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      Charlie Luxton Design reworks Oxfordshire farmhouse to create Studio Richter Mahr

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      Composer Max Richter and visual artist Yulia Mahr have set up a multimedia production studio inside a former farmhouse in Oxfordshire, which Charlie Luxton Design has updated with more sustainable features.

      Bordered by 31 acres of forested woodland, Studio Richter Mahr will serve as a space where both emerging and established creatives can come to develop their work.
      Studio Richter Mahr is a multimedia production studio in a former farmhouseRichter and Mahr – who are collaborators as well as a couple – first had the idea for the site some 20 years ago.
      “Studio Richter Mahr is about dreaming the future into existence, a better way to live and work,” said Mahr. “It’s about forward motion and borderless creativity. It’s about offering time and opportunities for people to really experiment.”
      The studio occupies a farm building that had already been modernised to a decent standard but needed adjusting to reduce the operational carbon footprint of the new amenities on site. Local practice Charlie Luxton Design was assigned to the task.

      New skylights allow natural light to flood the facility’s interiorThe building’s roof now accommodates solar panels that provide electricity to the site and several skylights to reduce the need for artificial lighting.
      To keep the building warm, air-source heat pumps were installed alongside a ventilation system powered using recovered heat.
      A large picture window features in the orchestral recording studioCharlie Luxton Design preserved the building’s original steel framework to conserve its embodied carbon and celebrate the site’s agricultural past.
      The existing concrete floor slab was also retained and strengthened in some areas.
      Inside, the studio houses a series of state-of-the-art creative spaces devised with the help of sound specialists Level Acoustics and Studio Creations. This includes a video editing suite, programming room, art studios and a Dolby Atmos sound mixing room alongside an exhibition area and a cafe that creates dishes from produce grown on-site.

      Studio Bua transforms derelict Icelandic farm building into artist’s studio

      The plan culminates in a spacious orchestral recording room fronted by a huge picture window that offers uninterrupted views across the rural landscape.
      Charlie Luxton Design applied a restrained material palette throughout the interior.
      Most of the walls were washed with textured lime plaster or overlaid with Dinesen oak boards while the building’s exterior was clad with simple black metal to contrast the surrounding greenery.
      “The brief was always to be very simple, using quality materials,” founder Charlie Luxton told Dezeen.
      Many of the studio’s rooms are clad with timberGoing forward, Richter and Mahr plan to add more amenities including an on-site creche with the aim of hosting artist residencies and composer labs.
      This isn’t the first time a farm building has been repurposed for creative pursuits. Last year, Studio Bua converted a derelict Icelandic barn into an artist’s studio and holiday home.
      The workspace sits inside a double-height gabled volume that was erected within the site’s existing time-worn walls.
      The photography is by Lorenzo Zandri.

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      The Africa Centre finds new home inside former office building in London

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      A lacklustre office building in Southwark has undergone a vibrant makeover to become The Africa Centre, designed by architecture studio Freehaus.

      The Africa Centre first opened in Covent Garden in 1964 as a “home-away-from-home” for the African diaspora in London, where people could meet, connect and enjoy cultural events together.
      After closing its doors to the public in 2013, the institution now occupies a former office building on Southwark’s Great Suffolk Street.
      The Africa Centre takes over a former office blockThe redesign of the building was appointed to Shoreditch-based studio Freehaus, which sought to create an interior that reflects the African continent’s rich array of cultures and traditions.
      To establish the key ideas and themes that would underpin the centre’s interior scheme, Freehaus embarked on a thorough research process.

      A reception was created at ground level to welcome guestsKey points of reference were the work of British-Ghanian architect David Adjaye, Burkinabé architect Diébédo Francis Kére, as well as projects by Niger-based studio Atelier Masōmī.
      The studio also visited other cultural buildings and members clubs around London to pick up inspiration.
      There’s also a pan-African restaurant called Tatale on the ground floor”The key to the brief was for The Africa Centre’s new headquarters to be unmistakably African,” explained Jonathan Hagos, co-director of Freehaus.
      “Given the breadth of diversity on the continent and among the diaspora, we were keen to avoid stereotypes and well-trodden aesthetic tropes.”

