refurbishment

Bridging the gap between pragmatism and innovation is a test for every architect who takes on projects in the countryside. Among the various buildings SYN Architects has designed in Tiangang Zhixing Village, the group of buildings referred to as the Village “Living Room” clearly demonstrates this idea. They have been transformed from the original village committee building, health clinic, and communal stage. The original architectural structures have been carefully studied and their inherent rural character respected, and they have been renovated and given new life through the addition of new construction.

It is located in the old core of the municipality of Campos, a village located in the south of Mallorca. The majority of the surrounding buildings are two-story row houses, in which the ground floor was traditionally used as a residence and the first floor for storage and agricultural use.

The project is based on the premise of preserving the existing building of Can Biel, a late 19th-century construction located in All, a town in Cerdanya near the Pyrenees, by transforming it into 4 housing units.

Architect-artist Gustave Carlson — whose eponymous residential architecture and design practice works on custom renovations, new construction, and sustainable design across architectural styles — adapted an unusually pedigreed ‘Eichler,’ the collective name for the distinctive single-family residences commissioned by the 20th-century real estate developer Joseph Eichler, to the current homeowners’ vision, while paying homage to its groundbreaking origins.

This project is the renovation of a 55-year-old house that has been passed down for three generations. The original house was built with strong wall-type reinforced concrete by the grandfather of the current owner to protect his family.