Hasta La Ideas

Behind the traditional ceramic-tiled facade of this nineteenth-century building, Portuguese studio OODA has completed a modern renovation to create 14 studio flats (+ slideshow).

The building in Porto dates from 1895 and was originally designed as a home, but was turned into an office and service building in the late 20th century. It lost many of its original features in the process, including wood flooring – now concrete – and a skylight above the stairwell.

It has now been converted back into a residential building by OODA with 14 studio flats and three one- or two-bedroom apartments. The apartments range from 28 square metres to 105 square metres, and are aimed at young people and students.

An automatic pivoting door provides access for cars from the street to the DM2 Building, and OODA clad it in stone to camouflage it among the building’s exterior when the door is closed.

“The client’s objective – which drove the intervention – was to cater for the younger market as the building is near universities, hospitals, the art district and the nightlife area,” architect Diogo Brito told Dezeen.

The apartments all feature contemporary details such as folded metal staircases and built-in storage, and mezzanine levels for sleep or work areas to maximise the small footprint of some of the apartments.

Black floor-to-ceiling cabinets help to differentiate the kitchen as a separate area in the open-plan apartments, and also helps to visually recede them in the room.

The communal corridors are covered in oriented strand board (OSB), which the architects chose partly for its affordability, and to add warmth to the building’s interior.

“We used it because it is a cheap material, and we thought it would be an interesting and warmer contrast to materials such as glass, concrete and light,” said Brito.

At the back, a patio designed for parking has been landscaped using grass and paving with the same triangular pattern found in the ceramic Azulejo tiles at the front.

“In Portugal it is quite common and traditional to use tiles in facades,” said Brito. “Our idea was to make this part of the conceptual process, using its configuration to generate other new features of the building.”

Beneath the patio, a separate, sunken apartment has been built for the client’s son, with a small, private courtyard at its front. A rectangular concrete structure protrudes through the front window, and is designed to serve a range of purposes.

“The client’s first idea was to place a mini-bar there, which then shifted to storage, and then to a place for TV and music devices,” said Brito.

The renovation is part of a wider regeneration taking place in Porto at the moment, which saw construction projects drop significantly following the global financial crisis.

“The recovery of abandoned buildings has become the new major task for the market,” said Brito. “It’s a process that is now in full throttle, but there is still a lot to be done. This building is one of many that our office is doing.”

OODA was co-founded by Brito, who previously worked as an architect at Zaha Hadid, and Rodrigo Vilas-Boas, who has worked with both OMA in Rotterdam and Álvaro Leite Siza in Porto.

Photography is by João Morgado.

Here is some more text from OODA:

DM2 Housing, Porto, Portugal

One of the most demanding tasks in Porto nowadays is the intervention on the major amount of old and historical buildings of Porto’s downtown. This project is a renovation of a 20th century building to convert to a 17 housing unit for students and young people in general.

The DM2 Building, located in downtown Porto (priority intervention zone), in the area of protection of the National Museum Soares dos Reis, is dating the nineteenth century and their original composition the property was intended for a single dwelling taking ornamental and construction of the whole characteristics of the buildings at the time, both in functional layout as an ornamental and aesthetic.

However, a later change occurred in the late twentieth century, the building has undergone a profound change taking place inside caused by the modification of use required.

The property became divided by several independent floors with features framed in services and trade and lower floors have been completely redesigned and trace assets were hidden in part and/or removed from the particular frames original, wood structure of the floors (now concrete) and traditional skylight at top of stairs. Indeed, the draft D.Manuel intended to rebuild the property, returning the initial function of integral housing, recovering traces of hidden identity, reinterpreting traditional elements and giving the building a new sense of contemporary housing program with a set of typologies ace current market needs.

So Manuel II building as a whole distributes 17 apartments T0 and T1 types, ranging in size between 28sqm and 105sqm, spread over 5 floors and are accompanied by a landscaped patio intended for parking.

The rehabilitation now completed, restores the original residential function, underlines the unique formal and constructive characteristics and adapt to a contemporary urban reality of the city of Oporto.

Size: 1,100 SQM
Team: Diogo Brito, Rodrigo Vilas-Boas, Francisco Lencastre, Francisca Santos, Lourenco Menezes Rodrigues

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behind tiled facade in Porto appeared first on Dezeen.

London architect Ben Nightingale has renovated a Victorian property he owns in Hackney, transforming three separate flats into a large family home featuring a double-height library and an attic playroom.

Ben Nightingale, one of the co-founders of Kilburn Nightingale Architects, bought the four-storey house on Greenwood Road to provide a family home for his wife and their three young daughters.

The building had previously been converted into three separate flats, meaning Nightingale had to completely re-plan the layout. This included removing existing walls, creating openings in the floor and rebuilding the original staircase.

