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Architecture firm Caruso St John has completed a £45 million renovation of London’s Tate Britain art gallery, which includes a spiral staircase descending to new underground classrooms.

Following the opening of ten new exhibition spaces at the gallery earlier this year, Caruso St John has overhauled the oldest parts of Tate Britain‘s Millbank building to create new education and events rooms in spaces that were previously inaccessible to the public.

The new staircase spirals down from the centre of the domed rotunda, where a surface of monochrome terrazzo recalls the patterned mosaics of the original marble floor. As well as leading to new classrooms, it brings visitors down to the new Djanogly Cafe and renovated Rex Whistler restaurant, which features the restored 1920s mural The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats.

A circular balcony around the rotunda had been closed since the 1920s, but has now been revamped to create a first-floor cafe and members lounge with a 14 metre-long bar.

Elsewhere on this floor, the architects removed partitions to reopen the interior of the Grand Saloon. An original Victorian ceiling has been restored and clustered pendant lights were added, creating a large space that can be used for events.

The project also included the reopening of the building’s Thame-side entrance and the addition of a new dedicated entrance for school groups.

“The new Tate Britain opens up the Millbank entrance to reassert and enhance the original grandeur and logic of the galleries,” said Tate Britain director Penelope Curtis. “Adam Caruso and Peter St John have created new spaces out of old and artists have helped to articulate a new sense of the public realm,” she added.

Tate Britain first opened in 1897 as the Tate Gallery, showing a small collection of British art. Since then it has expanded to encompass four UK sites and over 70,000 artworks.

To commemorate the opening year, Caruso St John furnished the new gallery spaces with tables, chairs and benches by designers active during the British Arts and Crafts movement.

Photography is by Hélène Binet.

Here’s more information from Tate Britain:

The new Tate Britain is unveiled

The new Tate Britain is unveiled to the public on 19 November 2013. The transformation of the oldest part of the Grade II* Millbank building by leading architects Caruso St John marks a significant moment for Tate Britain. The unveiling follows the opening in May 2013 of ten new galleries and new BP Displays, including the chronological presentation of Tate’s unparalleled collection of British art.

The new Tate Britain is being made possible with the support of The Manton Foundation; Heritage Lottery Fund; The Gatsby Charitable Foundation; Ronald and Rita McAulay; The Linbury Trust and The Monument Trust; Garfield Weston Foundation; Clore Duffield Foundation; The Taylor Family Foundation; The Porter Foundation; Sir Harry and Lady Djanogly; The Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation; The Wolfson Foundation; Tate Members and other individual donors.

The £45 million project includes:

» the reopening of the main entrance to Tate Britain on Millbank, combining new architectural features with the excavation of the most beautiful original architectural elements of the building. The changes restore the historical logic of the building and include a striking new spiral staircase inside the entrance opening up access to new public spaces below;

» the reopening of The Rex Whistler Restaurant, with its famous Rex Whistler mural, The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats 1926-7, fully restored; and the new Djanogly Café, opposite the restaurant, which opens onto an exterior terrace. Both serve food made with seasonal British ingredients;

» contemporary interpretations of tables and seating inspired by leading British Arts and Crafts designers active in the founding year of Tate Britain – 1897;

» new learning studios located throughout the gallery including a dedicated schools’ entrance and reception underneath the Millbank Entrance steps; and a new Archive Gallery, presenting temporary displays from Tate’s extensive archive of artists’ letters and ephemera. The first display by Paul Noble is inspired by the history of the Tate Britain site as a swamp and then a penitentiary;

» the opening of the circular balcony of the Rotunda’s domed atrium, closed to visitors since the 1920s, as an elegant new café and bar for Tate Members; and the Grand Saloon, a light-filled space overlooking the Thames created for seminars and events; and

» site-specific work to celebrate the transformation of Tate Britain by three contemporary artists: Richard Wright has designed handmade glass and leading for the eastern window in the Millbank foyer; Alan Johnston has created a ceiling drawing for the Djanogly Café; and Nicole Wermers has created a tea and coffee spoon for use in the Djanogly Café, Members Room and the Rex Whistler Restaurant.

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by Caruso St John completed appeared first on Dezeen.

British studio Jonathan Tuckey Design has added skeletal partitions and skylights to bring more light into this renovated west London mews house.

Jonathan Tuckey Design renovated the Grade II-listed building for a private client and his dog, creating a two-storey home with a combined living and dining room on the first floor.

The planning authorities were reluctant to let the architects design an open-plan layout for the space, so they instead added see-through stud walls that follow the exact footprint of the original interior.

“We negotiated a difficult planning process in order to achieve this aesthetic in the Frame House,” architect Nic Howett told Dezeen. “The open plan with frame walls allowed light to flood deep into the plan.”

