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      Whittaker Parsons crowns North London mews house with “bolthole” extension

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      Using a combination of copper, larch and structural insulated panels, architecture firm Whittaker Parsons has added an additional storey to a contemporary mews house in Stoke Newington to house a bedroom suite.

      Originally built in 2005, the property belongs to a couple with two older children, who have lived here for the last decade.
      Whittaker Parsons added an additional storey to a London mews houseThe family asked Whittaker Parsons to provide more space with the addition of a loft, as well as to revamp the lower floors including the studio on the second floor, which was reconfigured to create a well-proportioned workspace complete with its own library.
      Daylight floods the new third storey, bouncing off lime-plastered walls while carefully positioned windows provide views of tree canopies and across rear gardens from window seats and the bespoke bed.
      “We set out to design a beautiful, healthy, serene retreat, in which the homeowners could immerse themselves in the beauty of natural materials, a bolthole in the middle of north London,” Whittaker Parsons told Dezeen.

      The extension is accessed via a larch-clad staircaseWith efficiency and quality in mind, the studio used prefabricated structural insulated panels (SIPs) to construct the additional storey, with the aim of minimising waste and saving time.
      “Compared to standard timber construction, it is simpler to control the quality of onsite workmanship and achieve a more robust, air-tight building envelope,” the team explained.
      Generous windows provide views of the surrounding areaExternally, the extension is set back from the street elevation and finished in materials that mirror the surrounding architecture, including black-stained timber cladding, brick slips and patinated copper to tie in with the copper facade on the second floor below.
      Internally, the triangular arrangement of the larch beams was developed to work with the load path of the existing building and the irregular form of the loft.
      “The intention was to make visible and celebrate the structural effort that went into creating this new space,” Whittaker Parsons explained.
      Integrated window seats provide a place to restThe practice created a tranquil master bedroom with a larch-clad and lime-rendered interior, bespoke larch bed frame and walk-in wardrobe made from low-formaldehyde furniture board.
      As the unsealed lime plaster wall finish cures, the lime will absorb almost as much carbon as was emitted in its production, the studio claims.
      “Lime render is a calming tactile material, characterful and soft,” said Whittaker Parsons. “It is a low-carbon alternative to gypsum plaster. It’s also a hygroscopic material, so it naturally moderates the moisture level in the bedroom.”

      Architecture for London uses natural materials to renovate studio founder’s home

      Used alongside the render, white oiled larch panelling spans the spaces between the exposed larch beams, improving acoustic absorption.
      “Often in bedrooms, the ceiling is the most important yet neglected surface,” the studio said. “The larch adds a sense of warmth, calm, and character to the space, creating an articulated ceiling at the top of the house – almost a reward for climbing all those stairs.”
      Whittaker Parsons also created a custom larch-wood bed for the interiorIn the adjoining skylit shower room, fluted travertine tiles line the walls, enveloping the shower area and complementing the travertine floor tiles.
      “The roof light to the shower oversails the fluted travertine tiles, creating the impression that one is showering outside under the sky,” said Whittaker Parsons.
      The basin, splashback and vanity unit are formed from unsealed Calacatta Rosato marble, which according to the studio provides a lower-carbon alternative to fired tiles.
      The vanity in the adjoining bathroom is formed from Calacatta Rosato marbleOverall, Whittaker Parsons says the project is “exceptionally low-carbon”, with the bulk of its embodied emissions coming from the triple glazing, thermal insulation and a single steel beam used to create the opening for the staircase.
      Founded by Matthew Whittaker and Camilla Parsons in 2015, Whittaker Parsons has completed a number of projects in the British capital including The Naked House, which was longlisted for sustainable interior of the year at the 2021 Dezeen Awards.
      The marble is paired with fluted travertine tilesOther sustainably-minded extensions in London include Low Energy House in Muswell Hill, designed by local studio Architecture for London founder for its founder Ben Ridley.
      The photography is by Jim Stephenson.

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      Studio V clads Long Island City apartments in British racing green terracotta

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      Architecture practice Studio V has unveiled The Green House apartment block in Long Island City, USA, which was informed by the neighbourhood’s history of terracotta production.

