Hasta La Ideas

Customers of this nail salon in Houston are pampered in large blue armchairs raised on platforms, within a bright space that also features ombre wallpaper.

The interior for the Paloma nail bar was completed by local architecture firm Content, which designed the space in response to the client’s slogan “Escape to Beautiful”.

“Natural materials and textures combine with refined accents to create an atmosphere that prioritises both a healthy escape and a luxurious experience,” said the studio.

Customers arrive from the street into a reception area, naturally illuminated by the large glazed shop frontage.

Coloured polishes are displayed on shelves in the almost entirely white space, which also has wooden benches to form a waiting area.

A “veil” of white-painted wooden dowels and brass bars separates the treatment space towards the back. In this long narrow room, a row of blue armchairs runs along one side – raised on a low platform topped with pale timber.

These seats for pedicures are accompanied by dark wood tables and stools, brass lamps, and black bowls for cleaning feet. Plants add a touch of greenery on a shelf behind.

Pairs of the same armchairs face each on the other side of the room, so patrons can chat to each other during treatments.

“These platforms provide unique orientations to focal points within the room while also offering conversational opportunities at facing chairs,” said Content.

At the back, small tables are set up for manicures, with wallpaper that blends from blue to peach to light blue behind. These colours echo the branding for the salon, created by Portland-based AfterAll Studio.

Paloma – which uses non-toxic products – received a 2017 AIA Houston Design Award, and a second location is due to open soon. Other nail bars with interesting interiors in the US include a minimalist salon in Los Angeles.

Photography is by Peter Molick.

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Sheepskin armchairs based on Goldilocks and the Three Bears feature in this range of furniture by French designer Pierre Yovanovitch, displayed in New York earlier this year.

Yovanovitch created the chairs among 24 custom designs, for an exhibition titled OOPS at Tribeca gallery R & Company – his first show in the US.

Known as the Bear Armchair, the design was already a staple in Yovanovitch’s portfolio. But the ursine shape was upholstered in sheepskin for the showcase and produced in three different sizes: Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear, just like in the fairytale.

Each has soft rounded forms, ear-like protrusions at the top of the backs, and spherical wooden feet.

Other designs presented included a donut-shaped bench, tables that look like giant pebbles, and fluffy dining chairs named Monsieur and Madame.

Black pendant lamps look like they were sculpted from a viscous liquid, and patterned using a palette knife.

Another set of lights was named ET, due to a resemblance to the loveable alien in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 movie.

To produce the collection, Yovanovitch worked with craftspeople across Europe, including cabinetmakers, ceramists, ironworkers, glassmakers, upholsterers, weavers, textile specialists, and lacquerers.

OOPS was displayed at R & Company from 7 September to 19 October 2017, as part of the gallery’s annual guest curator series.

For the exhibition, Yovanovitch also selected historical and contemporary pieces from R & Company’s permanent collection, as well as artworks from other American and French galleries. These included items by the LA-based Haas Brothers and Senegalese designer Babacar Niang.

“In this exhibition, I wanted to reference vintage design in addition to showcasing contemporary works,” he said.

“I sought to make it, in a way, a dialogue between 20th and 21st century design – while I have a passion for contemporary works, I also feel as though paying homage to historical design disciplines is an act of respect as a designer.”

The designer previously worked in the menswear atelier of Pierre Cardin before switching focus to interiors and furniture, setting up his own studio in Paris in 2001.

Photography is by Jean-François Jaussaud of Luxproductions.

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Randy Lewis est le graphiste créatifs derrière la série humoristique et surréaliste intitulée This or That. Avec l’aide de Photoshop, Lewis combine deux objets différents pour créer une image surprenante, qu’il pose sur des fonds colorés. Visitez son site et Instagram.

The latest series of images by photographer Marc Goodwin offers a look inside 14 Shanghai-based architecture studios, belonging to firms including Neri & Hu, Archi-Union Architects and David Chipperfield Architects.

Marc Goodwin has visited studios in numerous countries, as part of his ongoing project to reveal the workplaces of all of the world’s big-name architects.