      Sam Jacob Studio adds glass-tube entrance to London’s V&A museum

      “At the same time, we wanted to avoid continent-sweeping generalisations – ‘Africa isn’t a country’ is a familiar response, often born of frustration at the dismissive understanding of the breadth in peoples, cultures and traditions that span the African continent,” he added.
      “We wanted to turn this misnomer into a strength,” he continued, “and envisage what an embassy for a continent might look like in the 21st century; a space that demonstrates what connects us and binds us to one another, while celebrating the dynamism of the continent.”
      Latticed banquettes and wooden tables decorate the restaurant’s interiorWith the help of engineers Price & Myers, Freehaus opened up the ground floor of the building to make way for two new entrances.
      One of the doorways opens onto the buzzy Great Suffolk Street, while the other connects the rear of the building to a couple of converted railway arches that The Africa Centre already used for events.
      Clay-plaster walls feature throughout the building, including the barThe ground floor also now accommodates a reception and pan-African restaurant Tatale. The dining space has been decked out with lattice-back banquettes, wooden tables and vibrant pendant lamps that contrast the neutral clay-plaster walls.
      Upstairs on the first floor is a bar and lounge that features patterned armchairs and a large, curved drinks counter clad with relief tiles. The following second floor contains an event space and a gallery.
      The bar is dressed with clusters of patterned furnitureThere are a further two floors in the building that, once funding is obtained, will be transformed into a learning facility and incubator for budding Afro-centric businesses.
      The extra funding will also go towards adding an ornamental screen to the centre’s black-painted facade, which will echo the ornate mashrabiya screens seen in north African architecture.
      A gallery can be found on the building’s second floorA few London cultural spots have recently undergone an update; architecture practice Sam Jacobs Studio has added a contemporary ribbed-glass entrance to the Grade I-listed V&A museum.
      Haworth Tompkins has also created a chainmail-shrouded pavilion to connect two performance spaces belonging to immersive theatre company Punchdrunk.
      The photography is by Taran Wilkhu.

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      O-office Architects transforms abandoned factory buildings into Chinese tea museum

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      O-office Architects has converted several buildings on a tea plantation near Guangzhou, China, into a cultural centre featuring a rooftop garden wrapped in bamboo screens.As part of the (Re)forming Duichuan Tea Yards project, local firm O-office Architects was tasked with revitalising three disused buildings at the plantation in the Gaoming District of Guangdong Province.

      O-office Architects has converted three factory buildings into an exhibition space
      The site in Duichuan Village was established as a tea plantation in the 1950s and comprises more than 300 acres of gently rolling hills dotted with small lakes.
      O-office Architects was approached to help transform three factory buildings into an exhibition space in 2017, after the tea yard had been abandoned and fallen into disrepair when the demand for its tea declined at the start of the 21st century.

      The buildings are decorated with bamboo screens. Photo is by Huang Chengqiang

      The exhibition space is located at the heart of the reestablished production facility, which will soon begin harvesting its first new crop of Duichuan tea.
      The renovated buildings now contain exhibits offering visitors a historic overview of Duichuan tea culture, alongside a fine-dining restaurant and the tea yard’s offices.

      A new stone podium wrapping the buildings frames views of the landscape
      The three 1980s edifices are situated on a small island in an artificial reservoir that also contains woodland, with low-rise former workers’ housing nestled amongst the trees.
      Exposed concrete structures and narrow-framed steel windows were retained to evoke the buildings’ industrial heritage. The architects also sought to enhance the connection between the former production spaces and the surrounding plantation.

      The complex is surrounded by several ponds and trees
      “We tried to find a simple spatial prototype for the reconstruction of the site to load the envisioned cultural settlement,” said the architects in a project statement.
      “The design gradually approached a concept of the mixture of ‘pavilion’ and ‘podium’,” the studio added. “We tried to evolve the prototype of the ‘pavilion’ into a settlement that encompasses production and detour.”

      Roof gardens are connected by bridges
      To house the main cultural and public spaces dedicated to the history of tea production, a new podium made from blocks of dark local granite was constructed around the base of the existing buildings.
      This structure functions as a viewing platform and contains openings that redefine the relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces, lending the facility a more porous and welcoming character.

      The podium is composed of blocks of dark local granite
      New roof gardens on top of the three factory buildings are connected by bridges so visitors can traverse the site whilst taking in aerial views of the plantation.
      The garden courtyards are lined with bamboo screens that also extend onto staircases at the corners of the buildings. The stairs connect the rooftop with the stone viewing platform, creating a route that leads visitors all the way around and over the site.

      The factories’ original concrete structures are exposed inside
      “This connection creates a vertical yet horizontal promenade that wraps around the original production space,” the architects pointed out.
      “We hope this tour can evoke a sense of ‘in search of a lost time’ [whilst] at the same time acting as a response against the rapid industrialisation of modern urban and rural areas.”

      O-office Architects reinterprets traditional Chinese courtyard house in concrete and steel

      The blending of the industrial buildings with the plantation is enhanced by landscaping that includes several ponds and trees that reach through apertures in the stone podium.

