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      Neil Dusheiko transforms London fashion showroom into light-filled home

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      Architect Neil Dusheiko has converted a showroom in west London into a bright, contemporary residence designed to meet the changing needs of its elderly owners.

      Nicknamed Danish Mews House for its minimalist Scandinavian furnishings, the home is tucked away in a quiet mews lane in the Lancaster Gate area.
      The mews house was once a showroom for the owner’s fashion companyAlthough in recent years the current owners repurposed the building as a showroom and warehouse for their clothing company, it was originally built as a Georgian coach house for storing horse-drawn carriages.
      Dusheiko’s primary concerns when converting the property into a home were bringing in more light, as well as making sure that the interior could support its inhabitants as they grow older.
      The main kitchen and sitting room are on the first floorFor this purpose, the house was fitted with a guest bedroom, kitchenette and toilet on the ground floor, which could ultimately be used by the inhabitants themselves in case their mobility becomes restricted.

      A lift was installed to provide easy access to the upper floors of the house, which can also be reached via a central staircase.
      Glazing in the stairwell brings light into the living spacesIn the stairwell, a newly installed skylight and a wall of gridded glazing on the first-floor landing allow sunlight to seep into the interior.
      Behind the glass partition lies a sitting room and a kitchen with oatmeal-coloured cabinetry as well as a small dining area.
      Light leaks in from a skylight at the top of the stairwell. Photo by Rachael SmithBoth here and throughout the rest of the home, several of the furnishings were sourced from well-known Danish design brands including Carl Hansen, Louis Poulsen and Montana.
      The second floor is illuminated by six new dormer windows and accommodates another two bedrooms plus their respective en-suite bathrooms.

      Neil Dusheiko creates home for his father-in-law featuring a wall of ceramics and glassware

      The principal bedroom is largely clad in wood, save for a section on the rear wall that is finished in chintzy floral wallpaper.
      Glazed doors with black metal frames run along one side of the room and can be slid open to access a sun terrace lined in Douglas fir battens.
      Floral wallpaper features in the principal bedroom. Photo by Rachael SmithThe space is decorated with a couple of folding director’s chairs and a built-in white-brick planter.
      Danish Mews House is one of several residential projects that Neil Dusheiko has completed in London.
      The room also has its own sun terrace. Photo by Rachael SmithPreviously, the architect created a home for his father-in-law in Stoke Newington, in which a striking wall of shelving is used to display ceramics and glassware.
      Dusheiko also overhauled a home in Hammersmith, introducing a curved brick extension and a cinema room.
      The photography is by Ståle Eriksen unless stated otherwise.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Neil Dusheiko ArchitectsStructural engineer: Price and MyersContractor: ABC LimitedQuantity surveyor: White and Lloyd

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      NOA creates tailor-made interior for pied-à-terre in Le Marais

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      Network of Architecture has used curved lines, custom oak furniture and marble details to heighten the character of an apartment in a converted hotel in Le Marais, Paris.

      NOA has created a completely custom interior for Nicolai Paris, located in the former Hotel Nicolai, which serves as a pied-à-terre for an Italian family.
      Nicolai Paris is located in a converted hotelThe renovation involved designing the layout of the two-level home, then adding playful furniture elements that help to optimise the functionality of each space.
      “We started by defining the final atmosphere of the future apartment,” explained architect and NOA co-founder Lukas Rungger.
      The Le Marais apartment has a completely custom interior”It was essential that the space would feel cosy, ‘hyggelig’, and convey a feeling of wellbeing,” he told Dezeen.

      “The choice of interior layout, materials and geometry all serve this purpose.”
      A mix of terrazzo and parquet flooring helps to define different zonesBuilt in the 17th century, the property has plenty of quirks. What’s particularly unusual about this apartment is that it has an L-shaped layout, with most of its windows located at one end.
      As a result, it made sense to locate the family living spaces here, nearest the entrance, and two large bedrooms in the back.
      A curved line is defined by flooring, walls, lighting and furnitureA staircase in the centre of the floor plan leads up to a snug and a third bedroom on the smaller attic floor, which are both lit by skylights rather than windows.
      To avoid creating wasteful corridors, NOA used two different floor surfaces to subtly mark the distinction between rooms and the connecting spaces in between.
      Custom oak furniture pieces include an in-built window seatA strong curve of terrazzo cuts through the living space, which is defined by bleached oak parquet in a chevron pattern, known as French herringbone. This divides the room into two “islands”.
      The larger island contains a lounge, dining area and kitchen, while the smaller one is occupied by a single piece of in-built furniture, providing a window seat and shelving nooks.

