Switzerland-based architectural firm L3P Architekten recently has completed the renovation / extension, conversion of the former restaurant Metzger Hall, Dielsdorf apartment house with 3 newly constructed apartments, 5 renovated apartments, and 1 commercial area.

From an architectural view the extension, with its form and materials, should be truly distinguishable from the main building. Through this, the tradition of an added restaurant could be continued in a contemporary form. Due to the simple volume and natural materials of the new extension, there is no rivalry between the added extension and main house, but rather a fascinating contradiction and an ensemble in which new and old stay clearly distinguishable from each other, but still present as an entity.

L3P Architekten

image courtesy L3P Architekten

image courtesy L3P Architekten

+ Project description by L3P Architekten

Project Location:
The project is located in the village of Dielsdorf in the Zurich Lowlands.
The building project in the central district of the village and is located directly on Wehntalerstrasse, the main street, which leads to Zurich. Formerly a restaurant, a butcher's shop and abattoir were found in the building at Mühlestrasse 1. Today, it is known as the Metzger (Butcher's) Hall restaurant. The restaurant with kitchen and the employees' rooms were found in the main house. The abattoir was located in the older extension to the west and the butcher's shop was to the south. The outer space was used for park places.

image courtesy L3P Architekten

Project Idea:
The building constructor appointed the architect to realise attractive living space for rented apartments at this location. Diverse variations were considered, e.g. the demolition of the 150-year-old property with the construction of a complete new building, or the preservation of the property with a corresponding extension of the building.

From the drafting process, it soon became clear that the main building must be preserved, helping to conserved the existing townscape. On the contrary, it was decided to demolish the younger additions to the property. The building fabric was very poor and it became clear that the main house needed to be totally renovated only keeping few historical details and components. Through the new compact extension, more space for the outer rooms would be created. To realise an attractive, generous living room and outdoor space on the Wehntalerstrasse, which is a very busy and traffic-intensive street, it was decided to create a space to the south side of the property, which would be divided into privately and collectively used courtyards.

image courtesy L3P Architekten

From an architectural view the extension, with its form and materials, should be truly distinguishable from the main building. Through this, the tradition of an added restaurant could be continued in a contemporary form. Due to the simple volume and natural materials of the new extension, there is no rivalry between the added extension and main house, but rather a fascinating contradiction and an ensemble in which new and old stay clearly distinguishable from each other, but still present as an entity.

Floor Plan:
The existing Metzger Hall and the new extension are accessible over three stories through a common staircase. A commercial space for diverse utilization that is lighter and located at the most central position is found in the former restaurant. A 2½ room maisonette apartment is accessible from the ground floor. 2½ room apartments are also found in the upper first and second floors. In the new extension a 4½ room apartment with a generous courtyard is found on each of the floors.

image courtesy L3P Architekten

Materialisation:
The main house has barely changed externally: the facade was cleaned and repaired, the window reveal filled up and the under side of the roof newly painted. The distinctive changes took place internally: in-depth structural alterations, as well as alterations in the stratification of the house allowed apartments to be created which have sufficient noise insulation and low energy consumption standards. Every entity has individually-controlled ventilation and all windows – with the original grid partitions – were replaced.

image courtesy L3P Architekten

The plain, powerful materialisation lends the living spaces a simplicity that combines the presence with history. This is reflected in the commercial space through a sanded concrete floor. The coverage area is seen with an industrial floor and the new staircase is a raw concrete construction. Taut cables between the floors serve as a banister for the stairwell.

image courtesy L3P Architekten

The apartments in the new building all have a light anhydrite floor, exposed concrete ceilings and white walls. A contemporary fresh coat is delivered in the attic apartments of the old building through the historical window dimensions, bright yellow-green kitchen combination and the coarse chipboard cladding of the internal roof slopes. The grand ceiling height of 2.75 metres and up to five metres under the roof caters for a feeling of airy generosity.

image courtesy L3P Architekten

The lively interplay of the wooden facade also moulds the larger entities in the new extension internally. The standing spruce slats of the outer skin are arranged spontaneously in five different widths with in no discernable pattern, likewise the irregularity of the window format. They vary in width between slender, vertical room-high slits. They are protected from outside with shutters, which integrate seamlessly in the pattern of the façade slats and which can be locked with simple hooks, like a stall door. Thus, the annex is a wooden-cladded cube in the closed state, only with open shutters is the structure of the building readable.

