London apartment by Surman Weston features porthole and custom-made details

A spinning porthole offers shifting views of living spaces inside this London apartment, which Surman Weston has finished with bespoke decor elements.

The 54-square-metre apartment is set within Makepeace Mansions, a 1920s residential block in the Highgate neighbourhood with a mock-Tudor facade.

In the past it had undergone a "piecemeal" renovation that left behind a sequence of impractical and poor-quality living spaces. Its current owners, a pair of graphic designers, brought Surman Weston on board to completely overhaul the interior.

"Designing the space anew meant we could really plan out how it could fit the needs of the clients and make it as practical as it could be – which is particularly important given how small the space is," co-founder of the practice, Percy Weston, told Dezeen.

The practice looked into Makepeace Mansions' 1920s context, growing a particular interest in nearby art-deco tube stations designed by British architect Charles Holden.

It decided to incorporate the curved shapes that were synonymous with the art deco period throughout the apartment.

This is seen most clearly in the timber-framed porthole window that has been punctuated in a wall in the sitting room. Its central round pane of frosted glass can be spun to reveal a view of the kitchen.

Here, cupboards have been crafted from fluted panels of oakwood and finished with circular brass handles. The turquoise-blue countertops are inlaid with different-sized chips of timber, creating a terrazzo-like finish.

In the adjacent sitting room, surfaces have been freshened up with a coat of white paint.

The focal point of the space is now a custom-made fireplace that the practice crafted itself using concrete and flecks of terracotta – a material that appears on Makepeace Mansions' roof and hallway floors.

The practice also designed and made all of the apartment's burnished-brass doorknobs, with the help of century-old ironmongery Frank Allart.

"Our practice built our first five projects, so we have quite a lot of experience of building things as well as designing them," explained Weston.

"But as our practice has expanded, it has become increasingly difficult for us to build all the projects we design – so this project was an experiment for us, in that we decided to produce what we saw as the key elements for the project," he continued.

"We have always found we have been able to finesse the design and experiment more, through the process of making...we also missed getting our hands dirty, to be honest!"

Hand-painted tiles have then been applied across the shower cubicle and walls in the bathroom to form a graphic, black-and-white pattern that mimics the building's monochromatic exterior.

A cylindrical basin and round mirror are presented inside an arched niche. The kitchen cabinetry is echoed in the master bedroom, where white fluted cladding has been set against the walls.

Surman Weston was established in 2014 by Tom Surman and Percy Weston. Previously the practice has converted a Victorian-era Methodist church into an office, dividing workspaces with stained-glass partitions.

Back in 2016, it also erected a cork-clad studio in the back garden of a north London home, where the creative occupants could retreat to make music and sew.

Photography is courtesy of Surman Weston.

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Project credits:

Architect: Surman Weston
Contractor: Lamabuild

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Five handle hacks for hands-free door opening

To lessen the threat of spreading the coronavirus designers are creating door-handle adapters that remove the need for direct contact. Here are five of the most interesting door-handle hacks.

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Hands-free door knob by Adapta

Design studio Adapta has created a device that allows people to open common round door knobs using an arm or elbow. The attachment fits directly onto circular handles that are normally almost impossible to open without gripping.

As an additional level of security the device is printed from thermochromic pigments so it temporarily changes colour when someone touches it with their hands.

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Handy by Matteo Zallio

Matteo Zallio, a designer and visiting postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, has created a 3D-printed tool that can be used for numerous tasks that would normally require touching a surface directly. Its pair of hooks can be used for opening doors.

"Having a personal multipurpose tool to avoid direct contact with handles, buttons, bags and other daily objects outside of our home, helps to increase hygiene and to lower chances of getting infected," Zallio said.

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3D-printed door openers by Materialise

Belgium-based Materialise has created a 3D-printed device that can be attached to door handles to allow them to be opened using an arm. The company has made the printable design available for free.

"The power of 3D printing in combination with Materialise's three decades of 3D printing expertise made it possible to turn an idea into an innovative product in less than 24 hours," said Fried Vancraen, CEO of Materialise.

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Forearm shield by FSB

Door handle manufacturer FSB has created a forearm shield that can be attached to the majority of commonly stocked lever handles.

According to the brand the adaptor can be fitted to either angular or circular handles that have a diameter of between 18 and 25 millimetres.

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Cable tie attachment by Ivo Tedbury and Freddie Hong

Architectural designers Ivo Tedbury and Freddie Hong have created a 3D-printed device that can be cable tied to "fire escape-style" pull door handles.

"I live in a block of flats and was frustrated at the number of shared doors between my flat and the outside world," Tedbury told Dezeen. "If you're going out to buy groceries, you might end up with contaminated hands within 30 seconds."

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Larch-clad house by RX Architects cantilevers over landscape

RX Architects incorporated part of an unfinished building into this house with a cantilevered upper story on the Rye Nature Reserve in East Sussex, England.

Called Druim, the house was built over an existing foundation and ground floor.

The previous owners of the site had been unable to secure permission for two planned properties due to the area's protected status, and opted to sell the site complete with a half-finished structuree

RX Architects built on this existing masonry base with a cantilevering upper-storey clad in Siberian larch, positioned to maximise views across the landscape out towards the sea.

