Hasta La Ideas

Tomoaki Uno Architects has limited the material palette of this windowless Japanese house to cedar and cypress to offer its sick owner a pared-back and therapeutic home.

Named Ogimachi House, the sky-lit dwelling in Nagoya was commissioned by a young client for his mother, who required a private and calming space to help her recover from a mental illness.

Tomoaki Uno Architects‘ design is deliberately simple, and built almost entirely from wood in recognition of the material’s physical and psychological benefits.

“The choice of materials and finishes was made of natural materials as much as possible, and I aimed for healing architecture in all aspects,” said the studio’s founder, Tomoaki Uno.

“I believe in the beauty of the ordinary things,” he continued. “The most interesting is lurking in the most uninteresting. This architecture was made that way. I tried to fill the maximum function with minimal material.”

Ogimachi House is also complete without any windows, and instead relies on 37 skylights for natural light. This was designed by Tomoaki Uno Architects to help retain the owner’s privacy from neighbouring houses.

“One of the most important considerations in this home is how it relates to private and social,” added Uno.

“Eventually, I proposed a house with no windows on the wall. Instead, I designed 32 fixed skylights and fiv large openable skylights,” Uno explained.

“When his mother started living there, I heard she was quite stressed. But I’m relieved to hear she is now very at ease.”

Tomoaki Uno Architects chose to build Ogimachi House using cedar and cypress as they are the two most widely distributed woods in Japan.

It has been constructed using a traditional Japanese building method called Itakura, in which thick boards of solid cedar are joined without nails to form roofs, walls and floors.

The technique originated for the construction of kura, otherwise known as storehouses, and is understood to enhance a building’s fire resistance according to Uno.

Inside, the house is built around a grid-like structure containing all the living spaces, which is wrapped by a double-height corridor lit by the strips of skylights.

On the ground floor, this grid hosts open-plan living and dining areas, alongside an enclosed bedroom, toilet and wash room.

A central flower-like staircase winds up to the first floor above, where there are four more private rooms, which feature the openable skylights.

Here, there is also a bridge over the ground corridor that leads out onto a linear balcony.

Tomoaki Uno Architects is a Japanese architecture studio founded by Uno in 1990, which is based in Nagoya in the Aichi prefecture. In 2012 the studio completed a dark concrete house lit by two narrow light wells.

Other windowless Japanese houses on Dezeen include Black Box by TakaTin and Kamiuma House by Chop + Archi, which featured in our roundup of 10 bunker-like houses that offer total privacy.

Photography is by Ben Hosking.

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Los Angeles studio Commune has used plaster walls, wood built-ins and terracotta tile floors to create a rustic feel inside this bakery in Santa Monica.

BreadBlok is a bakery founded by Chloé Charlier that only serves up gluten-free products.

Commune designed the project with a combination of limestone, plaster, wood and terracotta.

The materials are intended to connect the sunny beachside location with Charlier’s Provençal heritage.

“We’ve selected materials that can be left in their raw state and will age beautifully – warm alder wood for shelves and millwork, terracotta floors, plaster walls and textured limestone counters – equal parts Southern California, and the client’s native Provence,” Commune said.

“Like the product, the materials are timeless but the details are modern,” the studio added.

A focal point of the interiors is a white countertop with glass cases for displaying the baked treats. Chunky limestone plinths support the counter and contrast with the clay tiles below.

A built-in cabinet behind the counter has shelves stocked with bread and a counter below. A series of slender wood rods jut out from the wall for keeping baguettes upright.

The storage volume is made of pale alder wood, a relative of birch from the Pacific Northwest.

Walls are covered in plaster and painted in tonal shades of cream, adding to the rustic aesthetic.

BreadBlok bakery doubles as a coffee shop, and Commune created a wood bench to maximise seating in the rectangular space.

This seating is opposite of the counter and comprises oval tables in dark wood and Last Stools by Hem in polished copper.

Linen pillows decorate the bench as well and metal stools have a soft cushion on top for comfort.

Other custom details are a patchwork tablecloth by textile artist Adam Pogue and handwoven rope baskets by local weaver Dax Savage that hang across the ceiling.

Natural light enters the bakery from two large windows flanking the front door.

Rounding out the project is a kitchen in the rear that is enclosed with frosted glass walls.

Santa Monica is a Californian city west of Downtown Los Angeles. Other new additions to Santa Monica are Santa Monica Proper hotel and Santa Monica College.