      Situated at a prominent location on Jackson Avenue near the New York City neighbourhood’s waterfront, the 12-storey block encompasses a gallery, retail, 46 two-bedroom apartments and 40 parking spaces that are spread across two lower floors.
      “[Studio V founder] Jay’s goal with this building… was to create a design that points to the future of Long Island City as well as respects its past,” the studio told Dezeen.
      The Green House was designed by Studio VChosen as a contemporary interpretation of local terracotta-clad architecture, the British racing green colour gives the building its name.
      “Green was perfect for multiple reasons: to broadcast the sustainable design of the building and as the complementary colour to the traditional red [terracotta],” Studio V told Dezeen.

      “We also chose a glazed terracotta [finish] which features a shiny surface [and] brings the custom curved forms and shapes to life, giving the facade depth, reflecting light and capturing shadow.”
      The Green House was clad in British racing green terracotta tilesStudio V aimed to create a unique building by drawing inspiration from the site’s “rich history of terracotta production,” warehouses and red terracotta-clad architecture that are typical of the site.
      Three bold, large-scale murals by Brooklyn art duo Faile contrast the uniformity of the terracotta cladding and reference the significance of Long Island City as “a hub for contemporary art”.

      ODA completes “pixelated” luxury condo building in Queens

      Manufactured in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, the terracotta tiles were arranged  linearly with spacing and windows arranged to be reminiscent of a warehouse.
      “We’re not interested in generic design: architecture must reinvent a site’s history and context,” said Studio V founder Jay Valgora.
      Colourful murals by Brooklyn art due Faile contrast the uniformity of facadesThe three-storey lobby on the ground floor was designed as a gallery space and dedicated to “retail and active uses,” as an extension of the shops and restaurants that occupy the surrounding streets.
      Flux Chandelier, by Brooklyn-based artist Jen Lewin, illuminates the space. Its colour-changing pendants are activated by the movement below, adding an interactive element to the building.
      Facade facing Jackson AvenueDue to the unusual trapezoidal shape of the site, The Green House consists of two street-facing facades, which created an opportunity for variation in the terracotta facades.
      Woven bronze mesh panels that conceal the elevator tower and parking areas, storefronts and gridded windows formed “two distinct [yet] complementary compositions” that face Jackson Avenue and 50th Avenue.
      Facade facing 50th Avenue with alternate compositionA raised internal courtyard oriented to overlook the “stunning views of Manhattan across the East River” provides space between the apartments to prevent them from looking directly into each other.
      The Green House contains two further outdoor spaces – a shared wrap-around terrace accessed on the penthouse floor and private individual terraces for residents on the eighth floor, created by the staggered design.
      The Green House features individual terraces on the eighth floorThe electricity-powered apartment block also contains conference and co-working spaces to accommodate the rising trends of remote work.
      Other terracotta-clad architecture recently featured on Dezeen include a triangular mixed-use complex that is rotated around a central axis and a school that was informed by a child’s doodles.
      The photography is by Alexander Severin.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Studio VDeveloper: Charney CompaniesGeneral Contractor: Broadway ConstructionMEP Building Systems: Ettinger EngineeringStructural Engineering: Titan Engineers

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      Akio Isshiki Architects marries old and new with Japanese home and restaurant

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      Japanese studio Akio Isshiki Architects has transformed an old wooden building into a warm-toned home and public restaurant named House in Hayashisaki Matsue Beach.

      Located on a coastal street in Akashi in southern Japan, the mixed-use space was built within a 50-year-old building for a local designer and features a curry restaurant as well as residential and working spaces.
      Designed to reflect traditional Japanese dwellings, the home and restaurant are contained within a wooden building that was previously dark and separated.
      House in Hayashisaki Matsue Beach was designed by Akio Isshiki ArchitectsDuring the renovation, Akio Isshiki Architects aimed to pair existing elements with modern features to reflect the mixed-use nature of the project.
      “The house was divided into small rooms, narrow and dark,” studio founder Akio Isshiki told Dezeen.

