Klopf Architecture completely remodeled this once dark Eichler house in Palo Alto creating a more open, bright and functional family home. The reconfigured great room with new full height windows and sliding glass doors blends the indoors with the newly landscaped patio and seating areas outside. The former galley kitchen was relocated and was opened up to have clear sight lines through the great room and out to the patios and yard, including a large island and a beautiful walnut bar countertop with seating. An integrated small front addition was added allowing for a more spacious master bath and hall bath layouts. With the removal of the old brick fireplace, larger sliding glass doors and multiple skylights now flood the home with natural light.
At the end of 2018, Maria Fradinho designs and builds her own office and home, on a 940 m2 lot, located on the outskirts of Ílhavo, Portugal.
The land is located “by the door” of Vista Alegre, a place beloved by the architect, whose name is due to its origin, Vista Alegre Porcelain Factory, one of the most important industries in the region, and the country. It is in this factory that the author is inspired, because “that place so requested.”
The initial objective was to design two houses, in a high slope area in the Mount Washington; Los Angeles downtown area.
The main characteristics that were taken into account for both lots was:
– Topography: These lots have steep slopes, the higher portion of the slopes is located towards the the street (lower sector), in the middle of the lot there is a softer slope area. The vehicular road is located in the lower part of the land and the section of the road is narrow located at the apex of one of the canyons that are on the slopes of Mt. Washington.
– Orientation: The orientation was an essential aspect that was taken into account in the design because the hillside where the lots are located is facing north, which causes there to be no direct natural light in the afternoon hours (after 5pm). In the winter where sunlight originates from the south where it is blocked by the hill.
Los AngelesandNew Yorkbased architecture office FreelandBuck recently completed a new residential project, Second House, in Culver City, Los Angeles. The new 1,500squarefoot home is an intricate aggregation of interior and exterior volumes. Located on a tight site behind an existing residence, the new structure borrows the steeply pitched rooflines of the front house while turning inward around a private, central courtyard.
Anchored by an inventive reuse of local materials on a constrained lot in a beautiful Sonoma County landscape, this project started as a country retreat and evolved into a full-time residence. The desired program added a pool, poolhouse, outdoor living area, gardens, bocce court and guest arrival with overflow parking. The property was long and narrow, hugging a busy roadway but situated to look beyond the constraints to spectacular vistas of rolling vineyards and classic coastal California ridgelines beyond.
A balance of natural light, simple materials, and flows, are integrated with controlled views and atmospheric variation. This Central Austin house was remodeled in the spirit of the original Mid-Century Modern house, with an open plan, honest natural materials, and a direct connection to nature.
The design opens the house up not only by unifying the common areas, but also by literally raising the original roof. Through merely consolidating the service core and extending it as much as possible to the back, both public and private zones become more desirable. The kitchen is seen as part of the social space, opening up rather than part of the service core. This strategy allows a completely open planned public zone which allows a raised ceiling height with clerestory windows on the south, west and north sides. The raised ceiling maintains the original pitched roof geometry to stay harmoniously with the existing gabled roof in the private zone. The exposed roof structure helps to define each function and expanding beyond the face to connect to the outdoors while preserving privacy to the street, and the tongue and groove wood ceiling continues out to the soffit to visually dissolve the limits of enclosure. Furthermore, as an effort to bring the outdoors in, intimate patios are created for both public and private areas.
Situated in the dense theater district of Midtown West, ARO demonstrates a keen awareness to its surrounding context, utilizing approaches in massing and exterior expression to create a contemporary urban living environment. At 62 stories tall, ARO responds to site and zoning constraints, revealing solutions that maximize floor area, outdoor access and amplified views. Shaping of the form reflects changes in unit mixes, with larger units occupying the top of the building and smaller units occupying the bottom.
The Vassar College Integrated Science Commons redefines the identity of the sciences on the College’s historic campus and provides technologically-advanced facilities for students, faculty and researchers. The design is an outgrowth of a programming and a needs analysis for all of the Science Departments at the College — Biology, Chemistry, Psychology, Physics, Astronomy, Computer Science, Earth Science — which had previously been housed in disparate facilities across campus. Responding to Vassar’s pedagogical mission to consolidate the sciences, the Integrated Science Commons leverages common resources and creates a vibrant science culture. Fundamental to the building’s design is its seamless integration with the natural landscape, scale and campus aesthetic of the College.
The clients, a couple with two children, had been living in their apartment for over a decade and decided it was time to renovate. Included in the project was a plan to convert a basement-level storage unit into a family room by adding a staircase at the end of an existing hallway to connect the two spaces together.
The entry sequence was reworked to create a slate-tiled mud room that could contain coats, shoes, backpacks, and sports equipment for the family of four.
A dark and divided interior in West Chelsea, Manhattan, was transformed into a bright, loft-like space by architects Daniel Rauchwerger and Noam Dvir (BoND). The apartment, which the architecture duo acquired in spring 2017 occupies the third floor of a small 1910 apartment building.
Measuring 11.5 by 50 feet total (520 sf), the apartment’s layout is typical to many prewar apartments in New York. Similar to the “Railroad Apartment,” it takes the shape of a long and narrow rectangle that draws light from the building’s front and rear sides. In its original layout, prior to BoND’s intervention, the apartment was divided into three distinct sections: a living room, a bedroom, and a closed-off corridor connecting the two – which housed the kitchen and the bathroom. The architects removed these partitions to create one continuous space, celebrating the apartment’s elongated proportions and maximizing the illusion of depth. The forced perspective is further enhance by a series of inset lighting fixtures that extend linearly from the kitchen into the bedroom, and a wood floor pattern which highlights the length rather the the width of the space. The renovation created a clear distinction between the western wall – along which the apartment’s utilities, services and hardware are located – and the eastern wall, that was left blank to provide room for art display.
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