Other bakery designs include New York’s Bourke Street Bakery by GRT Architects, Flourist in Vancouver and Breadway that features bright pink and blue interiors in Odessa.

Photography is by Laure Joliet.

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Languid R&B, upbeat indie-pop, self-reflective pool rock and more new music this week

Monophonics: Last One Standing

California-based band Monophonics makes music that sounds plucked from another era, with tinges of Curtis Mayfield and Al Green. There’s a timelessness to their releases and their newest single, “Last One Standing,” is no exception. The seven-minute song ebbs and flows: there are groovy, cinematic cuts carried by drums, a bass guitar and horns, and crescendoing choruses built around vocalist Kelly Finnigan’s soulful voice. “I will be the last one standing,” a choir chants alongside Finnigan.

Natalia Lafourcade: La Malquerida

Dedicated to “all our sisters,” Mexican singer Natalia Lafourcade’s acoustic rendition of “La Malquerida” spotlights the love and pain women feel. Its title roughly translates to “the badly loved,” but its mission is empowerment. Lafourcade sings alone, at first, strumming a guitar next to a fire, but a choir of young women chime in when the track reaches its chorus. Together, they create an emotionally impactful collective—one that is delicate, powerful, and transcends language.

Deradoorian: Saturnine Night

Angel Deradoorian returns with “Saturnine Night,” seven minutes of rolling, thunderstorm-like soundscapes and vocal surges. The track introduces the art-pop singer’s latest album, Find The Sun (out 22 May from ANTI-). “A lot of these songs are about trying to reach yourself,” Deradoorian says—and the expansive, celestial stylings of the single certainly underscore this.

Kacy Hill feat. Francis and the Lights: I Believe In You

Pretty and powerful, “I Believe In You” from Kacy Hill’s forthcoming album, Is It Selfish If We Talk About Me Again, grapples with doubt and the repetition of everyday life. Ultimately, however, the song offers thoughtful affirmation. Halfway through, the break’s distorted vocals contrast Hill’s otherwise airy crooning. The silken tune’s hopeful subject matter reflects a real-life “coming to” moment for Hill, as she explains in a release: “I found comfort in the small bits of happiness that make life a little easier every day. Things get better and sometimes all I have to do is be present to enjoy them.”

Lunar Vacation: Unlucky

Atlanta-based, four-piece “pool rock” band Lunar Vacation returns with “Unlucky,” a beautiful, self-reflective single. It’s Lunar Vacation’s first release since 2018’s Artificial Flavors EP and features production from Daniel Gleason of Grouplove. Lead singer Grace Repasky sails upon the song’s relaxed melody and anchors honesty to the lyricism.

M. Ward: Unreal City

Filmed on the streets of Paris, the Beatrice Pegard-directed video for M. Ward’s latest track, “Unreal City,” brings the spirit of New Wave filmmaking into the present day. Clémence Poésy stars as the adventuring, everyday heroine and her movements bring the beautiful of the song to life. “Unreal City” appears in advance of M. Ward’s forthcoming album, Migration Stories, recorded within Arcade Fire’s Montreal studios.

Slodown: CRAZY OUTSIDE

Singapore-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Slodown verbalizes exactly what countless people are feeling in his new song “CRAZY OUTSIDE.” The downtempo tune may sound a little melancholy or forlorn at first, but the lyrics soon prove to be positive and include messages of gratitude and encouragement. The languid, piano-led song incorporates crackles reminiscent of old vinyl or staticky radio, which adds to its nostalgic tinge.

Listen Up is published every Sunday and rounds up the new music we found throughout the week. Hear the year so far on our Spotify channel.

A plywood-lined staircase, red-steel beams and exposed-brick surfaces appear throughout this maisonette in west London, which has been overhauled by Francesco Pierazzi Architects.

The maisonette takes over the upper-ground and first floor of a brick residential building in the Notting Hill neighbourhood, overlooking another development designed by architects Terry Farrell and Nicholas Grimshaw in the 1970s.

Its owner wanted to convert the area beneath the home’s steep roof into an additional bedroom and to reconfigure the overall floor plan to improve the amount of space available.

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The challenge of the project was to devise an original interior on three levels with no alterations to the facades, while concurrently maximising the internal floor area,” explained southeast London-based practice Francesco Pierazzi Architects, which was tasked with the re-design.

The lower floor has been opened up to create a large open-plan kitchen, dining and living space.

