This project gutted and re-built a classic split-level house from the early 1980’s. A long angular space was completely opened up, to create an airy sense of volume not possible in Vancouver anymore, since high ceilings heights are not allowed in any new house. Constricted stairs, dropped ceilings and non load-bearing walls between the living areas were removed, but the existing exterior shape of the house was not changed or enlarged. Old window locations were preserved to leave the house’s structure almost completely intact, and then elongated to let more light in. Since the house is on a prominent corner site, corner windows were added to create panoramic views out into the established neighbourhood.
With a long history of sentimental value, the homeowners wanted to keep their family home’s existing footprint while updating the layout to better harmonize with their changing needs and social lifestyle. The design-build team worked in tandem to create spaces that paid homage to original traditional details while transforming the home into a series of modern indoor and outdoor spaces intended for living and entertaining.
Stay_Soar is a multi-family housing project in Yangjaecheon Cafe Street. A total of 13 units were arranged in this volume of 286.81m2, including 12 residential units and one retail on the first floor. This was possible because the area of common use space in a typical floor plan was reduced to minimum by incorporating the skip floor layout. We tried to reveal the skip floor structure to the outside through the outline of the mass and the arrangement of the windows. An important element that determines the impression of this building is the movement in the border where the upper part covered with white shell meets with the lower part exposed with the frame structure. This is also the result of moving along the building composition of skip floor. Since most of the outer walls, including the inclined wall, were planned with white stucco finish, it was important to have a countermeasure against contamination. The construction was completed even incorporating details that are not commonly used. In addition, we even had the opportunity to sufficiently inspect the actual performance of the finishing because the construction extended over a period of fine dust and rainy season continuing back-to-back.
The villa was built on one of the most beautiful locations of Budaliget. The flat site is located on a former airport field, in the exact center of the area, which previously functioned as the airport runway. The lot was completely empty – looking at it in its natural state one gets to see picturesque views with beautiful large trees all over the location. The area is ideally lit by the sun and it’s completely protected from the wind.
The surrounding neighboring buildings all feature contemporary architectural characteristics. The architects wanted the building to blend into the neighborhood, but at the same time, they wanted to design something completely unique.The home is designed for ideal sun exposure, taking into account the existing trees while the surrounding nature also protects the dwellers from the unwanted views. The building works with refined contemporary gestures in the field of mass formation, which gives it a playful, but still an elegant chara cter. The use of materials on the façade is based on three dominant elements. An anthracite deep-burned rectangular casing covers 70% of the building’s surface, and the remaining surfaces have been treated with a gray finish paint. The surface of the roof is covered with anthracite-colored metal scrub. These combinations of the dark gray brick, metal and wood surfaces and the subtle shift in their tones gave a unitary composition and harmony to the external character of the home.
It’s easy to spend a lot of time talking about architecture while forgetting about who actually uses it. For Saint Boulevard, our new multi-residential project situated on St Kilda Rd boulevard, the people have been put front and centre. This design has been created for an emerging social group we like to call the ‘modern primate’. Modern primates are redefining contemporary life satisfaction by returning to the simple pleasures – food, shelter, social engagement, rejuvenation and learning – while maintaining a certain sense of aestheticism in their busy lifestyle. This humanistic approach mirrors the big picture, long-term philosophy of our equally human-focused client, Shakespeare Group.
Benyei Architectural Studio explores the grandiose effect of restraint in luxury.
The word ‘luxury’ can have quite a breadth of meaning behind it, with each person’s understanding of what constitutes something as luxurious being specific to their own tastes. The problem is that it’s easy to fall into a trap of excess, where numerous displays of wealth and grandeur equate a lavish lifestyle. For any architect, finding their client’s personal understanding of luxury is the first step, and only then can it be tempered to be made subtle and sophisticated. How can lavish elegance be met with the warmth necessary for a family home? How can opulence be moderated yet still be desirable?
Born from a close cooperation between client and architect, this family home designed by Benyei Architectural Studio is a testament to the sort of building that can come from a bold and compelling idea and an architect that can enhance such boldness while still maintaining a keen eye for sophistication and brevity. And while luxury was an underpinning facet of the build, it was a careful, tactful understanding of moderation that has helped turn it into something noteworthy.
This house is located in an temporary housing development near to the Paracas Natural Reserve overlooking the Bay. The particular climatic conditions of the place are solved by laying a solid base that serves as a barrier for the strong winds of the afternoon. This allows to generate at the interior a sheltered and private garden. The base volume contains most of the program of the house and for each of these environments a small depth is raised in the facade for protection of the interior of the direct wind and to achieve an adequate privacy. The rhythm of these openings unifies the base and gives a clear reading of the composition. On top of this first level rises an almost cubic volume that stands out for its proportions and crowns the geometry of the house. This cube concentrates the main spaces as well as the circulations and connections with the rest of the house.
King Street, our new multi-residential project in Melbourne’s West end, responds to the presence of nearby Flagstaff Gardens, Melbourne’s oldest park, by intertwining local stories to represent the origins and future of the precinct. In the mid 19th century, this part of the city was Melbourne’s flourishing commercial centre: a diverse urban precinct home to the Indigenous Kulin nation, Chinese immigrants enticed by the Gold Rush as well as settler populations. This project embraces the distinctive elements of this site-specific identity, creating a thoroughly local architectural narrative.
The plot is located in the coastal strip of the Tacoronte Municipality, in the neighbourhood of El Pris village, in a beautiful place called Puerto de La Madera. The plot has an area of one hectare, equivalent to 10,000 sqm, which was built with a three floors high, detached house.
NOVERCA is a project of a multisensory space for the students of Maria Veleda School, in Portugal, and is the result of a process begun about five years ago together with the direction of the school. They wanted to create an autonomous space for multiple handicapped students and there was a lack of resources and founds to actually realize it.
A few years earlier the government had made the decision to integrate all multiple handicapped students in schools without ever creating the necessary conditions for them to have an autonomous teaching space and adapted to their limitations. Ideally these students would have two or three subjects together with the others, and in the rest of the time they would have individual accompaniment in their own space with sensorial equipment. It may be relevant to point out that among all the schools in the country it is extremely rare to have this kind of spaces that certainly facilitate the integration of these students.
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