O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

Perforated metal screens conceal rooms and storage space in this Tel Aviv apartment by Israeli studio Paritzki & Liani Architects (+ slideshow).

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

Paritzki & Liani Architects lined two walls of the 110-square-metre flat with hinged translucent panels to hide away everything except the kitchen counter and a sofa.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

“The idea was to thicken the existing walls with vertical perforated metal panels that may be opened and closed, forming a thick wall that contains functions of the habitat,” said the architects.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

The walls open up to reveal kitchen units, the master bedroom and bathroom on one side of the main living space, and shelving along the other.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

These spaces remain obscured until lights within are switched on and the glow emanates through the panels.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

Larger windows are left unmasked, but smaller ones are consumed by the screens or covered with similar translucent blinds.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

Doorways and corridors leading from the entrance and into the bedroom are lined with the same wood as the floor.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

Positioned in front of the bedroom, the bathroom sits right up against the panels but is still separated from the living area by large sheets of glass.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

Elliptical lights suspended at different heights look like hovering UFOs and are reflected in the shiny ceiling.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

A walk-in wardrobe is located completely out of view behind the kitchen and an L-shaped balcony faces west to look out over the city’s skyline.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

Also in Tel Aviv, Paritzki & Liani have squeezed a house with an exposed brickwork interior into a space between two existing properties and installed a PVC ceiling at an apartment to mirror a panoramic view of the harbour.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

Photography by Amit Geron.

See more apartment interiors »
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The architects’ project description follows:


In an anonymous high-rise building, among many of those surrounding our skyline; we’ve decided to use the interior of this 110 sqm flat to elaborate, with simple elements, walls and lights, an experiment on the nature of perception.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects

The idea here is to thicken the existing walls with vertical perforated metal panels that may be open and closed; forming this way a thick wall that contains functions of the habitat (kitchen, closets, library, bathroom, storage). Above all, this wall is an optical device that transforms, depending on the type of light used, and modifies the height and depth of the space. In the light of day this thick perforated wall, composed of variable thicknesses, becomes a three dimensional veil that makes opalescent the different areas of the flat. Niches and deep spaces create visions of transitional forms.

O Apartment by Paritzki & Liani Architects
Floor plan – click for larger image and key

In the dark we’ve drawn attention to a ritual passage, familiar to all of us, once we enter our home at night; the passage from darkness to illuminated space. Here we create a second view to the inhabitants. Our device adds new parts to the space, transforming itself into a remote architecture with new and profound windows: the vision exceeds the measurable borders of the flat.

The appearance of this new place vanishes once the lights are turned off.

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Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Arquitetos

Here are some photographs of the renovated 1960s Mineirão Stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, set to host matches during the 2014 FIFA World Cup (+ slideshow).

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photograph is by Leonardo Finotti

BCMF Arquitetos was commissioned for a complete overhaul of the 1960s football stadium, located on the edge of the Pampulha Lagoon. Originally designed by architects Eduardo Mendes Guimarães Júnior and Gaspar Garreto, the building features an oval-shaped structure with a rhythmic facade made up of 88 projecting ribs.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photography is by Leonardo Finotti

The team stripped the building back to its shell, before adding a new roof, lowering the pitch, upgrading all services and infrastructure, and adding new shops and a dedicated football museum.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photography is by Leonardo Finotti

“Since Mineirão is a protected building, the addition of new program could be solely made through the insertion of a platform at its base,” said the design team. “Subverting the classic notion of a podium, which refers to a horizontal building with a flat top surface, this platform is carved on the ground and shaped accordingly, creating semi-public squares set at different levels.”

