Hasta La Ideas

Forming a new end to a 1960s housing estate in London, this timber-framed house extension was designed to look contemporary but also to match the aesthetic of the original block (+ slideshow).

London firm Maccreanor Lavington worked closely with architect Kay Hughes – the client for the project – on the extension to her terraced house on the edge of the Ravenswood estate, which was designed by Robert Bailie in 1967 for the St Pancras Housing Association.

The new addition, also known as Ravenswood, nestles in the corner of the terrace. Its form and dimensions were dictated by the requirements of the local planning authorities, who took nine years to grant permission for the project to go ahead.

The extension’s roofline matches that of the existing buildings but subtle differences in its proportions and materials mark it out as a modern intervention.

“The design approach has been to treat the project as an extension to the estate rather than just a side extension to the house,” the architects explained.

“The objective was to complement the original building in tone and character, while enclosing a very different type of space.”

Two strips of glazing that wrap around the corner reference the windows of the existing buildings, but their slightly larger size and the narrower gap between them reinforce the extension’s modern appearance.

Timber was used throughout to echo the colours and textural quality of the adjacent brick.

Details including Douglas fir window frames, as well as the larch spandrel panels and fence, ensure consistency with the rest of the block.

“The extension is designed to sit lightly on the corner, and the timber construction reinforces that it is a new addition so as not to compromise the design integrity of the original estate ensemble,” the architects added.

The use of wood continues inside, where Douglas fir is applied to the visible framework as well as the walls and floor in the new ground-floor living room.

A pair of bedrooms are accommodated above the living room, while the house’s existing spaces have been remodelled to increase the circulation spaces and accommodate new rooms including a study and bathroom.

A garage at the side of the plot was demolished to make room for a terrace that can be accessed from the living room, while the original front garden has been built up and planted.

The new larch fence extends around the corner of the site to clearly identify the end of the terrace and provide a sheltered outdoor space accommodating new trees, planters and bicycle storage.

Photography is by Tim Crocker.

The post Maccreanor Lavington extends a 1960s London
housing estate with a modern interpretation appeared first on Dezeen.

L’agence OgilvyOne a récemment dévoilé un superbe spot vidéo pour les centres de vacances Center Parcs. À travers de très belles images, le spot nous fait vivre en quelques secondes l’expérience de ces villages en pleine nature, idéals pour les familles qui désirent s’y ressourcer. Une vidéo réalisée par Rob Chiu, à découvrir.

A folded roof shelters a pathway between the indoor and outdoor rooms that form this holiday home in Costa Rica by Obra Architects (+ slideshow).

Located on the Osa Peninsula in the country’s southwestern corner, the vacation residence was designed by international studio Obra Architects for an American doctor. It sits on a hillside of a former mango farm and is surrounded by rainforest.

White walls punctuated by large openings define the limits of the house as it steps down the hillside. The slanted surfaces of the roof help to unite the spaces and create a sense of ambiguity between inside and outside.

“The house retains the integrity of a single architectural volume seen from outside, as the pavilions overlap in depth, flattening perception of spaces in between,” said the architects.

“Yet as one enters, vistas of forest and sky between pavilions make it hard to discern if surrounded by one structure or many.”

A two-storey structure houses a pair of bedrooms, a study and a porch. It marks the entrance to the property and the beginning of the pathway that meanders down towards further rooms, including an open-air dining space and a lounge area.

The contours of the hill determined the position of each room, and spaces are oriented to make the most of views towards the forest and the ocean.

“The house proposes as intimate as possible a collaboration with nature,” said the architects, “defining the space as it often does as a sequence of descending gaps opening in different directions.”

Traditional pitched roofs offer the living spaces shade from the sun and shelter from the rain. These canopies merge with more complex angular shapes as the roof follows the pathway.

The rooftops are covered with painted corrugated metal and clad on the underside with locally-sourced timber fitted to bent steel beams.

Large openings in the walls frame views of the landscape from inside the house, while also allowing air to flow through and birds to traverse the site.

Two walled gardens slotted into voids between rooms enhance the sense of the living areas being directly connected with the surrounding environment.

Low walls extend along the perimeter of the property and flank the shallow steps connecting the different levels. These prevent poisonous snakes from making their way into the gardens.

The design was developed in response to limitations resulting from the remote location, which meant all materials and labour needed to be sourced locally.

Above the reinforced concrete structure and stuccoed walls, steel beams were fixed to brackets bent on-site to accommodate the roof’s complicated angular arrangement.

Project details:

Architect: Obra Architects – Pablo Castro and Jennifer Lee
Project architect: Shin Kook Kang
Project team: Atsushi Koizumi, Patricia Bohrer, Stefan Goossens, David Karlin, Doreen Lam, Edina Nathania, Mia Thomsen
Structural engineer: Robert Silman Associates
Contractor: Brad Shenko,

The post Costa Rica residence by Obra Architects
boasts indoor and outdoor rooms appeared first on Dezeen.

Voici une série d’illustrations réalisée par le graphiste Joshua Clarke. Intitulée « New Icons of London », la série propose une version colorisée et épurée des grands buildings iconiques de la capitale de Britannique, à savoir la tour The Shard, la Salesforce Tower London, ou encore la 30 St Mary Axe plus communément appelée the Gherkin, le cornichon en français.

Berlin-based The Fundamental Group works within the realm of what they call “the architecture of fascination,” and their Atlas Table bears this out. Made from alternating, angled blocks of oak and smoked oak, just thinking about what the glue-up must have involved gives me a headache.

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