Panovscott creates Sydney extension with alternating timber and glass facade

Three by Two House by Panovscott

Alternating cubes of timber and glass cover the back of this Sydney house extension by Australian office Panovscott, offering a balance of light, shade, views and privacy.

Three by Two House by Panovscott

Three by Two house was designed by Panovscott for a couple with two young children, who wanted to transform their dark semi-detached Victorian house in an inner-Sydney suburb.

Three by Two House by Panovscott

“Their second child was due shortly when they approached us, so they wanted light, air, a place for the family to commune, and they wanted a great building,” architect Andrew Scott told Dezeen.

Three by Two House by Panovscott

The two-storey extension gives them a new kitchen on the ground floor, which opens on to the garden. Above, a bedroom and en-suite for the parents is set back slightly from the back wall to create a six-metre-tall double-height space at the rear.

Three by Two House by Panovscott

“By pulling the bedroom back, the kitchen-diner below opens up to the light at the edge of the house,” said Scott. “The void also allows the parents to be part of the life of the house when they are in the bedroom, while still giving them privacy. In a constrained fiscal and spatial environment, sometimes an exuberant gesture is crucial.”

Three by Two House by Panovscott

The western red cedar and glass sections on the rear facade act like blinkers, framing views of treetops while shielding the family from being overlooked. On the ground floor, glass doors and a timber panel fold back to open the house up to the garden.

Three by Two House by Panovscott

Inside, a wall of the kitchen-diner has been covered with floor-to-ceiling cabinets made from kauri pine – a sustainable locally sourced plywood. For the flooring, a structural concrete slab has been polished to expose the aggregate, and then sealed.

Three by Two House by Panovscott

“This room is conceived as a ‘great room’, based on the example of a medieval castle, in which a large space accommodated multiple uses at the centre, and more specific spatially constrained opportunities at the edge,” said Scott.

Three by Two House by Panovscott

The extension offers a bright contrast to the front of the long, narrow house, which is just over four metres wide and  attracts scant light throughout the day.

Three by Two House by Panovscott

A long corridor leads from this existing part of the house to the extension at the back. The entrance to the new space is tilted, intended to offer a glimpse of the light on approach but saving the full impact of the large space as a surprise.

Three by Two House by Panovscott

An indentation where the extension meets the existing house also allows for a small courtyard, which ensures light comes deeper into the narrow space.

Three by Two House by Panovscott

Photography is by Brett Boardman.

Here is some more text from Panovscott:


 Three by Two House, Sydney, Australia

This project is the renovation of a house, one of two semi-detached single storey dwellings located in Sydney’s densely inhabited inner west. Broadly speaking it is about the making of a new whole by retention of one half of a structure and reconfiguration of the other.

The environ is an increasingly gentrified subdivision originating around 1880 and characterised by predominantly narrow east-west orientated housing parcels fronting a large public park.

Three by Two House by Panovscott
Ground floor plan – click for larger image

Approach to the house remains via the formal front garden up three generous steps and on to a narrow porch below a low curved corrugated roof. Within, the front rooms have been retained with minimal intervention allowing the continued manner of dwelling.

A long hall leads past two bedrooms. The high ceilings, small windows and wonderfully lean vertical timber construction establish the character typical of a Sydney terrace. Cool in both summer and winter and dark even on the brightest of days, these spaces offer the initial experience of homecoming and become a counterpoint for the character of the rear addition.

Three by Two House by Panovscott
First floor plan – click for larger image

At the end of the existing hall a small opening twists to the sky bringing gentle light though the upper level and into the centre of the long plan. The light washes down a 45-degree splayed plywood panel. Visible from the dark front rooms and immediately upon entry, it announces the differing quality of the spaces ahead. Moving towards this quiet light, the thin sliver of a brighter room beyond gradually widens with the shifting perspective. Shunted off the previous axial alignment, and past a discreet bathroom, the great communal room of the house is revealed. Light filled, this is a combined kitchen and dining space of slightly smaller area than the lean-to it replaces. Here the elegant vertical proportions and lean timber construction techniques of the front part of the house are reinterpreted.

Three by Two House by Panovscott
Elevation – click for larger image

Continuing the homecoming journey the room increases to six metres in height reaching upwards at its far end. The number and size of windows also increase gradually to this point allowing the internal space to expand horizontally as well as vertically and for the light levels to approach that of the external environment. Turning 180 degrees and up a narrow stair concealed behind a ply lined wall, the level above contains a master bedroom and en-suite, with a tiny window looking back across the roof to the park. This moment completes the journey within to the most private realm of the house.

