Kali is one of the largest settlements on the Adriatic islands located on the island of Ugljan near the city of Zadar, Croatia. The village is best known for fishing. The project brief was to design two vacation houses on one of the few vacant lots situated between two roads with a height difference of 21 m in the longitudinal section. The challenge was to design a unified space, which would fulfill a multitude of the contemporary user’s heterogeneous needs, and at the same time, to create the feeling of living „with the sea at the seaside“.
The design consists of transforming a 1950’s existing Joseph Eichler home. Using a complimenting modern material palette, the design utilizes the primary floor plan, transforming the existing space and forming the new second floor by folding out a series of horizontal and vertical planes of the ground floor. The new roof form creates a large central area and links the bedroom wing with living area. Poured-inplace concrete masses are used to support the roofs, upper floor and cantilevered main stair landing.
The house with the round window is in a dense block of private houses in Vilnius. 182 square meters, two-story house with a small garage volume, which is an identical shape scaled to the appropriate size to fit one car.
The key wish from the clients was to have a big common space not divided by stairs in any way. So we chose to move the stairs out of the main perimeter of the house. This idea creates an interesting shape that looks different as you walk around the house. The north part of the house with the stairs has just one round window. It reminds us of a newly built birdhouse that waits for its dwellers.
The Corona pandemic forced many of us to recalibrate, and for this young family of four the result was a relocation to Israel. Their new Tel-Aviv apartment was designed as a calm, minimalist, and joyful sanctuary, to ease the transition and make it a home.
This couple decided to build a new home closer to their children and grandchildren, and Architect Itsik Niv created exactly that and more. An open and well-lit bungalow allows them to entertain their family with ease with a variety of facilities such as a swimming pool, an outdoor kitchen, luxurious bedrooms, and a mesmerizing view of the beach.
The Rachel Foster public housing project has just been completed. This project comprises the adaptive re-use of the historic former Rachel Foster Hospital. The original hospital consisted of a series of 4 early modernist buildings and outdoor spaces in roughly the same configuration as the new scheme. The main building was retained as well as the colonnade of a second building which was incorporated into the new scheme. The project also retained an original circular garden forecourt. The final design consists of 260 units in 4 buildings in the suburb of Redfern. The buildings range from 4 to 7 storeys. The southern-most building has been retained and re-designed as apartments. We have developed a new façade treatment to better fit into the streetscape and one which is a contemporary design. The 2 central buildings are entirely new and include a 2 storey basement car park. The northern most building has been reconfigured in the manner of the traditional terrace houses which characterise the area.
Located in rural farmlands on the outskirts of Kolkata, the brief for this two-bedroom weekend retreat was to create a space that matched the tranquil surroundings of its setting. A place that blends in with the land, rather that breaks away from it. Set within a guava orchard in the farm, the idea was to build a ‘Macha’, or an elevated observation platform, that becomes a place of reprieve from the rigours of urban life.
Our Ruskin Street Residence was designed for one of the now adult children of one of our earliest residential commissions over twenty-five years ago.
While smaller than our usual projects it is a very special outcome that is very representative of the sentiments behind many of our projects.
The front six rooms of the Edwardian heritage listed terrace was retained and extensively renovated to a new house standard. Rooms were reorganised to accommodate three bedrooms with bathrooms and robes, the existing details modified to accolade the new layouts as if they had always been there.
A building is like a pile of books, which, being scaled and sized to our human body, is composed of horizontal platforms with consistent ceiling heights. A tall structure of three stories plus basement, Stack House is a playful expression of horizontal volumes, which are stacked on top of and cantilevered from each other.
The stack is composed of three “blocks”. The lower block, containing the public programs, is finished in stucco. The middle block, containing the transitional programs, such as the multi-purpose room on the mezzanine level, is finished in charred wood. The upper block, containing the most private programs, such as the master bedroom and ensuite, is finished in metal paneling. While using stucco, wood, and metal to symbolize the three blocks, the overall dark gray color achieves subtlety in their differentiation, creating a contradictory image of monumentality and intimacy.
Summer House emerged with the purpose of a space for contemplation of nature.
The desire for a practical, functional and cozy home has always been one of the office’s principles. The identity and essence of the client are important factors in the elaboration of spaces, so the certainty of belonging to the house is acquired naturally.
The architectural party, with sectored volumetry, is inserted into the topography respecting and making the most of the terrain’s potential. This feature made it possible to make the infinity edge pool with natural stones.