Input Creative Studio has created a New York studio for a children’s portrait photographer with a turquoise playhouse hollowed out of one wall (+ slideshow).
New York-based Input Creative Studio designed a neutral space for Studio Eight Photos, then made a couple of playful additions that keep children entertained both in between and during shoots.
A custom-made playhouse area is integrated into one wall, while a full-height blackboard becomes a giant drawing surface.
“Thinking back to our childhood memories, the idea of using wooden toys as our inspiration surfaced. The simplicity, warmth and nostalgia of the toys in addition with clever engineering gave us the idea to develop a playhouse, called Toto,” the designers told Dezeen.
“The playhouse not only entices the children but also provides them with entertainment; taking them out of the digital world back to analogue as they engage with the space by pushing the chalkboard door and playing in the house,” they said.
The blackboard doubles up as the sliding door for a cupboard, while the rest of the wall integrates a desk space and a line of wooden cabinets, allowing the client to stow away his camera equipment.
The rear wall accommodates several colourful backdrops for shoots, while an orange sofa provides a seating area for parents.
Photography is by Efi Panagoula of Studio Eight Photos.
Here is some more information from the designer:
Studio Eight Photo by Input Creative Studio
Studio Eight Photos’ design is composed of modular and graphic elements in a clean and neutral palette.
Bold black lines outline the space’s vast storage units that have been designed to accommodate a plethora of photography equipment. A modular lounge can be configured in a variety of ways, providing easy staging for different shoots. The studio’s layout is a blank canvas that can be easily transformed, providing an ideal and diverse backdrop.
Scale model
Since Studio Eight focuses on artist children’s portraits, a custom playhouse has been integrated into the design providing both an ideal backdrop for shoots and entertainment for the kids. Flexible, elegant and fun; the overall design is sophisticated yet playful.
Australian firm Henry Wilson Studio has transformed a former Sydney bakery into a retail space for skincare brand Aesop, exposing the original sandstone walls (+ slideshow).
Henry Wilson Studio removed the space’s former fit out, revealing the stone walls, fireplaces and previously hidden doorways.
Designer Henry Wilson told Dezeen the brief was quite open, and they tried to retain and expose as much of the existing building as possible in an attempt to reference the history of the area and of the building.
“My self-assigned brief and discussions with founder Dennis Paphitis were about reworking ‘off the shelf’ components [that are] Australian-made wherever possible,” Wilson explained.
“Before Aesop took over the space it was a bakery,” he added. “Prior to that, locals in the area tell me that it was once one of Balmain’s first pubs and even a brothel at some point.”
The designers chose a pale colour palette for the interior to compliment the yellow of the original sandstone walls and make the most of the natural light that floods in from the street front and rear windows.
“The stone walls are typical for buildings of the area, and of that era,” said Wilson. “Sydney sandstone is unique in its yellow colour and grey veins. It’s soft and easy to work and the evidence of the primitive tools and unskilled labour can be seen in all the original blockwork.”
A series of industrial metal shelving units have been added to display Aesop’s products and line one wall of the store. Smaller versions are used elsewhere, with some of the shelves replaced by sheets of bottle green glass.
A row of sinks and mirrors are set against the opposite wall, along with the cash register which is also fixed on top of a newer slab of locally-sourced sandstone.
Hanging plant baskets, cane furniture and exposed copper pipes also feature in the interior.
Here’s a project description from Henry Wilson Studio:
Aesop Balmain
The concept for the design of the Balmain Aesop store came from an understanding of the suburb, the existing materials and the context of the address. The aim was to present a space that was as familiar and utilitarian as the backyard shed, with a contrast that is the sophistication of the Aesop product and brand.
The history of Balmain and the neighbouring Cockatoo island is one of work, grit and industry. Much of this has moved on now, though, the legacy still resides in the buildings and foreshore.
The design of the Aesop store draws from these materials, colours and shapes. Removing the former fit out revealed raw sandstone walls, fireplaces and hidden doorways which have been retained and exposed as reference to this building history and place.