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ICFF 2014 Preview: Wintercheck Factory: Furniture and lighting from the Brooklyn-based design-and-build brand

ICFF 2014 Preview: Wintercheck Factory


Since 2010 Brooklyn’s Wintercheck Factory has routinely rolled out new designs across apparel and homeware, to furniture and lighting. While the urge to design across all platforms is still alive and well, founder Kristen Wentrcek…

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Home by Weston Surman & Deane

Au fond d’un jardin de Londres, cette maison réalisée par Surman & Deane a été conçue comme une retraite d’écriture pour un auteur. L’architecture du studio permet un éclairage unique baignée de lumière naturelle. Les matériaux sont pour la plupart des éléments de récupération, qui donne à cet intérieur un aspect original.

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MCE Lamps by Swedish Collective Design

Ce globe de lumière conçu par MC Escher et Oscar Reuterswärd est en verre, monté sur un cadre en bois tel un berceau stable. La lumière de la lampe peut être dirigée pour créer un effet de lumière plus ou moins doux. Une magnifique création à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

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Globe Light by Swedish Collective Design Studio 6
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Globe Light by Swedish Collective Design Studio 7

Aluminium and timber light shades by Nick Sadowsky use gravity to maintain shape

Gravity keeps the aluminium and timber components of these lamp shades by industrial designer Nick Sadowsky locked together.

Spindent Light Shade by Nick Sadowsky

The pieces on the Spindent Light don’t use any screws or adhesives, instead relying on aligned component parts that slot into each other and are kept together by gravity and their own weight.

The light’s soft triangular shape features two pieces of anodised aluminium, separated by a thin strip of timber to create a minimal shade for either the home or office. A black fabric electrical cord completes the monochrome look.

Spindent Light Shade by Nick Sadowsky

“I was originally inspired by the aluminium spinning process and its capabilities,” said Australian designer Nick Sadowsky. “I looked at how I could make something both visually engaging and sustainable.”

The polished sheen of the metal is interrupted by the warm tones of the wood and its rough grain.

“I had a low-impact material and finishing process,” said Sadowsky. “It was then a matter of developing the form and I liked the idea of combining another material I really like, timber.”

Spindent Light Shade by Nick Sadowsky

The wood element connects the aluminium together, creating a small lip between the two pieces.

“Its qualities are warm and organic and could provide an interesting detail in the form and become part of the assembly, as I was trying to avoid any adhesives or screws,” explained Sadowsky.

Spindent Light Shade by Nick Sadowsky

The Spindent Lights are available in either black or silver from Sadowsky’s website.

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Sadowsky use gravity to maintain shape
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Timber treehouse hangs inside Oily Cart theatre headquarters by Hawkins\Brown

A wooden treehouse with circular perforations is suspended from the ceiling inside this space for a south London theatre company for disabled children, echoing round patterns on its facade (+ slideshow).

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

Designed by London firm Hawkins\Brown, the Oily Cart theatre company headquarters sits in the Grade II listed annexe of Smallwood primary school in Wandsworth.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

The theatre was created to give children who have disabilities and learning difficulties a place to express themselves artistically.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

“Oily Cart works with children who have multiple and complex learning difficulties, helping to bring theatre to audiences who might not otherwise have the chance to experience it,” architect David Bickle told Dezeen.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

The exterior of the building features an original soot-coated brick facade and an existing Victorian staircase, which leads up to the studio.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

“We were very careful to retain as much of the original structure as possible and wanted to incorporate the same energy into the building as the theatre puts into its productions,” Bickle said.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

The architect also installed a bright yellow aluminium lift dotted with black and white spots, which connects the playground outside to the theatre and provides access for disabled children.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

“The golden lift, which rises up to the theatre, creates a link between the ordinary outdoors and the extraordinary world of the theatre inside,” Bickle added.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

The top of the lift shaft was inspired by the traditional Dutch gables that line the roof of the primary school and is designed to mirror the original Victorian architecture.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

On exiting the lift, the first floor lobby leads into an office and admin area with a mezzanine level above. The architects were given permission to remove a dividing wall and create a multipurpose timber treehouse punctured with circles, which hangs over the space.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

“The circular theme that runs throughout the build was inspired by the scented bubbles the theatre use to get in touch with their audience,” Bickle explained. “The circular motif that runs across the facade and treehouse are designed to be effervescent like the bubbles themselves.”

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

Spotlights built into the underside of the wooden cube are designed as an extension to the circular pattern and illuminate a table in the centre of the office.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown

Upstairs, the timber meeting room extends into the roof and features skylights that fill the box with natural light.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown
Site plan – click for larger image

The firm also improved existing studio and storage areas to create a workshop for building original props on the ground floor. The addition of a costume wardrobe, furnished with sewing machines and work benches, allows for every element of the theatre’s productions to be managed on site.

