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    Buckley Gray Yeoman gives Panagram office in London a “retro-pop aesthetic”

    UK architecture studio Buckley Gray Yeoman has revived a 1980s office building in Central London, creating colourful spaces using painted ductwork, translucent curtains and speckled terrazzo.The newly opened Panagram encompasses 4,830 square metres in the city’s Clerkenwell neighbourhood and offers rentable office spaces across multiple levels.

    Buckley Gray Yeoman’s renovation of the 1980s building included creating an open and informal reception area
    Using the original building’s pink granite cladding as a design cue, the team at Buckley Gray Yeoman devised a colourful scheme for the interior renovation to create a relaxed setting.
    “A retro-pop aesthetic has replaced the corporate look and feel of the building as physical and metaphorical barriers are broken down to bring about a more convivial and lively set of workspaces,” said the architecture studio.

    The foyer features subway-tiled seating but no reception desk

    To modernise the existing architecture, glazing was added along the ground floor facing Goswell Road – a thoroughfare that is home to store locations of several prominent design brands.
    Visitors enter from the street into a large open-plan foyer, furnished with custom seating elements but no traditional reception desk – hosts emerge from a behind a translucent curtain instead.

    A koi carp pond sits in the centre of the tiled bench
    The sculptural seats include a plinth clad in white New York City subway tiles, with a koi carp pond and a bright yellow steel column at its centre. Another is wrapped in leather and surrounds a ficus tree.

    Fashion Street by Buckley Gray Yeoman

    “We have tried to create an almost gallery-type space upon entry; with a series of beautiful objects set amongst planting and trees,” said Oliver Bayliss, director at Buckley Gray Yeoman.
    “These accents continue throughout the building and provide moments of joy that will hopefully lift the spirits of the people who pass through.”

    A wooden staircase with bleacher-style seating creates a multi-purpose space
    A wooden staircase that incorporates bleacher-style seating and another ficus curves down to the garden-level, combining circulation space with an informal work, meeting or auditorium area.
    Lifts illuminated with coloured lighting connect the expansive rentable office spaces on the levels above, and ductwork is painted pink and blue on alternating levels.

    Lifts to the upper office levels are illuminated with coloured lighting
    On the second floor, Buckley Gray Yeoman has designed a workspace to demonstrate the potential of Panagram’s spatial offering.
    This model office combines pale timber, soft colours and translucent materials to continue the playful aesthetic seen downstairs.

    Buckley Gray Yeoman’s showcase office for Panagram features a pale palette with pastel colours
    A casual meeting area is enclosed by a sheer yellow curtain and furnished with comfy chairs, while private booths are lined in grey felt.
    Drapes are also used to partition the wood-lined reception area and the green-themed kitchen if needed. In the bathrooms, white subway tiles are paired with tinted speckled terrazzo.

    Colour continues in the green kitchen, which can be partitioned off with a translucent grey curtain
    The open-plan office layout benefits from plenty of natural light, and is peppered with potted plants. More greenery can be found on terraces that offer City of London views.
    “It’s easy to look at a building like this and assume you have to start again,” said Bayliss.
    “We saw an opportunity to create something really different and highly sustainable. Panagram has great volume and therefore great natural light, which in turn allows the building to be extremely desirable and flexible.”

    Panagram is located in London’s Clerkenwell neighbourhood, facing onto Goswell Road
    Buckley Gray Yeoman, which has offices in London and Bristol, is known for its imaginative conversion and restoration projects. The employee-owned firm has also turned a fire-damaged former market hall in Shoreditch into Corten-clad university offices, and was profiled as part of Dezeen’s Virtual Design Festival last year.
    Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.
    Project credits:Client: DorringtonArchitect: Buckley Gray YeomanContractor: Open ContractsProject manager: Blackburn & CoStructural engineers: Heyne Tillett SteelPlanning consultant: JLLLandscape architect: SpacehubBranding and design agency: Everything In BetweenM&E consultant: Peter Deer and AssociatesQuantity surveyor: ExigereLighting Designer: Pritchard ThemisFire engineer: MLMRights of Light/Party Wall surveyor: Point2SurveyorsBuilding control: MLMBuilding app: Smart SpacesIT consultants: DP SystemsAgents: Colliers, Allsop, Richard Susskind & CompanyBuilding managers: Workman

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    Bureau de Change makes creative use of terrazzo in Frame House renovation

    London studio Bureau de Change has used different varieties of terrazzo to create a richly textured interior for a remodelled family home.Frame House is a Victorian terraced home in south London, renovated and extended by Bureau de Change for a property developer and her family.

