A Spain and China based young architectural firm AQSO arquitectos office has designed the Burke House in Galway, Ireland. In a country like Ireland, where many families live in private houses with a courtyard, extensions are a very common way to adapt the residence to new family situations.

Burke House, render courtesy AQSO arquitectos office

This house stands in a low density residential area near Galway. The flat landscape is characterized by irregular plots, small roads and green pastures.

Burke House, render courtesy AQSO arquitectos office

Starting from a traditional house scheme, the existing building extends to incorporate a bigger living room, an extra bedroom and a study upstairs. In contrast with the closed geometry of the existing volume, the rear of the house becomes a light concrete skin enclosing a new façade totally open to the backyard.

Burke House - Diagram, drawing courtesy AQSO arquitectos office

The arrangement of the spaces and the circulation are solved with a simple gesture. The day functions are connected while the bedroom becomes an independent element. One volume rests on the other making the shape of the house a rotund staircase to capture views through a facade made by mobile louvers. This simple system allows light and privacy to be control and makes the extension a permeable element in relation to the garden.

Burke House, render courtesy AQSO arquitectos office

A small volume located in front of the house establishes a dialog with the main building and includes an outdoor spa.

+ Project credits / data

Project: Burke house
Location: Galway, Ireland
Designer: AQSO, arquitectos office
Project area: 232 sqm.
Typology: House

Burke House - Site plan, drawing courtesy AQSO arquitectos office

Burke House - Floor plan, drawing courtesy AQSO arquitectos office

In residential projects, de-spec believes that architecture, interior design and decoration must reflect the client and their lifestyles. That the space should accommodate their story and not to be generated as a result of stylistic moves by its designer, where the brand of the designer supersedes those who live in it.  In this regard personalizing the home is particularly important.

Image courtesy De-spec

The series of projects named surgery, refer to an exercise employed by de-spec to do this corrective work in the plan of an apartment and renovation projects.  In order to redesign an apartment or any space for that matter, the most important change is that of movement through the space and of 'circulation'.

Fundamentally, the principle Farnaz Mansuri designs the experience to reflect the user's spirit. The process is fascinating as it begins with a series of interviews of the client and observations and somehow this does not really end as the relationship of the designer and the client is collaborative.

In Surgery #8, the client was a noted art advisor, the space was a backdrop for his art collection and the design had to allow him to change the art around.

Image courtesy De-spec

PROGRAM

To change a classic 8 prewar apartment into a 4 bedroom apartment with eat in kitchen, office, extensive library and walls for art and dining room, living room.The surgery included the reconstruction of the walls to allow for the programmatic requirements of the client.

Image courtesy De-spec

Additionally the hallways were transformed into the library; the flow of movements was adjusted to take the body from room to room with hallways of art or books. The decoration was reduced to white rooms for the kids, to allow the toys and the children's objects to animate the space.  The art was chosen by the client with Farnaz to reflect a story that is not static, and will rotate.

The living room, dining room was designed with minimum furniture to allow for the kids to grow up amidst 'child friendly' furniture, but the art on the walls reflect the geometry of the rooms. The layering of art from dining room to living room is designed to accentuate the movement between the two spaces.

Image courtesy De-spec

+ Project credits / data

Project: Residential Surgery
Designer: De-spec | http://www.de-spec.com/
Type: Interior

+ All images and drawings courtesy De-spec

Manfredi jewelry store is an international jewelry store originally from Italy with stores in Milan, Rome, Shanghai, and Tokyo. For the New York store, Manfredi was looking for a concept suitable for the new location on Park Avenue, NYC. De-spec identified the issues that would guide the design as the necessary change of speed that would need to occur for pedestrians to transition from walking at the necessary speed of survival on Park avenue to the speed necessary for viewing of jewelry.  In addition the jewelry itself demanded a silent space and a level of minimalism that would reveal its journey.

Manfredi Jewelry Store, image courtesy De-spec

Façade Wall
The juxtaposition of Park Avenue's fast pace and the slowness needed to view jewelry required a transitional space to mediate the change of speed to adjust focus from far to near.  The strategy to impregnate the entry as an interstitial space allows the body to move through the 'threshold' and make the sensory adjustments.

Manfredi Jewelry Store, image courtesy De-spec

Interstitial space
Inspired by the camera lens, the window display enables simultaneous focus on the jewelry and the space beyond by skewing the framing wall, focus is shifted.

Manfredi Jewelry Store - Visual diagram, drawing courtesy De-spec

Sight
As the body moves through, the eye adjusts from exterior daylight to the low lit interior and is drawn in by the lit 'led' glass framing the alley way.

