La Crêta Farmhouse shows us the art of taking away
The most profound thing Bard Yersin did to this 18th-century Fribourg farmhouse was strip away layers from an earlier renovation. La Crêta is an adaptive reuse project that proves sustainable design’s most powerful tool is restraint.
Reviving a wounded mill: Ennenda Mühle is restitched with care
At a former medieval mill in Ennenda, Switzerland, Atelier Lando Rossmaier begins with careful deconstruction, peeling back layers to reveal and renew the building’s original structure. The adaptive reuse project rebuilds the house using materials sourced within roughly ten miles, including local timber, lime and hemp-lime walls that help regulate moisture in the ageing masonry. Through this restrained approach, the once-abandoned mill is revived as a home and goldsmith’s workshop while preserving the character of its historic fabric.
Traceability is the key to unlocking true circular design
Traceability is at the heart of the circular design. You can’t keep materials in play if you don’t know exactly what they are, where they came from, or how they behave over time.
Inside Casa Wabi’s coastal residences
On a wild stretch of Oaxaca’s Pacific coast, Casa Wabi reimagines the traditional palapa as a minimalist artist’s refuge – pairing open-sided, palm-thatched structures with locally crafted timber furniture and raw, material-led artworks by founder Bosco Sodi.
House LO is a hempcrete experiment in a forest
In a woodland clearing in the Czech Republic, House LO stands as a testament to refined design and experimentation. Designed by Ateliér Lina Bellovičová, the home is built almost entirely from hempcrete – a bio-based material not often used in the region.
