An austere concrete wall screens the transparent lower floor of this house in southern Brazil, while the overhanging upper storey is masked behind a layer of timber slats (photos by Leonardo Finotti + slideshow).
Designed by MAPA, an architecture collective based in Brazil and Uruguay, XAN House is a summer residence located near the beach in Xangrilá, a small town south of Porto Alegre.
The ground floor is dedicated to the family’s communal activities while the upstairs level contains bedrooms, and the architects chose to highlight this difference through the use of different external materials.
A single-storey concrete wall stretches across the site, from the north-west to the south-east, screening the ground floor from the street. Behind it, the rest of the walls feature floor-to-ceiling glazing that allows residents to open their living spaces out to the landscape.
“A summer house is a space full of freedom, a place to enjoy an outdoor life,” said the architect. “This fact conditioned the way the project was faced.”
The positioning of furniture divides the space up into different zones for cooking, dining, reading and relaxing. The ceiling overhead is exposed concrete, while the floor is covered with tiles that continue outside the walls.
Upstairs, large balconies extend the length of the floor, creating overhangs that shelter both the front entrance and a rear patio. One balcony belongs to the master bedroom and en suite, while the other sits alongside two smaller bedrooms.
Both balconies and rooms are surrounded by the timber screen, but sections of it fold open to reveal windows.
Bold orange windows punctuate the wooden facades of this angular apartment block that French studio Vous Êtes Ici Architectes has slotted between the existing buildings of a south Paris neighbourhood (+ movie).
The six-storey building was designed by Vous Êtes Ici Architectes to provide 11 social housing units beside a school in the 5th Arrondissement of the French capital, on a site previously occupied by a low-rise warehouse.
Rather than building across the entire site, the architects developed an irregularly shaped block that follows the rhythms of the surrounding architecture and frames a pair of gardens at the north and south-east edges.
These gardens also line up with the main road and pedestrian pathway that frame two edges of the site, helping to the reduce the visual impact of the structure.
“The building is set back from the street, allowing the sunlight to reach the school courtyard set across the street,” explained studio founders Alexandre Becker, Paul Pflughaupt and Julien Paulré. “This setup allows respiration and gives space back to the pedestrian passage.”
While some of the building’s walls are clad with timber planks, others are covered with pre-weathered zinc. At ground level, there are also walls of dark brickwork, which demarcate entrances.
Windows with orange frames add colour to the elevations. This feature is echoed in the building’s stairwells and corridors, where walls, floors and railings are uniformly painted in the same hue.
No more than three apartments are located on each floor and the angular shapes of the building give each home a non-standard shape.
“The created volumes allow different typologies for the apartments as well as creating views for all,” said the architects.
South-facing loggias allow apartments to benefit from sunlight during the peak of the day.
Graphic logos adorn doors to direct residents to bicycle storage and bin stores, while a grassy terrace is located on the roof.
Located in the Mouffetard area, Latin Quarter of Paris, our project aims to de-densify the heart of the city block in which it is located.
The building is set back from the street allowing the sunlight to reach the school courtyard set across the street. This setup allows respiration and gives space back to the pedestrian passage. The roof line is continuous and guaranties the continuity of the facades over the street. The set up on the plot is effective, the street is no longer only functional it has become sumptuous.
The construction is a unique volume that has been hollowed out. The recesses generate a course. They punctuate and follow our movements. The created volumes allow different typologies for the apartments as well as creating views for all. The project is more an architectural device than a sculpture.
The primary concrete structure supports wooden based facades. The envelope is of pre-aged zinc and wooden openwork cladding. The hall, stairs and landings are set up in a unique volume that has no partitions; the different levels are visually linked. Perambulation is naturally illuminated in the common spaces. Apartments have from two to three orientations. Hollow construction elements were refused. The apartments are luxurious.
