There are some old, but still beautiful churches around the world, that aren’t cared for and will soon fall victim to the elements. A family in North Ireland have converted an old church in to a single family house, destroying very little of the facade feel and saving the architecture for future generations to see.

The house is for sale at propertypal.com

Via Desire to inspire

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The Aschebergsgatan 41 Residence has multiple floors, soaring ceilings, and a rooftop terrace that offers views of the surrounding.

From Kanozi Arkitekter:

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The 315 square meter apartment is a luxurious renovation of an interior on the 19th floor of The Russian Hill High-Rise building offering a great view of San Francisco.

From Zack | de Vito:

This high-rise apartment, designed for a couple with grown children as their San Francisco pied-a-terre, is a sophisticated, urban retreat designed to accentuate the owners’ extensive art collection and the breathtaking San Francisco Bay and downtown views. Programatically the main rooms were placed on the perimeter to access views and light while an inner “cube”, containing services and entertaining kitchen, ancors and connects the whole. Limited, yet repeating, materials and colors define and clarify spaces, while areas of poche act as containers for hidden storage and delineate transitions of spaces.

Via Freshome

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On the Pages of AZ you can usually find home projects (interiors, houses, furniture, etc.), but every now and then an eyecandy from bigger scale industry catches the imaginations.

From Serie Architects:

A series of disused buildings from Mumbai’s colonial past set within the Mumbai Race Course are to be converted to form a series of restaurant and bars. The conservation guidelines call for the preservation of the roof profile for three-quarters of the buildings and full conservation for the remaining one-quarter.

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This 306 square meter penthouse offers a great view to Montreal, which became its focal point.

From René Desjardins:

“The client, after spending many years in a large home on Ile-des-Sœurs, had taken an apartment with a panoramic view of downtown Montreal, Mount Royal and the St. Lawrence River. From the start, it seemed to me that this magnificent view – one of the best in Montreal – should become the focus of the project. The client wanted to live in a bright, warm loft-style apartment. I suggested a space much like the large contemporary lofts of Manhattan or Los Angeles, a loft that would speak of calm and comfort yet look out over the continually changing showcase of the city.”

Since the building was still under construction, anything was possible. The space consisted of a large 3,300 sq. ft. unit assembled from two penthouses on the 23rd floor. As a point of departure, space intended for a corridor to one of the penthouses could now be used to house the mechanical and electrical systems. This meant that the apartment could take the form of a great pure rectangle spanning across the full length of the building, with full-height windows on the North, East and West sides that would provide exceptional natural light.

The apartment comprises two zones: on one side, the shared areas: the living room, dining room and kitchen as well as a living area/home theatre; and on the other, the private quarters of the client and his son. Detailed work began on the interior envelope, playing with different coatings and colours for the volumes, using whites and shades of grey and brown to create a pared-down, warm environment.

The very high ceilings were lowered slightly to accommodate lighting fixtures and conceal the electrical controls for the window coverings. Each recessed lighting fixture has two spots, multiplying the lighting possibilities with a minimum of means. Window treatments received particular attention. Sheets of fabric combining natural fibres with threads of stainless steel – completely invisible when raised – descend from the ceiling at the touch of a button to temper the light and preserve privacy. In order to maintain the spirit of a loft, the structural columns were simply sanded down and painted in the same shades and finishes as the walls.

In the large main room, the floors are finished in planks of ash baked to a warm caffe latte. A great interior wall of white oak stained a charcoal grey forms a perfect backdrop, maximizing the sense of space and turning the focus to the spectacular view and the contemporary furniture. A detail: all the baseboard heating units have been covered in ash to match the floors.

The dining room and the adjoining kitchen are at the far North end of the room. The dining room table is surfaced in solid French walnut with a patinated steel base and can seat ten people. The kitchen is very simple yet has a very strong presence. The cabinets feature countertops of charcoal granite quartz and are faced in glass, creating bright surfaces that reflect the cityscape. A door leads to the outdoor terrace, which runs the length of the dining room.

