The architects of Polish studio PL.architekci have created a new studio for themselves inside a disused loft in Poznan (+ slideshow).
Located in the city’s historic quarter, the renovated attic provides PL.architekci with a two-storey workplace featuring exposed timber trusses and white-painted brickwork.
“Nothing in our office is pretending to be anything else,” explain the architects. “What we see is either our modern work or the building’s original construction.”
The steeply sloping roof allowed the architects to insert a mezzanine loft beneath the rafters. A metal staircase leads to the upper level and is attached to a sliding mechanism, so it can be wheeled to a different position if it gets in the way.
Seventeen new windows bring daylight into the attic for the first time, offering a view across the neighbouring rooftops.
White cabinets and bookshelves divide the space into different zones, while additional partitions conceal large-format printers and a kitchen at the centre of the office.
We designed our own studio within a formerly disused attic space in a historic quarter of Poznan. We sought to maximise the space and reveal its character to provide an inspirational working environment whilst allowing our clients to experience our style of architecture and design.
The attics original wooden rafters have been expressed by designing a physical separation between themselves and new divisions within the space.
This separation is emphasised by introducing flush white walls, cabinetry and office furniture creating a clear contrast between the old and new.
We introduced 17 windows to provide the previously dark attic with a world of natural light and view of the neighbourhood beyond the rooftops.
A second level storage area is accessible by a sliding steel staircase that can be moved aside when not in use.
Nothing in our office is pretending to be anything else; what we see is either our modern work or the building’s original construction. Just the way we like it!
Swiss architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron referenced 1920s interiors for the renovation of this bar and brasserie near its offices in Basel.
The two rooms are located at the Volkshaus Basel, a cultural venue that dates back to the fourteenth century. The present building was built in 1925 and is currently undergoing a phased renovation to reinstate the library, hotel and restaurant that were included when it first opened.
By adding traditional materials and classic furniture pieces to the restored spaces, Herzog & de Meuron aimed to reincarnate the character of the old bar and brasserie.
“We started out by removing all the built-in additions and cladding applied to the building in the late 1970s,” explain the designers. “Whenever possible we recovered the original architecture of 1925.”
In the brasserie, pendant lighting hangs from the newly exposed ceiling beams, while the clean white walls are decorated with rectangular and circular mirrors.
High-backed seating divides the space and is complemented by wooden tables and chairs – a reconstruction of the original Volkshaus chair with a variety of different back pieces.
Walls and ceilings in the bar are painted black, drawing attention to the row of spherical light bulbs overhead. Tin covers the bar and tables, and circular windows provide peepholes to rooms beyond.
The bathrooms are fitted with reclaimed sinks and are lined with wallpaper depicting imagery from seventeenth century etchings.
Here’s a project description from Herzog & de Meuron:
Volkshaus Basel Bar, Brasserie Basel, Switzerland 2011 – 2012
The history of the Burgvogtei, a medieval manor and later the Volkshaus Basel, goes back to the 14th century. The location has always been a site of concentrated and varied use – a piece of city within the city. In 1845, a brewery with a restaurant was erected there and expanded in 1874 to house a beer and a concert hall. When the premises were taken over by the city of Basel in 1905, the facilities, with their diverse spaces, became a hub of political, social and cultural activities. The popularity of the location led to a shortage of space and the ensuing architectural competition in 1919 was won by the architect Henri Baur. The new Volkshaus Basel, built in 1925, incorporated the existing concert hall and was expanded to include new halls of various sizes, offices, conference rooms, a library, a restaurant and a hotel. In the 1970s, the Volkshaus just barely escaped demolition; the interior was completely renovated and the building refurbished to meet the latest technical standards. However, in consequence, the building underwent substantial change and today nothing remains of the original character of the beer and concert hall. The concert hall is architecturally defined by the acoustic requirements of its use as an orchestral recording studio. All of the galleries and window openings had to be walled up. The bar and the brasserie were also remodeled to such an extent that little of the original spirit of the space has survived. In particular, the integration of HVAC and other technological facilities led to invasive architectural modifications. The diversity of uses was reduced as well since the head building is now used primarily for offices.
