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    Plus One Architects uncovers original paintwork of 100-year-old Czech apartment

    Prague studio Plus One Architects has restored the “original splendour” of this 1902 apartment in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, by reinstating some of its original features.

    Located in a turn-of-the-century apartment block, the two-bedroom flat was renovated by Plus One Architects, who exposed the original paintwork present on the walls and ceilings.
    The Karlovy Vary Apartment features minimal furnishingsThe studio also streamlined the circulation inside the apartment by removing doors to open up pathways, as well as undoing dated additions that had been installed over the top of the original walls and floors.
    “We think the first renovation was probably done in the late 70s,” architect Kateřina Průchová told Dezeen. “It was full of wooden cladding on the walls, a lot of doors and carpet that covered the original floors.”
    Transom windows let light flood through the roomsThe revamped interior has a bright, airy atmosphere, as natural sunlight comes in through the large unobstructed windows and continues deeper into the rooms thanks to the addition of transom windows on some of the interior walls.

    Remnants of colourful mottled paintwork appear on the walls and ceilings alongside brown and beige sections of plaster.
    Mottled blue and yellow paintwork decorates the primary bedroomNeutral-coloured paint and plasterwork feature in the kitchen and living room, where Plus One Architects retained the apartment’s original masonry heater clad in glossy brown tiles.
    Painted details are also apparent on the ceiling, with concentric bands of red, blue and yellow delineating the perimeter of the room.
    Doors were removed to improve the flow between spacesPink paint appears in the corridor and smaller bedroom while blue paintwork can be seen in the primary bedroom, complementing the restored wooden floorboards.
    In the bathroom, white tiling lines the walls, interspersed with iridescent tiles and sections of exposed paintwork.

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    The rooms are sparingly furnished, allowing the paintwork to be the interior’s focal point.
    Plus One Architects brought in furniture with minimalist forms by Czech design studio Janský & Dunděra alongside decorative pieces from local design brand Todus.
    The bathroom is fitted with white flooring, tiling and fixtures”I hope we managed to return the apartment to the original splendour of the period, in which the house was built,” said Průchová.
    “You can feel how the building looks from the outside – it is an old house in the historic part of a spa town.”
    The kitchen and dining room overlook neighbouring rooftopsKateřina Průchová and Petra Ciencialová founded Plus One Architects in 2019. The studio is based in Prague and works on projects across the Czech Republic.
    Other apartment interiors that have recently been featured on Dezeen include a home in Milan centred around a monolithic green marble partition wall and a pastel-decorated apartment in Kraków.
    The photography is by Radek Úlehla.

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    Ideas of Order selects bright colours for New York apartment renovation

    Bright hues define the different interventions that New York architecture studio Ideas of Order has made in this apartment at the northern tip of Manhattan.

    The 1,000-square-foot primary residence in Hudson Heights was partially renovated for a couple, who had been living in the space for several years before deciding to invest in making it better suited to their needs, rather than buying another apartment.
    One side of this Manhattan apartment was overhauled by Ideas of Order to make it function better for its owners”Their sons had been sharing a room, but were beginning to need their own spaces,” Ideas of Order told Dezeen.
    “They also wanted a space that could be designed for flexibility for when their children left for college.”
    In the newly created bedroom, a lime green built-in houses a bed, a desk and storageThe kitchen also needed updating, to make it more suitable for entertaining, and more efficient storage space was required in the entryway.

