Renovations

Subterms

    More stories

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in Rooms

      Studio Okami Architecten exposes brutalist skeleton of Antwerp apartment

      by

      Belgian studio Studio Okami Architecten has renovated a duplex apartment in the brutalist Riverside Tower in Antwerp, allowing its original concrete structure to take centre stage.

      The project was led by and designed for Bram Van Cauter, founding partner of Studio Okami Architecten, who lives there with his partner, art collector Doris Vanistendael.
      Studio Okami Architecten has renovated a duplex apartment in AntwerpRiverside Tower is a 20-storey apartment building positioned in the bend of the river Scheldt, completed by architects Leon Stynen & Paul De Meyer in the 1970s.
      The 230-square-metre apartment is on the thirteenth and fourteenth floors of the building, three storeys above the Studio Okami Architecten office. The couple also owns a duplex in the same building, which contains a guest suite and Vanistendael’s art gallery named Soon.
      The apartment is located in the brutalist Riverside TowerStudio Okami Architecten’s first step of the renovation was to tear down the walls of the apartment and strip away all the surface coverings.

      While revealing the concrete structure of the apartment, this transformed its layout from a five-bedroom dwelling to a lofty open-plan space with a single bedroom.
      All of its concrete surfaces were exposed”With the Riverside Tower being a brutalist building, it seemed logical to strip the apartment to the bare concrete, showing the space in its most honest and raw form,” Van Cauter told Dezeen.
      “Removing the walls allows for unobstructed views over the city,” the architect added. “Being childfree, an open-plan space was a logical choice.”
      A sculptural kitchen island was added. Photo is by Matthijs van der BurgtA few brick walls in the dwelling were retained but covered with cement mixed with small stones, creating a finish that matches the original concrete structure.
      To counterbalance the rough concrete surfaces, a peach-hued resin floor has been added alongside plants and artworks hung from existing holes in the concrete.
      A pastel blue staircase links the two floors of the duplex”The aim was to balance out the rough concrete by adding colourful elements to the space,” Van Cauter explained. “The artworks, furniture and plants all combine to create a homey atmosphere.”
      Double-height pivoting windows also brighten the space by providing natural light and views out over the river and a neighbouring forest.
      Pops of colour contrast with the concreteOn the lower floor of the apartment is an open-plan kitchen and dining area. Above it is the living room, bedroom and home office.
      The apartment’s upper level, which is intended to feel more secluded than the floor below, is arranged around a technical block containing the bathroom, storage and utility facilities.
      The upper level contains more private spaces”The duplex setup creates a special division between the downstairs entertainment area and the more private upstairs functions like a home office, living and bedroom,” Van Cauter explained.
      Linking the two levels is a pastel blue spiral staircase, chosen to stand out against the concrete. It was welded and painted in place due to the limited size of the tower’s circulation areas.

      Studio Goss exposes concrete shell of converted Melbourne apartment

      The pastel colour palette continues in the bathroom, which is lined with smooth peach pink surfaces.
      These surfaces ensure the bathroom is watertight, but they also create a sharp contrast with the rough concrete beams overhead.
      Rietveld Crate Chairs are among the furnishingsStudio Okami Architecten chose a mixture of contemporary vintage furnishings to complete the apartment. Among the classic furniture are the patchwork De Sede DS88 sofa and Rietveld Crate Chairs, while contemporary pieces include a Long Table by Muller Van Severen and a red Bold chair by Big-Game.
      There are also a series of bespoke elements, including the kitchen island, designed by Studio Okami Architecten to resemble “a sculpture in the room when out of use”. This is teamed with cabinetry that references the work of American artist Donald Judd.
      A pastel pink bathroom features upstairsOther apartment renovations featured on Dezeen that are located in brutalist buildings include a New York residence by General Assembly in a 1970s tower block and a flat at the Barbican estate in London that Takero Shimazaki Architects infused with Japanese details.
      Alongside the Riverside Tower apartment renovation, Studio Okami Architecten also recently completed a brick and concrete home that is embedded into a sloping hillside in Belgium.
      The photography is by Olmo Peeters unless stated.

      Read more: More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in Rooms

      Patricia Urquiola turns Michigan’s Haworth Hotel into a “design showcase”

      by

      European brands intermingle with furniture from US company Haworth in a Michigan hotel that has been reimagined by Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola.