Sound Adjustment
As you cross the threshold, the sound of midtown traffic is dimmed and transformed into interior sounds of stone and steel.

Manfredi Jewelry Store - Axo, drawing courtesy De-spec

Interior
The jewelry of 'Manfredi' is unique for its use of natural colorful gems with references to ancient mythology and constellations.  The interior is clad black slate stone, black steel and pewter finish floors & ceilings to be consistent with materials found naturally in the earth.

Alley
The colored light cast a shadow on the walls of the alleyway creating a dance of shadows.   The design frames the alley in lenses shaped frames. The lens is glazed with 'led' colored lighting calibrated to match the gems used by 'Manfredi'.

Manfredi Jewelry Store, image courtesy De-spec

Lighting
The jewelry is lit with slits evolving out of shears in the ceiling. The shifting planes of the ceiling house the lighting / air circulation systems.

The ambient lights are the pattern of star constellation where the ideas of designer Giulio Manfredi originated and evolved.

Display
The display itself is made of solid steel-housing the jewelry, with transparency and continuity provided by large spans of glass.  The interior of the display cases are treated like fields of colorful gems and the jewelry are displayed on leather planes undulating as jewelry presentation requires.

Manfredi Jewelry Store - Layout plan, drawing courtesy De-spec

+ Project credits / data

Project: Manfredi Jewelry Store
Location: 470 Park Avenue, New York, USA
Designer: De-spec | http://www.de-spec.com/

+ All images courtesy De-spec

+ Other display design on +MOOD

Colourful Kameleon | COEN!

Faraone – The Shop of Via Monternapoleone | Massimo Iosa Ghini

A young couple from Central America acquired an original flow-through unit in a prestigious modern building from the late 1970s. With surgical precision, carefully selected interventions transformed a compartmentalized old-fashioned apartment into a modern collage of spatial experiences.

Horcasitas Apartment Remodel, image courtesy Den Architecture

Horcasitas Apartment Remodel, image courtesy Den Architecture

The composition of volumes, including furniture and built-in cabinets, fills the generous open spaces without an overwhelming presence. Expansive monolithic forms in contrasting colors provide a seamless transition from one space to another. The wall separating master bathroom from sleeping quarters is punctured with three vertical windows that create a day-lit master suite with views of Biscayne Bay; on the bedroom side, the openings are integrated with the custom-made headboard. Low profile furniture in the main living area maximizes cross ventilation, taking advantage of the views and ocean breezes in the flow-through layout. Using colors predominant in Central America, deep earthen tones and rich dark woods are complemented with bright red accents.

Horcasitas Apartment Remodel, image courtesy Den Architecture

The visual appeal is complemented with an equally sophisticated ecological sensibility: dual-flush toilets, low VOC paint, reclaimed plumbing fixtures, recycled marble tiles, and the re-use of existing floors make an aggressive remodel gentle on our planet.

Horcasitas Apartment Remodel, image courtesy Den Architecture

+ Project credits / data

Project: Horcasitas Apartment Remodel
Location: 1541 Brickell Ave, Unit 1502-A, Miami FL 33131, USA
Time: May 13th, 2010 – September 15th, 2010
Budget: $85,000
Square Footage: 1,858 SF (including balconies)
Type: Interior

Designer: Den Architecture | http://www.den-arc.com/
Client: Ana Laura and Rafael Horcasitas
What makes this project unique?: Great modern design, on an extremely low budget
Materials used: quartz solid surface, hardwood, coral stone
Innovative use of space: open plan, fluid spaces

+ All images and drawings courtesy Den Architecture

American architectural office Den Architecture has completed the Salvade-Serenelli Residence Renovation in Pinecrest FL.

Salvade-Serenelli Residence Renovation, sketch courtesy Den Architecture

The Kitchen:

Located in a heavily vegetated residential neighborhood southwest of Miami, this kitchen remodel required a radical departure from the existing layout of the house. Formerly enclosed by full-height cabinets and walls, the proposed design expands the spatial relationship of the interior spaces. All walls separating the kitchen from the rest of the house were demolished, creating a continuous circulation flow through the newly designed area, connecting dining and family rooms in the process.

Salvade-Serenelli Residence Renovation, image courtesy Den Architecture

The kitchen is designed after one of the tropical fruits that abound in the neighborhood: the coconut. With its hard dark outer skin and light fragile core, the fruit was used as a metaphor and departure point for the design. The two high-gloss white enclosures and their matching interior workings contrast with the rich darker tones of the surrounding wood cabinets, framing and showcasing the main activity areas within the kitchen (cleaning, preparing, washing, cooking, and eating). Off at the end, adjacent to the family room, a matching white breakfast table and corresponding light fixture hood anchor the space.

