful and hyper-modern shopping centre with 100 businesses and 81 flats. According to architect Ole Wiig, STENI façade panels were chosen because the Sirkus Shopping Centre is a building with large wall surfaces, so it was important to choose a material that would not cost too mu...

The Hotwalls Studios provides local artists in Portsmouth with studio space whilst creating an important focal point for the city’s burgeoning creative community and cleverly embracing the unique heritage of this historic site. Kebony, an enhanced wood from Norway, was selected by leading architects ERMC Architects to provide the internal flooring for all thirteen studio...

In Sandefjord, carpenter Dag Olsen and his colleagues at Bygg og Maskin AS are busy mounting STENI façade panels on the new ice rink at the Bugårdsparken recreation centre. He estimates that two people can install around 70 square metres of façade panels each day “I think this is the fastest way to install a façade. The panels are pre-drilled, so once we get them scre...

In connection with the renovation of homes at Løvvangen, three new community buildings were built – a natural meeting place for residents for meetings, games and other community activities The buildings differ from the surrounding buildings, with a clean and architectural design. The façades are an interplay between grey and black wooden cladding and orange STENI Colour...

The newly built Spar in Klagenfurt has a sales area of approximately 850,000 m² and 47 parking spaces. The narrow facade slats enable the supermarket to fit perfectly into the urban surroundings. The surfaces were sandblasted to different degrees, which creates a sense of vibrancy and depth.

In Tyrol the Ulrich Stöckl firm of architects designed a private residential building with öko skin slats in silver grey. The surfaces were sandblasted to different degrees, which gives the facade a greater sense of vibrancy.

An additional storey was built on the existing building and a three-storey new construction was also added to the school. The school building became not only bigger but also lighter. Parts of the existing building were removed and terraces were added in these areas. More than 3,000 m² of concrete skin panels were used for the facade.

An architectural wonder with a glass crown of waves: the Elbphilharmonie, affectionately known as “Elphi”, has established itself as a new landmark in the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, after much squabbling during the construction period. The modern glass building above the multi-storey red-brick façade of the old Kaispeicher A warehouse on the River Elbe comprises two worl...

On January 16, ‘Implementation Day’ — when the International Atomic Energy Agency verified that Iran had met all commitments under last summer’s nuclear accord to restrain its nuclear programme — was finally announced. It signalled the end of 10 years of economically crippling nuclear-related sanctions, and Iran’s chance to reconnect with the global economy. It’s in a st...

While trawling his archives for our Zvi Hecker issue, uncube became entranced with the architect’s “Mountains”, an urban housing masterplan imagined for European cities from London to Bucharest and inspired by undulating natural forms. “The ‘Mountains’ project doesn’t imitate Nature, but mimics it” argues Zvi, who sought to introduce a new paradigm for grand ensemble hou...

The new Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) is a symbol of education, culture and sustainability, both for the people of Greece and in the wider international context. This project was awarded LEED Platinum Certification and is the largest construction project in recent Greek history. The buildings house the Greek National Opera (NGO) and the National Lib...

6mm Clear Marlon FSX Longlife was used to glaze this stunning rooflight on the new Salab Mall, ceramic show room in Cairo. The impressive dome rooflight which is oval in shape has a base diameter of 34m x 14m and is 4m high. The fixed mobile display of birds underneath the rooflight gives the appearance of looking up to the sky. Clear Marlon FSX Longlife is ideal for ...

The façades havean important role in urban construction because they determine the comfort in the acoustic sense of the inner environments and influence the architecture of the external context in which they are . Ventilated facade claddings are born precisely with the aim of responding to the protection of a building against the combined action of atmospheric agents ...

Philanthropic – International – Inclusive – Sustainable – these are all descriptions that apply to the new United World College (UWC) in the Armenian city of Dilijan. One element of the sustainability aspect is the green roof. About 7,000 m² of green roof contribute to the incorporation of the UWC building complex into the newly developed campus in the surrounding Nation...

The private dwelling house, Gleneagles Drive Residence with its spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean is in one of the most sought after neighbourhoods of West Vancouver. The flat-roof building on a hillside location, comprising a number of individual components, has an extensive green roof area totalling approx. 180 m² and presents itself as being just as cultivated an...