“This project shows how a typical Victorian home can be opened up for more flexible use by a family, and also be adapted to positively reduce the carbon footprint,” Nightingale told Dezeen.

“The layout breaks down the traditional horizontal layering of this type of house, and the addition of a number of different types of insulation, photovoltaics and solar thermal panels greatly improve the energy efficiency,” he added.

Like many of London’s townhouses, the building has two storeys accessible from ground level – one that is slightly raised above the street and one that sits in line with a sunken garden. The architect transformed both of these floors into communal family spaces.

The lower ground floor accommodates a large kitchen and dining room that leads straight out to the garden beyond.

The double-height library area is positioned at the back, creating a visual connection with two living rooms on the floor above.

The first of these is a relaxed space facing out over the lawn, while the other is a formal area where the family can entertain guests.

The architect worked with a local joiner to add new sweet-chestnut window frames and cladding to an old extension at the rear of the house, intended to “mask the original poor quality brickwork”.

Five bedrooms and two bathrooms occupy the two upper levels. The attic was also remodelled, creating a playroom for the children that doubles as a guest bedroom.

Photography is by Charles Hosea.

Here’s the project description from Kilburn Nightingale Architects:

71 Greenwood Rd, London E8
Repair/remodelling and refurbishment of an existing house

This project involves the conversion, repair and extensive remodelling of a semi-detached mid Victorian house in Dalston, Hackney.

The house was purchased by Ben and Jane Kilburn at auction as a freehold building containing three flats. Ben Kilburn is a director with Richard Nightingale at Kilburn Nightingale Architects, an architecture practice based near King’s Cross.

This project presented an opportunity for Kilburn Nightingale (with Ben in the role of architect/owner) to develop a design that would take into account the joint requirements of contemporary family living (with three daughters aged 10, 8 and 5) and the rehabilitation and improvement of a house that had been neglected and interfered with by previous owners.

The renovation was designed to provide a functional home taking into account a need for flexible living space that would allow for a number of different activities to take place concurrently (so that the family could be ‘together’). The arrangement also needed to allow more privacy when required. The design also avoids having the lower kitchen/living area separated from the rest of the house by a formal, underused living area at upper ground level.

To achieve this, upper and lower living areas are connected to each other through a new double-height space at the rear of the property, and also connected to the garden through double-height glazing. This sense of openness is enhanced throughout the house by a number of new windows in the flank wall bringing light into the middle of the house.

The lower ground floor of the house has been remodelled to provide kitchen, dining and living area, with the double-height space at the rear of the house opening up to a flowing living space above. This upper living space is loosely divided into a more relaxed area closest to the balcony and views to the garden, and a slightly more formal living room at the front of the house.

First and second floors are divided into bedrooms and new bathrooms, and the attic has been converted to provide a flexible study/sleep-over/play space. Access to the attic is via a ‘hit and miss’ stair that is designed to take up as little space as possible.

The connection of the lower two floors of the house with the garden is made partly through the large windows/doors at the rear of the house, but also through the construction of a new shed/studio at the back of the garden. The large glazed double doors of the shed face back to the big doors in the glazed screen at the back of the house, with the suggestion that the shed is akin to a piece of the house that has floated out into the garden.

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townhouse with sweet-chestnut joinery appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch designer Piet Boon has transformed the interior of a former military hospital chapel in Antwerp, Belgium, into a contemporary restaurant featuring a sculptural chandelier.

Piet Boon‘s Amsterdam studio worked with lighting designers .PSLAB and artists Studio Job on the interior of The Jane restaurant, combining modern elements with the chapel’s high ceilings and patterned tile floor.

“The main features we retained in The Jane were the ceiling, of which the peeling paintwork was preserved, and the original pottery floor tiles,” the design team told Dezeen.

Described by the designers as “fine dining meets rock ‘n roll”, the restaurant accommodates its kitchen in the church’s former altar.

.PSLAB’s large chandelier made from steel and hand-blown crystal glass forms a centrepiece in the restaurant. Thin steel poles extend out in all directions from its central cylinder, with small crystal globes attached to the end of each one.

Black circular tables and pale green armchairs sit beneath the chandelier, while larger seating areas are positioned against the walls.

Studio Job created 500 colourful glass window panels to replace the former stained-glass windows.

Referencing “stories of good and evil, rich and poor, life and death as well as good food and religion”, the panels include images of sunflowers, devils and skulls.

A marble-topped bar is installed on an upper-level viewing platform and surrounded by black upholstered bar stools. An illuminated skull light hangs down at the rear of the space.

Bespoke speakers were also installed to “spread sound”, reducing noise and echo from the high ceilings. “The acoustics of the restaurant play an important role in speech intelligibility and ambiance,” added the designers.

