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    Nagami 3D-prints recycled plastic to mimic melting glaciers in Spanish boutique

    Spanish design studio Nagami has completed a shop interior for sustainable clothing brand Ecoalf near Madrid that is almost entirely 3D printed from recycled plastic.

    Walls, shelves and display tables inside the store in the Las Rozas Village designer outlet are made from 3.3 tonnes of repurposed plastic waste, sourced mainly from hospitals and used to create transluscent surfaces that resemble melting glaciers.
    Nagami has 3D-printed the interior of Ecoalf’s boutique near MadridAdditive manufacturing specialist Nagami created the plastic panels using a robotic arm equipped with a custom-built extruder that can print complex 3D forms, with the aim of uniting design and technology to raise awareness about the climate crisis.
    “We wanted to highlight the melting of the polar glaciers due to climate change,” Nagami co-founder Manuel Jiménez García told Dezeen. “So the walls are meant to represent a glacier that is cracking.”
    “The 3D-sculpted texture is a reference to the way the wind and snow erode the ice over time,” he added. “The idea was to recreate the sensation you might have when walking inside a glacier.”

    The interior was designed to resemeble a melting glacierThe Ecoalf store is the first fully 3D-printed interior completed by Nagami. And García believes it may be the first in the world to be fully 3D-printed using recycled plastic.
    The project was completed with a very short lead time of just three months from design to installation.
    Almost all of the surfaces are made from recycled plasticAccording to García, the undulating forms that cover almost all of the store’s internal surfaces pushed the robotic printing technology to its limit.
    “The machines needed to literally dance to create all of these different angles,” the designer explained. “Traditional 3D printing uses layers. But we can change the angle of the robot to make the kinds of curved and wavy forms you see in this project.”
    The walls are divided into panels and joined using connectors that form part of the printed structure. This meant that the tolerances needed to be very precise so that the components can slot together neatly.

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    On the floor, natural stone tiles feature veins reminiscent of cracking ice to enhance the feeling of walking on a glacier.
    All of the components used for the interior can be disassembled and reused or recycled for future projects. The plastic itself is almost infinitely recyclable, losing just one per cent of its structural performance with each new use, Nagami claims.
    The shop is located in the Las Rozas Village designer outletBoth companies share an interest in sustainable manufacturing, with Ecoalf creating clothing, footwear and accessories using recycled materials including plastic bottles, discarded fishing nets, used tyres and post-industrial wool and cotton.
    Similarly, Nagami works with recycled plastic to create furniture, sculptures, interiors and architectural elements as part of a closed-loop production process.
    The studio’s previous projects include several window displays for Dior, as well as a mobile toilet cubicle called The Throne and a collection of 3D-printed chairs by designers including Ross Lovegrove and Zaha Hadid Architects.
    Nagami used special robotic arms to 3D-print the panels. Photo by NagamiDuring the coronavirus pandemic, Nagami also made use of its quick-fire production process to 3D print face shields for medical staff.
    “We see 3D printing as one of the most sustainable forms of production,” García explained. “You don’t have to produce stock, it doesn’t create any fumes and it’s very versatile so you can create things on demand.”
    “In the future as we expand we want to have production sites around the world making things locally and reducing our carbon footprint even further.”
    All photography is by Alfonso-Quiroga unless otherwise stated.

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    Christoffer Jansson passes off virtual apartment as Instagram home renovation project

    Swedish designer Christoffer Jansson created a virtual apartment and pretended to live in it for months as part of a social experiment he exhibited at this year’s Stockholm Furniture Fair.

    Over a series of 12 rendered images shared on Instagram, the Uncanny Spaces project saw Jansson spin a story about purchasing and renovating a home, which he designed based on a real flat on Stockholm’s Heleneborgsgatan.
    Christoffer Jansson designed a virtual apartment and pretended it was his homeThe digital replica was modelled on the actual dimensions of the 89-square-metre apartment – ascertained during an open-house viewing – and filled with virtual copies of some of the designer’s own belongings to complete the illusion.
    He even went so far as to photograph details such as the cracked wallpaper and weirdly placed electrical outlets found in the real flat, so that he could replicate them using 3D modelling and rendering software.
    He asked his Instagram followers to vote on what colour to use in the hallway”My intention was to explore the home as a tool for communicating status and identity on social media and to discuss the impact of rendered images within interior architecture,” Jansson said.