    So the architects reworked one side of the open living area, adding a bedroom on one side of the kitchen and refreshing the other areas.
    A new wall divides the bedroom from the kitchenThe husband is French, and the couple spent several years living together in France.
    During this period, they both became enamoured by the midcentury architecture and design in the country and wanted to apply this style to their own home.
    Raspberry and periwinkle cabinets surround the cooking area, which also features aluminium panels”Inspired by their stories and the history of how colour was used by French midcentury designers like Charlotte Perriand, we suggested a series of polychrome millwork pieces inspired by Perriand’s design language, but updated for a contemporary home,” said Ideas of Order.
    The different areas of the home were therefore given their own identities by applying bright hues.
    A porthole looks through from the bedroom into the kitchen, which has rubber flooringLime green is used in the bedroom across a full wall of built-ins that incorporate a single bed, a workstation and plenty of storage.
    Sliding doors with fritted glass panels pull across to enclose the slightly raised room, while a porthole window with double shutters looks through the new wall that separates the kitchen.
    Storage in the entryway was made more efficient by new pink and grey built-insThis adjacent space is denoted by raspberry and periwinkle millwork, which surrounds a small preparation area with an aluminium backsplash and matching panels above.
    The same metal also fronts the bar counter between an arched opening to the living area, which is topped with concrete.
    Archways between spaces throughout the apartment have curved cornersRubber flooring in the kitchen offers a practical alternative to the wood used through the rest of the apartment.
    Finally, in the entryway – which is again raised slightly higher than the living area – an L-shaped cabinet system was constructed in a corner beside the door.

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    Pale pink is applied to the frames, while the doors and drawer fronts are finished in light grey and walnut is used for the trim. Choosing the right hues was a challenge that took many iterations to find the right balance, according to the architects.
    “It was important that each pair of colours in the millwork work together, but that the colours also harmonise when viewed as a whole,” they said. “We wanted the colours to be bright, but not overpowering. And we wanted the colour pairings to feel timeless and not too trendy.”
    The architects went through many iterations to find the right balance of coloursAnother challenge was the budget, which was modest by New York City standards and required some conscientious spending – particularly on small details that would make a big impact.
    “We love the custom pulls for the millwork, the shutters for the circular window, and the rounded end to the partition between bedroom and kitchen, which reflects the rounded openings throughout the apartment,” the architects said.
    The couple had been living in the space for several years before deciding to invest in making it better suited to their needsIdeas of Order was founded by Jacob Esocoff and Henry Ng, who are both Fosters + Partners and WORKac alumni.
    Their renovation is one of the most colourful interiors we’ve featured in New York City of late, compared to a neutral show apartment inside the One Wall Street skyscraper and a loft in Dumbo with a subdued palette.
    The photography is by Sean Davidson.

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    Sam Crawford Architects tops Sydney home renovation with “garden oasis”

    A private roof terrace enclosed by greenery features in Hidden Garden House, a Sydney home reconfigured by Australian studio Sam Crawford Architects.

    Situated within a conservation zone, the home has been updated by Sam Crawford Architects to brighten its dark interior and transform it into an urban “sanctuary”.
    An open-tread staircase has been added to the hallwayAlterations to the 198-square-metre home’s interior are first seen in its entrance, where a stair with open treads and a white-steel balustrade replaces a solid timber structure that previously restricted light from a skylight above.
    Down from the entry hall is a spacious ground-floor kitchen and dining area, which is illuminated by 4.5-metre-high glass openings that lead out to a landscaped patio. The patio is paved with limestone tiles that extend out from the interior.
    A curved concrete roof features in the kitchen”By extending the ground floor finishes through the full-width doors into the rear yard, the garden and high-level green trellises at the rear of the site form the fourth wall to the rear wing,” studio director Sam Crawford told Dezeen.

    “They create a sense of enclosure that draws the occupant’s eye up to the expanse of the sky rather than surrounding suburbia.”
    Angled timber screens and greenery ensure privacy for the bathroomA concrete ceiling in Hidden Garden House’s kitchen curves upwards to help draw in the winter sun and provide summer shading, while operable clerestory windows allow natural ventilation.
    Above, this curved ceiling forms a sloped roof terrace filled with plants, which is situated off the main bedroom on the upper floor.

