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    • 125 Shares149 Views

      Old Spanish workshop converted into tactile family home by Nomos

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      Tactile bricks and pinewood partitions decorate the La Nave apartment, which Nomos has slotted into the concrete shell of a disused workshop in Madrid, Spain.La Nave was developed by Nomos as a family home for two of its partners, Ophélie Herranz and Paul Galindo, who head up its Spanish office.
      The project has since been shortlisted for apartment interior of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020.

      Wood and brick partitions divide the old workshop’s concrete shell
      La Nave was originally used as a large, open-plan printshop arranged around a structural concrete grid measuring 34 metres in length and 10 metres in depth.

      Nomos’ intervention retains this structure but converts its open layout into a continuous loop of living areas, arranged around enclosed private rooms.

      The new partitions are positioned at angles to the outer walls
      “La Nave is the transformation of an industrial space into a place for life, which takes place as a continuous sequence, with very little difference between work and family leisure,” said the studio, which also has offices in Geneva and Lisbon.
      “La Nave’s plan escapes any typological definition. It results from the search for new spatialities required by existing constraints.”

      Bricks and wood were used to warm the existing concrete structure
      Nomos’ initial plan for the apartment was to position the enclosed spaces and wet areas on the rear wall – opposite to the only facade with windows.
      However, La Nave’s existing plumbing is attached to the central concrete columns, meaning the wet areas had to be placed centrally too.

      The bedrooms and bathrooms are enclosed by the new partitions
      To achieve this while ensuring natural light could enter the depths of the apartment, Nomos positioned the wet areas and enclosed rooms in line with the central columns, but at a 45-degree angle to the outer walls.
      They are divided into two parts and set back from windows, making space either side and in between to ensuring light from the windows can pass through.

      Glazed bricks line the wet areas and bathrooms
      “The typological strategy started from the search for the optimal location of the service spaces,” Herranz told Dezeen.
      “The wet cores had to reach the downspouts, attached to the central pillars, but we wanted to move them towards the back of the space, to offer more light to the living spaces. We rotated them 45 degrees and explored the potential of the diagonal.”

      Original beams and brickwork add warmth to pared-back Madrid apartment

      The layout creates a continuous loop of shared living spaces around the perimeter of the apartment, which are used for work, play and dining.
      “We never thought of creating a large, open, loft-like space, but rather a sequence of well-defined spaces, which would give rise to multiple situations,” Herranz added.

      Bedrooms are positioned through the centre of the apartment
      By setting the private living spaces away from the windows, Nomos also made space for a “winter garden” along the window wall.
      This area doubles as a thermal buffer – a space that separates living areas from the outside to reduce dependence on artificial heating and cooling.

      The “winter garden” doubles as a thermal buffer
      The predominant material throughout the renovation is glazed brick, finished in white and cobalt blue, teamed with a pinewood framework and MDF panels.
      The materials were chosen by Nomos to complement the existing concrete structure while providing the space with a warmer and more homely atmosphere.

      Patterns are made with glazed and unglazed bricks
      “The qualities of traditional materials provide comfort and reinforce the idea of home, of domesticity, in contrast to the surrounding industrial space,” said Herranz.
      “The glazed bricks provide a note of brightness and colour typical of a more ornamental language.”

      A loop of living spaces wraps the central rooms
      The bricks were used to build most of the partitions, with their glazed sides lining bathrooms and kitchen and the unglazed faces exposed in the living rooms.
      Their glazed and unglazed sides are also alternated in places to create patterns.

      A kitchen aligns with old workshop’s existing plumbing
      The majority of furniture in the space is bespoke, designed by Nomos from pine wood specifically for La Nave.
      This includes a low-lying, circular table and coffee table made from pine, and terrazzo detailing made with old flooring that was removed from the workshop.
      Other projects that are shortlisted for apartment interior of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020 a sea-facing residence in Jaffa by Pitsou Kedem and a two-storey dwelling by Coffey Architects that is covered in thousands of wooden blocks.
      Photography is by Luis Asin.

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    • 125 Shares189 Views

      Minimal Fantasy holiday apartment in Madrid is almost completely pink

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      Patricia Bustos Studio channelled “aesthetic madness” to create the striking bright-pink interior of this rentable apartment at the heart of Madrid, Spain.Locally-based Patricia Bustos Studio applied 12 different shades of pink throughout the Minimal Fantasy apartment, which is meant to offer a bolder take on the typical holiday rental.
      “We wanted to do something eye-catching and not go unnoticed, since in Madrid the offer of vacation rentals is enormous and you have to differentiate yourself if you want to have a recurrence in the rentals,” the studio told Dezeen.