    “I also wanted to challenge my rendering skills and see if I would be able to convince the viewer that the apartment physically existed.”
    He placed a virtual version of his Marshmallow Table in the hallwayThe ruse proved so convincing that a major Swedish interiors magazine asked to photograph the nonexistent apartment. And fellow students at Konstfack university questioned Jansson on how he could suddenly afford a multi-million-pound apartment in central Stockholm.
    Over the course of two months, he posted the results to a dedicated Instagram account designed to mimic the separate profiles that homeowners will sometimes create for their renovation projects.
    Jansson pretended to paint an antique Lovö dining table pinkThe earliest renders show the apartment as an empty shell, slowly being filled with boxes and IKEA bags as well as like-for-like recreations of Jansson’s personal belongings, such as his Marshmallow Table, every single one of his books or the jacket he wore on that particular day.
    Jansson also populated the virtual home with internet-famous design objects such as Ettore Sottsass’s wavy Ultrafragola mirror or the Lovö dining table by Axel Einar Hjorth to comment on the rise of the “Instagram aesthetic”.

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    “The constant flow of images on social media is affecting our attention span and for interior architecture, it’s becoming increasingly important to find ways to quickly capture the viewer’s attention,” he told Dezeen.
    “A clear consequence of the fast flow of images is the so-called ‘Instagram aesthetic’, which is characterized by geometric or curved shapes, distinctive colour schemes, tiled floors that form graphic patterns and clear contrasts between glossy and matte,” he continued.
    “It’s not the physical aspects of the room that are prioritised, instead the ability of the interior to function well in the image is what is valued most, which negatively affects the physical experience of a space.”
    He also integrated Insta-famous designs like the Ultrafragola mirrorThroughout the project, Jansson worked to provoke and integrate the account’s followers into the design process, for example by taking a poll on what colour to paint the hallway or by pretending to paint a piece of priceless antique furniture bright pink.
    Towards the end of the experiment, the designer began to speed up the timeline of the fictional renovation, as well as making the renders evermore eerily perfect to see if his followers would notice that the apartment was fake – although none ever did.
    By exploring these reactions, the designer hoped to draw attention to the way we use images of our homes to present idealised versions of ourselves, which in turn sets unrealistic standards for our real living spaces.
    The project was a social experiment”Today, we have access to observe the everyday life of others and display our own to the public through social media,” he said.
    “The constant exposure generates unattainable ideals and gradually shifts the barrier of private and public, which makes it more important than ever to present each and every part of our home in a favourable way.”
    Jansson created a wood relief to represent the project in real lifeAt the 2023 Stockholm Furniture Fair, Uncanny Spaces was showcased as part of the annual Ung Svenks Form exhibition of work by young Swedish designers.
    To represent the project in real life, Jansson created a wood relief that depicts a flattened image of his 3D virtual home, realised with the help of digital modelling software Rhino and a CNC-milling machine.
    The project does not touch on the rise of the metaverse, for which designers are increasingly creating virtual furniture, clothing, buildings and entire cities. But Jansson expects the advent of a parallel virtual world will likely exacerbate the issues explored in his project.
    Uncanny Spaces was on show as part of the Ung Svenks Form exhibition at the 2023 Stockholm Furniture Fair from 7 to 11 February. Browse our digital guide to the festival or visit Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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    Gonzalez Haase AAS evokes Iceland's volcanic landscape at 66º North store

    Architecture studio Gonzalez Haase AAS has completed a store on London’s Regent Street for Icelandic clothing brand 66º North, featuring curved walls and freestanding plinths made from rammed earth.