Detailing of the Balmain store centred around durability both visually and physically.’Off the shelf’ industrial components presented in an alternative way than that of their original purpose, provide solutions for interior fittings such as shelving and sink frames.
This ‘reworking’ extends to the vintage furniture and customised lighting. Tinted concrete terrazzo references the foyers of apartment buildings built in Sydney in the middle of the century. Pale Australian timbers and a light colour pallet has been chosen to emphasise the natural light from both directions.
The interior of this east London cafe by local firm TwistInArchitecture features copper tubes, timber boards and metal light fittings, designed to reference the area’s trade history (+ slideshow).
TwistInArchitecture converted a run-down space on Commercial Street in east London for a cafe called Trade, retaining three separate zones from the original layout to use for display, coffee and food preparation and customer seating.
The firm’s designer and co-founder Andreja Beric said the philosophy for the build was to create a “contextually responsive environment” by re-using materials that were once traded by builder’s merchants along the street.
Copper tubes are used in different arrangements to create a screen in the centre of the cafe and clad the base of the plywood counter. They are also implemented as a staircase balustrade and to construct a grid that hangs from the ceiling, used to suspend low-hanging lamps.
“The space is kind of strange, it had three different areas that were quite different in feel so we wanted to have a common thread that combined it all,” Beric told Dezeen, referring to the lighting grid.
“Lighting was something that was quite important for the shop and we wanted to achieve rhythm with this, it made sense and visually it was quite good to repeat the element at a high point,” Beric explained.
“Copper and wood work well together, both are warm materials and contrast with the matte and shiny surfaces,” he added.
Pieces of laminated oak wood zig-zag across the counter top in the food preparation area and continue to where customer seating is located at the rear.
Recycled boards salvaged from a timber yard form a floor-to-ceiling feature wall.
The designers also demolished the back wall and inserted bi-fold doors to open onto a wooden deck, creating more room and allowing extra light into the space.
Existing wooden floorboards throughout the cafe were stripped of their painted surface and varnished.
Sections of exposed brick wall form a backdrop to the coffee machine, while the remainder of the interior is lined with white tiles.
Here’s a project description from TwistInArchitecture:
Trade
London-based architectural practice TwistInArchitecture – founded on the principle of creating buildings with an unusual twist – today announces the opening of a unique new coffee shop in London’s East End, on Commercial Street. As well as recusing a run-down space, the philosophy for the build was to re-use a number of materials which were once traded along Commercial Street by builders’ merchants and in the material yards, to create a contextually responsive environment.
For this reason, the interior is dominated by copper tubes – which are normally hidden away within wall cavities – serving both an aesthetic and design role, but also a functional one. Indeed, hundreds of yards of copper tubing has been used to create both the internal screens of the main bar fascia, as well as being suspended from the ceiling to carry electricity to the lighting fixtures (see Figs. 1 and 2). The signature use of copper has also been applied to the staircase balustrade and handrails, creating atmosphere through muted reflections and intricate shadows.
The new venue – appropriately called ‘Trade’ – also benefits from a number of modelling changes. It has a new staircase location, new large opening to the back wall to allow natural light to enter, and a complete re-work of the basement. The unusual geometrical twists of the copper are warmed by the use existing brickwork and timber floors, while the true heroes of the shop – it’s coffee and home-made signature food are given the most prominent position.
Trade is located two minutes away from trendy Spitalfields Market, and can accommodate 60 people, spread throughout its three zones: the display section at the front, the preparation area in the middle, and the seating section at the rear. The shop front itself is open and inviting.
Andreja Beric, co-Founder of TwistInArchitecture, said: “We’re very pleased to have completed this quirky project, which brings something new and interesting to Commercial Street, while also breaking away from the ‘shabby chic norm’ of so many other sites. The three internal spaces would typically have three different interior concepts, so we decided to allow these spaces to have their individuality but be tied together by the use of copper – at a low height through the counter, and at a high level through the lighting conduit. These threads work to complete the interior with one idea. It also helps that trade looks seriously cool, has awesome food and coffee, and is in tune with its surroundings and historical significance.”