      Surfaces throughout the apartment are bright pink
      The 55-square-metre apartment is set inside a 1950s residential building that’s a stone’s throw away from Madrid’s lively Puerta del Sol square.

      It formerly played host to just one bedroom and one bathroom, but Patricia Bustos Studio reconfigured the floor plan so that it can comfortably accommodate slightly larger groups of holiday goers.

      An arched doorway looks through to the kitchen
      There are now two bedrooms and an additional bathroom. The kitchen has also been separated from the living area so that, if necessary, it can sleep another two guests.
      With structural changes out the way, the studio set about creating the apartment’s stand-out interior – which is almost exclusively pink.

      Cabinetry in the kitchen is a mix of blue, pink and gold
      “Except for the distribution, which had to be practical, the rest of the project has been an aesthetic madness to take the visitor out of their comfort zone and make them dream,” explained the studio.
      “Pink is already the colour of a whole generation… the generation of the brave, those who are not afraid of change,” it continued.
      “Pink vindicates the fall of stereotypes – everything is possible, nothing is planned or established and that’s the beauty of it. There are no rules, or rather that everyone has their own.”

      Pink cushions and faux-fur throws dress the beds
      In the living area, bubblegum-pink paint has been applied across the walls and ceiling. A flecked pink laminate covers the floor and a chunky L-shaped plinth that winds around the corner of the room, topped with plush pink sofa cushions.
      Guests can gather for meals around the oval-shaped pink dining table, which is surrounded by dining chairs upholstered in metallic pink fabric with an iridescent finish.

      One of the beds is supported by a pink-tile platform
      The monochromatic colour scheme is interrupted in the adjacent kitchen, where the cabinets are covered in a mixture of blue, pink and gold geometric shapes.
      Worktops are lined with glazed, blush-pink tiles.

      Child Studio looks to worker’s cafes for pink interiors of London’s Humble Pizza

      These same tiles have been used to clad the side tables and supporting mattress base in one of the apartment’s bedrooms.
      In the other bedroom, the mattress is pushed up against a scalloped pink headboard. Textural interest is added throughout by baby-pink lamé soft cushions and faux-fur throws.
      Arched sliding doors can be drawn back to reveal pink-tile bathrooms, complete with pink-frame vanity mirrors and shiny pink shower curtains.

      Bathrooms lie behind arched sliding screens
      Other than a few spherical pendant lights, trailing ivy plants and neon art piece, Patricia Bustos Studio hasn’t incorporated a lot of decoration in the apartment.
      Some elements, like the stepped blocks which display books and other trinkets, are meant to riff off La Muralla Roja – a housing development designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill in 1968, distinguished by its maze of interlocking stairways.
      “[Bofill] creates a mysterious and infinite space with the perfect transformation between 2D and 3D, and with several elements that play with the optical illusion,” added the studio.

      Shiny pink curtains and pink-frame mirrors complete the bathrooms
      Several other architects and designers haven’t shied away from making extensive use of the colour pink – last year, Child Studio covered the interior of a vegan pizza restaurant in London with candy-pink Formica.
      Mar Plus Ask also washed the walls of a cave-like guesthouse in Spain with blush-pink stucco.
      Photography is by JC de Marcos.

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    • 125 Shares119 Views

      Apartment on the Belgian coast balances natural and industrial materials

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      A steel staircase offsets seaweed-coloured joinery and marble surfaces inside this Belgian apartment designed by local architects Carmine Van Der Linden and Thomas Geldof.Van Der Linden and Geldof thought using natural materials and colours would reflect the calming coastal location of the two-floor apartment, which is encircled by sand dunes and grassy banks.

      The kitchen in the apartment features seaweed-coloured cabinetry
      In the apartment’s kitchen, the splashback, shelving and panelled birch-wood cabinets have been stained a murky shade of green.

      “The colour choice of the wood subtly brings in the seaweed colour from the adjacent sea and the marram grasses in the surrounding dunes,” said the architects.