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    An ensuite bathroom, also lined with limestone floor tiles, has expansive openings offering a scenic yet private bathing experience enabled by angled timber screens and the terrace’s greenery.
    “The rolling green roof serves as a visual barrier to the surrounding suburb, whilst allowing the occupants to occupy their private garden oasis,” added Crawford.
    White walls and wooden furniture feature throughout the interiorHidden Garden House’s consistent material palette of bright white walls and wooden furniture ties its living spaces together, while decorative square tiles line both the kitchen and bathrooms.
    Curved details, such as the patio’s shape and the kitchen island and splashback, also feature throughout.
    The home aims to be an urban “sanctuary”Other alterations that were made to improve Hidden Garden House’s layout include the relocation of entrances to the ground floor laundry room and bathroom.
    Elsewhere, Sam Crawford Architects has also created a restaurant topped with an oversized steel roof and a bridge modelled on the curving shape of eels.
    The photography is by Tom Ferguson.
    Project credits:
    Architect: Sam Crawford ArchitectsBuilder: TokiStructural engineer: Cantilever EngineersCivil & hydraulic engineer: PartridgeAcoustic engineer: Acoustic LogicHeritage consultant: Damian O’Toole Town PlanningQuantity Surveyor: QS PlusLandscape design: Gabrielle Pelletier, SCARoof garden supplier: Fytogreen Australia

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    Eight well-designed sheds and outbuildings that extend the home

    This week’s lookbook explores eight clever shed and outbuilding interiors, ranging from self-built renovations to finely crafted new builds.

    By repurposing rundown sheds and garages or capitalising on extra garden space, these projects offer additional room for hobbies, workspaces, living quarters or simply respite for their owners.
    Among this list of projects is a bold-coloured garage renovation hosting a work area and greenhouse in Norwich, UK, as well as a scenic timber outbuilding designed for recreation and socialising for a retired couple in Lillehammer, Norway.
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes created on a budget, living rooms with industrial material palettes and airy and pared-back loft conversions.
    Photo by Simon KennedyThe Orangery, UK, by McCloy and Muchemwa

    Original blockwork walls were retained in this self-build renovation of a dilapidated garage by London-based studio McCloy and Muchemwa.
    An orange, timber roof structure was matched with furniture in the same colour throughout the interior, which contains a storage area, hobby zone and workbench along with a well-lit greenhouse clad in polycarbonate.
    Find out more about The Orangery ›
    Photo by ZAC and ZACGrange Garage Studio, Scotland, by Konishi Gaffney
    This 1950s garage conversion by Konishi Gaffney, adjacent to an existing Georgian property, houses an artist’s music studio and features a rhythmic facade made from wooden battens.
    The space has a calm and refined material palette, with dark-stained furniture used to match the wooden beams in the studio’s interior.
    Find out more about Grange Garage Studio ›
    Photo by Rafael SoldiShed-O-Vation, US, by Best Practice Architecture
    Best Practice Architecture renovated this outbuilding in Seattle to host an office and small gym as an expansion of the property’s main house.
    Black synthetic rubber was used to cover the interior floor and one side of the room’s walls, while the remaining walls were lined with birch plywood along with a boldly coloured workspace.
    Find out more about Shed-O-Vation ›
    Photo by Chris SnookThe Light Shed, UK, by Richard John Andrews
    The Light Shed is a 12-metre-square, multifunctional shed designed and built by architect Richard John Andrews and an assistant in just 21 days to house Andrews’ architecture studio in his back garden.
    The interior is lined with plywood providing shelving and desk space for two to three people. The studio also doubles as a space for hosting functions and gatherings.
    Find out more about The Light Shed ›
    Photo by Knut BryBarn House, Norway, by Jon Danielsen Aarhus
    Replacing an existing run-down outbuilding, Barn House in Lillehammer, Norway, was designed by Jon Danielsen Aarhus to create a space in which a retired couple can paint, garden and host friends.
    An all-red entrance hall is followed by a timber interior. The building contains a brightly lit art studio upstairs and a gardening room and garages on the lower floor.
    Find out more about Barn House ›
    Photo by Jean-Philippe DelageEton Accessory Building, Canada, by Motiv Architects
    Made from cross-laminated timber (CLT), Eton Accessory Building by Canadian studio Motiv Architects is a 30-square-metre workshop connected to the owners’ home via a garden.
    Hard-wearing flooring and evenly distributed skylights create an industrial-style workspace. A CLT mezzanine is used for additional storage.
    Find out more about Eton Accessory Building ›
    Photo by Wai Ming NgCork Study, UK, by Surman Weston
    This cork-covered studio designed by Surman Weston provides space for sewing and music-making in the back garden of a London home.
    On the interior, birch plywood lines the walls, with the pale material also used to construct a central working space with built-in shelving and storage.
    Find out more about Cork Study ›
    Photo by Willem-Dirk du ToitBroadway, Australia, by Foomann
    Replacing an old garage, this two-floor outbuilding hosts a gym, swimming pool and parking garage on the site of an Edwardian property in Melbourne.
    A refined material palette of white walls set off by wood and dark flooring works to create a relaxing, beachy feel throughout the spaces.
    Find out more about Broadway ›
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes created on a budget, living rooms with industrial material palettes and airy and pared-back loft conversions.