      The new podium contains public spaces
      O-office Architects was established by He Jianxiang and Jiang Ying in Guangzhou in 2007. The firm works on projects across various scales, from urban design and architecture to the exhibition and furniture design.
      Several of O-office Architects’ projects focus on renovation and conserving the architectural history of the Pearl River Delta. It previously worked on a residence inspired by vernacular courtyard houses found in the region.
      Photography is by Zhang Chao unless stated.
      Project credits:
      Architect: O-office ArchitectsClient: Midea GroupDesign team: He Jianxiang, Jiang Ying, Dong Jingyu, Huang Chengqiang, Zhang Wanyi, Cai Lehuan, Wu Yifei, He Zhenzhong, He Wenkang and Peng WeisenStructural consultant: Situ Ying, Luo Qiyao and Luo JiajieM.E. consultant: Bun Cong M&E DesignV.I. Design: TheWhy art x design

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      Trahan Architects creates curving wooden balconies for Atlanta theatre

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      US firm Trahan Architects has renovated the Coca-Cola Stage at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, Georgia, using steam-bent timber to form an undulating auditorium.Constructed in 1968, the 650-seat Alliance Theater is part of the Woodruff Arts Center campus in the state capital of Georgia.

      The 1960s theatre was gutted and refurbished
      For the renovation, Trahan Architects stripped the interiors of the lobby, theatre and backstage areas back to the original concrete walls.
      New York-based, steam-bent furniture designer Matthias Pliessnig collaborated on the design of the wooden elements, which were made by fabrication specialists CW Keller Associates.

      Steam-bent timber curves around the seating. Photo by Trahan Architecture

      Pliessnig created a 1:1 scale mock-up of the Coca-Cola Stage at the Alliance Theater and shared his expertise in steam bending wood, a process that involves heating wood to make it pliable and bending it by hand.

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      “The result is a series of beautiful steam-bent millwork guardrails and balconies that merge handcraft with mass production,” said Trahan Architects.
      “The synthesis of acoustic performance, hand-driven artistry, and sophisticated laser positioning are all carefully choreographed to execute the complex steam-bent millwork without the need for wasteful CNC moulds.”

      All of the seating zones are connected in the theatre
      The seating is now 10 feet (three metres) closer to the stage than before, and the seating of the stalls abuts the orchestra pit.
      Seating stacked around and above the stalls in the balconies are defined by curving wooden elements but are not separated.
      The architects said this design decision was a symbolic one to draw on Atlanta’s history. The city was America’s most racially segregated after 1865 when slaved were freed in the US, right up until the 1960s.
      During this period, black people were barred from eating at certain restaurants or attending certain cinemas reserved for white patrons or were forced to sit in separate seating.

      Trahan Architects worked with a sculptor on the wooden design
      “The design team felt a responsibility to remove the separation between balcony and orchestra – challenging historic notions of segregation and discrimination,” said Trahan Architects.
      “All seating zones can be accessed from every entrance within the chamber.”

      Steam-bending timber created less waste than CNC cutting the wood
      Based in New Orleans and New York, Trahan Architects was founded in 1992 by Trey Trahan. Previous work by the practice includes a visitor centre for an 18th-century plantation in Louisiana.
      The Coca-Cola Stage at the Alliance Theater is shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the civic and cultural interior category, along with a museum in Pittsburgh built in a ligtening-struck library and a museum of architecture models in China.
      Photography is by Leonid Furmansky unless otherwise stated.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Trahan ArchitectsDesign team: Trey Trahan, Leigh Breslau, Brad McWhirter, Robbie Eleazer, James Babin, Scott Melançon, Conway Pedron, Ayesha Husain, Sarah Hussaini, Wenyun Qian, Andrew FuArtist collaboration: Matthias PliessnigMillwork fabrication: CW Keller AssociatesTheatre consultants: Theatre Projects ConsultantsAcoustics: Talaske GroupStructural engineer: Uzun + CaseMEP: DLB Associates Consulting EngineersLighting designer: Fisher Marantz StoneGraphic design: ThirstLife safety: Jensen HughesProject and cost management: Cost+ Plus VerticalTransportation: Lerch Bates

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      Robert Gutowski Architects designs minimal church interior in response to changes in modern worship

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      The Church of Pope John Paul II in Páty, Hungary, is a crescent-shaped building featuring skewed angles and whitewashed concrete that aims to turn “passive observers” into active participants of worship.Local practice Robert Gutowski Architects filled the church in the village of Páty in Budapest with modern takes on traditional aspects of Medieval, ecclesiastical architecture.
      The intention was to shift the emphasis towards the altar and the congregation to make the act of worship more engaging.

      The Church of Pope John Paul II features an elliptical layout
      Traditional churches typically have a rectangular floor plan and are made up of a nave – the central part of the church – and an apse – the semicircular or polygonal area at the end of the aisle, usually located behind the altar.