      “It was very old and damaged, but fortunately the carpenter had done a good job, there were no leaks, and the structure was solid.”
      It is located in AkashiAccessed from the roadside, a series of circular stones form a path that leads through the planted front garden and curves to extend along the front of the building, providing access to the ground-floor restaurant.
      Here, a stepped sheltered porch features external seating and is separated from the interior space by a wide sliding glass door set in a timber frame, which offers views into the garden and can be fully opened to connect the dining space to the outside.
      The structure contains a restaurant and a homeInside, the floor has been coated with dark tiles informed by the history of the area, which was formerly a large tile producer.
      “These tiles were handcrafted one by one by tile craftsmen in Awaji, with the image of lava stone pavements seen in cities in Central and South America superimposed on the texture and edge shape,” said the studio.
      It draws on traditional Japanese homesWooden furnishings, including bespoke D-shaped chairs designed by the studio and created by a local woodworker, are arranged throughout the dining space at the front of the building.
      “To ensure stability even on uneven floors, three legs are used as a base for the chairs, and the legs are made of a thick material so that they do not fit in the joints of the Kawara tiles,” said Isshiki.
      “I aimed for a primitive design with an unknown nationality, with as simple and crude a composition as possible.”

      Apollo Architects & Associates create home from stacked volumes in Tokyo

      Separated from the main space by an earth-toned counter, the kitchen is tucked into one side of the dining room and features walls clad in wooden panels and white tiles, along with a lighting fixture formed from two circles that hangs in the street-facing window.
      A Japanese shoji screen at the end of the dining room is the first of a series of flexible partitions throughout the home that can be pulled out to provide separation between the spaces.
      The upper floor contains private residential space”Conscious of the tropics and nostalgia, we put nets that look like mosquito nets and sudare blinds on the shoji screens,” said the studio. “The graceful plans created by imperfect partitions such as shoji and fusuma are typical of ancient Japanese architecture.”
      “In this house, where cultures, nationalities, times, and various other things are combined, I thought it would be appropriate to have the spaces partially mixed so that they could feel the presence of each other, rather than being permanently partitioned in terms of usage,” it continued.
      Wood was used throughout the interiorBuilt on a raised timber platform, the rest of the ground floor holds private rooms for the client, which are divided by shoji screens, including a traditional Japanese room that opens onto a garden.
      A home office borders the dining space, where a central black ladder leads to the floor above, while a bedroom, bathroom and utility room branch from the other side of the corridor.
      The residential space has views of the seaUpstairs, the studio added an open arrangement of dining and living spaces with warm-toned surfaces including a red wall and dark wooden beams that interact with the home’s original rustic roof structure.
      “The wall on the second floor is a scraped wall mixed with red iron oxide and finished by a plasterer from Awaji,” said Isshiki. “This is an attempt to incorporate the colourful walls of each country into architecture in a Japanese context.”
      The home has an open-plan living arrangementOther Japanese homes recently featured on Dezeen include a Tokyo home spread across two stacked volumes and a concrete home supported by a single column on Japan’s Okinawa Island.
      The photography is by Yosuke Ohtake.

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      “Architectural photography is dominated by empty, glossy, new buildings” says Jim Stephenson

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      Architectural photographer Jim Stephenson explains how The Architect Has Left The Building exhibition at RIBA aims to draw attention to how people use buildings, in this interview.

      Despite taking place at the Architecture Gallery at the Royal Institute of British Architects’ central London HQ, Stephenson told Dezeen that the exhibition is not focused on buildings.
      “The installation is about people watching,” he said. “Although it’s at the RIBA and in the architecture gallery, it’s not really about the buildings – they’re just the backdrop, they’re the stage set really.”
      “We wanted to create a meditative, large scale film piece that was all about how people use (and misuse) space once the architect’s work is done,” he continued.
      The Architect Has Left The Building is an exhibition at RIBAAs the exhibition’s title suggests, the exhibition focuses on how buildings are used after the architect’s work is finished.

      It aims to show buildings in use, in contrast to the majority of architectural photography that often portrays buildings empty, at their point of completion.
      “When I used to work in architecture practices, we used to design everything around people and context,” explained Stephenson. “It felt like everything was dictated by those two things and then when we would get projects photographed we’d ask the photographer to omit those two things.”
      “The buildings were empty objects – sculptures,” he continued. “It always jarred with me, so in our work we focus on people using space as much as possible.”
      The exhibition features the work of Jim Stephenson.The exhibition include numerous photos taken by Stephenson, along with an enclosed screening room, where a film created for the exhibition was played on a dual screen.
      “This film is all about the small interactions that occur in and around buildings – between individuals, groups of people and even between people and the buildings,” said Stephenson. “It’s all about the people!”