    The ground floor of Frame House is split over three levels
    The project involved adding a rear extension, converting the loft and completing revamping the interior. But most importantly, the client wanted to give the home a distinct character and coherency throughout.
    The architecture studio achieved this with a carefully planned colour and material strategy, and through playful use of geometry.

    The lounge occupies the extended rear of the house

    “The brief was to create a coherent journey through all spaces and floors,” explained architect Billy Mavropoulos, who co-founded Bureau de Change with partner Katerina Dionysopoulou.
    “We needed a holistic design, looking at everything from the architecture of the extension, to the layouts and the way the spaces are used, down to the joinery handles and details,” he told Dezeen.
    “The client was after a rich palette of finishes and colours, but one that would feel consistently part of the same narrative.”

    Different varieties of terrazzo were chosen for different areas
    As is common with Victorian terraces, Frame House has a split-level layout that helps to make the floor plan more efficient.
    In the new layout, the ground floor is divided over three levels, comprising the kitchen, dining space and lounge. The two split-level upper storeys contain three en-suite bedrooms, a separate bathroom and a study room.
    Terrazzo was the material that Mavropoulos and Dionysopoulou chose to unite the various spaces. It is a material the pair are familiar with, having previously used it in another residential project, Folds House.

    Different shades of taupe feature on each of the ground floor levels
    Here, they decided to work with different varieties of terrazzo to give each space its own character, while subtly tying them all together.
    On the ground floor the flooring is a taupe terrazzo in three slightly different shades – one for each level. This creates a gentle transition from light to dark, starting with the kitchen at the front of the house and ending with the lounge at the rear.

    A green marble terrazzo was chosen for the staircase handrail
    “We chose them very carefully so that they are all of the same family but vary in darkness/density,” said Mavropoulos.
    “The colour difference is very subtle as we did not want the floor to take over. But when you look closely you notice the difference.”
    Other details have been picked out contrasting terrazzo varieties: a kitchen island features shades of red and black, the staircase handrails are a green marble terrazzo, and each bathroom has its own different shade.

    The master bedroom on the first floor features an en-suite with grey terrazzo
    The geometries of the design are based around the rear extension, which gives the occupants a large living space.
    Keen to avoid the 45-degree angled roof and frameless glass typical of infill extensions, the architects opted for a more cuboidal approach. Steel frames create staggered glass boxes, which Mavropoulos and Dionysopoulou liken to museum display cases.

    The new loft bedroom features an en-suite with pale terrazzo and pink walls
    “When we looked at the cascading volumes in plan and section, we felt there was an element of fragility to them, almost like a jewel stone, so we decided to make them out of glass to enhance that feel,” said Mavropoulos.
    “These distinctly cubist glass volumes are articulated through their bold steel-frame construction, expressing each edge in a manner that creates shifting patterns of light and space, and a paradoxical sense of both levity and solidity,” added Dionysopoulou.

    The terrazzo also extends into the garden, forming cascading planters
    These cascading box forms are referenced in other places, such as the proportions of the split floor levels, or the planting boxes in the garden. There’s also a glass display case in the dining area.
    Other details contribute to the personality of these spaces. The lounge room brings together a floral-patterned rug and a large cactus plant, while the dining space features a wall of shelving filled with various objects and books.
    The architects hope the result is one of “theatre and tactility”.
    Photography is by Gilbert McCarragher.
    Project credits
    Architect: Bureau de ChangeInteriors: Bureau de ChangeEngineer: SymmetrysM&E: MWLContractor: Argyll LondonLandscape: Tulip Landscapes

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    Enrique Jerez and Blanca Leal transform mid-century garage into music school

    Located in a former garage space at the base of a residential block, this school for music in the Spanish city of Burgos makes a feature of the building’s existing concrete structure.Local architect Enrique Jerez and interior designer Blanca Leal were commissioned to create the Yoglar school by a client, who wanted to create a “home” for early music and piano education.

