Nim Storehouse Renovation in Hida-Takayama / aoyagidesign

The project is a renovation to divide a 130-year-old storehouse built in the Meiji era into a French restaurant “NIM” and a residence for the owner-chef and his family in Daishinmachi, that retains the traditional townscape of Hida Takayama. The exterior is almost untouchable because the storehouse is located in the Important Preservation District for Groups of Historical Buildings designated by Takayama City. The client asked me to take advantage of this constraint and create an interior with a worldview that would be unimaginable from the exterior. I have visited the existing storehouse without any preconceived notions or design ideas. The structure was very impressive because it was quite large for a storehouse, with a frontage of 4 spans and a girder of 8 spans and it has a rugged frame typical of Takayama, with a ridgepole made of splendid logs and two intersecting beams. I felt that the scale of the space, the framework of the structure, and the unique atmosphere created by the darkness of the storehouse should be respected. On the other hand, it was difficult to divide into two uses by inserting a wall without destroying this spatial characteristic. The design theme was the action itself of inserting a wall to divide it into two uses and the interior of the store was completed with only the inserted wall because I wanted to limit the scope of modifications due to the budget limited.

Chaos is a Ladder Hostel / DL Atelier

B&B and Games - At the end of 2020, near the Great Wall at Shuiguan in Huairou, Beijing, we designed three projects for Xiaoxi B&B simultaneously, perhaps it is more appropriate to call them rural hotels than B&Bs. I have designed and run such hotels before, and I would love to have a unique living experience of "breaking away from daily life" and a lifestyle of "here and now". Architecture, as a carrier of this conception, is not a "home building" in the first place, for it holds little real life and memory of the owner, instead, it resembles a "theme park" with the characteristics above, a reciprocating game between reality and fantasy. Since it is a game, there must be rules. The owner’s requirements are simple: to keep the characters of the three existing houses. And we will make up the rules.

Chocon Terraces House / Chazarreta-Tohus-Almendra args

With a privileged location, this lot of almost 4000m2, with direct views towards the dam and the Ezequiel Ramos Mexia reservoir, is located in the Piedras Coloradas neighborhood, very close to the original town of Villa El Chocon. The geography of the land, as well as its location, influenced project decision-making, taking as a premise the idea of minimal intervention in it, and trying to highlight its particular characteristics. 

Feliciana Cabin / Taller MACAA

La Cabaña Feliciana is located near Taray, in the heart of the Sacred Valley, 30 km from Cusco, at an altitude of 3150 meters where the Incas built buildings with remarkable architectural qualities.

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