      Short film tells story behind school theatre by Jonathan Tuckey Design

      The film, which was created with artist Sofia Smith and has a soundtrack created by Simon James, contains numerous contemporary buildings from the past 15 years.
      Among the buildings featured are Tintagel Castle Bridge by William Matthews Architects, Tate St Ives extension by Jamie Fobert, Sands End Arts and Community Centre by Mae Architects and London Bridge Station by Grimshaw, which were all shortlisted for the Stirling Prize.
      The exhibition features a film screened on a dual screenThe film makes aims to makes people think about the connections between buildings and how people are connected to them.
      “Watching Sofia make visual links between buildings that I hadn’t previously considered to have much in common was fascinating,” explained Stephenson.
      “There’s a point in the film where we transition from Sands End Community Centre to Tintagel footbridge and it’s seamless – from a community centre in West London to a bridge over the sea in Cornwall!”
      “And at London Bridge train station, Simon recorded not just the ambient sound that everyone can hear, but he also recorded the inner guts of the building with contact mics, as well as the sound in the electromagnetic spectrum,” he continued. “All those sounds get layered up in the show and I can’t go through that station now without thinking about them.”
      It also features photos taken by Jim StephensonStephenson hopes that the film will demonstrate how people improve architectural spaces and how they are recorded.
      “The history of architectural photography is dominated by empty, glossy, new buildings, photographed before people have come in,” said Stephenson.
      “I think there was a fear amongst architects that people ‘mess up their building’ and photographing them empty somehow showed the architecture in a more pure and distilled way,” he continued.
      “I think that’s mad. If the people you designed the building for are ‘messing it up’ then maybe there’s something wrong with the building? I’m half joking, but I’ve never documented a space that wasn’t improved by people, or at the very least a sign of life.”
      One of the UK’s best-known architectural photographers, Stephenson co-founded film production studio Stephenson& with Smith. Recent projects photographed by Stephenson include a wood-lined community space in east London, a rammed-earth yoga studio to the gardens of Somerset hotel and a rolling bridge in London.
      Recent buildings captured on film by Stephenson& include a visitor centre at the UK’s largest sawmill and a school theatre by Jonathan Tuckey Design in London.
      The photography is by Agnese Sanvito, unless stated. The film is by Jim Stephenson and Sofia Smith with soundtrack by Simon James.
      The Architect Has Left The Building is at RIBA in London until 12 August 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Bindloss Dawes maximises light and space in London mews house

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      Architecture firm Bindloss Dawes has reorganised a mews house in Chelsea, adding a full-height lightwell with a dramatic oak-and-steel staircase to forge “a sense of volume and theatre”.

      The client initially commissioned Bindloss Dawes to simply create a more spacious kitchen and living area on the lower ground floor of this typical London property and improve its relationship to the garden.
      Bindloss Dawes has completed the Chelsea Mews House in LondonBut as the project progressed, the studio was asked to extend its remit to the entire residence to create a more holistic scheme.
      “Chelsea Mews House highlights that large spaces aren’t always needed,” Bindloss Dawes told Dezeen. “It’s about creating something pragmatic and beautiful that clients will treasure.”
      “This is a small terraced house, and we’ve elevated it by bringing in daylight and giving it a sense of volume and theatre.”

      The house now features a sunken concrete floor in the basementAs part of the renovation, Bindloss Dawes updated the three-storey house from a dark and cramped two-bedroom to a simplified one-bedroom layout, making the most of the awkward trapezoidal plan with its angular walls and junctions.
      Working within the planning constraints of a conservation area in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Bindloss Dawes dropped the level of the lower ground floor to create a more impressive space.
      The studio also added a new three-storey staircase”Digging down 50 centimetres unlocked the opportunity to create new volumes, which in a tight footprint goes a long way to enhancing the spatial quality,” the studio said.
      This newly created spaciousness at the lower level is accentuated by the addition of a lightwell that cuts through all three storeys of the home, connecting them via a custom staircase while drawing sunshine deep into the basement.
      The staircase traverses a full-height lightwell drawing sun into the interior”The previous configuration did the house a disservice,” Bindloss Dawes said. “It has wonderful bones that we have celebrated by opening up and creating a void, which draws light right into the depths of the space.”
      Meanwhile, a subtle glass extension projects approximately 50 centimetres beyond the rear facade into the garden to increase the sense of light and space without significantly altering the exterior.

