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Escobedo Soliz updates compact apartment in Mexico City's modernist CUPA tower
Mexican studio Escobedo Soliz has renovated a family’s residence inside a 1940s housing complex that was modelled on Le Corbusier’s Radiant City masterplan. More
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Kelly Wearstler's Malibu Surf Shack is adorned with “rustic and raw” decor
Interior designer Kelly Wearstler has transformed a 1950s beachfront cottage in Southern California into a bohemian retreat for herself and her family. More
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dMFK Architects creates nostalgic office interior in former 1960s medical lab
London firm dMFK Architects has transformed a mid-century medical laboratory into a flexible office space with smoked oak joinery and a restored concrete staircase. More
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Mid-century Melbourne apartment modernised with pistachio green kitchen
Architect Murray Barker and artist Esther Stewart worked together to retrofit this two-bedroom 1960s apartment in Melbourne’s Brunswick neighbourhood using colours and materials that pay homage to the original mid-century interior.When the current owners bought the walk-up apartment, it had been empty for 20 years and had its original decor including linoleum and carpet floors and salmon pink walls. The owners wanted to retain its character while updating the living spaces to suit modern life.
Built in 1961, the 65-square-metre apartment is split into two zones with a living space and kitchen at the front on either side of the entrance and two bedrooms on either side of a bathroom at the rear.A skylight lets light into the kitchen
“The apartment’s layout was typical of many apartments of this typology, with a clear division between living and private spaces and with frontage on two sides,” Barker told Dezeen.
“We wanted to retain room divisions, but at the same time improve connections, extend sightlines and bring more natural light into the kitchen.”Austin Maynard Architects adds steel-and-glass extension to brick cottage in Melbourne
The apartment’s original large windows provided ample natural light and effective cross ventilation. The owners felt that the existing kitchen, however, felt disconnected from the living room as the space was too confined to accommodate a dining table and lacked adequate natural light.
To remedy this, Barker and Stewart reconfigured the plan to improve the connection between the living room and the kitchen.The Pistacho-coloured kitchen has a terrazzo floor
The dividing walls between the two rooms were partially demolished and joinery elements were inserted to reorder circulation paths between the home’s central entrance, the reoriented kitchen and the living room.
“We expanded the use of integrated joinery, considered existing proportions and details, and the use of high quality, robust but interesting materials,” said Murray.The interior of the cabinets is a rich terracotta colour
The new kitchen layout has an L-shaped plan that is open to the living area and anchored by a custom-made steel frame table with a Rosa Alicante marble top and fixed banquette seating.
Visible from the living room, a long kitchen countertop made from the same red marble as the table completes the L-shaped kitchen plan and incorporates a stove, oven and sink.Red marble was used across the work- and tabletops
A skylight above the kitchen table lets sunlight into the space through thick glass roof tiles. The ceiling is insulated and the roof window is double-glazed to minimise additional heat gain and to retain winter warmth.
Murray and Stewart selected the pistachio green colour for the joinery in a nod to the original 1960s-era kitchen that it replaced. Details include visible framing around doors and drawers and custom finger pulls. Sliding-pocket doors reveal a hidden appliance area in the pantry to hold a toaster, kettle and coffee machine.Barker and Stewart retained the apartment’s original 1960s bathroom
The apartment’s bathroom is the 1960s original and features speckled flooring, dusty pink tiles and baby blue sanitaryware.
“Each apartment in the block has a unique toilet, bath and sink set in contrasting colour palettes, in combination with unique terrazzo flooring in the bathroom,” Murray explained. “The interior materiality was specific and robust but enthusiastic and this was something we wished to explore and elaborate upon.”
The terrazzo floor tiles that are used across the rest of the apartment were salvaged excess stock from a larger project and were chosen to complement the original floors.The apartment is housed in a typical red brick complex
“These buildings are visually robust, but there is beauty in the material nuance of the brown brick and subtle ornamentation through the considered design of ordinary things,” he continued. “The original interior aesthetic was far from white walls and plain tiles.”
Last year, London studio Archmongers renovated a duplex mid-century flat in one of the city’s most well-known housing estates, using shades of red, yellow and blue to complement the modernist material palette. Meanwhile in Rome, Italian architecture office La Macchina Studio renovated a 1950s apartment, revealing original terrazzo floors and adding bold colours.
