Hasta La Ideas

Local studio Colombo and Serboli Architecture has completed a clean and contemporary renovation of an apartment in Barcelona, spotlighting some of its “imperfect” original features.

The Palau apartment is situated a stone’s throw from the city’s Palau de la Música concert hall and backs onto a cluster of secluded courtyards.

Its owner, an Italian fashion designer, had initially asked Colombo and Serboli Architecture to upgrade only the bathroom and closet storage. But the practice suggested carrying out a more extensive renovation that indulged the apartment’s lofty proportions.

The practice also wanted to place greater emphasis on the home’s existing quirks in the spirit of wabi-sabi – the Japanese philosophy that celebrates the beauty of imperfections and the changes that come with the passage of time.

“We decided to face the project through a wabi-sabi approach that could easily incorporate original features and imperfections while retaining the charm of the apartment,” the studio explained.

“Shapes are kept simple and bold with recurring basic forms – squares, circles, spheres – while sturdy solid surfaces were used to combine the monumental language of existing elements.”

The apartment is entered via a narrow hallway, where the practice left much of the original stucco walls exposed to reveal “layers of history”.

At the heart of the floor plan is a new multi-part staircase. It begins with a few suspended steps crafted from pale timber, followed by a micro-cement landing and a couple more timber steps.

The bottom block of steps is painted white and dog-legs around the wall to form a planted backrest for a white boucle sofa.

This small sitting area is dressed with a spherical paper lamp and a glass coffee table supported by terracotta orbs. Another large weathered patch of the apartment’s original stucco walls was preserved at the rear of the space.

The bottom section of the staircase also extends in the other direction to form a bench seat for the arched travertine table in the dining area. Steps facing this part of the home were hollowed out to accommodate crockery, recipe books and cooking ingredients.

Nearby, an all-white kitchen suite is finished with a porcelain countertop and backsplash. A bespoke boxy kitchen hood made from brushed steel was installed above the stove.

Just opposite the apartment’s sitting area is a larger double-height living room, illuminated by a tall corner window.

At its base, Colombo and Serboli Architecture created a chunky micro-cement platform where the owner can perch and take in views across the courtyards.

On the opposite side of the room, a 3.5-metre-high gridded shelf provides space for the owner to display his ever-growing collection of books and art objects.

The bedroom can be found on the apartment’s mezzanine level. One side of the room is taken over by a closet, which the studio fronted with wicker doors to turn it into a “warm monolith”.

LED lighting fitted on top of the storage draws attention to the apartment’s time-worn wooden ceiling beams.

One door of the closet has a diagonal cut-out that functions as a handrail for the stairs, while another can be pulled back to reveal a small nook containing a mirror and washbasin.

A third door hides the apartment’s bathroom, which is clad entirely in iridescent mother-of-pearl tiles.

“We played with different finishes, from glossy to rough, against the otherwise neutral palette,” explained the practice.

The same wicker used for the closet was wrapped around the bed’s headboard, which doubles as a balustrade for the mezzanine. Surrounding the headboard is a thick wooden ledge that forms two bedside tables.

The space was otherwise modestly decorated with a vintage orange leather chair and a wobbly-edged mirror.

Colombo and Serboli Architecture, which is run by Italian architects Matteo Colombo and Andrea Serboli, has revamped a number of homes around Barcelona in recent years.

Among them is the Klinker Apartment, which features brightly-coloured paintwork, and the Font 6 flat where a porthole window peeps through from the kitchen to the bathroom.

The photography is by Roberto Ruiz.

Project credits:

Architecture: Colombo and Serboli Architecture
Styling and art direction: CaSA

The post Wabi-sabi philosophy leads revamp of Palau apartment in Barcelona appeared first on Dezeen.

Gift ideas don’t necessarily come easy or early, but here we are, delivering miracles! Our gift guide arrives just in time for the holidays, and every single item on this handpicked guide (aside from being awesome, of course) promises to deliver BEFORE Christmas! Still looking for gifts for someone special, a dad, brother, boyfriend, yourself (that’s cool too, y’know)? Go ahead and give this guide a browse – or send it to your loved one to give them hints! We’ve curated some worthy gift guides this year, but this one holds some of the most fashionable, aesthetic, desirable lifestyle gear for this year, from functional EDC to watches made from iconic car parts, to kitchen gear and IoT devices to upgrade your smart home. In short, a little something for everyone, whether they’re the outdoorsy type, the tech-geek, or the impressive home-chef.