The architects used a bold colour scheme throughout the structure, coating interior walls with primary colours to differentiate between the spaces.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown
Ground floor plan – click for larger image

A white-walled group room with suspended strip lighting offers space for the children to take part in drama workshops, while a combined lounge and kitchen provides a place for the children to relax in between rehearsals.

Oily Cart theatre was recently nominated for a Royal Institute of British Architects London Award.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown
First floor plan – click for larger image

Photography is by Tim Crocker.

Here’s some more text from Hawkins\Brown:


Oily Cart Theatre, Wandsworth, London

Located in the annexe of the Victorian Grade II listed Smallwood Primary School based in Tooting, Wandsworth, Oily Cart theatre works entirely with children, many of whom have complex disabilities and often attend special needs schools. The theatre group aims to provide cultural stimulation for these often under-serviced audiences.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown
Section – click for larger image

Stirling Prize nominated architects, Hawkins\Brown, worked with the Oily Cart theatre to create an inspiring and playful scheme in keeping with the theatre’s ethos. The complete development of Oily Cart productions is housed in the annexe, from inception and management through to prop building, costume design and rehearsals. The scheme dramatically improves workshop, rehearsal and storage facilities for the theatre and reconfiguration of spaces as well as improving working conditions within office spaces.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown
West elevation – click for larger image

The original theatre had poor accessibility for its occupants and one of Hawkins\Brown major interventions was the addition of an external lift with patterned anodised aluminium panels to access the first floor of the theatre, formerly only accessible via an external staircase.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown
South elevation – click for larger image

Bold colours were used throughout the theatre to aid with orientation around the spaces and a new mezzanine level insert was added to the building that acts as a flexible meeting room, as well as clean and dirty workshops to make all of the necessary props, sets and costumes for the theatre.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown
East elevation – click for larger image

The resulting building creates an inspiring, bright and tactile space for children to lean and play, as well as reusing and recycling materials and found objects from the site.

Oily Cart Theatre by Hawkins/Brown
North elevation – click for larger image

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Red cedar clads extended Parisian house by CUT Architectures

A 100-year-old house in Paris has been renovated and extended by local studio CUT Architectures to frame a garden facing the morning sun and create a shaded terrace overlooking a nearby park (+ slideshow).

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures

CUT Architectures refurbished the existing House in Meudon, which is home to a family of three. The building was constructed by the client’s grandfather and was only 42 square metres in size, so a timber extension was added to create extra room.

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures

“We wanted to keep the sentimentality and feel of the existing house in the new extension,” architect Yann Martin told Dezeen. “It was very much a working house, with rabbits in the garden and wood for the chimney.”

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures

The new extension doubles the size of the building and provides extra space for the parents to work separately from their teenage child.

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures

The architects sourced native red cedar and used it to wrap both the existing structure and extension. They then constructed a south-facing timber terrace at the front.

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures

“We liked the idea that the established house was wooden framed and wanted the new extension to be constructed from steel and wood, with the trees and view surrounding it,” Martin explained. “The use of timber helps to create a continuous surface across the build.”

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures

Raised one metre above the ground to match the original property, the extension contains a large living room with bare white walls that contrast with the black-framed windows.

“It was difficult to build on the soil that was marked from years of clay and chalk digging in the undergrowth, so when we built the new extension, we provided a concrete base that gave the house a strong footprint and two separate gardens,” Martin said.

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures

The terrace sits just in front and features a slatted roof to shade it from the sun, creating a pattern of shadows that filters through the facade.

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures

A master bedroom and bathroom are tucked away at the rear, leading out to a sheltered garden where the owners can enjoy the morning sunrise over breakfast.

In the original structure, a bedroom and bathroom offer separate living spaces for the youngest member of the family.

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures

Here’s some more text from the architects:


House in Meudon, France

The project is the extension and refurbishment of a very small detached house in Meudon, one of the nearest suburbs of western Paris. The location is exceptional; the plot is on the hill offering fantastic views and facing a park. The existing house was in a very bad condition but the owners had a sentimental attachment to it and didn’t want to tear it down.

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures
Floor plan – click for larger image

The extension is twice the size of the existing house including a 20m² terrace. The extension is a wooden structure with a zinc roof almost invisible from the garden. Both the extension and the existing house are wrapped with vertical timber giving a continuous surface to the two volumes.

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures
Section one – click for larger image

The living space and the terrace are lifted 1.2m above the garden level to match the existing house ground floor level and turning the terrace into a promontory for the views. The bedroom and bathroom space is on the natural ground level on the back of the plot. The articulation of the extension creates two gardens for the house: the one in the back for the morning sun and the one in front, facing the park and south-west from the terrace.