Salvade-Serenelli Residence Renovation, image courtesy Den Architecture

Cabinets were specified with FSC-certified plywood, containing domestic hardwood veneers. The white areas of the kitchen, designed exclusively to acommodate tasks that require concentration, make use of their light color and high reflectivity to bounce natural light from the adjacent windows. Light fixtures, particularly in the aforementioned task areas, are indirect LED strip-lights that utilize a fraction of the electricity when compared to standard lamps. Countertops and backsplashes are only ½" thick, which saves half the amount of material that would otherwise be used in standard tops. The selected fixtures and appliances are among the most efficient in the industry, when comparing electricity and water usage.

Salvade-Serenelli Residence Renovation, image courtesy Den Architecture

The Guest Bathroom:

This commission involved the renovation of a transitional multi-purpose bathroom, connecting a residential pool area with a single family home. The challenge was to create a space that served both purposes that is neither a formal guest bath nor a pool shower room. In addition, the clients requested that the bathroom serve as a potential childrens bath, given their desire to start a family. The end result attempts to combine all requirements in a playful balance of formal compositions and casual materials.

The proposed design focuses on a bi-partite solution involving a combination of forms and carefully selected finishes that all stem from a pool environment. White rectilinear volumes and floating objects cantilever from the walls much like diving boards. The shower niche located at the entrance from the pool, also in white, welcomes guests returning from a long day of sunbathing and swimming. The acqua-colored glass mosaic tiles focus attention on the main wall, mimmicking the color of water; while the overall white pallette alludes to the hygienic necessities of an aquatic environment.

From a sustainable design perspective, the space was designed using factory-built "off-the-shelf" components such as cabinets and shelves, that are very flexible and re-usable in the future. This avoids the need for costly custom wood work that involves a larger carbon footprint. The floor, made of local Caribbean coral stone, is a refined version of the material used for the pool deck outside. The predominantly light-colored material pallette facilitates the use of daylighting given its high reflectivity.

Salvade-Serenelli Residence Renovation, image courtesy Den Architecture

The Master Bathroom:

Clients from the South American region of Patagonia commissioned a master bathroom remodel that would balance the ruggedness of their origins with the sophistication of urban life in the USA. A tight budget necessitated that most work would be produced from a combination of pre-fabricated components purchased at local retail stores.  Locations of plumbing fixtures had to remain to reduce labor costs, as well as a large existing mirror, which was eventually re-purposed to adapt to the proposed design.

As a starting point, the Clients selected a mosaic slate that recalled the rock formations and color variations of the Andes mountains in South America.  The horizontal movement and layering of colors found therein provided the inspiration for the proposed master bathroom design. A series of horizontal elements combining solids and voids incorporate mirrors, cabinets, and shelves. Colors such as accorn-brown and off-white, taken from the selected slate, provide the requested rustic appeal; offset with the refined chrome accents in the fixtures, accessories, and lighting.  In order to create the spatial perception of a larger room, the shower was integrally designed with the rest of the space, using the same floor material and a transparent frameless shower enclosure.

The end result is an efficiently designed master bathroom using pre-fabricated components from local stores.The reclaimed mirror was re-used and adapted to the design, while the remaining materials were obtained from local sources.  The use of a transparent glass shower enclosure allows the use of natural daylight throughout, reducing electricity consumption for lighting purposes during the day.

Salvade-Serenelli Residence Renovation, image courtesy Den Architecture

+ Project credits / data

Project: Salvade-Serenelli Residence Renovation
Location: 7175 SW 119th Street, Pinecrest FL 33156, USA
Budget: $120,000
Square Footage: Kitchen (525 SF), Guest Bath (80 SF), Master (180 SF)
Type: Interior

Designer: Den Architecture | http://www.den-arc.com/
Client: Marcelo Salvade and Georgina Serenelli
What makes this project unique?: Practical minimalism in a tropical setting
Materials: marble,stone, solid surface, hardwood, etc.
Innovative use of space: Blending of contiguous spaces

+ About Den Architecture

Den is an independent architecture firm dedicated to environmentally-conscious design. Den’s research-based design process produces buildings that adapt to local climate, culture and resources. Den is a carbon neutral office committed to the prudent stewardship of our planet’s resources.

Since architecture is responsible for more than 40% of the green house gases in the atmosphere, Den’s actively trying to curtail our profession’s negative impact on the planet. Den not only produce green buildings, Den implement our own strategies to reduce our carbon footprint. Den is green.

+ All images and drawings courtesy Den Architecture