So here’s the drill – if you come across a great gift idea, add it to cart and it should arrive right before Christmas, just in time to brighten the life of your special person. Or if you fancy something on the list for yourself, just go ahead, make the purchase and call it an act of self-love!

1. Minimalist Multi-Functional Wrench

If your new year’s resolution is to be more independent in your lifestyle, this minimal wrench is one of the must-haves in your arsenal. Commonly found wrenches are difficult to compress into smaller sizes given the size of their head, until now. A slim, functional stainless steel design allows you to carry or store this wrench with you, everywhere with ease. The wrench actually resembles a cutter at the first glance, and you would be forgiven for mistaking it for that. Inside the wrench body, there are segments cut that create a hole matching a particular wrench size. To use the tool, you need to push out the wrench (like a pen) out of its body till you find the size you are looking for. Made from SUS420 Stainless Steel and weighing only 30gm, this tool is the game changer that removes the barrier we feel towards handling a bulky tool while keeping you ready for any last minute emergency where things seem to pile on what usually would be an important day.

Perfect for those who want to be ready for any situation in style, this easily portable wrench is the DIY hack we’ve been looking for!

Click Here to Buy Now: $59 $69 (15% off applied at checkout). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!

2. SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2

The “Let there be light” quote from the Bible also turns out to be the exact brief for the SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2, a next-gen IoT accessory that’s capable of automatically opening and closing your curtains for you! Designed to fit onto practically any sort of rod, this tiny robot moves up and down, opening and closing your curtains based on routines, alarms, and even voice commands. A winner of multiple design awards, the Curtain Rod 2 just makes your regular home a tad bit smarter by automating a manual process to bring a bit of magic into your life. You can pair it with your alarm to have the curtains automatically open at 8am so you wake up to natural light instead of blaring noises from your phone, or you can use your voice to tell your smart home to shut the curtains when you’re about to watch a movie. My favorite feature is using the Curtain Rod 2 to cut your energy bills by having the curtains automatically shut when it gets too sunny inside the house, so the air conditioner doesn’t have to work overtime to cool your home down. Clever, no?!

The SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2 comes with a powerful motor that can move curtains as heavy as 17 lbs without breaking a sweat. Large wheels and an independent flexible suspension system means the bot can navigate almost all types of rods smoothly without getting stuck. A built-in 3350 mAh battery keeps the bot running for weeks, and SwitchBot even has an add-on solar panel accessory that keeps your curtain-pushing robot powered on clean energy forever. All of this makes it a perfect home upgrade to optimise your morning routine and to give you a great start to your day!

Click Here to Buy Now: $69 $99 (30% off on this and site wide with coupon code “YANKODSONLY”). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!

3. RNR Rockfighter Watch

REC Watches have cultivated a rather brilliant reputation for making some incredible watches, however, there’s a special secret ingredient in their timepieces – recycled components and parts from some of the most iconic automobiles to have ever existed! Take the RNR Rockfighter, for starters – each limited edition timepiece comes with recycled metal from a 2003 Land Rover Defender. The moniker ‘Rockfighter’ comes from the name of the original car, built and owned by Michael Ortner, while the RNR stands for ‘Road Not Required’, referencing the off-road capability of the automobile. The watch uses metal from the left door of the Rockfighter which needed replacing in 2019. Ortner was more than kind enough to donate the original spare to the folks at REC Watches, who then designed a Land Rover-themed wristwatch to pay tribute to its terrestrial conquests.

REC Watches managed to punch a total of 453 dials out from the original door, giving them a finish of lacquer and then embedding them into the cushion-style timepiece with the square body and circular dial, reminiscent of the car’s headlights. The circular dial is also capped off with a rubber bezel, inspired by the spare stepney tire found on the back of the car. Each watch is built to be as durable as its inspiration, with a Swiss-made SW200-1 SELLITA movement on the inside, 50 meters of water-resistance, and a 3-year full warranty.

Click Here to Buy Now: $1116 $1395 ($279 off with coupon code “yanko20”). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!

4. Veark Carving Knife

If the look and feel of that knife’s handle seem somewhat familiar, it’s because it’s inspired directly by how workshop tools are made! Designed using the drop-forge method (similar to how wrenches are designed), the CK20 chef knife from Veark elevates the humble knife to the status of an expert culinary tool. Each knife is forged from a single piece of stainless steel, before being hand-finished to give the knife its razor-sharp edge. All of Veark’s knives are crafted in Solingen, often referred to as the “City of Blades” in Germany. The CK20 is a robust, reliable, and rather well-balanced knife with a wrench-inspired grip that naturally has your thumb resting in its groove for maximum stability and maneuverability.

