It is 166 sq m in size. The house is located in Copenhagen and was built of brick. The project for its conversion was prepared by pihlmann architects. The 1950s building has been turned into an attractive living space and offers views of the greenery thanks to new glazing.
Associated with the redevelopment project is the idea of honesty and openness of the building. Observing it, one gets the impression that the project is not finished. This is a deliberate move by the architects, who have left the house raw on the outside as well as the inside, preparing it for transformation in the future and allowing the residents to adapt the interior to their current needs.
Built in 1951, the building is an example of post-war housing in Denmark. It is a textbook example of the ideal house at the time. The house was imagined as a two-storey box with evenly-spaced windows, a red brick façade and a pitched roof. Despite its solid construction, its adaptability to changing ways of living and working was limited. When working on the redevelopment project, the architects respected the original architecture and made only a few minor adjustments.
The central part of the building is the staircase, which was used for storage cupboards. Cables and pipes were also hidden in the construction. The functional parts were laid out around the staircase. The architects have not imposed specific functions on the rooms. The homeowners decide how they will be used.
During the works, some of the old bricks were replaced with new ones. Their appearance is as close to the original as possible. The floor is like a mosaic of different motifs. Terrazzo was juxtaposed with wooden panels. Controlled chaos reigns here. Despite the differences in appearance, each intervention blends in with the old fabric and does not obscure its character.
The transformation shows an openness to unpredictability. The construction site functioned both as a studio, a laboratory and a forum for the exchange of ideas and opinions between client, craftsmen and architect. It was not in the architect’s office that the next steps of the redevelopment were decided. The result was a house-collage of architectural experimentation.
design: pihlmann architects(https://pihlmann.dk)
photos: Hampus Berndtson (hampusberndtson.com)
Also read: single-family home | Brick | Minimalism | Metamorphosis | Detail | whiteMAD on Instagram
