Chong and his partner Seonaid Mackenzie bought the Torre di Moravola in a ruined state, missing a roof and some walls, and spent six years making the structure safe then liveable.

"Establishing the structural stability of the tower, whilst removing all the debris that had accumulated from collapsed walls and roofs, was pretty dangerous as one never knew for sure if there would be a wall collapse," Chong and Mackenzie told Dezeen.

Originally constructed to oversee the feuding neighbouring communes of Montone and Umbertide in central Italy, it has been resurrected to house seven suites of various sizes with shared entertainment and outdoor spaces.

"The benefits of the structure were that it had many historical features and as it emerged, as we slowly removed the trees and bushes surrounding it, a great aspect," they recounted.

Steel and concrete elements were inserted to help stabilise the building and contrast with the stonework.

"Whilst building, the fact that no wall was straight or perpendicular meant that continual assesment and remeasurement of the structure was required," they said.

Guests arrive at the medieval tower from a long gravel drive which culminates in a circular piazza to the north of the property.

Steps hugging the side of the stone wall lead up to communal living spaces, which can also be accessed from a metal staircase with translucent glass treads that doglegs up an atrium with concrete elements.

Entrances on the lower ground floor provide routes to dining and kitchen areas. Atria either side of the central tower allow daylight to filter into the public areas and draw cool air from the lower passages up through the roof.

A double-height space occupies the top of the tower, providing a living area for the main suite plus a library on the steel mezzanine, which was introduced to brace the structure.

Balconies scattered around the building provide vistas over the tiled roofs and to the surrounding hills and valleys.

Outside, a reflecting pool with a hidden fire pit is surrounded by sunken seating on the west terrace, while an al-fresco dining area is located to the east.

Located up a slope to the north and aligned to the same axis as the tower, a 25-metre infinity pool offers 360-degree views across the countryside.

Chong and Mackenzie also restored a smaller building on the site for themselves, adding a slatted timber storey on top of original stonework. Plans to convert more run-down outbuildings into accommodation and spa facilities are pending planning permission.

Other renovation projects we've featured include a crumbling stable converted into a holiday home in western Spain and an Italian house that utilises a rebuilt stone wall.

See more renovation projects »
See more architecture and design in Italy »

Read on for more information:

Torre di Moravola is a medieval watchtower situated along the ridge of a mountain overlooking the Carpini valley, Umbria, Italy. It has been restored with a modernistic design approach to the interiors, auxiliary buildings and pool areas to create a contemporary retreat.

Outbuildings, gardens, terraces and a 25-metre infinity pool have been aligned on an axis with the tower to maximise the 360 degree views over secluded valleys, unchanged since medieval times, and giving the sensation of being completely removed from the modern world.

Four external terraces surround the tower: on the east side a large formal dining terrace with classic Umbrian views. To the south an open viewing pavilion forms an inner courtyard with herb gardens. The West terrace has a stone reflecting pool with sunken seating areas and overlooks the olive groves. A large piazza and point of arrival for cars is on the North. The property has six hectares of land with oak forests and fields containing olives and fruit trees. Solar panels provide energy for hot water and heating. Rainwater is collected for irrigation.

Within the tower the character of the public and private areas are one where the best historical aspects have been preserved and contrasted with contemporary design and materials, heightening the sense of Moravola’s history and resulting in a synthesis of the ancient exterior with sleek pared down modernity.

Public areas are arranged on two levels and act as a pivot from the centre of the tower, easily accessible from all seven suites. Two interlinked reception rooms are on the first floor and the kitchen and dining areas on the ground floor have ready access to the terraces for dining.

There are a total of seven suites arranged off the central axis that runs through the tower linking the gardens terraces and pools. All suites have direct private access to the outside terraces and also to the internal spaces within the tower, this gives a sense of separation and privacy.

The main tower suite is at the highest point of the original tower; the sitting room is a double height space with watch-gallery and stone fireplace. The bedroom has magnificent views over the Carpini valley. A changing room leads to a private roof top terrace and stone bathroom with massage area.

Four of the suites have been designed as individual towers: bathrooms with heated sunken stone baths, massage and changing areas are on the lower level with floating steel stairs leading to the bedrooms above, each with wonderful views over the valleys. The character of the interiors is one of highly refined comfort and pared down purity, these are cool contemporary tower suites.

The West suite is on one level with a sitting area overlooking the West terrace, it has a large bathroom with stone bath and shower and two basins. The West room is on one level on the ground floor it has a vaulted bathroom with an arched wall made of translucent alabaster.

The post Torre di Moravola
by Christopher Chong appeared first on Dezeen.

Nook Architects found the two apartments in a poor state, with several adaptations over the years leaving them with a confused layout of compartmentalised rooms and very little natural light.

Layers of false ceilings, flooring and dividing walls were removed and the entrances were relocated to give the apartments a similar size and layout.

Each apartment is organised into a day zone oriented towards the street and a night zone towards the quieter rear facade.

Dividing the two zones is a chunk of wooden flooring, which extends upwards into a bench. Above it is a metal rail that conceals a strip of lighting and acts as a clothes hanger.