Designer Reiichi Ikeda inserted boxy partitions that follow the pattern of existing ceiling trusses into this clothing boutique in Osaka, Japan (+ slideshow).
Reiichi Ikeda designed the narrow interior of retail store Nietzsche to display a collection of clothing brands.
The sparsely furnished all-white space has been filled with of an arrangement of counters and free-standing painted wooden partitions.
The partitions and benches are all different heights, creating a maze-like pathway through the store.
Ikeda told Dezeen the client didn’t have a strict brief, but simply requested an interior that made the clothing on display “look attractive”.
“I felt that it was important to remove the colours for displaying these clothes, so I used white in the interior rather than black,” Ikeda explained.
“There are random partitions in the long and narrow space to adjust the view, which you can find a bit too wide without these,” he added.
At the top of the new partitions, Ikeda has created a series of openings that mirror the the forms of the existing ceiling trusses in the space.
Customers can manoeuvre their way through the store around the benches and partitions to access clothing hanging on metal rails. These are attached to both the ceiling and concrete floor by long, thin metal wires.
Original wooden boards lining the ceiling and metal trusses have also been painted white.
Rectangular mirrors are attached to various sections of the walls, while bare light bulbs hang at low points throughout the store.
Here’s a project description from Reiichi Ikeda Design:
Nietzsche
This boutique carries various unique brands in Horie, Osaka.
At the first visit to this long narrow site, the trussed ceiling structures caught my eyes in the space which had only white painted walls. The trussed structures showed a presence in the blank environment, and I felt the sigh dotted with them was already made up as a good design.
I planned my design should be an extension of this existing sigh, and worked on it based on the concept of “structures + structures”. I partitioned the boutique with trussed design panels at the same places as where the trussed ceiling structures are on just to link to them.
After I made interior constructions linked to the building ones, just the shape of the structures became to handle the general public flow line. I tried transforming the functional part of the building constructions to the design element, and gave dynamic image to the boutique.
Project Name: Nietzsche Use: clothing store Location: 1-9-12-1F, Minami-Horie, Nishi-ku, Osaka-city, Osaka, Japan 550-0015 Area: 64.41 square meters Date: Aug. 17, 2013 Client: Kenji Nakai Constructor: Takakura Construction Inc. Lighting: Ushio Spax Inc.
White ceramic tiles contrast with sections of chipboard inside this Reykjavik fashion boutique by local design office HAF Studio (+ slideshow).
Icelandic designers Hafsteinn Júlíusson and Karitas Sveinsdóttir of HAF Studio fitted out the four-storey shop interior for Danish clothing label SUIT. Located on a popular shopping street, the store sells a range of mens’ and women’s clothing.
Designer Hafsteinn Júlíusson said the glossy white tiles were chosen to create a contrast with the oriented strand board – a kind of engineered wood that was used for walls and joinery throughout the boutique.
“We wanted to add a bit of an unexpected twist,” Júlíusson told Dezeen. “We think these tiles enhance the refined roughness that we were aiming for.”
The tiles create geometric grids across parts of the wooden walls, but also extend down to cover sections of the concrete floor.
“More known for serving slaughterhouses or swimming pools, the tiles give a good contrast against the warm wood and the raw concrete,” added Júlíusson.
On the ground floor, strips of fluorescent lighting spell out the word ‘suit’, next to a tiled serving counter with low-hanging black pendant lamps, also designed by the studio.
Shelving units are mounted to the walls to display folded clothes, while other garments are piled up on benches or hung from orange clothing racks.
Cheeky phrases are printed onto the walls of the shop to help visitors find their way around – the words “Do you fit in?” highlight the entrance to the fitting rooms.
The clothing brand SUIT opened downtown Reykjavík recently. The store was designed by HAF Studio which is an Icelandic interdisciplinary design studio run by designers Karitas Sveinsdóttir and Hafsteinn Júlíusson.
The design intention behind the new store was to tie the brand’s raw and rough character together with clever and elaborate detailing. With this in mind, the HAF team created a space that offers a unique customer experience beyond that of the conventional clothing store environment.
