Back to black: the best in contemporary black architecture
Back to black: the best in contemporary black architecture
Over the centuries, the colour black is steeped in a history of functionality – the Vikings used black tar as a protective coating in both shipbuilding and architectural practices; the Japanese charred wood to preserve their constructs against the elements; the British used black to combat the abundance of soot in 19th century London; and more recently, vantablack, the darkest shade in the world, was developed for military and astronomy equipment (later being quickly and exclusively snapped up by Anish Kapoor). As architectural styles, techniques and practices have developed, the colour has taken on aesthetic and symbolic uses, conveying a plethora of meanings across many different cultures: prominence, invisibility and spirituality. Join us to explore the best in contemporary black architecture, including projects featured in Phaidon’s Black: Architecture in Monochrome and beyond, and the reason why black is the new black...
Stacked Cabin
Johnsen Schmaling Architects
Muscoda, USA
Set at the far corner of a forested clearing, Johnsen Schmaling Architects designed this woodland retreat to recede into its natural setting, using a palette of exposed concrete, black cedar, anodised metal and plaster. The home’s facilities are found on the ground floor (including a workshop and storage rooms), whilst living, dining and kitchen areas share space above with the bedrooms. An elevated study space occupies the third level, overlooking the surrounding treetops. Additionally, yellow curtains can be extended around the communal space, offering privacy for bedrooms or separating the kitchen when not in use.
As originally featured in Black: Architecture in Monochrome, published by Phaidon. Photography: Johnsen Schmaling Architects/John J.Macaulay
Casa Bruma
Fernanda Canales
Mexico
Due to a difficult plot shape, Fernanda Canales needed a new design strategy following preliminary meetings with the client behind Casa Bruma. Designed as a series of small boxes/pavilions, Canales and former fellow student Claudia Rodríguez drew up the plans for the property physically, setting out the pavilions at full scale on the ground using bits of wood.
Photography: Rafael Camo
Casa Bruma
Fernanda Canales
Mexico
Low tech and readily-available materials create an effect of timelessness, generating a natural feel. Each of the separate buildings carries out a different function, including a garage, utility room, children’s sleeping block and kitchen (the latter of which is linked by a glass walkway to the grand dining room, a two-storey pavilion with the family room above). With privacy the key, the kitchen is the only pavilion with a window facing onto the internal patio, while the independent nature of each structure allows groups of guests to stay in the house without bumping into each other (except at breakfast).
Photography: Rafael Camo
Casa Hualle
Ampeuroyutronic
Pucon, Chile
Belonging somewhere in-between dramatic rocky shores, dry deserts and leafy mountains, Casa Hualle is set within a landscape of open vistas, a lake and the rolling hills of the nearby Villarrica volcano. The striking dark-stained softwood skin colour of the monolithic form references the area’s architecture, which has traditionally been clad in black volcanic rock.
Photography: Felipe Fontecilla
Casa Hualle
Ampeuroyutronic
Pucon, Chile
Inside, the two-storey space unfolds across 230 sq m. Offsetting the black exterior, the interior is enveloped in pale, almost white-stained wood. Smooth, exposed concrete floors bring all the different rooms together. A central double-height volume sits at the heart of the house, hosting the kitchen, dining and living areas on the ground level. Flanking it are two guest bedrooms, while upstairs sits the master bedroom and bathroom. This is accessed by a carefully designed, generous staircase that doubles as a library and studio space, with a gallery that overlooks the main living spaces below.
Photography: Felipe Fontecilla
Kalmar Museum of Art
Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
Kalmar, Sweden
This rectangular Swedish museum is clad in black-stained plywood panels of differing sizes, installed in vertical strips akin to large shingles (referencing traditional Swedish vernacular architecture). Four floors of exhibition space lead to a top-floor gallery, each of which is designed around the concept of ‘a platform for art’ and act as open stages for the artworks placed there. Open, angular staircases run from the ground to the upper floors, featuring a dramatic skylight that filters through the cast concrete-lined interior spaces.
As originally featured in Black: Architecture in Monochrome, published by Phaidon. Photography: Tham & Videgård Arkitekter/Åke Eson Lindman
D House in Shibuya-ku
Ron Arad
Tokyo, Japan
Designed by Ron Arad and created with the help of local firm Issho which was the project’s collaborating architects, and located on a densely built street of two- and three-storey detached homes, the new-build D House spans 180 sq m and three above-ground levels. The building’s relatively narrow profile is maximised by an expressive front façade made of a stack of patinated (on site) steel ribbons, which were fabricated locally, in a workshop just outside Tokyo. This adds dynamism to the house’s main concrete frame and creates a strong sense of movement and a play with light and shadow in the house.
Photography: Anatole Papafilippou
Creek House
Faulkner Architects
Truckee, USA
This family retreat was designed for a hard-working AIDS researcher based in New York City. Immersed in the natural landscape, the home intends to bring restorative calm upon its inhabitants, prioritising closeness with nature and leaving raw materials exposed. The home cantilevers over boulders and trees grow close to its boundaries, with the exterior surrounded by small patios and a pebble-lined pool encouraging an easy outdoor existence upon its inhabitants.
Photography: Joe Fletcher Photography
Creek House
Faulkner Architects
Truckee, USA
The interior spaces are layered and almost modular, connecting large private spaces with smaller communal areas (prioritising privacy for its inhabitants). The circulation of the plan allows movement from quieter darker spaces, to lighter exposed moments such as the spaces where the floor-to-ceiling glazing opens up views of dark evergreen trees or the surrounding rocky landscape. Exposed and often raw materials include steel, rift-sawn oak, bluestone and white gypsum.