      The Church of Pope John Paul II, however, has an elliptical layout, made up of the crescent-shaped building of worship that wraps around an adjoining oval-shaped outdoor space.
      Therefore what would typically be the nave of a conventional church functions as the churchyard or garden, while the liturgical space is situated where the apse would be.

      The church interior features whitewashed reinforced concrete ceilings and walls
      As studio founder Robert Gutowski explains, this layout was designed to place more emphasis on the communal experience of the Eucharist and to “invite people closer to the holy act” at the altar.
      “If you like, we invite people into the apse, surrounding the altar, forming a community,” the architect explained. “It is also similar to the liturgy of early times, when Paleochristians simply surrounded a table in their own home – what is known as Domus Ecclesiae.”

      The design aims to place more emphasis on the Eucharist and the altar
      “The church clearly defines its purpose: while the Creator and the almighty God are at the centre of traditional liturgy, modern liturgical efforts have shifted emphasis to the recreator God, the image of a perpetually redeeming Christ,” Gutowski added.
      “The Church of Pope John Paul II represents a conscious response to liturgical changes in recent decades, rendering it a model church experiment in contemporary church architecture,” he continued.
      “Emphasis is shifted toward the active involvement of worshippers.The community is not a passive observer of events in a sanctuary, but rather actively experiences the holy act.”

      The church building itself has a crescent-like shape
      Several rooms lead off of the central, liturgical space, including a communal room, a service room and an office on the ground floor, and an educational room, guest room, the priest’s living quarters, and access to the bell tower on the first floor.
      Each of these rooms are enclosed in one, whole elliptical floor plan – a form chosen to symbolise “perpetuity” and to create a holistic space.
      “The concept is that when we say ‘church’, this does not refer only to the part of the chapel, but rather to the whole community building in one singular form,” explained Gutowski.

      Angled walls and off-centre details represent the broken body of Christ
      The two ellipses formed by the crescent-shaped church and the adjoining yard have been set at different axes. This is following the historically “inaccurate” layout of traditional churches, wherein the nave and the apse tend to be slightly off-centre of each other.
      “We cannot name one single church that sits on the same axis, because pretty much all of the historical churches in Europe have this tiny ‘mistake’, which actually became a symbol of the broken body of Christ,” added Gutowski.
      This symbol of Christ’s broken body has been extended to the church interior, which features walls set at slanted, uneven angles.

      Spotlights and skylights illuminate significant spaces in the church
      The domed ceiling, made from reinforced concrete, is lined with spotlights that illuminate various sacral functions such as the area of the altar and surrounding alcoves filled with religious artworks.
      A rectangular cutout in the ceiling also fills the room with natural light, which is directed particularly at the centre towards the altar.

      The altar is carved from a single block of deep green stone
      While the majority of the interior has been painted white – bar the natural-wood pews – the altar is carved from a single block of deep green onyx stone, standing out from its surroundings to serve as the focal point of the space.
      The structure itself is symmetrical but every detail is asymmetrical, such as the alcoves. The altar is the only element that sits on the main axis of the building.
      Steps made of white Carrara marble lead up to the altar, which have trapezoid-shaped surfaces with rounded corners to allow gathering around the sanctuary space.

      A curved staircase leads up to the first floor
      The design and construction of The Church of Pope John Paul II was carried out with the help of the local community. The church was built mainly using donations, and was consecrated in 2019.
      The church has been shortlisted in the civic and cultural interior project category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.

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      Other projects in this category include a crematorium in Belgium designed by Rotterdam-based studio Kaan Architecten, which is made up of one rectilinear volume made from blocks of unfinished concrete.
      A museum for children in Pittsburgh has also been shortlisted in the civic and cultural interior project category, which US firm KoningEizenberg Architecture renovated from the remains of a historic library that was struck by lightning.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Robert GutowskiDesign team: Ákos Boczkó, Gáspár Bollók, Barnabás Dely-Steindl, Hunor László Kovács, István Kövér, Attila Révai, Béla Ákos SzokolayArtworks: Csaba Ozsvári, István Böjte HorváthLandscape design: Attila PállEngineering: Zoltán Klopka, András Lantos, Gáspár Sándor, Gellért Mérő, János MészárosPhotography: Tamás Bujnovszky

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      i29 completes colourful revamp of Felix Meritis building in Amsterdam

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      Design studio i29 referenced the rich past of Amsterdam’s Felix Meritis building for the overhaul of its interiors, which now feature vivid splashes of colour. Felix Meritis is situated along the Dutch capital’s Keizersgracht canal and was built back in 1788. Although the building is now a cultural events venue, it originally served as a […] More