Ukrainian structure studio Replus Bureau has renovated a Twentieth-century villa in Lviv, contrasting the uncovered surfaces of its historic shell with up to date extensions and finishes.
Named Villa Quince after a neighbouring grove of fruit bushes, the dwelling close to Znesinnia Park was initially designed in 1906 in a neoclassical fashion and altered by the architect Józef Hornung in 1922.
By the point Replus Bureau had been tasked with renovating the house, it had stood deserted for a few years and was falling into disrepair.
Alongside the restore and restoration of the villa’s shell, the studio added cubic volumes to broaden its floor ground and create a further storey, providing deliberate contrasts to the unique construction that proceed via the interiors.
“We weren’t keen on imitation,” the studio informed Dezeen. “The brand new volumes stay calm and restrained, permitting the historic structure to remain legible.”
“The undertaking’s thought grew to become clear: keep away from nostalgic reconstruction. In a manner, we needed the constructing to inform a easy story sooner or later: that it lived via totally different intervals and was reconstructed in 2025,” it added.
“The identical dialogue between outdated and new continues within the inside, the place restored historic components coexist with fastidiously positioned up to date interventions.”
The unique enfilade-style structure of Villa Quince was maintained, with a research, bed room and loo wrapping a kitchen on the centre of the bottom ground.
This kitchen now flows right into a ground-floor extension, the place a dwelling and eating space overlooks the encompassing gardens via two corners of full-height glazing.
Above, the first-floor extension incorporates three ensuite bedrooms, housed inside a pale rendered, rectilinear quantity that initiatives above the roofline of the prevailing villa.
All through Villa Quince, fragments of historic wall finishes have been uncovered, which knowledgeable the pale tones of the newly-plastered surfaces that encompass them.
These surfaces are complemented by deep brown parquet flooring and bogs clad with alabaster tiles, whereas the upstairs bogs have a extra up to date palette of mosaic tiles in gray and coral.
“An important facet was preserving stability: reconstruction in a historic setting is at all times unpredictable, and the method turns into a steady adjustment between preservation and transformation,” defined the studio.
“French herringbone parquet in a deep inky tone anchors the primary rooms, whereas a tall brass skirting board runs via the areas like a steady line. Bogs reinterpret Artwork Nouveau traditions via mosaics, alabaster tiles and plastered surfaces,” Replus Bureau added,
“The doorways are fitted with sculptural handles by Tom Dixon – intentionally up to date and barely ironic inside the historic setting.”
Comparable restorations just lately featured on Dezeen embrace the updating of a Thirties villa in Poland by Wiercinski Studio, the place revealing the “uncooked and sincere” layers of the house knowledgeable a sequence of industrial-feeling bespoke fittings and furnishings items.
In a current Dezeen function, Ukrainian designers defined how the continued struggle with Russia has made the nation’s interiors “bolder and extra fascinating”.
The images is by Andriy Bezuglov.