      The Haworth Hotel is housed within a multi-level brick building in downtown Holland, a small city along Lake Macatawa. The hotel sits within the campus of the private school Hope College.
      The historic Haworth Hotel in Michigan was renovated by Patricia UrquiolaThe renovation was backed by the Haworth family, which owns the office furniture brand by the same name. The hotel is meant to accommodate visitors to the company’s global headquarters in Holland, along with visitors to the college.
      “The hotel was completely redone as part of a large initiative to turn a campus hotel into a design showcase while enhancing the guest experience,” the company said.
      The staircase is made of bent metal and oakTo revitalise the hotel, the company turned to Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola, who runs a studio in Milan. Urquiola has created several products for Haworth, including a sofa and pouf, and has a knack for balancing “warmth, playfulness, sophistication and multiple brand experiences”.

      For the hotel project – Urquiola’s first in the US – the designer was charged with creating a distinctive space that is both durable and comfy.
      The hotel lobby has furniture brands like CappelliniThe property contains 48 guest rooms, a range of meeting spaces, a fitness centre and a newly added coffeeshop that is open to the public. There also is a ballroom that doubles as a student dining space.
      Guests step into a bright lobby featuring pale wooden flooring and white walls. Daylight streams in through street-facing windows.
      The accent wall of the dining room is clad in white oakA centerpiece of the lobby is a wide, spiral staircase made of bent metal and oak. The stair rises up from a podium with geometric tile designed by Urquiola for Mutina.
      Just off the entrance is a lounge space fitted with furniture from Cappellini, Cassina, Poltrona Frau and Haworth. Underfoot is a grey rug from Gan, a division of Gandia Blasco.

      Palisociety and North 45 Projects return grand Portland hotel to its original use

      Similar brands are featured in other areas of the hotel.
      For instance, a room with powder blue walls is fitted with poufs and stools from Haworth, Cappellini tables made of terrazzo and faux marble, and a modular sofa system designed by Urquiola for Haworth. Affixed to the walls are disc-shaped lighting fixtures from Pablo Designs.
      Meeting rooms were part of the renovation of the Haworth HotelIn a dining area, the designer placed tables and chairs from Cassina and a Big Shadow lamp by Marcel Wanders for Cappellini. An accent wall is clad in white oak.
      Guest rooms are intended to foster relaxation. Furnishings include Haworth poufs and chairs, bedside sconces by Louis Poulsen, and millwork designed by Urquiola and fabricated by Cassina Contract.
      The rooms include millwork designed by Urquiola”The Haworth Hotel is a blend of residential and commercial solutions – durable enough to withstand years of accommodating guests and with a vibe that feels like home,” the team said.
      Other interior design projects by Patricia Urquiola include a Maggie Centre for cancer care in Barcelona that has a bright and homely atmosphere. The building was designed by Benedetta Tagliabue of EMBT.
      The photography is by Haworth Hotel.
      Project credits:
      Interior design: Studio UrquiolaArchitectural design: GMB Architecture + EngineeringGeneral contractor: Owen-Ames-Kimball

      Read more: More

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Rooms

      Nintendo's former HQ to reopen as hotel designed by Tadao Ando

      by

      Japanese architect Tadao Ando has transformed a building that was once home to video game giant Nintendo into a boutique hotel.

      Due to open on 1 April, Marufukuro Hotel will be located in Kyoto in a building that was occupied by Nintendo between 1933 and 1959, when the company was called Yamauchi Nintendo.
      At the time, the company was a manufacturer of Japanese playing cards called “hanafuda” and Western-style playing cards called “karuta” and “toranpu”.
      The building was home to Nintendo from 1933 to 1959Located in the Kagiyacho neighbourhood, just north of Kyoto railway station, the building has been unoccupied ever since Nintendo vacated it.
      Ando has renovated and extended the old structure, converting it into an 18-room hotel including a restaurant, bar, spa and gym.

      The building’s exterior has remained largely unchanged, retaining elements such as old Yamauchi Nintendo entrance plaques and window grilles patterned with details from the old playing cards.
      Ando’s task was to reimagine the building’s interior but incorporate many of its original 1930s details, which include decorative tiling and art-deco lighting fixtures.
      Art-deco details are retained in the renovationFor the annex, the architect has adopted a more modern approach with floor-to-ceiling windows and elements in raw concrete, the material he is famous for.
      Photos of the completed Marufukuro Hotel have so far been kept under wraps, but the hotel is already taking bookings and has released some visuals showing layout and furniture details in the guest rooms.

