Markus Andrews

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    Unknown Architects overhauls Amsterdam apartment with red steel columns

    Dutch studio Unknown Architects used four oxide-red steel columns to open up the previously constricted interior of this apartment in Amsterdam.House With Four Columns is a two-floor apartment situated in Amsterdam’s De Baarsjes neighbourhood.

    The apartment previously had old-fashioned interiors and, despite measuring 200-square-metres, a poor sense of space as the ground floor was dominated by a central load-bearing wall.

    Unknown Architects was brought on board to refine the home’s floor plan and give it a more modern fit-out.

    The practice first set about removing the obtrusive load-bearing wall. In its place simply stands a series of four exposed steel columns, turning the ground floor into a singular open-plan living space.
    When the columns first arrived on-site they had been finished with an oxide-red primer, but due to Dutch safety regulations, a black fire-resistant coating had to be applied.

    Instead of leaving them like this, the practice decided to add a top coat of paint that matched the columns’ original shade.
    “As a result, the steel structure becomes the most distinctive element of the interior, which makes sense to us because it is the most dramatic element in the transformation,” the studio told Dezeen.

    With the load-bearing wall gone, the ground floor is instead anchored by three elements – the first is a boxy white volume that accommodates a fridge, wardrobe, toilet and extra storage space.
    The second element is the nut-wood breakfast island in the kitchen, which is topped with grey marble. The third is the gently twisting staircase that leads down to the basement level.

    Surrounding walls on the ground floor are painted white, and the floor is smooth concrete. The columns are complemented by an oxblood-coloured leather sofa, which backs onto a tall wooden bookshelf.

    Thomas Geerlings converts canal-side Amsterdam warehouse into contemporary home

    There is also a couple of contemporary artworks and a striking pendant lamp composed of an interlocking circle and square-shaped lights.

    The basement also has a central load-bearing wall. It’s punctuated by two openings, however, the practice was unable to add more because of the high groundwater level and subsequent risk of leakage.
    Wide doorways have been introduced in House With Four Columns’ bedrooms to improve sightlines throughout the rest of this level and foster a sense of spaciousness.

    Unknown Architects was established in 2012 by Daan Vulkers and Keimpke Zigterman. The practice has previously overhauled a corner-plot property to revive its original decor features and updated a 200-year-old home to feature a twisting staircase.
    Photography is by MWA Hart Nibbrig.
    Project credits:
    Architect: Unknown ArchitectsEngineer: De IngenieursgroepContractor: To BuildCarpenter: Houtwerk Delft

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    Aurora Arquitectos transforms ruined Lisbon building into fun family home

    A fireman’s pole lets children slide down between floors in this house that Aurora Arquitectos has created in Lisbon, Portugal.The building that the house occupies is nestled along Bartolomeu Dias street, west of central Lisbon.

    Although the structure had fallen into a state of almost complete ruin, it was purchased by a couple who wanted to establish a home where they could live for the foreseeable future and raise their three young children.

    Aurora Arquitectos was tasked with carrying out the residential conversion.

    “This is an upstream project in a time when the city has been gradually emptied from its inhabitants under the pressure of tourism and real estate speculation,” said the practice.
    “This is a project of resistance since it grows from the desire of a family wanting to remain in its own neighbourhood.”

    The original building was two storeys and measured just 60 square metres.
    As Aurora Arquitectos had to reconstruct nearly the entire building, it decided to extend the structure to create three more storeys and an extra 169 square metres of space.
    The new portion of the building has been painted bright white.

    “The family lived for some years in the Netherlands in a typical townhouse, known as a typology that has a vertical distribution of the program, so we can also say that influenced the design process,” the practice explained to Dezeen.

    Aurora Arquitectos opens up 1970s apartment in Lisbon with angular skylights and folding walls

    Inside, the traditional arrangement of rooms has been reversed. The sleeping quarters are on the bottom two floors, while the communal living spaces have been spread across the upper three floors to benefit from views of the nearby Tejo river.

    This excludes the playroom that has been situated at the rear of the ground floor, complete with curving in-built shelves where the kids can display their toys.
    The room can be reached via a fireman’s pole that extends from the kid’s bedroom directly above.

    “The family has three children and they like to spend all their time together, so the option was to concentrate their sleeping area,” added practice.
    “But once they grow up and need separate bedrooms one can transform the playroom into a bedroom, and the pole area into a bathroom.”