At the other end of the room, couches finished in walnut, cotton and linen are an open invitation to conversation. The red Saarinen chair and the books suspended on the walls – through an ingenious invisible storage system – provide an accent in this section of the apartment. The living area/home theatre adjoining the living room carries over the same natural shades. The wolf on the wall (by Josée Pedneault) provides an unusual and humorous note that sets the tone for this multifunctional room, which also serves as a guestroom.

The private quarters of the apartment have a more classical layout and volumes. At the end of a corridor framing a sculpture (by Jean-Pierre Larocque), a large wood wall is flanked by two wide doors leading to the father’s and son’s personal quarters.

The bedroom of the master of the house is in a rotunda facing due east. Furnishings include a fluted walnut king-sized bed in a charcoal alcove, a long floating walnut chest and two zebra chairs. The hematite curtains can insulate the room from the outer world. The suite includes two walk-in closets and a master bath that has a very refined feeling, with its heated white Calacatta marble floors, the white granite quartz used on the walls, counters and sink, and two curved alcoves finished in gold-leaf tiles with a floral pattern.

The son’s quarters are in the style of a boutique hotel that has been handled in an almost austere manner. Mostly charcoal, due to the alcove of the bed and the woodwork on the ample storage units, the room has linen curtains and opaque window coverings that can be closed to provide total darkness. These quarters also have a walk-in closet and a bathroom.

Through its clean design, a range of natural hues and many architectural details, the apartment is a great success. Surrounded by the sky and the ceaselessly changing light from the city beyond, one has the impression of being in a great airborne vessel that provides passengers with all the warmth of a home, yet the freedom of expansive views.

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This minimalistic 100 square meters apartment is located in Amsterdam and offers a great view of the city to compliment the interior.

From  Hofman Dujardin:

In this project a standard apartment is transformed into a luxurious spacious apartment with a spectacular view on the city of Amsterdam. The glass extension of the apartment is designed according to the principal rhythm and materialization of the original elevation. Kitchen, living, study and the new outdoor terraces are visually connected. The vertical kitchen cupboard and the new fireplace create an exciting relation between the kitchen and the living. In the apartment there is a subtle mix of areas with visual relations and areas with intimate privacy. The dark floors create a strong contrast with the light walls and the new white kitchen furniture.

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UNStudio explored the idea of merging an exhibition space and living apartment to result in this interesting and unusual loft in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York.

From UNStudio:

The design for an existing loft located in Greenwich Village in Manhattan explores the interaction between a gallery and living space. The main walls in the loft flow through the space, and together with articulated ceilings create hybrid conditions in which exhibition areas merge into living areas. While the walls form a calm and controlled backdrop for the works of art, the ceiling is more articulated in its expression of this transition.

By interchanging luminous and opaque, the ceiling creates a field of ambient and local lighting conditions, forming an organizational element in the exhibition and the living areas. In addition the former windows in the South wall have been replaced by floor to ceiling glass panes that frame and extend compelling views, over a full glass balcony, toward downtown Manhattan.

Client: Anonymous
Location: Greenwich Village, Manhattan New York, USA
Building area: 550 m2
Building Programme: Loft renovation into Apartment / Private gallery
Status: completed 2010

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Santiago Carroquino Arquitectos have completed their latest project Nursery in the park. More info and photos after the jump.

From Santiago Carroquino Arquitectos:

The Nursery in the park supposes the realization of a long demanded endowment by the oldest District of the city.

The growing needs of the kids schooling, together with the upturn in the birth rate, make the care and upbringing of children, a priority that the City Council of Zaragoza has managed to solve.

Space requirements, both program and playground, common in schools operated by the City Council of Zaragoza made it difficult to find a suitable performance area in District of Old town.

Located on Echegaray and Caballero Avenue, within the current San Pablo’s Park and annexed either to the facilities of the Montes Headquarters and in the proximities of the Ebro river, the school is situated in a suitable environment to collect the kids meeting with the education.

All the Ebro’s banks location must consider the channel fluctuations and adapting the construction way to the most restrictive position, and placing the base of the building above the flood level that would be in five hundred years (T-500).

Likewise, the specific modification of the general plan allows the development of a new Kindergarten; we do not forget its location at San Pablo’s Park. Thus the plan is built respecting the size of the arboreal species and integrating them in its development, through courtyards and laying out the access and courtyard with the nature.