In several steps, the Volkshaus will now be remodeled and former uses reinstated such as hotel, shop and library. Our intervention aims to revitalize the diversity of this location which is so important to the life of Basel, while at the same time restoring its architectural identity. The extent of our intervention will vary from room to room, determined by the individual requirements of each space and based on detailed analysis of its current status. Based on the original architecture of 1925, the Volkshaus will be preserved in all its diversity and complexity and will reflect the spirit of its own history.
In order to achieve this, we started out by removing all the built-in additions and cladding applied to the building in the late 1970s. Whenever possible we recovered the original architecture of 1925. Where this was too costly, technically unfeasible or unreasonable, we worked with the current status. The study and analysis of plans and visual materials from the archives played an important role, enabling us to identify the original character of the architecture and the defining elements of the interiors. The next step involved working out how the later addition of HVAC and technical services could be integrated into the original architectural idiom, with only slight modifications.
In the brasserie, we removed the lowered ceiling to reveal the old ceiling beams and then doubled them to house the ventilation ducts. The distinctive spatial structure of the brasserie is thus restored and even enhanced. Since the original room dividers no longer exist, we added high-backed seating to subdivide the brasserie into various zones. The historical chandeliers resonate in the pendant LED lamps with thick, mouth-blown glass diffusers. The chair is a reconstruction of the original Volkshaus chair, except for the back which can be automatically individualized thanks to computer-aided production.
The tin traditionally used for the countertop now covers the entire bar and the tabletops as well. It was important for us to work exclusively with quality materials like tin, leather and wood, which acquire a patina through years of use. Striking architectural elements of 1925 have been reiterated elsewhere in various scales and articulations. For instance, the oval window above the entry resonates in the window to the public passage that leads to the inner courtyard, in the swinging door between the bar and the brasserie, in an opening that reveals the historical staircase and in the mirrors of the restrooms.
The sinks in the restrooms are recycled items found in Basel’s building components exchange. Seventeenth century etchings have been transferred to the wallpaper used in the antechambers of the restrooms, thus establishing a link with Basel in the days of the former medieval manor.
Chinese studio Neri&Hu has unmasked the I-beams structure of the oldest steel-framed building in Shanghai to create an Italian restaurant with a raw industrial interior (+ slideshow).
Neri&Hu stripped the inside of the space, leaving exposed brickwork, peeling plaster and Victorian ceilings mouldings intact. The architects then added steel-framed partitions to create a drinks bar, a pizza bar and a series of private dining rooms.
“Stripping back the strata of finishes that have built up after years of renovations, the design concept celebrates the beauty of the bare structural elements,” say the architects.
The main dining area is loosely modelled on a traditional marketplace, which inspired the name Mercato. The two bars are located at the centre and feature industrial steel shelving and reclaimed timber canopies, while glass lamps hang over tables like street lights.
Banquette seating runs through one section of the restaurant, which the architects built using wood found onsite and tubular steel frames.
The three private dining rooms are surrounded by an amalgamation of materials that includes antique mirrors, blackboards, metal mesh, recycled wood, raw steel and textured glass.
“Constantly playing the new against the old, [our] design is a reflection of the complex identity of not only the historical Bund, but of Shanghai at large,” says the studio.
The entrance to the restaurant is a sliding metal gate with words spelled out between its horizontal bars.
Mercato is one of six restaurants at Three on the Bund, a department store along the river in central Shanghai, and it is run by French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
Neri&Hu puts the “industrial” back in three Michelin star dining and refined interior at Mercato.
Situated within the prestigious Three on the Bund, Mercato is renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s newest culinary destination in Shanghai, the first of which to serve up an upscale yet rustic Italian fare. Neri&Hu’s design for the 1,000 square metre restaurant draws not only from the chef’s culinary vision but also from the rich historical context of its locale, harkening to early 1900s Shanghai, when the Bund was a bustling industrial hub.
Stripping back the strata of finishes that have built up after years of renovations, the design concept celebrates the beauty of the bare structural elements. Three on the Bund was the first building in Shanghai to be built out of steel, and the architects’ decision to reveal the original steel columns pays homage to this extraordinary feat. Against the textured backdrop of the existing brickwork, concrete, plaster and mouldings, new insertions are clearly demarcated. Constantly playing the new against the old, Neri&Hu’s design is a reflection of the complex identity of not only the historical Bund, but of Shanghai at large.
