Articles by Valeria Silva

The brief from clients Margaret and Nick required a discrete island antidote to their family’s busy lives. A unique place to retreat to and relax on idyllic North Stradbroke Island [Minjerribah in the traditional Jandai language of the Quandamooka people or “Straddie”]. Paul Butterworth Architect delivered “Corymbia”, a robust bare-foot beach house with voluminous light-filled living spaces, comfortable reading nooks, cosy plywood-lined bedrooms and unique indoor/outdoor bathing spaces. It’s a physical and ideological retreat, an intergenerational home for gathering family and friends, celebrating cooking, bathing and creating lasting memories.

A small community center built in CLT wood renews the local cityscape and invites people to cultural activities.

The project consists of the extension of the existing cottage, including the addition of a garage and a glass roof, as well as the renovation of the residence’s interior. Built over 50 years ago, the Saint Donat cottage required modifications to make it comfortable in summer and winter, while also adding value to the building by improving its energy efficiency. To follow a similar feeling to the original construction, the simple geometrical shapes, the use of wood in the interior and the use of raw materials such as stone, glass and steel are used throughout all aspects of the project.

The post-’99 city of Prishtina has had the burden as well as the delight of providing for an extensive part of Kosovo’s population. This has put a strain on the city’s urban development with a constantly growing number of illegal buildings and extensions, usurped public spaces, and an increasing disregard for the city by the citizens. One individual that tried to put an end to this city’s deterioration that had already begun was Rexhep Luci, a citizen and architect who at the time was working towards the demolition of illegal buildings. His work in this regard and almost every similar process was terminated when Rexhep was shot in front of his apartment in the capital. With Rexhep Luci’s murder, the city of Prishtina became the committer, the victim as well as the spectator of this crime. Years later, the street that bears the name of the architect that once started the fight against clutter and chaos, is one of the most cluttered and chaotic arteries of the city.