The raw concrete floors and walls meet a warm OSB wood cladding where white glossy ceramic tiles give the store a refined finish. Finally orange and black fluorescent details create contrasts and highlights together with crisp lighting.
White ceramic tiles create a brickwork pattern across the walls and roof of this Paris boutique designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates for Chinese lifestyle brand Shang Xia (+ slideshow).
Japanese firm Kengo Kuma and Associates previously designed the Beijing and Shanghai stores for Shang Xia. For the brand’s first retail space in Europe, the architects designed an interior covered in over 10,000 tiles that extends to a layered ceiling installation.
The studio chose rectangular tiles with a glossy surface to reflect light through the store, describing the material as having an edge “thin enough to pass through light”.
“We used the same material for tiles to hang from the ceiling and cover the space,” explained the studio. “Taking advantage of this glazed white surface that softly mirrors its environments, we set up a place like a cloud brimming with light.”
The tiles also form a backdrop for the shopfront display windows, creating a screen that alternates between solid and void.
Located on a corner plot close to Boulevard Saint-Germain, the oval-shaped boutique showcases a range of furniture, homeware, accessories and clothing.
A tiled partition divides the store and is punctured by rectangular recesses, creating display spaces for jewellery. Tabletops and boxy stools are positioned in front, where customers can take a seat while trying on jewellery.
Glass-topped storage cases present a range of accessories, while more recessed shelving on the perimeter walls are filled with homeware items.
Scarves and shawls are tied to silver railings near the entrance and racks of clothing are set into the outer tiled walls, along with a selection of furniture. Polished wooden floors feature throughout.
The design has a similar aesthetic to Shang Xia’s two stores in China. While the Beijing store contains a lattice of extruded aluminium sections, the Shanghai boutique features a faceted white interior.
Milan 2014: Japanese architect Toyo Ito spoke to Dezeen about his design for textile brand Kinnasand’s first Milan showroom and his “site specific” architecture (+ interview + slideshow).
Kinnasand, a company founded in Sweden over 200 years ago and now owned by Danish textile brand Kvadrat, asked the 2013 Pritzker Prize-winner Toyo Ito to develop its showroom interior for Milan design week.
Ito rarely designs interior projects, but in an exclusive interview with Dezeen the architect said that he agreed to collaborate with Kinnasand as he felt that several of its fabrics were reminiscent of the transparency and natural influences inherent in some of his architectural projects.
“What I have felt from the start is that it would be important to create an architecture that is more site specific, that is going to take into account what surrounds the human begins,” said Ito, who discussed the underlying ethos that connects the wide variety of styles and forms he has experimented with.
“When I think about a new piece of architecture, I think about making it as if it was a piece of clothing that must be wrapped around a human being,” he said.
Ito’s career has spanned more than four decades. Predominantly based in Japan, his best known projects include the Mikimoto Building, created for a jewellery company in the Ginza district of Tokyo – which features a series of irregular glazed openings all over its facade – and the Tod’s building in Tokyo with criss-crossed concrete bracing that echoes the silhouettes of the trees on the street it faces on to.
His more recent projects include the Sendai Mediatheque – a transparent glass cube that aimed to remove some of the architectural barriers around how space should be used. In 2011 he completed work on the Toyo Ito School of Architecture in Ehime, completed in 2011.
At the last Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012, he curated Japan’s award-winning pavilion presenting alternative housing solutions for the aftermath of the country’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
For Kinnasand’s showroom, he chose to translate the properties of the company’s textiles into the materials used for the showroom’s walls, floors and ceiling.
“Some of them were transparent, others were semi-transparent, all of them were very light and it really felt like they could float over the whole space of the showroom,” said Ito, describing the fabrics.
“I decided that the architecture for this space needed to be something that would not overwhelm the essence of these fabrics. It needed to be something that could leave the textiles the possibility to float around the space,” he added.
“This is the image that I had in my mind and this is also why I decided to use the reflective glass, but at the same time I decided it needed to be something with a not too strong reflection. I wanted to create a soft but deep environment for the showroom.”
