Black: Architecture in Monochrome 14

I See a Red Door and I Want It Painted Black Stella Paul 6

Index 220 Homeless Shelter Larraz Arquitectos Roads and Waterworks Support Center Neutelings Riedijk Architects Pamplona, Spain Harlingen, The Netherlands 2010 1998

This “silent box,” a homeless shelter, located in a semiurban area residents and administrators, while avoiding feeling like a prison. As a regional support center for a busy public works department, this feature of the landscape that surrounds this building. The ziggurat of Pamplona, Spain, is constructed of black corrugated aluminum, The 10,225-square-foot (950-square-meter) building is comprised low-slung trapezoidal structure was designed to support a number of shape of the central volume allows for integration of both interior ga- offering minimal inward visibility in order to protect and nurture of a series of stacked rectangular boxes in which a central interior disparate functions under a single continuous volume. The tapered, rages and workshops, which have high ceilings and expansive rooms, the dignity and privacy of the temporary residents. Aluminum lattice nucleus holds administrative functions, while spaces that extend single-story building is clad in black corrugated metal panels so that and administrative offices, whose lower ceilings achieve an intimacy structures over the windows serve to further respect the privacy of from it contain the living, dining, communal, and leisure spaces. The the structure itself becomes a backdrop for the fluorescent painted that the industrial portions of the center lack. occupants and maintain security, while also continuing the build- homeless shelter serves the needs of both short- and long-term resi- roadwork vehicles that are constantly moving about the perimeter ing’s uninterrupted black rectangular form. Though a homeless dents who occupy different sections of the building, and who enter and docking in the large niches carved from the sides of the building. shelter may seem to be a straightforward architectural program and exit the structure on opposite sides. On the ground and first Though black might seem like a surprising choice for a government requiring places for residents to temporarily sleep, bathe, and dine, floors, short-term users have access to eighteen double rooms, while agency, The Netherlands has a long history of black buildings, most this building illustrates just how complex an undertaking it is to long-term residents, housed in a smaller volume, have access to nine notably the black rural barns that were once a common site. The design a shelter that functions efficiently, serving the needs of its double rooms. building echoes the height and shape of the typical dike, a common

4 5 Faber Headquarters Gri e Zucchi Architetti Associati Daily Express Building Ellis and Clark with Owen Williams Udine, Italy London, England, UK 2013 1932

In order to create an enhanced sense of presence, this complex of help to ventilate the structure. During the day, sunlight reflects across The Daily Express Building, which served as the Fleet Street head- glasses and chromium, in addition to a large ground-floor entrance interconnected rectangular volumes, built as the headquarters for the buildings, rendering most details irrelevant, while at night, interior quarters for the eponymous newspaper until 1989, is a rare surviving with a distinctive chrome canopy designed by Robert Atkinson, which Italian steel cylinder manufacturer Faber Industrie, was constructed illumination reveals the airy interior, erasing weight of the heavy con- example of the Streamline Moderne style of the age. Originally, the welcomed visitors beneath the iconic Daily Express signage. The of black elements. Positioned among farmlands, just at the edge of a crete. Composed of two elongated and flattened volumes connected building was intended to be a traditional steel-framed structure faced building’s innovative steel and glass curtain wall was radical for its growing industrial park in Udine, Italy, the architects accommodated by an enclosed hallway, the industrial campus centers around two in Portland stone, in keeping with the style of the neighboring build- time. Shiplike in its curvilinear shape, the structure was meant to be the massive surrounding warehouses and factories by reconciling semi-enclosed courtyards, one on either side of the connecting hall- ings. The constraints of the narrow site, however, prohibited moving as striking during the day as the night. sheer size with a sense of gravity and mystery. Facades are built of way. On one side, the so-called “hard” courtyard is a concrete forward with the original plans, which did not account for a continu- black concrete and black glass, each installed as equally sized common area lined with black poplar trees. The second “soft” court- ous basement space to house the printing presses. Sir Owen Williams, 13-foot by 28-inch (4-meter by 70-centimeter) panels and are connect- yard is covered with grass and affords views of the farmlands and an architect and engineer, was brought on to the project to solve ed by ¾-inch (20-millimeter) joints. The equality of paneling blurs the mountains beyond. these problems. Williams’s new scheme included the distinctive black distinction between glass and concrete, while the gaps between them and mirrored exterior glazing, comprised of opaque and black Vitrolite