Flat green roofs are almost a given in contemporary architecture. However, there are still far too many clients and architects who are reluctant to green steep roofs. Commissioned by Aral AG, the architect Manfred Beier courageously designed a curving green roof in the shape of a wave for a motorway service station. Juergen Quindeau, roofer and roof gardener, together wi...

Having received numerous awards, the Chung Tai Chan Monastery, designed by the avant-garde architect C.Y. Lee, has become a landmark of 21st-century religious architecture. Its Buddhist temple is currently the largest in the world outside China. The design of the roofs, which confer so much identity to the monastery, is typical of Chinese temples built during the Tang ...

The European Football Championship 2016 will start June 10th in France. In addition to eight other venues the Stade Pierre-Mauroy is one of them. Opened in 2012 and named after the former mayor of the city, the multipurpose stadium “Stade Pierre-Mauroy” is located in Villeneuve d´Ascq, southeast of the metropolitan region Lille. Primarily, the Stade Pierre Mauroy is the ...

Changing Landscape is a photographic research about landscape transformations and urbanization along the Red Sea coast of Egypt. Working on the concept behind the development of contemporary cities I question how natural and manmade environments are commonly represented and how they interact with each other, in a country where architecture – and built environment – have...

6mm Clear Marlon FSX Longlife was used to glaze the BBC commentary box at the 2015 British Open Golf championships at St Andrew’s in Scotland. The impressive half round window was glazed with a single 7.7m long sheet of clear Marlon FSX Longlife to give the commentators a clear view of the golf course whilst protecting them from any rogue golf balls. The choice for M...

Moholt 50|50, Trondheim’s latest student accommodation, is set to become Europe’s largest cross laminated timber structure and a welcome addition to the city. With construction now drawing to a close, this new student village is expected to reach completion in December 2016. The sleek and stylish development has a sustainable Kebony façade and will comprise five blocks h...

The rear fascia features a series of windows and shutters that can be completely closed to form a uniform, semi-transparent screen, or opened to let natural light into the interior. This delicate canvas references patterns of traditional Portuguese tiles and functions like a skin that filters light and provides optimal levels of privacy for the residents. The architect ...

For what is one of Belfast’s most important civic buildings, the transformation of the Belfast Waterfront has seen the creation of a stunning new £29.5 million extension which has doubled the size of the existing facility and features a semi-transparent and colourful façade to form a dynamic frontage to the waterfront. The new 7000m² extension to Belfast Waterfront f...

JD Architects (JDA) has recently completed its ambitious redevelopment of Cinque Ports Street, the 1,050 sq. m. former Central Garage site in Rye. Derelict for fourteen years, these buildings have been given a new lease of life with a striking, angular wooden façade made from Kebony. With its clever design and sustainable focus, Cinque Ports Street was announced as a win...

Under his leadership, the boys helped design, build and paint the small structure. Not only that, but he also taught the boys how to source and use salvaged materials, making their project slightly more challenging. “I thought it’d [sic] not only be fun, but help them learn quite a bit by way of tool usage and re-using building supplies and salvaged goods, and that it...

Situated on a cliff face, the cocktail bar and restaurant design promises customers an amazing perspective for enjoying the canyon’s beauty in all directions, including straight down - thanks to a glass floor. Although there are no constructions plans in place yet, the design alone is enough to get us thinking about spending an afternoon in the sun, cocktail in hand, soa...

Installed at the foot of Mt Blanc, Biosphera 2.0 is the house of the future, an itinerant module moving from city to city and gauging the mental/physical wellbeing of users in an energy-efficient environment – all in online posts. Courmayeur is the first stop on a 12-month international road trip that will take the house of the future from Aosta to Milan, Rimini, Turin ...

In the early 13th century, countries in the Middle East dreamt up intricate wall tiling for exterior walls. Progressively, the influence of Islamic architecture gradually spread to Spain and Italy, where ceramics were used extensively as external cladding on public buildings — think of the San Pedro Church, Teruel or the Chapel of Saint Sebastian in San Petronio at Bolog...

Lin Wan, Roman Wendner and Gianluca Cusatis from Northwestern University have formulated a construction material that combines Martian soil with molten sulphur, which they claim could be used to build an entire village on Mars. The most important feature of the material is that – unlike regular concrete – it is produced without water, which is in scarce supply on Mars...