Coming off the lift, one notices immediately the Victorian plaster ceilings above, its gorgeous aged patina juxtaposed against raw steel insertions: a series of lockers along the wall, a sliding metal gate threshold, and the suspended rail from which a collection of eclectic glass bulbs hang—the opulence of old Shanghai coinciding with a grittier side.
Making reference to the restaurant’s name, the vibrant atmosphere inside the main dining space recalls a street side marketplace, featuring at its centre the Bar and the Pizza Bar, both encased in steel mesh and wire glass boxes with recycled wood canopies. Above, a network of tube steel members, inspired by old-time butcher’s rails, intertwine with the exposed ductwork and form a system for hanging both shelving and lighting. Like a deconstructed sofa, the banquettes along the edge of the dining area are made from wood salvaged on site and embedded into a metal frame.
The private dining rooms are also featured in the space as metal-framed enclosures, infilled with panels of varying materials: reclaimed wood, natural steel, antique mirror, metal mesh and chalk board. A band of textured glass along the top edge of each PDR affords some transparency, while sliding doors between each room provide maximum flexibility. This language continues into the corridor between the kitchen and dining area, where a back lit wall of textured glass panels – inspired by old warehouse windows – encourages interaction between the chef and his patrons.
Diners seated along the edges of the room experience a different sort of ambiance. To bring lightness into the space, the perimeter represents an in-between zone: between interior and exterior, between architecture and landscape, between the domestic and the urban. Clad in white travertine, the walls here act as a temporary departure from the other rich textures and palettes. The focus here is simply the breathtaking views of the Bund beyond, drawing the far reaches of the city into the dining space itself.
This twelfth century watchtower overlooking the Umbrian countryside was reconstructed into a holiday retreat by architect Christopher Chong (+ slideshow).
Chong and his partner Seonaid Mackenzie bought the Torre di Moravola in a ruined state, missing a roof and some walls, and spent six years making the structure safe then liveable.
“Establishing the structural stability of the tower, whilst removing all the debris that had accumulated from collapsed walls and roofs, was pretty dangerous as one never knew for sure if there would be a wall collapse,” Chong and Mackenzie told Dezeen.
Originally constructed to oversee the feuding neighbouring communes of Montone and Umbertide in central Italy, it has been resurrected to house seven suites of various sizes with shared entertainment and outdoor spaces.
“The benefits of the structure were that it had many historical features and as it emerged, as we slowly removed the trees and bushes surrounding it, a great aspect,” they recounted.
Steel and concrete elements were inserted to help stabilise the building and contrast with the stonework.
“Whilst building, the fact that no wall was straight or perpendicular meant that continual assesment and remeasurement of the structure was required,” they said.
Guests arrive at the medieval tower from a long gravel drive which culminates in a circular piazza to the north of the property.
Steps hugging the side of the stone wall lead up to communal living spaces, which can also be accessed from a metal staircase with translucent glass treads that doglegs up an atrium with concrete elements.
Entrances on the lower ground floor provide routes to dining and kitchen areas. Atria either side of the central tower allow daylight to filter into the public areas and draw cool air from the lower passages up through the roof.
A double-height space occupies the top of the tower, providing a living area for the main suite plus a library on the steel mezzanine, which was introduced to brace the structure.
Balconies scattered around the building provide vistas over the tiled roofs and to the surrounding hills and valleys.
Outside, a reflecting pool with a hidden fire pit is surrounded by sunken seating on the west terrace, while an al-fresco dining area is located to the east.
Located up a slope to the north and aligned to the same axis as the tower, a 25-metre infinity pool offers 360-degree views across the countryside.
Chong and Mackenzie also restored a smaller building on the site for themselves, adding a slatted timber storey on top of original stonework. Plans to convert more run-down outbuildings into accommodation and spa facilities are pending planning permission.
Torre di Moravola is a medieval watchtower situated along the ridge of a mountain overlooking the Carpini valley, Umbria, Italy. It has been restored with a modernistic design approach to the interiors, auxiliary buildings and pool areas to create a contemporary retreat.