A compact building, a well-insulated wooden structure, solar panels, double glazing windows, a planted roof terrace and loggias with a southern exposure allow us to respect the requirements of Paris’s Climate Plan and to reduce the ecological impact of the building. It is architecture of an efficient nature.
Developer: ELOGIE Architects: Vous Êtes Ici Architectes (A. Becker, J. Paulré, P. Pflughaupt) General contractor: Fayolle & Fils Technical engineering: FACEA Economist: BMA Environment engineering: ICADE
The glass-walled living areas of this house in Paredes, Portugal, are sandwiched between a top floor wrapped in opaque panels and a basement clad in rugged shale tiles (+ slideshow).
Named 07CBE House, the building was designed by local architecture studio Spaceworkers to create a home for a young family, with communal living spaces separated from the bedrooms and service areas.
The architects based their response on the design of traditional barns that feature a monolithic base for threshing – the process of beating grain to separate it from the chaff. This informed a series of pillars supporting a roof that appears to hover above the landscape.
“In the region, most vernacular buildings that punctuate the landscape are barns supporting agricultural activities, which normally rise from the floor using a pillar structure to create a sense of lack of gravity,” architect Henrique Marques told Dezeen.
“It was this tripartition of a monolithic base, an empty space that turns out to be functional, and a constructed element that stands out in the landscape giving a sense of protection and at the same time structural weakness that fascinated us,” Marques added.
The monolithic structure at the base of the house contains functional facilities including a garage, laundry, storage room and a swimming pool.
This level is predominantly clad in black shale tiles with a raw texture that enhances the rugged and utilitarian aesthetic.
The tiles contrast with the warm ipe wood used to clad the decking, walls and ceiling around the pool, which creates a welcoming space intended as an extension of the interior.
Above the stone-clad base, glass walls reinforce the reference to the open threshing floors of local barns and allow for views into and out of the home’s main family rooms.
“The public floor of the house is exposed to the outside through the huge glass windows which, besides ventilation and light input, allow us to explore the ideas of lightness and structural weakness that we sought,” Marques added.
A living and dining area on this floor is separated from the kitchen by a wall of the ipe wood, which is also used for a section of the north facade to create a contrast between its seemingly natural fragility and the solid mass of the storey above it.
The top floor houses the main private spaces behind an opaque facade punctuated by a series of terraces that allow light to reach the interior.
A pronounced cantilever enhances the impression that the solid volume is floating weightlessly above the ground and reaches outwards to make the most of views from the terraces around its edges.
Insulating composite panels were used to clad the upper storey, creating a seamless surface in the space between the structural concrete beams.
A fireplace contained in a faceted wall creates a focal point between the living area and dining room. Vinyl flooring has been used throughout the interior, while the walls are clad in plasterboard that has been painted white.
The idea of a vernacular architecture (forgotten) and how it seeks to form a clear speech between the landscape and programmatic needs is something that we always admire.
A very successful example of this discourse, are the structures to support agriculture (normally function barns/granary), which in a more or less random would punctuate the countryside, as blocks of ephemeral appearance that levitated on the ground.
Generally, the proposal make reference to the tripartite elements vernacular, the Base, with a static image of monoblock and megalithic, which contain the functions of a nonpublic space, the open area, where are all the public spaces of the house, and that explores the visual and physical relationship with the outside, and finally the Block “gravity” where private spaces are located.
This metal-clad house in Chiba, Japan, was designed by architect Yuji Kimura to fill its site, meaning a car-parking space and balcony had to be slotted within its boxy volume (+ slideshow).
Yuji Kimura gave House in Chiba a galvanised steel exterior, punctuated by an assortment of square windows. A mesh door slides open to reveal the parking space in one corner, while a secluded balcony is located directly above.
The balcony is enclosed on all sides, but open to the sky. It also has a mesh floor, which allows light to enter both of the house’s two storeys.
“[The house] was planned to be a shape that surrounds the entire site, provided that the balcony and parking lot also serve as lighting,” said Kimura.