    Classrooms in the open-plan extension are demarcated through orange vinyl flooring
    The original trapezoidal plot in which the school is located was built in 1947 along with the adjacent residential building.
    The garage faces the street while an extension with a mezzanine, which was added in 1952 to increase storage space, is located at the back. Supported by pillars, this features a barrel-vaulted concrete ceiling and covers the building’s original courtyard.

    The reception features built-in birch furniture

    Instead of dismantling this “disorganised” structure, the architects decided to leave the irregular, concrete shell almost untouched.
    As such, the 205-square-metre school is divided into two areas. The original, trapezoidal garage space is home to an entrance hall, reception desk and toilets alongside a manager’s office and the school’s largest classroom.

    The extension is nicknamed “the forest” and houses a menagerie of plants
    The former courtyard area is now nicknamed “the forest” and houses two irregularly-shaped classrooms. One of these is enclosed within a house-shaped volume, which was sound-proofed with the help of three-centimetre-thick cork panels.
    The second classroom is located within the larger open-plan space and is delineated by its orange vinyl flooring.
    A spiral staircase made from blackened steel leads up to the mezzanine level, which has retained its original function as a storage space.

    The spiral staircase is made from blackened steel
    Natural light is funnelled into the school through two sets of glass doors at the back of the space that open onto a small patio.
    The floors, walls and ceilings throughout are finished in polished concrete to bring a cohesive feel to the different spaces while enhancing the acoustics.
    The designers also added built-in birch furniture to bring some warmth to the otherwise cool concrete space.

    Primary school children create Mega Maker Lab in former London fire station

    “Our aim was to design a place both unique and functional, which could foster children’s creativity while achieving clear results in their music development from zero to 12 years,” said Jerez and Leal.

    The floors and walls are finished in polished concrete
    In the Czech Republic, architecture studios FUUZE and Public Atelier recently converted a series of old church buildings into a modern primary school with the help of brightly coloured interventions.
    The project involved building new classrooms and restoring the decaying roof trusses of the original church complex back to its former glory.
    Images are courtesy of Javier Bravo.

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    BLUE Architecture Studio adds U-shaped glass box to Shanghai coffee shop

    Beijing-based BLUE Architecture Studio has renovated the % Arabica West shop in Shanghai’s Xuhui district, adding a glass box and a courtyard to open the cafe up to the surrounding neighbourhood.The studio’s aim for the 50-square-metre renovation was to break the boundary between the commercial space and the street.
    To do so it designed a U-shaped glass box, which contains the coffee counter, till and preparation area, in place of a regular facade. The box is surrounded by a courtyard-style seating area.

    Top: a glass box instead of a facade opens the cafe up. Above: trees in the cafe courtyard make it blend in with the street

    “The space is completely opened up to form a small courtyard around a U-shaped glass box,” the studio said.
    “Curved glass doors that can be completely opened, and ground materials that extend in from the outside.”

    Customers sit on built-in cement benches
    BLUE Architecture Studio also took the minimal style of % Arabica’s shops into consideration when creating the design, which has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the restaurant interior category.
    “The use of materials continues the brand’s consistent minimalist style, using white paint and plain cement as the keynote,” BLUE co-founder and architect Shuhei Aoyama told Dezeen.
    “Green plants become the protagonist of the space, blurring the boundary between indoor and outdoor.”

    The studio used white and grey hues to create the minimalist design
    Built-in cement benches along the walls provide seating space, while green plants were used to enhance the courtyard feel and create a dialogue with the Chinese parasol trees that line the street.
    “The shops make part of their commercial space outdoor and contribute to the city street,” Aoyama said.