      Ace Hotel Kyoto reveals interiors designed by Kengo Kuma and Commune

      Guests can choose to stay in either the old or new parts of the building, in rooms ranging in size between 33 and 79 square metres.
      The project is backed by property developer Plan Do See.
      Tadao Ando converted the existing building into an 18-room hotelAndo is among Japan’s most prolific architects. Awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1995, his best-known projects include Church of the Light and Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum.
      Recent projects include the renovation of the Bourse de Commerce building in Paris, which proved controversial, and art centre Casa Wabi in Mexico.
      It was recently announced that Ando is designing a Palm Springs home for reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

      Read more: More

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Rooms

      Takk perches communal bedroom on stilts in Madrid apartment renovation

      by

      Spanish architecture studio Takk has pulled back the walls of an apartment in Madrid to create an outdoor terrace alongside an insulated space that contains a bedroom on stilts.

      Takk removed all of the 110-square-metre flat’s interior walls to create a new 60-square-metre space enclosed with insulated pinewood walls, dubbed the winter house.
      This space contains an open-plan kitchen and living room as well as a self-enclosed bedroom perched on stilts, which is designed to be shared by a couple and their young daughter.
      Takk has pulled back the walls of a Madrid apartment to divide it into two spacesBoth the bedroom and the flat’s new exterior walls are made from low-carbon, heat-retaining materials, with pinewood frames sourced from Spain’s famed winemaking region of La Rioja and insulation made from duvets and charred cork.
      Takk nested the spaces in the winter house inside each other like the “layers of an onion” to retain heat and conserve energy during the colder months.

      Alongside the apartment, the studio created an exterior terrace by relocating the external walls and removing the previous north-facing windows.
      The apartment’s self-enclosed bedroom is raised on stiltsNamed the summer house, this space is connected to the inner areas of the home by sliding glass doors.
      According to the studio this arrangement eliminates the need for air-conditioning by passively cooling the interior and helping to lower the apartment’s carbon emissions in operation.
      Its door is hidden inside a book shelf”Climate change will modify all the routines of our existence,” Takk co-founder Mireia Luzárraga told Dezeen. “The way we think and build our environments should also adapt to this new situation.”
      “The project tests possible ways of organising a house to minimise energy consumption while using materials with a low carbon footprint.”
      From the outside, the door leading to the apartment looks like any other in the residential block. But on the interior of the flat, the entrance is hidden inside a built-in shelving system that runs along one side of the winter house.
      Surfaces throughout the apartment are clad in cork insulationA similar storage wall is mirrored on the other side of the open-plan space, forming a low counter that functions as a kitchen worktop on one side and a dining table and work desk on the other.
      Like most surfaces in the winter house, this is almost entirely clad in blackened cork panelling, which stores carbon and holds onto heat in the winter due to its colour and porous structure.
      In contrast, the summer house external space is finished with cement mortar, which doesn’t hold onto heat from the sun during the warmer months.
      An open-air terrace lies beyond the apartment’s pinewood wallsThis outdoor area consists of a narrow plant-filled porch that runs along the apartment’s entire north-facing wall to maximise natural light.
      At one end, it opens up into a covered terrace, separated from the interior by a pinewood wall with a row of tall vertical vents that can be opened to create a through-draft.
      In summer, the space can be shielded from the sun by an aluminium-foil thermal curtain normally used in greenhouses, while folding glass doors allow it to be turned into a kind of winter garden once temperatures drop.
      A communal outdoor bathtub is hidden behind a sheer pink curtainOn the other side of the folding doors lies a balcony housing a speckled bathtub, which is shielded from view only by a sheer pink gossamer curtain.
      This bathroom is designed to be used only in summer and by multiple members of the family at the same time, much like the open-plan living area and bedroom.

      Ten buildings on stilts that raise the stakes

      “The aim is to test the benefits, both energetic and emotional, of sleeping, playing or working together,” said Takk’s other half Alejandro Muiño.
      “In the past, rooms used to be bigger because they were communal and easier to heat. We want to recover this popular knowledge that was forgotten due to the emergence of cheap energy.”
      Vents in one of the terrace’s walls can be opened to create a draftThe stilted bedroom is the warmest part and the centrepiece of the home contained within the cork-panelled winter house and fitted with an extra layer of insulation in the form of duvets.
      These are strapped to the outside of the pinewood box alongside garlands of fake flowers, while huge stones from a quarry outside Madrid dangle from the ceiling, acting as a structural counterweight to prevent the thin wooden panel from bending.
      On the inside, the bedroom is entirely panelled in pinewood and split over two levels.
      The pinewood bedroom has two different levels”The advantages of sleeping together are countless, both for climatic and energy-saving reasons and for the reinforcement of emotional links,” Takk explained.
      “Elevating the bedroom also allows the kitchen to be more present in the daily routine of the residents because it is visible from any part of the house, which helps fight the gender and class cliches associated with these kinds of spaces.”
      The bedroom is fronted by sliding glass doorsAlthough elevated rooms such as this are rarely found in interiors, a number of architects have raised entire homes up on stilts in a bid to tread lightly on their surrounding environment.
      Dezeen has rounded up 10 of the most impressive examples, from a cork-clad cabin above a tidal salt marsh to a summer house perched on the rocky edge of a Norwegian island.
      The photography is by José Hevia.