    The Berlin-based studio headed by Pierre Jorge Gonzalez and Judith Haase set out to create a holistic concept for the store that represents Iceland in an original way, rather than relying on stereotypes.
    The shop interior was informed by Iceland’s volcanic landscapesGonzalez Haase AAS let the natural elements and the country’s geology inform key design features such as curved grey walls that evoke the shifting weather and rammed-earth islands that represent the earth.
    “The weather in Iceland is a very real and prominent feature in the land and we classified this as static (the island) and forever changing (the weather),” the studio explained. “The static island of Iceland stands still in comparison to the constantly evolving and adapting weather, but this influences the perception of the island.”
    Rammed-earth islands add colour and texture to the shop’s interiorUpon entering the space, visitors encounter a series of curved walls rendered in natural pigmented clay sourced from Cornwall in the south of England.

    The designers said the use of different grey tones represents the changing weather: “the immaterial, movement, changing, blurry and informal”.
    Grey walls represent Iceland’s shifting weatherThe curved walls vary in height and frame different views within the store. At the entrance, one of the walls stretches back 18 metres, drawing the viewer’s gaze into the space and offering a tactile introduction to the experiential interior.
    “These curved walls create different perspectives and atmospheres,” the design team added. “They sit in front of the existing white walls to create a dramatic foreground of rolling soft curves.”

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    A series of monumental rammed-earth islands are inserted throughout the floor plan, adding colour and texture that evokes the earth and magma of Iceland’s volcanic landscape.
    The islands were created by artist Lennart Frank, who cast and sculpted them from an aggregate mix of different lava rocks to create a layered effect.
    The islands were made from an aggregate mix containing different lava rocksA combination of pigmented aggregate and sand gives the islands their reddish-brown hue, while the rugged texture brings a tactile element to the space that complements the brand’s clothing.
    The earthy tones are echoed in the metal clothes rails, as well as in the colour of a carpet applied to the surfaces within a more intimate space at the rear of the store.
    Earth-toned carpet was used in parts of the shopA custom-made mesh ceiling was designed to evoke a misty white sky, while also concealing lights and technical equipment.
    Mirrors and screens displaying films of the Icelandic landscape help to define the flow of movement through the space and add a playful dimension to the shopping experience.
    The shop is located on Regent Street in LondonGonzalez and Haase founded their Berlin-based studio in 1999. The firm works on commercial, residential and cultural projects, developing spatial concepts and experiences that foreground the interplay between light and architecture.
    Previous interiors designed by Gonzalez Haase AAS include a minimal office for a Berlin communications firm and a sparse, white-walled concept store in Lisbon that occupies a disused warehouse.
    The photography is by Thomas Meyer, Ostkreuz Photography.

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    Traditional Hong Kong diners inform interior of Bao Express in Paris

    Design studio Atelieramo has completed a retro interior for a Chinese restaurant in Paris, featuring celadon-green walls and curvaceous wooden booths modelled on those found in Hong Kong diners from the 1970s.

    Architect Tala Gharagozlou and designer Virginie de Graveron oversaw the interior concept for Bao Express, a restaurant near Bastille in the 11th arrondissement that serves dim sum and bao buns.
    Bao Express is a Chinese restaurant in Paris. Top photo by Géraldine MartensHoused in a former button factory, the 500-square-metre space is divided into three areas: a bakery, a diner and a basement bar.
    Atelieramo set out to create a series of distinct yet connected spaces that evoke the architecture and pop culture of 1970s Hong Kong – in particular its greasy spoon cafes, locally known as cha chaan tengs.
    Diners can sit in the eatery’s cosy wood-lined booths”We reinterpreted snippets of that vibrant Hong Kong urban atmosphere with its coloured pavings, pastel colours, neon lights and dense mix of patterns and motifs,” said the studio.

    “The aim was not to create a decor but rather, with a playful nod to these references, create a new atmosphere distinct to Bao’s new space.”
    A larger skylit dining area is located in the rear. Photo by Géraldine MartensThe adaptation of the existing abandoned building involved significant alterations to the floor plates and structure, along with the addition of a new staircase and circulation.
    From the street, customers enter a small bakery and cafe serving sweet and savoury snacks to eat in or take away. What appears as a simple neighbourhood cafe conceals the presence of the larger dining areas, which are set back in the building’s plan.
    A new staircase leads down to the basement bar. Photo by Bérénice BonnotThe kitchens are visible from the street and guests walk past colourful crates of raw produce before passing through a metal curtain to reach the main Bao Express diner.
    The long dining space features cosy booths with sinuous wooden frames. The pastel-green walls are contrasted with bespoke bright-red sconces and simple mosaic panels that echo the materials of the central bar.