Outbuildings, gardens, terraces and a 25-metre infinity pool have been aligned on an axis with the tower to maximise the 360 degree views over secluded valleys, unchanged since medieval times, and giving the sensation of being completely removed from the modern world.
Four external terraces surround the tower: on the east side a large formal dining terrace with classic Umbrian views. To the south an open viewing pavilion forms an inner courtyard with herb gardens. The West terrace has a stone reflecting pool with sunken seating areas and overlooks the olive groves. A large piazza and point of arrival for cars is on the North. The property has six hectares of land with oak forests and fields containing olives and fruit trees. Solar panels provide energy for hot water and heating. Rainwater is collected for irrigation.
Within the tower the character of the public and private areas are one where the best historical aspects have been preserved and contrasted with contemporary design and materials, heightening the sense of Moravola’s history and resulting in a synthesis of the ancient exterior with sleek pared down modernity.
Public areas are arranged on two levels and act as a pivot from the centre of the tower, easily accessible from all seven suites. Two interlinked reception rooms are on the first floor and the kitchen and dining areas on the ground floor have ready access to the terraces for dining.
Lower ground floor plan
There are a total of seven suites arranged off the central axis that runs through the tower linking the gardens terraces and pools. All suites have direct private access to the outside terraces and also to the internal spaces within the tower, this gives a sense of separation and privacy.
Upper ground floor plan
The main tower suite is at the highest point of the original tower; the sitting room is a double height space with watch-gallery and stone fireplace. The bedroom has magnificent views over the Carpini valley. A changing room leads to a private roof top terrace and stone bathroom with massage area.
First floor plan
Four of the suites have been designed as individual towers: bathrooms with heated sunken stone baths, massage and changing areas are on the lower level with floating steel stairs leading to the bedrooms above, each with wonderful views over the valleys. The character of the interiors is one of highly refined comfort and pared down purity, these are cool contemporary tower suites.
Second floor plan
The West suite is on one level with a sitting area overlooking the West terrace, it has a large bathroom with stone bath and shower and two basins. The West room is on one level on the ground floor it has a vaulted bathroom with an arched wall made of translucent alabaster.
Spanish studio Nook Architects stripped out false ceilings and dividing walls to transform two next-door apartments in Barcelona’s gothic quarter into a pair of bright and spacious homes (+ slideshow).
Nook Architects found the two apartments in a poor state, with several adaptations over the years leaving them with a confused layout of compartmentalised rooms and very little natural light.
Layers of false ceilings, flooring and dividing walls were removed and the entrances were relocated to give the apartments a similar size and layout.
Each apartment is organised into a day zone oriented towards the street and a night zone towards the quieter rear facade.
Dividing the two zones is a chunk of wooden flooring, which extends upwards into a bench. Above it is a metal rail that conceals a strip of lighting and acts as a clothes hanger.
The polished concrete floors give way to unpolished concrete in the bathrooms, which are open to the rest of the space, with the showers and toilets separated by a translucent screen.
Twin House Two apartments in Barcelona Nook Architects
From the historic Gothic Quarter in Barcelona, a project for two adjacent apartments arrived to us, which turned out to be a diamond in the rough. The dwellings were on a deplorable state; several low quality interventions from different times overlapped each other.
Its distribution was the result of common customs of the past in which the space was highly compartmentalised, generating small rooms with little or no natural light or ventilation.
The first intervention consisted on stripping down the structure, removing layer after layer of false ceilings, pavements, and coatings, added over the years to the original state. Once the essence of the building was restored, we began our final intervention.
The two existing apartments shared the stair’s landing. The unfortunate placement of the access doors resulted in two different typologies that could barely be distributed under balanced conditions. By relocating the entries and taking into consideration the original elements that were rediscovered, we created a new space that reclaimed the original spirit.
The original wooden beams were treated to avoid future plagues, and were reinforced with steel elements to limit their strain. The same was done with the floor; a compression layer was added, firming up the girder-slab, and evening out the floor level.
This newly sound space, divided by a thick load-bearing wall, was configured in two zones: the day zone, oriented towards the street and the liveliness of the neighbourhood, and the night zone, located on the posterior, more quiet façade.
