Psychologists office and tranquil garden hidden behind concrete wall in Uruguay

Architects Pedro Livni and Rafael Solano have created a psychologist's office behind a tall concrete wall in Ciudad de la Costa, Uruguay.

Located within the garden of an existing property, the low-slung structure encompasses 35 square metres and is hidden by a wall that runs its full width.

The psychologist's office stands behind a concrete wall

Only a door and a circular aperture, which was informed by the work of American artist Gordon Matta-Clark – who was known for cutting holes in existing buildings, breaking through the concrete wall.

While the door leads into the psychologist's office, the circle connects the larger garden with a small private courtyard space.

A circular opening connects the two gardens

"Located at the back of a parcel, a wall is built that hides the room and defines a garden inside another garden," explained Livni and Solano.

"Thinking of Matta-Clark, a big hole breaks through the wall and connects both gardens."

An enclosed courtyard was built next to the office

The main facade is defined by an oversized sculptural gutter, which cantilevers over the entrance and directs rainwater from the roof onto a boulder that was placed beside the front door.

Patients enter below this overhang office into a small waiting area, which adjoins a kitchenette and restroom.

The psychologist's office itself occupies roughly half of the small building and has a row of windows that look out onto the enclosed courtyard space.

The office looks onto the courtyard

The office is clad Eucalyptus-panelling, chosen by the architects as an economical choice that matched the owner's budget.

A doorway connects the space directly to the garden allowing patients and the doctor to use the outdoor space during their sessions.

There is a young tree planted in the middle of the garden, which echoes the circular opening of the main wall, and a simple bench running along the facade, beneath the windows.

The office's interior

The exterior was finished with cementitious fibre panels, which was also chosen as a budget-friendly decision.

These long, thin panels were laid horizontally to accentuate the building's low profile.

Ciudad de la Costa is a mid-sized city in Uruguay that is considered part of the metropolitan area of Montevideo, the capital.

Other projects in the South American country include a parking garage topped with a verdant terrace and a beach house on stilts that is clad in blackened timber by FRAM Arquitectos and Delfina Riverti.

The photography is by Marcos Guiponi.

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Grenfell Tower set to be demolished over safety risks

The UK government has decided to demolish Grenfell Tower four years after a fatal fire tore through the block of flats in west London, following a report that states the building should be "deconstructed at the earliest possible opportunity".

Although the government has not officially announced the decision, ministers have decided that the burnt remains of the building will be "carefully taken down", according to The Sunday Times.

The news follows a letter to residents from the ministry of housing, communities and local government (MHCLG) earlier this year explaining that a decision would be made on the fate of the tower this summer.

In total 72 people lost their lives in the fire. Bereaved families have been told they can now expect a final decision later this month.

Deconstruction to commence "no later than May 2022"

The government's plan to demolish Grenfell Tower was informed by a safety report that it commissioned and published in May, reported The Sunday Times.

In the report, engineering consultancy Atkins said that the tower should be deconstructed as soon as possible.

"There is unanimous agreement and unambiguous advice from all the technical experts and engineers involved in the Grenfell project that the tower should not be propped for the medium to long-term but should be deconstructed at the earliest possible opportunity, with deconstruction commencing no later than May 2022," the report states.

"This advice is based on protecting the safety of those working in and living around the tower."

However, the government has previously assured the bereaved families that there will be no change to the tower before its fifth anniversary in June 2022.

Grenfell community "shocked" by plans

Grenfell Tower was ravaged by fire in the early hours of 14 June 2017. The fire was started by a malfunctioning fridge-freezer, but spread rapidly across the 67-metre-high block due to its flammable exterior cladding.

The tower continues to loom over the neighbourhood in North Kensington, shrouded in protective sheeting decorated with a green heart.

Its site has been under the control of the ministry of housing, communities and local government since 2018 after the police released the site as a crime scene. An official inquiry into the event is still ongoing after it was suspended last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The news of its pending demolition has caused an uproar among survivors and bereaved families. Grenfell United, the organisation that represents them, said it was "shocked" by the plans.

In a statement, the group said the Grenfell community accepted the removal of the tower, but that the demolition timeline should be decided by the "bereaved, survivors and the community, not the government".

