Loft in Barcelona

YLAB arquitectos renovated a 100 square meter apartment with a big terrace in an old building in the hearth of a traditional neighborhood in Barcelona.

Here is the project description:

The house has a very deep and narrow floor plan and only two facades at the ends, one to the street and the other one to the terrace in the inner courtyard.

The proposal is an integral architectural intervention of the space with two main goals: to maximize the lighting and ventilation from the facades eliminating unnecessary partitions, and to obtain a new distribution that contains all the uses required by its young owner: a bedroom suite, a guest bathroom and bedroom, a working studio, a kitchen and a dining room for parties and meetings.

In order to maximize the lighting it is necessary to achieve a structural intervention that completely eliminates the internal partitions and a structural wall located directly behind the back façade, which is key to the optimal use of light.

Moreover, due to the difficult geometry of the housing, all the different functions can only be accommodated through a flexible and unconventional distribution that allows joining and separating spaces and even change their function, depending on the occasion. The new distribution consists of a large diaphanous and spacious common area, which runs continuously from façade to façade, and a private semi-closed box formed by the bedroom suite and guest bathroom.

The common area is formed by the entrance hall, dining room, library, studio and living room in the rear facade, and the kitchen in the front facade. All these areas are aligned along a longitudinal wall made of hand made solid brick.

The bedroom is located between a high cupboard, with the double function of entrance hall wardrobe and bedroom closet, and a large wooden core containing the two bathrooms, which becomes a piece of furniture with shelves in the studio area. This furniture hides two large sliding wooden doors that allow the independency of two different spaces: the bedroom, which is separated from the common area, and a part of the living room containing a sofa-bed, that allows a punctual use as a guest room.

The wooden core is a deep framework framing and raising the bathrooms. The cross partitions are resolved with sliding translucent glass doors to enable lighting, ventilation and visual connection between spaces. In the inside all inner surfaces, including ceiling and floor, are covered with light colour Bisazza mosaic and mirror. The sanitaries and fixtures are suspended or free standing to contribute to the feeling of transparency. The result is a game of gloss and reflections that multiply the light and convert the bathroom into a bright and sophisticated space, in contrast to the warm and sober rest of the house.

Photos by Raúl Caneles & Esther Algara

jaffa-flat-by-pitsou-kedem

Wall coverings have been peeled away to reveal a vaulted stone ceiling that’s several hundred years old inside this refurbished apartment in Tel Aviv.

Israeli architects Pitsou Kedem removed walls between the sandstone brick columns to create an open plan living and dining room surrounded by arches.

An exterior wall was replaced by a thinly framed glass arch that now links the living room to a balcony overlooking the port of Old Jaffa.

The architects installed Corian shelving and surfaces to rooms, as well as a stainless steel kitchen.

A transparent glass cylinder surrounds a shower in the bedroom.

Framed glass doors provide access from this bedroom to a second outdoor terrace.

Other refurbished interiors featured on Dezeen include a Tokyo apartment with the appearance of an elegant building site and a former poet’s house converted into a writer’s retreat.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Here are some more details from Pitsou Kedem:

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Jaffa Flat

The language of minimalism imbedded in a historic residence in Old Jaffa.

The 100 square meter residential home is located in Old Jaffa. Its location is unique in that it is set above the harbor, facing west with all of its openings facing the majestic splendor of the Mediterranean Sea.

Whilst it is difficult to determine the buildings exact age, it is clear that it is hundreds of years old.

Over the years, it has undergone many changes and had many additions made that have damaged the original quality of the building and its spaces.

The central idea was to restore the structure’s original, characteristics, the stone walls, the segmented ceilings and the arches including the exposure of the original materials (a combination of pottery and beach sand).

The building has been cleaned of all of the extraneous elements, from newer wall coverings and has undergone a peeling process to expose its original state.

Surprisingly, modern, minimalistic construction styles remind us of and correspond with the ascetic style of the past, and this despite the vast time difference between them.

The central idea was to combine the old and the new whilst maintaining the qualities of each and to create new spaces that blend the styles together even intensify them because of the contrast and tension between the different periods.

