A Passive-House Design in Palma, Spain Without a Drop of Paint

Architects Paloma Hernaiz and Jaime Oliver, cofounders and directors of OHLab, believe that a building is only as attractive as it is sustainable. “If you know it’s polluting the environment, it probably won’t appeal to you,” Oliver argues. Climate change has altered our perspective. Glass curtain walls, for example, have lost some of their allure. “Today, if you see a building that’s entirely glazed, it’s not as nice aesthetically because you should know it doesn’t work well,” he says. By that measure alone, Paseo Mallorca 15, an apartment building the firm designed in Palma, on the Spanish island of Mallorca, is a stunner: Covered in pine shutters, it relies on passive heating and cooling techniques and consumes little energy.

Hernaiz and Oliver, who are married, met in New York while earning their masters’ degrees at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and later worked together at OMA in China. They founded OHLab (the O and H pulled from their last names) in Shanghai in 2007 but have since moved back to their native Spain and are now based in Mallorca, where Oliver grew up. In 2016, they completed their first passive-house project, Casa MM in Palma. “They haven’t turned on the heating or AC,” Hernaiz notes. “It was a breakthrough for us because we realized how easy it is to achieve.” Soon after, she and Oliver won a competition for the apartment building in central Palma. They have been building energy-efficient dwellings ever since.

A Sustainable, Passive-House Design by OHLab

The developer asked for an iconic design befitting the prime location beside the tree-lined Riera canal. “He also requested something that would represent the values of the 21st century in terms of society and architecture,” Oliver says. He and Hernaiz argued that a passive house structure would do just that. As glass curtain walls were the image of modernity in the 20th century, maybe sunshades would be a hallmark of the 21st.

OHLab worked within the limited parameters of a trapezoidal lot and urban planning codes. The 38,000-square-foot building faces three streets: two narrow, quiet ones and the larger, noisier Passeig de Mallorca, which offers the best light and views. This setup determined the layout of the 10 units, with living areas facing the main road and bedrooms in the back. Each street also has different zoning regarding height limits, which resulted in Paseo Mallorca 15 having a zigzag roof line of four, six, and eight stories.

A Home That Heats and Cools Itself

Hernaiz, Oliver, and their team gave the back of the building a facade of prefabricated concrete panels and covered the southern side in moveable thermo-treated pine slats that act as a solar filter. Residents can adjust them manually from their balconies, closing them in summer and opening them in winter. OHLab incorporated panels of four different depths to account for the wood’s natural irregularity and aging, “So it won’t look like a mistake,” Oliver explains. At night, the building glows like a paper lantern.

The design draws on vernacular Mallorcan architecture, such as Mediterranean pergolas and shutters, and uses such traditional techniques as cross-ventilation to keep rooms cool. “These are basic principles that were lost during the last century, but it’s a much smarter way to build,” Hernaiz says. A heat recovery system moderates the temperature and circulates fresh air, insulation is nearly 10 inches thick, and the structure is airtight. Although the building has heating and AC, Hernaiz and Oliver hope residents won’t have to turn them on. The result is a heating and cooling energy demand of 15 kWh per square meter per year, which not only is in line with Passiv­haus standards but also a 90 percent less demand than a conventional building.

The Apartment Building Features Local Plants and an Indoor Spa

“For us, sustainability is not just an add-on,” Hernaiz states. “It is embedded in our design decisions.” Each environmentally responsible choice contributes to a cohesion that extends from the facade to the bedrooms. It proves that a contemporary urban high-rise can be beautiful, rooted in its landscape, and respect the world at large.

Behind the Sustainable Design of Paseo Mallorca 15 

OHLab: rebeca lavín; robin harloff; loreto angulo; pedro rodríguez; silvia morais; mercé solar; m. bruna pisciotta; tomislav konjevod; josé allona; claudio tagarelli; eleni oikonomaki; agustín verdejo; luis quiles

jonathan bell studio: landscape architect

hima estructuras: structural engineer

amm technical group: mep

estudi linia: civil engineer

contract stone & ceramic: stonework

construcciones regla de oro: general contractor

cassina: chairs (courtyard)

il giardino di legno: table

malift: car elevator (garage)

la pecera mallorca: stool, chairs (living room)

blasco: sofa

gordiola: pendant fixtures (dining room, bedroom)

de la espada: table (dining room)

sollos: chairs (dining room, bedroom)

