Every now and then I like to zoom in on homes and the materials they are made from. This ideabook investigates the textures that may be expressed through concrete, wood, stone, metal and even rammed earth.
The examples that follow move from the macro to the micro, from the distant view into the close-up, showing the qualities that might not be apparent at first glance. Check them out to see if these textures may work for your project, be it the walls of your home, a freestanding wall in your lawn or maybe a partition inside.
Kariouk Associates
1. House in Chelsea, Quebec
The exterior of this house in Quebec is made from industrial concrete blocks. But instead of a running bond or some other stacked pattern, Kariouk Associates composed the blocks into a pinwheel pattern. It makes the boxy exterior appear woven.
Kariouk Associates
Up close the variation from the surface — tough, not smooth — comes. This offers the exterior a few interesting shadow patterns once the sun reaches the right angles. It also demonstrates that feel may come about through the exploitation of the cheapest, most mundane materials.
Cornerstone Architects
This Texas home, made by Cornerstone Architects, consists primarily of two materials: limestone and concrete. Both seem fairly flat and monolithic, though the latter does have a couple horizontal openings occurring on the left side above and beneath a opening in the wall socket.
Cornerstone Architects
This gap, angled back on one side (it is really angled back on both sides, framing a view of the trees), accentuates the plasticity of the poured-in-place concrete. Given that wet concrete is poured into a mould so it can heal, dry and take a form, the material demonstrates the residue of its own formwork. Here flat wood planks have been used, as the “ghost” of these is visible.
Cornerstone Architects
Concrete can be used in this home for the chimney and freestanding walls (detached from the home’s exterior walls). Thus the limestone makes up the walls enclosing your home.
This is an aesthetic option, but it will add to the cost. Obviously, it also gives the walls a finer scale and a softer color than the concrete.
Cornerstone Architects
The limestone is also used inside, accentuating the monolithic nature of the walls (insulating material has most probably been placed between the inside and outside faces, although the wall appears strong through and through).
At this space a few things are evident: The mortar suits the limestone so well, it disappears at a space, and the feel of the stone actually exhibits how it had been created; one can see via the curved outlines how big discs cut through the stone at the quarry.
Imbue Design
2. Buddhist’s Home in Utah
One of the most unique aspects of this Buddhist’s home in Utah is the way the walls appear to grow up from the ground. The home appears to be produced from the rock upon which it sits. This occurs through construction with gabion walls — big stones are stored in wire baskets.
Imbue Design
The feel of gabion walls comes in the colour and size of the stones and the kind of basket — here. While normally used for retaining walls and highway embankments, gabion walls are somewhat well known in buildings.
But provided fire codes, they can not be the principal arrangement (lest the baskets fail and the stones fall), and the stones don’t protect or chalk almost well enough to be used for a key wall.
Within this house they are on the surface of a strong wall that is more typical on the interior. But nothing else out there resembles a gabion, if that is the look you are going for.
The building zone, ltd..
3. Model Home at Arizona
This construction is a sales centre that serves as a model home for a distinctive modern desert improvement in Sedona, Arizona. The dark metal stands out from the desert context, but the rammed earth origins the home in its own place, echoing the bluff outside.
The building zone, ltd..
The combination of stained concrete flooring, wood ceilings and rammed-earth walls generates a feeling of being suspended in the place.
Rammed earth is among the oldest construction approaches; it dropped out of use with modernization but is finding new life as buildings attempt to become sustainable. Obviously, the desert is perfect for the substance, provided its thermal mass and capacity to radiate heat during the cool night after absorbing it daily.
What I like about this particular wall of rammed earth is the method by which the formwork anchors continue to be from the wall, projecting from it like hooks. These reveal the horizontal layers where the wall has been constructed, compacting one layer, then moving the forms to another level etc.
Yamamar layout
In most ways rammed earth and concrete are similar; they approach a similar hardness, however, one is made by compaction while the other is treated. However both are built up from the bottom up (excluding sprayed-on concrete) and therefore exhibit a layering that can be pronounced to lesser or greater degrees. This garage in Portola Valley, California, actually accentuates the flat layering.
Yamamar layout
Up close we can see the banding occurs from stripes of concrete bumped out of the wall. This is the end result of spacing the formwork apart ever so slightly, so the concrete may fill the gap (an outer cover into the shape will keep it from spilling out). It’s an imperfect method; hence a few segments drop off in the procedure.
Yamamar layout
On a negative note, the weapon that parallels the garage appears to be inspired by the concrete (or vice versa) with its less-than-true horizontal pieces.
Vladimir Radutny Architects
4. Loft in Chicago
For the past two examples, we move indoors. To get a loft in Chicago, Studio IDE made a few wood partitions with a wavy pattern that comes in the articulation of wood slats.
Vladimir Radutny Architects
The building of the alternating wood pine strips is more understandable up close, but it is still complicated enough that it is hard to fully grasp what’s happening. A door or wall similar to this would be expensive custom created, but a DIY woodworker would definitely have a burst tackling a similar project.
Bates Masi Architects LLC
5. Home in New York State
The modern-day hearth within this New York country home, made by Bates Masi Architects, is a standout, even as its vertical members replicate the walls and ceiling.
Instead of wood, the enclosure is made from bronze strips that were digitally trimmed and then patinated onsite.
Bates Masi Architects LLC
The strips are actually L-shaped, with the brief leg overlapping the adjacent strip — a shingle of sorts. This literally gives the enclosure some a feel that elevates the hearth to some bit of art.
More:
Texture Talk
Beautiful Construction Materials
16 Architectural Details Which Sing