image courtesy L3P Architekten

image courtesy L3P Architekten

The new extension building apartments are organised around a continuous central concrete core that is painted in a warm gold brown. This core absorbs all the service rooms from the individual apartments; showers, laundries and utility rooms. The open-plan living/dining area on the south-west side and two to three rooms to the south and north are arranged around this core. Individual outside space is allotted to each apartment; the attic apartment has two balconies superimposed over each other. Thus, the most important elements of contemporary living are given: noise protected individual outside space and a generous succession of rooms.

Elevations, drawing courtesy L3P Architekten

+ Project credits /data

Project:
Renovation / extension, conversion of the former restaurant Metzger Hall, Dielsdorf

Object identification, construction year:
Renovation / extension, conversion of the former restaurant Metzger Hall, Dielsdorf apartment house with 3 newly constructed apartments, 5 renovated apartments, 1 commercial area Construction time beginning 2009 – April 2010, first use May 2010

Street, locality:
Mühlestrasse 1, 8157 Dielsdorf
Building constructor: private

Architecture: http://www.l3p.ch/
L3P Architects ETH FH SIA  AG, Unterburg 33, 8158 Regensberg
Project Leader; Martin Reusser dipl. Arch. FH Reg A; Frank Schäfer dipl. Arch. ETH

Photography: Sabrina Dohle

Capital expenditures (BKP 1–9):
Renovation allotment: Fr. 1,700,000.
New construction allotment: Fr. 1,350,000.

Building occupancy expenses (BKP 2/m3):
Renovation allotment: Fr. 580.-/m3 (SIA 416)
New construction allotment: Fr. 735.-/m3 (SIA 416)

Heating requirements Qh (according to SIA 380/1):
Renovation allotment: 279 MJ/m2
New construction allotment: 206 MJ/m2

+ All images, drawings and description courtesy of L3P Architekten | Photo by Sabrina Dohle

naifdesign was established in 2010, to design durable and cheerful products. The studio aims creating comfortable products with deep relations to their owners, without abandoning the basic rules of design.

With their products, naifdesign aims to turn homes, offices and all other living areas into exclusive places.

All naifdesign products are created with eco-friendly and recyclable industrial materials to express its respect to the humankind and nature. naifdesign believes in the soul of its products and reflects their story.

And now, all naïve tables, chairs, lightings are ready to be a part of your world.

+ Design: naifdesign | http://naiftasarim.com/

urch, image courtesy naifdesign

obivan, image courtesy naifdesign

mono, image courtesy naifdesign

+ All images courtesy naifdesign

IZZI DESIGN studio created a floor lamp family, designed by Constantin Alupoaei, Bucharest and Romania. The lamps are made up of FOREX material, white color, and the illuminating source is a neon tube.

The idea came following the stylization of the human figure, resulting a simple and universal message. The Stick Family illuminates you and waits for you to have a joint dialog. Everyone can have its own family. You can create and develop an identity, a story. You just have to imagine.

IZZI Design studio

These lamps are under production, they are available on http://www.yau.ro/

+ Designer: IZZI DESIGN studio | http://www.izzidesign.ro

Image courtesy IZZI Design studio

Image courtesy IZZI Design studio

If you are now in Paris during 21st – 25th January 2011, you might get a chance to take a look at Paris Trade show – Maison Objet. AIRNOVA is presenting some of the new designs in HALL 5B, area “COTE ACTUEL”, stand O13.

Elegance and glorification of detail: these are the guidelines for AIRNOVA that inaugurates the New Year in the Maison Objet Show in Paris. Much is new, starting with the stand, created to interpret a position in the fair that places the Company at the heart of the design world.

AIRNOVA is a craft industry, specialising in the manufacture of leather and metal chairs for furnishing. The innovation passes through experimentation in stitching, care in cutting and colour choice.  For the occasion a series of tables is presented which, in combination with the chairs, interprets the cultivated and fantastic luxury of French atmospheres. The models are characterised by contemporary lines and high quality materials, worked with modern but refined techniques with the expertness of craftsmen's hands. The objective is to offer a quality product, totally Italian that does not hide its devotion to the international market.

