This refurbishment and extension project in Hackney, adds a new kitchen, WC and sunken bath to an existing ground floor apartment. The project references early 20th century concrete installations and Japanese theories on aesthetics and materiality. The client requested a bath specifically designed for relaxation and warming which follows the principles of ritual bathing. The kitchen includes a bespoke copper worktop and backsplash, designed to develop a patina over time.
The main aim of the project was to create a sense of unity between the back garden and the house, allowing nature to play a significant part in the daily activities of the family.
The Paris office of OPUS 5 is delivering the third and final phase of the rehabilitation of the Abbey d’Ardenne, in Normandy, France. To complete an investment project of over 25 years on this site, the former stables of this gothic abbey are now home to an exhibition gallery.
An existing three story house perched in the trees was in dire need of repair. Breathtaking views from the roof deck made the decision to renovate rather than replace the structure an easy decision. An elevation horizontal addition is separated from the tower by the second story entrance, allowing each part to maintain it’s own identity. The space under the addition becomes the gateway to the pool and forest beyond.
The restoration of an old house attic in front of the sea becomes an opportunity to reconsider the entire living space. The common areas of the lounge-dining room on the first floor are extended to the upper floor. The use of a double volume space allows to amplify the entrance of natural light opening sea views and sky scenarios. Light permeates an essential interior. A space designed using surfaces and volumes. Volumes that identify functions, white and smooth surfaces that reflect and absorb reverberations of sky and sea. The staircase, made of iron and wood, is heavier at the bottom and dematerializes along the climb. Shapes and materials are reduced to the essentials. They waive any decorative function attracting the gaze on the fullness of the void. A void that is sometimes occupied by natural elements, such as a courtain of green leaves, or by evanescent figures projected on a bare wall.
Armed with the finalized assessment, it became clear that a major axis of the architectural part of the project would have to be a reorganization of the distribution. Thus, new principles of distribution had to be defined in coherence with the larger architectural ensembles that structure the geography of the site.
Installed over the centuries and according to need, the site counts some some thirty more or less discontinuous existing staircases. However, their important number did not indicate a genuine distributive space but rather a random organization in a succession of commissioned pieces, passing from one gallery to another, from a reserve to a reading room, with nothing in between; all the interstices having been filled up under the pressure of the constant requirements for additional surface areas.
The project proposes the refurbishment of a house built in 1937. Located in the urban area of Caldas da Rainha, its origin is associated with the genesis of this whole urban area, which, at the beginning of the twentieth century, emerged in the west of the railway line that crosses the entire city.
The project to reactivate the old Hacienda San Antonio Chable for a new hotel comprises the restoration and adaptation of the ancient buildings that make up the main settlement of the hacienda, as well as the open spaces, squares and gardens surrounding them. The hacienda, whose first records obtained date from the year 1813, began as a corn and livestock farm, and later as an henequen fiber production site.
This report is about the integral remodeling of Aura’s insurance company building, located in the urban center of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, inside the metropolitan area of Barcelona.
The project main objectives are the integral remodelling of the current building in order to update and revitalize its image from the street side view, make flexible, optimize and modernize the interior spaces, as so to adequate the building’s overall to its new needs and accessibility.
When faced sometimes with the question “what kind of architecture are we up to?”, the most convincing answer is probably “the one that circumstances allow”. This is particularly true in the case of a refurbishment, in which preexistences, coupled with the program and the wishes of the client, leave little room for a purely speculative proposal.
email
Facebook
Twitter
RSS Feed