The polished concrete floors give way to unpolished concrete in the bathrooms, which are open to the rest of the space, with the showers and toilets separated by a translucent screen.

Last year the same architects completed another apartment in Barcelona with original mosaic flooring and exposed wooden ceiling beams.

Other apartments in Barcelona we've featured include a renovation featuring furniture that folds out from the walls and another with a spinning mirror and a room dedicated to ironing – see all projects from Barcelona, or see all apartments on Dezeen.

Photographs are by Nieve.

Here's some more information from the architects:

Twin House
Two apartments in Barcelona
Nook Architects

From the historic Gothic Quarter in Barcelona, a project for two adjacent apartments arrived to us, which turned out to be a diamond in the rough.
The dwellings were on a deplorable state; several low quality interventions from different times overlapped each other.

Its distribution was the result of common customs of the past in which the space was highly compartmentalised, generating small rooms with little or no natural light or ventilation.

The first intervention consisted on stripping down the structure, removing layer after layer of false ceilings, pavements, and coatings, added over the years to the original state. Once the essence of the building was restored, we began our final intervention.

The two existing apartments shared the stair's landing. The unfortunate placement of the access doors resulted in two different typologies that could barely be distributed under balanced conditions. By relocating the entries and taking into consideration the original elements that were rediscovered, we created a new space that reclaimed the original spirit.

The original wooden beams were treated to avoid future plagues, and were reinforced with steel elements to limit their strain. The same was done with the floor; a compression layer was added, firming up the girder-slab, and evening out the floor level.

This newly sound space, divided by a thick load-bearing wall, was configured in two zones: the day zone, oriented towards the street and the liveliness of the neighbourhood, and the night zone, located on the posterior, more quiet façade.

We arranged the basic elements for the functions and commodities of today, like the kitchen and bathroom, in a subtle manner that was respectful to the space. We therefore treated the kitchen as if it were wooden furniture inside the living room, horizontal, with under the counter refrigerator and freezer to avoid any vertical, tall standing units, and white wall-units that camouflage with the background.

The bathroom was likewise incorporated into the bedroom, leaving the washbasin open to the rest of space, which is only differentiated by changing the floor level. The only compartmentalised elements were the shower and toilet, separated from the rest of the space by a light, and translucent wall.

The two wet zones of the house are therefore contiguous and line the median wall of the neighbouring building, minimising the water and sanitary installations. The glazed tiles boost this idea of a horizontal strip that contains the humid zones, simultaneously revitalising the reclaimed envelope.

A wooden plank was embedded into the concrete floor, establishing a threshold between the living room and the sleeping quarters. This plank then folds and lifts up and turns into a night table or a bench. Above the plank, we placed a metal profile that contains lighting and acts like a hanger and support for possible curtain.

Our objective with this refurbishment with such a tight budget was to create an infrastructure that would hint to the user how personalise it later. A carefully studied configuration of polyvalent and proportionate spaces multiplies the possibilities of two very small dwellings with very large potential.

Architects: nook architects
Location: Barcelona, España
Year: 2013
Photography: nieve | Productora Audiovisual
Furniture: Casa Jornet

The post Twin House by
Nook Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Local architects Marc Benjamin Drewes and Thomas Schneider teamed up to design the apartment for a couple and their children, creating two bedrooms, a bathroom and an open-plan living room and kitchen.

The project is named Box 117 and the architects refer to the two white-painted bedrooms and bathroom as "simple boxes" with a narrow shadow gap around the tops of the walls to highlight the edges.

The wooden parquet flooring runs down one side of the apartment beneath white-washed timber ceilings. The red and white cement tiles are positioned on the opposite side underneath the exposed concrete ceilings.

"The raw concrete ceilings are preserving the industrial character," says Drewes. "Partly old with a wooden pattern, partly new with a smooth surface, the ceiling tells something about the history of the space."

Each room has a floor-to-ceiling height of 3.4 metres, allowing for overhead storage and an elevated sleeping area in the children's bedroom.

See more apartments on Dezeen, including one in Barcelona with tiled floors that reveal its historic layout and one in Paris with decorative wooden flooring.

Photography is by Christoph Rokitta.

Here's a project description from Marc Benjamin Drewes:

Box 117

A couple with two little kids moved into this loft in a Berlin backyard.

A continuous space for a kitchen, living area and sleeping area for the parents surrounds two boxes in which you find the children's room and the bathroom. This open layout creates the loft character of the space.

The children are sleeping in a niche above a litte storage next to the children's room. That way one takes advantage of the clear height of 3.4m to create more living area. The sleeping area of the parents can be closed with a room-high sliding door. If the door is open it disappears behind the bathroom-box.

The oak parquet and the cement tiles on the floor are creating a basis full of character for the simple boxes with a limewash coat. A shadow gap all around separates these boxes from the existing elements of the space and all doors are flush with the wall to accentuate the simple form. The raw concrete ceilings are preserving the industrial character. Partly old with a wooden pattern, partly new with a smooth surface the ceiling tells something about the history of the space.