      The same green stain has been applied across the apartment’s wood-panelled walls
      This green hue continues across a handful of wood-lined walls in the apartment and into the guest toilet, which is fitted with a Gris Violet marble basin.
      Alga Marina marble has then been used to craft the kitchen countertops and the surface of a central prep table. It’s supported underneath by interlocking silver-metal poles.

      The guest toilet includes a marble sink
      The architects blanketed the remaining surfaces throughout the apartment in white paint that leaves a clay-like textural finish, in hopes of fostering an “unconscious sense of silence and serenity”.
      Dark-grey terrazzo also runs across the floor.

      Atelier Dialect places mirrored tub in minty green bathroom of Apartment A

      One wall of the living room features a sequence of shelves extending up across both floors of the apartment, offering a spot for the owner to display books or cherished ornaments.

      A galvanised-steel staircase connects the apartment’s two floors
      The shelves also serve as a backdrop to an open-tread spiral staircase that’s made from galvanised steel. This material was specifically chosen by Van Der Linden and Geldof as they felt it has an almost pearlescent quality.
      “With its extremely logical and pragmatic construction method, this object stands as a ‘pièce unique’ in the open living space,” they explained.

      Pale white joinery dominates the master bedroom
      Panelled joinery, similar to the kitchen, appears again in the master bedroom upstairs, but this time in a whitish colour.
      At this level of the apartment, there is also an almost-black sauna room that’s fronted by a panel of glazing, providing views out across the beachy landscape.

      The apartment also includes a sauna that has views of the outdoors
      This is the first collaborative interiors project from Van Der Linden and Geldof, who are based respectively Ghent and Antwerp.
      Other striking Belgian homes include Apartment A by Atelier Dialect, which boasts a mint-green bathroom, and the Spinmolenplein penthouse by architect Jürgen Vandewalle, which is simply arranged around three blocks of furniture.
      Photography is by Piet-Albert Goethals.

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    • 138 Shares119 Views

      Plaster walls of Jaffa Roofhouse imbue apartment with history and warmth

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      Gitai Architects has renovated an apartment in Jaffa, Israel with curved walls, plasterwork and pale floors to resemble the ancient port city’s limestone buildings.The studio overhauled the 270-square-metre apartment for a couple. It includes a combination of curved and linear elements to fuse traditional craftsmanship with more contemporary details.

      Called Jaffa Roofhouse, the project is a rooftop apartment that is in the shape of a cross with outdoor patios framing three sides of the unit. The unit has expansive views of the Mediterranea Sea, as well as Jaffa’s iconic Al Bahr Mosque minaret.

      “The Jaffa Roofhouse is situated at the ancient port of the city of Jaffa, reputed to be one of the oldest ports in the world, out of which modern-day Tel Aviv has grown,” said Ben Gitai, who founded the studio in 2014.
      “This Roofhouse is designed to feel suspended in the air of Jaffa-Tel Aviv and grounded by its materiality.”

      Gitai Architects sought to renovate the apartment with curved walls to soften its existing boxy shell. Covered in plaster, the walls change in hue from golden to lavender shades as the sun rises and sets across the city.
      The curved walls feature in the living room. One conceals a galley-style kitchen with dark cabinets, the second accommodates a built-in dining nook and the third houses a bedroom.

      These curved structures, which are made of compressed soil and straw and covered with lime plaster from Israeli company ArcoLime, were constructed at an offset from the concrete existing shell.

      Spiral stair twists up to rooftop of penthouse at Pawson’s The Jaffa hotel

      A gap between the apartment’s original concrete walls and the natural covering applied over them allows for air to flow inside and promote a natural circulation to help regulate humidity and temperature.

      “Materiality was of premier importance in the spatial atmosphere and expression of this project, with most of its elements being earth-made from soil sourced from the local area,” the studio said.
      “Throughout the design development of the project, a profound dialogue was in-stored between the Roofhouse and the surrounding landscape.”

      The master suite has more curved walls forming rounded nooks for a walk-in closet and shelving.
      Curved elements extend outside the apartment as well for a rounded built-in seating nook on the terrace with cushions and a U-shaped seating arrangement. An outdoor dining area has an oval-shaped table to seat 20 people and is covered by a pergola for shade. Completing the roof terrace is a wall-like garden that was custom made for the project with 450 different ceramic pots created by hand.