Crocodile effect hide, glass, prime timber, are only some of the materials selected for Maison Objet.  A choice that also represents a tribute to excellence, an effort made for France that for AIRNOVA is a special market: a dialogue made possible by over ten years presence in the country, with the strength of a widespread sales network and the commitment of a company that invests in product availability and punctual delivery.

AIRNOVA explores the universe of French style attending the Parisian event with leather chair selections which combine comfort, functionality and elegance, coupled with tables made in exclusive finishes.

CHAISE LONGUE by Edy & Paolo Ciani

CHAISE LONGUE
Design by Edy & Paolo Ciani

The base is in carbon fibre, the seat in soft white leather. Its sinuous lines seem to have been modelled in a wind tunnel, forming a chair that has the perfection of a sculpture.

LULU by Ewa Bochen and Maciej Jelsky, Kosmos Project

LULU
Design by Ewa Bochen and Maciej Jelsky, Kosmos Project

A rocking chair with the structure in metal and the seat in leather, comfortable and cosy, for relaxing and contemplating: an object that, in a super-fast world, plays with an ancient function.

ELETTRA chair by Lino Codato

HALLEY table with ELETTRA chairs
Design by Lino Codato
Airnova Technical Design Studio

An exclusive table, a minimalist sculpture that combines functionality and emotion, where the major volume of the base marries with the lightness of shape of the top. The monolithic appearance of Halley is softened by the Elettra chair entirely covered in white leather, with a high and curvilinear back. Natural and lacquered wood, leather: materials for contemporary lines, shapes designed for timeless spaces in which quality and aesthetics are two faces of the same coin.

GEM table

ELISA chairs

GEM table with ELISA chairs
Airnova Technical Design Studio

A journey that takes us from Florida to Brazil: in these countries Ziricote is widespread, an exotic and precious timber, featured by rich graining and warm shades, used in making Gem. Every veneer is unique and unrepeatable, cloaking the table in exclusivity. The Elisa chair matches it well, in natural prime leather, a comfortable and cosy seat and refined details and stitching. Two products that best express Italian design.

PHARAOH
Design by Ian Sabro

The hide completely envelopes the steel core of the chair, outlining its contours: this is the technical detail. The high geometric back: this is the originality of the design..

CARLOMAGNO table with PATCHWORK chairs
Design by Lino Codato
Airnova Technical Design Studio

A table with a strong personality and presence that becomes part of sophisticated environments: houses with important spaces, but also administrative offices or meeting rooms.  The rectangular top in black walnut is supported on solid wooden legs. An unexpected lashing of colour comes from the tones of the Patchwork seat: the covering is made from small cuts of hide stitched together, of harmoniously matched colours like the traditional Anglo-Saxon quilts.

CARLOMAGNO table with AISHA chairs
Design by Lino Codato
Airnova Technical Design Studio

The exceptional transparency of the extra-light glass top, combined with the white-lacquered solid wood legs, captures attention with the interesting effect of the spectacular transparency.  Aisha goes with it, a classic chair revamped by innovative stitching, whose steel frame is entirely covered by the finest purple-coloured crocodile effect hide. It is a combination that furnishes an environment with the emblem of the most refined luxury.

+ About AIRNOVA, A CRAFT INDUSTRY

A craft industry, specialists in the production of leather and metal chairs for furnishing: this is AIRNOVA. The Italian economy more than any other has been able to generate a category of manufacture that marries craft quality with industrial production. In Italy the know-how has not been lost along the road of industrialisation, but in handing down from father to son it has been channelled into the many small firms that are scattered across the industrial landscape.

Handwork has not always been replaced by machinery. This principle is very much the case with leatherwork: in AIRNOVA the valuable skills of the craftsman are the basis of the added value that characterises the products, and are exploited within the company organisation. Leather furniture requires extreme quality of materials and finishes. Innovation is by way of experimentation with stitching, careful cutting, colour choices: not different from high fashion. AIRNOVA has transposed the art of the shoemaking into the furnishing world.

Founded in 2000 from the multi-decade experience of the owner in the furniture sector, in particular in leatherwork for furnishings, AIRNOVA today is one of the largest set-ups in northeast Italy in the sector that produces chairs in leather and metal.