      Read more: More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in Rooms

      Gisbert Pöppler designs Berlin apartment like a “tailor-made suit”

      by

      Architecture and interior design studio Gisbert Pöppler has overhauled an apartment in the heart of Berlin, adding a number of one-off furnishings and custom fixtures to suit the clients’ needs.

      The apartment, which was renovated from top to bottom, occupies a glass pavilion on the roof of a 1930s residential building in the borough of Mitte.
      Gisbert Pöppler has renovated a Berlin apartment and opened up its floor plan”In this project, our clients gave us a lot of freedom,” said Gisbert Pöppler, the studio’s eponymous founder. “That, however, does not mean that we imposed our design and taste on them.”
      “A good design is like a tailor-made suit,” he added. “It should fit perfectly without being the centre of attention.”
      Teak walls visually separate the study from the lacquered walls of the entrywayThe studio reorganised the floor plan so that the main bedroom, guest bedroom and bathroom are the only areas of the apartment that are completely closed off.

      Instead of walls, living spaces are now demarcated by different materials. In the study, surfaces are overlaid with teak while the entryway is panelled in red-lacquered wood.
      “The original plan was classic: hallway, room, room, room,” Pöppler explained. “We turned it into an open village.”
      The clients sourced the limestone used for the kitchen’s relief wallIn the kitchen, Gisbert Pöppler collaborated with the clients to design a simple geometric relief wall. This was crafted from a pale grey limestone that the owners sourced during a trip to Verona, Italy.
      The space is finished with an olive-green prep counter and mint-coloured cabinetry, both tailor-made to accommodate the owners’ selection of pots and pans.
      Bespoke storage cupboards hold the clients’ belongingsThe cane-inlaid storage cupboards that run throughout the apartment are also bespoke.
      Inside there are several shoe cubbies and shallow drawers, perfectly sized to hold the client’s array of shirts. The interior of the storage unit is lined with orange Formica, as the clients wanted it to be durable and easy to clean.

      Point Supreme Architects uses colour to define different functions in Athens apartment

      More unique details appear in the guest bathroom, which features a rounded washbasin made of white-glazed lava stone from Sicily’s Mount Etna. In contrast, dark oakwood was used to construct the basin’s base.
      The bathtub is set inside a deep wall niche clad in South American marble, with a dropped ceiling giving this space a cosier feel.
      A custom sink made from lava stone can be found in the guest bathroomThe ceiling in the living room was also lowered and covered with stainless steel panels.
      “One could assume that metal seems cool but it is the contrary,” Pöppler said. “The hazy reflections in the steel give the room a sense of height and have a comforting warmth to them.”
      Stainless steel lines the living room’s ceilingBespoke furnishings in the living room include the pentagonal white oak table in the breakfast nook and the formal wooden dining table, which Pöppler says has an “elaborately designed” underside.
      “We knew that the owner of the house often lies on the carpet listening to music, so we didn’t want him looking at a technical construction,” he said.
      The dining table was also made bespokeGisbert Pöppler isn’t the only studio to forgo off-the-shelf furnishings in its projects. Dutch practice i29 recently created a custom storage system for an Amsterdam apartment to accommodate the client’s extensive compilation of artworks and books.
      And in San Francisco, architect Jamie Bush filled a residence with an eclectic mix of custom furniture and vintage finds to make it look as if the owners had collected the pieces themselves.
      The photography is by Robert Rieger.

      Read more: More

    • 75 Shares179 Views

      in Rooms

      Vives St-Laurent creates tactile Montreal home

      by

      Interior design studio Vives St-Laurent has remodelled a family house in Montreal, Canada, using a grey colour palette, quartzite stone and white-oak furniture to create an interior that highlights the building’s architectural elements. More