Hasta La Ideas

Ghent studio Open Y Office has extended a house in Belgium, adding a concrete structure that could also function as a standalone residence (+ slideshow).

Located in the town of Herent, the extension was designed by Open Y Office with stark concrete walls that contrast against the white-painted brick exterior of the old house, which is a converted post office.

“The inhabitants wanted an extension that was flexible enough to be transformed in time to a separate unit with its own bed and bathroom,” said the architects.

The volume of the building appears as two rectangular boxes stacked on top of one another, with the upper storey slightly overlapping the ground floor below.

An open-plan living area occupies the first floor and overlooks a garden with a new swimming pool.

A glass passageway leads through to the existing house, plus large timber-framed windows open the room out to a long and narrow balcony.

The ground floor below contains storage areas and a garage with timber panelled doors.

Concrete steps with a steel balustrade lead into the house via an entrance on the first floor.

Other residential extensions we’ve recently featured include a London home with a walk-on glass roof and an extension in Dublin covered with terracotta tiles that look like bricks.

See more residential extensions »
See more architecture and design in Belgium »

Photography is by Tom Janssens.

Here’s a short description from the architects:

House Wiva

This OYO story takes you to Herent, where the extension of a private residence captures its surroundings.

The inhabitants wanted an extension that was flexible enough to be transformed in time to a separate unit with its own bed and bathroom.

OYO emphasised the contrast between the new shape and the old volume, which used to be an post office. You can see the concrete floating above the garden.

From the point of view of the residents, the extension creates exciting views from the new living room. The two volumes are connected with a light wooden footbridge that functions as entrance but also clarifies the different volumes.

Architects: OYO – Open Y Office
Location: Herent, Belgium
Type: Single family house extension
Area: House extension 110 m2
Year: 2010

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Open Y Office appeared first on Dezeen.

This north London house extension by Lipton Plant Architects features a walk-on glass roof that can be accessed by climbing through a window (+ slideshow).

Local studio Lipton Plant Architects added a two-storey extension to the rear of the Victorian townhouse, transforming the kitchen into an open-plan living space and adding a small office and utility room.

The architects used blue slate bricks to build the new structure, contrasting against the original brown brickwork of the existing house.

“The extension has provided a wonderfully modern addition to a beautiful Victorian property and through the dark brick and subtle refined detail, has helped maintain much of the original character of this historic Islington building,” said Lipton Plant Architects.

“We decided to present our client with the blue brick as it was an appropriate material to use in relation to the host building and provided a contrasting natural colour match to the weathered yellow stock,” they added.

The upper and lower levels are separated into two distinct halves by a band of horizontal brickwork, usually referred to as a soldier course.

A small glazed office is positioned above the utility room and can be accessed from the house’s main staircase.

The roof terrace sits above the living room and can be accessed via a window leading out from one of two existing living rooms.

“Providing an abundance of light, the glass roof creates the connection between the upper and ground floor formal living room, and then a less formal dining and lounge space below,” said the architects.

Other London house extensions we’ve featured include an addition to a Chelsea townhouse, a narrow studio with a sloping roof, and a space where a wall of books folds around a staircase.

See more residential extensions »
See more architecture and design in London »

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Alwyne Place, Islington

Alwyne Place lies within the Canonbury Conservation Area in the heart of Islington, London. The property is a large semi detached, locally listed Victorian villa. The house is of an impressive scale located on a quiet tree-lined street.

Our clients fell in love with the building’s proportions and location. The building did however require extensive modernisation including the addition of a full width lower ground and part width upper ground floor extension.
The brief was simple, to bring light into the building and restore some of its former historic elegance.

Sitting a little wider than the average similar-sized property in Islington provided the opportunity to introduce large format, thin framed sliding doors across part of the new rear extension elevation. Located above the doors is a large walk-on glass roof with access from the upper ground floor. Providing an abundance of light, the glass roof creates the connection between the upper ground floor formal living room and the less formal dining and lounge space below.

The rear extension works for a number of reasons, the most visually obvious being the choice of material, the Staffordshire Slate Blue Smooth brick. We looked at a number of choices including render, which all too often stains and marks and timber, which would require regular maintenance and is prone to fade with time.

We decided to present our client with the blue brick as it was an appropriate material to use in relation to the host building and providing a contrasting natural colour match to the weathered yellow stock. The slate blue brick was chosen for its colour, crisp straight edges and smooth elevation, creating a strikingly beautiful addition to the property.