    The coffee shop is located in the Xuhui district in Shanghai
    “Although the commercial area of the shops is smaller, they create a rich three-dimensional street space experience, so that people’s life can truly relate to the urban space,” he added.
    An air conditioning system was installed at the outdoor lounge area, as well as an air curtain machine at the entrance, to create a “more pleasant experience” in both winter and summer.

    DooSooGoBang restaurant in South Korea references Buddhist practices

    BLUE Architecture Studio was founded by Japanese architects Yoko Fujii and Shuhei Aoyama in Beijing in 2014.
    The % Arabica West coffee shop will compete against four other restaurant interiors in the restaurant interiors awards category, including the Embers restaurant in Taipei that features a “vortex” of cedar planks and South Korea’s minimalist DooSooGoBang restaurant.
    Photography is by Eiichi Kano.

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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.

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    Century-old Japanese dwelling transformed into minimalist guesthouse

    Japanese architect Uoya Shigenori stripped back and reconfigured this 100-year-old townhouse in Kyoto to create moody and tranquil interiors for Maana Kamo guesthouse.Located in the historic Higashiyama District, the hotel was designed by Shigenori for Maana Homes, the owner of a collection of luxury retreats hidden within some of the Japanese city’s old streets.

    The main living room inside Maana Kamo guesthouse
    The goal of the renovation was to preserve and expose the dwelling’s original structure while creating a minimalist retreat for quiet contemplation.
    It has been shortlisted for the hotel and short stay interior of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2020.

    Its guestroom can be adapted into a yoga space

    “Preserving and highlighting the house’s imperfectly aged beauty is the backbone of our design philosophy,” said Maana Homes.
    “The beauty and soul of a traditional Japanese townhome is in its structural elements.”

    The kitchen has a central island covered with layers of Urushi
    Prior to the renovation, Maana Kamo was in a poor condition with unsightly vinyl wall coverings, tile ceilings and broken floorboards.
    These finishes were all removed, exposing the old house’s rough, wooden structure and original walls that are made from clay.

    A double vanity features in the new moody bathroom
    These original details have been teamed with dark, moody furnishings and subdued lighting, alongside new timber walls and floors lined with traditional straw tatami mats.
    Ornament is kept to a minimum throughout, while storage spaces for the hotel staff are disguised within the walls.

    Events space opens inside revamped century-old machiya house in Kyoto

    The lack of ornament is to ensure Maana Kamo guesthouse is “visually quiet” and free from distraction, providing occupants with space to slow down and reflect.
    It also allows rooms to be easily adapted, for example, a guest room on the second floor can be quickly converted into a space for yoga and meditation.

    The decoration is limited to a few handcrafted ornaments
    One of the biggest changes Shigenori made to the dwelling was the repositioning of the kitchen from a narrow space at the rear of the dwelling to a larger area at the front.
    This made space for a large kitchen island that is covered with layers of Urushi – a traditional Japanese lacquer made of tree sap that is water-resistant –and a wall of wooden cabinetry and shelves filled with local, handcrafted kitchenware.

    The building’s original structure clay walls are exposed throughout
    Where the old kitchen once stood, Shigenori has inserted a double-vanity bathroom with a shower that overlooks a private garden at the rear of the dwelling.
    The guesthouse is complete with an oversized Japanese-style bathtub that is accessed from the living room. It has a view out to the private garden and is intended to evoke the feeling of bathing in an onsen – a Japanese bathing facility positioned around a hot spring.

    Its old and dark wooden structure has also been revealed throughout
    In 2016, Shigenori collaborated with Masashi Koyama on the restoration of a century-old machiya house in Kyoto to create an events space. Similarly to Maana Kamo, the goal of the design was to celebrate the architecture and history of the space.
    Other projects up for short stay interior of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2020 include the small Escondido Oaxaca Hotel in Mexico by Decada and Carlos Couturier and OHLAB’s extension of a rural hotel in Mallorca.
    Photos are courtesy of Maana Homes.

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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.

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    Trahan Architects creates curving wooden balconies for Atlanta theatre

    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.

    Revolving auditorium is showpiece of Boulevard theatre by SODA

    “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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