6 7 Black Desert House Oller & Pejic Concrete House II A-cero Yucca Valley, CA, USA Madrid, Spain 2014 2011

Built on an isolated 2.5-acre (1-hectare) site, in a niche carved between room, defined around the client’s mandate that it was to be a “chic This family home, cast entirely in tinted grayish-black concrete, is the house look out on to a contemporary pond. Sweeping lawns rock formations in the California High Desert, Black Desert House was sleeping bag,” is built into the sloping site and affords panoramic located just outside of Madrid in Pozuelo de Alarcon. Comprised of surround the entirety of the building, with greenery extending up a inspired by the client’s elegant goal to build a house like a shadow. views of the landscape. Rooms wrap around a central inner court- a series of interconnected trapezoids, the monolithic residence is sloped exterior wall onto the roof where a garden is placed. The dark Observing that in the desert a shadow is often the only resting place yard that acts as an intermediate space before entry, and provides placed at the peak of a terraced plot. A contiguous central volume grayish-black and white interior features built-in furniture, including for the eye, the intention of a black house was to act as a similar re- protection from the sun and climate. In the evening, the house com- forms the cavernous interior, which appears to be supported on one a dining room table and bar, fashioned in trapezoidal shapes that echo spite, not only from the relentless desert sun, but from the stress of pletely disappears into the night, with only the faintest impression side by six triangular concrete extensions—like flying buttresses—that the overall structure. An underground multicar garage is partially illu- urban life. In order to mitigate the heat absorbed by the black con- of structure lit by the moon and stars. Interiors are also executed in together act as exterior dividers between sections of the interior minated by strips of blue lighting that delineate parking spaces. crete exterior, deeper and wider insulation cavities were combined black and gray so that even the inside of the house recedes into the program: living room, dining room, kitchen, bedrooms. The uniform, with sprayed foam insulation. Spread out over a single level, rooms shadows during the day. dull concrete coupled with its low-slung, partially underground profile are arranged along a linear program, with the kitchen and dining looks as if a wartime bunker had been unearthed and refashioned room as the central space from which bedrooms radiate. The living for luxury living. Large sliding glass panels on the opposite side of

8 9 Funningur Church Funningur, Eysturoy, Faroe Islands, Denmark Tutukaka House Crosson Clarke and Carnachan 1847 Matapouri Beach, New Zealand 2011

Located on a windswept promontory on the northwest coast of the wooden cladding. The protective black tar treatment is coupled with Wrapped in a skin of black-stained shiplap cladding, this holiday views of the landscape. A number of translucent panels in the walls island of Eysturoy in the small village of Funningur in the Faroe Islands a high degree of craftsmanship demonstrated in the delicate metal home is built for weekend retreats. The owners wanted a home that and roof increase light in hallways and throughout the house. When chain, Funningur Church is typical of Faroese parishes as it features hardware and ornamentation. The intricately carved interior wood- felt open and unfettered, while also secure when not in use. Like an Tutukaka House is in use, a series of sliding panels and hinged the distinctive black tar timber construction topped with an energy work, motifs and styles which resemble techniques used in boat- old sailing ship, docked eternally on a windswept dune, the deep, shutters, also black, disappear to reveal large windows and outdoor efficient turf roof. Constructed in 1847, this church traditionally sepa- building, is due to the fact that the local craftsmen were, and still black, weathered exterior gives the residence the appearance of an spaces. When needed, the home can be closed off like a bunker to rates parishioners by gender: it contains ten pews for men and nine are, maritime builders by trade. Each church is distinctive in its color ancient mariner’s vessel as filtered through a contemporary lens. mitigate unwanted intrusion. pews for women. The church is the newest of the ten old wooden palette or interior motifs—some feature whales and other ocean The wooden timber walls, constructed of milled Eucalyptus Saligna, churches still standing in the Faroe Islands. A small village cemetery themes—and most are topped with an iron weathervane that fea- are rough-hewn and uneven in texture, and find counterbalance in lies next to the church, though the River Stora separates it from the tures the year of consecration. the clean, rectangular volumes and wide open living spaces. A central building. Small local churches like this one are found in almost every corridor, like a spine, acts as an organizing throughway, with commu- Faroese village and are typically constructed of basalt stone and nal spaces and bedrooms placed off it to maximize carefully chosen