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photography is by Leonardo Finotti

The lowering of the pitch helps to improve sight lines for spectators, while redesigned seating tiers at the lower levels increase the capacity to over 62,000 seats.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photograph is by Joana França

Structural analysis revealed that the structure had subsided by around 30 centimetres. This was corrected using hydraulic jacks and steel cables, before the architects added a cantilevered roof to shelter spectators.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photograph is by Alberto Andrich

Sustainable technologies were also prioritised. As reported earlier this year, the stadium is the first in the world to be fully powered by solar energy, and uses rainwater harvesting to reduce its water consumption.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photograph is by Alberto Andrich

Improvements to the surrounding landscaping involved creating an artificial topography that defines public plazas, seating areas and routes between the stadium’s entrances and the nearby Mineirinho Gymnasium.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photography is by Leonardo Finotti

A number of large projects are underway in Brazil, as the country prepares for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Other recently completed projects include a new art museum and art school in Rio and a huge social housing complex in São Paulo.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photograph is by Joana França

See more architecture on Brazil »
See more stadiums »

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photograph is by Joana França

Here’s some more information from BCMF Arquitetos:


New Mineirão

Inaugurated in 1965 (original design by Eduardo Mendes Guimarães Júnior and Gaspar Garreto) as the second largest stadium in the world, the Mineirão Stadium is located in the surroundings of the Pampulha Lagoon, close to Oscar Niemeyer’s and Burle Marx seminal work, being part of Belo Horizonte’s main postcard. As Brazil was chosen to host the World Cup 2014, opportunity came about to transform the traditional stadium, whose façade is heritage listed, into a contemporary multifunctional sports facility.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photography is by Leonardo Finotti

The New Mineirão aims to go beyond its primary role as a world-class sports arena, also offering a range of services, commerce, culture and entertainment for the city, becoming a new hub of activities integrated to the modernist landscape of the leisure and touristic Pampulha complex.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photograph is by Joana França

The instrument chosen to make this operation possible was a public-private partnership (PPP), determining that the redevelopment of the stadium would be undertaken by a company which, in return, would be granted its use for the next 25 years. The winner of the bid was Minas Arena Consortium, that invited BCMF Architects, renowned for their expertise in sports architecture, to be responsible for the renovation of the New Mineirão.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photography is by Leonardo Finotti

In this context, to transform the “Pampulha Giant” into a modern multifunctional facility, the interventions proposed are both radical and respectful, reinforcing the monumental original structure within the iconic modernist landscape.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photograph is by Joana França

As for the original architecture of the Stadium, basically only the outer “shell” remained: the 88 structural semi-porticos, the concrete roof and the upper tiers. The rest of the “core” was completely rebuilt to guarantee the total overhaul inside the arena, including the new extension of the roof, all the new program and infrastructure, besides the lowering of the pitch and the lower tiers redesign, improving the sight-lines for the new capacity of 62,160 seats.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Photography is by Leonardo Finotti

The renovation on the outside is total, with a new 200,000 sqm operational platform separating the spectators’ from the accredited flow. The “Esplanade” includes various facilities around the stadium, opened to the public as an immense landscaped plaza, visually linked to the Pampulha Lagoon. This platform is sculpted and moulded to the site as an artificial topography, integrated with the immediate surroundings, being perceived as a continuation of the street domain. Thus, the public is attracted by programs strategically distributed throughout the esplanade, creating areas with potential to generate activities and movement during all day, seven days a week.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Arquitetos
Photography is by Leonardo Finotti

The project has also sustainable features, using solar energy, reusing rainwater, as well as efficient lighting systems, intelligent control of energy and so on (LEED Certification). After the event, many operational areas which are specific for the 2014 World Cup will have other uses (institutional, commercial and leisure programs), contributing for the economic sustainability of the complex.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Arquitetos
Photography is by Leonardo Finotti

The New Mineirão points out ways in which sports mega events can leave a lasting legacy to the host-cities. Here, even though interventions are made on a stadium scale, they respond to the demands of larger scales, such as the neighbourhood, the landscape and the city itself. Thus, the ambition is that the urban domain should be invited into the realm and scope of the architecture.

Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Site plan – click for larger image
Photograph is by Joana FrançaMineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Ground floor plan – esplanade level
Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Basement level one – click for larger image
Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Basement level two – click for larger image
Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Cross section – click for larger image
Mineirão Stadium renovation by BCMF Architects
Detailed section – click for larger image

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Bear Garage by Onion

The owners of a house designed to showcase their collection of toy bears have brought Thai design studio Onion back to extend the display cases into the garage (+ slideshow).

Bear Garage by Onion

Onion originally renovated the house at the Cha-Am Beach resort in Thailand to include cabinets for Be@rbrick ornamental bears and have now created a new exhibition area inside the garage for over seventy bears.