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    Towards the rear of the building is a larger dining area topped with an expansive skylight. This bright and airy space is filled with plants that create the feeling of dining in a winter garden.
    Exposed masonry walls painted in celadon-green form the basis for a playful colour palette featuring contrasting peach and pink elements as seen in the glossy tabletops.
    A hammered-metal artwork by SupaKitch decorates the ceiling in the barThe studio’s eclectic use of colour and pattern extends to the geometric tiled floors and punchy black-and-white stripes that are painted on the walls of the staircase leading down to the basement bar Underpool.
    This bar area features a hammered-metal ceiling installation by French artist SupaKitch, with a rippled surface that reflects the blue-green interior and creates the impression of looking up at an upside-down swimming pool.
    The artwork creates the impression of looking up at a swimming poolBao Express is part of a family of eateries in Paris owned by restaurateurs Céline Chung and Billy Pham. Atelieramo was responsible for designing several of the duo’s restaurants, each of which has a unique character inspired by different aspects of Chinese culture.
    Another eatery informed by traditional cha chaan tengs is The Astor restaurant in Hong Kong’s Eaton hotel, designed by New York studio AvroKO, which mixes elements of the city’s diners and street food stalls with nods to the arthouse films of Wong Kar-Wai.
    The photography is by Carole Cheung unless otherwise stated.

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    Hello Sunshine features “unlikely juxtaposition” of Japanese psychedelia and cabins

    A “psychedelic inverted cabin” provided Canadian studio Frank Architecture with the design narrative for this Japanese casual bar and restaurant in Banff, Alberta.

    Located in the mountains of Alberta, Hello Sunshine offers barbecue, sushi and karaoke in a retro-influenced space by Frank Architecture.
    Fireplaces sit at the centre of special tables at Hello SunshineThe team imagined an alternate reality, in which Japanese graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo ventured into the mountains and holed up in a cabin for years, and based the interiors on what the result might have been.
    “Taking cues from the unlikely juxtaposition of Japanese psychedelia meets spaghetti western meets mountain cabin, Hello Sunshine is bold, playful, and distinct,” said Frank Architecture, which has an office in Banff.
    The wood-panelled restaurant features a rounded bar at the backThe eatery is located in the middle of the town, which is a popular destination for tourists and winter sports enthusiasts and is laid out to offer a sense of discovery.

    “The spatial planning is intended to feel organic and meandering,” the team said. “Upon entry, the restaurant isn’t immediately visible but is slowly revealed as one moves through space.”
    Japanese elements like paper lanterns and textile artworks and paired with plaid curtains and plenty of woodThe restaurant occupies a tall open space lined almost entirely in wood, with the rounded bar located at the back and a variety of table seating options scattered around.
    Diners can choose between communal benches, four-tops, booths, bar stools, or sit at one of two special tables.
    Booth seating is lined up against angled, shingle-covered wallsThis pair of large circular counters both feature a raised fire pit at their centre, below fluid-shaped flues clad in glossy, glazed ceramic tiles.
    Japanese design staples like paper lanterns and ceiling-hung textile artworks are combined with mountain tropes such as plaid curtains, exposed stone and plenty of wood.

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    Blue corduroy fabric is used to cover banquettes, while the booth seating is tucked into a niche formed by angled walls covered with timber shingles.
    In the karaoke rooms tucked away at the back, patterned carpet, lava lamps and disco balls add colour and sparkle to the wood-panelled spaces.
    Karaoke rooms are enlivened by disco balls and lava lampsThere’s also a concealed tiny bar based on those crammed into the alleyways of Golden Gai in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
    “The result is a bold and encapsulating space that surprises and delights guests with unexpected moments and distinctive style,” said the team.
    A tiny concealed bar is based on those found in Golden Gai, ShinjukuThis isn’t Frank Architecture’s only Japanese restaurant – the studio also created an intimate setting for the Lonely Mouth noodle bar in its other home city of Calgary.
    For another spot in the Western Canada metropolis, the team drew inspiration from author Truman Capote to set a 1960s vibe at Major Tom on the 40th floor of a downtown skyscraper.
    The photography is by Chris Amat.