The glass walls have a frosted finish that reduces their reflectivity and are complemented by the dull shine of the electropolished steel panels on the ceiling and the polished white limestone floor tiles.
Two curving metal poles suspended from the ceiling provide rails over which the fabrics can be draped to enclose the central area of the showroom and form its only product displays.
A storage area for further fabric samples is concealed behind floor-to-ceiling wooden doors featuring minimal metal handles at one end of the space.
The clean and bright aesthetic is enhanced by basic furnishings including a rounded meeting table and chairs made from pale wood, which reference the brand’s Scandinavian heritage.
Lighting is provided by spotlights and strips of LEDs hidden behind the edges of the ceiling that wash the walls in light that can be adjusted between different colours to alter the mood of the space.
Read the edited transcript from our interview with Toyo Ito:
Marcus Fairs: How did you get to come into contact with the brand and how did you apply your architectural ideas to an interior?
Toyo Ito: About one and a half years ago, I had a visit from a Kinnasand person that arrived in Tokyo with a suitcase full of textiles and I was asked if I would be interested in doing the interior design for the showroom. And I have to say that usually I don’t do just interior design, I do architecture. But in this case, the textiles that I had the chance to see were so beautiful, so brilliant, that I really wanted to do just the interior design for the space.
Marcus Fairs: Tell us about the way you’ve used the space here.
Toyo Ito: I had the chance to take first a look at all the textiles of Kinnasand and I realised that is was very sensitive fabric. Some of them were transparent, others are semi transparent, all of them were very light and it really felt like they could float over the whole space of the showroom. They could actually envelop, they could wrap the whole environment.
So I decided that the architecture for this space needed to be something that would not overwhelm the essence of these fabrics. It needed to be something that could leave to these the textiles the possibility to float around the space. This is the image that I had in my mind and this is also why I decided to use this reflective glass that you can see here but at the same time, I decided it needed to be something with a not too strong reflection. I wanted to create a soft but deep environment for this showroom.
In order to have the materials of this architecture not take all the attention in this space, I give a lot of attention to small details and this is why I decided to choose simple materials. As you can see for those doors, you have a surface that is very plain and flat but at the same time is very simple and linear. So you do not have a frame where the doors are actually hidden, you have some doors that become the surface itself of a very linear construction, so that it could envelop this whole environment. This is something that I really wanted to give great attention to in the details.
Marcus Fairs: The white fabric with the pattern of circular dots on it reminds me of the facade of the Mikimoto building in Ginza, Tokyo, which has a similar pattern of circular windows. Did you spot that similarity?
Toyo Ito: Absolutely, I think that the fabric right behind me is perfect for my architecture. In relation to the building of Mikimoto in Ginza, it has got a very simple surface with several sized holes in it. Also, just by having a look at the fabric behind me, I think I would really like to use Kinnasand’s fabrics and textiles in my own architecture.
Toyo Ito’s Mikimoto building. Photo by Iwan Baan
Marcus Fairs: Throughout your career, there’s a lot of different forms you use and different structural solutions. How would you describe your approach to architecture?
Toyo Ito: As you said, my style, the materials I’ve been using, has changed throughout several eras. Also the shape and the form of my architecture. But there is one thing that is consistent, which is that my own architecture is something made for human beings. You have other architects that think if human beings are not a part of the particular architecture, that architecture will look even more beautiful. I do not think so. I think that architecture is something that must be made for human begins. That human beings must be partners with the architecture itself. So when I think about a new piece of architecture, I think about making it as if it was a piece of clothing that must be wrapped around a human being. This is my image of architecture.
Marcus Fairs: Sendai Mediatheque was a hugely revolutionary building because of the structure and the way it used data, and the Mikimoto building is fun and it has a pattern on it. So what is the link between those two different architectures?
Toyo Ito: Both the Sendai Mediatheque and the Mikimoto building have got a very important point which is the structure. Of course what I wanted to create was a kind of structure that had not yet been seen until that very moment. But what I wanted to focus my attention on is that when you decide to use a new kind of structure, you have to think of how you can make it as human as possible. To turn it into a human space as much as possible.