    As the playroom faces onto a narrow lane often frequented by pedestrians, the rear elevation of the home has been fitted with oversized privacy shutters that can be slid across the windows.
    On the home’s front elevation, the practice has simply restored the existing patterned tiles and freshened up the “Lisbon-green” paint that features on the doors.

    Rooms across all levels of the home have timber flooring and white walls, cabinetry and light fixtures. Perforated white metal forms the treads of some of the staircases.
    A splash of colour is provided by a recessed window in the kitchen that the practice refers to as “the green eye” as it is lined with jade-coloured Verde Viana marble.

    On the fifth floor is an outdoor terrace inset in the house’s pitched roof.
    The terrace is backed by a glass wall that looks down to the home’s living room on the fourth floor. Here there is a large window seat where the inhabitants can sit and relax with a book.

    Aurora Arquitectos was established in 2010 by Sofia Couto and Sérgio Antunes.
    The practice has completed a number of other projects around the Portuguese city of Lisbon – others include a brightly-hued hostel that occupies an old family home, and a renovated 1970s apartment that features angular skylights and folding walls.
    Photography is by Do Mal O Menos.
    Project credits:
    Architecture: Aurora ArquitectosArchitecture team: Sérgio Antunes, Sofia Reis Couto, Carolina Rocha, Bruno Pereira, Tânia Sousa, Rui Baltazar, Dora JerbicBuilding supervision: GesconsultEngineering: Zilva, Global, LDAConstruction: Mestre Avelino

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    Farnsworth House installation replicates Edith Farnsworth's original decor

    Farnsworth House, the glass house designed by Mies van der Rohe in Illinois, has been redecorated for an installation to feature furnishings and personal belongings of its original client Edith Farnsworth.Edith Farnsworth’s Country House is the centrepiece of an exhibition series called Edith Farnsworth Reconsidered that explores the house’s namesake.
    The installation marks the first time in over 50 years the all-glass residence raised above ground by pilotis is furnished with Farnsworth’s original decor.

    “The Farnsworth House is known around the world as Mies’s ‘gesamtkunstwerk’ (total work of art), but that’s a false history and one that largely ignores the home’s namesake, Dr Edith Farnsworth,” said Farnsworth House executive director Scott Mehaffey.

    For the installation the Farnsworth House and the National Trust for Historic Preservation referenced old photographs of the space taken by Hedrich-Blessing, André Kertész and Werner Blaser. These date back to when Farnsworth occupied it to replicate the design of the space as it would have appeared in 1955.
    Farnsworth, a celebrated research physician, commissioned Van der Rohe to design the country house completed along the Fox River, in Plano, Illinois in 1951.

    While Farnsworth lived there in the 1950s to 60s the house was decorated with her preferred taste of Scandinavian and Italian furniture from designers such as Florence Knoll, Jens Risom, Bruno Mathsson and Franco Albini and with Asian antiques.

    In 1970 the residence was sold to British real estate mogul Baron Peter Palumbo, who outfitted the house with pieces by Van der Rohe and his grandson, Dirk Lohan. These are the furnishings typically on display in the space.
    “For Edith Farnsworth, it was a weekend house – for Peter Palumbo, it was an architectural monument: two fundamentally different viewpoints,” Mehaffey said.

    Geometry of Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House illuminated with red lasers

    “So through this installation, we experience the Farnsworth House as the client actually occupied the space – and I think this gives us a much better sense of who she was as a person, and what the house meant to her.”
    In the main living area, which opens out to the two lifted terraces, there is a wood dining table with white metal legs, a black and white rug with a geometric pattern and two curvy lounge chairs with woven straps.

    The centre of the house is occupied by a large rectangular structure used to divide the space and house its mechanics and two bathrooms. One length of the volume is fronted with the kitchen, while the opposite side is furnished with a daybed and chairs that face a small fireplace.

    The bedroom is located at one end of the wood volume and is partitioned by an office tucked into the corner of the house.
    A glass desk with crossed legs overlooks the green landscape in the workspace. On top of the work surface there is a replica of Farnsworth’s typewriter, a framed family photograph and books and on the ground next to the table is her medical briefcase.

    Most of the furnishings on display are commercially-sold reproductions of Farnsworth’s original pieces, while the wardrobe, daybed and Asian slipper chairs are custom-built replicas.
    In addition to the furniture pieces the installation also showcases personal belongings Farnsworth is known to have owned, including potted plants, dish ware, linens, a violin, and a typewriter.