Residents enter the house through the garage, which leads through to bedroom and bathroom spaces on the ground floor. According to Kimura, these spaces require the least natural light.
Living, dining and kitchen areas occupy one double-height space on the level above so they can receive the most sunlight. Glass screens slide back to open this space out to the balcony.
The kitchen features a stainless steel counter, while the living space is filled with furniture on wheels that allows the occupants to easily change the layout.
A ladder provides access to a mezzanine loft that, like the rest of the house, features wooden flooring. The architect expects this to be used for storage.
This house has the appearance of a simple box, shaped like a factory, where large and small square holes create a visual rhythm that opens at random. The site is located in a corner lot where the two roads of a quiet residential area of Chiba Prefecture where suburbs cross.
The request from the owner when planning: 1. Bright and Large Living 2. Balcony with Privacy 3. Simple and appearance like a factory
In order to secure privacy, the house takes in light from the road side with no obstacles. It was planned to be a shape that surrounds the entire site, provided that the balcony and parking lot also serves as a lighting.
Since the whole is a simple big box-shaped, by setting the bare dare joints such as bolts and rail, a garage gate and gate is prevented from too much minimal. Moreover, the arrangement of square holes of various sizes, such as are open to random, the opening is making a visual rhythm.
A bedroom being only the sleeping purpose and spending most of time in living and dining room, a bedroom and a bathroom were placed in the first floor, a dining room and a living room were placed in the sunniest place of the second floor. Provided with a large opening in the living room, so that is out on the balcony.
There is also a sliding door with storage space in the kitchen back side, refrigerator, washing machine, household goods are placed in it. The atrium part, by providing a loft that can be up and down the ladder, and in consideration for storage.
Location: Chiba, Japan Design: Yuji Kimura Design Site area: 84.10 sqm Building area: 41.13 sqm Total area: 82.26 sqm Structure: timber
Architect and photographer Marc Gerritsen designed this house for himself on a Thai island, with an skeleton-like structure that frames sea views (+ slideshow).
Nestled into a hillside amidst the nature reserves of Koh Samui, Naked House gives Marc Gerritsen an escape from his busy city life, which sees him travel frequently between Taiwan and other Asian countries.
“Life in Taipei is very hectic, and I needed a place to escape. I really wanted a quiet area and a fantastic view,” said Gerritsen. “The house was a return to the basic values in life: good clean air, wide-open space, quiet solitude.”
The five-storey house is formed of a series of levels that cascade down the hillside, protruding like the tiers of a staircase.
Gerritsen chose very basic materials to emphasise the location and view. The base of the house is concrete, while a galvanised steel frame rests on top to contain the two upper floors.
“There are no embellishments. The focus is on the space rather than the materials,” said the architect.
An open-plan living space occupies the ground floor, fronted by wooden-framed windows that slide back to overhang the facade. These windows open the space out to a large terrace with wooden decking, a tiled swimming pool and concrete planting boxes.
The living space contains a simple kitchen with low-level cupboards on one side, a seating area on the other, and a dining area sandwiched in between. There is also a patio shaded by the flat steel roof canopy.
An exterior concrete staircase leads up to a master bedroom, which perches at the top of the house. This is a self-contained structure that also features sliding windows, balcony and an over-hanging roof.
An open-air en suite sits alongside the bedroom, offering panoramic views of the surroundings from the bath and shower.
Another staircase wraps around the outside of the house, tracing the curve of the hillside from the living space down to floors below.
An exposed room with a swinging sofa occupies the space below the deck, along with a steam room.
The next floor down contains two symmetrical bedrooms, where large sliding wooden doors reveal huge bowl-like baths, while the final floor houses houses an office and a maid’s room.