Here’s some information from Piet Boon:

‘Divine’ fine dining experience The Jane opens its doors March 25th

Michelin-star chef Sergio Herman and chef Nick Bril created their “fine dining meets rock ‘n roll” restaurant vision together with Piet Boon over three years ago in a mythical location in Antwerp; the chapel of a former military hospital. Piet Boon® Studio, responsible for the interior design and styling of The Jane, since then collaborated in the chapel’s unique transformation into a high-end, contemporary restaurant with international allure where experience is key.

Piet Boon

Based on her belief in authenticity, functionality and materials that ‘age beautifully’ the studio chose to restore only the highly necessary in the chapel and hence preserve the rest. The original ceiling amongst others conveys the pure, understated and respectful environment that serves as the authentic host for the ultimate fine dining experience.

The original altar gave way to the kitchen that – just like the atelier – is embraced by glass, like a modern shrine. It allows guests to witness everything the team creates for them.

The shared passion of Herman, Bril and Boon to work with pure, rich materials is expressed in the interior in which qualitatively outstanding natural stone, leather and oak wood are used.

Moreover Piet Boon® Studio, as with many of her projects, collaborated with a number of leading creative partners to shape the “fine dining meets rock ‘n roll” character of the overall experience. Studio Job, Mathieu Nab and .PSLAB and others each delivered their signature part within the total concept.

Studio Job

Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel of Studio Job designed the windows consisting of 500 unique panels. Inspired by the chapel’s original function, foam spatulas, sunflowers, devils, skulls, babies, Jesus on the cross, dice, apple cores, wrenches, ice cream cones, a canon, croissants, penguins, trophies, gas masks and birthday cakes portray a contemporary translation of the old stained-glass windows. Archetypes from various worlds each tell masterpiece stories of good and evil, rich and poor, life and death as well as good food and religion.

.PSLAB

The ‘piece de résistance’ in the centre of the restaurant is a 800 kilograms-weighing gigantic chandelier of 12 by 9 meters with over 150 lights, designed by the Beirut-based design studio .PSLAB. The chandelier was created in such a way that it contributes to the intimate and ambient divinity of the chapel interior. The team, specialised in the design and production of site-specific contemporary lighting, laid out an overall lighting plan for The Jane to accentuate the unique elements of both the building and the interior. It is aimed to create a scenic ambience by seamlessly combining artistry and engineering.

SERAX

Together with Belgian company SERAX, specialised in decoration accessories, Piet Boon® designed tableware that conveys a shared passion for attention to detail and perfection. Base by Piet Boon® is a high quality bone white porcelain collection combining functionality and design. The tableware has high thermal stability, is lead- and cadmium free and will be featured in the The Jane’s Upper Room Bar.

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as a restaurant by Piet Boon appeared first on Dezeen.

Canadian studio Naturehumaine inserted a glass floor and skylight to draw sunlight through the interior of this two-storey house in Montreal, and reintroduced wooden boards to make a feature of the staircase.

Naturehumaine renovated and extended the narrow house on 8th Avenue, Rosemount, for a family of four. An extra family room was added on the ground floor with a new master bedroom above, while the rear facade was replaced with a patterned surface of bright yellow and green panels.

The glass floor provides a visual connection between the ground-floor dining room and a hallway above. A skylight of the same size sits directly above – a feature that architect Stéphane Rasselet says the studio often adds to the centre of houses.

“In this case the clients needs didn’t allow us to give up the valuable floor area that would be lost with a double-height space, so we added the glass floor below the skylight,” he told Dezeen.

The architects retained original structural beams and boards, using them to create a wooden wall flanking the staircase. They also inserted a few into the ceiling void below the skylight.

“Back when this building was built, structural walls were built out of interlocking pieces of solid wood, similar to a log cabin, but with flat faces,” said Rasselet. “We like to expose these walls like you would expose an existing brick wall.

“We find our clients like the warmth of the wood, as well as exposing the history of their house, which contrasts with the new contemporary elements,” he added.

The existing interior was completely reorganised. The ground floor entrance leads in through a living room to the kitchen and dining area at the centre of the plan, while the new room at the rear opens out to the terrace and garden.

Upstairs, a pair of bedrooms overlook the street in front of the property, while the master bedroom occupies the rear behind the bathroom.

Walls of black bricks extend through the facade, forming both interior and exterior surfaces, while floors feature a mixture of white-painted wooden boards and dark slate tiles.

Photography by Adrien Williams.

Here’s a project description from Naturehumaine:

8th Ave.

This intervention transformed a residential two storey duplex in Rosemount into a single dwelling unit by completely reorganising the interior and constructing a 430 sqft extension in the rear.

The extension includes a master bedroom on the second floor and a family room that gives onto an intimate garden at ground level. Standing proud on a typical Montreal laneway, the extension acts as a beacon of novelty and dynamism. While little work was done to the front facade, this extension was designed in contrast, with bright colours, an angled form, and generous glazing.