    “We’ve personalised the installation with replicas of her violin, her typewriter, her books, family photos, monogrammed towels and other personal effects – to help conjure her presence,” Mehaffey said.
    Edith Farnsworth Reconsidered and its components will continue through December 2021 with a VR tour and a number of other programmes in the on-site galleries, including an exhibition that focuses on Farnsworth’s life, career and hobbies.

    “Related programmes and events will also celebrate Edith Farnsworth’s life and times,” Mehaffey added. “All of this places the Farnsworth House in a broader, richer context than ever before – it’s no longer ‘All about Mies.'”
    The Farnsworth House opened to the public in 2004 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

    To highlight the house’s unusual geometries and history Iker Gil and Luftwerk projected red lasers across the building and surrounding property. In 2014 there was a proposal to lift the structure with hydraulic jacks to avoid the region’s flooding, however, the system was never implemented.
    Photography is by William Zbaren.

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    Architect couple turns Edinburgh apartment into modern living space

    Married architects Luke and Joanne McClelland have overhauled their own apartment in Edinburgh, Scotland, to feature a sequence of contemporary light-filled living spaces.The lateral apartment spreads across the drawing-room levels of two adjoining Georgian townhouses in Edinburgh’s Comely Bank neighbourhood.
    Joanne and Luke McClelland – who runs his own architecture studio called MCLND – purchased it back in 2018, having spent the past eight years living in a cramped flat in London.

    Despite the grander scale of the Edinburgh apartment, it still had some significant problem areas.

    The north-facing living area had hardly any access to natural light, the bathroom had a dated, 70s-style turquoise interior and the kitchen was small and felt isolated from the other rooms.

    To create a bright and modern home, the McClelland’s decided they had to completely reconfigure the floor plan.
    The former kitchen has been opened up and now includes a dining area, complete with white-painted walls and oak herringbone floors.

    Along the rear wall runs a series of matt-black and wooden cabinets which were all sourced from IKEA – although the architects both have previously designed homes for wealthy clients, they didn’t feel the need to use expensive brands to achieve a high standard of design.
    “Having specified kitchens at over 10 times our available budget, we tried to use affordable products to recreate the specific qualities that previous clients associated with luxury, simplicity, symmetry and integration,” said the pair.

    Old Edinburgh workshop transformed into minimal holiday retreat by Izat Arundell

    To complement the cabinetry, black taps, pendant lamps and door handles have also been incorporated in the space. Black-frame chairs with woven seats have also been placed around the dining table.

    Doorways have been widened to let sunlight from the south side of the apartment penetrate the new living area, which has been created in a former bedroom.
    It’s dressed with a slate-grey sectional sofa, a couple of armchairs upholstered in forest-green velvet armchairs and a graphic monochrome rug.

    Jet-black paint has also been applied to the surround of the room’s fireplace, which used to be bright orange.
    “Whilst it didn’t fit with the Georgian property, there was a charm in the curved bricks and sheer brutality of the design,” the architects explained.

    The architects split the old living area to form two separate bedrooms, both of which feature original pine flooring and ornate cornices.
    A cupboard in the apartment and the disused pantry have together been transformed into a shower room. Stark white tiles have been applied in a grid-like fashion across its walls, while the floor has a striking triangle print.

    In the main bathroom, surfaces have been updated with glazed green tiles which clad the lower half of the walls and the front of the tub.
    The sink basin perches on top of a restored 1960s wooden sideboard by Danish designer Ib Kofod Larsen.

    Luke McClelland launched his own studio this year after leaving his position at Studio 304. He and his wife, Joanne McClelland, met whilst both studying architecture at the Edinburgh College of Art.
    Their apartment joins a number of design-focused properties in the Scottish capital.
    Others include Flitch House by Oliver Chapman Architects, which references the Arts and Crafts movement, and another home by studio Archer + Braun, which has a red-sandstone extension.
    Photography is by Zac and Zac.
    Project credits:
    Architects: Luke and Joanne McClellandStructural engineer: McColls

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    Canadian surf town informs design for taco restaurant by September

    Natural colours and beach textures from a Canadian surf town informed the design of this Vancouver restaurant by local studio September.Kit’s Burrito Bar is located on West 4th Street in the city’s Kitsilano neighbourhood. It is the latest outpost of Tacofino, a Mexican restaurant that serves tacos and burritos in a Californian style.