Bear Garage by Onion

The studio designed an L-shaped cabinet that takes up two walls of the garage, made from matte white laminated plastic and fronted with glass. “Be@rbrick cabinet brings light to Bear Garage,” Onion said. “It somehow transforms the entire space.”

Bear Garage by Onion

Faceted surfaces inside the cases extend outward to merge with the ceiling.

Bear Garage by Onion

Down the longest side, the height of the display space decreases from the top and bottom, plus the figures are spaced closer together towards the garage door.

Bear Garage by Onion

Paired with distorted black perspective lines across the sloping surfaces and progressively smaller shelves, the eye is tricked into thinking the bears increase in size.

Bear Garage by Onion

Each bear design sits on its own shelf with room to be accompanied by smaller versions, individually illuminated by an LED spotlight.

Bear Garage by Onion

Along the shorter wall, the bears are packed in tightly and shelves are spaced to accommodate different sized figurines.

Bear Garage by Onion

Additional strip LEDs are hidden in and behind the ledges. A large window allows the display to be viewed from the living room.

Bear Garage by Onion

More stories we’ve featured from Thailand include aerial photos that reveal the angular geometries of a rooftop swimming pool and a stairwell resembling a giant wedge of Swiss cheeseSee more architecture and design in Thailand »

Here is the project description from Onion:


Be@rbrick cabinet

In the longer part of the cabinet, Be@rbrick shelves are increasingly wider and further apart. Each shelf is individually customised. The first one, where Be@rbrick Detroit Metal City stands, has the same width as the 1000% Be@rbrick shoulder whereas the last shelf, where Daftpunk Be@rbrick is on display, is double that width. As an effect, the 1000% Be@rbricks queuing along on these shelves seem progressively smaller until its size is reduced by half at the corner of the space. The best viewpoint to perceive this is at the middle of the Garage where the cabinet elevation can be observed.

Bear Garage by Onion
Layout plan – click for larger image

The shorter side of the L-shape cabinet is a much simpler shelving system. The objective is to display as many Be@rbrick figures as possible. They stand close to each other and in continuity along the racks. Seventy figures at least are on display in this limited space of 4.8 metres high. It works as a background when the cabinet is observed from the diagonal viewpoint.

What unites the two design solutions is the idea of shopfront. The entire Be@rbrick cabinet is bright and white as if the toy figures are in luxurious window displays. LED strip-down-lights and LED strip-up-lights illuminate the shorter part of the cabinet. If the shelves are for 1000% Be@rbrick the number of strip-down-light will be more than those for 100% Be@rbrick. This is to uniform the illumination. For the longer part, there are two lighting systems, namely LED strip-down-lights and LED spot-lights. The strip-lights are between the ceiling and the rear wall. They are partly hidden from sight and partly shown through the edge of ceiling slope. Spot-lights are placed in the black square boxes that are increasingly larger in scales and in gaps through out to the corner of the space. Each light bulb precisely spots on each 1000% Be@rbrick. Lighting systems emphasise the effect of perceptual distortion.

Bear Garage by Onion
Elevation – click for larger image

Materials play an important part in the design. They are the matte white laminated plastic sheet, black mortises and transparent glass. On the frontal plane, the vertical mortises of six-millimetre wide are gradually spread out. These lines are the foreground of the cabinet. On the rear wall, a perspective of a room is drawn by using three-millimetre wide mortises. These thin lines are the pattern of conceptual depth. They make the cabinet appears deeper much less than set a background for the distortion of Be@rbrick size. Glass walls that envelop the entire cabinet has no frame. They are perpendicular. Again, the perception of Be@rbrick reflections is distorted at the corner of the room. Be@rbrick toys seem to have their double images that are thiner or fatter than themselves.

Be@rbrick cabinet brings light to Bear Garage. It somehow transforms the entire space. Cabinet ceiling that folds in various angles give shades to the whole Garage ceiling. Its steep slope extends itself from the inside to the outside of the cabinet. This darker shade of grey leads the gaze to a brighter space, that is Be@rbrick window display. Bear Garage, in this light, is far from being a car storage.