Photography: Joe Fletcher Photography
Hasseris House
Lars Gitz Architects
Aalborg, Denmark
A departure from his signature style of pristine, brilliant white volumes, Danish architect Lars Gitz worked closely with his client to create a low, elegant, tactile brick composition featuring large expanses of glass and carefully crafted openings, framing his passion of cars (namely a Porsche and his original 1976 vintage Jaguar).
Photography: courtesy of Dinesen
Hasseris House
Lars Gitz Architects
Aalborg, Denmark
Inside, Hasseris House is an expert mix of minimalism and hygge. The house’s smooth Dinesen Oak flooring was specifically chosen to add warmth and cosiness, while the interiors were largely decorated by the client himself, who is passionate about design and travel and takes inspiration from the fine hotels and restaurants he encounters in his trips.
Photography: courtesy of Dinesen
Folk Art Museum
Kengo Kuma
Hangzhou, China
Surrounded by an alluring landscape of rolling hills and peaceful lakes, Kengo Kuma’s Folk Art Museum constitutes a part of the China Academy of Arts grounds, with a total surface reaching almost 5,000 sq m. The buildings don’t exceed more than two storeys in height, building on a sense of place for the museum within its rural setting. The cascading roof system allows the building to cleverly mitigate the site’s irregularities, creating the appearance of a ‘village’, explain the architects.
Photography: Eiichi Kano
Folk Art Museum
Kengo Kuma
Hangzhou, China
Kuma worked with rich, local materials such as cedar and reclaimed roof tiles used to cover old homes in the region, drawing further parallels between his work and the area’s traditional architecture. A stainless steel wire mesh on the facade both holds the tiles together and creates a pleasant screen for the building, which filters light and shadow, and controls the views.
Photography: Eiichi Kano
Meg House
Olson Kundig
Seattle, USA
Swathes of glass, a distinct industrial feel and a large-scale retractable window – all pleasingly familiar Tom Kundig obsessions feature in this Olson Kudig urban build. Sitting on a steeply sloped site, Meg House offers long, 180-degree views of the surrounding residential landscape, and down towards the city below. The house was designed to be ‘respectful’ to its surroundings in terms of scale, set back from the street and discreetly positioned behind a leafy front garden.
Photography: Nic Lehoux
Meg House
Olson Kundig
Seattle, USA
Inside, there’s exposed industrial details everywhere, such as unfinished steel beams and plywood casework. The 6,050 sq ft home spans three levels – the lower ground floor hosts private areas (bedrooms and bathrooms); the main street level features the open-plan living spaces; while a smaller level on the top is reserved for the master suite. Meg House was designed to balance ‘transparency and refuge, spare industrial modernity and inviting warmth’, explain the architects; making for the perfect urban retreat.
Photography: Nic Lehoux
Black Desert House
Oller & Pejic
Yucca Valley, USA
The client’s request for Black Shadow House was to act as a shadow from the stress of urban life, as well as the relentless desert sun. Deep, wide insulation cavities combined with sprayed foam insulation combat the obstacles presented by a black concrete exterior within the harsh heat environment. Spread over a single level, rooms were arranged linearly, with the kitchen and dining rooms central to radiating bedrooms. The living room is built into a sloping site, offering breathtaking landscape views. A central inner courtyard provides protection from the sun and climate. Come nightfall, the house vanishes into the darkness.
As originally featured in Black: Architecture in Monochrome, published by Phaidon. Photography: Oller & Pejic Architecture/Marc Angeles
Kiritoshi House
Sugawaradaisuke
Chiba prefecture, Japan
‘The exterior is finished as a simple box, allowing the residence to blend in easily with the rest of the surroundings,’ say the architects of this black house in the rural town of Oamishirasato in Chiba prefecture that is punctured with an asymmetric tunnel. Opening up into a light-filled open-plan space, the house that is designed for a family of four features a wood-panelled floor and mirrored ceilings.
Photography: Jérémie Souteyrat
Mirror Houses
Peter Pichler Architecture
Bolzano, Italy
In the South Tyrolean Dolomites, Peter Pichler designed this pair of homes for his client to rent out as luxury holiday units on her apple farm. Each of the units contains a kitchen/living room, as well as a bath- and bedroom with overhead skylights providing natural light and ventilation. A basement level also offers temporary storage for guests.
Photography: Oskar Da Riz, Nicolò Degiorgis
Mirror Houses
Peter Pichler Architecture
Bolzano, Italy
A glass facade opens on the east, which fades into the black aluminium shell of the building. The reverse of each house is coated in mirrored glass, bordering the garden and capturing and reflecting the surrounding pastoral landscape. The mirrored glass is laminated with a UV coating, which helps to prevent the native birdlife from colliding with the ‘invisible’ structure.
Photography: Oskar Da Riz, Nicolò Degiorgis
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
Farshid Moussavi
Cleveland, USA
Following a protracted (and intricately linked) process of fundraising and design used to challenge, troublesheet and fine-tune her concept, Farshid Moussavi’s MOCA Cleveland took six years to build, costing $27.2 million. 34,000 sq ft of space unfolds over four stories, culminating in a top-floor gallery space.
Photography: Dean Kaufman
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
Farshid Moussavi
Cleveland, USA
Set on a hexagonal base, the building features six faceted sides – five of which are clad in panels of black stainless steel, with the last being a tall triangle of transparent glass that echoes the three-cornered building site, and leads to the nearby public plaza.
Photography: Dean Kaufman
Hotel Bühelwirt
Pedevilla
Ahrntal, Italy
An extension by Pedevilla realised 5,300 sq m of new facilities at Hotel Bühelwirt in northern Italy. The new extension was set at the north of the plot, ensuring the hotel’s original facilities’ relationship with the sun (and surrounding natural landscape) was unobstructed. The six new storeys feature 20 new rooms, a wellness facility and restaurant.
Photography: Gustav Willeit