10 11 Vesturfarasetrid Museum Hofsos, Iceland Dune House Jarmund/Vigsnæs Arkitekter 1800s Thorpeness, Suffolk, England, UK 2011

This black building, located at water’s edge in the village of Hofsos, harsh winter in the late eighteenth century and a series of unusually The black, asymmetrical multiplaned roofline of Dune House appears in the black upper structure, communal areas are placed on the lower houses the Icelandic Emigration Center, a museum dedicated to the cold summers, coupled with a number of volcanic eruptions and as if its top half has detached from its foundation and is floating floor, part of which is submerged into the dune itself. The living, stages of Icelandic emigrants’ sometimes-harrowing journey to North earthquakes, combined to spark the mass exodus of Iceland’s poor- above the sands. It is in dialogue with the local, traditional gabled dining, and kitchen areas are surrounded entirely by a series of America. The building is a typical Icelandic multigabled timber struc- est citizens. The eruption of Askja Volcano in 1875 covered most of roofs of Thorpeness and the surrounding mock-Tudor residences, floor, to-ceiling glass panels, which slide back to open the lower ture, whose black color is the result of having been weatherproofed the eastern portion of the island in ash and killed livestock by the many of which were built in the 1920s. The black upper half of the rooms to the elements. Outdoor spaces are arranged according to traditionally with tar. The first versions of this style were seen on the thousands. Most of the country’s emigrants ended up in Canada and home is clad in vertically oriented larch timber slats and coated in orientation toward the light, with terraces placed at the eastern and Icelandic landscape in the eighteenth century when urbanization took the United States, with the equivalent population of Iceland—three black Falun stain. Each of the four gables includes a sheared off, western edges of the house. hold and some Danish merchants began importing timber for con- hundred thousand people—settling outside of the country. canted plane that is skinned in stainless steel panels. This combina- struction of homes and businesses. From 1870 until 1914, nearly one tion of angles—some a deep, light-absorbing matte black and others quarter of Iceland’s population emigrated to escape poverty and shining brightly in the seaside sun—give the upper volume an off-kilter, servitude. Rigid social structures and the onslaught of a particularly dynamic sense of movement. While the private spaces are concealed

12 13 Black is sky so stars can shine Tiger’s stripes and butterflies Black is brushed on sparrow’s wings Black is many things.

Black is writing on a page Berries sweet and clouds that rain Black is crying when you sing Black is anything. Lena Horne, “Black Is” (1917–2010) MuCEM (Museum of European and Rudy Ricciotti FRAC Bretagne Studio Odile Decq Mediterranean Civilizations) Marseille, France Rennes, France 2013 2012

This blackish-gray building, a museum focused on the history and gray coloring evokes the hue of dust—“matte and crushed by the Built as part of an effort to decentralize the French national network in sections of the building that, in conjunction with the tinted glass culture of the Mediterranean, is located on the banks of Marseille’s light”—and the concrete cladding acts as a barrier of both time and of regional art museums, and to house nearly five thousand works panels, create a dark reflecting surface that resembles the winter sky. millennia-old harbor at the end of an historical pier where immigrants sight. The concrete lattice system extends onto the roof where it of art, the FRAC Bretagne is not an overly large building, but the The lobby level houses a café, auditorium, and seating area. Upper- from throughout the region have continued to seek refuge in France functions as an overhang, partially shielding visitors from the sun combination of black exterior materials makes it a dramatic one. The level galleries are accessed via public elevators or a staircase that and Europe beyond. The museum is accessed via a thin footbridge and weather. Once visitors pass over the bridge from the historic Fort, facade—a series of brutal rectangular forms stacked one upon the leads to the roof level. Located in the neighborhood of Beauregard, that emanates from Fort Saint-Jean and spans the waters below, the experience is meant to transport them to a time before “techno- other and seeming to rest upon a foundation of tinted gray glass the museum sits on an overlook that affords views of the nearby Ille piercing the roof of the building’s chaotic skin. The main structure, a logical consumerism.” A set of internal stairs and a series of diagonal panels—is a concert of shifting dark tones. The central structure is and Vilaine rivers. rounded glass cube, is covered on two sides by a delicate lace of dark ramps provide interior circulation routes linking all levels. constructed of reinforced concrete, whose black tone is the result of gray fiber-reinforced ultrahigh performance concrete. The cellular pigment added just before it was poured onto the steel framework, pattern casts intricate shadows into the heart of the museum; a space which gives it an unexpected sheen. Metallic panels, also steel, were that the architect likens to a “vertical casbah.” The museum’s dark chemically treated to attain an unusual gray color; they are utilized