Bear Garage by Onion
Elevation

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Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

A row of raw concrete gables give a zig-zagging profile to this summer house by Swedish studio Tham & Videgård Arkitekter on an island in the Stockholm archipelago (+ slideshow).

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

Oriented towards the bay, the wide and shallow house was designed by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter to stretch across its site like a line of boathouses, creating five pitched rooftops with varying proportions.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

One of the middle gables comprises a glass canopy, sheltering a terrace that splits the building into two separate volumes. This space functions as the houses’s entrance and offers an aperture from the edge of the forest towards the seafront.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

Rather than following the timber-clad aesthetic shared by many of the archipelago’s houses, architects Bolle Tham and Martin Videgård chose a plain concrete construction with seamless eaves and minimal detailing.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

“The client’s desire for a maintenance-free house inspired us to search for a way to design the house as an integral part of nature, where the material’s weight and colour scale connects to the archipelago granite bedrock, rather than a light wooden cottage,” they explained.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

The concrete was cast against plywood boards, giving a subtle grain texture to the surface. This is complemented by ash window frames and wooden furniture.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

The largest of the two volumes accommodates a living and dining room that spans three of the gables.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

Wooden doors slide open to reveal additional rooms behind, including three bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. Ceilings inside some of the rooms are shaped into gables, extended from the main roofline, and many feature opening skylights.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

The smaller second volumes contains a guest bedroom and bathroom, with an outdoor swimming pool just beyond. There’s also a concrete sauna located closer to the coastline.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

Tham & Videgård Arkitekter is based in Stockholm. Other residences completed by the studio include an apartment with a colour scheme based on changing seasons and a hotel suite inside a mirror-clad treehouse.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

See more architecture by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter »
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Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

Photography is by Åke E:son Lindman.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

Here’s a project description from Tham & Videgård Arkitekter:


Summerhouse Lagnö

The setting is the Stockholm archipelago, natural ground sloping gently down to the sea in the south, mostly open with a few trees and bushes. Unlike other projects we worked on located on more isolated islands in the archipelago without car access from the mainland, this site was relatively easy to reach also with heavy transports. This, together with the client’s desire for a maintenance-free house inspired us to search for a way to design the house as an integral part of nature, where the material’s weight and colour scale connects to the archipelago granite bedrock, rather than a light wooden cottage. The two building volumes are placed side by side and form a line that clarifies their position in the landscape, just at the border where the forest opens up out onto the bay. When approached from the north, the entrance presents itself as an opening between the buildings giving direction towards the light and water. It is a first outdoor space protected from rain by a pitched canopy of glass.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

The exterior character of the house is derived from a number of transverse gable roofs, which connect to each other, and like boathouses in a line form a pleated long facade. This provides a sequence of varied room heights for the interior and create places in the otherwise completely open living room that stretches through the entire length of the main building. With a relatively shallow room depth and a continuous sliding glass partition out to the terrace, the space can be described as a niche in relation to the archipelago landscape outside. The small rooms are located along the north façade with access through a wall of sliding doors. They are lit by openable skylights and form smaller pitched ceiling spaces within the main roof volume.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

Terrace, interior floors and facades are made of exposed natural coloured in situ cast concrete with plywood formwork. The interior is painted white with woodworks in ash. A sauna, a detached block of in situ cast concrete with a wooden interior, offers a secluded place near the beach and pier.

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
Site plan – click for larger image

Architects: Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
Team: Bolle Tham and Martin Videgård, (chief architects), Anna Jacobson (project architect)
Interior: Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
Landscape design: Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
Structural engineer: Sweco, Mathias Karlsson
Built area: 140 sqm
Project: 2010
Completion: 2012

Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
Floor plan – click for larger image
Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
Long sections – click for larger image
Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
South elevation – click for larger image
Summerhouse Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
North elevation – click for larger image

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AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Two blocks face each other across the forecourt of this symmetrical housing development in São Paulo by local firm Corsi Hirano Arquitetos (+ slideshow).