"When the [new] owners commissioned us it was on the basis of completing the existing house, but I quickly came to the conclusion the proportions of the house were all wrong to meet their brief," project architect Rob Pollard told Dezeen.

"A key move here was to re-use the existing foundations and external load-bearing ground floor walls, then place a new steel structure over it so that the first floor could cantilever out."

The house is split horizontally, with a living, kitchen and dining area opening onto two terraces at ground-floor level and bedrooms on the first floor at either side of a library space.

This library space opens out onto a deeply recessed balcony through glass sliding doors, framing a panoramic view across the site.

"We clad the ceiling in this [balcony] space with the same narrow larch batten strips on the external soffits to create a sense of being partially outside," said Pollard.

"It almost has the feel of a bird hide overlooking the nature reserve."

A single-storey games room with an adjacent studio flat has also been created to the west of the main house, accessed via a garden path.

On the ground floor, the existing structure of engineering bricks has been retained and painted with black Keim paint, usually used for marine environments and lighthouses.

"[The Keim paint] seemed fitting for this very exposed coastal location, and the dark colour would compliment the first floor cladding," said Pollard.

"The top floor will naturally weather and silver and appear very rough and textured, whereas the ground floor will retain a very robust and solid datum feel."

Above, the more lightweight first floor projects over this base with a steel and timber structure.

The cantilever shelters the entrance and south-facing elevation below.

This contrast continues internally, with a more "robust" and tactile ground floor and a bright, calm upper floor.

"We wanted to keep a calm palette so everything felt very natural in the environment but didn't detract from the views over the landscape," said Pollard.

RX Architects was founded in 2016, and is led by Rob Pollard and Derek Rankin.

Also in Sussex, Paul Cashin Architects recently completed the refurbishment of a 19th-century cottage in the seaside village of Sidlesham Quay.

Photography is by Richard Chivers.

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Stones, Leaves, and Shells Whorl in Hypnotic Land Art by Jon Foreman

“Whirling Colour” (2019), Freshwater West, Pembrokeshire. All images © Jon Foreman

Jon Foreman arranges his seashell coils and stone gradients knowing that they’ll be washed away by the tide or kicked over by passersby. The artist’s ephemeral land art is hypnotic and entrancing in its precision, arranged in perfectly concentric circles and exacting compositions depressed in the sand. His large-scale pieces transform blank beaches and forest expanses into artworks that evidence both environmental diversity and continuity.

Based in Wales, the artist began creating his nature-based work while in college. Since then, his land art has ranged from minimal stone sculptures to sweeping sand mandalas, and each project has its own entrancing motif. “Repeat processes are always very therapeutic and this is a good example of that, getting lost in the process is an important part of land art,” Foreman recently wrote on Instagram.

If you don’t have the opportunity to see one of the artist’s highly composed pieces in person, pick up a print from his shop. (via Juxtapoz)

“II Ad Unum” (2019), Freshwater West, Pembrokeshire

“Confluere” (2018), Art of Balance Exhibition, Summerhall, Edinburgh

Left: Freshwater West, Pembrokeshire. Right: “Nether” (2019), Freshwater West, Pembrokeshire

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Luca Fortin constructs concrete passageway for Quebec City park

Two monolithic concrete walls by designer Luca Fortin are arranged "like an opened book" to form a passageway inside a Quebec City park.

Entre les lignes, which translates as between the lines, separates an urban area of the Canadian city from Chauveau Park located alongside the St Charles River.

It is intended to beckon park visitors to pass through the rounded archway into the wooded space.

"Like an opened book, this work is an invitation to walk through a new landscape, whether real or imaginary," Fortin said.

"Offering visitors access to a transitionary space between the urban and the natural areas of the linear park of the Rivière-Saint-Charles, framed poetically by the wide arch-shaped portal," he added.

"Acting both as an entranceway and finish line for its pedestrian public, the piece is an open invitation for contemplation, a catalyst to reawaken a desire to dream and reconnect to the natural landscape shared by all."

Photograph is by Luca Fortin

The sculpture comprises two walls formed by stacked concrete slabs that measure eight metres long and four metres high. Fortin used a wooden mould for the concrete to give it a marked texture.

A rounded archway, cut out from one of the walls, straddles the path to form an access point through which park visitors can traverse. The pair are arranged at a slight angle from one another leaving a wide opening on one end that follows the pathway.

Rigid lines and small holes stretch across the grey walls in a manner similar to text-markings.

"Diffused colours, streaks and textures leave abstract palimpsestic traces on the walls, their almost script-like appearance invites viewers to decrypt them as they wish," Fortin added.

Photograph is by Luca Fortin

Changing seasons and weather, such as rain and snow, will transform the structure's composition throughout the year.

"The cycling of the four seasons, with the succession of rain, falling leaves and snow, will change the intrinsic appearance of the concrete, constantly offering passers-by a new version of its story," the designer added.

Photograph is by Luca Fortin

Luca Fortin worked with design collective Fontaine/Fortin/Labelle to design a colourful, abstract doorway.

The project formed part of Passages Insolites, an annual public art festival presented by arts organisation EXMURO that asks architects to install unusual passages around the city.

Photography is by Felix Michaud, unless noted otherwise.

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