It added that "fewer than 10 bereaved and survivors" have been consulted on the subject so far.

Marcio Gomes, a father of a stillborn baby that died as a result of the tragedy, described the situation as "inhumane and brutal".

"The future of the tower is the single most important thing for us in bring peace," he said.

Action group Grenfell Next of Kin, which represents 29 of the fire's victims, has previously suggested allowing the structure to be taken over by nature, inspired by the work of Italian architect Stefano Boeri and his vertical forests.

News follows another cladding fire

The news of Grenfell Tower's demolition comes after a fire broke out in a tower block Milan and engulfed its exterior cladding. The city's mayor Beppe Sala likened it to the Grenfell Tower fire in London. However, all of the residents who were in their apartments were safely evacuated.

The Grenfell Tower fire prompted a ban on all combustible cladding on buildings over 18 metres high in England and Wales. The ban prevents combustible material from being used on new residential buildings, schools, hospitals, care homes and student accommodation.

In February, UK housing secretary Robert Jenrick also announced a scheme for removing unsafe cladding from housing, with £3.5 billion allocated for affected high-rise buildings over six storeys tall.

However, the decision to only fund the removal of flammable cladding on housing over a certain height was described by The Royal Institute of Britsh Architects (RIBA) as "naive". RIBA fire safety expert Jane Duncan said she was "frankly shocked" by the lack of funds for lower buildings.

"Whilst additional funding to speed-up cladding remediation on residential buildings above 18 metres must be welcomed, I am frankly shocked by the Government's continued underestimation of the scale of our building safety crisis," said Duncan. "Fire does not discriminate by height."

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Watch a talk with Stefano Boeri and Joseph Grima about creating cities in symbiosis with nature

Dezeen promotion: in this Venice Biennale talk by Therme Art and V–A–C, 11 experts from the fields of architecture, design and technology discuss how we can reimagine our cities while giving back to nature.

The panel, which took place at the biennale in May and is now being broadcast exclusively by Dezeen, features architects Stefano Boeri and Joseph Grima as well as indigenous and environmental rights activist Nina Gualinga.

It was held as part of Therme's Wellbeing Culture Forum, an ongoing programme of online and offline discussions that explores how design and architecture can promote the wellbeing of both people and nature in the urban context.

Titled From Non-Extractive to Re-Generative Architectures: Growing a Symbiotic City, the talk expands on the Non-Extractive Architecture manifesto, which was launched by Grima's studio Space Caviar in April and advocates for a new kind of architecture that does not exploit the planet.

Therme's talk intended to expand on this idea by looking at how cities can instead enter a reciprocal relationship with nature, in which we replenish what resources we extract in order to generate abundance in a sustainable way.

Architect Stefano Boeri discussed his vertical forest project

"Extraction could be part of connection," said Boeri, who has designed vertical forest apartment blocks in cities around the world in the hope of reconnecting their residents with local wildlife.

"I'm not totally against the idea of extracting because when we enter into a relationship with the other, we extract something from it and it extracts something from us."

Nina Gualinga is an indigenous and environmental rights activist

Therme Art's CEO, co-founder and co-moderator Mikolaj Sekutowicz added that cities should be designed to replicate the inherent symbiosis of our planet's ecosystem. This is similar to how trees extract nutrients from the soil to grow, eventually returning the nutrients to the earth through their fallen leaves.

"We need to move from 'building' cities to 'growing' them," Sekutowicz said. "This will require the same radical shift in our cultural adaptation and perspective as was provided in the 1920s through the Bauhaus movement."

Gualinga, who is a member of the Kichwa people native to the Ecuadorian Amazon, argued that to achieve this, architects should learn from the way that indigenous communities have been living for centuries.

"We as indigenous people know what non-extraction and regeneration is," she said. "That is our way of life, that is how we live and coexist in balance with Mother Earth and the forest."

Joseph Grima of Space Caviar helped to guide the discussion

Therme Group founder and CEO, Robert C Hanea expanded on the importance of placing architecture as the pillar for reshaping the world’s economy, urban and societal infrastructure developments.

"In the end, we come down to economics. In the end, architects respond to the economical call, respond to an environment that finances, extracts, impacts, shapes the world that we have ended up with. We all agree that this is broken and we know that this won't go for a long time."