16 17 Domo Dom House Tadeusz Lemanski Búðakirkja Church Búðir, Iceland Kraków, Poland 1703, 1848, and 1987 2013

Designed for a single resident, a gardener, Domo Dom is an unex- appears to have been bent upward to accommodate the small, gray, Standing in the center of the craggy, isolated Búðahraun lava field in after Bent Larusson, as legend has it, visited her in a dream. In 1984, pected response to stringent local building codes. Located at the sandstone-clad garage. Essentially a single-story building with an the shadow of the Snæfellsnes mountains in Iceland’s isolated west, the church was moved in one piece from the old graveyard to its cur- edge of Wolski Forest, near Kraków Fortress, the surrounding struc- attic-loft, the house contains a kitchen, living room, bedroom, and Búðakirkja Church—one of only three black-painted religious struc- rent location nearby; it was finally reconsecrated in 1987. The cladding tures are an eclectic mix of styles and periods, including a number of garage, all within the main metal-clad cube that dramatically slopes tures in the country—sits alone on a vast volcanic plane. The church remains black in keeping with the design of the first church. Among homes dating back centuries, as well as preserved forts and bomb toward the sky. Its aloft terminus forms the upstairs sleeping area, was first founded in 1703 when a local merchant named Bent Larusson several original objects still left in the building is a church bell that shelters, many of which are partially or entirely black, either from which is accessed via a staircase that runs along the garage wall. sponsored its construction. The exterior of the church was treated dates to 1672. patina or paint. In keeping with the neighborhood aesthetic, the ar- with black pitch, a millennia-old technique borrowed from maritime chitect clad this home in titanium zinc plates, a building material builders dating to the time of the Vikings, who used the material to used traditionally in the area. In order to accommodate the client’s weatherproof the hulls of fishing vessels. It was subsequently left to desire for a garage and stay within restrictions that require gabled degenerate in the harsh coastal elements and was rebuilt for the first roofs, the small residence is comprised of a single volume that time in 1848. Parishioner Steinunn Sveinsdottir lead its reconstruction

18 19 Urnes Church Ornes, Norway Kärsämäki Shingle Church OOPEAA Office for Peripheral Architecture Twelfth century Kärsämäki, Finland 2004