Gubi: floor lamp (living room)

Mogg: side table

flou: bed (bedroom)

inbani: tub

contain: pendant fixture (kitchen)

miele: appliances

paola lenti; tribù: outdoor fur­niture (terrace)

decágono: furniture supplier

grupo gubia: timber facade installation

Dornbracht: sink fittings, tub fittings

Kingston Lafferty Design Infuses a House in Cork, Ireland With Soothing Shades of Green

When the design history of the pandemic is written, it will be told with tales of firms completing projects without ever physically meeting clients, setting foot inside job sites before they’re finished, and other protracted, unexpected developments. Lovers Walk—a residence in Cork, Ireland, by Kingston Lafferty Design—is one of those stories. “It started as a small decoration job for us,” founder and creative director Róisín Lafferty recounts. “But it grew legs and ended up as a substantial design project.” The two-story, four-bedroom suburban house was purchased by a couple looking to return to Ireland from abroad to raise their young son. As the pandemic struck and timelines extended, the scope kept evolving to encompass every element of the house. “We had to think on our feet,” Lafferty concedes.

At first, the house looked solidly built, but project collaborators Kiosk Architects discovered that the structure had major issues with energy efficiency. Original flooring needed to be removed, and the exterior required extra work to meet current standards. “The clients put a lot of trust in us,” Lafferty says, “which was bold and brave considering that we didn’t meet in person until the end of construction.”

The house was built in the 1940s. What attracted the homeowners—and informed KLD’s concept—was the central staircase, part of a ’70s addition and somewhat in that era’s style. Lafferty loved its warm, almost orange-toned oak joinery, which creates a strong impression on both levels. “It’s quite dominant,” notes the designer, to whom the clients had first turned for her firm’s signature look. The 11-year-old practice has earned a reputation for experimenting with bold swaths of solid color, mostly in paint: blood-red walls for a café in London; a deep-blue theater for a corporate office in Skerries, Ireland; and, most notably, a widely published Victorian house in Dublin with blue walls, a green ceiling, and a ruby-red dining table.

The house, located on a cliff overlooking the city, is surrounded by large oak trees. “We wanted to bring in that depth of green,” says Lafferty, who, along with KLD lead designer Fiona Stone, went beyond paint to inject the rooms with warmth and color that complemented the site. Hence much of the living room is wrapped in moss-green marble; forest-green heavy wool curtains hang in the child’s room, which is painted a similar shade, his favorite color; and the primary bedroom’s headboard wall is clad in jade porcelain tiles (by Gio Ponti, no less).

The layout of the living room, which had been fussy, was streamlined. A sofa upholstered in deep-navy velvet adds punch to the space. Similar jewel tones were chosen to balance the room’s marble-rich palette, which reminded Lafferty of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. “We needed a poppiness to jar against that,” she notes. Adding another layer to the mix, the clients allowed their contemporary art collection—mostly playful, abstract works—to be positioned throughout the house as the design best allowed. “They weren’t precious about it,” Lafferty reports.

To add drama to the journey from the entry hall to the kitchen and dining area, Lafferty and Stone inserted a tunnellike portal lined with red finger tiles between the spaces. The clients didn’t want the kitchen to be overwhelmed with storage cabinets, so the designers kept them at base level, covering the countertops, island, and two wall-size backsplashes with pink quartzite that’s “like rock candy,” Lafferty says—a move that places added emphasis on the above-sink picture window and its view out onto nature. While Lafferty admits some might consider the rosewood-veneer cabinetry to be outdated, she relished the idea of pushing the materials so they’re “almost on the cusp of clashing.”