Sendai Mediatheque, 1995 – 2000, Miyagi, Japan. Photo by Nacasa & Partners Inc.
For the Sendai Mediatheque, I decided to use pieces of wood like tubes that would give the human being inside the space the idea of being surround by a forest – so you have a human being that can enjoy a video or just some time inside the forest. And for the Mikimoto building, of course that was also commercial architecture, so we didn’t have the chance of making the interior design. As for the main architecture, I decided that it was also interesting in that case to have the light entering the building as if it were through the leaves of a forest and so in both cases, you have a very natural element that is strongly felt by the human being inside the environment and that’s the common point in my architecture.
Marcus Fairs: And the Tod’s building in Omatesando in Tokyo has a glass facade with large tree shapes set in it.
Toyo Ito: Of course Tod’s even more than the Mikimoto building, you would have the possibility to see a very strong and direct wooden silhouette, wooden structure. In that case, we didn’t have that much of a volume we could use and also the facade was L-shaped. In that case we decided to have a wooden structure and having it completely surrounded by wood you would feel like you were really surrounded and wrapped by nature and this is the image that I had when I created the design.
What I have felt from the start is that it would be important to create an architecture that is more site specific, that is going to take into account what surrounds the human begins. So it would be important to create an architecture that destroys that distance between human begins and nature. Up to now, human beings have lived in environments that are very far from nature and actually I would like the chance for human beings to live inside nature and to be surrounded by nature.
TOD’S Omotesando Building, 2002 – 2004, Tokyo. Photo by Nacasa & Partners Inc.
Of course you have to take one step at a time, and I think that if we do take one step at a time in that direction we can achieve some kind of evolution. And I can also tell you that to a certain extent, we are already going towards that direction, and if we continue completely towards the direction and arrive at the goal we will be able to enjoy a much more lively life. We will get back to a more primitive instinct that will give us the possibility to be more natural in our everyday life. Like animals to a certain point, having the possibility to completely enjoy the surroundings and that is the kind of architecture that I think we should all aim for.
Marcus Fairs: And when you say “we”, do you mean “we” as an architectural office, or “we” as a society?
Toyo Ito: Of course I mean my personal office but not only just that. I would like to think I am extending the meaning of what I just said to all people who are currently making architecture.
Reclaimed timber boards and sections of mesh fencing feature in this dimly-lit bar in Sydney by Australian studio Luchetti Krelle (+ slideshow).
Donny’s Bar, located in the northern beachside suburb of Manly, was designed by Sydney studio Luchetti Krelle to resemble a New York loft.
The bar serves a selection of Asian-inspired dishes, so the design team wanted to also incorporate Asian influences into the space to conjure up images of “a back alley in Chinatown”.
“The brief was to create a warm and friendly New York style loft bar which would serve Asian style tapas and dumplings – on a tight budget,” the designers explained. “Avoiding overt Asian theming, we instead opted for a pared-back approach to the design.”
A range of recycled materials were used to transform the stark space into a dark and atmospheric bar with exposed brick walls and concrete flooring throughout.
A polished copper counter forms a centrepiece in the downstairs bar area. Recycled timber boards and paving stones line the base of the counter, with lighting glowing through the spaces in between.
“The rustic quality of the timber contrasts with a shiny copper rectified top and perfectly mitred timber lining boards weaving diagonally across the lower ceiling and walls,” the designers added.
High tables and bar stools are set against the side walls, while worn leather armchairs, low tables and cushioned footstools are arranged next to a spiralling metal staircase.
Dozens of lights encased in small wire cages are suspended from the mesh-covered ceiling of the double-height space, creating a feature above the entrance.
On the mezzanine floor above, exposed brick and wood panels feature on some walls, while another features red Asian-style prints. Fluorescent lighting tubes illuminate the space and are covered by more sections of mesh wire.
Tables and chairs indicate a space for dining and are accompanied with seating booths tucked away in the corners.
Old toilet cisterns were incorporated into the bathroom, while light bulbs are fixed to a network of exposed pipes above the sinks.