It shows all in a deep respect for the environment, as one of the teaching values to the children as new members of our society.

The scale of the housing blocks of Echegaray and Caballero Avenue, as well as their location on a depression area compared to the elevation of the avenue, the next Europa Square or the viewing terrace of the Forestry Engineering, make the cover the most visible surface of the building and one of the most important façade of this. That is why, as in other local schools also co-designed by Santiago Carroquino, a vegetable cover is adopted as leather upper, benefiting not only its aesthetic qualities, but also thermal and acoustical improvements it generates.

It is envisaged therefore continuity between green roof and park annex as generating elements of visual and environmental quality to the building block of a neighborhood that offers her face to the reclaimed banks of the EbroRiver.

With the same idea has been considered a building that generates environmental comfort and does not have to neglect the environmental excellence criteria. Thus, in addition to the green roof have been used other mechanisms of bioclimatic architecture: double walls thermal inertia (interior-exterior), solar panels for heating and domestic hot deck and ACS, carpentry with thermal break, control of sunlight, etc.

The position of the mass tree with more poise and neighboring hills building mark the implementation on the site, accessed by a brief appearance at Echegaray and Caballero Avenue, and developing the program in directional and orthogonally way to the river. The façades that generates volumes clearly respond to their contents and interior possibilities, closing block services as well as the bedroom area, and opening to full extent of the classrooms to the park area.

This last façade is the most significant of all because it tries to condense the essence of the implementation of a children’s cultural program in a green area, combining subtle transparencies with carpentries of arboreal formalization. While the Kindergarten appears like an organic piece, it nevertheless has left the prefabrication as a control method and the speed in the execution of the work.

The façades have been modulated according to the main element, the translucent polycarbonate plate, with a 50 cm dimension that conditions the whole development and the other carpentries.

Inside the 1,20 meter elevation applied to the heights in all rooms define the boundary between the space adapted to the child and the adult. This mechanism of the existence of a line of permanent “level” to 1,20 m will be crucial in the building life by fixing the position “not accessible to children”. The consideration of the material up to 1,20 m as baseboard, clearly reflects the cleanliness and ease of maintenance standards that are used.

The educational program is oriented to the future park set on four modules: multipurpose room, and spaces for those aged 4-12 months, 12-24 months and 24-36 months. Articulating the entrance as a union of all of them and acting as a barrier in respect of housing blocks, it is placed a battery of adjacent areas, offices and facilities for the well functioning of the school.

Another feature of the project is the versatility and multifunctional use of the classrooms. These are separated by mobile partitioned systems that enable the union of the two classrooms of same age in one, making possible a suitable alternative educational program for more students. The changing rooms, bathrooms and bedrooms have adapted to the standard classrooms as well as to merging these classrooms into one to provide a well functioning in both cases.

The inner ends are different as they are placed below or above the level of 1,20 m. The partition base is kind of plasterboard applying over it a safety grass end of 3+3 mm (glass is considered as a large tile, easily clean and not breakable) in the children’s space.

In damp rooms (bathrooms, changing rooms, kitchen, stores and so on) the elevation rises 120 to 210 (120+90) to define the perimeter that is able to get wet, in which it applies stoneware of 10 x 10 cm.

The Kindergarten has been designed from a paternalistic approach in which the defence against foreign hostility is transfer into tenderness focused light in the interior, focused to the projected and playful courtyard.

Last but not least, across the wording of this project has wanted to play with a romantic childhood memory of the architects drafters of the project. The story of Pinocchio and his passage inside the whale has been the leitmotiv of the volume composition.

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If you don’t like the feel of conventional carpets, here is an idea for you – The Wooden Carpet. It is available in four varieties of wood – wentwood, mortimer, sherwood, ashdown.

From Boewer:

Wooden Carpet: a three-dimensional carpet. Made from wood. Also being something you would not expect from a carpet: a room object withdrawing itself from definition.

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This 5000 square feet (465 square meters) apartment is located in Marina Towers building, Beirut, Lebanon has a very unique feature – the craftsmanship on walls and ceiling. A simple and great looking eye-candy.

From Joe Serrinis Studio:

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