Upstairs, each of the three bedrooms—for the couple, their son, and guests, respectively—has its own color story. Riffing off the ’70s vibe, the guest room juxtaposes cobalt blue curtains against walls painted a buff pink called Dead Salmon; a navy shaglike carpet adds to the theme, which Lafferty describes as “almost disgusting.” The designers are particularly proud of the primary bedroom, “a small space that needed to look sleek and effortless,” Stone notes. Access is via a wide, open passageway with chevron-pattern oak flooring and three large, angled skylights set into the sloped roofline. A vanity of burgundy marble is tucked under the eaves on one side of the room; a walk-in closet and the bathroom lie behind the opposite wall, which is faced in lacquered walnut-burl veneer that abuts the green tile of the headboard wall around the corner. “It’s like a jewelry box with so many materials used,” Stone continues. “But it feels incredibly calm. There’s almost a nostalgic air about it”—a verdict with which the clients agree. It seems their trust in KLD’s boldly unconventional aesthetic has paid off handsomely.

Kiosk Architects: architect of record

herrick electrical: mep

dfl: woodwork

miller brothers: stonework

cameleo: plasterwork

rose construction: general contractor

arflex: sofa, ottoman (living room)

modern hill furniture: orange chair

oluce: lamp

moore o’gorman joinery: custom cocktail table

fest amsterdam: side table

urban nature culture: vase

muurla: gray bowl

hkliving: blue bowl

Juanma Lizana: chandelier

jover: curtain fabric (living room, kitchen)

flos: pendant fixture (kitchen)

miele: cooktop, ovens, r­e­frigerator

Blanco: sink

quooker: sink fittings

cinca: finger tile (portal)

astep: pendant fix­ture (entry hall)

wow design: vanity front tile (main bathroom)

rmc: shower wall tile

through 1stdibs: chair (guest bedroom)

Hay: pendant fixture

edmund bell: curtain fabric

scatter box: bedspread

jacaranda carpets: carpet (guest, child bedrooms)

driade: chair (child bedroom)

muuto: pendant fixture

kvadrat: curtain fabric

trunk floor: custom wood flooring (child, main bedrooms)

&tradition: sofa (dining area)

yarwood leather: banquette upholstery

zava luce: sconces (dining area, portal)

Courtesy of Gubi: vanity chair (main bedroom)

natuzzi italia: bed, nightstand

salviati: sconce

tal: spotlights

teamwork italy: wall tile

louise roe copenhagen: vases

mason editions: pendant fixture (family bathroom)

crosswater: towel ring

nic design: sink (family, guest bathrooms)

astro lighting: downlights

stone seal: concrete flooring

cork glass center: bathroom glass, mirror, shower screens

vos: bathroom sink fittings

minima home: furniture supplier

farrow & ball: paint

Hariri & Hariri Architecture Transforms the New York Penthouse Headquarters of SIBA Corp/SIBA Residences into a Multifaceted Gem

Hariri & Hariri Architecture—the firm of Iranian sisters and Interior Design Hall of Fame members Gisue and Mojgan Hariri—began the renovation of the headquarters of SIBA Corp/SIBA Residences, a prominent gem dealer and real estate business in Manhattan’s Diamond District, in early 2020, just as COVID-19 was about to grip New York. The architects designed the 3,000-square-foot full floor during the transitional period when the SIBA office staff, like countless others across the country, started Zooming from home. Like anthro­pologists unexpectedly equipped with a telephoto lens into the lives of their subjects, the Hariris observed home environments that had become on-screen business backdrops.

COVID taught the architects what now seems obvious: People were in no rush to return to the office because they like the warmth, character, crafted touches, and creature comforts of their homes. Specialists in both residential and workplace, the sisters resolved to adapt domesticity to the penthouse site, balancing the amenities of home with office life in a building deep in Midtown’s thicket of high-rises. “Zoom confirmed what George Nelson advocated long ago,” Gisue Hariri notes: “‘The office should be a daytime living room.’”

The renovation initiated a new era and ethos for the four-generation family business. The third-generation patriarch, Sam Abram, had recently died, and his son Edward, now CEO, was relaunching the company. Three of SIBA’s separate divisions—diamond trading, real estate sales, and building management—shared the floor. Without looking like Fort Knox, the gem side of the business had to be secured away from the real estate and management spaces, which were themselves separate from each other. With multiple zones and numerous dedicated functions—reception and waiting areas, open workstations and offices, a conference room and a jewelry viewing lounge, kitchen and dining—the program presented the organizational challenge of piecing together an intricate puzzle. The existing office looked like a leftover period set from “The Honeymooners.” Cubicles and rooms were grafted onto each other higgledy-piggledy under harsh fluorescents set in a water-damaged dropped ceiling. A large safe was strapped down like an electric chair. The whole place required a gut renovation.