The single-material body makes the CK20 really easy to maintain and clean, while the knife blade itself is incredibly versatile (thanks to its full-tang design), making it perfect for easily slicing through fruits, herbs, veggies, and meats. Give your holiday meal the upgrade it deserves by bringing out this stylish, sleek and oh-so-memorable carving set. In fact, you can even grab Veark’s F13 Carving Fork with your CK20 knife by clicking on the YD-special holiday combo link below!

Click Here to Buy Now: $177 $221 (20% off with coupon code “Yanko_20_KD0”). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!

5. SwitchBot Bluetooth Electronic Smart Lock

Imagine being able to open or lock your door using your Apple Watch, or an app on your phone. Now imagine being able to do that with your current door without modifying it or replacing the lock. That’s pretty much what the SwitchBot Lock promises. Designed to fit right over your existing single deadbolt lock, this IoT device turns your manual door lock into a smart one. Yeah sure, you can still open your door manually with a key, but with the SwitchBot Lock retrofitted on top, you can now open or lock your door using Bluetooth with your phone or smartwatch… or even via WiFi if you pair it with the SwitchBot Hub Mini.

Installing the SwitchBot Lock is as simple as peeling off the 3M adhesive tapes and sticking it right over the part of your existing lock that faces inside your home (no screws or drilling involved). The device runs the industry-standard 128-bit AES encryption, protecting your home from thieves as well as hackers, and the app gives you periodic notifications every time the door is locked or unlocked, or even left unlocked for a long time. The best part?? When you’re shifting houses, just pry the SwitchBot Lock off the door and carry it with you to your next home!

Click Here to Buy Now: $70 $99 (30% off on this and site wide with coupon code “YANKODSONLY”). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!

6. Kana Bakeware

Elevating the idea of bakeware to tableware, Kana’s Milo baking accessories are beautiful enough to decorate your home and table with. Designed as a collaboration between Kana and Dikini, the Milo bakeware explores rejecting utilitarian design for something with an evergreen, universal aesthetic. The thoughtfully designed baking pans, sheets and cooling racks nest right into each other to become compact while storage, and are just as beautiful to look at when kept on the table, thanks to their gently scalloped handles and radially-brushed metal finishes. Each baking pan and sheet is crafted from tri-ply clad stainless steel, giving it unmatched durability and heat resistance of up to 1000°F. There’s an aluminum core sandwiched between the two sheets of stainless steel, ensuring optimal heat distribution, while the outer layers of 304-grade stainless steel are non-toxic, BBQ-friendly, and dishwasher-safe. The pans pair perfectly with Kana’s pre-cut parchment papers, which make grilling, broiling, and baking even easier.

Every one of Kana’s bakeware is made to practically last you for decades, and given how versatile they are, they’re probably the last bakeware you’ll ever need to buy!

Click Here to Buy Now: Starting from $40
Click Here to Buy Now: $369 $410 for a 8-Piece Starter Bundle (10% off applied to cart). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!

7. Retio Speaker with Vintage Nixie Tubes

There is a reason handcrafted vintage products hold a special place in our hearts – every time we use these products, we can feel the love and dedication put together by the creator. It is this sense of self made love that we feel in the Retio – a retro speaker brought to life using vintage Nixie tubes and resulting in a gadget that beautifully merges our past with modern usage scenarios. The Retio boasts of dual functions – a Bluetooth Speaker and a clock. The Nixie tubes made during the 70s to the 90s work as a display here for the clock. The design is portable, with 6 hours of playback time using its 6800mAh battery. The Nixie tubes used here are a genuine vintage stock, with a lifespan as long as 22 years! The speaker boasts of a powerful 10W Class-D amplifier, rivaling branded speakers in its weight class with ease. Designed with meticulous care, the clock is an inspiration and a reminder to step away from the chaos of the day and look back to simpler times, to take a moment to breathe and appreciate your present surroundings – in the end, refreshing your mind and soul.

While it is sure to be a conversation starter, the Retio is the perfect gift for the guy who has everything as what is more unique than this hand-crafted beauty with its steampunk flavour. Stepping away from the mass-manufactured products available with ease, the Retio is ideal for anyone who values quality and timeless classics.

Click Here to Buy Now: Starting from $349 $449 ($100 off ). Hurry, only 8 pieces available!

