Atlas of World Architecture

Our delightful Hill Hut is representing Sweden as one of seven projects in the lavish new tome "Atlas of World Architecture".
(You can buy it here if you're interested.)

Chop Stick is branded and open to the public



After a year of bravery overseas in the heartland of the United States of America, Chop Stick was finally branded and opened to the public this Saturday. From now on the visitors at the Indianapolis Museum of Art's 100 Acres art park can buy beer and lighter snacks from the kiosk or just swing under the majestic trunk. More pictures from this masterpiece is coming soon, for now all we can show you is Sweden's most hard working and proud architects in front of their newly branded building.

Paper Models

We are now starting a collection of buildings as paper models which you are free to download and assemble.
First out is our Eden Falls, but there are more to come in the near future, so look under the extra category in a while for more models of both visiondivision projects and other famous buildings.

Finland Site Inspection

The team was recently in Finland to inspect the site for their latest commission.
Initial sketch work has begun and the result will be published later this year.
Until then we have a lot of other treats in our architectural goodiebag that we will put on for display this spring.
/The Managment

Peak Series in Nano House

Our beloved prodigy the Peak Series are featured in the new book Nano House - Innovations for small dwellings by Phyllis Richardson, published by Thames & Hudson.



From the publisher:
Nano House presents the latest and most exciting solutions for houses where space is at a premium, nature must be preserved or accommodation created for those who need it most.
In our growing cities, space is at a premium. In the countryside, we want to preserve the landscape and build as ‘lightly’ as possible and in impoverished parts of the world the need for sustainable, economical shelter is stronger than ever. At the same time, digital design tools, eco-materials and new prefabrication technologies have all led to an explosion in innovative ideas for our domestic spaces.
Today’s challenge for architects and designers is to produce small-scale habitats that are more ecological, flexible and efficient, as well as adhering to modern standards of style and comfort.

100 000

100 000 brilliant architecture conoisseurs from all over the globe has now visited our website and hopefully found some inspiration among our many projects and adventures. We would like to thank you for your visits and the countless e-mails that hearten our organization to continue our ceaseless struggle in the field. According to Wikipedia the respectable sum of 100 000 equals a field army, thus giving us the feeling that we have achieved the incorruptable rank of Generals of brave and gifted architecture.

“It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.”

General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Hollow

Inside the sukkah

Competition entry for Sukkah City, where one where asked to design a modern sukkah.
A sukkah is a temporary hut created for an annual jewish harvest festival.
A large number of design constraints where implied in the competition, for example the sukkah had to have a roof made out of branches, but they couldn't be in bundles, there of our construction technique, using compression.

As this sukkah is erected in one of the most populated and dense places on Earth filled with built structures and a stressful ambience it changes its function from its initial protection purpose from sandy winds and a blazing sun to a shelter from building mass, infrastructure, scale, city pace and constant movement.
The intention is to build something that differs in scale and pace from the rest of the city. When entering the sukkah, you automatically slow your pace and behaviour and switches to a resting position due to the physical restrictions that makes up the space.
An undulated ceiling, never higher than a man’s length, changes the conditions for social interaction and behaviour.
You are no longer able to perform as you are used to under normal circumstances, your strength and speed is reduced and you are no longer a potential physical threat to your surroundings. The different heights and thickness of the roof sets the atmosphere.
The hollow reed changes its light and visible permeability by how thick it is.

The space itself comprises of two interlinked rooms; a social area for dining and interactions and a more closed space for sleeping and star gazing.


The pavillion in Union Square, New York City


Inside the pavillion


Night time aerial


Model

Building manual;

1. Material needed;
Hollow reeds, saw, lopper, wooden planks


2 The planks are cut up so they will form an interlocking adjustable frame which will hold the reeds in place.


3. The reeds are kept in an upright position with one of the planks and are adjusted back as the amount of reed is added.

4. The construction is watered with a mix of potato starch and water, making the reed swell and the wood frame expand a bit, thus making the construction more stable.
The potato starch makes the reed a bit more sticky and holds everything together better.

5. The trimming of the reed can begin.
Space is cut out according to the plan and the light intake can be adjustable by cutting the reeds shorter on top of the structure.

Plan

Roof plan

Section

How Architecture Learned to Speculate

visiondivision is proud to be featured in the book " How Architecture Learned to Speculate" by Asli Serbest and Mona Mahall. A truly interesting theoretical work that you can be the owner of if you click on the following links.
http://igmade.net/order.html
http://www.amazon.de/Architecture-Learned-Speculate-Mona-Mahall/dp/3000298762/

The vd guide goes Google Earth

Dear friends,
our vdguide is now free to enjoy on Google Earth.
All you have to do is to install Google Earth on your computer, which is free, and then download the vd guide here .
Double click on your downloaded vd guide file once you have the Google Earth installed and you will have full access to the marvels of the world!
We will continuosly give you more chapters of vd guides on this site and update the main file with the newest projects every time a new guide is published.

Hill Hut

Visiondivision was commissioned to design an extension to a villa for two kids in a picturesque lake setting in southern Stockholm. The owner of the old house had met his new wife in Thailand and the couple wanted to move and settle down in Sweden along with her two children. The beautiful nature surrounding the plot and the fact that the house would be occupied by two kids became the main key to our design. Instead of designing a house with expensive materials and detailing we deliberately chose rather cheap windows, facade materials and so on, thus allowing a bigger budget for a more playful architecture. It is much cheaper to get something wonderful done with landscaping than traditional architecture so we made a landscape surface with enhanced elements around and inside the house for the kids to thrive in. Being a kid in Sweden means that you naturally spend a lot of time in the nature which our country have an abundance of and we wanted to give the two new citizens a safe base where they can explore their new surroundings and be able to appreciate it to the fullest.


