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    Daytrip transforms east London terrace house into understated apartments

    Design studio Daytrip has taken a less-is-more approach to the renovation and extension of this Victorian terrace house in London’s Clapton, which is now home to three separate apartments.

    The 250-square-metre Reighton Road development was designed as a “minimalist sanctuary” that could act as a blank canvas for residents’ belongings.
    A two-bedroom flat takes over Reighton Road’s ground floor and two basement levels (top and above)”A good home should be flexible and speak of its owners,” explained Hackney-based Daytrip. “The ability to cultivate and populate it over time with art, objects and personal items makes the home unique.”
    The largest of the flats has two bedrooms and takes over the building’s ground floor as well as two new subterranean levels, which are illuminated by a number of lightwells.
    Another apartment is self-contained on the building’s first floor and a third occupies the second floor and a new loft extension.

    Walls in the apartment’s kitchen are finished with tadelakt plasterIn the bottom apartment, the first basement floor accommodates a pair of spacious bedrooms, both of which were finished with poured concrete floors.
    Below that, the second subterranean level is meant to serve as a versatile studio-like space, where the residents can do home workouts or indulge in artsy hobbies.
    The kitchen’s rear wall is finished with grey bricksThe ground floor houses the apartment’s main living spaces including a new kitchen suite with handleless alabaster-white cabinetry.
    Save for a grey brick wall at the rear of the room, surfaces were washed with creamy tadelakt – a traditional lime-based plaster from Morocco.
    “It’s a purposely minimal and subdued kitchen, reserving the chaos to the cooking,” the studio said.
    The living room features white-oiled oak flooring and restored cornicingAt the front of the kitchen are wide glass doors that can be slid back to access the garden.
    London-based landscape design studio Tyler Goldfinch was brought in to give the paved outdoor space a wild, textured look using tiered planters overspilling with different types of grasses.
    There is also a silver birch tree surrounded by a circular bed of pebbles.

    Daytrip digs beneath east London townhouse to create contemporary living spaces

    Unlike the rest of the apartment, the living room was finished with white-oiled oak flooring while the ceiling’s original cornicing was restored. These same features also appear throughout the other two apartments on the upper floors.
    To create a sense of cohesion, all three flats were styled by East London galleries Beton Brut and Modern Art Hire, which carefully curated a mix of Italian and Japanese furnishings for the development.
    The other apartments on the upper floors also feature white-oiled oak flooringMany of the pieces were crafted from velvet, boucle or raw timber, bringing a sense of warmth and tactility to the interiors.
    With this aim, all of the bathrooms were also finished with tadelakt walls and limestone floors.
    All furnishings were selected by Beton Brut and Modern Art HireThis is the second residential project in Clapton from Daytrip founders Iwan Halstead and Emily Potter.
    In 2020, the duo overhauled a five-storey townhouse in the east London district by turning its dated 1970s-style rooms into serene white-washed living spaces.
    The photography is by Jake Curtis.

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    Luke Fry squeezes extension behind bungalow in Melbourne

    At the back of a narrow Edwardian bungalow in Melbourne, the studio of Australian architect Luke Fry has added a contemporary extension with greyscale interiors.

    The semi-detached bungalow, called Ripponlea House, is set down a tree-lined street in the titular Melbourne suburb and belongs to a young family.
    The owners initially wanted to turn their home into a two-storey property. But, undeterred by the bungalow’s small footprint, Fry instead opted for establishing better quality living spaces at ground level.
    Luke Fry’s Ripponlea extension features an open living and dining areaThe studio knocked down the entire rear of the house, preserving only a couple of rooms at the front of the plan.
    In its place now stands a lengthy volume that accommodates a dining-cum-living area, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.

    A grey linen sofa and a couple of boucle armchairs lie at the heart of the lounge, accompanied by a wood burner and low-lying bench.
    The kitchen and dining area adjoin a smaller internal courtyardThe space is fronted by expansive three-by-three-metre glass doors that had to be lifted onto the site by crane.
    These can be slid back to grant the owners access to a paved garden with an L-shaped concrete seat in its corner, which is inset with a greenery-filled planter.
    To further amplify the home’s connection with the outdoors, Fry created a couple of smaller internal courtyards including one adjoining the kitchen.
    Durable materials like oak and stone can be seen throughout the interior”We focused on maximising the tight single-fronted site as best we could by carving courtyards into the building to enhance natural light and its connection to the landscape,” Fry explained.
    “The design, both internally and externally, is one that creates a sense of calm.”