Five skylights bring light to different parts of the space. “A large roof light over the stairs allowed light to flood down to the ground floor,” said Howett.

Walls present a mixture of exposed brickwork and timber panelling, while the kitchen is finished in stainless steel and there’s also a reading corner.

Entrances lead into the house on both storeys. The downstairs entrance opens into a red-painted workshop and garage, used by the client to store his motorbikes.

The master bedroom is positioned alongside, while storage spaces line the edges of the corridor, and a bathroom and wet room are tucked away behind.

A birch plywood staircase connects the two floors.

This year Jonathan Tuckey Design also converted a historic chapel in Wiltshire, England, into a house with a blackened-timber extension conceived as the building’s shadow.

Photography is by Ioana Marinescu.

Here’s a short description from the architects:

Frame House

The reconstruction of a Grade II listed mews house in Holland Park, West London.

Beyond the refurbished historic exterior an entry hallway with a red-pigmented concrete floor acts as both a workshop and display case for our client’s collection of vintage motorbikes, which can be seen from within the house through a large glazed partition.

The ground floor also houses the master bedroom and bathroom. Opposite the hallway a birch-ply staircase is inserted into a double-height space which is lined with black MDF.

On the first floor a framework of timber studs is located where the original walls stood, creating an open, but layered kitchen and living space. The original roof structure is visible above this framework and new skylights with timber cowls bring in natural light.

A crisp, stainless steel kitchen contrasts with the exposed brick walls and the study is lined in Douglas Fir panelling. Skilled craftsmanship elevates the modest palette of materials to create a characterful modern home.

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Jonathan Tuckey Design appeared first on Dezeen.

Israeli architect Pitsou Kedem has exposed vaulted ceilings and stone walls inside this renovated house in the ancient port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv (+ slideshow).

Pitsou Kedem restored the historical building, estimated to be hundreds of years old, by stripping back the interior to reveal walls of broken clay and shells, vaulted ceilings and large internal archways.

Small pockets are hollowed from the walls at various heights and are used to create storage areas and a desk.

“The central idea was to combine the old and new whilst maintaining the qualities of each and to create new spaces that blend the styles together, even intensify them, because of the contrast and tension between the different periods,” said the studio.

A set of three pivoting glass doors frame the downstairs bedroom, while a new kitchen extension on the west side of the house features a long window with views over the Mediterranean ocean.

Tall windows also lead out from the living room next door to a small wooden balcony.

An iron staircase is set into the exposed concrete wall of the living room and is screened by a double-height balustrade of suspended wire cables. It ascends to a master bedroom on the mezzanine floor above.

Exposed concrete flooring throughout the house is covered with a mixture of patterned and textured rugs.

“The project succeeds in both honouring and preserving the historical and almost romantic values of the structure whilst creating a contemporary project, modern and suited to its period,” added the designers.

Pitsou Kedem has also recently completed a house with double-height glass doors, a renovated 1950s house with a stone mosaic wall and a family house with timber screens that fold back in different directions.

See more architecture by Pitsou Kedem »
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Photography is by Amit Geron.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Jaffa House: contemporary minimalism and historical asceticism

The language of minimalism imbedded in a historic residence in Old Jaffa. The 180 square meter residential home is located in Old Jaffa. Its location is unique in that it is set above the harbour, facing west with all of its openings facing the majestic splendour of the Mediterranean Sea.

Whilst it is difficult to determine the buildings exact age, it is clear that it is hundreds of years old.

Over the years, it has undergone many changes and had many additions made that have damaged the original quality of the building and its spaces.

The central idea was to restore the structure’s original, characteristics, the stone walls, the segmented ceilings and the arches including the exposure of the original materials (a combination of pottery and beach sand).

The building has been cleaned of all of the extraneous elements, from newer wall coverings and has undergone a peeling process to expose its original state.

Surprisingly, modern, minimalistic construction styles remind us of and correspond with the ascetic style of the past, and this despite the vast time difference between them.

The central idea was to combine the old and the new whilst maintaining the qualities of each and to create new spaces that blend the styles together even intensify them because of the contrast and tension between the different periods.

The historical is expressed by preserving the textures and materials of the buildings outer shell and by respecting the building engineering accord.

The modern is expressed by the opening of spaces and by altering the internal flow to one more open and free and the creation of an urban home environment along with the use of stainless steel, iron and Korean in the various partitions, in the openings and in the furniture.

The project succeeds in both honouring and preserving the historical and almost romantic values of the structure whilst creating a contemporary project, modern and suited to its period.

Despite the time differences, the tensions and the dichotomy between the periods exist in a surprisingly balanced and harmonic space.

Design: Pitsou Kedem
Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Raz Melamed, Irene Goldberg
Project: 180 sqm house in the old city of Jaffa

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Pitsou Kedem appeared first on Dezeen.