      Bindloss Dawes creates car barn for classic Porsche collector

      A thoughtful and restrained material palette was crucial to the success of the project, according to Bindloss Dawes.
      “By embracing simplicity, maximising light and space, and employing a careful selection of materials, we’ve crafted a home that balances functionality with elegance,” the studio said.
      Venetian polished plaster in a Marmorino finish by Calfe Crimmings was used on the walls throughout the home, creating a sense of tactility.
      The steps are finished in European oak while the balusters are steelExpressed concrete brings a grounding element to the basement level, with concrete skirting that seamlessly extends onto the steps leading up into the courtyard garden.
      Concrete was also used to form the first flight of the new three-storey staircase, while the upper levels are finished in European oak to match the handrail.
      The steel balusters were painted in the same grey-based white by Farrow & Ball that was also used on woodwork and ceilings throughout the house.
      The bedrooms are hidden behind subtle pocket doorsTo eliminate visual breaks to the lightwell, pocket doors were strategically incorporated at the bedroom level.
      “The project exemplifies how highly detailed yet simple design can work to great effect within tight city footprints,” said Bindloss Dawes.
      The homeowner, a talented craftsman and metalworker, personally designed and created the lighting fixtures, adding a personal touch to the home.
      The home is a traditional mews house in ChelseaPrevious projects from Bindloss Dawes, which was founded by Oliver Bindloss and George Dawes in 2018, include a timber car barn for a collector of classic Porsches.
      The studio is based in Bruton – a village in Somerset that has drawn an increasingly metropolitan crowd in recent years after contemporary art gallery Hauser & Wirth opened an outpost in the area in 2014.
      The photography is by Building Narratives.

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      Chinese architects and designers can “bring something different to the world” say Dezeen Awards China judges

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      Architects and designers in China are poised to have a greater global influence as the country emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, according to Dezeen Awards China judges at a talk at Design Shanghai.

      Hosted by Dezeen’s co-CEO Benedict Hobson, the panel discussion marked the launch of Dezeen’s new regional edition of Dezeen Awards to celebrate architecture and design in China, which is open for entries now.
      It featured Dezeen Awards China judges Alex Mok and Frank Chou, alongside Neri&Hu managing director Jerry del Fierro, who stood in for Dezeen Awards China judge Rossana Hu, who had to pull out due to illness.
      Frank Chou is a product designer and Dezeen Awards China judgeAccording to Chou, who is one of the most established product designers in China, the country has a huge amount of untapped design potential.
      “In Europe, there are so many design firms,” he said.

      “In China, we have a population of 1.4 billion, but how many designers are there? There’s really a huge potential for Chinese designers to bring something different to the world.”
      Frank Chou designs furniture under his own brandChou believes that emerging Chinese designers are cultivating a unique, contemporary design language that draws from China’s rich history without being overly deferential to it.
      “We need to shape the real modern Chinese culture,” he said.
      “When we talk about culture, many people equate this to history, to something in the past. But we should also be thinking about the culture of the future. What will be China’s future culture?”
      Jerry del Fierro is managing director of Neri&HuOne firm that has successfully created a contemporary Chinese design identity is Neri&Hu, one of China’s best-known architecture and design studios.
      According to managing director Del Fierro, the practice’s co-founders Hu and Lyndon Neri have been highly influenced by cultural theorist Svetlana Boym and her concept of “reflective nostalgia”.
      “Reflective nostalgia is not a nostalgia that recreates the old, it respects the old but projects something new, something inspiring,” he said.
      “It’s not about feeling sad about something that’s lost, but rather to taking elements from the past and making them fresh and new.”
      Recent Neri&Hu projects include The Relic Shelter teahouse in Fuzhou, ChinaHe believes that the conditions are right in China for architects and designers to push boundaries.
      “If you work in America, and I worked in America for many years, some of the developers are very conservative,” he said.
      “A lot of the Chinese developers are actually ready to try something more innovative. I think there’s something to be said about the culture here that allows for innovation.”
      Alex Mok is co-founder of Linehouse and a Dezeen Awards China judgeMok, who is co-founder of Shanghai- and Hong Kong-based architecture and interior design studio Linehouse, agreed.
      “Transitioning from working in the UK to China was a revelation,” she said.
      “At first, I was a bit shocked. But very quickly I just embraced how fluid and fast it is here. We now have the opportunity to be working globally, but our heart is still in China.”
      Taking place as part of the Forum programme of talks at Design Shanghai 2023, the first edition of the annual trade show that has taken place since China relaxed international travel restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic, the panel discussion explored how China’s architecture and design scene has been impacted by the pandemic.
      Recent Linehouse projects in China include the Coast restaurant in ShanghaiAccording to Mok, Covid-19 forced many architecture and design firms in China who previously relied on foreign workers to nurture and cultivate local talent instead.
      “Everything had to be more local, which I think was a positive thing,” she said.
      “It became a bit more about Chinese creativity. When we were hiring, we kept getting all these CVs from foreign architects, but it was impossible [to hire them]. This meant we ended up fostering more local Chinese talent.”
      Del Fierro said that Neri&Hu experienced something similar, with many of the firm’s foreign workers returning to Europe or the US and working remotely. According to Fierro, this had the unexpected but welcome consequence of increasing the practice’s international projects.
      Covid-19 pandemic created “new opportunities” for architects and designers
      “Our practice is very different from three years ago,” he said.
      “When the pandemic happened, there were a number of our staff who wanted to return to Europe. We now have about 50 per cent of our projects diversified. Fifty per cent of them are still in China, but 50 per cent are now outside of China.”
      According to Del Fierro, the global acceptance of remote working will provide more opportunities for firms based in China to work on projects abroad.
      “The concept of remote working is now very commonplace and we are not limited by physical travel anymore,” he said.
      “So suddenly, we have all these new opportunities. We are based in Shanghai, can we work in Cape Town? Absolutely! And we don’t have to go there every month. So I think the pandemic caused an interesting situation to create new opportunities.”