Previous talks in Therme's Wellbeing Culture Forum series include a discussion on how creatives can be environmental activists featuring Maja Hoffman and Sissel Tolaas.

Therme Art is the cultural incubator of Therme Group. It aims to challenge the limitations of conventional exhibition spaces to redefine contemporary art viewing worldwide.

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Ventaglio table by Charlotte Perriand for Cassina

Dezeen Showroom: the Ventaglio table designed by French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand for Italian furniture brand Cassina is a multifunctional table characterised by its simplicity.

Designed by Perriand, who passed away in 1999, the Ventaglio wooden table was designed in 1972 and can be used as a kitchen table, living room table or even a desk.

"Simple but flawless assembly, in which the individual elements come together in an intricate structure of breathtaking elegance and versatility, it can fill any role, such as an office desk," said Cassina.

The wooden table can be used as a coffee table or desk

When used as a desk, the table can include integrated power access and has plenty of space on its counter to hold computers and work devices.

"Ventaglio table by Charlotte Perriand for furniture brand Cassina is a multifunctional design table with a revolutionary attitude, whose shape and use are uniquely different from all the other tables, completely sums up l'art de vivre of Charlotte Perriand," said the brand.

Cassina's Ventaglio table is designed by French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand

The Ventaglio table is available in natural oak and oak stained black.

Product: Ventaglio table
Brand: Cassina
Designer: Charlotte Perriand
Contact: info@cassina.it

About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen's huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.

Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.

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Emil Eve Architects creates "sense of calm" in pale pink loft extension

Everything is pale pink in this monochromatic loft extension designed by Emil Eve Architects for a house in east London.

The London-based studio has used colour blocking to unite the various elements of the Narford Road loft, including surfaces, furniture and joinery.

The loft extension creates a new bedroom for the house

Studio co-founder Emma Perkin said the aim was to create a "sense of calm" in the space, which will be used as a bedroom.

The clients, a couple with two young children, wanted a room that would feel like a sanctuary, allowing them to leave the chaos of family life downstairs.

"Their brief to us was to create a space that was serene and grown-up, intended purely for the adults," Perkin told Dezeen.

The entire room is painted in a pale pink shade

As the house is located within a conservation area, the loft extension had to be designed with minimal visual impact. The architecture studio did this by designing a mansard roof, which replaces the butterfly roof that previously topped the house.

With its projecting windows, the mansard form helps to maximise the feeling of space and light within the room.

The design includes built-in closets and shelves

Bespoke joinery also helps to make optimal use of space.

Emil Eve Architects designed built-in wardrobes and a window seat, which create a full-height dressing area on one side of the room. The other side of the room is framed by slatted panelling, which integrates storage and a bedhead.

Bolder patterns were chosen for the en-suite bathroom

The pale pink – a Little Greene paint shade called China Clay Mid – colours almost everything in the loft, with only a few exceptions.

The wooden flooring is left natural, while handles are finished in polished brass.

"We explored several material palettes but settled quickly on the idea of colour blocking, to create a sense of calm and draw all the spaces together," said Perkin.

"The clay-pink colour was selected as it transformed beautifully in different light and weather conditions, holding the shadows created by the slatted joinery and the forms of the space."

Black and white terrazzo tiles cover the floor

Some other colours and textures are introduced within the en-suite bathroom, which is tucked neatly into the corner of the space.

Graphic black and white terrazzo floor tiles feature alongside pale-toned plaster walls. The room also boasts a large skylight, located above the walk-in shower.

A new mansard roof was installed to create the room

Perkin co-directs Emil Eve Architects with partner Ross Perkin. Other recent projects by the studio include a converted warehouse apartment in London's Clerkenwell and a farmhouse extension in Wiltshire.

Photography is by Mariell Lind Hansen.

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Project credits

Architect: Emil Eve Architects
Project architect: Emma Perkin
Contractor: Tuga Contractors Ltd
Building control: Quadrant Building Control
Ensuite specialist plasterer: MUD Finishes
Terrazzo tiles: Mosaic Factory
Ash flooring: Woodflooring Engineered Ltd
Paint: Little Greene
Sanitaryware: Lusso Stone
Lights: Árturo Alvarez, Flos, Tom Dixon

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