Here’s a description from Marc Gerritsen:
The Naked House
The main thing about this location is the expanse of the surroundings and the quietness. Life in Taipei is very hectic, and I needed a place to escape. I really wanted a quiet area and a fantastic view. Having an open plan living room, with doors that can totally slide away, which look out at the pool and the ocean – that’s something I’d been thinking about for a long time. With this plot, I was able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The house was a return to the basic values in life: good clean air, wide-open space, quiet solitude. With these basic values you can be in a space that is uncluttered, and your mind can become still. That’s also the reason behind the very basic materials that I have used: concrete, wood, steel and glass. There are no embellishments. The focus is on the space rather than the materials.
I originally planned three stories: two bedrooms on the bottom; the pool, living area and kitchen on the middle level; and an office on top. But I’ve added a bathroom on the living room level, a laundry room and pantry. I wanted a simple kitchen, with no overhead cupboards or tall fridge, so the pantry is good for storage. I added a freestanding open-air bathroom, as the top room became a magnificent master bedroom, which needed an en-suite.
The tank and plant room became a large open room with a swing bed, underneath the deck I added a steam room, and the space below the bedrooms now houses an office and maid’s room. So it ended up being five stories – the result of a work in progress.
My work over the last few years as an architectural and interior photographer has taught me what not to do. Looking at all the incredibly fine detailed properties I photographed in Asia. I thought: “Is this really necessary to be comfortable? If I walk on a concrete floor or if I walk on a marble floor, is it going to make my living experience so much better?” No. You just need a floor to walk on. I am interested in a return to basics, in a luxury monastic way of living.
This retirement home near Antwerp was designed by Belgian studio Areal Architecten around a pair of courtyards to avoid creating identical rooms along endless rows of corridors.
Areal Architecten wanted the Mayerhof Care Campus to be “a place to grow old with dignity”, rather than a sequence of characterless rooms.
“Such a scheme is a victory for the functionality of these buildings, but a defeat for the domesticity of it,” explained architect Jurgen Vandewalle.
The three-storey complex accommodates 148 residential units within a single building, which features a plan loosely based on a figure of eight. This allowed residences to be grouped into clusters around the two courtyards.
“Each room gets either a view towards these open spaces in the heart of the nursing home or to the green area around the building,” said Vandewalle.
The largest of the two courtyards is accessible to all residents, while a series of balconies and roof terraces provide accessible outdoor spaces on the upper levels.
Break-out spaces are dotted across all three floors to encourage residents to interact with their neighbours. There are also several common areas where they can dine or socialise together.
“Mayerhof Care Campus acts as a small town where functionality and domesticity merge into a fresh environment, and where social interaction, security and integration of people with different needs are in the centre,” added the architect.
The architect used a combination of timber and aluminium cladding to give the building its gridded facade. While the reflective metal provides horizontal stripes, the timber sections alternate with windows in between.
Areal Architecten has also completed three separate buildings on the site, which provide assisted living for up to 40 residents with disabilities. These structures feature masonry walls with exposed concrete beams.
Pathways run across the complex in different directions and three vehicular entrances lead into different car parking areas.
Read on for a project description by Areal Architecten:
Elderly Care Campus in Mortsel
Nursing homes and other social services are often interpreted according to the same pattern: countless rooms linked together by long corridors. Such a scheme is a victory for the functionality of these buildings, but a defeat for the domesticity of it. In care area Mayerhof the limits of this rational scheme are questioned, while space is created in which a community can grow. Various additions of communal and open areas add to the domesticity of the place.
By positioning the nursing home in a figure of eight on the site an infinite circulation that connects all the rooms on every floor with each other arises. In this functional diagram however, places where social interaction arises are inserted. At each corner of the figure open spaces create space for interaction. The linear corridor folds around two large voids, creating various perspectives and a sense of overview in the building.
As the program towards the upper floors is diminishing, terraces arise on every floor with an optimal orientation and protected from the wind. Each room gets either view towards these open spaces in the heart of the nursing home or to the green area around the building. The result is a very light volume that is bathed in natural light and space.