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    Eight neutral home interiors that prove beige doesn't have to be boring

    A residence for retirees in Tel Aviv and a stripped-back Barbican apartment by minimalist architect John Pawson feature in this lookbook of beige interiors designed to bring a sense of calm into the home.

    To compensate for their desaturated colour palette, these spaces rely on a varied material palette – ranging from pale timbers and limestone to textured plaster – in order to add visual and tactile interest.
    Accompanied by plenty of storage, this helps to create peaceful, decluttered spaces even in tight urban areas.
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring cosy cabins, save-saving pocket doors and Spanish apartment renovations with eclectic tiles.
    Photo by Ståle EriksenDollis Hill Avenue, UK, by Thomas-McBrien

    British architecture firm Thomas-McBrien used pale bricks and whitewashed oak joinery to create a “calm and relaxing” atmosphere inside this house extension in London’s Dollis Hill.
    In the pursuit of continuity, the timber was used to line everything from the kitchen cupboards and the floors to a newly added partition wall, which conceals a hidden utility room on one side and forms a cosy reading nook on the other.
    Find out more about Dollis Hill Avenue ›
    Photo courtesy of Makhno StudioMureli House, Ukraine, by Makhno Studio
    Completed just two months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this home near Kyiv was designed to celebrate Ukrainian craft traditions and is finished almost entirely in beige.
    “All materials in the home are natural,” architect Serhii Makhno told Dezeen. “The team used almost all Ukrainian brands and worked with several local contractors to minimise the distance and logistics.”
    Find out more about Mureli House ›
    Photo by Mikaela BurstowIceberg apartment, Israel, by Laila Architecture
    Israeli architect Talia Davidi of Laila Architecture used only pale, muted colours when designing this apartment in Tel Aviv, with the aim of turning it into a calm refuge for its retired owners.
    To form a brighter, more open floor plan, almost all of the home’s partition walls were removed, while many of the surfaces – including the kitchen and the storage volume-cum-room divider in the living room – were finished in light birch plywood.
    Find out more about Iceberg apartment ›
    Barbican apartment designed by John PawsonBarbican apartment, UK, by John Pawson
    In keeping with his typically minimalist style, British designer John Pawson stripped this Barbican apartment back to its bare bones, adding only a smattering of furnishings and pale surfaces all around.
    Full-height cupboards were integrated into a central timber volume made of bleached maple wood so that all belongings can be stowed away rather than cluttering the space.
    Find out more about the Barbican apartment ›
    Photo by Jonas Bjerre-PoulsenForest Retreat, Sweden, by Norm Architects
    Sandy-hued Dolomite plaster, plump greige sofas and a sheepskin-covered lounge chair were used to dress the living room of this traditional timber cabin in a Swedish forest, which Danish studio Norm Architects has converted into a pared-back holiday home.
    “Creating homes is often an exercise in restraint,” explained co-founder Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen. “And while the creation of a simple, authentic and welcoming space might seem effortless and natural once completed, the journey to simplicity and the exercise of finding essence is often rather complex and not an easy task.”
    Find out more about Forest Retreat ›
    Photo by Lorenzo Zandri and Christian BraileyLow Energy House, UK, by Architecture for London
    Architecture for London founder Ben Ridley aimed to celebrate the “modest beauty” of this three-floor Edwardian house in Muswell Hill when turning the neglected building into his own home.
    Instead of cement-based products, natural materials including limestone, lime plaster and timber were used throughout the scheme to emphasise the home’s original details while also lowering its embodied carbon footprint.
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    Photo by Do SyBrown Box apartment, Vietnam, by Limdim House Studio
    Creamy terrazzo features not just on the kitchen counters but spills out across all of the floors of this apartment in the Vietnamese port city of Huế, designed by local practice Limdim House Studio.
    Curving walls covered in textural plaster provide a backdrop for the interior’s restrained colour palette, which is warmed up with a handful of wooden furnishings to evoke a sense of quiet sophistication.
    Find out more about Brown Box apartment ›
    Photo by Salem MostefaouiWood Ribbon apartment, France, by Toledano + Architects
    A sinuous plywood wall snakes its way through this Haussmann-era apartment in Paris, forming integrated shelves in the sitting room and storage cupboards in the kitchen that can be pushed back to reveal the sink and appliances.
    The pale wood complements the apartment’s original parquet flooring and ornate plasterwork, paired with tonal furnishings including an oatmeal-coloured sofa in one room and a travertine island in the other.
    Find out more about Wood Ribbon apartment ›
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring cosy cabins, save-saving pocket doors and Spanish apartment renovations with eclectic tiles.