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Situated in the outskirts of the city, Corsi Hirano Arquitetos split the eight social housing units into a pair of blocks either side of a large paved driveway where residents are encouraged to congregate.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

The line of the roof extends out over the extruded glass-fronted boxes that house the staircases, creating shelters over the entrances. Half the residences have these stairs at the front and half have them at the rear.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Each home has an open-plan living space on the ground floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, plus a small garden and an extra shower room out the back.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Wooden shutters, window and door frames break up the all-white surfaces.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Street-facing end walls of each block are detailed with vertical grooves and separated from the fence by a thin window, so that they appear to float above it.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

The development is secured by grated metal gates that slide across the front of the drive.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

We featured a housing project that references 1960s tower blocks in central São Paulo a few days ago. See more architecture in São Paulo »

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

More residential architecture on Dezeen includes blackened wood buildings teetering on the edge of a precipice in Sweden and the overhaul of the brutalist Park Hill housing estate in SheffieldSee more housing design »

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Photography is by Leonardo Finotti.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Corsi Hirano Arquitetos sent us this project description:


The AV Houses bases itself in the valuation of the public space through an architectural commitment with collective sense possible of being expressed from the private property.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

The void originated by the built elements provides the appearance of a new place, opposed to main preconceived occupations of independent parallel properties that establish no relations in itself or with public space.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Its strategy groups eight housing units in two blocks by which remaining areas delimit an intermediate space that becomes its main premise.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Contemplating the necessity for the largest site occupation ratio and preserving the internal areas demanded for each unity, the articulation of constructed and non-constructed limits configures the collective central patio of great proportions considering the site dimensions.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

A modest architectonical complex but representative of an essence of space that consists in a social opportunity: architecture as a city generator and venue for its inhabitants.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos
Site plan
AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos
Ground floor plan – click for larger image
AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos
First floor plan – click for larger image
AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos
Cross section – click for larger image
AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos
Cross section – click for larger image

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Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

Small windows scattered across the facade of this house extension outside Melbourne by Australian practice Wolveridge Architects limit the amount of direct sunlight entering the building (+ slideshow).

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

Wolveridge Architects designed the extension to provide additional bedrooms for the owners’ three young sons, who are now housed above a large garage.

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

The architects say that the composition of openings in the facade “is designed to restrict the inflow of undesirable west sun and provides a suitable level of visual engagement with the street.”

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

Anodised aluminium window frames contrast with the dark stained western red cedar cladding that covers the new addition and maintains the house’s existing material palette.

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

Inside the bedrooms, the windows are integrated into a geometric arrangement of cabinetry that creates storage and seating.

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

The extension also incorporates a new living area that is separated from the bedrooms by a large shaded terrace with views of the nearby forest.

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

Yesterday we published a beach house by Wolveridge Architects with louvred shutters concealing its windows and architect Clare Cousins recently extended a family home in Australia by adding a stilted timber-framed guest house. See more houses in Australia »

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

Photography is by Ben Hosking.

Here’s a project description from the architects:


Blairgowrie House

This extension to an existing two storey dwelling provides essential additional living areas for a family with three young boys. The original structure made very little connection with the surrounding property and had deficiencies in access to northern light.

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

By bringing the façade dramatically forward towards the street it was possible to incorporate the three required bedrooms above a large garage on street level.

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

To separate the bedrooms from the new living area a north facing courtyard was introduced which also provides a terrific outlook towards the surrounding Moonah forest.

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

The block type form established from bringing the front of the dwelling forward and its western orientation influenced a design decision to create a complex series of openings in the façade, allowing for plenty of natural light to the children’s bedrooms within.

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

The composition of openings is designed to restrict the inflow of undesirable west sun and provides a suitable level of visual engagement with the street.

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

The cabinetry design integrates with the complex window arrangement on the outside, creating a playful sense within each bedroom.

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

The existing palette of dark stained western red cedar cladding and anodised aluminium window frames was carried through in the new work, integrating the original structure within the proposed design, but still providing a sense of separation.

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects

Project name: Blairgowrie House
Date of construction completion: 25/08/12
Project team: Jerry Wolveridge, Sina Petzold, Ricky Booth, David Anthony
Builder and Construction Manager: Tim Prebble
Structural/Civil Engineer: Don Moore & Associates
Building Surveyor: Nepean Building Permits

Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects
Ground floor plan – click for larger image
Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects
Basement plan – click for larger image
Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects
Long section – click for larger image
Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects
West elevation – click for larger image
Blairgowrie House by Wolveridge Architects
South elevation – click for larger image

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Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects

Over a hundred peg holes puncture the walls of this currywurst restaurant in Vancouver by Canadian studio Scott & Scott Architects, creating spaces to store furniture, hold lighting and display art (+ slideshow).