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    Ome Dezin restores 1960s California residence by A Quincy Jones

    US studio Ome Dezin has renovated a large mid-century home in Brentwood, California, using a tonal colour palette and maximising the lush hillside views.

    The six-bedroom 12221 Benmore residence was designed and constructed in 1960 by notable local architects A Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmon.
    Natural materials and neutral colours were chosen throughout the home to highlight the lush viewsWhen Jesse Rudolph and Joelle Kutner of Ome Dezin came to the project, it had undergone a 1990s remodel that had stripped away its character and style.
    The team made it their mission to revive the home’s original charm and connection to the outdoors, bringing in natural tones and materials.
    White oak and travertine are recurring materials, as seen in the bar area”We have always been fans of A Quincy Jones and familiar with his work, which is what prompted us to see the home initially,” the duo told Dezeen.

    “This one did not disappoint — it had the typical Quincy atrium-like living space centered across from the exterior which includes a 40-foot (12-metre) waterfall.”
    The main living spaces all flow together and have expansive views onto the gardenMany of the existing fixtures were retained, including the fixed windows and doors, wherever possible.
    To keep the focus on the views from the large windows, the interior was designed with “a more muted, streamlined aesthetic”.
    Custom pieces designed for the home include a dining table and chairs created in collaboration with Ben Willett”We wanted to ensure the intention of Quincy was intact, so we aimed for a bit of brutalism and connection with nature,” said Rudolph and Kutner. “We opted for a limited material and color palette in favour of natural tones.”
    The new white oak staircase designed for the three-storey atrium features rectangular forms and has an architectural presence, echoing the shape and style of the building.
    Large windows are found in almost every room, so the decor is kept minimal and sparse so as not to draw focusIt sits at the nexus of the living room, dining area, kitchen and bar, which all flow together and enjoy expansive views out the back of the house.
    A den adjacent to these open spaces is furnished with a variety of midcentury pieces, in keeping with the building’s history.
    Dramatically patterned Cipollino stone in the bathroom echoes the grey tones of the rocks outsideTwo types of stone were used throughout the home: travertine, which appears in the kitchen, bar area and powder room, and richly patterned Cipollino in the primary bathroom chosen to pick out the colours of the mountains visible through the windows.
    In the lower-floor bedrooms and around the fireplace, flagstones and cobblestones were laid to create a grounding quality and to connect the spaces to the rocky landscape outside and pavers around the swimming pool.

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    Custom pieces designed for the project include the dining table created with furniture designer Ben Willett, which allows all of the chairs to be tucked away neatly underneath.
    Two 10-foot-high (three-metre) doors were custom-built for the living space and feature Jean Prouvé-influenced circular window cutouts that allow light to shine through.
    The garden features a swimming pool and a 40-foot (12-metre) waterfall”We paid special attention to the lighting in the home, mostly sourcing vintage lights to add charm and character,” the design team said.
    “With such a large home, and lots of windows and tall ceilings, warm mood lighting really made the spaces feel intimate and magical, particularly in the evenings.”
    The home was designed and constructed in 1960 by A Quincy Jones and Frederick EmmonRudolph and Kutner founded Ome Dezin as a design and development studio focused on residential restoration in and around Los Angeles.
    California has no shortage of mid-century properties in need of revamping. Other recently completed examples include Studio Schicketanz’s renovation of modernist architect Henry Hill’s former seaside home, and Woods + Dangaran’s overhaul of a residence that once belonged to singer Bing Crosby’s manager.
    The photography is by Nils Timm.

