STEINMETZDEMEYER: house da costa in altwies

Whoa, way to ruin an awesome house. I would've put a big wall up in front of the house, in line with the neighbouring houses and made a secret courtyard and balcony that can see onto the street at the third level.
I love the exposed rock at the back though.

Jess   02.29.12

Hello Jess, I am the owner of the house and we did our best to preserve the beauty of the existing carpentry. Behind the facade there was nothing we could save as the carpentry had been unoccupied for a long time and everything was falling apart. We decided to preserve the only jewel left of the existing structure, namely the facade. As the carpentry was an important element of local rural life a long time ago, we wanted to keep it exposed as a symbol of what used to be there. As we love contemporary architecture we asked the architects Steinmetz de Meyer to come up with a design that suited our needs. We are extremely happy of the result and it is such a great feeling to be living in this house. In memory of the carpentry we also supersized a black and white picture of the old carpenter and his crew...you can see it some of the photos above. We did our best to preserve the essence of the old structure while marrying it with a contemporary one.

José da Costa   02.29.12

For information, we also renovated the house on the right with the white facade ;-)

José da Costa   02.29.12

What a beautiful house... before. Now - a mismatched mess that detracts horribly from the original architecture and disrespects the streetscape.

In all fairness, the interiors are beautiful and the new part of the house in itself is great. Too bad it's ruined the existing house/

chris   03.01.12

I am surprised by the strong negative reactions. I think this is quite nicely done - I enjoy the contrast between the two volumes. The facade is quite sun struck in the photos, which I think contributes to a harsher impression then one might otherwise get (esp. with the deep shadows in the windows of the old house that give it a somewhat empty-eyed appearance). I think that in more flattering lighting and when the greenery comes in (as seems to be suggested by the conceptual sketches), the overall impression will be somewhat nuanced.

Russ   03.01.12

very nice house!!!

Kiub   03.01.12

Negative reactions are always welcome. Architecture that leaves people cold is a failure to me. We did our best to respect the existing structure, or at least what we could have saved from it. The plot in itself is very small and my wife and I need wanted to have at least 200m2 in the house, hence we build 4 floors. However much we respect "old stones", we wanted to have a very modern house that reflected our taste for contemporary architecture. The goal was never to renovate the existing structure as we had done that with the old white house on the right of the current structure. We wanted to live in an original house that reflected our tastes and spatial needs. Furthermore, the house is 6m from the street away and many people who drive by don't even notice it, but those who do tend to stop by and look at it with surprised faces, good or bad.

José da Costa   03.01.12

Fantastic solution, a brilliant combination of a past and the now. I prefer the touch of contemporary, after all, we are in year 2012 and what we produce and build should reflect our time, but since past is important too, I like the original wall that is a continuation of the street line and its characteristic. I interpret this house as the one with different roof. Love the idea that flirts with the roof on the right with white window frames and similar choice of glass and how it respects the hight line of its roof. It "steps" back and below it and it is noticable only from further away looking straight at it. Otherwise, passing by you have to look up which people rarely do, and looking from sideways it is almost unnoticeable and very respectful towards existing buldings on both sides. This is, in my humble opinion, excellent solution and creates wonderful spaces as well inside this creative approach. My greatest compliments for this work to authors!

jeri   03.01.12

Personnaly always respect confrontations between \'old and new\' there\'s a certain way of truthfulness to the approach ... only renovating the house in a traditionalist way is somewhat not being transparent about the present, so I think it\'s a good thing ... nice balance.

Phil   03.01.12

... Trying to understand the negative reaction, or why people think it is to strong of an intervention. Yes, maybe it would have been a more \'harmonious choice\' to not use shiny steel for the new modules, it\'s true that some might feel that this is a tad demonstrative. Choosing something a little more neutral and understated (a dark matte grey) would have been a option to lower the tone a bit, but that boils to personal taste and vision. Great work though!

Phil   03.01.12

congrats to Jose and the architects for doing something different. and to the village of altwies for granting planning permission .... The interior space looks amazing. I am not sure about the decision to leave the original exterior but do like the modern part of the build.

Pit Hausemer   03.01.12

This is so good, love the postmodernistic feel about it. Great contrast between old and new element. weel done

klaus   03.01.12

I like the idea of saving the shell of an old stone house and repurposing it, but the most attractive presentation here is the street-elevation drawing, which blends the styles. Otherwise the contrast between old and new is just jarring and not resolved. Mainly, I think, the problem is the expanse of sheet glass compared to the lovely proportions of old doors and windows. And there's a bit of presumptuous psychohistory going on, as if the contemporary architect and owners are saying, "Look at us and how we live, we are so much freer and more open than the old days -- and that's so much better." It can be viewed as hubris and a lack of respect.

Tom P   03.01.12

That is a very tall horse you are sitting upon Tom P. I love the contrast. In many countries where 'architectural iron' is required on the windows*.. this would be a perfect solution. Safe and classic below - modern with free-view above.

Jose - Bravo e buena suerte.



*I apologize to the people who intentionally pillage and plunder another's property.

Jim C.   03.01.12

right approach & good job

ardesmida   03.01.12

Nice project I particularly like the interiors. I think the façade which was recovered looks a bit odd now since the window frames have been removed and the add a lot of information to the photograph of the 'before' house. I'm sure people complaining might not do if they saw in person.

How cute are the dogs BTW!

Sue   03.01.12

Terrible exemple of renovation. It looks like 80's belgian "façadisme".... Not worth of being published here.

pedro   03.02.12

@Jeri: Thank you for your comments.
@Phil: Actually we spent many hours discussing the materials and colors for the new modules, as you call them, and dark matte grey was one of the choices on the table. At the end we trusted the architects' choice of the shiny light grey and we are happy with that choice.
@Pit: The local government was excited to see someone develop an architectural project in the small village we live in, and we were actually surprised by their positive support. We wanted to keep the original facade as we fell in love with it on first sight. We tried to marry both worlds we love, old stone with contemporary architecture.
@Tom P: I agree with you that there is a huge contrast between the old and the new, but that is exactly what we wanted. Our goal was not to go for the perfect solution of harmony, we wanted to see a clash between the facade that stems from the early 1900's and the architecture we love from the early 2000's. In conclusion, my wife and I don't have too many presumptous psychohistorical issues ;-) We just wanted to build a house that reflects who we are and the way we love to live in our house. Our objective was not one of showing off.
@Jim C: Thank you for your comment ;-)
@ardesmida: Thank you.
@Sue: I agree with you regarding the windows, the shapes of the original window shapes could have added a more harmonious look to the facade, linking it to how it looked like originally, but we wanted to have as much light coming in and we wanted to have as much of an unobtrusive view as possible. The dogs are awesome ;-)
@Pedro: I appreciate your opinion, but thanks god you are not deciding on what comes on designboom or not. We kept only the facade from the original structure as everything inside was rotten and falling apart. Our references for this project was surely not the Belgian façadisme from the 80's as you wrongly assume.

José da Costa   03.04.12

strange but with really nice interiors. i only miss the plants at the front, now the house looks a little bit lonely couse that.
Nice work, congrstulations to the architects and the owner for the desision.

JUliano   03.04.12

Interesting project and fine resolution. The owner and the previous owner should both be proud.

patrick   03.05.12

Wonderful. Courageous to follow you vision. Well done, and congratulations to the Local Government - would they like to run for office here in Melbourne? :-)

Ian / Richmond, Melbourne Aust.   03.05.12