Urnes Church, situated in the magnificent Sognefjord on Norway’s literally and figuratively, with traditional symbols of the Christian Perched on an idyllic river bank upon the original footprint belonging were transported to the site by horse-drawn carriage and were cut west coast, is the oldest standing stave church in the world. Though it church. Of note is the intricately carved scene on the northern wall: to the first church built in this parish in 1765, Kärsämäki Shingle Church either by hand or at the local sawmill. Both the inner and outer sur- is actually the fourth church built on the site, the original timber and a four-legged animal of unknown species appears to be fighting a was made almost entirely by hand. The black-shingled facade echoes faces of the log frames were shaped by axe and erected on site, while carvings, still intact today, are more than a thousand years old. Built snakelike creature. Some scholars interpret this carving as a repre- the simple austerity that characterizes many churches in the area, joints were also crafted by hand with chisels in the traditional fashion. entirely of wood, the methods used for its first construction during sentation of the Norse myth Ragnarok in which the dragon Níðhöggr while its rough texture references the seasonal shedding of bark from Shingle Church acts as a conceptual mirror of the spiritual path, al- the Middle Ages were among the most advanced utilized anywhere consumes the roots of the world tree Yggdrasil, thereby ending the the surrounding trees. Each of the fifty thousand shingles utilized for lowing parishioners to enter through darkness and gradually make in the world at the time: What had previously been expressed only in world; others interpret it as a depiction of the Christian battle be- the roof and cladding are made of hand-split, hand-whittled Aspen, their way toward the naturally lit interior spaces, where high ceilings stone on the great medieval cathedrals of Europe, here is realized in tween good and evil. Structures like Urnes are among the only archi- every one dipped in hot black tar before installation. The tar, a tradi- and strategically placed glazing in the walls and ceiling help to flood local timber, hewn entirely by hand. Elaborate carvings depicting ani- tectural links between pre- Christian and Christian Europe that remain. tional local building material, does double duty as both a colorant and the main hall with sunlight. mals and nature, very much a product of pre-Christian Nordic/Viking Urnes is on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list and is still used today a sealant, protecting the structure from harsh seasonal shifts. The influences, as well as Celtic symbolism and motifs, are intertwined, for gatherings and weddings. structure is built on logs felled from trees owned by the parish, which

20 21 D’Angelo Law Library at the University Eero Saarinen Villa Blåbär pS Arkitektur of Chicago Law School Chicago, IL, USA Nacka, Sweden 1959 2014

Surrounded by the Gothic, ivy-covered buildings that characterize the same stone used in the neighboring Gothic buildings—with its A home built in symbiosis with its site, Villa Blåbär is clad entirely in house; the structure itself shields communal activity from the street most of the original architecture on the University of Chicago campus, pleated black glass and concrete facade, was designed to reflect light black roofing felt. A material that is both economical and efficient, below. The interior is arranged so that rooms transition from public to the University of Chicago Law Library, later named the D’Angelo Law shimmering from the surface of the black reflecting pond below. The the felt gives the structure a uniform camouflage intended to detract private. Residents encounter the garage first, then the living room, Library, is a masterwork of midcentury modern design. Eero Saarinen, building, when viewed from a distance, appears as a solid black mass, from its presence in favor of the surroundings, and to project a sense the kitchen, and later, the bedrooms. Built according to strict energy who completed the library just a few years before his death, not only set ablaze by the reflected light—an exercise in the successful bridging of calm reserve. The stark, white interior spaces counterbalance the efficiency constraints, the home is heated geothermally. served as the architect for this iconic structure, but as the master of two seemingly disparate styles combined into a building whose dark exterior and energize the transition from nature to domicile. The planner for the whole of the University’s twentieth-century campus form and function find balance. The library recently competed a reno- architects were challenged to place all rooms on one level in order to expansion, in which masters of midcentury design, including Mies vation, saving it from demolition. efficiently maximize views and minimize impact on the sloping site. van der Rohe, were hired to create what has become an iconic col- The villa, built on concrete blocks driven into the bedrock, extends lection of buildings. The six-story library, an undulating concrete and lengthwise along the promontory. A wooden deck extends along one glass pavilion sitting on a solid foundation of Indiana limestone— side of the house, providing a barrier between the forest and the

22 23 LIFT Apollo Architects & Associates Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland Farshid Moussavi Sendai, Japan Cleveland, OH, USA 2011 2012

