This architecture and interior design briefing examines two contrasting ways buildings connect with their surroundings: Eagle House turns a neglected Victorian structure into civic infrastructure, while Casa Cella organizes weekend living around garden, barbecue and pool. For photographers, both projects offer clear lessons in framing thresholds, public life and landscape.
IF_DO transforms neglected building in Hastings into "genuinely welcoming" community centre
IF_DO has transformed a neglected Victorian building in Hastings into Eagle House, a community centre completed for community-led developer Hastings Commons. Instead of demolishing the structure, the studio restored its relationship with the street through a green-concrete frontage and large operable windows set into deep recesses. The ground and lower-ground floors contain a common room, while upper levels provide flexible affordable workspaces and youth counselling facilities around a new lift and skylit staircase. Canary-yellow steelwork and timber window boxes create strong visual markers. For photographers, the project offers a useful study in documenting civic architecture through thresholds: frame the windows, street conversations and circulation core together to show how the building supports public life.
Cella House / iHouse estudio
Designed by iHouse estudio, Casa Cella is a weekend house in El Pinar, Canelones, Uruguay, completed in 2022 near the beach. The home was planned for a family that enjoys hosting friends and extending everyday activities outdoors. Rather than treating the garden, barbecue area and pool as separate amenities, the design conceives the house as an open platform facing all three, creating a fluid relationship between interior rooms and the landscape. The project’s photographic strength lies in that continuity: images can work across thresholds, using repeated views toward the garden and outdoor gathering areas to explain how the plan supports social life. Wide compositions should retain both interior occupation and the surrounding landscape.