Interior render with sculptural chimney and staircase — First Project in Paris

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First Project in Paris

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Weirdly enough the concept of our new Chinese townhouse interior started its life in Paris.

Last year we won our first architectural job in Paris, we did a pop up shop at the end of 2024 in La Marais, showcasing our dynamic DTable’s.

A chap came into the shop and asked what this thing was, we replied, “It’s a Table”.

He then said: “I’ll buy it” and promised to come back in a few days, it got to the last day of the show, and sadly he never returned…

However, just as we were closing on a busy Saturday in La Marais, we saw a wife pushing her husband into the shop and they asked what that thing is?

We replied: “It’s a Table”.

The husband then said as he was flicking through our DHaus Book, “if I buy the table can I have the book for free?”

“For sure” we replied and sold our first table in Paris.

A week later after we closed up the Parisian Pop Up Shop, we received a call from the husband, asking if we would come over to their place and if we would consider designing their penthouse for them, 30 seconds from the Pompidou.

It is an amazing old property in the heart of old Paris.

Entrance to the apartment.

We took a projector from London and presented our ideas to the client on site gorilla style.

Below is our initial concept sketch for the scheme, La Sculpture.

What really struck us on our first site visit to the building was the existing fireplace that ran through the apartment and projected above the roof level. Our scheme proposed raising the roof and preserving this chimney as a sculptural element that also became a piece of furniture.

Our concept was to unify the kitchen, the beginning of the staircase and the chimney as a single sculptural element.

Long story short, we presented the design to the French planners and… they refused it, as they said we were not allowed to touch the roof in any way, and that was that, our heads rolled!

But to quote Andrew Taylor from Patel Taylor Architects:

“Nothing is ever lost”

During a design session in our London studio with some down time drinking tea, the Chinese client asked us what other projects we were working on so we showed them the Paris Apartment.

They loved it and asked us to do something like this for one of their townhouses in Nanjing.

When one door closes, another door opens!

Axonometric study of the kitchen, staircase and chimney — First Project in Paris

La Sculpture concept sketch — First Project in Paris

View down the existing curved staircase — First Project in Paris

Existing staircase and windows — First Project in Paris

On-site design presentation — First Project in Paris

View up the curved staircase — First Project in Paris

Site visit overlooking the Paris rooftops — First Project in Paris

Projected drawings during the client presentation — First Project in Paris

Drawings laid out for discussion on site — First Project in Paris

DHaus

DHaus is an experimental Architecture and Design practice. We strive to make complicated things simple.

Concept

Animated geometric square-to-triangle dissection diagram — DHaus Concept

HABERDASHER

CONCEPT

In 1903 an English mathematician called Henry Ernest Dudeney worked out how to turn a perfect square into a perfect equilateral triangle by dissecting the square into 4 distinct shapes, these shapes can be rearranged into the triangle. This concept alone is fascinating and the possibilities are endless when applying the formula to the world of architecture and design.

“A good puzzle should demand the exercise of our best wits and ingenuity, and although a knowledge of mathematics … and … of logic are often of great service in the solution of these things, yet it sometimes happens that a kind of natural cunning and sagacity is of considerable value.

MATHEMATICIAN
HENRY ERNEST DUDENEY

Small folded geometric timber model — DHaus Concept

EVOLUTION

HISTORY

Black and white portrait of Henry Ernest Dudeney — DHaus Concept

Framed image of colourful transformable tables — DHaus Concept

Framed drawing of geometric house forms — DHaus Concept

Framed photograph of Sir David Chipperfield discussing a model — DHaus Concept

Framed image of a white geometric DTable — DHaus Concept

Framed photograph of models in a design workshop — DHaus Concept

1903

In 1903, English mathematician Henry Ernest Dudeney published his mathematical ‘Haberdasher’s Puzzle’ in the newspaper, ‘Weekly Dispatch’.

Dudeney’s puzzle posed a baffling conundrum: how to divide an equilateral triangle into four pieces to be reassembled into a square.

The Royal Society was intrigued in this geometrical novelty, and in 1905 Dudeney demonstrated his puzzle at a meeting of the Society.

Labelled triangle dissection diagram with construction arcs — DHaus Concept

Three colourful transformable tables on white — DHaus Concept

1987

Surprisingly, Dudeney’s achievement lay unnoticed in the pages of history until nearly 90 years later, when his novel idea was stumbled upon by Maty Grunberg. Intrigued by Dudeney’s masterpiece, Grunberg used the concept as a blueprint to construct a table. The design was an innovative success and left a lasting impression on Grunberg’s five-year-old son, David.

It is this event that served as the catalyst for the future establishment of The D*Haus Company.

“A Swiss Army knife of a table.

ARAM DESIGNS LTD
ZEEV ARAM

2008

Keen to explore the exciting possibilities the field of design presented to him as a child, David went on to study architecture.

In order to complete his dissertation, David was asked to design a prefabricated house that could withstand the extreme sub-arctic temperatures of Lap Land, a region of Finland and Sweden infamous for its harsh weather conditions.

David began researching prefabricated furniture when his mind wandered back to the original D*Table his father had designed twenty-two years earlier. After gaining his father’s approval, David went on to develop and launch the D*Haus, the world’s first prefabricated dynamic house.

“The strength of the prefabricated house lies in its popularity, its cheapness and the industrial base from which it operates. These are precisely the areas in which modern architecture is weakest.

PROFESSOR
COLIN DAVIES

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2010

Daniel Woolfson joins the company. The Internationally-acclaimed British architect Sir David Chipperfield commended the D*Haus dynamic model and places it centre stage in the architecture room. D*Haus appeared on the BBC’s ‘The Culture Show’ alongside Sir David (see below).

“Of the half a dozen Royal Academy Summer Shows that I have visited, this year’s presents by far the most engaging architecture room.

BUILDING DESIGN MAGAZINE
Ellis Woodman

2012 – 2013

In 2012 D*Haus were delighted to deliver their first solo show – “The Narrow Path” held at London’s Anise Gallery, the show brought together the D*Table, the D*Light, the High*Light and D*Prints alongside the Dynamic D*Haus. To commemorate the launching of the exhibition we commission a new video of the D*Haus dynamic. The Narrow path is a metaphor for a direction in our design and our work to date, We feel that our journey through design and architecture is hard and we make mistakes, wrong turns and go down dead ends, but you learn more from your mistakes than your successes.

in 2013 the path had a very risky turn, we decided to follow on from our first solo show with a brave and bold Kickstarter campaign, Kickstarter for those who do not know is a crowdfunding platform, we Launched the D*Table on Kickstarter because it meant we could then take pre orders as finding the £50k start-up costs for the tables to be made up front was nearly impossible, People were able to pay for the table up front and when we got to our commercial goal we then could press the button on the first ever D*Table batch!

2014

From the publicity and successful Kickstarter campaign, D*Haus were sponsored by the GRAND DESIGNS LIVE trade show and CNC cut online, this was a giant push from us in our dream to build the first Dynamic DHaus, For the shows in London, Birmingham and Manchester, we made a 1:5 scale working model of the dynamic house which meant the crowds at the shows could experience the model, opening and closing and fully interact with it by touching and moving the architectural pieces from square to triangle.

As part of the show’s publicity, we were invited by the BBC One show to come and explain to the nation live the building concept, the presentation on live TV was helped along by the lovely BBC one presenters who were amazing at calming our nerves alongside Mr GRAND DESIGN himself Kevin McCloud.