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    Pink-tinged paint store Lick pays homage to London's art deco buildings

    Dusky pink surfaces appear throughout the Lick store in southwest London, which local practice Oskar Kohnen Studio has designed as a “deliberate celebration of paint”.

    Lick’s store is nestled among a parade of boutiques on Northcote Road and is the first brick-and-mortar outpost opened by the paint brand since its launch in 2020.
    Lick has opened its first physical store in LondonTo honour the occasion, Oskar Kohnen Studio wanted to design the 55-square-metre store as a “deliberate celebration of paint”, which he describes as “one of the most immediate and most intuitive ways to create a space”.
    “We live in a time where interiors are full of marble and precious finishes and I wanted to do the opposite,” said the studio’s titular founder.
    Pink paint was applied to the store’s ceiling and part of the wallsPink-tinged paint store Lick pays homage to London’s art deco buildings

    Lick’s facade, ceiling and a majority of its walls were therefore painted a bespoke dusky pink hue called Northcote 65 that the brand created specifically for the opening.
    Walnut wood trims run around the central tableKohnen says this largely monochromatic colour scheme is a nod to the Northcote Road of the past.
    “Looking at old pictures of the high street shops from the 1950s, every one of those stores used their own simple colour combination to give identity,” he explained. “It’s so beautiful how colour was used back then.”
    The store’s floor has white and grey tilingIn the store’s central room, the lower half of the walls was painted off-white to create a contrast with the ceiling and in turn draw more attention to the loftiness of the space.
    This room was designed to have a distinctly art deco feel with the help of a handful of clean, shapely details. At its centre is a white oval table with walnut wood trims and a curved metal pendant lamp suspended directly above.
    “Northcote Road pretty much ends at the iconic Battersea Power Station, which has exactly those deco elements,” said Kohnen. “I’ve always been a fan of London art deco, which is somehow less fancy and simple, quite often just painted simple ornaments.”

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    Lick’s paint tins are showcased on a custom shelving unit, with one side finished in pegboard panels for mounting brushes, rollers, finishing tape and other handy tools.
    “I wanted to create the feeling of a workshop or atelier,” added Kohnen. “I wanted to stay true to the Lick DNA, making sure the store was a place one could not only pick colours but also try them out and get creative.”
    In this spirit, the store’s grey-and-white tiled flooring mimics that seen in the Atelier Martel – an art studio that architect Robert Mallet-Stevens completed for sculptors Jan and Joël Martel in Paris in 1927.
    Products are mounted on pegboard panellingShould customers want a more in-depth consultation with one of the Lick team, they can head to the back of the store. This area is centred on a vintage steel-legged table by Danish designer Nanna Ditzel and black editions of the curved 3300 chair by Swiss designer Bruno Rey.
    Another small seating area located near the storefront features a duo of sage-green velvet armchairs.
    Vintage furnishings feature throughout the interiorAnother striking paint store to be featured on Dezeen is Helsinki’s Cover Story, in which a number of unfinished details are meant to evoke thoughts of renovation and home improvement.
    Previous colour-focused retail projects by Oskar Kohnen Studio include a mint-green eyewear store in Berlin with towering floor-to-ceiling cabinets.
    The photography is by Alexander Edwards.