The historical is expressed by preserving the textures and materials of the buildings outer shell and by respecting the building engineering accord.

The modern is expressed by the opening of spaces and by altering the internal flow to one more open and free and the creation of an urban loft environment along with the use of stainless steel, iron and Corian in the various partitions, in the openings and in the furniture.

The project succeeds in both honoring and preserving the historical and almost romantic values of the structure whilst creating a contemporary project, modern and suited to its period.

Despite the time differences, the tensions and the dichotomy between the periods exist in a surprisingly balanced and harmonic space.

Design team: Pitsou Kedem & Raz Melamed

Carriageworks

Sizzling shortlisted entry in the 2011 Australian Interior Design Awards. The Carriageworks by Hare + Klein Interior Design. I'm seriously packing my bags and planning a home invasion. Kitchen is to die for. Love the industrial vibe and the dining room, or is that workroom, is simply perfect. This is not the only shortlisted property by this talented team of designers. I may just have to feature some more!

   

   

apartment-in-el-born-by-arquitectura-g

Spanish studio Arquitectura-G have renovated this apartment in the El Born area of Barcelona by adding wooden storage and mezzanines.

Divided in two by a solid wall, the apartment comprises a kitchen and dining area on one side with a living room, study and bedroom on the other.

Thin white metal steps lead from this second part to a mezzanine that extends over half the floor area, with an even higher platform holding the bed.

Photographs are by José Hevia.

Here are some more details from the architects:

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Accommodation of 34 m2 and 4.5 m in height, divided by a load bearing wall in two rooms of similar size, located in El Born in Barcelona.

Assuming this separation, the housing project divides into two areas:

The first consists of the kitchen and a mobile cabinet, which operates as a bar, kitchen side table and dining table. It is a social area linked to the driveway, which improves the electrical installation and use television to spread beyond the mere fact of cooking and eating.

The second stay, however, responds to needs of a greater degree of privacy. That is why the space is fragmented into different trays that house the program in height, providing a gradient of intimacy without losing the visual connection between them.

Thus, the first tray, which occupies half the area of ​​this room, is understood as an ambiguous space dressing room and study area. The second highest one-quarter of the plant surface, contains the space for a bed.

For the resolution of this scheme in height, are particularly important furniture, adapting to different places, meeting the urgent need for storage, and the connection and relationship between levels.

Neglecting current standards of habitability and construction, it gives each area the necessary scale for each item and use the appropriate features.

The spaces are formed depending on the size and privacy they require, and wealth is given by the relations generated between them. For this reason, rather than speaking of space “up” or “below”, we can talk of “spaces between”, “spaces next to” or “spaces.”

Work: Reform of Housing in the Born, Barcelona
Architects: ARCHITECTURE-G (Jonathan Arnabat, Jordi Ayala Bril, Aitor Fuentes, Igor Urdanpileta)
Contributor: David Fernandez Taboada
Sponsor: Ms. Santarelli
Location: Barcelona (Spain)
Reformed Surface: 34 m²
Project Year: 2010
Year built: 2011

MINIM, Barcelona Loft

MINIM, Barcelona Loft

Last month we showed you Zecc Architects' skillful repurposing of various structures—churches, schools, factories—into living spaces. The overall structures were left formally intact and recognizable while the surfaces were cleaned up and modernized, providing a beautiful "best of both worlds" combination that skewed more to the clean side of things.

Then there's the visually "dirtier" side of things. Another firm doing industrial-to-living conversions is Barcelona-based MINIM, comprised of designers Elina Vila and Agnes Blanch, with a slightly different philosophy: Rather than cleaning, replacing or re-sheetrocking the surfaces, their goal in a recent printing factory conversion was to preserve and even expose as much of the original texture as possible, removing layers of plaster and cement in a procedure that's more art than science:

The surfaces were then sealed in a protective clearcoat, so you're not constantly sweeping up that fresh layer of grit. The results are stunning, and bring to mind something more in line with the original Soho artist's loft.

Check out more shots here.