    Conrad Architects completes marble-clad home overlooking Melbourne skyline

    The kitchen features oak cabinetry and a stone-topped island – materials that the studio says are timeless and durable. Oakwood also lines sections of the floor, while most of the brick walls were simply washed with plaster and sealed with wax.
    A corridor punctuated with a circular skylight leads through to the extension’s moody bedroom, which is decked out exclusively in grey tones.
    Grey tones permeate the bedroomIn the adjacent bathroom, an oak-framed washstand sits across from a deep-set concrete tub.
    “It’s hard for me to look past the concrete rendered bath as my favourite element,” Fry explained. “It was experimental for us and something which we are truly proud of.”
    A concrete tub features in the bathroomLuke Fry founded his eponymous studio in 2014.
    Ripponlea House joins a number of other design-focused homes in Melbourne including the Grange Residence by Conrad Architects, which is clad in acid-etched marble, and Pony by Wowowa, which features a scalloped metal roof.
    The photography is by Timothy Kaye.
    Project credits:
    Architecture: Luke Fry Architecture and Interior DesignBuilder: Cote Constructions

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    Alexander Owen Architecture wraps London house extension in two types of marble

    Alexander Owen Architecture has added a marble-clad extension and garden room to this Victorian mid-terrace in East Dulwich, London, to accommodate a home office and a well-stocked bar.The owners, a couple with three young sons, wanted a place to entertain and ample space to spend time together as a family.

    Top image: the garden room houses a bar and home office. Above: the kitchen extension looks out at the garden and annexe
    In response to the brief, the architects created a single-storey rear extension that adds 13.3 square metres and accommodates an open-plan kitchen, utility room and toilet, plus a 16-square-metre annexe that serves as a work and social space.
    Separated by a paved garden, the facade of the extension and garden room are clad in two types of precision-cut marble – a lighter version with hazier veining called Arabescato and a dark grey Bardiglio marble with a more structured finish.

    Alexander Owen Architecture clad the kitchen extension in different kinds of marble

    “We wanted to create a holistic flow to the house and garden and a certain mimicry between the extension and garden room as new interventions,” Richard Bridges and James Webster, founders of Alexander Owen Architecture, told Dezeen.
    “The marble cladding on the extension and garden room has been designed to have similar cut lines and panel formations but the arrangement of the two marble types is reversed.”

    The marble is cut so that it wraps seamlessly around the glazing frames
    The marble has been mitred around the doors and windows and digitally cut to create precise, 90-degree junctions between the individual slabs. This allows the cladding and the cut lines to seamlessly wrap themselves around the glazing frames.
    “The wider site context provides an abundance of trees and greenery, which as the day progresses cast an ever-changing array of light and shadow across the site,” said the architects, who both previously worked at Foster + Partners.
    “The final selection of marble was informed by this layering of dappled light on top of the veining, colouration and movement inherent to each type.”

    The kitchen is finished with stainless steel worktops
    A set of sliding doors with Accoya wood frames opens the kitchen and dining space up to the outside, while the garden room is glazed with a set of bi-folding windows and a pivoting door.
    Alexander Owen Architecture chose robust, low-maintenance surfaces for the kitchen extension, including a poured concrete floor, stainless steel island unit, shot-blasted pewter brick walls and a timber ceiling.

    Pewter brick walls are contrasted with timber ceilings
    “Each material was selected based on how it would sit against the other materials and its ability to sit in an almost ‘raw’ state – the very engineered precision and sheen of the stainless steel and geometric texture of the pewter blocks versus the natural, organic strength of the marble and warmth of the timber,” Bridges and Webster explained.
    “The palette tries to create a very calming balance between the organic and the engineered.”

    Dallas Pierce Quintero arranges small London home around four courtyards

    The steel island unit also incorporates a bench seat for the dining area while a linear skylight lets in sunshine from above.
    The same black, wire-cut bricks that pave the garden are used on the floor of the annexe to create a seamless connection between indoors and outdoors. In the garden room, walls are clad in yellow Valchromat MDF and birch ply, as are the built-in desk, bar and storage cupboards.

    The garden room offers a “grown-up” space for entertaining
    According to the architects, who established their studio in 2013, the home’s layout is carefully divided into various zones tailored to the family’s daily routine.
    The utility room and toilet are located in the mid-section of the property so that the kitchen and garden room at the back can function as a peaceful, “grown-up” area that can be kept tidy for dinners with friends.

    It also houses a home office
    “The rest of the house can effectively be shut off, with the utility space playing a key role in storage,” said Bridges and Webster. “The family snug in the front part of the house means the owners can read books and listen to music on their record player while their children can watch TV or play in the other end of the space.”
    The garden room serves as a home office during the week and helps the couple maintain a boundary between work and family life. It also has an expansive bar that can be used for small gatherings.