The post Box 117 by Marc Benjamin Drewes
and Thomas Schneider appeared first on Dezeen.

The architects were only permitted to build an extension that would be invisible from the street. "The form was generated by the parameters of building something as big as possible within the chapel's shadow, so that led to the consideration of materials reminiscent of a shadow," Jonathan Tuckey told Dezeen.

The roof and every wall of the extension is clad in bitumen-stained larch, with flush detailing around the edges of the gable and chimney. It is built over a series of reconstructed dry-stone walls.

"The clients, the planners and us were all keen to create something different to the original building, rather than mimic it," said Tuckey.

All four of the house's bedrooms are contained inside the new structure, while the former vestry of the chapel functions as a library and the large hall is converted into an open-plan kitchen and living room with a mezzanine gallery above.

A transparent glass corridor links the extension with the two adjoining buildings of the chapel and can be opened out to the garden in warmer weather.

Other church conversions we've featured on Dezeen include a bookstore inside a former Dominican church in Holland and a church converted into an auditorium in Spain.

See more buildings clad with blackened wood, including a weekend house in Japan.

Here's a short project description from the architect:

Shadow House - Transformation of a Grade 2* listed chapel in Wiltshire into a family home

Our clients were intent on preserving the historic character of this elegant historic chapel but needed to adapt the building to accommodate the needs of their young family and connect it to the garden at the rear of the site.

Complementing the existing chapel's form and scale the new extension sits on re-built dry stone walls in the garden and is unseen from the street. It is clad in blackened timber, echoing the vernacular tabernacle churches of the West Country; a quiet shadow of the original building.

A glazed transparent passage, which can be opened entirely in warmer weather, links the extension back to the chapel where the mid-19th century spaces have been refurbished.

The post Shadow House by
Jonathan Tuckey Design appeared first on Dezeen.

Led by New York-based Architecture Research Office (ARO), a team of consultants and engineers have restored the interiors of the five-storey residence at 101 Spring Street, where Judd lived and worked from 1968 until his death in 1994 and amassed a collection of over 500 artworks.

The project involved maintaining the open-plan layout created by Judd and reconditioning the timber floors and exposed plaster walls. The team also had to replace an existing spiral staircase to bring the building in line with current health and safety standards.

"Our goal has been to preserve Donald Judd's vision for the building and make it accessible to the public, while satisfying contemporary building requirements," said ARO principal Adam Yarinsky. "The entire design team worked with creativity, diligence, and sensitivity to resolve the complex challenges involved in reconciling these objectives."

The team meticulously catalogued the situation of every sculpture, painting and object in the house, including pieces by Judd himself as well as works gifted by artist-friends such as Claes Oldenburg, Carl Andre and Dan Flavin, plus older artworks by Marcel Duchamp, Ad Reinhardt and more. Following the restoration, each object was returned to its exact position.

The ground floor of the house was previously used by Judd as a living room and will now serve as an event and lecture space for the Judd Foundation, the charity responsible for the building. As visitors arrive, one of the first things they'll spot is a sculpture by Andre comprising a stack of bricks.

A Judd-designed kitchen with a wooden table and central stove features on the first floor, while the fourth floor accommodates a bedroom with a fluorescent lighting installation by Flavin along one side.

The restoration also included the exterior of the building, where the team replaced around 13,000 cast-iron pieces.

See more recent projects in New York City, including a stripy replica of a Frankfurt bar and a Camper store filled with ghostly white shoes.

Here are a few words from the Judd Foundation:

When Donald Judd's New York City building in the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District opens to the public in June 2013 after a three-year restoration, visitors will experience Judd's home and studio as originally installed by the artist. The restoration of 101 Spring Street began on June 3, 2010 (the artist's birthday) and will conclude three years later. Donald Judd lived in the building with his family beginning in 1968, and it was his New York studio until his death in 1994.

Guided visits will be offered for small groups by appointment through an online ticketing system and by telephone. Visitors will be guided through all floors of the home, including Judd's studio, kitchen, and his stately fifth-floor bedroom, which is installed with a floor-to-ceiling 1969 Dan Flavin fluorescent light piece, extending the length of the loft space.

Each floor will remain as installed by Donald Judd with pieces from his collection of over 500 objects, including original sculpture, paintings, drawings, prints, and furniture designed by Judd and others. Judd installed artworks by Jean Arp, Carl Andre, Larry Bell, John Chamberlain, Marcel Duchamp, Dan Flavin, David Novros, Claes Oldenburg, Ad Reinhardt, Lucas Samaras, and Frank Stella throughout the building, all of which viewers will be able to explore.

Overseen by board members Flavin Judd and Rob Beyer, the restoration project shares the same goal and mission of Judd Foundation: to preserve Judd's living and working spaces and promote a wider understanding and appreciation of Donald Judd's legacy. The New York City design firm Architecture Research Office (ARO), led Judd Foundation's project team of consultants, which includes a preservation architect and engineers.

The post Donald Judd's home and studio restoration
by Architecture Research Office appeared first on Dezeen.