Besides nursing, three separate volumes provide assisted living, as stately sentinels overlooking the existing nursing home. Large openings with terraces located in a residential area that acts between the nursing home and the surrounding housing. All properties counting two or three facades allowing natural light to invade the living spaces are bundled with a widened corridor that houses the common functions.
The new buildings are implanted into the free space on the site around the existing nursing home, which remained in use during the works. After the demolition a green zone is liberated embraced by the new nursing home and assisted living residences. The joint residential area and the underground passage bind the different functions together. Otherwise they set themselves as autonomous parts, but live as integrated components of a unique residential care setting with a focus on lifelong living and care.
The choice for three entrances to the site, the construction of streets and indoor spaces and buildings that vary in size and appearance makes this new environment reminiscent of an urban fabric and is way different than the monotonous environments where such programs are mostly housed. The various functions dress in a different architecture. The nursing home is built in a reflective aluminium cladding used as canvas to the sunlight. The assisted living residences have a stately finish in masonry with exposed concrete ring beams.
Mayerhof Care Campus acts as a small town where functionality and domesticity merge into a fresh environment, and where social interaction, security and integration of people with different needs are in the centre. A community bound together by a rational structure, a place to grow old with dignity.
Black panels of corrugated iron clad the exterior of this lakeside wooden cabin in rural Victoria, Australia, by local firm Branch Studio Architects (+ slideshow).
Branch Studio Architects originally designed the Pump House to give the clients space for storing a water pump and other equipment needed to maintain their farmland property, but the compact shed also doubles as a quiet lakeside retreat.
“The original brief was for a temporary shed-like space to house the water pump and other farm equipment as well as to provide the owners with somewhere sheltered to have a cup of tea when they came to hang out with George, their horse, on the weekends,” said architect Nicholas Russo.
“Although the project eventually developed into something slightly more extravagant, the modesty of the original ambition is still evident in the ‘no-frills’ detailing and rugged materiality of the finished building,” Russo added.
Sections of corrugated Colorbond iron clad the asymmetric roof and two side walls, which feature narrow horizontal windows.
The front and rear walls are entirely glazed, so the owners can open the interior to a deck overlooking the lake.
The main space in the building is an open-plan living room and kitchen featuring a wood-burning stove. A central bathroom divides this space from a studio and bedroom at the rear, which offers views out into the countryside.
The interior is lined with unfinished low-grade plywood and rough-sawn timber boards. “The timber was used to create a soft, warm, cocoon-like interior which is a direct contrast to the robust external shell,” Russo told Dezeen.
The cabin is entirely self-sustaining. Along with wood fired heating, it features solar panels and tanks for collecting and recycling rainwater.
Here’s a project description from architect Nicholas Russo:
Pump House
Typically an architectural outcome is the product of a lengthy design, documentation & construction process where the ‘vision’ is communicated to both client and builder predominantly through detailed drawings and a paper-trail of addendums, RFI’s & variations.
The Pump House was different. Constructed and largely conceptualised by the owner on free weekends and rainy Mondays, the compact, re-locatable structure is more a product of rigorous discussion than that of resolved drawings… that’s not to downplay the careful consideration that was applied to the details of the house, it’s just that the way this project evolved meant that things could, more often than not, be resolved through a conversation on site and detail etched into the clay with a rusty nail.
The nature in which this project was realised meant that our involvement was quite informal as we were consulted with on an ad-hoc basis during the design & construction solely in regards to architectural detailing and the overall architectural outcome. It was exciting to be involved in a project where we could focus purely on the aesthetic and architectural outcomes of a building.
Having worked on a couple of challenging projects with the owner (a carpenter) previously, we often found ourselves deliberating over ideas revolving around establishing a methodology to design & build small scale structures that would achieve both a simplicity of construction as well as a successful architectural outcome. We regularly discussed the possibility of developing an architectural alternative to the conventional ‘off the shelf’ house and we were united in our refusal to concede that architectural detailing, simplicity of construction and affordability were mutually exclusive.
