Hasta La Ideas

Italian architects EM2 have converted a castle into a mountain museum.

The architects left the exterior untouched but constructed several new rooms in unfinished timber, added wooden staircases inside and opened up the basement.

Located in the Alps, the Messner Mountain Museum houses a permanent exhibition about people who live in mountainous regions around the world.

More stories about museums on Dezeen »

Photography is by Harald Wisthaler.

The following information is from EM2:

Renovation and adaptation of Castle Bruneck to MMM Messner Mountain Museum by EM2 Architects. Castle Bruneck, which has been reorganised and extended for several times, has been redeveloped and adapted during the years 2008 – 2011 by EM2 Architects from Bruneck.

The architects (Gerhard Mahlknecht, Heinrich Mutschlechner, Kurt Egger) aim consists on one hand in the cultural inheritance saving and restoring and on the other hand in accommodating the exhibition of “mountain people in the world”.

Telling his own and the history of mountain people at the same time, was the order and cultural responsibility towards the history, the present and the future of the castle.

The difficulty lay in integrating an museum concept for the exhibition “mountain people” in already built historical structures.

The needed extending buildings should be clearly readable, reserved and are established in a contemporary architectural language

The extending buildings in the access area are consciously made of wood.

Wood is a material with a restricted life span, it’s aging and will once be gone like the MMM on castle Bruneck.

The extension of the subterranean part “Zwinger” is hardly discernible and covered with a passable greenery free surface between castle and castle wall.

About the subterranean extension, cellar rooms are opened in which, darkness and medieval walls are very perceptible.

A modern, his technology showing elevator integrated in an late-Gothical part of the building, is part of the museum concept and opens the building for handicapped people.

A massive wooden stair has been integrated to the round about the year 1282 built tower (Bergfried).

While going up to the roof top of the tower, the museums visitor is able to watch the exhibition about “tourism in mountain regions.”

The top of the tower offers a beautiful view over Bruneck up to the snowy summits of the Zillertaler Aplen in the Ahrntal valley.

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Museum Extension by Nieto Sobejano	Castelo Novo by Comoco Architects	Museum Extension by Nieto Sobejano

Bangkok studio all(zone) added a patterned concrete facade to two disused Bangkok shophouses to crate a live-work unit on each floor.

The architects have transformed the 5-storey buildings by adding a façade of patterned concrete bricks at the front and back, creating balconies between the existing building and old facades.

Metal mesh screens are used as walls and flooring for these in-between spaces.

A car park is located on the ground floor, with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th used for offices and living spaces.

The architects’ offices are located on the 4th floor and the 5th is used as an apartment for one of the designers.

More about Bangkok’s shophouses in Peter Nitsch’s photography project.

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Photographs are by Piyawut Srisakul.

The following information is from the architects:

Shophouse Transformation
Sukhumvit 49, Bangkok

Shophouse was the most common building typology of Bangkok during the process of urbanization of the city in the past century.

However they are getting obsoleted nowadays because of city’s the transformation.

Bangkok urban fabric is, nowadays, full of not-properly-utilized shophouses in most of the prime areas.

The project is an attempt to experiment with shophouse typology’s transformation.

The existing condition were two not-in-use units of shophouse in one of crowded area of Bangkok.

Every floor is transformed into a working-living unit, a new typology for a small business or live-in studio, that is quite rare type in Bangkok.

While the ground level is completely open for parking and plants. (The 4th and the 5th floors are finally occupied by the architects).

The addition parts are the new facades on both front and back made out of the prefabricated concrete blocks – the most common and cheapest construction materials found in the market – which is also acting as a sun shading, a curtain for privacy as well as thief protection device.

The facades also create ‘a breathing space’, the space between the big windows and concrete blocks, for smoking, relaxing in the outdoor, plantings as well as air condensing units and service.