House in Meudon by CUT Architectures
Section two – click for larger image

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by CUT Architectures
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Mia Cullin models wooden benches on piano stools for Orkester collection

Swedish architect and designer Mia Cullin has produced a range of benches and stools with adjustable seats modelled on traditional wooden peg furniture and piano stools.

Orkester bench collection by Mia Cullin

Mia Cullin‘s Orkester collection features benches with two or three seats as well as individual stools. The flat circular seats are attached to cylindrical pieces of timber by large wooden screws.

Four wooden legs are splayed from beneath the horizontal section of wood.

Orkester bench collection by Mia Cullin

Mia Cullin said the design was influenced by a type of piano stool with an adjustable seat and “simple traditional wooden furniture assembled with plugs without any screws or metal fittings”.

“As the seats are adjustable, you can choose the height suitable for you but still sit next to your friends, parent or child,” explained Cullin.

Orkester bench collection by Mia Cullin

The furniture is made entirely from ash wood, without the use of any screws or metal fittings. It was designed for use in schools and nurseries, but can also be used in waiting rooms, entrances and other public spaces.

Orkester bench collection by Mia Cullin

The benches and stools come in natural or stained colour variations. Photography is by Mathias Nero.

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on piano stools for Orkester collection
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Lex Pott and New Window sandblast tree rings to pattern furniture collection

Milan 2014: delicate patterns on this furniture and accessories collection have been created by sandblasting away the soft rings of timber lengths from a single fir tree (+ slideshow).

Diptych by New Window and Lex Pott_dezeen_21sq

Dutch designer Lex Pott and online platform and design label New Window have collaborated to produce the wooden Diptych series. To create the patterns on each piece, the team removed the lighter softer rings created while the tree grows during summer by sandblasting and blowing away the material to leave thin gaps.

Diptych by New Window and Lex Pott_dezeen_10

“In this way this project represents the DNA of a tree,” New Window founder Woes van Haaften told Dezeen. “You can read the climate in the tree because if the gap is big, it was a rich summer because the tree could grow. If it is small then it was a rough winter because it needed all the energy to stay alive.”

Diptych by New Window and Lex Pott_dezeen_9

The designers used a particular Douglas Fir tree planted in the Dutch Veluwe forest around 1960 and cut down in 2013. Rubber stickers were added to the wood to act as guides during the sandblasting process.

Diptych by New Window and Lex Pott_dezeen_3

The collection includes a room divider and totem, which both feature vertical patterns.

Cabinets feature a mix of vertical and horizontal patterns in either circular or rectangular shapes on the front of sliding panels. Diptych also includes smaller objects including a set of combs and matches.

Diptych by New Window and Lex Pott_dezeen_4

“The title Diptych refers to the juxtaposition within each object of geometric and organic shapes, open and closed parts, control and freedom,” said New Window.

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To accentuate the grain, the objects are finished using a combination of oil and wax.

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Woes van Haaften started New Window in 2013 as an online blog that aims to give an insight into the specialist knowledge of various designers by inviting them to document the process of their work online for public consumption.

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The collection was presented in the Ventura Lambrate district at Milan last week and has been collected in a book published by Frame Publishers.

Diptych by New Window and Lex Pott_dezeen_1

Here is some more information from the designers:


Diptych – New Window × Lex Pott

Every object from the Diptych series comes from the same Douglas fir, therefore carrying the “1”, branded on each product.

Diptych by New Window and Lex Pott_dezeen_sq_

This particular tree was planted on the Dutch grounds of the Veluwe around 1960 and cut down in 2013. All the processing of the material took place in the Netherlands, making this a project deserving of the title Made in the Netherlands.

Diptych by New Window and Lex Pott_dezeen_24

The title Diptych refers to the juxtaposition within each object of geometric and organic shapes, open and closed parts, control and freedom. The patterns are created by covering parts of the objects with rubber stickers during the sandblasting process.

Diptych by New Window and Lex Pott_dezeen_23

You can see the life of the tree in the wood: good summers give a wide annual ring, harsh winters a thin one. By sandblasting you blow away the soft rings of summer, leaving a wide gap.

Diptych by New Window and Lex Pott_dezeen_22

Within the wood there are different colours: heartwood has a reddish hue, sap-wood is more yellow. To accentuate the wood markings, the objects are finished with a combination of oil and wax.

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to pattern furniture collection
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Casamania 2014 Highlights: Steel, leather and glow-in-the-dark wood from the Italian furnishing brand, as seen during Milan Design Week

Casamania 2014 Highlights


Italy’s Casamania really understands the value of presenting a comprehensive brand aesthetic across all avenues—including products and media. We recently saw the latest collection of handsome home furnishings at Salone del Mobile during Milan Design…

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