The Pump House was driven by the intersection of these three prerequisites – it had to be a considered response (architectural detailing), it had to be easy to build (simplicity of construction) & it had to be cost effective (affordability) – and in many ways is an architectural prototype that tests our responses to these age old dilemmas… it’s very much like a 1:1 concept model based on ideas which evolved through our discussions and previous experiences.
The Pump House is a celebration of the ordinary. Uncompromising in it’s simplicity, there is a rigid adherence to some very modest but key ideas about doing away with the unnecessary. Agricultural materials (Colorbond iron, low-grade plywood & rough sawn timber) are put together with carefully considered old-fashioned craftsmanship (custom made on-site windows, doors & joinery) to create something much more than the sum of their parts. In plan, the compact internal spaces arranged simply around a central service core provide only the very basic requirements of uncomplicated living, an idea that is reinforced by the uncomplicated nature of the architecture.
A semi-permanent structure, the Pump House sits softly on its site adjacent to a large dam and on the threshold between the open paddocks and the bush land surrounds. Large expanses of glazing along with a North/South orientation allow the sunlight and the wide-open green spaces to penetrate into, and seemingly pass through, the internal volume giving the condensed areas a sense of spaciousness. The formal gesture of the black box external shell creates a robust metal ‘cocoon’ within the landscape that is directly contrasted by the warmth of the timber lined internal spaces. A large horizontal window along the western facade provides the only penetration of the metal cocoon while also allowing afternoon light to filter through the dense treetop canopy and into the spaces.
The original brief was for a temporary shed-like space to house the water pump and other farm equipment as well as to provide the owners with somewhere sheltered to have a cup of tea when they came to hang out with George (their horse) on the weekends …and although the project eventually developed into something slightly more extravagant, the modesty of the original ambition is still evident in the ‘no-frills’ detailing and rugged materiality of the finished building.
Pointed doorways and openings throughout this house in Kyoto, Japan, were designed by Alts Design Office to mimic the building’s gabled profile (+ slideshow).
Named Hazukashi House, the two-storey family residence was designed by local firm Alts Design Office to provide a family home. It is fronted by a white-rendered facade with a shallow-pitched roof.
Due to its narrow width, the building appears disproportionally tall. The architects chose to emphasise this characteristic by creating doorways, windows and shelving units that all share similar proportions.
The house centres around a double-height dining room, which is visually connected to every other room. The walls are lined with timber panels and a wooden staircase folds around one corner.
“This is the space which connects the family’s bonds and also achieves dynamic functions,” explained architects Sumiou Mizumoto and Yoshitaka Kuga.
“It captures the light and diverse wind, while taking advantage of the antique material the client demanded,” they added.
A mezzanine corridor overlooks the space from a storey above, linking children’s rooms at the back with a master bedroom and study at the front. This is flanked by a square grid of bookshelves.
On the ground floor, a living room is situated at the front and residents have to step up to it from the dining room.
A kitchen positioned on the opposite side is divided into two sections by a built-in worktop, so a parent preparing dinner can keep an eye on children sitting at a counter beyond.
Light bulbs hang low from the ceiling on cables to direct light onto surfaces. Others are fixed to the walls and angled in different directions.
A wall clad in slabs of red volcanic stone conceals the entrance to this otherwise minimal white house in a suburb of Reykjavík, Iceland, by local office PK Arkitektar (+ slideshow).
The private home was designed by PK Arkitektar with a simple and solid facade that restricts views of the interior from the street, providing privacy in a busy suburban neighbourhood.
“The house was conceived to be viewed from the street as a singular solid mass, and its entrance is hidden from the street,” the architects pointed out.
A recessed surface of red rhyolite stone is framed by a white wall that forms the front of the building and shelters a doorway incorporated into the stone surface.
A vertical glass section interrupts the front facade and permits views through the central circulation spaces of the home.
