Studio Koster builds contemporary country house in the Val Tidone

The scenic hills of Italy's Val Tidone are the setting for this modern larch-clad house, designed by Milanese architects Studio Koster.

Studio Koster founder Geert Koster
 designed the barn-inspired residence, named Country House, in the hills surrounding Piacenza.

It is a weekend getaway for a client based in Milan, who likes to spend her free time in the countryside with her partner and dogs.

The house is located in Italy's scenic Val Tidone. Photo is by Andrea Martiradonna

The building has a contemporary layout, with plenty of space for entertaining guests. Large living and dining spaces open up to the landscape, and there are four generous double bedrooms, all with their own en-suite bathrooms.

To achieve this without creating a building that looked out of place in the landscape, Koster based his design on the agricultural barns found in this region, rather than the traditional farmhouses.

The design takes cues from agricultural barns. Photo is by Andrea Martiradonna

By reinterpreting the single-storey, gabled forms of these wooden structures, he was able to find a more minimal, modern aesthetic.

"The client didn't want a traditional building," Koster explained. "Country life yes, but not country style. No bricks, no exposed stone, and no terracotta floors or roof tiles."

It boasts larch-clad walls and large barn-style doors

"The main concept for the house was to create a non-invasive architecture that integrates with the beauty of the flowing hills and its natural agricultural scenery, without the rustic feeling," Koster told Dezeen.

The house features walls clad in larch, high ceilings and large barn-style doors. Patios are dotted around the exterior, as part of a wild and varied garden designed by landscape architect Antonio Perazzi.

Patios are dotted around the exterior

Inside, the house centres around the kitchen and dining room, which extends outdoors in the form of a raised terrace.

Bedroom suites are located at the western end of the building and all have their own access to the garden. The eastern end houses the entrance, the lounge and a staircase leading down to the wine cellar.

A reclaimed wood kitchen is shown here with Flexform's First Steps chairs

Country House in the Piacenza Hills was used by Italian furniture brand Flexform as a photoshoot location for its collection. These photos show the house temporarily furnished with Flexform products.

Each piece was selected to complement the house's minimal interior finishes, which include concrete floors, lava stone tiles, white lime tempera paint and a reclaimed wood kitchen.

The living room is shown here furnished with Flexform's Asolo sofa

Standout pieces include the Christophe Pillet-designed First Steps chairs, which complement the wood-panelled kitchen and large dining table, and the Antonio Citterio-designed Gatsby armchairs in the lounge areas.

The terrace is treated as an outdoor room, furnished with the wood-framed Ansel sofas and the overlapping Pico side tables.

Flexform's Gatsby armchairs are shown here beside a picture window

Sustainability was a key focus for the client, so the house is designed to be as energy-efficient as possible.

Its orientation allows it to make optimum use of solar energy and radiant heat, and there is also a geothermal heating/cooling system in place. Meanwhile, the garden is designed to facilitate biodynamic farming.

Flexform's Echoes armchairs feature in this terrace area

Koster describes the experience of staying in the house as "relaxed, beautiful and a bit Zen".

"You enjoy the changing scenery of nature and light at every moment of the day," he said.

Photography is by Matteo Imbriani unless otherwise stated.

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Project credits:

Architect: Studio Koster
Project team: Geert Koster, Andrea Gravellu, Paolo Maserati
Contractor: Mirco Ferrari
Landscape architect: Studio Antonio Perazzi

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Kamp C completes two-storey house 3D-printed in one piece in situ

Kamp C, a centre for sustainability and innovation in construction, has built what it claims is the first house to be 3D-printed in one piece in Westerlo, Belgium.

The house, which was printed on the largest 3D concrete printer in Europe, has two floors and was printed on-site in just three weeks.

"What makes this house so unique, is that we printed it with a fixed 3D concrete printer," Kamp C project manager Emiel Ascione said.

"Other houses that were printed around the world only have one floor. In many cases, the components were printed in a factory and were assembled on-site. We, however, printed the entire building envelope in one piece on-site."