Two large bedrooms occupy the middle floor, while one bedroom has been re-located to sit on the new top floor underneath the roof. Circulation space has also been reduced on the middle floor to create more spacious wash facilities.

The practice enhanced the home’s sense of height by placing floor-to-ceiling doorways in its more narrow rooms and creating skylights above the double-height space at the top flight of stairs.

The brick shell of the house has been worked into the interior. Exposed-brick surfaces now feature in the entrance hallway, living room, study area and loft, where there are also timber and red-painted steel beams.

“The decision [to expose the brick] was driven by the idea of enhancing and emphasising those pre-existing structural elements that were built with ‘poor’ materials – such as construction-grade bricks – and lack of refinement, such as the crude structural connections,” the practice’s eponymous founder told Dezeen.

“They create textures and contrast to guide the users through the spaces. I particularly liked the decorative qualities of both bricks and steel beams,” he continued.

“I also liked the idea of surrendering to a condition that I could not control and plan. I realise that as designers we have a tendency to plan and coordinate too much. On this occasion, I wanted to let the existing structure take a leading role in the design, almost as if – to a degree – the house was designing itself.”

A birch plywood-lined staircase that extends through the home’s three floors has been installed, complete with a recessed handrail.

Walls throughout the home have been washed with white paint and the floors are grey vinyl. A bright-white sideboard in the living room is also inlaid with a slab of veiny marble.

Pierazzi explained that his use of contrasting textures and materials is informed by phenomenology – the philosophical study of human consciousness and the way in which we experience things.

“When I talk about a phenomenological approach to design I refer to the philosophy of [French philosopher] Maurice Merleau-Ponty,” he said.

“Merleau-Ponty stressed that the body is the primary site of knowing the world, in opposition to the more traditional approach that states that consciousness is the informant of knowledge.”

“I use the phenomenological approach by assuming that the body of the users of my projects will react and become active and stimulated if subjected to textures, contrast of materials, certain light conditions, vistas that direct one’s view, or by creating very narrow spaces or corridors that lead to unexpected wide rooms,” he concluded.

Back in 2017, architect Larissa Johnston overhauled a maisonette in London’s Islington, arranging its interior around a central plywood box. The volume accommodated the home’s kitchen, stairs, and an abundance of storage space to keep living spaces clutter-free.

Photography is by Lorenzo Zandri.

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Sportswear brand Adidas has once again teamed up with environmental initiative Parley for the Oceans to release an updated version of its Terrex hiking boot, which is made using recycled ocean plastic.

The Terrex Free Hiker Parley utilises a yarn that was specially developed by the non-profit Parley for the Oceans organisation from waste plastic gathered from shorelines and coastal areas.

The Terrex Free Hiker Parley has a water-repellent upper woven with the Parley Ocean Plastic yarn. The sock-like fit of the Primeknit upper is designed to stretch and adapt to all foot shapes.

The shoe also uses the brand’s Boost midsole, which is made from a rubbery material injected with air to create bubbles that are melded together to form a springy surface.

“We believe that through sport, we have the power to change lives and our latest shoe in the Terrex collection does just that,” said Adidas Outdoor general manager, Tim Janaway.

“The Terrex Free Hiker Parley represents both sustainability and performance, empowering you to get outside and challenge yourself, without challenging the environment.”

Parley’s Ocean Plastic material is made using marine plastic debris that can replace virgin plastic in the process of manufacturing various products.

The plastic is collected from remote islands, beaches and coastal communities. It is then shredded and reworked to become a high-performance polyester yarn suited to use in sportswear.

The long-distance hiking shoe is the first from Adidas’ Terrex Free Hiker range to be made using the Parley Ocean Plastic yarn, which the company first used for a running shoe developed by British designer Alexander Taylor in 2015.

Since then, Adidas and Parley have worked together on a collection of swimwear, an updated version of a classic 1990s shoe, football kits for Manchester United and Real Madrid, and a trainer designed by Stella McCartney.

In a 2019 interview with Dezeen, Parley for the Oceans founder Cyrill Gutsch said he no longer believes that eliminating plastic from the seas is possible and that we should instead focus on creating non-harmful alternatives.

The organisation previously worked with Spanish designer Adolfo Correa on a Hawaiian shirt covered in images of plastic spoiling the oceans, and launched a collection of sunglasses made from waste plastic to help fund an ocean clean-up programme.

Artist Doug Aitken also created an underwater installation for the organisation featuring three mirrored geodesic domes anchored to the seabed that people could swim into.

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