Architect Carles Enrich converted an old laundry space in Barcelona into an apartment that has a bookshelf merged with the staircase (+ slideshow).

Carles Enrich slotted three levels into the single-storey space to turn the dilapidated basement into a studio apartment for a young family, located in the Gràcia neighbourhood of the Catalan capital.

“[The project] is a fantastic opportunity to rethink the use of an unused place and optimise the conditions of the space,” said Enrich.

To create enough floor area, the south west portion of the long narrow plot was excavated to form a study and nursery.

Above this, a raised bedroom is supported on rows of black I-beams fixed to the wall on one side.

The other ends connect to vertical sections along the edge of the mezzanine, housing bookshelves in between that create low partitions.

The tops of the columns attach to more horizontal beams bolted to the opposite wall, high enough for people to walk underneath.

Steps up to the bedroom are suspended from the last two beams using thinner black metal elements. On the ground floor is the dining, kitchen and seating area.

A pergola-covered courtyard sits between this main building and a smaller single-storey volume containing more living space, with a terrace on its roof.

This outdoor living area can be seen from all spaces apart from the enclosed bathroom.

Original masonry walls and the small ceramic ceiling vaults between wooden beams were retained and exposed where possible. Brick and plasterwork have been painted white on most other walls.

The floor of the middle level is finished in a layer of polished concrete screed, while furniture and flooring downstairs are made from light wood.

Other apartments with combined bookshelf and staircases include another Barcelona apartment renovation, a loft conversion in north London and a South Korean house that also has an indoor slide.

See more combined bookshelves and staircases »
See more apartment interiors »
See more architecture and design in Barcelona »

More information from Carles Enrich follows:

Refurbishment of a studio-apartment in Gracia, Barcelona

The reconversion of an old laundry in the Gracia neighbourhood in a studio-apartment for a young family is a fantastic opportunity to rethink the use of an unused place and optimise the conditions of the space.

We propose to live in an open space, with the exception of the bathroom that is the only enclosed room. All the activities take place in a single space with visual contact of the interior patio. To achieve this, all the partitions that surrounded small rooms without natural light or ventilation where eliminated and the openings to the patio were extended.

The original materials are recovered, such as the brick walls, the ceramic ceiling and the wooden beams.

The lower excavation enables the incorporation of a loft made of metallic beams and a three-centimetre wood board, which works as an independent living area inside another bigger area, without being never enclosed room. This small loft is meant more like a suspended furniture than a room.

An old storage room at the back of the plot is converted into a satellite studio that operates independently from the main space. This fragmentation of the program makes the patio an intermediate space that can be used as an outdoor room most part of the year.

A pergola made of metal beams and a cane network provides privacy and climate control. The progressive growth of plants and trees generate a natural environment within the dense urban area.

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by Carles Enrich appeared first on Dezeen.

Original floor tiles were relocated to highlight seating areas during designer Laura Bonell Mas’ renovation of this Barcelona apartment (+ interview).

Local designer Laura Bonell Mas completely refurbished the 100-square-metre apartment, located among the grid of buildings in the city’s Eixample district.

She uncovered patterned tiles beneath newer ceramics and reused them throughout the property as they were in good condition.

“All the hydraulic tiles in the apartment were there from the beginning,” Bonell Mas told Dezeen. “Most of them had been covered by a brown ceramic flooring for years, which probably explains why they were in a relatively good state.”

Some of the tiles were kept in their original location, while others were relaid in other spaces to denote seating areas at angles to the walls.

“We put back the tiles in the living room and dining room as they were before, and then we used the ones that had originally been in the corridor and entrance of the apartment for the carpets and paths,” said the designer.

Wooden boards frame the tiled areas and cover the remainder of the floor, except for large black tiles used in the kitchen and bathroom. Ceiling mouldings on the suspended ceilings were also restored where possible, along with the balcony doors.

The rooms by the entrance were reorganised and partition walls removed to make the flat more open-plan. A walk-in cupboard was installed between the bedroom and hall to keep clutter hidden away.

As the front door and hallway are positioned at an angle to the rest of the apartment, a curved shelving unit and desk were installed to remedy the awkward junctions.

After noticing a few apartments in the Catalan capital that feature decorative tiles, we published a slideshow and roundup of our favourites. “Lately their popularity has gone up and when doing a renovation, finding beautiful pieces in a good state is almost like finding little jewels,” Bonell Mas said.

See more apartment interiors »
See more architecture and design in Barcelona »
See more design with tiles »

Here’s our short interview with the designer about the history of tiles in Barcelona:

Dan Howarth: Did you move tiles from elsewhere in the apartment, or were they bought new to match the existing?