We arranged the basic elements for the functions and commodities of today, like the kitchen and bathroom, in a subtle manner that was respectful to the space. We therefore treated the kitchen as if it were wooden furniture inside the living room, horizontal, with under the counter refrigerator and freezer to avoid any vertical, tall standing units, and white wall-units that camouflage with the background.
The bathroom was likewise incorporated into the bedroom, leaving the washbasin open to the rest of space, which is only differentiated by changing the floor level. The only compartmentalised elements were the shower and toilet, separated from the rest of the space by a light, and translucent wall.
The two wet zones of the house are therefore contiguous and line the median wall of the neighbouring building, minimising the water and sanitary installations. The glazed tiles boost this idea of a horizontal strip that contains the humid zones, simultaneously revitalising the reclaimed envelope.
A wooden plank was embedded into the concrete floor, establishing a threshold between the living room and the sleeping quarters. This plank then folds and lifts up and turns into a night table or a bench. Above the plank, we placed a metal profile that contains lighting and acts like a hanger and support for possible curtain.
Our objective with this refurbishment with such a tight budget was to create an infrastructure that would hint to the user how personalise it later. A carefully studied configuration of polyvalent and proportionate spaces multiplies the possibilities of two very small dwellings with very large potential.
This renovated apartment in Berlin features raw concrete ceilings and floors that combine oak parquet with decorative tiles (+ slideshow).
Local architects Marc Benjamin Drewes and Thomas Schneider teamed up to design the apartment for a couple and their children, creating two bedrooms, a bathroom and an open-plan living room and kitchen.
The project is named Box 117 and the architects refer to the two white-painted bedrooms and bathroom as “simple boxes” with a narrow shadow gap around the tops of the walls to highlight the edges.
The wooden parquet flooring runs down one side of the apartment beneath white-washed timber ceilings. The red and white cement tiles are positioned on the opposite side underneath the exposed concrete ceilings.
“The raw concrete ceilings are preserving the industrial character,” says Drewes. “Partly old with a wooden pattern, partly new with a smooth surface, the ceiling tells something about the history of the space.”
Each room has a floor-to-ceiling height of 3.4 metres, allowing for overhead storage and an elevated sleeping area in the children’s bedroom.
Here’s a project description from Marc Benjamin Drewes:
Box 117
A couple with two little kids moved into this loft in a Berlin backyard.
A continuous space for a kitchen, living area and sleeping area for the parents surrounds two boxes in which you find the children’s room and the bathroom. This open layout creates the loft character of the space.
Floor plan
The children are sleeping in a niche above a litte storage next to the children’s room. That way one takes advantage of the clear height of 3.4m to create more living area. The sleeping area of the parents can be closed with a room-high sliding door. If the door is open it disappears behind the bathroom-box.
The oak parquet and the cement tiles on the floor are creating a basis full of character for the simple boxes with a limewash coat. A shadow gap all around separates these boxes from the existing elements of the space and all doors are flush with the wall to accentuate the simple form. The raw concrete ceilings are preserving the industrial character. Partly old with a wooden pattern, partly new with a smooth surface the ceiling tells something about the history of the space.
London studio Jonathan Tuckey Design has converted a historic chapel in Wiltshire, England, into a house with a blackened-timber extension conceived as the building’s shadow.
The architects were only permitted to build an extension that would be invisible from the street. “The form was generated by the parameters of building something as big as possible within the chapel’s shadow, so that led to the consideration of materials reminiscent of a shadow,” Jonathan Tuckey told Dezeen.
Photograph by James Brittain
The roof and every wall of the extension is clad in bitumen-stained larch, with flush detailing around the edges of the gable and chimney. It is built over a series of reconstructed dry-stone walls.
Photograph by James Brittain
“The clients, the planners and us were all keen to create something different to the original building, rather than mimic it,” said Tuckey.
Photograph by James Brittain
All four of the house’s bedrooms are contained inside the new structure, while the former vestry of the chapel functions as a library and the large hall is converted into an open-plan kitchen and living room with a mezzanine gallery above.
Photograph by James Brittain
A transparent glass corridor links the extension with the two adjoining buildings of the chapel and can be opened out to the garden in warmer weather.