Top image: the finished house. Above: the house and the printer onsite

Kamp C's house is eight metres tall and has a 90-square-metres floor area, the average size of the terraced houses in the same area.

Bringing the large printer onsite to print the house was "very easy," said project manager Marijke Aerts.

"It takes one day to build it [the printer] up and another day to replace it after the work has been done," Aerts told Dezeen.  "It works a little bit the same way as placing a mobile crane on a construction site."

The house's floor area measures 90 square metres

"By printing the house in one piece onsite, you don't need to take into consideration some extra cold bridges that arise when different parts are put together," she added. "So production costs can be reduced."

In the future, an entire house could be printed in just two days, according to the company, and 3D-printed houses could also be even taller than two storeys.

"At this moment, our printer supplier COBOD had even made a bigger version of the printer," Aerts said. "They are printing a three-storey apartment in Germany right now."

Future 3D-printed houses could be taller than the two-storey version

The production of the current house was made possible through the European C3PO project, which aims to accelerate the transition of 3D-printing technology in Flanders, Belgium.

It was designed to showcase the potential of the technology and features an overhang as well as different types of walls.

The low-energy house also has floor and ceiling heating, special facade solar panels and a heat pump, and Kamp C will eventually add a green roof.

Textured walls feature inside the house

Using 3D-printing for buildings could help architects avoid mistakes, according to the company.

"When you make use of the print technique, it is necessary to make use of BIM-technology," Aerts said.

"You make your house in a virtual way up front, in the design phase. You can avoid lots of possible mistakes," she added.

"Lots of possible costs can be avoided. And once you have a good design, it can be changed on some parameters very easily."

A staircase leads up to the first floor

Construction details such as electric cabling and sanitary piping can also be integrated into the design process.

"In Covid-19 -times, it needs to be mentioned that the printer can be controlled from a distance. Onsite, very few construction people are needed," Aerts added.

3D-printing is increasingly used for larger building projects – Yves Béhar has designed the "world's first 3D-printed community" while the 3D-printed Gaia house is made from biodegradable materials.

Photography is by Kamp C and Jasmien Smets.

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Trump orders new government buildings must be "beautiful"

President Donald Trump has passed an executive order stating new US government buildings must be "beautiful" just one month before Joe Biden takes office.

The order, titled Executive Order on Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture, was passed on Monday 21 December 2020. President-elect Biden will be sworn in on 21 January 2021.

Classical architecture to be encouraged

Trump's order stipulates that new buildings commissioned for the federal government must be "beautiful" and names classical and traditional architecture as the preferred style, but stops short of banning other styles, such as brutalism.

"Encouraging classical and traditional architecture does not exclude using most other styles of architecture, where appropriate," reads the order.

"Care must be taken, however, to ensure that all federal building designs command respect [sic] of the general public for their beauty and visual embodiment of America's ideals."

The order defines traditional architecture as "Gothic, Romanesque, Pueblo Revival, Spanish Colonial, and other Mediterranean styles of architecture historically rooted in various regions of America".

Architects must design for "the American people"

The executive order seeks to stamp out designs made for "architects to appreciate" and instead "ensure that architects designing federal buildings serve their clients, the American people".

A Council for Improving Federal Civic Architecture will also be established per the executive order, a signed and published written directive from the US president that does not require approval from Congress.

Trump, who is now in the last few weeks of his presidency, had previously threatened to insist all federal buildings be designed in a classical style only.

A draft of the executive order, called Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again, was released in early 2020 and condemned brutalist and deconstructivist architecture styles. The move prompted outrage, with the American Institute of Architects writing an open letter in protest.

Order dismisses tastes of  "architectural elite"

The final order still contains much of the earlier draft's sentiments about architecture, drawing a direct link between the architecture of Ancient Greece and Rome and the democratic aims of America's founding fathers, and identifying mid-century architecture as a deviation from this pattern.