Here’s a project description from Luchetti Krelle:
Donny’s & Co Manly
Conjuring up images of a back alley in Chinatown, Donny’s Bar is an unexpected and refreshing change to the coastal suburb of Manly and the bar scene there. The design resolution captures a careful balancing of the rustic versus the refined – where urban meets with an Asian Australian flavour.
The existing space was a stark white plasterboard box with a commercial look and feel. The brief was to create a warm and friendly New York style loft bar which would serve Asian style tapas and dumplings – on a tight budget. Avoiding overt Asian theming, we instead opted for a paired back approach to the design.
Our client is from rural NSW and we certainly played on his roots with the barn like scale and proportions of the space. The mezzanine is set back from the entry, allowing the volume of the space to be fully appreciated upon entry.
The bar front utilises railway sleepers casually bundled together with those adjustable ratchet straps used to tie down a load on a truck. The rustic quality of the timber contrasts with a shiny copper rectified top and perfectly mitred timber lining boards weaving diagonally across the lower ceiling and walls.
Canvas lorry tarps are casually tied off to walls and chain-link fencing stretches across the upper ceiling, screening the acoustic treatment from the eye. Recycled materials play a big role in the palette – from the brickwork painstakingly clad to the walls to the re-birthed old toilet cisterns.
When budgets are tight we need to work harder to innovate within our means and this project is an excellent example of such. More and more these days, we designers are being held to account for superfluous spending and budget overruns. We worked hard to nut out this concept and edit it back to its bare bones. We have been creative and clever in the use of every day materials like the chain-link fencing to become features and by using recycled timber and brick for the majority of the palette.
This design is sustainable – both in our design approach and its potential for longevity as a thriving small bar in Manly.
London architect Ben Nightingale has renovated a Victorian property he owns in Hackney, transforming three separate flats into a large family home featuring a double-height library and an attic playroom.
Ben Nightingale, one of the co-founders of Kilburn Nightingale Architects, bought the four-storey house on Greenwood Road to provide a family home for his wife and their three young daughters.
The building had previously been converted into three separate flats, meaning Nightingale had to completely re-plan the layout. This included removing existing walls, creating openings in the floor and rebuilding the original staircase.
“This project shows how a typical Victorian home can be opened up for more flexible use by a family, and also be adapted to positively reduce the carbon footprint,” Nightingale told Dezeen.
“The layout breaks down the traditional horizontal layering of this type of house, and the addition of a number of different types of insulation, photovoltaics and solar thermal panels greatly improve the energy efficiency,” he added.
Like many of London’s townhouses, the building has two storeys accessible from ground level – one that is slightly raised above the street and one that sits in line with a sunken garden. The architect transformed both of these floors into communal family spaces.
The lower ground floor accommodates a large kitchen and dining room that leads straight out to the garden beyond.
The double-height library area is positioned at the back, creating a visual connection with two living rooms on the floor above.
The first of these is a relaxed space facing out over the lawn, while the other is a formal area where the family can entertain guests.
The architect worked with a local joiner to add new sweet-chestnut window frames and cladding to an old extension at the rear of the house, intended to “mask the original poor quality brickwork”.
Five bedrooms and two bathrooms occupy the two upper levels. The attic was also remodelled, creating a playroom for the children that doubles as a guest bedroom.
Here’s the project description from Kilburn Nightingale Architects:
71 Greenwood Rd, London E8 Repair/remodelling and refurbishment of an existing house
This project involves the conversion, repair and extensive remodelling of a semi-detached mid Victorian house in Dalston, Hackney.
The house was purchased by Ben and Jane Kilburn at auction as a freehold building containing three flats. Ben Kilburn is a director with Richard Nightingale at Kilburn Nightingale Architects, an architecture practice based near King’s Cross.
This project presented an opportunity for Kilburn Nightingale (with Ben in the role of architect/owner) to develop a design that would take into account the joint requirements of contemporary family living (with three daughters aged 10, 8 and 5) and the rehabilitation and improvement of a house that had been neglected and interfered with by previous owners.
