Whether transforming a duplex in a former factory, turning a garden flat into a family home, or eking out every inch of a tiny studio-style space, architects focus on making good use of existing features, redrawing layouts with contemporary ways of living in mind, and adding features such as sliding doors to divide and open up rooms.
WORDS JAYNE DOWLE
1 HERITAGE UPDATE A 89sqm apartment in a historic building in Barcelona, Spain, became a contemporary home for an Italian fashion designer in her thirties. Its most striking feature is a new masonry staircase that leads up to a mezzanine bedroom and bathroom.
Below, a sofa on one side of the steps defines the living space with the dining area and kitchen on the other. The staircase’s slab design is picked up in the design of the built-in dining bench and table, and a corner windowseat overlooking the street.
By retaining some of the apartment’s original elements, including the parquet flooring, the stucco walls and steel windows, architect Andrea Serboli, working with practice Colombo Architecture on the project, kept the total cost much lower than a full renovation, at around £782 per sqm. (colomboserboli.com)
2 ECO-FRIENDLY REMODEL A couple in their thirties, both working in sustainability and keen cyclists, wanted their 65sqm, two-bedroom apartment in Shoreditch, east London, originally designed by modernist architect Berthold Lubetkin, to make better use of space and energy.
Architects Natalie Savva and Mark Rist designed a new bike storage area, training space, study and a revamped guest bedroom, all using materials such as plywood and terrazzo. Mirrors and polycarbonate add brightness, and a boarded-up kitchen window was uncovered.
Replacing a wall between the living room and the couple’s bedroom with a plywood unit that has sliding doors and open shelves brings light into both spaces. They close the sliding panels for privacy.
The gas boiler-powered heating and hot water was switched for an electric system that has negligible operational carbon emissions because the heat battery charges on an off-peak tariff, via a renewable energy supplier. (studionaama.com)
3 THREE-PART DESIGN A colourful two-bedroom apartment on the first floor of an apartment block in Madrid, Spain, unites two tiny former holiday lets. It belongs to an advertising creative in her thirties, who returned to the city during the pandemic after more than a decade working overseas.