    Bar seating runs along the bi-folding windows
    According to Alexander Owen Architecture, there has been a marked increase in clients wanting to create an office space in their home.
    “We have had a lot of interest in garden rooms since the start of the pandemic, with some new clients even prioritising this ahead of developing the main house due to the need for home working, schooling and simply more space,” explained the architects.
    “It’s undeniable the impact that the last 12 months have had, not only on how much time we spend in our homes but on how we use them as live-work accommodation.”
    Covid-19 has forced companies around the world to embrace remote working, with many predicting that working from home will be here to stay long after the virus has been brought under control. Last month Dezeen rounded up 10 products to improve your home-office setup.
    Contractors for this project were Create Bespoke and photography is by French+Tye.

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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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    Studio Hallett Ike expands ER Residence in London with charred larch extension

    Minimal white living spaces lie behind the blackened timber facade of this extension that Studio Hallett Ike has added to a Victorian flat in north London.The flat, which has been titled ER Residence, occupies the ground floor of a Victorian terrace. Studio Hallett Ike said that, prior to its intervention, the flat had a well-proportioned layout, but unfortunately was only able to accommodate a single bedroom.
    Now, thanks to a rear extension, the flat contains a second bedroom – which doubles up as a study – and a dining room.

    Beams of charred larch clad ER Residence’s extension

    “Essentially we wanted to create a property that would work for a young family living in London that wants an aspirational, clean, minimal design whilst retaining a realistic project budget,” the studio’s co-founder, Madeleine Ike, told Dezeen.
    “The idea being that it could act as a case study for other London residents in the same situation without a huge budget.”

    The extension contains an additional bedroom
    The extension is rectilinear in form and clad with beams of blackened English larch, which were charred by hand on-site.
    “Doing this, rather than painting or staining, allows the texture and grain of the larch to feel very present, and to age and patina over time,” the studio explained.
    “The colour changes depending on the weather and time of year; during the winter months it has silvery hues, but evolves to appear warmer in the summer.”

    A desk in the bedroom offers a place for inhabitants to work
    Two different-sized windows also punctuate the extension’s exterior, which are both framed with aluminium.
    The slightly wider window looks through to the bedroom-cum-study, which has been finished with clean white walls.

    The extension also plays host to a dining room
    A wide panel of Douglas fir wood has been set at the rear of the room, serving as a headboard for the bed. To the side of the room is a three-tier shelving unit and a desk where inhabitants can sit and work.

    Burnt House is a charred wood extension that looks like a Japanese tea house

    The narrower window in the extension offers a view of the dining room.
    Douglas fir has been used here again to create a seating bench – a cut-out in the shape of a cat’s head has been made in the bottom corner, through which the owners’ feline companion can crawl to access a cosy cubby.

    The dining room table is accompanied by a Douglas fir bench
    Studio Hallett Ike has continued the colour and material palette of the extension through to the rest of the home. The updated kitchen, for example, boasts Douglas-fir cabinetry and a white terrazzo splashback.
    Grey terrazzo has then been used to line surfaces in the bathroom.

    Terrazzo appears in the flat’s kitchen, and the bathroom
    Walls in the living area have been coated with a pale grey plaster that stops just beneath the room’s original plaster cornicing. The existing wooden floorboards here were also preserved and sanded down to expose more of their natural grain.
    Black-metal furnishings such as the coffee table and overhead lighting fixture were included to “give weight and depth” to the space.

    Pale grey plaster coats walls in the living room
    “The overarching design approach was to carry out a small number of strong but simple moves that are consistently applied, sitting at the heart of every design consideration,” added the studio.
    “These come together to create an overall impression that is minimal and timeless, exuding an assured and understated elegance.”

    The living room also features the flat’s original wooden floorboards
    Studio Hallet Ike was founded by Madeleine Ike and Jonty Hallett in 2018. The studio’s ER Residence isn’t the only London property to feature a charred-wood extension – Rider Stirland Architects added a blackened timber volume to a house in Ladywell.
    Will Gamble Architects also used scorched wood to create a Japanese tea house-style extension for a home in Fulham.
    Photography is by Ståle Eriksen.

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  • Wood and white brick feature in Perth extension by David Barr Architects

    David Barr Architects has added a bright and roomy two-floor extension to a cottage near Perth, Australia so that its owners can have their grown-up children come to stay. The cottage is situated in the port city of Fremantle along Marine Terrace road, from where the project takes its name. Marine belongs to a couple
    The post Wood and white brick feature in Perth extension by David Barr Architects appeared first on Dezeen. More