The unsalvageable maze, however, hid two assets. The space had good infrastructure—a wraparound terrace ringed the entire floor, which offered unobstructed, heart-of-the-city views. Then, in and around the principal office, the architects discovered numerous modernist prints and silkscreens that the company had quietly collected, hung up, and left in place for decades, as forgotten as old wallpaper. To their surprise, the Hariris were dealing with a portfolio that included works by Josef Albers, Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, and Louise Nevelson. New pieces, including ones by Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Alexander Calder, were added to the mix, and the trove became a vehicle that helped the two sisters infuse the project with color and character.

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Aiming for a daytime living-room effect, the Hariris avoided a systematic, gridded, modular layout. Instead, the floor is organized episodically along a circuit leading to an unfolding sequence of spaces, each highlighting art or special seating. The unique turns in the plan camouflaged the harsh fact that a corridor, for example, might function as a security lock bordered by bulletproof glass. The Hariri team included pockets as socializing zones for passing office chats and break-out moments. They sited the jewelry viewing lounge among the first rooms, beyond which lies a small open-plan pool of workstations for real estate management surrounded by a perimeter of private offices.

Improvements in technology over the last several decades facilitated domestication. Thanks to the computer, the architects could reduce the number of chilly, metal file cabinets to a minimum. A new ceiling system of parallel aluminum slats set wide enough apart to accommodate sprinklers let them raise the ceiling from 8 to nearly 10 feet. Compact HVAC equipment replaced large, antiquated units that colonized the outdoor terrace, allowing for an alfresco dining setup plus a meditation garden. Contemporary window frames gave each opening a clear view, turning the urban skyline into a sequence of spectacular pictures.

But beyond technology, the Hariris deployed architecture’s traditional tool-set—materials, scale, lighting, and simplicity—to make the HQ homelike. They covered metal access panels with rift-cut oak. Etched glass between perimeter offices and the open work area softly radiate natural light to the landlocked interior. They dimensionalized the floor with patterned carpet tile that creates the illusion of depth, its pile inviting staff to kick off their shoes. Overall, the spaces were kept intimate, with clean planes and edges that defer to the art. The walls, mostly painted white or gray, have the visual clarity of a gallery.

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At the beginning of the commission, the architects told their clients that the goal was to build the analogue of a jewel—“something light, airy, and tactile,” Gisue Hariri says, “something small, precious, and special, where every turn is unique.” She and her sister crafted that idea right at the front door by chamfering the reception desk like a precious cut stone—its faceted, sculptural quality a trademark of their work. “From early on, we’ve collected rocks and studied geological and crystal formations, fascinated by the abstract, geometric, asymmetrical forms derived from nature, which are also apparent in both Persian and modern Western architecture,” the architect adds. But even more than a built metaphor, the diamond at the door sets the stage for the multifaceted gem of an environment beyond.

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hariri & hariri architecture: bieinna ham; kyuhun kim; chris whiteside; maria digaetango-rodriguez

blondie’s treehouse: landscape consultant.

lighting workshop: lighting consultant.

robert silman associates structural engineers: structural engineer

skyline engineering: special inspection engineer.

ip group: mep

napoleon contracting corp.: woodwork.

icon interiors: general contractor.

Janus et Cie: chairs, table (terrace)

expert welding gates: custom railing

bendheim: etched glass panels (open work area)

knoll: workstations (open work area), lounge chair (office)

vibia: pendant fixtures (waiting area)

bernhardt design: table/chair (waiting area), sofa (jewelry lounge)

spinneybeck: sofa upholstery (jewelry lounge)

dwr: pillows

herman miller: executive chair, task chairs (office)

kohler co.: sink fittings (rest­room)

focal point: ceiling fixtures (kitchen)

JUlien: sink

kwc: sink fittings

wolf: cooktop

miele: oven

Blu Dot: credenza

mosa: floor tile

Interface: carpet tile

amerlux; coronet lighting: lighting

armstrong: acoustic ceiling panels

b+n industries: aluminum slats

c.r. laurence co.: door pulls

kilroy architectural windows: windows

evensonbest: furniture supplier

benjamin moore & co.: paint.