Flexibility, speediness, and possibility of being tailor-made: these are the characteristics of the factory.  Highly specialised personnel, motivated, dynamic, ready to listen to customer needs: this is the strength of the company. The result is an offering that marries the original catalogue offerings, developed by a group of young designers, with the great ability to create made-to-measure products, which AIRNOVA propose to the world of architects.

Although the production was initially concentrated on the residential sector, in fact today the company addresses with benefit the contract sector, with chairs for both the medium and high end of the market.

Research and experimentation with new technologies applied to production processes – all rigorously produced in Italy, together with precise testing of the materials used, always guarantees a high quality product. The knowledge acquired in the international market ensures our clients maximum service in terms of quality, delivery and assistance.

Center Culutural Gabriela Mistral, Great Architecture in Chile

The projects arose from the collaboration between Later Arquitectura & Desino and Cristian Fernandez Arquitectos, and is laid out as a multi-functional area that is a part of the main street of the city creating new public spaces. A community space to meet and a landmark for the city.

The interiors have been designed by Bravo Muebles, who has selected the family of products Formula, designed by Matthias Demacker and produced by Areadeclic.

Center Culutural Gabriela Mistral, image courtesy Area Declic

The opening ceremony for the Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, was one of the most important events of the bicentennial celebrations in Chile. Inaugurated in the presence of the President with an extraordinary spectacle of light, the centre is dedicated to the arts and the poetess, Nobel prize-winner in 1945, from whom it takes its name.

The Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral represents a historic, social and cultural landmark of extreme importance both for the city and Chile itself.

It stands out from the urban fabric thanks to its strong personality without provoking an unjustified rupture: a cultural vehicle to serve the community, but also an innovative town planning project; a new interpretation of the social context in which it fits and a conductor for the history surrounding it. A project that does not leave people unmoved.

For Area Declic it is an important achievement that highlights the versatility of the FORMULA programme, but which also rewards a Company project followed without respite: to give a total quality service to architects.

The chosen materials – bare iron, concrete, glass and wood – are the meeting point between the past, present and future. Technology and tradition can thus merge through a visual impact, that unites and blends both of them.

The transparency of the volumes increases and amplifies the sense of opening towards the urban space, drawing it into its interior. The FORMULA series, designed by Matthias Demacker, has been selected for the relaxation area of the lounge, from where the play of indoors vs. outdoors desired by the architects can be enjoyed.

FORMULA, image courtesy Matthias Demacker

FORMULA, image courtesy Matthias Demacker

FORMULA, image courtesy Matthias Demacker

FORMULA, image courtesy Matthias Demacker

FORMULA, image courtesy Matthias Demacker

Matthias Demacker for Area Declic: THREE FORMULAS for CONTRACT

FORMULA40 sled conference poly-plus is specifically designed for conference rooms and is equipped with a writing pad (tablet) and a linking device to make a line of chairs. The seat is comfortable thank to the half-soft integral polyurethane used to make the chair and that makes it washable and protects it from damage. The metal structure allows for stacking and, together with the geometric design of the shell that is characterized by the line, it gives it an image coherent with contemporary spaces. White, red and black are its standard colours. However, it can be manufactured in any other colour if order of a minimum quantity is made.

Second offer: FORMULA40 4G poly-tech double colour is a great innovation in the world of contract. The matching colours are quite attractive: orange-white, green-white, red-white, black-white, moka-ivory. The front of the seats are all white and the backs are coloured. Result: the space becomes dynamic. The geometric design, typical of the Formula collection is highlighted by the Tech structural polyurethane used to build the chair. There is a surprise, the characteristics of this matt plastic allow the colours to integrate very well in modern and traditional spaces and offer the possibility of harmonious colour combinations. This chair can also stay outside and can be stacked.

That's not all: FORMULA40 4G poly-tech bench is a bench designed for waiting rooms, conference rooms, airports, stations, hospitals and offices. It is available with two, three or four seats and the Tech structural polyurethane shells, which are welded to the bar, offer a solid solution to furnishing transit and public places. Without limits of modularity, the Formula bench is perfect for furnishing common life and work areas of contemporary life. This is the product that Area Declic proposes to the architects to give their projects a sense of design, strength, versatility and it is even practical and consistent. Together with the other products of the family, Formula is a real decorative formula.