Renovation

Once a typical Pearl River Delta industrial town, Dali (Nanhai District) neglected human-centered public life amid rapid development. With the Qiandeng Lake axis extension, it transforms into a livable city, unlocking public space in dense fabric. The Yongping Warehouses project, in Yanbu Old Dragon 1432 Zone along Huadi River, revives obsolete riverside warehouses—once part of the Guangzhou-Foshan thoroughfare’s trade heritage—into a vital waterfront public space.

Casa Luz is an architectural and interior design intervention in an existing home in the city of Oaxaca that reflects on how to inhabit from a local perspective without resorting to nostalgic or literal gestures. The proposal is built upon a sensitive reading of the context, where materiality, light, and craftsmanship become the primary means of expression.

The house had remained within the same family for generations, quietly carrying layers of everyday life and memory. Although the new owner lives abroad, he chose not to part with it, feeling a strong attachment to the place he had inherited. Rather than selling, the decision was made to bring the house back into use through ROOVICE’s Kariage framework—a system that renovates vacant homes and subleases them, allowing owners to preserve their properties without the burden of managing them. This approach made it possible for the house to be lived in once again, while retaining its identity and history.

In 1971, the then-owners of a row-end single-family home located in one of the historical neighborhoods of Madrid incorporated into it one of the iconic objects of the imagery of developmental Spain: the blue pool. For their private use, they decided to build a pool, sacrificing nearly all of the twenty-eight square meters that made up the backyard of their home, which until then had been a place for children’s revelry and a respite from domestic tasks. It is possible that the decision was made simply in response to changing circumstances: with the children grown and the housekeeper working outside the home, the yard fell into disuse; or perhaps, it was the pool, as a fantasy imported from postcards of sun and tourism, that managed to carve out a place as a desire among other domestic needs.

West of Lake Roxen, just outside Linköping, stands the ruin of Stjärnorp Castle, originally built between 1654 and 1662, most likely designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder. The estate comprised a four-storey stone main building with a stair tower facing the park to the west, and two wings facing Lake Roxen to the east. The castle is depicted in Erik Dahlbergh’s Suecia Antiqua et Hodierna from 1697.

The project is conceived as a reflection on the transformation of a prefabricated wooden house, built more than two decades ago, whose original condition of temporary occupation evolves into a model of permanent living. This transition implies not only a functional update but a comprehensive reinterpretation of its spatial, constructive, and environmental logics, in accordance with new forms of contemporary living.

Dali in Nanhai District, a former industrial town in the Pearl River Delta, is transforming into a livable urban environment by unlocking public spaces within its dense fabric. Located along the Huadi River, this project revitalizes the derelict Yongping Warehouses. Once a vital node for regional river trade, these structures occupy the city’s most valuable waterfront.

A House is a renovation of a wooden house that had become an unauthorised structure due to r repeated extensions and alterations since it was constructed 100 years ago. The processes to bring this house back into compliance with the current building regulations and reapply for planning permission involved 1) removing the unauthorised extensions, 2) constructing a new foundation inside the existing structure for seismic reinforcement, and 3) applying fire-resistant wall cladding. The renovation of A House can be used as a case study to explore the possibilities for other wooden structures with similar conditions.

A House is a renovation of a wooden house that had become an unauthorised structure due to r repeated extensions and alterations since it was constructed 100 years ago. The processes to bring this house back into compliance with the current building regulations and reapply for planning permission involved 1) removing the unauthorised extensions, 2) constructing a new foundation inside the existing structure for seismic reinforcement, and 3) applying fire-resistant wall cladding. The renovation of A House can be used as a case study to explore the possibilities for other wooden structures with similar conditions.