      In addition to this project, Gitai Architects has also built a rammed-earth observatory in Israel’s Negev desert. The studio has offices in Haifa, Israel and Paris, France.
      Israel’s historic centre of Jaffa is about a 10-minute drive south of the heart of Tel Aviv. Another apartment in Jaffa to similarly feature a mixture of old-world and contemporary styles is a penthouse by Pitsou Kedem and Baranowitz & Goldberg.
      Photography is by Dan Bronfeld.
      Project credits:
      Design team: Ben Gitai, Charly Crochu, Cloe Constantini, Dani Guinness, Meitar Tewel, Itay aviram, Sara Arneberg GitaiCuration: Isabelle WolfClients: Isabelle Wolff, Yves TirmanEngineering: Kobi BenishuLandscape: Sachar Tzur of Studio TzuraConsultants: Yonathan SteinbergerCollaborators: Stella Projects, Tal Banker

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    • 113 Shares99 Views

      Studio Venturoni warms up Rome apartment with earthy hues

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      Bands of terracotta and sand-coloured paint wrap around the walls of Trevi House, a one-bed apartment in Rome that’s been overhauled by Studio Venturoni.The apartment is situated at the heart of the Italian capital, just a stone’s throw away from the famous Trevi fountain.

      Its interior had previously been dominated by heavy masonry partitions that were splitting up the sizeable 80-square-metre floor plan into several small, cramped rooms.

      Custom wooden cabinets and bookshelves accumulated by the owner were also blocking natural light from coming in.

      Tasked with creating a greater sense of space inside the apartment, Milan-based Studio Venturoni decided to knock through all of the existing partitions.
      This more open floor plan has allowed room for a central dining area. Surrounding walls here feature wide bands of terracotta and sandy-beige paint, two earthy hues which the studio felt were synonymous with Rome.

      Studio Strato creates cosy reading den in renovated Rome apartment

      Studio Venturoni also hoped that the horizontal bands of colour would make the room appear wider.

      Terracotta and orange surfaces appear again in the adjacent living area, which has been dressed with a lengthy grey sofa that slightly rises up on one end like a chaise lounge.
      This piece was specifically selected for its slight resemblance to a triclinium: a type of seat that would appear in the formal dining rooms of affluent Roman homes, composed of three adjoining chaise lounges on which residents would recline while being attended to by servants.

      Other striking furnishings – like Fabio Novembre’s face-shaped Nemo armchair – have been included to match the “monumental feel” of the apartment’s grandiose mahogany doors and wooden ceilings, which the studio decided to preserve during the renovation works.
      “My career has allowed me to understand the importance of detail: everything must be in the right place and we should not be afraid to express bold concepts, even in a domestic setting,” the studio’s founder, Francesca Venturoni explained.

      Burnt-orange tiles have been used to line the floor and the lower half of the walls in the kitchen, which was given a complete re-fit with jet-black cabinetry.
      A curved black counter has also been installed directly beside the kitchen’s window, so that inhabitants can overlook the bustling tourist crowds or listen to the sound of the waters from the Trevi fountain while enjoying breakfast.

      Cooler tones appear in the apartment’s bathrooms, where surfaces have been lined with grey-flecked stone tiles.
      The bedroom also features a blue headboard and curtains, tempered by rich, mustard-coloured dress cushions and brass lighting fixtures.

      Other homes in the historic city of Rome include a cosy apartment by Studio Strato, which has its own reading nook and an industrial-feel flat by architect Alessandro Tomei that boasts exposed concrete surfaces and iron-framed glass partitions.
      Photography is by Michele Bonechi.

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    • 163 Shares159 Views

      Whale Design Lab references Louis Kahn for makeover of Mài Apartment in Vietnam

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      Geometric forms and graphic terrazzo surfaces feature in this duplex apartment in Ho Chi Minh City that has been updated by Whale Design Lab. Locally based studio Whale Design Lab revamped the formerly lacklustre interiors of the Mài Apartment to reflect the client’s penchant for modernist architecture. A particular point of reference was the work
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    • 150 Shares159 Views

      Ljubljana apartment by Arhitektura d.o.o features mobile steel furnishings and silver curtains

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      Arhitektura d.o.o has fit out this apartment in the Slovenian capital with metallic moveable furniture so its owners can adapt the layout to suit their busy social lives. The apartment, named Rubikum for Three, is situated just outside the centre of Ljubljana and belongs to a young couple and their pet dog. They had previously
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    • 113 Shares169 Views

      Unknown Architects overhauls Amsterdam apartment with red steel columns

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      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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