Project DATA

type: shophouse transformation to live-in studio units.
location: Sukhumvit 49, Bangkok
total area: 650 sq.m.
architect: allzone, co.,ltd. with Stefano Mirti
project team: Rachaporn Choochuey, Sorawit Klaimak, Isara Chanpoldee, Namkhang Anomarisi, Tharit Tossanaitada
engineer: cm one co.,ltd.
contractor: Terdsak Tassayarn

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Shophouses 4 x 8 m Bangkok by Peter Nitsch	Sumaré House by Isay Weinfeld Arquitecto	More renovations and extensions on Dezeen

Belgian studio Room & Room opened this apartment in a listed Bruges building to the attic above, then opened the attic to the sky.

The attic floor has been removed, exposing the existing wooden roof structure and doubling the height of the living space.

Glazed roof panels inserted between the original structure and neighbouring building admit light to the deep spaces.

The kitchen is concealed behind pale wooden panelling, while the living area centres around a triangular chimney breast.

The listed building houses a pharmacy on the lower floors and a family home at the very top.

The following information is from the architects:

Renovation Bruges (Brugge) – Renovation of a listed building in the historical centre of Bruges

In the shadow of the cathedral the protected building is since the 17th century pharmacy and a home.

Expand wishes for the pharmacy made looking to expand the house. To connect the adjoining apartment to the attic floor offers the solution. Intensive discussions with the service heritage results in a integration into the sensitive historic urban texture.

Shed roofs are connecting the bays of the historical roof trusses with the side lying flat. They bring light and space in the heart of the new house.

The support functions of the house are grouped in the former apartment. This makes the attic fully opened and the trusses are restored to their value as defining elements in the space.

Two contemporary sink dormer give the house a new identity restored. They open the closeness of the attic without compromising the historical character of the city.

ROOM & ROOM, architecture and urban planning

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House NSV by adn Architectures	Paris apartment by MAAJ Architectes	Apprentice Store by Threefold Architects

Belgian studio adn Architectures have renovated this old farmhouse in Walhain, Belgium.

Called House NSV, wonky beams and columns of the existing farmhouse are exposed throughout the interior space.

The textured exterior façade is punctuated with windows in varying sizes.

Photographs are by Filip Dujardin.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

House “NSV”

The request of the client was the transformation of an old farmhouse composed of a main building and a cattle shed.

Following the first studies, the attention was focused on the main building, chosen by the client to install its house.

In a general way, the will was to the “patrimonial” setting ahead of the elements having a significant architectural value; the masonry or wooden structure of the roof for example.

This valorisation was supplemented by some specific contemporary interventions on the outside and by a deep refitting of the interior spaces.

The dwelling, very decayed, was consequently the object of a heavy restoration, only the basic structure (walls and roof structure) was being preserved.

A special attention was given to the structure: much reinforcement, out concrete, fastenings and ties, were necessary to maintain the existing structure.

On the outside, the “contemporary” interventions were established by successive keys while trying to find a dialogue between the old architecture and the new elements – forward setting of the entry by a natural concrete gantry just as bay of the stay towards the back garden, play of depth of the bays.

The external coating offers a texture that homogenizes the heteroclite masonry and accentuates the materiality, the plastic “sensuality” of the frontages.

An element made of birch is composed of various arrangements, the staircases, the cloakroom and the sanitary.

Men cross it; men borrow it, to reach the floors.

This architectural element shapes all over the width of the house, is turned over, gone up on the floors.

At the upper level, spaces let appear all their height under the roof, accentuating this, the bathrooms are volumes with flat roof on which is placed an indirect lighting.

Through various spaces of the dwelling, the three old wooden structures are magnified, crossing volumes, skirting walls, disappearing and appearing at other places, being based on a new structure.

A special attention was given to this old farm in order to meet the current energy standards and the comfort required for a family use in 2010 – roof, ground floor and walls insulation.

Radiant heating, solar panels for the hot water, re-use of the rainwater were included.

Program: Refurbishment of a XVIIIth century farmhouse

Client: Private
Location: Walhain, Belgium

Principal architects: adn architectures

Project team: David Henquinet, Nicolas Iacobellis, Didier Vander Heyden

Floor area: 270 m2

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Bastogne by adn Architectures	House Satiya by adn Architectures	House K by Yoshichika Takagi