The elevation has been broken into distinct halves, the lower and the upper ground separated by a deep soldier course band. The upper floor office comprises a wrap of frameless glass to the wall and roof flanked by two monolithic brick walls framing the view to the landscaped garden beyond.

To the side, overlooking the roof terrace, sits a long thin window providing natural ventilation to the office. The continuous soldier course above the doors is formed from brick slips fixed to a GRP board fixed back to the structural steel. The underside of the lintel has been clad in the same brick concealing the lintel and reinforcing the overall affect. The brickwork has been sealed with linseed oil to provide further protection and lustre.

The extension has provided a wonderfully modern addition to a beautiful Victorian property and through the dark brick and subtle refined detail has helped retain much of the original character of this historic Islington building.

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Lipton Plant Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This small house in rural Japan by Tokyo firm Case Design Studio is lifted off the ground on a single central pillar (+ slideshow).

Case Design Studio designed the single-storey home for a couple and located it on a sloping site in Yamanashi Prefecture, close to Mount Fuji.

A winding pathway leads from the road towards an elevated entrance, which comprises an external staircase that ascends to a balcony.

The house centres around a double-height dining room, which is lit from above by a series of clerestory windows.

Other rooms are arranged around the outside of the dining room and include a bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms and a traditional Japanese room filled with tatami mats.

According to the studio, the rooms were designed to lead into one another in a “migratory flow pattern”, meaning there are “no dead ends”.

The Japanese room is raised on a wooden platform and features a large window, offering a view out towards the trees.

Flooring elsewhere is concrete and features under-floor heating.

Interior walls are painted white, contrasting with the dark timber that lines the inside of the dining room.

Other Japanese houses completed recently include one with cantilevered storey, one shaped like a fairytale tower and one with angular cutaways. See more houses in Japan »

Location: Yamanashi Prefecture, Minamitsuru Narusawa village
Character: Fuji
Primary use: Housing (residence)
Residents: Couple

Land size: 395 sqm
Construction area: 75 sqm
Total floor area: 67 sqm (20T)
First floor scale: ground

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Case Design Studio appeared first on Dezeen.

Lisbon studio Aires Mateus used only reclaimed timber to construct this pair of waterfront cabins in Grândola, Portugal (+ slideshow).

Named Cabanas no Rio, which translates as cabins on the river, the two rustic structures offer a rural retreat for a pair of inhabitants.

One hut contains a living area, with a simple counter that can be used for preparing food, while the other accommodates a bedroom with a small toilet and sheltered outdoor shower.

Architects Aires Mateus used recycled wooden panels to build the walls, floors, roof and fittings of the two structures, leaving the material exposed both inside and out.

The edge of the roof sits flush with the walls, plus the wood is expected to change colour as it exposed to the weather.

“The wharf is medieval and assembled with wood,” said the architects, explaining their material choice. “Its identity is kept long beyond the material’s resistance, an identity that allows [it] to change, to replace, keeping all the values.”

With a combined area of just 26 square metres, the cabins were both built off-site and transported to the site on the back of a lorry.

Each was then hoisted into place, framing a small wooden deck that leads out onto a jetty.

The Aires Mateus brothers founded their studio in 1988. Past projects by the pair include the stone-clad Furnas Monitoring and Investigation Centre and the nursing home in Alcácer do Sal that was shortlisted for this year’s Mies van der Rohe Award. See more architecture by Aires Mateus »

Other micro homes completed recently include a holiday house in the shape of a cloud and a mobile home on the back of a tricycle. See more micro homes »

Photography is by Nelson Garrido.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Cabanas no Rio

The wharf is medieval and assembled with wood. Its identity is kept long beyond the material’s resistance. An identity that allows to change, to replace, keeping all the values.

The project develops two spaces: one to unwind with the support of a kitchen integrated in the same material of the walls; other as a sleeping area with a small bathroom and a shower. The construction is entirely finished in reused wood, subjected to the weather that will keep on changing it. The forms, highly archetypal, are designed by the incorporation of the functions in these minute areas, and by the varied inclination of the ceilings that tension the spaces according to their function.

Name of the project: Cabanas no Rio
Location: Comporta, Grândola, Portugal
Construction Surface: 26m²

Authors: Manuel e Francisco Aires Mateus
Coordination: Maria Rebelo Pinto
Collaborators: Luz Jiménez, David Carceller
Client: João Rodrigues

Structure: Cenário Perfeito
Electricity: Cenário Perfeito
Construtor: Cenário Perfeito

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by Aires Mateus 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 »
See more architecture and interiors in Israel »

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.