Work on the interior centred on exposing and highlighting the beauty of existing wooden structural walls and beams and supporting them with a more subtle pallet of materials. Natural daylight is brought into the core with a large skylight and glass floor placed at the centre of the house.

Type: Single family house
Intervention: Interior re-organisation and extension
Location: 8th Ave. Montreal, Canada
Area: 1630 sqft

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a glass floor with a skylight overhead appeared first on Dezeen.

Canadian studios Dan Hanganu Architectes and Côté Leahy Cardas Architectes have revamped the tent-like structure of a church in Quebec to create a modern library featuring coloured glazing, spiral staircases and lofty ceilings.

Completed in 1964 by Canadian architect Jean-Marie Roy, the St. Denys-du-Plateau Church already boasted a dramatically pointed structure that appears to float just above the ground. Dan Hanganu Architectes and Côté Leahy Cardas Architectes left this structure intact but added a pair of glazed blocks, one at either end.

Renamed as the Monique-Corriveau Library, in memory of a local author, the building now houses a public library and local community centre spread across two overground storeys and a large basement level.

Visitors enter the building through a grand atrium that reveals the full internal height of the roof. This is located within the former church nave, and leads through to shelving stacks, reading areas and study desks.

The largest of the two extensions sits over the footprint of the demolished former presbytery to accommodate staff offices and community event spaces.

“This separation of functions means that the community hall can be kept open outside library opening hours, while the spectacular and monumental volume of the nave is preserved,” said the designers.

The walls of this block feature an assortment of clear, silk-screened and coloured glass panels. The roof drops in height for a small section before meeting the old church, allowing the two volumes to appear visually separate.

The small front extension satisfies a requirement for an emergency escape staircase and is finished in the same tinted glass.

Photography is by Stéphane Groleau.

Here’s some information from the design team:

Monique-Corriveau Library, enlargement and conversion of the St-Denys-du-Plateau Church

The Monique-Corriveau Library, housed in the Saint-Denys-du-Plateau church, is an exception, and in a rather unusual way. It is a tribute to the career – exceptional for her time – of the Quebec writer whose name it honours. This mother of 10 children, to each of whom she dedicated a book, was the author of numerous children’s books and winner of several literary awards.

The St. Denys-du-Plateau Church, a remarkable creation of the late architect Jean-Marie Roy erected in 1964, was part of this renewal (second Vatican Consul), at once architectural and religious.

Converting and expanding such an eloquent example of modern Quebec architectural heritage is a very delicate operation which must be approached with respect and humility. Saint-Denys-du-Plateau Church deserves this special consideration due to its unusual, dynamic volume, which evokes a huge tent inflated by the wind and anchored to the ground with tensioners.

The nave houses the library’s public functions, with shelves and work and reading areas, while the addition contains the administration and community hall. This separation of functions means that the community hall can be kept open outside library opening hours, while the spectacular and monumental volume of the nave is preserved, since the architectural concept is to transform the space into a model of spatial appropriation as a reinterpretation of the interior.

To accentuate the fluidity of this volume, the solid soffit above the window has been replaced by glass panel which allows each beam to visually slip seamlessly to its exterior steel base, – a revelation of visual continuity.

The volume replacing the presbytery and community hall occupies the same footprint and was executed in clear, silk-screened and coloured glass panels. It is separated from the library by a void, marking the transition from old to new. At the front, extending the structure of the choir-screen and the canopy, a code-required emergency staircase is housed in a coloured glass enclosure signalling the new place, dominating a new parvis, reconfigured with street furniture, trees and other greenery. Building on transparency and reflection, the architects have made a strong statement with colour at the ends of the building, an allusion to the vibrant, bold colours of the 1960s, which contrast the whiteness and brilliance newly captured in the remarkable form of the original church.

Location: 1100 route de l’Église, Québec [Qc] G1V 3V9
Name of client: Ville de Québec, arrondissement Sainte-Foy – Sillery – Cap-Rouge
Architects: Dan Hanganu + Côté Leahy Cardas Architects
Architecte of the church Saint-Denys-du-Plateau (1964): Jean-Marie Roy
Architect in charge: Jacques Côté, Sébastien Laberge,
Design Team: Dan S. Hanganu, Gilles Prud’homme, Diana Cardas, Sébastien Laberge
Team: Pascal Gobeil, Martin Girard, Marie-Andrée Goyette (CLC), Olivier Grenier, Martine Walsh, Anne-Catherine Richard, Marc Despaties (DHA)

Structure: BPR
Mechanical/Electricity: BPR
Acoustician: Audiofax
Contractor: Pomerleau
Artists: Claudie Gagnon
Project size: 4400m2 (3 levels)
Cost: $14.7 millions
Date of completion: Occupation autumn 2013

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by Dan Hanganu and Côté Leahy Cardas appeared first on Dezeen.