A home’s liveability begins and ends with its orientation. For this heritage home in the inner western suburb of Lewisham, south-facing living quarters meant the family spent most of their time in cold, dimly lit rooms. Not much fun. But we had a plan, and one that resulted in a doubling of thermal efficiency in this part of the home from 3.2 to 6.4 stars!
It is an intervention and extension of a house in the residential area of San Angel at south of Mexico City.
There was an original project, which was built up to a structural level. It was kept like that, unfinished, as many others. The pre-existence was a very powerful mass of reinforced concrete, characterized by the two facades of the first floor that, acting as beams of great edge, support a generous projection of more than 6 meters. It is also noteworthy the sunken courtyards, which allow the total occupation of the basement, so that much of the living area of the house remains hidden under the ground. On the street level, the aim was to read the completed work as an intersection or twin of two different volumes, with different finishing, on which the lighting holes of the house were punctually drilled.
The project aims the rehabilitation of the old Sant Sadurni d’Anoia’s modernist schools in order to host a cultural center with library and archive. The historic building is located on a rectangular plot bounded by four streets. The historic building is located in the western part of the plot, and develops in the form of an U, a frequent school typology of the early twentieth century, around a courtyard, that stretches eastward. The proposed program surpassed the constructed surface of the historic building and obliged to propose an extension with a new body occupying the old school courtyard.
Among the irregular dividing walls in a narrow and barren old town, an old and abandoned house is being recovered. It includes a first original division with some precarious additions that were randomly attached later on.
This is a renewal project bearing the aesthetics of the old Taiwanese era, in the form of a corner building in a quiet community. We did our best in preserving the old tiles, fine stone finishing and window grille that have marked the era this building has been through.
Set in a rustic red-brick warehouse, REHAU’s Design Haus is not your ordinary showroom. Founded in Germany in 1948, REHAU is best known for their quality doors & windows and a vast range of interior finishes. Launching their first showroom in Melbourne, they provided us with a simple design statement; they were seeking to create a space where visitors felt like they were stepping into their own dream home – familiar, comfortable, lush, light-filled, and open.
Through UCL’s masterplan, Levitt Bernstein identified an opportunity to create a new courtyard terrace above an existing service yard. As well as providing a high-quality outdoor space for staff and students, this opens up a new east-west route to improve accessibility across campus. The existing service yard had become unsightly but was overlooked by a number of important university buildings. The challenge was to connect these disparate elements with one cohesive design – all the more problematic considering the Wilkins Building is Grade I listed.
The original building, Designed by C.C. Sainsbury in 1957, is a gem. It is an unconventional example from the War Services program; which assisted veterans acquire homes. The clients sought to supplement what they loved to better accommodate their growing family.
New vs. Old
Every so often we meet a client who is faced with the decision to buy a new property that might be out of his budget or buy something already built and recondition it. Our advice always stands out the second option. We believe that is better to take advantage of an existing building and with doing so strengthen the city as it, the challenge is visualize the possibilities.
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