This 1,400 square foot house, designed by chadbourne + doss architects, is built up from the foundation of an existing bungalow. The owners love art, cooking, gardening, and rusted steel. They wanted the house to celebrate those things. Living spaces are stacked on two floors between two solid full height walls either side. These walls bracket an open plan with views through the house from front to back. This provides privacy on a tight urban lot and wall space for the client’s growing art collection. A custom steel stair and perforated steel fireplace surround provide porous screening to the living spaces from the street. A custom sliding TV armature was designed to allow flexible viewing from the Living Room, Dinning Room, and Kitchen. A multi-level deck incorporates a hot tub and extends the living space into the west-facing garden. Materials and details are natural and honestly expressed. Exterior materials include…

Studio Space A have collaborated with the owner to revitalise a tired artist’s villa, bringing colour and intrigue to a dynamic family home. Astrid Zydower was a sculptress who lived in this London town house for decades. Using the front living space as her studio, she famously created the Orpheus piece at Harewood House. Known for hosting cosy roast lamb suppers amidst an assemblage of kitsch objects, she entertained friends in kooky style. Astrid’s spirit was the inspiration for this 250 sqm house refurbishment. The owner needed a space for her family, space to work and space to entertain. With 3 stories and lofty ceiling heights, the house is ideal for multi personalities to coexist in undiluted charm. Space A worked on creating a fusion of mysterious moments in the house, curating it as a series of little and large doorways, arched tunnels, translucent voiles and bold colour combinations.( Published…

At the top of the house is this unique attic of a total of 201 sqm with a fantastic view. Free and high position as well as large studio windows provide a fantastic light flow. There is a generous and airy living area with a fireplace, open, social floor plan and almost four meters to the ridge. The floor has retained its wind character with exposed beams, masonry wall sections and angel stairs. A wonderful combination of modern elements and classic color choices with a stylish and modern kitchen in open plan. Enjoy it!!!! https://house-diaries.com/a-lavish-attic-by-architect-love-arben-in-stockholm/

This renovation and addition project by Woofter Bolch Architecture Studio, added approximately 600 sf to a 100-year-old residence in SE Portland. Home to two established artists, the project completely transformed the interior to maximize daylight, views, and opportunities to display art. A new three-story extension was added in the back, creating a new studio space, kitchen, and vaulted library/bedroom. Two new covered porches provide direct access to the back yard from both the basement and main living levels. Both the exterior design and the new interior spaces continue the historic language and elegant proportions of the existing house.(Published with Bowerbird) Photography : Jon Jensen See also :https://house-diaries.com/an-artist-studio-a-converted-barn-in-provincetown-ma/

This commission for a lakeside residence in Caputh by Borgos Pieper Studio, helped the clients realise their dream of transforming an unusual lakeside Dacha near Potsdam into a rich mix of spaces that fuse the garden and lake views into a luxurious rural retreat. The existing Dacha, built in the 1950’s for a senior politician in East Germany, could not be altered in its volume or area. The unique and idyllic site overlooking the Caputh Lake outside of Potsdam has a handful of neighbours and is surrounded by a nature reserve. The timber structure was transformed and recovered to capture the impressive views and make a unique home. The sloping site offers privacy through its established garden that focuses the internal and external views towards the lake to the South. The three storey home has a lower ground entertaining level that opens onto the lakeside garden level, a intermediate level…

The “ Caminhos do Romântico ”territory in the city of Porto (Portugal) has unique characteristics, mixing bourgeois houses with popular housing, interspersing gardens full of camellias and other exotic species with gardens and backyards but also several examples of industrial archeology. An important part of these routes is made through roads that have markedly rural characteristics, with high walls of the old farms and the fountains and washrooms. The primitive house which was completely in ruins, has been recovered by Floret Arquitectura using the techniques and the conventional architectural language of the time. The extension of the building was made at a lower level, taking advantage of the terraces, using wood and concrete, clearly demarcating in chronological terms the addition of the original. This intervention managed to reconcile the needs of a large family with the conditions resulting from the recovery of the built heritage, respecting the specificity of the place and…

It was only after living in their 400-year-old Jacobean farmhouse in Suffolk for 3 years that Architect Howard Nash (Co-director of Nash Baker Architects) and his partner Monique Beauval-Nash felt they knew the building well enough to make a start on its renovation. They used this long gestation period to good effect, repairing and improving decaying Victorian farm outbuildings and developing creative ways of tackling the architectural and conservation issues raised by the main farmhouse. Now, they have completed building works to the farmhouse and the result is a subtle and exquisite weaving together of the historic, the not-quite-so historic and the contemporary into a quietly confident statement of architectural and design excellence. The project took nearly 3 years to complete. One of the main reasons for this is the careful consideration that was given to every architectural and design decision by demanding owner/designers – who knew they would themselves…

With a quiet and charming courtyard location in a beautiful turn-of-the-century property from 1907, you will find a home with a wonderful personality, just 44 sq m, which is easy to like. The home offers an incredible charm and a cozy atmosphere with many exciting hints and corners such as well-preserved details from the year of construction. The generous ceiling height of 3 meters in combination with large, sash windows and a beautiful tiled stove creates a light and airy home that is easy to long for. There is a spacious living room with tiled stove and beautiful old serving cabinets and a unique bedroom solution behind a wonderful glass veranda that is an awesome element in the apartment. https://house-diaries.com/a-small-dusty-pink-apartment-in-sweden/

Trentham is a slow-paced kind of place. Nestled atop the Great Dividing Range 100km north of Melbourne, this once-upon-a-time gold mining town is now a quiet country escape whose inhabitants relish its crisp, cool country air and quiet, traffic-free streets. It’s only appropriate then that visiting Trentham Long House is akin to stepping back in time. Indeed, the house is a delicately balanced moment between old-fashioned simplicity and the conveniences of contemporary life. Located within a recent semi-rural development on the periphery of the town, the project brief, by MRTN Architects was to design an energy efficient, low maintenance single dwelling on a large, north-facing site for a retired couple, their visiting children, and grand children. The clients wanted a home that would sit well within its local and historical context, provide a comfortable and easy home year round, and also adapt to accommodate large family gatherings scattered throughout the year. Photography : Anthony Basheer See also : https://house-diaries.com/upstate-farmhouse-a-playful-spin-for-a-family-of-five/

This adaptive reuse of a former warehouse by Ian Moore Architects has maintained the exterior almost untouched, with only a few new windows inserted into existing openings. This soft touch has been extended to the interior, where original brick walls have been exposed and the large timber roof trusses highlighted as the starting point for the conversion to a family home.The brief called for a 4 bedroom home, with self contained guest accommodation, a home office, to be used as an equine genetics laboratory and a large garage space to store a collection of classic sports cars. There was a strong emphasis on maintaining an industrial feel to the conversion and the owners asked that there be no timber, marble or black finishes used in the renovation.A very large, hot/cold and noisy space has been transformed into a comfortable family home by locating all household spaces on the upper level,…

An elegant downtown condo by Roundabout Studio in Toronto, creates seamless continuity between living spaces and cutting edge art. The stellar views from the as-yet unbuilt condo were never in doubt. But it was equally important that the unit be a showcase for the owners’ contemporary art collection as well as a comfortable home, one where they could relax at the end of a hectic day. Two units were combined into one 4,200 square foot unit, meaning that the design of the condo had to be highly-customized. In a space with extensive windows, part of the challenge was to create opportunities for the art to be seen, as well as design a series of private and semi-private spaces. The project required an exacting attention to detail, everything from the design of the space itself down to the choice and placement of furniture and soft finishes. When the right furniture piece…