"Federal architecture sometimes impresses the architectural elite, but not the American people who the buildings are meant to serve," complains the order.

"Federal public buildings should uplift and beautify public spaces, inspire the human spirit, ennoble the United States, and command respect from the general public," it continues.

"They should also be visually identifiable as civic buildings and, as appropriate, respect regional architectural heritage. Architecture — with particular regard for traditional and classical architecture — that meets the criteria set forth in this subsection is the preferred architecture," the order states.

The order notes that while "elite architects" liked the San Francisco Federal Building, which was designed by Morphosis and opened in 2007, local residents "consider it one of the ugliest structures in their city".

Melania Trump, the president's wife, recently completed her own architectural project in the classical style – a tennis pavilion fronted by columns in the grounds of the White House.

Image is courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Victorian townhouse in London remodelled with charred-wood extension

Rider Stirland Architects has remodelled the interiors of a Victorian terraced house in south London by adding a small rear extension clad in blackened wood and London stock bricks.

Aptly named Charred House, the project was carried out for a family of five to help make more efficient use of their home and improve views of the garden.

To achieve this, Rider Stirland Architects replaced an existing but ineffective two-storey extension with an understated 9-square-metre addition, allowing the introduction of an open-plan kitchen, dining and sitting room.

Top image: Charred House's asymmetric shape echoes the form of the terrace. Above: the building is clad in blackened wood and brick

"In many ways, it was a classic brief for a Victorian terraced house – create an open-plan kitchen, dining and family room and improve the connection to the garden, however space to extend back from the existing building was limited," explained the studio.

"Key to our re-working of the house was the removal of the existing two-storey closet wing – a cold and unloved brick box to the rear – and construction of a new part single-storey, part two-storey extension."

Large areas of glazing are used to visually connect the house and garden

The asymmetric shape of the Charred House extension references "the natural rhythm of the terrace", which includes two closet wing extensions on the neighbouring houses.

However, it was kept small in size in order to maintain usable outdoor space, as the extension steps out into the home's small back garden.

The extension created space for a large open-plan kitchen and sitting area

Durable charred larch is used as the primary cladding material to set the extension apart from the existing house, but it is teamed with portions of London stock brick to help tie it in with the street.

To add "a touch of personality", the wood and brick are complemented by flashings made from powder-coated aluminium and gold-coloured stainless steel.

A small dining area also features in the extension

Inside, Charred House's reconfigured ground floor is now open in plan, with a kitchen at its heart and a sitting and dining room at the rear.

Upstairs, the first floor part of the extension forms a new family study, which is fitted out with two equal-sized desks, shelf space and windows.

The kitchen features black cabinetry and pink tiles

The open-plan arrangement of the ground floor is intended to better support "the dynamics of family life" and provides a single space in which the family can cook, play and eat at the same time.

This space is also visually connected to the garden through the extension's glazed pivot door, alongside a large oriel window that projects out into the garden.

Bespoke cabinetry features in the sitting area

Material choices throughout Charred House have been chosen for warmth and tactility. This includes parquet flooring and the bespoke plywood joinery that maximises storage downstairs.

Standout finishes include the dark black kitchen cabinetry, which is contrasted with a pink-coloured splashback and a white kitchen island with a large gold-coloured tap.

The oriel window incorporates a long seat that is lined with bright fabric with a green-plant print, which the clients say gives them the feeling of "floating right among the flowers".

The oriel window incorporates a large patterned window seat

Elsewhere in London, Harry Thomson also recently used blackened larch to clad an extension to a Victorian house. The project involved expanding the existing dining space into the garden and adding a stepped dormer into the roof to create an extra bedroom.

Grey Griffiths Architects designed a stepped brick extension for a workers' cottage in west London that features a staircase punctured with rectangle-shaped holes.

Photography is by Adam Scott.