Laura Bonell Mas: All the hydraulic tiles in the apartment were there from the beginning, we didn’t have to buy any new ones.

Most of them had been covered by a brown ceramic flooring for years, which probably explains why they were in a relatively good state.

Nevertheless, we had to take them all out in order to reinforce the floor with a thin layer of concrete, as it is an old building, and the floors had some problems – some unlevelled parts and sound isolation in general.

So we put back the tiles in the living room and dining room as they were before, and then we used the ones that had originally been in the corridor and entrance of the apartment for the carpets and paths. In the rest of the rooms, the tiles were not very beautiful – maybe they had already been changed before.

Dan Howarth: Why were patterned tiles used in Barcelona apartments historically?

Laura Bonell Mas: Initially, these tiles were created as an alternative to natural stone for floorings. The fact that they didn’t have to be baked like ceramic tiling probably had an impact in their development.

Despite the fact that they were used in other Mediterranean areas, the hydraulic tiles seems to be found more often in Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia, and that is probably due to the art nouveau movement of Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner, Puig i Cadafalch, etc. In their search for a new architecture, decoration played an important part and hydraulic tiling was very versatile in terms of geometries and colours.

Their use went far beyond the age of modernism though, probably because the industry was already quite advanced by then. It has to be said that the more colours a piece has, the more expensive it is because it takes more time to do it. For instance, you can see that the flooring in the living room and the dining room is more noble or was at least more expensive than the ones in the corridor, which only have three colours and its geometry is far more simple.

Dan Howarth: Why are they still implemented today?

Laura Bonell Mas: Around the 1960s their implementation decreased and most of the factories that produced the pieces do not exist anymore.

But lately their popularity has gone up and when doing a renovation, finding beautiful pieces in a good state is almost like finding little jewels. New ones can also be used, even though they are quite expensive, but they don’t look exactly the same. They don’t look aged and the colours are much brighter. Also, because the colour has a four to five millimetre thickness, unlike painted ceramics, you can polish and lower them a little so that they have an even surface.

Dan Howarth: How do the tiles affect the atmosphere of a space?

Laura Bonell Mas: I think this kind of tiling affects the atmosphere in many ways. They always add colour, so using relatively neutral furniture and walls you still get a joyful result.

Their cold materiality is also important to note. We decided to combine the tiling with wooden floors, especially in the parts of the house that have little natural light, or none at all, to add some warmth. I think, as a result, the atmosphere you get in the bedroom or the study is completely different to that of the living room.

But mainly, I think this kind of flooring gives an aged kind of feeling. It seeks to maintain the old character of this kind of building but with a twist. The combination of old and new gives an interesting atmosphere to the space, and by recycling some of the existing materials, it also allowed us to reduce the expense in new ones.

Read on for Bonell Mas’ project description:

Renovation of an apartment in Barcelona

The project consists in the complete refurbishment of an apartment of about 100m2, in the Eixample area of Barcelona.

The geometry of its original plan layout responded to the building typology of the Eixample, with load-bearing walls parallel to the façade and the distribution of the rooms to each side of a long corridor. At the same time, though, it was partially determined by the fact that it is a corner building, which means that the entrance space is rotated 45º relative to the rest of the apartment.

The main strategy of the project was to enhance these different geometries to allow visual continuity and greater amplitude of space, by defragmenting the excessive compartmentalisation.

Partition walls were removed (bearing walls were not modified in any case) and the bathrooms and the kitchen were redistributed around one of the inner courtyards, so that the spaces or rooms are concatenated and the idea of a long corridor is destroyed. The needs of the client and future user, who would be living alone or with a couple, influenced decision making: less rooms, and bigger.

The presence of the original building components was especially important to preserve the atmosphere of an Eixample apartment. The suspended ceiling, with its existing cornices, was kept where possible, and the wooden balcony doors were restored. The windows that had to be changed and the interior doors that had no use anymore were recycled into the enclosures of a new piece of furniture.

The hydraulic tile floor, which had been covered for years with another ceramic pavement, was recovered and reattached following new guidelines: it is maintained as it was in the living room and dining room, while in the rest of the apartment it is combined with an oak parquet flooring, with the intention to create “carpets” that point out some of the liveable areas and suggest paths.

This old materiality is complemented with some made to measure furniture, which shows autonomy from the original structure with its curved shapes and directs the user through the space. These are various tables made with recycled teak wood and a big piece of furniture situated at the entrance of the apartment, and which has a double function of bookshelves and coat wardrobe on the outer side and closet for the master bedroom in the inner side. Its height emphasises the will of a fluid space as it doesn’t reach the ceiling, which allows the visual continuity of the structure of ceramic vaults and wooden beams, which in this part of the apartment was left uncovered.

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by Laura Bonell Mas appeared first on Dezeen.