Pashenko Works, UK: Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2023
The UK's Pashenko Works is the latest addition to the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2023, our annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios
The UK's Pashenko Works is the latest addition to the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2023, our annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios. The practice co-founders, Mariia Pashenko and Koen Schaballie, show us around their own home and latest project, White Patio House in south London.
Who: Pashenko Works
Mariia Pashenko and Koen Schaballie founded Pashenko Works in 2020. The dynamic architectural practice works between Ukraine, Belgium and the UK with a main office based in south London. After completing a degree in Fine Arts and Architecture in Ukraine, Pashenko moved to the UK in 2009 to study housing and urbanism at the Architectural Association, working for various practices in London over the next decade.
Schaballie studied architecture at the Catholic University of Leuven, the TU Delft and the AA before working on a range of projects in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium. 'Fascinated and inspired by the European city', Pashenko Works was started as a way for Pashenko and Schaballie to develop their own signature approach to architecture that thoughtfully blends Ukrainian, Belgian and UK influences.
Despite the practice being relatively new, Pashenko and Schaballie’s combined experience spans projects of different scales, programmes, climates and cultures. While Pashenko leans towards master planning and concept design stages, Schaballie complements these competences, gravitating towards materiality and construction. Central to their thinking are sustainability and circular economy principles, with designs that are 'considerate, cost-effective and achieve more with less'.
Contemplating architecture as both a profession and a passion, Pashenko Works lovingly pursues projects, 'unlocking the potential of the site, the brief and the context and making the best of those opportunities'.
What: White Patio House
Offering a new prototype for dense urban living, Pashenko Works’ White Patio House is a transformation of a traditional terrace into a patio house for the studio founders' family. The home is made up of five distinct parts; the original Victorian terrace, a glass atrium, new contemporary extensions on the ground and first level, a patio garden and a garden room at the end of the site.
Daylight pours into the home’s central glass atrium, reducing the need for artificial light and conceptually serving as a 'bridge' that connects the new volume to the 'memory' of the old building. Inspired by Belgian brutalism, deliberately exposed blockwork, steel beams and columns 'delineate the whole perimeter of the site as a uniting theme’.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Minimal sliding doors open into the garden, 'dissolving the barriers’ between inside and outside. The off-white corrugated steel sheets that clad the new additions match window frames and door colours, maintaining the carefully considered colour palette of the home. Thinking not only horizontally, but vertically, side walls feature growing climbers, bird houses and bug hotels.
Embodying Pashenko Works’ ethos, sustainable design choices permeate this build –from choosing materials based on their sustainability credentials and capabilities, to including green roofs that regulate urban heating effects and encourage biodiversity. Thoughtfully maximising space within local planning constraints, White Patio House reimagines the experience of living within a congested cityscape.
Why: Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2023
Conceived in 2000 as an international index of emerging architectural talent, the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory is our annual listing of promising practices from across the globe. While always championing the best and most promising young studios, over the years, the project has showcased inspiring work with an emphasis on the residential realm. Now including more than 500 alumni, the Architects’ Directory is back for its 23rd edition. Join us as we launch this year’s survey – 20 young studios from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Congo, Ecuador, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mozambique, Pakistan, Senegal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UAE, the UK, the USA and Vietnam, with plenty of promise, ideas and exciting architecture.
Nana Ama Owusu-Ansah is a writer and photographer from London. She first wrote for Wallpaper* in 2021, in a series on the new vanguard of African designers practising in Africa and its diaspora. She is drawn to projects centring on decolonial approaches to art, architecture, as well as community and sustainability. Nana Ama read Economics and Spanish at University of St Andrews, and, as an avid linguist, is passionate about using accessible language to invite new audiences to engage in design discourse.
-
JW Anderson and Pleasing design a balloon-inspired collection of nail polishes and more
JW Anderson and Pleasing launch an uplifting new capsule collection featuring balloon-inspired metallic nail polishes and a take on the viral rainbow cardigan
By Hannah Tindle Published
-
Bottega Veneta drafts Venetian artisans for its unique ‘Bottega for Bottegas’ project, a gift list of local craft
Italian fashion house Bottega Veneta has sought out six craftspeople from in and around Venice to create precious objects – from playing cards to jigsaw puzzles – which arrive just in time for festive gift-giving
By Jack Moss Published
-
Agnès Varda, Luca Guadagnino and Wim Wenders: why Aesop’s love affair with cinema is more than skin-deep
Aesop’s new 2024 Christmas campaign celebrates its long love affair with cinema. Laura Havlin speaks with the brand’s head of global store design Marianne Lardilleux to discover why film is inherent to its DNA
By Laura Havlin Published
-
The RIBA House of the Year 2024 winner is a delightful work in progress
The winner of the RIBA House of the Year 2024 is Six Columns in south London – the home of architect and 31/44 studio co-founder William Burges
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Dip into Wyld sauna: Liverpool's floating Finnish-style destination for lovers of extreme heat
Wyld sauna has opened in Liverpool, offering the perfect excuse to take a dive into the Nordic wellness tradition
By Emma O'Kelly Published
-
RIBA International Prize 2024 goes to 'radical housing' in Barcelona
RIBA International Prize 2024 has been announced, and the winner is Modulus Matrix: 85 Social Housing in Cornellà, designed by Peris + Toral Arquitectes in Barcelona
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Meet Scotland's best new building: The Burrell Collection wins Doolan 2024
The Doolan 2024 award crowns The Burrell Collection in Glasgow as Scotland's finest building this year, celebrating its comprehensive recent refurbishment
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
‘Concrete Dreams’: rethinking Newcastle’s brutalist past
A new project and exhibition at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle revisits the radical urban ideas that changed Tyneside in the 1960s and 1970s
By Smilian Cibic Published
-
Explore a barn conversion with a difference on the Isle of Wight
Gianni Botsford Architects' barn conversion transforms two old farm buildings into an atmospheric residence and artistic retreat, The Old Byre
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Capability House blends contemporary architecture and historical landscape in rural England
Capability House is a modern retreat by Dedraft set in the historical landscape of green, Capability Brown-designed grounds in rural England's Aynhoe Park Estate
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A Peckham house design unlocks a spatial puzzle in south London
Audacious details, subtle colours and a product designer for a client make this Peckham house conversion a unique spatial experience
By Jonathan Bell Published