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Project credits

Architect: Rider Stirland Architects
Structural engineer: Axiom Structures
Garden designer: Catherine Oliver
Approved inspector: London Building Control
Party wall surveyor: H I Consultants
Contractor: Lenys Construction

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Ben Allen completes overhaul of his own home in east London

Artworks by Olafur Eliasson informed architect Ben Allen's revamp of his two-storey maisonette in London's Bethnal Green, which features mirrored furniture elements.

The maisonette is set inside Keeling House, a 16-storey residential block that was designed by English architect Denys Lasdun in 1957.

Reflective artworks by Olafur Eliasson are presented in the home's stairwell

The founder of Studio Ben Allen and his wife decorated their home's interior with an array of personal possessions so that it looks like a cabinet of curiosities.

Amongst these possessions are a number of optical artworks gifted by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, whom Allen worked for over a 10-year period.

Oval mirrored side tables have been placed beside the bed

Several of the artworks are crafted from glass or mirror, and this prompted Allen to incorporate reflective elements in other spaces throughout the home.

The architect was also inspired by the round convex mirrors that appear in London's Sir John Soane Museum, which playfully skew how visitors perceive the exhibition rooms.

The bedroom's vanity table is also mirrored

A pair of oval mirrored side tables feature in the bedroom that's located on the maisonette's upper floor.

Another mirrored panel has been mounted on the wall to form the backing of a vanity table, which boasts a semi-circular brass ledge where jewellery, perfume bottles and other trinkets can be displayed.

The bedroom has otherwise been simply finished with white-painted walls, larch wardrobes and exposed-wired lighting fixtures.

More mirrors have been affixed to the bathroom's cabinet and walls

In the bathroom, half-moon-shaped mirrors have been affixed to the doors of a storage cabinet, which sits directly above a bespoke green-concrete sink.

The image of the sink is repeated in an arched mirror on an adjacent wall.

The bathroom's hardware is made from gold-hued brass

Surfaces are clad with jade-green tiles, while taps, spouts and the tubular shower head are made from brass. Perforated shutters have also been installed in front of the windows to allow just a little amount of natural light to seep through from the outdoors.

"We wanted the bathroom to be purposefully darker to contrast with the brightness of the rest of the flat and to imbue it with a sense of refuge," Allen explained.

At this level of the house, there's additionally a study that has a green cushioned daybed and a larch work table.

A study with larch-wood joinery is on the home's upper floor

Most of Eliasson's art pieces can be seen in the maisonette's stairwell, displayed alongside arched mirror shelves that hold candles or tiny architectural models.

Steps lead down to the lower floor, where Allen has exclusively applied a selection of "robust" materials which are meant to age well over time.

"[Materials] have also been chosen to give a sense of tactile warmth both when the flat is flooded with daylight, as well as on overcast days and at night," added Allen.

Downstairs is the kitchen, which features a green-concrete counter

The kitchen, for example, has oak cupboards and a green-concrete countertop. A grey-tile splashback is dotted with brass pegs where crockery or cooking utensils can be hung.

Just opposite there's a book-lined sitting room complete with a black leather sofa and a cosy oak seating nook that doubles-up as a storage box.

A tall shelving unit separates the kitchen from the sitting room

To loosely divide these two spaces, Allen and his team have erected a trellis-style shelving unit that stretches from floor to ceiling. A small work desk can be pulled out from the blue fibreboard drawers that sit at the unit's base.

The presence of the unit acts as a small homage to architect Lasdun, who had originally designed the flats inside Keeling House with galley kitchens that were separate from the sitting rooms.

This was changed in the 1990s when, at risk of demolition, the building was completely revamped to feature minimal, open-plan living areas.

The sitting room includes a cosy window nook

Expansive panels of glazing look through to the maisonette's balcony, where Allen has added a planter filled with wild grass and a Rhus Typhina tree. Beyond lies views of Hampstead Heath park and the city of London.

Allen established his self-titled studio in 2014 and has since gone on to complete a number of projects. Just last year, the studio created an artichoke-shaped garden room for a home in southwest London, and renovated a Barbican flat to include colourful fold-out furniture.

Photography is by French + Tye.

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