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    Martin Brudnizki designs Gilded Age-interiors for The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York

    Martin Brudnizki Design Studio has designed the interiors for a 1907 Renaissance-style palazzo building in New York, which has been turned into a luxury boutique hotel by architecture studio Perkins Eastman.

    The Fifth Avenue Hotel sits on the site of what was once one of the last mansions of The Gilded Age.
    Throughout the late 19th century, the home of Charlotte Goodridge at 250 Fifth Avenue hosted receptions and musical evenings as part of New York’s social season.
    Classical fixtures contrast a contemporary colour palette in the hotel’s roomsPerkins Eastman added a 24-storey glass tower, designed with PBDW Architects, to the five-storey brick and limestone building.
    This was originally designed by McKim, Mead & White as the Second National Bank in 1907, replacing Goodridge’s 19th century home.

    Drawing on the history of the neighbourhood and heritage of the building, Martin Brudnizki Design Studio (MBDS) aimed to create an aesthetic for the new hotel that would embrace “Bohemian romanticism and the glamour of the gilded age,” while maintaining contemporary styling.
    Martin Brudnizki has employed colour and texture to reflect global travels”One of the biggest challenges was that we were working with both an existing and a new building at the same time, which each presented their own challenges architecturally,” studio founder Martin Brudnizki told Dezeen.
    “We worked with the architects to marry the historic narrative with the contemporary tower addition, which reflects New York today, and the concept of the modern traveller,” he said.
    A corner bedroom features yellow curtainsRooms feature a rich colour palette of garden greens, buttercup yellow and peony pink with gold accents.
    Bold patterns and textures jostle each other in a “harmonious and fun way, juxtaposing modernity with the classic finishings,” the designer said.
    The hotel’s walls host an extensive art collection”The intersection of interiors with architecture is so important. The mansion is a much more classical response to the history and details of the building, whilst the tower enthuses a more modern touch,” Brudnizki explained.
    “Both are unified by the choices of colours and certain furniture, fixtures and equipment that carry between the two sites.”

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    Bedrooms feature a global blend of references, including Pagoda-style table lamps, custom wardrobes informed by traditional Chinese cabinets, antique inlaid side tables, Murano glass chandeliers and star-like ceiling lights.
    The double-height entrance lobby features walls panelled with faceted antique mirrors, marble floors and grand arched windows – which echo throughout the hotel bedrooms as room dividers between sleeping and sitting areas.
    Rooms have been designed to have a residential feel”We loved the idea that all these great characters had once walked along the boulevard of Fifth Avenue and the fabulous parties hosted within the mansions of Fifth Avenue; the people and the conversations that took place,” said Brudnizki.
    “We wanted to create a space that felt as though its interiors had been brought together over time, pulling items from our muse’s travels and adventures from across the globe.”
    Antique glass panelling and modern mirrored artworks fill the double-height lobby”It is a truly eclectic and layered project that is intended to feel as though it has been around since the days of The Gilded Age,” the designer concluded.
    Other boutique hotels recently published on Dezeen include Christian Louboutin’s hotel Vermelho in Portugal and Trunk Hotel Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, by Keiji Ashizawa Design and Norm Architects.
    Photography is by William Abranowicz.

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    De Durgerdam hotel takes over 17th-century sailor’s inn on dyke outside Amsterdam

    Dutch hospitality company Aedes has pushed Amsterdam’s building restrictions to their limit to convert a heritage-listed tavern into an all-electric hotel.

    De Durgerdam hotel occupies one in a row of almost identical gabled buildings perched on a seawall on lake IJmeer, which together make up the small village of Durgerdam near Amsterdam.
    Constructed in 1664, the building originally served as an inn for sailors and fishermen, its white-painted clapboard facade acting as a beacon for boats that could pull right up to its deck in the Zuiderzee bay of the North Sea.
    De Durgerdam hotel is set on a seawall outside AmsterdamDue to recurring flooding, the village was cut off from the sea with the construction of a dam in 1932, turning the bay into a freshwater lake while the inn became a ferry terminal and later a cafe and restaurant.
    Following a five-year restoration led by Aedes, the building reopened this year as a boutique hotel with 14 rooms and interiors designed by material research studio Buro Belén.