At once soaring and rooted, with its black cantilevered volume that not a home that invites unwanted interaction with the outside world. At 34,000 square feet (3,159 square meters), MOCA Cleveland is Of its six facets, five are metal, while the sixth is constructed of trans- seems to have risen from underground, LIFT energizes the landscape Living spaces are arranged on two floors, and are centered around an one of the largest noncollecting museums in the world, and as parent glass, through which visitors arrive into a soaring entrance while providing a protected and tranquil environment within. The open-air courtyard, which provides light and air circulation to rooms such, benefits from vast spaces afforded by the absence of collection atrium. This glass curtain faces a public plaza, and serves to foster clients, a family of five, requested a home that would be efficient in its that are otherwise closed to the surrounding environment. To accom- galleries. Situated on a concrete hexagonal base that sits within a a visual connection between the neighborhood and the museum. use of space, open, and optimistic. Though the interior spaces are modate the client’s love of movies, an open-plan, soundproof room is triangular site, the four-story prismatic structural form rises 60 feet Visitors take a grand staircase—a central feature—to the upper nearly all white, the large, black exterior is meant to delineate the located on the ground floor. A second-floor balcony, protected from (18 meters) from the street, culminating in its unique square upper- floors where the ceiling of the top level exhibition space is painted dramatic and monolithic forms that are typical of the surrounding the street by black timber louvers, allows for unfettered views of the most floor where the main exhibition galleries are located. Its outer bright blue. residential buildings. Black surfaces connote a sense of seriousness street from the kitchen, while obstructing unwanted views inward surface, clad almost entirely in mirror-finish black steel, is meant to and modernity, while also demanding privacy. The smooth, dark, an- from the passersby. reflect, both literally and figuratively, its surrounding urban landscape. gular facades running parallel to neighboring homes remain almost The metal panels have been installed along a diagonal grid in keeping entirely unbroken by windows or exterior glazing of any kind; this is with the shape and lines of the load-bearing structure underneath.

24 25 Stacked Cabin Johnsen Schmaling Architects Kirkjubøargarður Kirkjubøur, Faroe Islands, Denmark Muscoda, WI, USA Eleventh century 2012

Just at the far corner of a forested clearing, at the terminus of an the slope, and finds its practical functions—including a workshop and Kirkjubøargarður, or “King’s Farm” in Faroese, is thought to be one of waterproof their vessels. The red window frames and turf roof are of abandoned logging trail on a precipitously raked site, sits a compact storage rooms—on the ground floor, while living, dining, and kitchen the oldest continually inhabited wooden houses in the world. This Scandinavian influence. Though there is no written record of its cabin designed for protected interaction with its bucolic surround- areas share space above with bedrooms. A tower structure, whose wooden structure is the central dwelling on King’s Farm, the largest source, the timber used to construct King’s Farm is thought to have ings. The woodland home is constructed from exposed concrete at its floor-to-ceiling rectangular glass panels alternate with the black cedar farm in the Faroe Islands, and dates back to the eleventh century, al- been Norwegian driftwood that may have been first constructed in base, and black cedar, anodized metal, and plaster on the upper floor cladding, houses an elevated study where views above the treetops though at that time the house consisted only of the roykstova, or Norway, disassembled, and sent to Kirkjubøur where it was recon- facades. This black material palette causes the cabin to recede into surround the space. Yellow curtains can extend from either side of the smoke room. The home was first used as the principal residence and structed on site. (There is no natural source of wood on the Faroe Is- the shadows and foliage, while also strongly delineating its bold form. central communal space, and can be configured so that they provide seminary for the episcopal diocese of the Faroe Islands. It later be- lands.) Much of the current house is a museum, though the Patursson Its marked vertical orientation is a reconciliation of site and budget. privacy for the bedrooms, or separate the kitchen when not in use. came the principal farmer’s residence. The distinctive black color of family, which has lived continually in the house since 1550, still occu- The residence gathers up the typical interior program of a prototypical the timber exterior is the result of having been treated with a tar pies a portion of it today. mountain cabin and volumetrically separates each component and mixture. This traditional construction technique, still seen on houses stacks them one atop the other. The resultant structure is placed into in the region, was likely borrowed from shipbuilders who used it to

26 27 House of Kashiba Horibe Associates Kalmar Museum of Art Tham & Videgård Arkitekter Kashiba, Japan Kalmar, Sweden 2009 2008