Following series in Paris, London, Beijing and the Nordic countries, the photographer visited a range of studios in China’s biggest city.

The 14 revealed in this series include locally based practices such as More Architecture and Aim Architecture, as well as the Chinese offices of big international firms like Schmidt Hammer Lassen and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

The resulting images reveal a diverse range of building types, including an old personal training studio, a former metalwork factory and a space behind an aircraft repair station.

For instance, local studio Linehouse occupies a former marketplace, featuring wooden flooring and a shelving unit that spans an entire wall. Meanwhile, Neri&Hu’s 100 employees work in in a more traditional office space that is entered via a large concrete staircase.

Take a look at all 14 Shanghai architecture studios:

anySCALE

In this space since: October 2015
Number of employees: eight (in Shanghai)
Building’s former use: shopping mall

Schmidt Hammer Lassen

In this space since: May 2017
Number of employees: 40 (in Shanghai)
Building’s former use: electronics factory

David Chipperfield Architects 

In this space since: 2015
Number of employees: 20 (in Shanghai)
Building’s former use: factory

Spark Design Consulting

In this space since: 2005
Number of employees: about 10
Building’s former use: studio

Atelier Deshaus

In this space since: 2016
Number of employees: 20
Building’s former use: empty space beside an aircraft repair station

MORE Architecture

In this space since: November 2016
Number of employees: 10
Building’s former use: state-owned financial investment company

Aim Architecture Design Consulting 

In this space since: May 2016
Number of employees: 40
Building’s former use: office

Logon Urban Architecture Design

In this space since: 2007
Number of employees: 50
Building’s former use: metalwork factory

LUKSTUDIO

In this space since: June 2017
Number of employees: 15
Building’s former use: central kitchen of a food company

Archi-Union Architects

In this space since: 2010
Number of employees: 50-60
Building’s former use: factory

Linehouse

In this space since: December 2015
Number of employees: 9
Building’s former use: wet market

Neri&Hu 

In this space since: 2009
Number of employees: 100
Building’s former use: office building

PES-Architects Consulting

In this space since: 2017
Number of employees: six
Building’s former use: industrial warehouse

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners 

In this space since: 2011
Number of employees: seven
Building’s former use: personal training studio

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Dismantling an existing property allowed design-and-construction firm Buildsense to reuse materials for this ranch-style home in North Carolina.

Built upon a wooded lot near the city of Raleigh, the three-storey Spring home was designed for a family eager to maximise their living space, with a limited environmental impact.

A vertical volume clad in aluminium mesh acts as a focal point of the home, provides the entrance, and contains the staircase.

“Serving as the entry, vertical circulation, and an orientation device, [it is] ever-present to all public/family gathering spaces,” said Buildsense. “With nightfall, it glows as a lantern: a beacon to the exterior.”

This feature, nicknamed the “lightbox stair” was built using materials salvaged from the structure that previously took up the site. Overall, more than 85 per cent of the previous home was upcycled.

A gravel-and-stone walkway leads to the entry foyer. Passed the main circulation space is an L-shaped kitchen, living and dining room, while to the West, the architects laid out a screened porch as well as a space for outdoor cooking.

The northern half of the home contains a two-car garage and master suite, which is secluded for privacy.

Upstairs, a secondary living room occupies the large stair landing, which acts as a mezzanine. A metallic walkway crosses the home, overlooking the public areas of the ground floor.

This leads to an external balcony, where the owners have installed a telescope for stargazing.

Horizontal wooden cladding on the exterior allows the perforated aluminium panels of the circulation core to stand out. Inside, the architects chose a toned-down palette of white walls, wooden floors, and certain slate accents.

Buildsense has also recently completed a farmhouse in North Carolina, using no-frills materials such as corrugated metal and reclaimed lumber for the construction.

Other houses in the US state include a home made of stacked volumes clad in cypress, and a monochrome modernist residence by In Situ Studio.

Photography is by Mark Herboth.

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