8. 901 GW Chelsea Watch

It’s common for watches to take inspiration from sportscars – it’s incredibly rare, however, for them to be made from former sportscars! Meet the 901 GW Chelsea, a limited edition wristwatch designed by REC Watches in collaboration with custom automotive builder Gunther Werks. Although looking just like any racecar-inspired timepiece at first glance, the watch actually features spare carbon fiber parts from Gunther Werks’ restomodded (restored and modified) Porsche 993 used in the watch’s build, giving you a racing-inspired timepiece that literally has speed in its DNA! Upcycling repurposed carbon fiber from Gunther Werks’ ‘Chelsea Grey’ commissioned project in the watch’s lugs, the timepiece is literally infused with Porsche symbolism, including a bezel modeled after the 933’s headlights, a strap stitched like the car’s upholstery, a dial and subdials inspired by a dashboard, and finally, a case back engraved with a Gunther Werks engine cover.

Limited to just 232 pieces, the watch sports a certified Swiss-made SW510 B SELLITA automatic movement on the inside that automatically charges with your hand movements, and 50 meters of water resistance. Expertly built with a 3-year warranty, it’s the perfect gift for anyone with a combined affinity for timepieces and automobiles… especially well-built restomods!

Click Here to Buy Now: $1996 $2495 ($499 off with coupon code “yanko20”). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!

9. Veark x Magazin SK15 Black Knife

In order to celebrate their longstanding and iconic collaboration, Veark and Magazin teamed up once again to create a special and unparalleled version of the SK15 – one of the most universal knives in the series. Named DLC, or Diamond Like Carbon, the sleek knife looks menacing and cutthroat with its super thin and elegant black coating. Drop forged from a single piece of steel by experienced and excellent craftsmen in the town of Solingen, Germany – which is renowned for its traditional knife-making capabilities, the DLC’s surface is impressively durable, and bravely resistant to scratches. If this foolproof ability to provide protection from scratches wasn’t enough of a reason to buy the knife, might I mention, the sophisticated black surface is also a complete beauty to look at! The knife features a 15-centimeter blade, and a 58 HRC (hardness). Its solid stainless steel body weighs 190 grams. The knife is sharpened intricately by hand to just below 30 degrees (on both sides combined).

Purchasing the DLC will never be a bad idea because besides being a kickass kitchen tool, the knife is also a great piece to have on display.

Click Here to Buy Now: $189 $210 (10% off with coupon code “YANKO_10_DLC”). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!

10. Kana cookware

If you’re on the market for a great Dutch oven but you don’t have the cash to splurge on them (let’s face it, they’re kinda expensive), this may just be the perfect time. Designed to be a blend of affordable, aesthetic, long-lasting, and efficient, Kana’s 4-piece Cast Iron cookware set might just be the last pair of Dutch ovens you need to buy. Available in Mini (3.5 quart) and Classic (5.5 quart) sizes, these Dutch ovens come in a palette of absolutely delicious colors, and pair with lids that look like pieces of art (topped off with shining stainless steel knobs for contrast). Each casserole and lid is made from 40% recycled cast iron and coated with a durable TOMATEC® enamel. To complete your cookware collection, the 5-piece cast iron set comes with a matching skillet that rounds up your kitchen aesthetically.

The Dutch oven works as seamlessly on a stovetop as it does in the oven or barbecue grill, and looks beautiful when finally presented on a tabletop. The enameled cast iron is easy to maintain, doesn’t require complex seasoning, is dishwasher friendly, and most importantly, is on a great discount so your everlasting Dutch oven won’t break the bank. Whether you’re a amateur home chef or someone who enjoys dabbling with quick cooks and hosting your friends, this collection is something that will stay with you through your culinary journey.

Click Here to Buy Now: Starting from $100 $125 (20% off with exclusive coupon code “YANKO20”).
Click Here to Buy Now: $270 $375 for a 5-Piece Cookware Set ($104 off with exclusive coupon code “YANKO20”). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!

The post Top 10 lifestyle gear gift guide that are essential life upgrades to buy for last-minute shopping first appeared on Yanko Design.

Designed by Mexican studio CO-LAB Design Office, Villa Petricor is a beautiful 300-square-meter home located on a sleek and angled property in the town of Tulum. The site is surrounded by stunning tropical vegetation and welcomes the cool prevailing winds that blow through the region. The home was designed to inculcate an intimate relationship between the residents and the natural surroundings.