Photography is by Benjamin Hosking.Read more: More
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Archmongers uses primary colours to revive a home in the modernist Golden Lane Estate
London studio Archmongers has renovated a duplex flat in one of the city’s most influential housing estates, using shades of red, yellow and blue to complement the modernist materials palette.The three-bedroom home is located within Hatfield House on the Golden Lane Estate, a complex designed and built in the 1950s by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, the same architects responsible for the Barbican.
The renovation celebrates the original design of the Golden Lane flat
Archmongers’ refurbishment is designed to celebrate the flat’s key features – the bright and open living spaces, the efficient organisation of spaces, and material details like the terrazzo stairs and tiled surfaces.
Referencing historic photos of original Golden Lane flats, architects Margaret Bursa and Johan Hybschmann sought to reinstate details that had been removed or covered over in an earlier remodelling, which they described as “mundanely neutral”.Wooden frames create subtle separation between kitchen and living spaces
The architects added chunky wooden frames to recreate separation between the kitchen and lounge space, without losing the visual connection.
Bespoke steel storage cabinets were installed, while original hardwood window frames and parquet flooring were uncovered.Details are picked out in primary colours
“The biggest change was, in many ways, bringing it back to what it once was,” Hybschmann told Dezeen. “Not because we had to, but because it made a lot of sense.”
“The original palette of materials felt very modern and we wanted any new element or surface to be as relevant for many years to come.”These bright colours also feature in the bedrooms
Bursa and Hybschmann chose to apply primary colours to various details in the renovated flat, referencing some of the historic exterior details on the Golden Lane Estate.
Shades of red and yellow highlight the front door and entrance area. The same hues feature in the first floor bedrooms and bathroom, along with blue tones – the idea was to give every room its own colour, in a high-gloss finish.Each bedroom has its own colour
“We’ve tried as best as possible to colour match the red, yellow, blue and dark blue exterior panels of each of the blocks making up the estate,” explained Hybschmann.
“They work very well together and it’s a nice reference to bring into the interiors of the building.”The colours reference details on the building’s exterior
Other material details also help to tie spaces together. The granite surfaces in the kitchen echo the terrazzo of the staircase, while the new black quarry tiles in the kitchen match up with those in the external hallways.Studio Ben Allen makes Room for One More inside Barbican flat
The bathroom was given an upgrade too, to make it more suitable for modern living. It now includes a Japanese-style bath and a walk-in shower, with a new internal window that allows more daylight in.
The home is brought to life by the addition of the clients’ midcentury furniture and large book collection.The bathroom was updated with a Japanese-style bath and walk-in shower
Archmongers has previously worked on other modernist refurbishments, in the Barbican and The Ryde in Hertfordshire, along with various council houses in London. The architects’ ongoing aim is to show the inherent potential in these midcentury buildings.
“Being able to work on another of London’s iconic modernist estates was a privilege,” added Bursa.
“Our experience helped us to deliver spaces sympathetic to the original vision while also creating a home that will intrigue, invite exploration, and provide opportunities for people to discover, enjoy, and deepen their engagement with modernist architecture.”
Photography is by French + Tye.Read more: More
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Retroscena is a colourful apartment renovation by La Macchina Studio
Italian architecture office La Macchina Studio has renovated a 1950s apartment in Rome, revealing original terrazzo floors and adding bold colours.Set in the Italian capital’s Appio Latino quarter, the mid-century one-bedroom apartment already had Venetian stone floors.
The original terrazzo floors have been restored
La Macchina Studio uncovered them and enlisted local craftsmen to restore the terrazzo, while the apartment was transformed into a “surreal set where reality and fiction coexist in a quasi-theatrical scene”.
“With Retroscena, we wanted to enhance the irreverent and surreal nature of the architectural story,” said studio founders Gianni Puri and Enrica Siracusa.
“It is inextricably linked to its photographic alter-ego by playing with colour contrasts, graphic motifs and unexpected incursions.”Pops of primary colour stand out against white walls
Walls and certain elements have been painted bright white, to create a neutral backdrop for the graphic pops of colour.
An arched doorway and a low, midcentury-style cabinet in the living area are painted a matching bright blue.A blue-painted wooden doorway leads to the bedroom
A pair of zesty lemon-yellow fabric curtains can be pulled across to separate the living area from the kitchen diner and screen off the door to the balcony.