This glazed void helps to separate the private spaces from shared areas inside the house and allows daylight to permeate both floors of the property.
The facade at the northeast corner is separated from the glazed wall and floats above the ground, creating a small gap that lets light reach all the way to the basement level.
From the entrance at the level of the adjacent road, the site slopes down towards a sheltered garden and the home’s lower storey is partly submerged in the slope.
The rear of the house is more open, with both levels featuring expansive windows that look out onto the garden.
“The sloping plot allows for the basement to be hidden and provides magnificent views of the surrounding nature of the Alftanes peninsula,” the architects added.
Staircases on either side of the building descend to the basement level and a door on one facade is set into a
Sliding doors lead from the kitchen to a large balcony for outdoor dining that ends in a staircase connecting this space with the garden below.
Gravel surfaces surrounding the house reference the barren landscape of the local countryside, with a lawn containing a single tree at the rear providing the only area of greenery.
This private residence is located in a compact suburban neighbourhood and the plot slopes down from street level towards its southwest corner.
The house was conceived to be viewed from the street as a singular solid mass and its entrance is hidden from the street. By contrast, the rear aspect, with private outdoor areas, has a sense of openness and permeability. The monolithic mass conceals a recess, which hides the front door.
The front volume is lightened by an incision, which represents the interior boundary between private and public areas. A light well behind the front façade permits daylight into both floors in the northeast part of the house. The sloping plot allows for the basement to be hidden and provides magnificent views of the surrounding nature of the Alftanes peninsula.
Red Rhyolite is employed here as cladding on the recessed surfaces of the otherwise white monolith. The front yard is a minimal desert of gravel and stone, greenery being restricted to a patch at the rear where a single tree stands. In stark contrast with the green walls and lush gardens common to Arnarnes, the arid treatment of the front yard applied here is more in line with the country’s nature and landscapes.
Chris Dyson Architects has added a soot-washed brick extension with a curved wall to a Georgian terraced house and former nunnery in east London (+ slideshow).
London-based Chris Dyson Architects was asked to replace an old two-storey extension, creating a new family living space that would be more in-keeping with the traditional nineteenth-century style of the property located at Wapping Pierhead.
“The curved end of the extension was inspired by the banks of the Thames elevation that rises on either side of the property and has curved bay windows overlooking the river,” Chris Dyson told Dezeen.
“It was an interesting local vernacular that we wanted to include and the curved extension bookends the environment well,” he said.
The architects worked with London bricklaying company Beckwith Tuckpointing to ensure the brickwork remained authentic. Locally sourced Coleridge yellow bricks were stained using an eighteenth-century soot-wash technique and an old penny was rolled between the brick joints, leaving an indent in the mortar.
“The use of brick helped to achieve a balance between the contemporary and the original period style of the house,” said Dyson.
Slate copings protect the gauged brick arches and bronze casements that have been added to the windows, helping to distinguish between the old and new.
An original listed dock wall offers privacy for a sheltered garden, while the curved wall at the back of the extension completes the terrace.
The garden offers another route into the basement and ground floor level of the extension, where a minimal dining room, library and kitchen offer living space for the family.
Built by British architect Daniel Asher Alexander in 1810, the Grade II listed building formerly housed a dock authority officer, before being repurposed as a nunnery in the 1940s.
Many of the period features have been restored, including the original staircase, architraves, floorboards and fireplace surrounds.
“The original property was very run down and hadn’t had much spent on it. This meant much of the house was preserved and we were able to bring back many of the period features,” Dyson explained.
Upstairs, the master bedroom and bathroom continue with the Georgian style, with pastel green panels concealing extra storage space and a large antique-style bathtub.
A rainwater-harvesting system and improved insulation have also been added to make the property more environmentally friendly.
Chris Dyson Architects recently won the AJ Small Projects Award for its extension of Wapping Pierhead. The award celebrates architectural projects built with a budget of less than £250,000.
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