Here’s a short project description from the architect:
Shadow House – Transformation of a Grade 2* listed chapel in Wiltshire into a family home
Our clients were intent on preserving the historic character of this elegant historic chapel but needed to adapt the building to accommodate the needs of their young family and connect it to the garden at the rear of the site.
Complementing the existing chapel’s form and scale the new extension sits on re-built dry stone walls in the garden and is unseen from the street. It is clad in blackened timber, echoing the vernacular tabernacle churches of the West Country; a quiet shadow of the original building.
A glazed transparent passage, which can be opened entirely in warmer weather, links the extension back to the chapel where the mid-19th century spaces have been refurbished.
The New York home and studio of the late American artist Donald Judd will open to the public next month following a three-year restoration (+ slideshow).
Fourth floor – photograph by Josh White, c/o Judd Foundation, Claes Oldenburg, Lucas Samaras and Stephen Flavin/Artists Rights Society
Led by New York-based Architecture Research Office (ARO), a team of consultants and engineers have restored the interiors of the five-storey residence at 101 Spring Street, where Judd lived and worked from 1968 until his death in 1994 and amassed a collection of over 500 artworks.
Fourth floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation and Stephen Flavin/Artists Rights Society
The project involved maintaining the open-plan layout created by Judd and reconditioning the timber floors and exposed plaster walls. The team also had to replace an existing spiral staircase to bring the building in line with current health and safety standards.
Third floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation and Larry Bell
“Our goal has been to preserve Donald Judd’s vision for the building and make it accessible to the public, while satisfying contemporary building requirements,” said ARO principal Adam Yarinsky. “The entire design team worked with creativity, diligence, and sensitivity to resolve the complex challenges involved in reconciling these objectives.”
First floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation and Ad Reinhardt
The team meticulously catalogued the situation of every sculpture, painting and object in the house, including pieces by Judd himself as well as works gifted by artist-friends such as Claes Oldenburg, Carl Andre and Dan Flavin, plus older artworks by Marcel Duchamp, Ad Reinhardt and more. Following the restoration, each object was returned to its exact position.
First floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation and Ad Reinhardt
The ground floor of the house was previously used by Judd as a living room and will now serve as an event and lecture space for the Judd Foundation, the charity responsible for the building. As visitors arrive, one of the first things they’ll spot is a sculpture by Andre comprising a stack of bricks.
Ground floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation
A Judd-designed kitchen with a wooden table and central stove features on the first floor, while the fourth floor accommodates a bedroom with a fluorescent lighting installation by Flavin along one side.
Manifest Destiny by Carl Andre – photograph by Rainer Judd c/o Judd Foundation and Carl Andre
The restoration also included the exterior of the building, where the team replaced around 13,000 cast-iron pieces.
Fourth floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation, John Chamberlain, Lucas Samaras, Stephen Flavin/Artists Rights Society
When Donald Judd’s New York City building in the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District opens to the public in June 2013 after a three-year restoration, visitors will experience Judd’s home and studio as originally installed by the artist. The restoration of 101 Spring Street began on June 3, 2010 (the artist’s birthday) and will conclude three years later. Donald Judd lived in the building with his family beginning in 1968, and it was his New York studio until his death in 1994.
Guided visits will be offered for small groups by appointment through an online ticketing system and by telephone. Visitors will be guided through all floors of the home, including Judd’s studio, kitchen, and his stately fifth-floor bedroom, which is installed with a floor-to-ceiling 1969 Dan Flavin fluorescent light piece, extending the length of the loft space.
101 Spring Street – photograph c/o Judd Foundation
Each floor will remain as installed by Donald Judd with pieces from his collection of over 500 objects, including original sculpture, paintings, drawings, prints, and furniture designed by Judd and others. Judd installed artworks by Jean Arp, Carl Andre, Larry Bell, John Chamberlain, Marcel Duchamp, Dan Flavin, David Novros, Claes Oldenburg, Ad Reinhardt, Lucas Samaras, and Frank Stella throughout the building, all of which viewers will be able to explore.
Overseen by board members Flavin Judd and Rob Beyer, the restoration project shares the same goal and mission of Judd Foundation: to preserve Judd’s living and working spaces and promote a wider understanding and appreciation of Donald Judd’s legacy. The New York City design firm Architecture Research Office (ARO), led Judd Foundation’s project team of consultants, which includes a preservation architect and engineers.