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects

Located in Chinatown, sausage and beer parlour Bestie is designed by Scott & Scott Architects to accommodate a showcase of locally-produced art and design, which can be hung in different arrangements from the 116 holes in the oiled spruce lumber walls. These holes can also be used for storing for extra bar stools – whose legs slot neatly into the gaps – or for hanging customers’ coats, hats and umbrellas.

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects

A set of lights by Canadian designer Zoe Garred slot into holes above the dining tables. Seating is provided by wooden benches with brightly coloured cushions, designed to evoke the familiar look of typical highway restaurants.

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects

Architects Susan and David Scott designed the restaurant so that owners Clinton McDougall and Dane Brown could build it themselves. “[It draws] on their shared love for matter-of-fact detailing of ad-hoc construction and high considered rational design,” they explained.

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects

“The design uses common materials that can be worked with a few simple tools and a limited amount of everyday items that are repeated, allowing the work to be completed on site with minimal shop support,” they added.

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects

The kitchen is exposed to diners and is lined with white ceramic tiles. It features an adjustable hanging system made from thin strips of copper, accommodating hooks for utensils, beer mugs and shelves.

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects

A copper counter runs along in front alongside more of the wooden stools, which were created by Canadian designer Joji Fukushima.

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects

Other details include a wooden cuckoo clock that is fixed onto one of the walls.

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects

Scott & Scott Architects are based in Vancouver. Other projects by the studio include a remote snowboarding cabin on Vancouver Island.

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects

Other restaurants and bars on Dezeen include a 1920s-style bar and brasserie in Basel, a restaurant and nightclub in a converted car park near Stockholm and a Parisian penthouse and bar containing chunky black trees.

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects

See more restaurants and bars »
See more architecture in Vancouver »

Photography is by the architects.

Here’s some more text from Scott and Scott Architects:


Bestie Currywurst

Restauranteurs Clinton McDougall and Dane Brown open their highly anticipated currywurst restaurant Bestie this week in the heart of Vancouver’s Chinatown. The sausage and beer parlour is the first for the pair whose background is in art and design.

Architects David and Susan Scott designed the space around the owners’ desire to build the 25 seat restaurant themselves. The design uses common materials which can be worked with a few simple tools and a limited number of everyday details which are repeated to allow for the work to be completed on site with minimal shop support.

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects
Bestie Currywurst floor plan – click for larger image

The project draws from the architects’ and owners’ shared love for both the matter-of- fact functional detailing of ad-hoc construction and for highly considered rational design. The work of fellow Vancouver designers is throughout the space including Zoe Garred’s Mariner lights and Joji Fukushima’s bar stools.

The loose tables and benches in the dining space allow for varied arrangement (film screening, communal dinners and removal) to facilitate changing events. The kitchen is fitted with a tool, stein and glassware hanging system that can be adjusted and added to over time.

The main wall will be an array of 116 holes and wooden pegs which will support an ever-changing rotating composition of locally produced design objects and art; coats and umbrellas; additional stools and pendant lights, and the odd copy of Der Spiegel.

Bestie Currywurst by Scott & Scott Architects
Bestie Currywurst west and north elevations – click for larger image

As with the stripped down and direct menu of German street food made with locally sourced ingredients, the space celebrates ordinary materials and simple details with oiled economy grade spruce lumber; copper hardware and counters. The floors and walls are painted in the eating hall as an easily maintained backdrop to the benches and coloured vinyl cushions that have the familiarity of the highway restaurants of our youth.

Location: 105 E Pender Street Vancouver, Canada
Opened: 17 June 2013
Area: 750 sq‘ (70 sq.m.)
Photo Credits: Scott and Scott Architects

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House Extension in Dublin by GKMP Architects

Terracotta tiles resembling brickwork cover parts of this house extension in Dublin by Irish practice GKMP Architects (+ slideshow).