      Wood Ribbon apartment in Paris features an undulating timber wall

      The terrazzo curve is emphasised by other elements, including a screen wall beside the entrance and a partition wall that encloses a cloakroom, laundry room and toilet.
      It is also matched by lighting fixtures overhead and the organically-shaped staircase.
      A double-curved staircase leads up to the attic”The layout of the interior spaces was definitely the biggest challenge,” said Rungger.
      “We wanted to create a space of comfort within a bigger space,” he explained. “Each island is a space within a space, intimate in itself but in dialogue with the rest.”
      Beds are set on oak platforms and defined by oak wall panellingCustom oak furniture features in every room. The beds are set on tiered platforms, continuing the islands concept, while the dining table is framed by an upholstered L-shaped bench.
      Marble is also dotted throughout. A grey-blue Bardiglio Imperiale features in the kitchen and around the fireplace, and the main bedroom boasts a bathtub carved from a single block of Botticino Fiorito.
      An attic room can be used as a snug, study or home cinema”We wanted to reflect the elegance of the Parisian ambience in the flat,” said Rungger.
      “The colours of the Parisian rooftops influenced the choice of fabrics and marble colours, especially in the living area.”
      Bathrooms and washroom feature mosaic tiles in varying shades of grayNOA has offices in Berlin and Turin, so typically works on projects in other parts of Europe. The studio recently completed a hotel and wellness centre and a glacier-top viewing platform, both in South Tyrol.
      With this project, they hope to show a more craft-focused side to their practice.
      “From the furniture’s roundness to the staircase’s double curvature, we have consistently drawn a line that fluidly touches the whole flat,” added Rungger.
      The photography is by Antoine Huot.

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      Takk perches communal bedroom on stilts in Madrid apartment renovation

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      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.

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

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      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.

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      Michaelis Boyd unveils apartments inside Battersea Power Station

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      Architecture studio Michaelis Boyd references the 1930s and 50s in its design for apartments in London’s newly redeveloped Battersea Power Station.

      The London-based studio has planned the layouts and finishes for 253 apartments in the former power station, which is currently being redeveloped by architecture firm WilkinsonEyre.
      These include 119 in Switch House East, which has just opened, 98 in Switch House West, which was completed in May 2021, and a further 36 located in the yet-to-complete Boiler House.
      The show home features Heritage 33, one of two materials palettes developed for the flatsTo make the most of the available space, Michaelis Boyd developed more than 100 different apartment layouts.
      For the fixture and finishes, the studio developed two distinct materials palettes for the homes, referencing different aspects of the building’s history and architectural character.

      The first palette, called Heritage 33, takes inspiration from the 1930s, the decade when the power station was built.
      All homes feature Crittall-style glazed screens and dual-aspect windowsDark chevron-patterned flooring references the parquet found in the space known as Control Room A, which at one stage was responsible for poviding a fifth of London’s electricity.
      Bathrooms feature glazed tiles, inspired by tiles found in the power station director’s staircase, while walls are finished in subtle colour shades.
      The Heritage 33 palette takes its cues from the 1930sA second palette, called Heritage 47, offers a more contemporary feel, combining 1950s details with a modern industrial warehouse aesthetic.
      The style is more minimal, with lighter toned wood flooring and pale walls.

      Glass elevator for Battersea Power Station revealed in new visuals

      “The residences have a refined industrial quality to them,” said Michaelis Boyd co-founder Alex Michaelis.
      “We wanted to create interiors that would reference the power station’s rich history but also stand the test of time, for the ultimate experience of modern city living.”
      Chevron-patterned flooring references the original parquet in the power station’s Control Room AIn both palettes, details are designed to complement the building’s architecture. Kitchen tiles echo the exposed brick walls, while copper details nod to the more industrial elements.
      Glass screens and doors take their cues from traditional Crittall windows, allowing plenty of light to filter through the homes and offering residents more flexibility in their living spaces.
      Copper details pay tribute to the building’s industrial historyResidents also have access to a large rooftop garden located above one of the building’s historic turbine halls.
      “Looking forward into 2022, there continues to be a focus on the importance of outdoor space and a connection with nature,” said Michaelis.
      Glazed tiles reference the design of the power station director’s staircase”At Switch House East, large Crittall screens and dual-aspect glazed windows were designed to make use of natural daylight, encouraging flow between spaces and offering views out onto the riverside and landscaped courtyards and terraces, bringing the outdoors in,” he continued.
      “The open-plan layouts of these loft-style apartments also remain more relevant than ever, as we continue to design versatile spaces that will lend themselves to news way of living, working, eating and relaxing from home.”
      Switch House welcomed its first residents in JanuaryThe Grade II* listed Battersea Power Station was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott. It was in use from 1933 until 1983, and has been abandoned ever since.
      Numerous designs were proposed for the building over the years. Architect Terry Farrell suggested converting it into a park, football club Chelsea wanted to turn it into a stadium and Rafael Viñoly designed a skyscraper to sit next door.
      Homes with the Heritage 47 palette, like this one in Switch House West, have a more minimal aestheticWilkinsonEyre’s design will turn the turbine halls into a shopping centre, while other parts of the building will contain restaurants, events spaces and offices, including Apple’s London campus.
      The iconic chimneys will be refurbished, with one set to contain a glass viewing elevator.
      The photography is by Taran Wilkhu.

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