The Pleasure and Duty of Living Well
Magdalena Wallhoff, owner
Magdalena in her youth (spent in rural Indonesia) wanted to be an architect, but later took other paths. Her fascination for place-appropriate architecture —our specific needs of shelter of a specific kind in a specific place— never left her. She founded VALDE in 2010 with the goal of rescuing neglected places that exuded a sense of place that was worth preserving. Horrified by the mass of cheap buildings that had no relation to land or community, erected daily in the USA, she began taking nondescript homes that evidently had solid bones and a certain “je ne sais quoi” yet had been slated for tear down or otherwise abandoned. She revived house after house, also in Iceland, Italy, and Switzerland.
She considers herself a self-taught “lay” architect and contractor, and continues to create places that embody the pleasure and duty of life itself in all its imperfection.
She splits her time between Europe and USA. She has four children who have developed much patience and taste for restoration projects.
Magdalena was highly influenced by Christopher Alexander, and recommedns to all, his classic A Pattern Language.
“Each place has its own ‘soul’ and we approach each project with that idea. We therefore do not impose one style. The style is determined by what the place is, in relation to its context. Sometimes over the top. Sometimes humble.”
Since 2010 VALDE has been restoring abandoned and neglected homes and gardens for clients in Europe and North America. VALDE manages entire projects, from start to finish, from large concepts to handmade details.
Each place has its own “soul” and we approach each project with that idea. We therefore do not impose one style. The style is determined by what the place is, in relation to its context. Sometimes over the top. Sometimes humble.
We work closely with the client, but ultimately encourage them to adapt to place and neighbors, more than imposing their first ideas. It is through genuine relationship to place, to land, to region, to family, to individual, that the best places emerge, alive again from abandonment or neglect.
Two former projects are rentable (through other providers).
HEIDARVATN ISLANDIA
(Icelandic fly fishing lodge in a private valley)
RESALBERT CHALETS
(rough luxury in the Italian Alps)