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GKMP Architects removed the rear wall of the 1950s semi-detached house at ground level so the kitchen and dining area could be extended into the garden.

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The extension was constructed from blockwork before white render and the decorative tiles were added.

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The faceted shape of the new structure results in a series of angular interior spaces, while lower walls separate a patio from the garden.

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“The angled walls create deep thresholds between inside and outside and make niches for benches,” the architects said.

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A layer of sedum covers the roof of the new addition, making it appear to blend in with the garden beyond when viewed from the upper floor.

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Other recent residential extensions on Dezeen include a faceted slatted wooden structure that seems to be scaling the back of an apartment in Italy and an addition to an Arts and Crafts-style house in England with glass walls that open out onto the surrounding woodland. See more house extensions »

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We previously published a beauty salon in Japan with an interior covered in tiles arranged in a traditional English bricklaying pattern and a seaside art gallery in England by HAT Projects clad in shimmering black glazed tiles. See more tiles »

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Photography is by Alice Clancy.

The architects sent us this project description:


House Extension at Silchester Park, Glenageary

The project involves the refurbishment and extension of a 1950s semi-detached house in Glenageary, Dublin, Ireland.

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The ground floor rear wall is removed to open the house to the south-facing garden. A series of cranked and faceted walls are made that enclose a new dining area and associated external terraces. The angled walls create deep thresholds between inside and outside and make niches for benches. They are made from blockwork and are faced in render and terracotta tiles.

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Floor plan – click for larger image

The timber roof of the extension is covered in sedum to have a visual connection with the garden when viewed from the upper floor. A rooflight is made at the point of connection between the new and the existing to pull light into the plan.

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Section one – click for larger image

About the practice:

GKMP Architects is a practice that designs high quality modern architecture. We place a strong emphasis on the careful and inventive use of materials, the qualities of light and the relationship between the building and its context. We consider these issues to be more important than working in a particular style and hope that each project will be a creative interpretation of the client, site, brief and budget.

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Section two – click for larger image

Grace Keeley and Michael Pike graduated from UCD in 1998 and established GKMP Architects in Barcelona in 2003 before relocating to Dublin in 2004. The practice has designed a number of high quality housing and public space projects. We have received a number of awards including First Prize in the recent Docomomo Central Bank Competition. Our work has been published internationally and has also been included in a number of exhibitions, including the ‘Rebuilding the Republic: New Irish Architecture 2000-10 Exhibition’ in Leuven, Belgium in May 2011.

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Section three – click for larger image

Architects: GKMP Architects
Contractor: Sheerin Construction
Engineer: Downes Associates
Lighting Consultant: Wink Lighting

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by GKMP Architects
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Torquay House by Wolveridge Architects

This timber and concrete beach house in Victoria by Australian firm Wolveridge Architects conceals all its windows behind louvred shutters and has courtyards tucked into its sides (+ slideshow).

Torquay House by Wolveridge

Torquay House was designed by Wolveridge Architects to protect its inhabitants from the extreme weather conditions of its seaside location, creating indoor and outdoor spaces that are screened from powerful winds.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

“In coastal conditions buildings must be robust and defy the elements, yet create protective spaces, both internal and external, which allow the occupants to feel safe and comfortable,” said the architects.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

The volume of the building is divided into three connected blocks. The first and second have two storeys and feature windowless concrete sides, while the third is a single-storey volume clad entirely with timber.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

The small courtyards are slotted into the recesses between blocks and are overlooked by most of the house’s windows, which are generally directed to face north and south.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

“It is the private spaces created in between that allow natural ventilation and light, intimate outlooks, and privacy for the occupants – a place to call home,” said the team.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

One of the courtyards contains the entrance to the house, while another is dedicated to barbecues.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

A combined living and dining room occupies the single-storey rear block and opens out to a swimming pool beyond.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

Three bedrooms are located on the upper floor and each have their own private bathroom.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

Other Australian residences completed recently include a periscope-shaped extension and a sand dune-shaped house. See more houses in Australia »

Torquay House by Wolveridge

Photography is by Derek Swalwell.