This corrugated steel residence, located in a suburban neighborhood and windows allow for gentle airflow during the warm months. A win- Located in a central public park, the Kalmar Museum of Art is com- result, flexibility and light are pivotal. An open, angular staircase runs of Nara, Japan, is inspired by the client’s simple request that the house dowlike open aperture in the exterior-facing wall draws in light and posed of four stories of exhibition space that culminate in a top-floor from the ground to the upper floors and features a dramatic skylight contain a central, inner courtyard that could be viewed while soaking allows for views from the interior across the courtyard and into the gallery. There, a dramatic, wavelike shed with headlight shafts form that filters sunlight through the exposed in situ cast concrete-lined in the bathtub. The resulting structure, a somber black cube with neighborhood. When darkness falls, the home nearly disappears, a dramatic and versatile light-filled hall. The rectangular building is interior spaces. Walls of windows facing the park create a dynamic striking white windows cut into the facade, is meant to project the leaving only a series of ethereal floating squares of light formed by clad in black-stained plywood panels of varying dimensions that have interaction between the landscape and the gallery spaces. owner’s desire for interior privacy while simultaneously providing the windows. been installed in vertical strips, akin to large shingles. The black col- an interior that is expansive and light-filled. Organized around its ored panels reference traditional, shingle-clad Swedish vernacular two-story inner courtyard, the interior windows and cutouts draw architecture, creating a temporality to the building design and giving attention from the inside to what the architect calls a central “symbol it context in Kalmar’s Renaissance-era landscape. Designed around tree”—a living architectural element that provides a lovely focal point the concept of “a platform for art,” each of the four floors is meant and a lasting symbol of growth and natural balance. The courtyard to act as an open stage activated by the artworks placed there. As a

28 29 Kvivik Igloo Easy Domes Limited Colbost Dualchas Architects Kvivik, Faroe Islands, Denmark Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK 2000 2015

This pair of contemporary geodesic domes, located in the village of basic polyhedron shaped domes have twenty-one pine and plywood The four structures that comprise this contemporary family resi- coated aluminum panels, which are also black. Extraneous exterior Kvivik on the island of Streymoy in the Faroe Islands, was construct- hexagons that are mounted to a wooden frame. Aluminum flashing dence are deeply informed and inspired by the traditional dark farm elements, including eaves, rain gutters, and projecting window case- ed as short-term rental accommodations for tourists. At 300 square prevents leakage. Large heptagon-shaped windows facing west to- buildings located on a nearby croft that dot the Isle of Skye’s incom- ments, have been eliminated in keeping with the simple shedlike feet (25 square meters) each, the small, self-contained units feature ward the sea below supply most of the illumination during the day parable landscape. In order to avoid constructing one large residence form. The buildings are arranged around an inner central courtyard turf roofs and off-the-grid heating, plumbing, and electrical sys- and allow for airflow when opened to the elements. The twin domes that would be out of context on this sparsely populated island, the that contains an outdoor shower. From a distance, the structures dis- tems. The black painted wood exteriors aid in heat absorption during are efficiently laid out, with a stove and miniature kitchen, a small architects disassembled the home into four separate structures: two appear against the mountainside and the sky. the cold winters; wood stoves take care of the rest. Though these living room, some simple storage, and a loft above for sleeping— large and two small. The tallest building contains the bedrooms on structures are, architecturally, a marked departure from other resi- which is accessible only by ladder. two floors, while the single-story structure next to it houses living and dences in the area, homes with black exterior treatments are a fairly dining rooms. The two smallest volumes are dedicated to storage and common site in the Faroe Islands, where a millennia-old tradition of heating machinery. All four structures are clad in horizontally placed coating structures in a black tar mixture exists to this day. These Siberian larch that has been stained black. Roofs are constructed of

30 31 Troll HusDonner Mork-Ulnes Architects LeJeune Residence Architecture Open Form Summit, CA, USA Montreal, QC, Canada 2016 2013