Unfinished concrete is combined with exposed plywood in this Tokyo apartment renovated by Japanese architecture firm TANK (+ slideshow)
TANK wanted to create a more spacious and flexible layout in the compact Japanese apartment, which was previously divided by a narrow corridor into various cramped rooms.
“I considered that the room should have flexibility and the tenant can arrange it as she likes,” explains the designer.
The team began by making the bathroom much larger and inserting sliding doors on both sides, enabling an extra route between the bedroom and the hallway.
The narrow entrance hall is designed as a “Doma” – a traditional Japanese entranceway – with a bare concrete floor that contrasts with the raised wooden flooring of the living area.
An exposed larch frame extends out beneath a raw concrete ceiling, while vertical batons combine with plywood sheets to form a screen dividing the bedroom from the living area.
The bedroom and adjacent closet are doorless, with walls and ceilings designed to look deliberately incomplete.
“There are no doors for the bedroom or walk-in closet,” explains TANK. “The walls and ceiling have an unfinished look, I leave it to the tenant’s taste as to how to utilise these rooms.”
A clear glass lampshade houses a bare bulb that descends from the ceiling in the bedroom, casting long shadows from the wooden frame.
Spanish architecture studio Sol89 has converted a former slaughterhouse in the historic town of Medina-Sidonia into a school for training chefs (+ slideshow).
Constructed in the nineteenth century, the building previously featured a series of outdoor paddocks and a large courtyard, used for storing livestock before the slaughtering process. As part of the renovation, Sol89 has extended the building into these spaces to create kitchens and classrooms.
Like most of the town’s architecture, white-painted walls surrounded the perimeter of the slaughterhouse site and now enclose both the new and old sections of the building.
The original pitched roof is clad with traditional clay tiles, but the architects used modern flat ceramics to give a vibrant red to the asymmetric gables that make up the roof of the extension.
“If we observe Medina-Sidonia from a distance, it seems to be a unique ceramic creation moulded by the topography of Medina,” explain architects María González and Juanjo López de la Cruz. “The Professional Cooking School uses this idea of the moulded ceramic plane to draw its geometry. This roof lends unity to the built complex and interprets the traditional construction of the place.”
The original arched doorway remains as the entrance to the school and leads in via the old structure. Inside, the architects have replaced the original flooring with exposed concrete that skirts around a set of historic columns in the main hall.
The kitchens are lined with tiles on the floors and walls. High level windows help to bring light in from above, while small glass courtyards are positioned at intervals to provide areas for students to grow vegetables and herbs.
Medina is a historic town in the hills in Cadiz. Its houses are known for their whitewashed walls and their ceramic roofs. The project involves adapting an ancient slaughterhouse, built in the XIX century, into a Professional Cooking School.
The ancient slaughterhouse was composed of a small construction around a courtyard and a high white wall that limits the plot. If you are going to act in the historic city you must adapting, taking shelter, settling in its empty spaces. The density of the architecture of the ancient slaughterhouse, where brick walls, stones and Phoenician columns coexist, contrasts with the empty space inside the plot, limited by the wall. The project proposes catching this space through a new ceramic roof that limits the new construction and consolidates the original building.
If we observe Medina Sidonia from a distance, it seems to be a unique ceramic creation molded by the topography of Medina. The Professional Cooking School uses this idea of the molded ceramic plane to draw its geometry. This roof lends unity to the built complex and interprets the traditional construction of the place, ceramic roofs and whitewashed walls. Some little courtyards are inserted, working as ventilation shaft, and are cultivated with different culinary plants which are used by the students to cook.
At the original building, ancient floors were replaced by slabs of concrete with wooden formwork that recognise traditional building forms, walls are covered with white and rough lime mortar which seeks material memory of its industrial past, and the existing Phoenician columns, displaced from the disappeared Temple of Hercules, have been consolidated. All of those materials, even the time, built this place.
Context sketch
Architects: María González y Juanjo López de la Cruz. Sol89 Team: George Smudge (architecture student), Jerónimo Arrebola (quantity surveyor), Alejandro Cabanas (structure), Insur JG (building services), Novoarididian SA y Rhodas SL (contractors)
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