The renovation was designed to provide a functional home taking into account a need for flexible living space that would allow for a number of different activities to take place concurrently (so that the family could be ‘together’). The arrangement also needed to allow more privacy when required. The design also avoids having the lower kitchen/living area separated from the rest of the house by a formal, underused living area at upper ground level.
To achieve this, upper and lower living areas are connected to each other through a new double-height space at the rear of the property, and also connected to the garden through double-height glazing. This sense of openness is enhanced throughout the house by a number of new windows in the flank wall bringing light into the middle of the house.
The lower ground floor of the house has been remodelled to provide kitchen, dining and living area, with the double-height space at the rear of the house opening up to a flowing living space above. This upper living space is loosely divided into a more relaxed area closest to the balcony and views to the garden, and a slightly more formal living room at the front of the house.
First and second floors are divided into bedrooms and new bathrooms, and the attic has been converted to provide a flexible study/sleep-over/play space. Access to the attic is via a ‘hit and miss’ stair that is designed to take up as little space as possible.
The connection of the lower two floors of the house with the garden is made partly through the large windows/doors at the rear of the house, but also through the construction of a new shed/studio at the back of the garden. The large glazed double doors of the shed face back to the big doors in the glazed screen at the back of the house, with the suggestion that the shed is akin to a piece of the house that has floated out into the garden.
A year after establishing their architectural practice, Canadian architects David and Susan Scott have created a timber-lined studio for themselves in a converted butcher and grocery shop in Vancouver (+ movie).
The husband-and-wife team co-founded Scott & Scott Architects at the start of 2013 but until now have been without a dedicated studio, so they set about creating one in the former shop premises below their home – a building dating back to 1911.
The architects stripped back the interior of the 70-square-metre space to create a simple rectangular studio at the front, a workshop at the back and a wall of concealed storage in between.
Douglas fir planks were sourced from a local sawmill to line the walls, floor and ceiling of the main room. These were treated with a traditional beeswax, mixed with a solvent of Canadian Whiskey to produce a gleaming surface.
The former shopfront was fully glazed, helping to bring as much light as possible into the space, but also allowing neighbours to see what’s going on inside.
“The priorities were to maximise the use of natural light, enhance the connection to the neighbourhood, use regional materials which have a known providence and acknowledge the lumber-based building culture of the Pacific Northwest,” explained David Scott.
The couple enlisted the help of local carpenters to help them build the space themselves. Wooden cupboards were constructed from plywood and stained in black, creating a contrast with the lighter wood elsewhere.
The space is completed by glass pendant lights and a series of bespoke desks, which the architects designed and made with galvanised steel frames and hand-stitched leather surfaces.
Movie is by Odette Visual, with a score by Joel RL Phelps. Photography is by the architects.
Here’s a project description from Scott & Scott Studio:
Scott & Scott Studio
A year after the launch of their practice architects Susan and David Scott have completed the refurbishment of the historic commercial space in their 1911 East Vancouver residence. Once a butcher shop and a long running grocery store, the space has been stripped back to a simple volume lined with Douglas fir boards and completed with black stained fir plywood millwork.
Using familiar materials from their region, the architects built the space themselves with a couple of carpenters. The fir was supplied from a sawyer on Vancouver Island with whom they have worked for several years. Three fir logs were selected, milled and cut to suit the width and height of the space. The work was completed in a manner rooted in traditional methodology while utilising the availability of modern tooling. The unsalvageable south-facing storefront had been infilled by a previous owner and was restored to an area of glass consistent with the original size using a single high performance unit.
Informed by a desire to create work which is fundamental in its architecture and supportive of a variety of uses over time, the priorities were to maximise the use of natural light, enhance the connection to the neighbourhood, use regional materials which have a known providence, and acknowledge the lumber-based building culture of the Pacific Northwest.
Floor plan
The architects favour materials and approaches that wear in and appreciate over time, taking on warmth with maintenance. The interior fir boards are finished with a variant of a warm applied 19th century beeswax floor finish with the solvent replaced with Canadian Whiskey.
The tables (a first of their self-produced furniture designs) are hand-stitched finished leather tops on blackened galvanised steel bases.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