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    Studio Vural reinterprets Japanese interiors for Warren Street Townhouse

    New York City architecture firm Studio Vural used Kyoto merchant houses as a reference point when renovating the interiors of this Brooklyn townhouse for a couple.

    A trip to the Japanese city in 2009 left such an impact on the clients that Studio Vural decided to adapt and update elements of the traditional minimalist architecture for the interiors of the Warren Street Townhouse.
    The townhouse renovation involved adding plenty of storage using European oak”Our design is the embodiment of an early memory our clients experienced as a young couple in Kyoto, an experience so powerful and authentic, that it found its way to a new reality in Brooklyn through our imagination,” said studio founder Selim Vural.
    The four-storey building was overhauled to create a rental apartment at the garden level, leaving the upper three floors for the clients to live in.
    A dining nook was created at the back of the parlour level, behind the staircaseWith a total of 3,200 square feet (300 square metres), the project involved reorganising rooms while bringing in contemporary renditions of traditional Japanese home features, such as a sunken hearth, folding and sliding screens, and undulating soffits.

    “[We] studied Kyoto houses’ serene interior emptiness, flow of asymmetrical spaces, rhythm of tatami mats and the placement of courtyards to make that interpretation possible,” Vural said.
    The nook is based on a recessed space in Japanese reception rooms known as a tokonomaAt parlour level, where the main entrance is located, the plan was opened up so the living and kitchen spaces flow together.
    Exposed brick walls were painted white, creating a blank canvas onto which a variety of light-toned European oak elements were placed.
    Traditional Japanese home features like a sunken hearth, folding and sliding screens, and undulating soffits were interpreted with a contemporary twistThe custom wooden furniture includes a window seat and a sofa. Both feature built-in storage, as well as a range of cabinets and shelves that run along one wall and incorporate a bar.
    Oak boards wer also laid across the floor to create homogeneity throughout the open-plan space.
    The staircase is enclosed by wooden slats and incorporates limestone platforms for displaying objectsAt the back of this level, the kitchen area is framed by a concrete-topped breakfast bar and includes a dining nook – based on a recessed space in Japanese reception rooms known as a tokonoma – tucked in behind the staircase.
    The stairs are enclosed by slatted oak screens, and the first seven treads are widened thanks to beige limestone slabs that act as platforms for displaying objects.
    The simple white and oak palette is continued in the bedroomsThree bedrooms and two bathrooms can be found on the storey above, while a further two bedrooms and a bathroom are located on the top floor.
    All of these rooms continue the same simple white and oak palette, and character is added by exposing the original wood ceiling beams.

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    The upper level also includes a lounge area, where the historic vertical columns are also made a feature.
    Skylights were added to bring more natural light into the centre of the long, narrow space, which reaches the windowless hallway below through a glass panel in the floor.
    A glass partition between the primary bedroom and bathroom helps the spaces to feel larger”Our work at the Warren House Townhouse powerfully demonstrates architecture’s capacity to cast distant memories into contemporary forms, revitalise historic typologies,” said Vural. “It is a prime example of a historic building’s rebirth for a new family in the history of Brooklyn.”
    Much of Brooklyn’s townhouse stock has been bought up and renovated over the past few years, after homeowners jumped at the opportunity for extra space compared to nearby Manhattan.
    Sklylights bring natural light into a lounge on the upper level and down through a glass panel in the floor to a windowless hallwayRecently completed examples include a passive house that features a dramatic cedar screen and a project that took its architect owners 17 years to complete.
    Studio Vural, which is based in the borough, has previously released images of a speculative off-grid house in the dunes of Cape Cod and a vision for a mixed-use Manhattan skyscraper covered with Asian lilies.
    The photography is by Kate Glicksberg.
    Project credits:
    Principal architect: Selim VuralProject architect: Rima AskinDesign team member: Angela TsaveskaEngineering: Ilya VeldshteynConstruction: David Nahm

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