The arching doorway juts out almost a metre from the wall, screening the kitchen furniture from the view of the hallway. The blue-lacquered wood marks the entrance to the bedroom.Yellow curtains can screen the living room off
A red wall-hanging placed above the sofa marks another splash of primary colour.
Another doorway set flush to the wall opens to reveal the two-room bathroom. In the first room, a bath and shower are all surrounded by square ceramic white tiles, set in dark grouting to create a graphic check mosaic.White square tiles form a check mosaic in the bathroom
A pointy arched doorway leads to the second half of the bathroom, where a toilet and a bidet face each other across a sink, which is framed by the arch.Studio Strato creates cosy reading den in renovated Rome apartment
Peacock-blue enamelled walls and a dimmable ring light mirror above the sink add to the theatrical styling of the bathroom.
An arched doorway frames the sink
In the bedroom, the floor has a ruddy hue, the result of a brick-red micro cement treatment applied by La Macchina Studio. A low-hanging orb-style pendant light and peach velvet curtains create a softer aesthetic.
Pinkish cement flooring also differentiates the entryway. Built-in white wardrobes in the hallway conceal a hidden room that is used as a study.The bedroom has a micro cement floor
La Macchina Studio was founded by Puri and Siracusa in 2013 and is based in Rome.
More exciting Roman apartment renovations include a flat with terracotta-coloured walls and an apartment with a reading den visible through a porthole-style cutout.
Photography is by Paolo Fusco.Read more: More
Debaixo do Bloco Arquitetura remodels 1960s Brasília apartment
Brazilian studio Debaixo do Bloco Arquitetura has opened up the layout of an apartment in Brasília built in the 1960s to meet a family’s contemporary requirements.The remodelled apartment is located in residential building 308S in Brasília’s model superquadra, one of the first completed apartment blocks of the urban design scheme conceived by architect Lucio Costa and landscape architect Burle Marx.
Local studio Debaixo do Bloco Arquitetura reconfigured the apartment’s standard layout, which split the main living areas into two separate spaces.
In the updated floor plan the exposed concrete walls are cut open to form a single, shared space for the family to gather.
The studio was careful to preserve modernist design elements in the apartment, including its granilite flooring and white cobogo screens.
“The project is summed up in an exaltation of the Brazilian architecture lighting what is most typical in the city’s residences and buildings while joining the modernist and contemporary office technologies and references,” said the studio.Black cabinetry with corrugated glass doors contrasts with the white countertops in the kitchen. Natural light passes through the square cut-outs on the cobogo wall to brighten the narrow space.
In the living room low-lying wood shelving units wrap around the space forming a bench in front of the large windows and a surface for storing objects along the interior wall. The lounge is furnished with a grey couch and wood tables.Bloco Arquitetos reconfigures 1960s Brasília apartment with translucent walls
In the dining area and library, a massive wooden bookshelf is stacked with books and audio equipment.
Three doorways that lead to the bedrooms and bathroom are concealed within the unit, which the studio custom-built.In the master bedroom, the backside of the shelf forms a decorative wall of wood panelling. Opposite the large windows, a row of black doors creates a closet that doubles as a doorway to enter the bathroom situated between the two bedrooms.
Walls in the shared bathroom are clad with vertically-laid green tiles. A large rectangular mirror hangs above the wood vanity, which is topped with two circular sink basins.The existing cobogo screen and concrete wall from the kitchen continue into the second bedroom. In this bedroom the closet is covered with a series of mirrors that reflect the space’s wood furnishings and the decorative window treatment.
Several of the wood furniture pieces in the apartment are designed by Debaixo do Bloco Arquitetura architect Clay Rodrigues. The studio also cut a hole into the cobogo wall so the client’s cats could access their litter box.Brazilian studio Bloco Arquitetos also renovated an apartment on the same building block in Brasília. As part of the remodel the studio added sliding translucent glass walls.
Other projects by Debaixo do Bloco Arquitetura, which translates to English as Under the Block, include an abandoned hospital transformed into a contemporary art gallery.
Photography is by Joana France.Read more: More
Athena Calderone revitalises her Long Island home with plaster walls and vintage finds
New York designer Athena Calderone has renovated her mid-century home in the Long Island town of Amagansett with plaster walls, linen fabric, marble and second-hand finds. Calderone originally redesigned the house when she purchased it in 2009 with the help of her neighbour, Paul Masi, the founder of local firm Bates Masi Architects. Ten years […] More
