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RAFA Design Hub

05 Renovation

Renovation

We intervene in existing buildings with restraint — preserving character, proportion, and materiality while renewing performance.

Approach // Methodology

We approach renovation with restraint and respect for the original architecture. Our work preserves what matters — character, proportion, materiality — while introducing the performance and programmatic changes needed for contemporary life. Whether restoring a mid-century villa or adapting a historic townhouse, we treat each building as a layered history to be read and continued.

01

Context

Renovation begins by reading the existing building as a layered history — what it was, what it became, and what matters.

02

Spatial strategy

New elements are composed to respect the original order — legible additions that never pretend to be original.

03

Materiality

Original materials are restored wherever they survive; new materials are chosen to age in the same register.

04

Performance

Thermal, acoustic, and programmatic upgrades are introduced without compromising the character that gives a building its value.

Renovation

Living room with restored terrazzo

01

Living room, original terrazzo restored

The terrazzo was poured in 1962. The aggregate — small fragments of local marble and pink quartz — remains the same. The restored sections are invisible to any eye that does not already know where they are.

Material palette detail

02

Steel, stone, and birch ply

The three materials — granite, steel, and birch — were selected to be visually honest about their structural role. No material performs anything other than its actual function.

Disciplines // Contact

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