      Dezeen Awards China open for entries until 24 August
      Chou, Mok and Neri&Hu co-founder Hu are among the first judges to be announced for Dezeen Awards China, which launched in Shanghai on 8 June in partnership with Bentley. Further judges will be announced in the coming weeks.
      Dezeen Awards China is open for entries now until 24 August 2023, but studios can save money on their entry if they enter before 13 July 2023.
      There are 17 project categories to enter across architecture, interiors and design. The winners of these project categories will go head to head for the chance to be crowned one of three project of the year winners across architecture, interiors and design.

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      The Lodge hotel takes over 500-year-old farmhouse in Mallorca

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      A roughly-hewn stone trough and a traditional mill for pressing olive oil were repurposed by interior designer Pilar García-Nieto within this farmhouse-turned-hotel near Mallorca’s Serra de Tramuntana mountain range.

      The Lodge is the latest boutique hotel from Único Hotels, tucked away inside a 157-hectare estate filled with centenarian almond and olive trees, lavender fields and 20 kilometres of hiking trails.
      The Lodge is set in a converted Mallorcan farmhouseAll of the hotel’s public spaces and six of its guest rooms are housed inside a converted 16th-century farmhouse, which was renovated from the ground up.
      “To be able to enjoy a 500-year-old house is a privilege,” García-Nieto told Dezeen. “Many generations have gathered behind those walls. It is this spirit of a family home that we have tried to preserve.”
      The building’s original stone trough sink now acts as a fountainA further 18 suites were dotted across the grounds, set in newly constructed cabins modelled on the few remaining walls of the farm’s outbuildings.

      Although The Lodge’s interiors are largely clean and minimal, traces of the estate’s agricultural past were left to peek out everywhere throughout the hotel.
      A traditional olive oil press decorates the receptionThe farm’s original tafona – a stone mill used for making olive oil – now stands in the reception in front of a wall of fridges filled with wine from local vineyards.
      “Aesthetically it is unbeatable,” García-Nieto said. “Either you are lucky enough to have one or it is impossible to replicate it.”
      “That is why it was important for us to preserve the one we have, and to give it the great protagonism it deserves.”
      Some of the building’s original stone walls are left exposedSome of the building’s original stone walls were left exposed on the interior while the huge trough sink that stood in the former kitchen now acts as a water fountain near the entrance.
      These period details were complemented with a selection of new and vintage pieces, sourced from second-hand shops in the nearby village of Consell and further afield.
      The lounge is traversed by a modular ceramic screenAmong them is an antique French tapestry that was suspended above a modern console table at the entrance. Nearby, in the hotel’s restaurant Singular, contemporary art hangs next to French bronze wall sconces from the Napoleonic period.
      Here, guests can eat in a high-ceilinged dining room or on a leafy terrace with clean-lined metal garden furniture, overlooking the hotel’s glistening infinity pool and the surrounding coppices.