Designer: CO-LAB Design Office

“Villa Petricor connects us to the natural world by providing spaces that encourage us to slow down and marvel at the beauty of the present moment,” said the local studio CO-LAB Design Office. The raw and rustic home is named after the “earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil”. Hordes of trees run through the property, with the home artfully tucked in the midst of them. The windows have been consciously placed throughout the home, to provide mesmerizing views of the surrounding trees. “Projected shadows cast by the surrounding vegetation extend the presence of nature in all the rooms of the house,” the team concluded.

The entrance of the home features a majestic brise-soleil created from concrete blocks. The screen provides little sneak peeks into the home, while maintaining a sense of privacy and security. Once you enter the home, you are welcomed by interiors marked with arched openings and cozy niches, creating a lovely indoor-outdoor connection, and a feeling of openness and fluidity within the home.The ground floor houses two bedrooms, a comfy open space to lounge about in, and a cooking and dining area. Impressive large doors lead you to a terrace, as well as a swimming pool.

In the words of CO-LAB, the interiors of the home are “sculpted and monolithic”. The upper level holds a split-level main suite with a sleeping section, lounge, bathroom, and terrace. The vaulted ceiling is one of the star features of the suite. It has also been equipped with built-in furniture such as a platform bed, and benches that are connected to the wall.

Custom finishes and pivoting windows built from rolled, stainless-steel tube frames further support the monolithic aesthetic of the home. The walls have been created from polished cement, and the floors are accentuated by terrazzo, with both featuring a mineral pigment as the color. Four skylights allow generous amounts of light to stream into the home. “The washed light on the walls and floors enhances the texture of the polished cement interiors, revealing the perfectly imperfect handwork of local artisans,” the studio said. All these smart and beautiful details further enhance the sculptural appeal of the home, creating a space that perfectly embodies both fluidity and stillness.

The post This rustic concrete home in Tulum is nestled within a tropical garden first appeared on Yanko Design.

“Form follows function” is one of the most famous principles of good design, one that is deceptively simple as the three words would seem to suggest. After all, it sounds logical enough for an object’s shape to be based on what it’s meant to do or that its design should at least not get in the way of its operation. It might not always work that way, though, especially when the form dictated by function would turn out to be something drab or even downright repulsive. Sometimes, however, it does result in quite a few interesting concepts, especially when designers take things almost too literally. This rocking chair, for example, has quite the appealing curves that might make you chuckle in amusement when you find out that it is inspired by a couch potato’s stereotypical favorite snack.

Designer: Pranay Patidar

Rocking chairs are famous for their soothing back-and-forth motion that often reminds us of our infancy. The core design for this chair is pretty simple, only requiring that it incorporate a way to use simple physics to rock the person back and forth. Typical designs attach curved bars or structures to the legs of the chair, but it isn’t really the only way to make a chair rock.

In essence, a rocking chair revolves around curved shapes to make that motion possible, and the Chipp concept design takes inspiration from a shape that is all too familiar to people who love to lounge around on chairs and couches. Potato chips, particularly of the Pringles variety, come in a rather distinctive curved form, and using it as the basis of a rocking chair is both poetic and comical. More importantly, however, it actually works, at least as far as the concept goes.

Chipp is actually composed of three potato chip-shaped parts in different sizes. The biggest forms the backbone of the rocking chair and is responsible for creating that rocking motion. Curiously enough, the actual seat isn’t built into this part of the chair but is yet another “chip” that curves in the opposite direction and is attached to the base with a single pillar. The third and smallest chip is on the back to prevent the chair from completely rolling backward.

It might be a bit questionable whether this potato chip rocking chair is structurally sound and safe, but it is definitely an interesting interpretation of an old furniture design. The chair could be made from different materials, including both wood and plastic, though it will probably score bonus points if it looks exactly like that snack, just to go along with your Loafa bread sofa.

The post This rocking chair design concept is an odd ode to couch potatoes first appeared on Yanko Design.

Musician and songwriter Philip Selway (who is also the drummer for Radiohead) will release his third solo record, Strange Dance, early next year. From it comes the gently enveloping lead single, “Check For Signs Of Life,” and a brand new video produced by Uncommon Creative Studio, directed by William Williamson and starring a cast of renowned dancers and choreographers. “I wanted the piece to explore imagined conversations between future and past selves and to be based around this particular quartet of dancers,” Selway says. “The piece has been choreographed by Simone Damberg Würtz and Liam Francis. They both perform in the video alongside Siobhan Davies and Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp.”