Transforming plywood walls add rooms & service to Geneva home
When a family of five in Geneva were looking to turn two large basement rooms into four, including a bedroom for their au pair, they called on local architect Aurélie Monet Kasisi who used plywood partitions to add a lot of functionality.
Before the remodel, one of the rooms served as a home office by day and a bedroom for the family’s au pair by night. Monet Kasisi designed a wall of pine ply to separate the two spaces: on one side it serves as shelving for mom Sophie’s extensive book and bric-a-brac collection.
The wall contains a small door and on the reverse side, a fold-down secretary-desk, both hidden by the perfectly-continuous grain of the plywood. A second wall in the au pair’s room hold’s floor to ceiling storage, including a closet.
The second large pre-remodel room served as TV room and kids’ playroom. Again, Monet Kasisi created another wooden partition wall to house a large CD collection, as well as a projector and audio system to create a home cinema. There’s also a bed made of recycled pallets that opens for guests.
On the other side of the TV room through a very small plywood door (sized for small children) is the private playroom for the family’s three, young children. One small porthole in the wall provides opportunity for Sophie to keep an eye on the kids.
With leftover wood, Monet Kasisi created some small pieces of furniture for the rooms: nightstands, storage boxes and a podium for the kids.
Aurélie Monet Kasisi: http://www.monetkasisi.ch/
Carpenters (Atelier Fabien Pont): http://www.menuisier-geneve.ch/
Photo credit: Yann Laubscher
Original story: https://faircompanies.com/videos/transforming-plywood-walls-add-rooms-service-to-geneva-home/
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the raw or whatever color or finish that is… imo doesnt work well for that space. it's okay for the open book/storage side but the other side doesnt appeal to me
the video is shaky at points and the constant cuts and angles are making me nauseous
This is very interesting. The architect did a fantastic design. But I think the real praise needed to go to The Carpenters who executed it so meticulously! Even if one dislikes plywood (which seems to be a current fad), the design is really good. A couple of points — there appears to be no toilet in this basement for the poor au pair. And here in the US they could not legally house someone underground like that without windows large enough to get out in case of fire. Is Swiss zoning law that relaxed that they permit no exits?
What would make this work is COLOR. All the wall's are white and there is little natural light and the result is a depressing space. If the walls were egg shell with RED or ORANGE or BIRGHT GREEN accents on the furniture, or even colored lighting the space would be much more welcoming.
Should have been 1 minute and 35 seconds, not almost eighteen minutes. Having said that, I've never built anything. I may just be an idiot with a short attention span; it is definitely possible.
there is absolutely no good reason as to why the little door is so low…. and don´t tell me it is for the kids (a two part door would have been the proper way).. also the doors are not really doors since there are gaps between the wall and the doors… using a milling machine to give the door and the wall corresponding phases with maybe an optional gasket would have been the propper way… why is it that people think these small folding tables are "work space"… have they ever really worked? and to top it all.. they build all this and instead of incoorperating the couch into it, they have this ugly thing.. and waste space putting the tv in the corner…
all this talk about upcycling, and "plywood can be something bigger" are you kidding me? that is pseudo intellectual jibberish with no substance… if this would have been done smart I would not mind, but this is actually just a big shelf with doors and not a lot of functionalities.. all they do is open and close doors for 15mins and talk like it was rocket science…
Really? DIY crap. What ever it cost them, it was too much.
Too bad furniture grade plywood is so damn expensive in the states.
Don’t like it.
How about a Forest with slides, swing, a small tree house, a nook table made of wood equipped with laptop [another laptop on the bedroom]; a small fountain of juice near the table with cups on the side; then, a small pond, real shower with potty, then, the circling closet nearby [they love to wear clothes], a small 4 inch wide bridge, and step stones of different heights for them to jump down on a jelly air floor, the Tarsan rope from one point of the room to another; think of the outer world; no need to paint, faux plants will do; and air crete trees… and the music of birds, and the sound of a-b-c rhymes of different tunes… a train that delivers their food [veggie chips, sugarless candies, veggie spaghetti, ]; the train goes in and out of the room from a small round hole to their table…