    De Durgerdam, the first hotel to be owned and operated by the Aedes, provided an opportunity to see how far heritage restrictions could be stretched to make the building as sustainable as possible.
    The hotel occupies a former inn with a white-painted clapboard facade”What we have done in terms of sustainability is fairly innovative for a historic building of this kind,” said founder Paul Geertman. “We have pushed the boundaries as far as we could to reduce its environmental impact.”
    The 17th-century building now runs on renewable energy – provided by 32 rooftop solar panels and a green energy supplier – and its operations are entirely gas-free.
    This was made possible via meticulous insulation and four separate heat pumps, which cover all of the building’s heating and cooling needs in lieu of a traditional boiler.
    The ground-floor restaurant integrates a small lounge areaWith limited space in the old inn, the heat pumps are dotted across the garden where they are hidden in tiny outbuildings complete with gables and clapboards, which Aedes constructed especially to work around local building codes.
    “A heat pump in Amsterdam normally has to be inside of your building, otherwise you just don’t get the licence,” Aedes head of sustainability Esther Mouwen told Dezeen. “So we had to build a house around them.”
    The windows posed a similar struggle, as the municipality rarely allows the distinctive hand-blown glazing of heritage buildings to be changed.
    But Aedes was able to source an energy-efficient triple-glazed model with a pattern of tiny dots across its surface, which creates the optical illusion of looking at rippled glass.
    An Ingo Maurer chandelier hangs above a vintage sharing table in the restaurantThe renovation itself was a balancing act between changing as little as possible about the building while ensuring that it could survive for another 500 years.
    Although from the outside, the three-storey building looks almost exactly like it did when it was first constructed, large parts of its structure had to be carefully dismantled and reconstructed.
    “The building had deteriorated over time and the structural integrity had been compromised in some areas,” said Aedes marketing manager Monica Hanlo.
    “The interiors had to be carefully renovated and restructured, with beams and stones disassembled, inspected and either reused or replaced.”
    The bedrooms are finished in a moody colour paletteWhere timber could no longer serve a structural function, it was converted into floorboards alongside reclaimed wood sourced from old church pews and demolished timber houses from Austria.
    This wood was smoked for 18 hours to create a rich colour that permeates the timber rather than sitting on top like a stain, which would wear down over time and need re-upping.
    “Normally, they do not smoke it that long,” explained Buro Belén co-founder Lenneke Langenhuijsen. “Now it will patina super beautifully because all throughout, it became this really dark wood.”
    “It was important to us to make well-based decisions, maybe invest a bit more but it’s a long-lasting product that ages with the hotel and makes it even nicer over time.”

