Renovation

At the end of a long driveway, nestled amongst the neighbouring houses and established Pohutukawa trees, an existing 1960’s brick and tile home sat stubbornly in the middle of the site. While functional, the existing dwelling provided a confronting car-centric entry and failed to engage with the landscape or the spectacular views over Cox’s Bay in Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour.

The Mission.

The smallest unit constituting society
This is a renovation project of the office presided over by the two co-owners. This space where two people share their time can be said to be the smallest spatial unit in society. Where it required two personalities and desires in one space, we created a unit space filled with many options. The office is a small space of 28 square meters, but it is finely segmented, creating a number of places. If that is the case, while having a personality where there is a place, we aim at the state related to separation. We expanded the small place and the whole, and also made the appropriate balance.

Undressing what exists and transforming what is necessary to create a sequence of interrelated spaces has been the greatest objective of this rehabilitation. To give value to certain pre-existing elements of the house and the environment by eliminating unnecessary elements is the starting point of the project of this detached house located a few meters away from the epicenter of the Horta district in Barcelona.

Due to a lack of space, the fairgrounds were moved to the outskirts of town in the mid-1970s, construction took place in several stages, and the resulting trade fair center has since been renovated step by step – with famous architecture firms responsible for certain elements of the 14 exhibition halls. The master plan created in 2012 outlines the upcoming renovation of the west axis – the agora, the central square, should play a bigger role; the orientation within the buildings and open spaces calls for improvement; and the sequence and function of the exhibition halls could be aligned better.

Recently, in China, there are more and more innovation projects rather than new buildings, and the theme of these projects are changing from city to rural area. But the rural area are no longer just traditional villages, essentially, they are more like villages from the city dwellers’ viewpoint and to satisfy city dwellers’ imagination.

Originally built in 1966, this Los Altos home is a single-level ranch style structure, ubiquitous in suburban neighborhoods throughout the United States. Inspired by hotel spas frequented while working overseas, the client tasked Framestudio to design an extension to the house that would accommodate a swim spa and home gym. The challenge was that the scope of work was restricted to the addition only. Nothing else was to be touched.