    September took cues from the “natural features” of Tofino, a small beachside town on the coast of Vancouver Island to outfit the 2,000 square foot (185.8-square-metre) space.

    “The client had requested a fresh space that made reference to Tofino, the Canadian Surf town where the clients live and started the business,” the studio said.

    “To do this we focused on using the minimal amount of materials necessary to make reference to the natural features the area is known for.”

    Exposed electrical wiring is strung across the white ceilings and walls in patterns intended to mimic the shape of ocean waves. Streaks of green paint curve up the walls in similar shapes.
    A banquette constructed with pale green cedar slats wraps around the water tap to form a wall of seating. The sculptural paneling also hangs above the all-black service counter fronted with black rocks and is used at the check-in desk at the entrance.

    To accent the plain walls and the black furnishings the earthy colour is also used on the countertop, bathroom door and bathroom wall.

    Green and yellow Eames chairs fill Tacofino Ocho restaurant in Vancouver

    Each of the rectangular dining tables is topped with black and white beach stone terrazzo slabs designed in collaboration with a local artist. Black chairs with slender wire backs from Afteroom Studio are arranged around the tables.

    Asymmetrical menu boards with black text display the eatery’s offerings. In the bathroom, an irregular, oval-shaped mirror by local designer Kate Richard attaches to the vibrant green wall.
    “References to water and natural forms appear in the wall menu, ovoid mirrors, custom beach stone tabletops, and artwork,” the studio added.

    To brighten the dark restaurant, which is situated partially below grade, a series of bulbs attached to the round sockets fasten to the curving electrical conduit that meanders throughout the space.
    September is a residential and hospitality design firm led by Brendan Callander and Shiloh Sukkau.

    Before establishing the studio in 2019 Sukkau worked on the design for other Tacofino locations, including Tacofino Ocho furnished with Eames dining chairs and bar stools and Oasis, modelled after mid-century Mexican resort towns.
    Photography is by Vishal Marapon.

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    Tsubo House in Hackney features tiny Japanese-style courtyard

    Architecture practice Fraher & Findlay has renovated and extended a home in east London, adding a small courtyard that offers glimpses of old and new parts of the property.Tsubo House was originally built in Hackney during the Victorian era and over the years had come to look shabby and unloved.
    The house’s current owners – the founders of Studio XAG – brought architecture practice Fraher & Findlay on board to carry out a complete overhaul.

    As part of the works, the Brockley-based practice constructed a spacious back-garden extension.

    It was key for this new living space to feel closely connected to existing rooms in the home and not too distanced from the basement level, which is often utilised by visiting friends and family.

    Fraher & Findlay decided to insert a small courtyard at ground level that would visually link together the new and existing parts of the home.

    Fraher & Findlay adds wildflower-topped extension to London house

    It draws upon tsubo-niwas – tiny interior courtyards that are incorporated into Japanese buildings to provide natural views and bring in additional sunlight.
    The courtyards are traditionally the same size as a tsubo, a Japanese measuring unit of 3.3 square metres that’s roughly equivalent to the area of two tatami mats.

    “We wanted an external environment to act as a pivot point between the spaces, whilst acting as an environmental tool to bring in lots of natural light and to aid natural ventilation,” said the practice.
    “It feels like a quiet force, providing life energy to the house.  it is visible from all the rooms in the house with the exception of two bedrooms and one bathroom.”

    The pebbled courtyard is centred by a tree and has an array of potted plants running around its periphery. Leafy climbing plants also wind up its rear wall.
    One window of the courtyard looks through to the older front section of Tsubo House, while the another has views of the new rear extension that accommodates a kitchen and dining area.

    Designed to feel “textured, calm and lived in”, the kitchen has been finished with pink raw-plaster walls and timber joinery. Some of the brass light fixtures were also sourced second-hand from eBay, complementing the curved brass handles on the cupboards.
    The extension has a slatted black-timber facade and a green roof, which the studio introduced so that, when viewed from the baby’s nursery upstairs, this part of the home would look as if it’s wearing a “hairy hat”.
    Flooring of the extension was also made lower than the rest of the home, as a mid-way between the ground and basement levels.