Hallway

To be able to create a steady foundation for the new house, huge earth masses where to be taken away and used to create a hill which we enhanced with different elements such as an outdoor cinema and a sledge slope. A carpet of artificial grass connects seamlessly with the natural grass on the hill and enters via the terrace to the living room between the two children’s room. A custom made grass sofa, a couple of grassy knolls that also functions as lighting make the interior more organic and enhancing the nature experience even further. These artificial hills can be moved around and can be put outside as well. Two pairs of big glass doors on both sides of the room makes one fully take in the surroundings and creates the impression that the nature goes in to the house, this effect is even more apparent when the doors are fully open. The carpet of artificial grass continues out on the other terrace as well as to the hallway and makes a stop just before the old house.


Living room

The excavations left a big void under the house. By ordering all the windows from Poland instead of Sweden we could afford to do two secret caves in that void. The caves were made out of concrete with in-cast IKEA drinking glass as small lanterns. One cave is directed to a lush grass knoll that leads down to the lake and is disguised with artificial grass to blend in. The other cave is pointed towards a patch of forest and is left in its raw concrete. Besides from being an excellent hidden escape route, the caves can be equipped with poker tables, hold new found pets from the nearby forest and much more. The caves are accessible from both the outside and from the children’s room by hatches in the floor.


Hatch to cave


Inside the cave


Outside one of the caves

The outdoor cinema has six chairs that are inserted in a concrete foundation in the sloping hill along with a secret compartment for a microwave for snacks and popcorn and a projector. A screen is set up between two trees that also have two bird houses on its trunks which in fact are two disguised speakers for this small outdoor cinema. At daytime this is a perfect place to just take in the lake atmosphere and observing bird behavior, night time is movie time.


Outdoor cinema

The entrance to the new house is a removed window from the oriel and makes the old house inserted in the new building and shapes the walls of the children room next to it.The hallway that leads to the old house slopes because of the differences in heights of the two houses and makes a nice transition from the traditional Swedish house down to the new and playful one. The children’s rooms are almost as two separate units with the landscape between and around them. Except for the hatches in the floor, the children’s rooms are quite normal with wooden floors and white walls.The house itself follows the municipality’s different regulations such as the pointed roof and the appearance. Wood is the predominantly material in this region, like the existing house and the neighbors. We chose white corrugated metal sheeting that looks like wood from a distance but is more alive and reflecting as one comes closer and gets nice shadow effects from the surrounding trees. Choosing metal sheets also allowed us to have the walls and the roof in the same material which creates a very consistent building. The beautiful setting and the strict whitish house combined with the eccentric landscaping makes it a great place to grow up in.


South-west facade


Facade facing the lake


Facade facing the entrance - late autumn


Facade facing the entrance - winter


West facade - winter


Icicle facade


Front terrace


Playtime in the livingroom


Axonometry of the landscape


Section


Section


Plan



Details



Diagram of movement

Fake vs natural diagram

Mangrolia Chaussures

Visiondivision has designed three shoe stores for a shoe tycoon on the tropical Reunion Island.

We have made a design that could be easily recognizable and applied for all of the Mangrolia Chaussures stores. We decided to design one specific Mangrolia shoe box that can be multiplied and stacked into almost any form, allowing different store layouts but at the same time being easily recognizable as a Mangrolia Shoe store.
The shoe box can be made out of different materials depending on budget but in this proposal we made a shoe box in Plexiglas, a plastic that creates a nice transparent effect. The shoe box can however be made out of various materials, for example wood with a mirroring foil mounted on them, creating a similar optical effect but for a lesser price.
Each box has a lid and a light. The boxes are made as pieces of Lego that can be fixed together in different formations. The box can be mass manufactured thus making it precise and cheap.

Saint Denis – The ocean
The Saint-Denis shop is the biggest one and located in the largest city and it is also the only shop that the Mangrolia family owns, so we propose that it should be turned into a flagship store; making it the centerpiece for the Mangrolian empire.
Being the flagship store we also wanted to make it into the most spectacular one.
The upper floor has boxes in the floor formed as a river, which “flows” from both of the entrances to the stairs which leads to the basement level which is completely covered with boxes, almost as an ocean.
A sofa shaped as Reunion Island is set in the middle of the shoe ocean where one can try out the different models or watch a slideshow projected on the wall of the assortment that the store has to offer.
In some of the boxes, legendary shoes can be kept; for example sneakers from the 80s or fashionable shoes made famous through celebrities, creating a small museum that will attract more visitors and fame for the Mangrolia business as the collection grows.

Saint-André – The Library
This shop has shelves of shoes arranged into smaller rooms with different themes; casual, formal and sport for example.
The transparency of the plexi-boxes makes the shoes look like they are frozen into ice blocks and will create a very intriguing and inviting showcase for the customers.

Le Port – The loop
All the functions of the shop are integrated in to a loop; showcase for the shoes, cashier and seating to try out the shoes.
The loop is extruded where it needs to be high; the cashier and the main showcases and then sinks down to the floor where the entrances are, allowing a free flow of circulation.
The pillars piercing the walls are built in with new inner walls that are painted white, for a smooth and clean backdrop for the shoeboxes. This is something that is recommended for every store.