Bringing an element of Scandinavian darkness to the mountains of serves to camouflage the home against the dark forest. The large Built in 1890, the LeJeune Residence, located in Montreal’s Plateau historical district’s preservation restraints, paint it black. As a result, Northern California, Troll HusDonner is a contemporary interpretation 3,300-square-foot (306-square-meter) living space is generous, and Mont Royal neighborhood, was once housing for the groomsmen the facade takes on a distinctly modern aesthetic, a “starting point, of the traditional Norwegian mountain hut, updated to withstand the yet utilizes only a small footprint of land, as the entirety of the resi- who cared for the horses and carriages belonging to the wealthy and a new beginning for both the building and its owners," according heavy snowfalls and extreme weather conditions of the Sierra Nevada dence sits perched on a pylon-supported concrete plinth high above residents of nearby Saint Joseph Boulevard. In the interim century, to the architects. The architectural details are less obvious in daylight, Mountains. The clients, a retired couple who have been skiing in the the snow. The covered outdoor area underneath the house is used the home was clad in protective metal siding, and ultimately fell into but in darkness, exterior and interior lighting reveal subtle ornamen- area since the 1940s, sought a vacation home large enough to com- for recreational preparation and equipment storage, while the en- disrepair. The clients, a couple who had previously restored historical tation and historical details. fortably accommodate their extended clan. Their home needed to trance is located up one of two staircases—one indoor and the other homes, bought the duplex with the intention of modernizing the feel contemporary, secluded, and in communion with their beloved outdoor—to the second level. structure and transforming it into a single-family home. It was only high alpine forests. The exterior timber cladding, which has been after stripping away the facade that the architects discovered the still coated in black tar, was inspired by the traditional Norwegian intact, but badly deteriorated, original wood cladding underneath. building technique that offers protection from the elements and A decision was made to restore the exterior and, in keeping with the

32 33 House at Camusdarach Sands Raw Architecture Stormness, Scotland, UK 2013

Constructed on a steeply raked Scottish Highlands hillside, on land formerly used as rough grazing pastures for local livestock, House at Camusdarach Sands was built for a young, local couple. They wanted a home whose orientation would maximize views of the sun as it rises over the mountains to the east and sets behind the islands to the west. The home has a distinctive double-gabled form—as if a traditional gabled farmhouse had been splayed upward on a hillside—that features large banks of windows at either end to enhance views. The roof dips toward the foundation forming a saddle between the gables; the middle volume mitigates the structural exposure to the harsh elements. The upper portion of the home is clad in vertical timber planks, which have been stained black in reference to the abundant peat and gorse growing nearby, as well as the ever-present stormy skies. Interiors are arranged across three levels, gradually becoming lighter and larger; the third level features light birch plywood and soaring bright spaces, some at double height.

34 35 Ring House TNA Nagano, Japan 2006

Positioned at the highest point of a dramatically inclined slope in Karuizawa, Japan, Ring House is a towering assemblage of alternating translucent and opaque black bands. Together, these black-and- white bands create a seemingly ephemeral structure that appears to emerge from the landscape as if part of the forest itself. Built on a challenging site, its enclosed, forested locale inspired the architects to create a holiday home that would express an extreme verticality in deference to the surrounding trees. The facade is constructed of alternating sections of glazing and wood, the latter made of dark stained cedar panels. From a distance the home appears to be part of the forest, its alternating black-and-white scheme an echo of the bark and branches surrounding it. When night falls, and the forest recedes into darkness, Ring House glows from within; its formerly transitory form illuminates the landscape in stacked ribbons of white light. Constructed on a concrete plinth in the hillside, the home is accessed via footbridge to the first floor. An internal staircase circu- lates through the entirety of the home and on to the roof where an observation deck rests among the treetops.

36 37 Book information: Book Specifications

This fascinating and informative book on the aesthetics of black Binding: Hardback architecture provides readers with a fresh new way to Format: 290 x 250 mm (11 3⁄8 x 9 7⁄8 inches) appreciate architecture Extent: 224 pp Number of images: 180 col. Features vernacular and historic buildings, including rural barns, Word Count: 39,000 Georgian townhouses, and Icelandic chapels ISBN: 978 0 7148 7472 2 Features buildings by some of the best architects of the twentieth century—such as Mies van der Rohe, Craig Ellwood, Phaidon Press Limited Philip Johnson, and Eero Saarinen—as well as some of the most Regent’s Wharf celebrated contemporary architects—including Norman Foster, Peter All Saints Street Zumthor, John Pawson, Peter Marino, Seven Holl, and Jean Nouvel London N1 9PA

Each project is beautifully illustrated with stunning photography and Phaidon Press Inc. accompanied by an engaging and informative text that explores the 65 Bleecker Street role of black in the design of the building New York, NY 10012