    Plaster surfaces continue through into the home’s living room, which the practice has updated to match the owners’ creative personalities. It’s dressed with velvet furnishings, shaggy rugs and a bubblegum-pink edition of Faye Toogood’s Roly-Poly chair.
    Decades-old paintwork has also been stripped back from the ornate cornices, ceiling roses and skirting boards.

    More quirky features appear upstairs – the nursery, for example, has a midnight blue ceiling speckled with stars, and all of the bathrooms feature graphic monochromatic tiled floors. One even includes its own fireplace and a freestanding jet-black tub.
    The project also saw Fraher & Findlay create a loft extension for Tsubo House that accommodates an additional bedroom and wash facilities.

    Fraher & Finlay was established in 2009. The practice has previously created a wildflower-topped extension and renovated a home to feature traces of its original architecture.
    Photography is by Adam Scott.
    Project credits:
    Architect: Fraher & FindlayInterior design: Studio XAGEngineer: PD DesignContractor: Steflay DevelopmentsGarden and planting design: Miria Harris

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    Say No Mo is a gender-neutral beauty salon and cocktail bar in Kyiv

    Concrete surfaces and gold accents define Say No Mo, a salon-cum-cocktail bar in Kyiv that Balbek Bureau has designed to avoid gender stereotypes. Say No Mo salon takes over two floors of an early 20th-century building and includes its own bar where visitors can grab a drink before or after beauty treatments. When locally based
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    Ruxton Rise Residence in Melbourne is arranged around a planted courtyard

    A courtyard dotted with olive trees sits at the heart of this grey-brick home in Melbourne that Studio Four has created for its own co-director.Ruxton Rise Residence has been built for Studio Four’s co-director, Sarah Henry, and sits on a greenfield site in Beaumaris – an affluent suburb of Melbourne that’s host to a number of mid-century properties.
    While keeping in mind the mid-century typology, Henry was keen to create a tranquil home where she could spend quality time with her two daughters.

    “Designing for my own family was an opportunity to pare back a home to the bare essentials, and explore what is required for a young family to live minimally and mindfully,” Henry told Dezeen.

    “The house exemplifies the absence of what is not necessary, in both building form and detail,” she continued.
    “If I could summarise the objective for our new house in one sentence, it would be to create a little bit of something precious rather than a lot of something mediocre.”

    All the communal spaces of Ruxton Rise Residence face onto a central open-air courtyard planted with olive trees.
    It’s designed to act as an additional room in the house where inhabitants can gather together to enjoy the sun, or relax alone with a book.

    “Physically the house envelopes the central garden,” explained the studio’s other co-director, Annabelle Berryman.
    “It connects all internal living spaces and the design enables everyone to enjoy the house together, while providing subtle layers of separation and privacy,” she continued.
    “The landscape, and its movement and shadows, provide a calming effect that permeates the whole house.”

    The courtyard is bordered by a series of expansive glazed panels. These can be slid back to access the home’s interior, where the studio has forgone “trends and illusions” and instead applied a palette of simple and natural materials.
    “Our challenge was to design an interior that reflects the integrity of the built fabric and possesses a high level of humility,” said Henry.
    “All materials and building techniques were selected for their honesty, as well as their ability to patina over time, as it is important a house gets more beautiful as it ages.”

    A chunky grey-brick column loosely divides the living area – on one side lies a formal sitting room dressed with a woven rug and a couple of sloping wooden armchairs.
    On the other side is a cosier snug that has a plump navy sofa and a coffee table carved from a solid block of Oregon wood.

    The warmth and tactility of this table encouraged the studio to introduce a wooden dining set in the kitchen – the chairs are by Danish designer Hans J Wegner. Surrounding walls are clad in concrete-bricks, while the cabinetry is pale grey.

    All-white house by Studio Four blends indoor and outdoor spaces

    This austere palette continues through into the sleeping quarters, which are also painted grey. The same concrete bricks have also been used to form the headboard in the master bedroom.

    In the bathrooms, surfaces have been covered with tadelakt – a type of lime-based waterproof plaster often used in Moroccan architecture to make sinks and baths.
    Even the facade of the home, which is slightly set back from the street, has been washed with grey plaster.

    Ruxton Rise Residence is one of several homes that Studio Four has completed in Melbourne.
    Others include Central Park Road Residence, which has cosy interiors inspired by the Danish concept of hygge, and Bourne Road Residence, which has a stark all-white facade.
    Photography is by Shannon Mcgrath.

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