      The Olive Houses are off-grid retreats hidden in Mallorca’s mountains

      The rugged nature of the nearby Tramuntana mountains informed The Lodge’s interior in the form of its earthy colour and material palette.
      Located right off the reception, the lounge combines blackened timber tables with rattan stools. And an original mortar found in the farmhouse is displayed inside a towering antique shelving unit from France.
      An antique French shelving unit is used to display ceramicsAt the centre of the room, a row of sandy beige sofas backs onto a biombo screen made from stacked ceramic modules.
      “It was a lot of fun to assemble it,” García-Nieto said. “It was like playing Tetris between five people.”
      The guest suites are finished in a colour-sparse but texture-heavy paletteCeramics also feature heavily throughout the rest of The Lodge, with many left over from the farmhouse and others made by local craftsmen.
      Among them are the decorative vases found in each guest room, which are handmade from black clay by a master potter.
      “We love what pottery represents – an element so closely linked to the earth that man has used since ancient times to turn it into essential pieces for his way of life,” García-Nieto said.
      Each suite has its own patioThe 18 suites that aren’t set inside the main farmhouse can be accessed via a short ride on one of the hotel’s bicycles or golf buggies.
      Modelled on the renovated farmhouse with its irregular gables, each of these cabins features a dramatic single-pitch roof with the ceiling beams left exposed on the inside.
      The same texture-heavy but colour-sparse palette from the main building is also carried over into the suites.
      Guests can navigate the estates using bikesInterest is provided by combining different kinds of timber, from the pale, raw-edged coat stands to the Japanese-style charred-wood stools.
      All of the suites have a private Mallorcan patio to provide a greater connection to the surrounding farmland, which the hotel is using to grow produce for the Singular restaurant and for Finca Serena – Único Hotels’ other outpost on the island.
      A long infinity pool provides respite from the heatThe Tramuntana mountain range occupies roughly 30 per cent of Mallorca’s terrain and is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its rich agricultural history.
      Much of the surrounding area is still used for farming today – for example by the Son Juliana wine company, which has a solar-powered winery at the foot of the mountain range that is made from local sandstone with wicker sunshades and cork-insulated roofs.
      Increasingly, tourists are also being drawn away from Mallorca’s pristine beaches and towards Tramuntana’s dramatic landscapes, with the opening of several new hotels including The Olive Houses – a group of off-grid guesthouses, where craggy boulders jut through the walls and into the interiors.
      The photography is by Montse Garriga.

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      There’s still time to be listed on Dezeen’s digital guide for London Design Festival 2023

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      You can still list your London Design Festival 2023 event on Dezeen’s Events Guide’s digital guide to the festival, which takes place in venues across the city from 16 to 24 September.

      The festival offers a programme of exhibitions, installations, tours, open showrooms, workshops, talks and networking opportunities, as well as the Design London trade show.
      2023 marks the 21st anniversary of London Design Festival, which explores crafts, fashion, art, furniture, graphic and digital design, urban planning and education.
      Our guide highlights the key events taking place during the nine-day festival, which last year spread across 12 districts in London.
      Get listed in Dezeen’s digital guide to London Design Festival

      Get in touch with the Dezeen Events Guide team at [email protected] to book in your listing or to discuss a wider partnership with Dezeen. There are three types of listings:
      Standard listing: For only £100, we can include the event name, date and location details plus a website link. These listings will also feature up to 50 words of text about the event. Standard listings are included at the discretion of the Dezeen Events Guide team.
      Enhanced listing: For £150, you will receive all of the above plus an image at the top of the listing’s page and an image in the listing preview on the London Design Festival festival guide page. These listings will also feature up to 100 words of text about the event.
      Featured listing: For £300, your listing will feature everything as part of an enhanced listing plus inclusion in the featured events carousel and social media posts on our @dezeenguide channels. This includes one post per channel: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and up to 150 words of text about the event. This text can include commercial information such as ticket prices and offers, and can feature additional links to website pages such as ticket sales, newsletter signups etc.
      The London Design Festival guide follows the success of our digital guide for Milan design week 2023, which received over 75,000 page views.
      About Dezeen Events Guide
      Dezeen Events Guide is our guide to the best architecture and design events taking place across the world each year.
      The guide is updated weekly and includes virtual events, conferences, trade fairs, major exhibitions and design weeks.
      For more details on inclusion in Dezeen Events Guide, including in our guide to London Design Festival, email [email protected].
      The illustration is by Justyna Green.

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