Our interests were piqued when a client approached our practice wanting to explore the potential for how a 120m2, 1960s mid-century apartment could be reworked to support their current aesthetic, serving as an inner city alternative to their previous substantial family home.
This renovation of an 80 year old modernist apartment was for a couple who believed that with the right design they could replace their beautifully appointed family residence with a lifestyle less reliant on cars in an area walking distance to work, having a smaller carbon footprint. Their brief called for a feeling of spaciousness and uncompromised quality.
House J is situated on top of a high hill, on the edge of a single-family housing area. The architectural concept is based on the site: the building has a closed rear towards the North and East where the neighboring houses are, and it opens to the South and West, towards a natural forest. The house curves around an old pine tree, forming a lap with a sunny and sheltered courtyard. The free form and lush garden create a contrast to the rectangular building.
To create a beach house that formed a series of spaces that could be utilised by a multi-generational family. The pavilion style arrangement needed a connectivity, while still remaining separate from one another. The buildings were placed to maximise ocean views, as well as provide a protected courtyard for entertaining.
Designs for The Forestias– a new residential-led masterplan with a large forest at its heart – have been revealed. Located on the outskirts of Bangkok, the pioneering development addresses the growing disconnect between contemporary city life and family traditions, underpinned by the idea of health and wellbeing. It focusses on the themes of serving the community, promoting multi-generational family co-living and reconnecting with nature, providing a template for healthier and happier urban living in Thailand. The entire development is based on smart city principles, with autonomous vehicles, smart meters and sensor networks.
Southern Quarters is a large-scale renovation project in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Some of the wooden houses on the site were derelict or in the state of disrepair. Urban sprawl, proximity to the city centre and transport networks necessitated designing new, denser and more varied accommodation in the area. Brusnika launched the plot redevelopment project in 2018.
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.
With each project, we seek to find a sense of identity through a key project material, something the client can take ownership of. At Anderson Road, this came in the form of a brick. The brick denotes the domestic, a singular and humble building block when, treated correctly, creates buildings of instant permanence and opportunities for delicate detailing. The dusty pink and red tones of the brick, with the blurring of a flush struck mortar, reference the client’s heritage while providing the physical and conceptual backbone of the new home.
There is a custom in many villages of building a house thinking of the future of the family, as a “perfectible” construction, in which parents or grandparents leave a structural skeleton, an enclosure, hoping that their children or grandchildren will inhabit it in the future according to their needs. This is how we found this house on the second floor of a building in “Plaça Major” (main square) of Betxí, that had never been inhabited before.
When entering for the first time, we were surprised by its proportions, since it was very long, 25 m, with respect to the width, just 7 m. The fact of being a diaphanous and naked space at that moment made that feeling increase.
This complex project began 8 years ago, going through all kinds of situations: squats, regulatory disagreements, changes in use, slow and complicated work…although the client’s desire to leave the walls with exposed brick and using hydraulic mosaic (the cliché of Barcelona) remained unalterable. In addition, the requirements were to convert this small building located in the Borne district of Barcelona, from the end of the 19th century and with 4 floors (but barely 20sqm per floor), into a place where to be able to work and spend short stays in their visits to Barcelona, although, along these 8 years, the personal and family situation of the client has changed, to which the project has adapted.
Upon entering this private house in the center of Israel designed by architect Raz Melamed, you are greeted by the pool that leads you directly to the entrance to the building, and immediately from the entrance sets the tone for an interesting architecture that knows how to combine simple lines to create a unique space like no other.
The whole architecture is a simple rectangle that materializes architectural richness thanks to an interesting cross-section design, which stands in contrast to the restraint of the colors and materials.