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    De Durgerdam marks the first time that Buro Belén has applied its material research approach to an entire hotel interior.
    “We did a lot of research so that the hotel also feels very grounded in what it once was, in its place,” Langenhuijsen said. “And if you look at the Zuiderzee, it was a very important part of the Netherlands, all the villages around made their living from it.”
    Layered throughout the hotel’s interior are references to this seafaring history, delivered via an eclectic mix of new, vintage and bespoke elements created by Buro Belén.
    A rusty red colour was used to highlight the building’s beamsIn the ground-floor restaurant De Mark, framed photos provide a glimpse of the inn’s evolution over the years.
    A shaggy curtain frames the lounge area near the entrance, made from traditional flax rope and raw flax fibres that were once used by local fishermen to make their nets.
    Weather permitting, patrons can dine outside on the jetty atop lake IJmeer or sit at a long sharing table that forms the centrepiece of the restaurant.
    The same colour dominates the guest bathroomsOverhead, Buro Belén suspended Ingo Maurer’s chandelier Lacrime del Pescatore – or “fisherman’s tears” – made of sparkling crystals that droop from a nylon net.
    Its name, according to Langenhuijsen, acts as a subtle reference to the plight of the local fishers, who lost their livelihoods as the village was cut off from the sea.
    Upstairs, the inn accommodates three suites and one room, accessed via the building’s untouched original staircase, which still shows the deep grooves that were worn into the wood by thousands of shoes over the centuries.
    Ten of the hotel’s 14 rooms are housed in a garden annexe added in 2006De Durgerdam’s remaining 10 rooms are housed in a garden annexe that was added to the building in 2006. All share a moody colour palette that was drawn from the craft and building traditions of the Zuiderzee.
    A rusty red colour – reminiscent of sails treated with tree-bark tannins to prevent rot – was used to highlight key architectural features like the building’s timber beams and the monochrome bathrooms.
    Similarly, the inside of the bedrooms’ Shaker-style built-in wardrobes was painted in a sky blue colour that nods to a traditional paint made from buttermilk, chalk and a particular blue pigment, historically used by locals across cupboards and box beds to repel insects.
    The hotel’s heat pumps are hidden in tiny gabled outbuildingsEven though construction is complete, Aedes is still working on reducing the hotel’s operational footprint, with the aim of getting 80 per cent of the way towards being zero waste by the end of next year.
    The company is also looking into a reliable way of offsetting the building’s whole-life carbon emissions via a reforestation scheme but has so far struggled to find a reliable company that can guarantee measurable, traceable carbon removals.
    “We’re not fans of offsetting, because we think we have to make sure we don’t create emissions,” Mouwensaid. “But it’s not possible yet.”
    Aedes has previously converted Amsterdam’s art deco Bungehuis building into a Soho House members’ club.
    The photography is by Chantal Arnts and Studio Unfolded.

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    Neuhäusl Hunal divides Sculptor’s Apartment in Prague using curved glass partitions

    Czech architecture studio Neuhäusl Hunal has renovated a prefabricated apartment in Prague, turning it into an open-plan home and workspace for sculptor and glassworker Vladimír Bachorík.

    Neuhäusl Hunal opted for curved translucent glass partitions in place of doors to divide the interior spaces and create a sense of openness and fluidity.
    U-profiled glass partitions divide the interior spacesIn order to maximise floor space, the studio removed all non-load-bearing elements, leaving just a single load-bearing concrete wall that cuts through the living and workspaces.
    Three U-profiled glass partitions were then used to enclose a cloakroom, storage space and kitchen, while the remaining floor space can be used flexibly.
    An existing load-bearing concrete wall separates the living and work spacesA centralised, curved bathroom, raised by a small platform for waste management, is similarly enclosed by translucent glass panels and protrudes into the main space.

    The bathroom interior was lined extensively with white ceramic tiles and features a walk-in shower.
    Meanwhile, matching ceramic tiles were also used in the kitchen, which doubles as a work area for the artist.
    White mosaic tiles line the kitchen and bathroom”To design the maximally open and flowing space without doors, infrastructure, besides statics, was a key constraint, which defines the location of the single-almost-enclosed space: the bathroom,” studio architect and founder David Neuhäusl told Dezeen.
    “Therefore we emphasized [the bathroom] as the most prominent element in the apartment to create a strong spatial experience,” Neuhäusl continued.

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    The interior material palette was defined by the stripped concrete wall as well as the translucent panels and ceramic tiles, set on a background of white plaster walls and grey-toned rubber flooring.
    Metal furniture and shelving was used throughout the minimalist interior, with cubic plinths used to display Bachorík’s glasswork around the space.
    Existing windows draw daylight into the interior spacesDaylight shines through the existing windows at either end of the apartment and penetrates the glass partitions to create a brightly lit interior, while carefully positioned strip lights and spotlights provide artificial lighting.
    “These translucent glass blocks of high order ensure the penetration of light and create identity of the apartment,” Neuhäusl explained.
    “Their materiality and character naturally refer to the client’s lifelong work. They can be naturally composed in curves to formulate the softly shaped partitions.”
    Metal furniture is used throughout the spaceNeuhäusl Hunal is an architecture studio founded by David Neuhäusl and Matěj Hunal in the Czech Republic.
    Other projects recently completed in the Czech Republic include a winery topped with a sweeping concrete roof and an angular black extension to a neo-gothic church.
    The photography is by Radek Úlehla.

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