Read on for a description from Wolveridge Architects:


Torquay House

This project attempts to challenge our traditional notions of how buildings can exist both in a coastal environment and in this case also the context of an emerging built form and character. In coastal conditions, buildings must be robust and defy the elements, yet create protective spaces, both internal and external which for us allow the occupants to feel safe, comfortable, privacy and enjoyment of good times.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

Whether the occupants are full-time residents or weekenders, the beach house is a place to look forward to arriving, whether in the heat of the summer or the winter’s cold.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

With excellent views to the north and south and a conscious motivation to avoid the east/west outlooks, this project evolved as a series of interconnected and robustly finished containers. Each prescribed to a rigid set of rules and the relationship and spaces between containers becoming essential to the program and to the life of the building.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

The robust mass of the buildings is intended to be offset by the expression of finely considered detail and proportion. It is the private spaces created in between that allow natural ventilation and light, intimate outlooks, and privacy for the occupants, a place to call home.

Torquay House by Wolveridge

Project Name: Torquay House
Date of construction completion: 19/04/2012
Building Type: Residential – House

Torquay House by Wolveridge

Architect: Wolveridge Architects
Practice Team: Jerry Wolveridge, Sina Petzold, Tjeerd van der Vliet, Courtney Gibbs
Builder and Construction Manager: John Walker Master Builders
Structural/Civil Engineer: Don Moore & Associates
Landscape Consultant: Heather Vincent Landscapes
Cost Consultant: VPL Builders Services
Building Surveyor: Nepean Building Permits

Torquay House by Wolveridge
Ground floor plan – click for larger image
Torquay House by Wolveridge
First floor plan – click for larger image
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Long section – click for larger image
Torquay House by Wolveridge
South elevation – click for larger image
Torquay House by Wolveridge
East elevation – click for larger image

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Aesop Midtown Installation by Hiroko Shiratori

Wooden chairs were piled on top of one another to create the shelves of this pop-up shop for skincare brand Aesop in a Tokyo shopping centre.

Aesop Midtown Installation by Hiroko Shiratori

Designed by Aesop creative manager Hiroko Shiratori, the Aesop Midtown Installation created a temporary store for the brand earlier this summer in front of a pair of elevators in the Tokyo Midtown Galleria.

Half of the chairs were turned upside down to create the stacks, which formed the display areas for rows of Aesop’s signature brown bottles.

Aesop Midtown Installation by Hiroko Shiratori

Quotes from various philosophers were inscribed onto the sides of a few selected chairs, plus some were still used as places to sit.

The space was completed by the addition of a wooden counter and a fully functioning sink.

Aesop Midtown Installation by Hiroko Shiratori

Dezeen interviewed Aesop founder Dennis Paphitis in 2012 about his brand, which regularly commissions designers to come up with unique concepts for stores. He explained: “I was horrified at the thought of a soulless chain”.

Other interesting branches include a Singapore shop with coconut-husk string hanging from the ceiling and a New York kiosk made from piles of newspapers. See more Aesop stores »

Aesop Midtown Installation by Hiroko Shiratori

Here’s some extra information from Aesop:


Aesop enjoyed a temporary residence in Tokyo Midtown Galleria from 24 April until late June, 2013.

Designed by Aesop Creative Manager Hiroko Shiratori, the interior employed utilitarian chairs in clever linear assembly to create makeshift walls, borders and shelves.

This transitory Midtown installation complemented the brand’s permanent signature stores in Aoyama, Ginza, Shin-Marunouchi, Yokohama and Shibuya. It offered a complete range of skin, hair and body care, and was fitted with a demonstration sink to facilitate the immersive sensorial experience for which Aesop is renowned.

Hiroko studied at the Royal College of Art and Chelsea College and Tokyo Zokei University. She has exhibited in London, Milan, Cologne and Tokyo and her work has been featured in Wallpaper, Casa Brutus, Domus Web, Axis and similar publications and sites.

Aesop was founded in Melbourne in 1987 and today offers its superlative skin, hair and body care products in more than sixty signature stores internationally. As the company evolves – new stores open soon in Hong Kong, London, and New York – meticulously considered and sophisticated design remain paramount to the creation of each space.

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by Hiroko Shiratori
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