Hasta La Ideas

What appears to be an open tunnel beneath a bridge in northern Spain is in fact a concealed passageway, screened behind a secret mirror.

Local studio VAV Architects temporarily installed the mirror inside the doorway to a passageway that burrows through the base of the river-spanning bridge.

A slither of daylight passes around the edges of the mirror into the tunnel, creating an illuminated outline around the reflected view.

The true view is revealed when the mirror is revolved around a central pivot.

Other recent projects on Dezeen to feature mirrors are a shop with a central photography studio and a garden filled with a maze of grey brick arches – see all our stories featuring mirrors here.

Photography is by VAV and Miquel Merce.

Heres a short project description from VAV Architects:

Mirror lab

The idea of exploring the mirror for the installation has grown from the desire to capture, explore and experiment with the landscape, rather than the built form.

The project itself is not important on it’s own, as much as is its relationship with the site.

The mirror lab is merely a tool to explore and capture the views of the existing and by doing so it becomes invisible, completely dissolving into the landscape. A simple insertion into the bridge, solely supported by the two points, mirror lab adds a new dimension to the site, both inside the arc, by doubling and inverting the space, and outside, by capturing and framing the views.

Pivoting through the centre, the door allows the visitors to interact with and become part of the installation, immersing themselves into and exploring both the real and the reflected landscapes.

Place: Bridge de Sant Roc, Olot, Spain
Material: bridge, mirror, timber, plywood, landscape
Function: gate
Time: 5 days

See also:

.

Master Designer’s Garden by Martha Schwartz Partners	Chimecco by Mark Nixon	Tree Hotel by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

Swedish design duo Elding Oscarson have completed this office for design consultants No Picnic in Stockholm, divided in two by a reflective aluminium wall. 

Previously a stable and troop hall, the office has meeting areas concealed behing the mirrored divider.

The large windows to the meeting room are set flush with the metal cladding.

A spiral staircase at the far end of the office leads to the existing mezzanine.

The office also includes a workshop, showroom, project rooms and customer area.

Dezeen’s top ten: mirrors »
More offices on Dezeen »
More projects by Elding Oscarson on Dezeen »

Photographs are by Åke E:son Lindman.

The following is from the architects:

No Picnic by Elding Oscarson

No Picnic is one of the world’s largest design consultants, covering industrial design, product design, and packaging design; as well as art direction, consumer insight, and architecture. We could hardly imagine a better oriented client, and expected nothing less than an ambitious, demanding, and fun project. They wanted large, open office spaces, a prototype workshop, a prototype showroom, several project rooms, and a striking customer area, distinctly separated from the other spaces in order to maintain secrecy.

For this, the client had found a group of 19th Century buildings in central Stockholm, mainly consisting of two volumes, one originally an exercise hall for troops, and the other once a stable for police horses. They had been converted into showrooms in the 1980’s, and were in a sad state. These buildings currently enjoy the highest level of historical protection. Conversion had to be sensitive, and we have evaluated every step with an antiquarian, literally down to each new screw hole.

We wanted to get rid of all added layers down to the origin. In the old stable we were able to peel the room naked, and just add a custom designed acoustical treatment along the walls, but in the exercise hall, economy and function demanded that a mezzanine constructed there in the 1980’s, was kept. The mezzanine cut the hall lengthwise, and crippled the experience of the space in an unfortunate way. Its edge coincided with the center of the hall, so we opted for the industrial designer’s own method – the way arbitrary but symmetric shapes can be sculpted as half models onto a mirror, we could restore the impression of the entire exercise hall by constructing a delicate aluminum wall along its central axis.

The meeting rooms inside this metal membrane, has large window panes towards the hall. The flat reflection of the glass appearing flush with the distorting metal surface, makes the glass seem like a mirror while the metal appears transparent; the wall is there, yet it disappears. It is bold, kaleidoscopic and delusive with its trompe l’oeil effects. At the same time it takes a step back for the main act: the light and space of the exercise hall, and the old building’s straightforward display of material, construction, imperfections, and time that has passed.

Project Name: No Picnic
Architect: Elding Oscarson
Client: No Picnic AB
Location: Storgatan 23 C, Stockholm
Gross Area: 1100 sqm
Year of Construction: 2010-11

See also:

.

ANZAS Dance Studio by Tsutsumi and Associates	Bridal Magic by Process5 Design	NE by Teruhiro Yanagihara

Designers La Mamba of Valencia will present this series of mirrors on legs at Tortona Design Week in Milan next month.

The series of mirrors are designed to lean against a wall, supported on long tubular legs with cork feet.

“The basic idea is that you can move whenever you want or wherever you want,” say the designers. “Actually the brief was one word: move.”

La Mamba designed the collection for new brand Omelette-ed.

Tortona Design Week takes place 12-17 April.

See also:

.

Flat Mirrors by Big-Game	Mirror by Tetsuo Kondo	MotherBoard by Romolo Stanco

This beauty salon with faceted walls is located within a hotel in central Singapore, and was designed by Japanese designer Teruhiro Yanagihara.

Designed for Japanese hair-dressing chain LIM (Less Is More), the interior space is divided up into three different zones – reception, cutting and shampooing areas – by the faceted structure.

Movable panels with mirrors on them fold out of the wall in the cutting area and can be moved back to create an open space for events and concerts.

The salon can also double up as a gallery, with a small dedicated space located in the timber reception area.

Photographs are by Choo.

More salons on Dezeen »
See more projects by Teruhiro Yanagihara/Isolation Unit »

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Singapore

KIZUKI, the latest branch of the rapidly growing japanese company Less is More is located in the prestigious Raffles Hotel in the center of Singapore.

The very contemporary setting, merged into the large, history-charged space, reflects the spirit of the young japanese stylists, who came to tropically hot Singapore with their ‘cool’ styles and ideas.

A ‘glacier’-like structure dominates the space and separates it into reception, cutting and shampooing area. In the cutting area, large pivotable wings with mirrors fold out of the wall.

When they are closed flush into the wall, the room becomes a spacious location for events and concerts. The timbered reception ‘hut’, includes a small gallery space that works as a platform for local artist.

See also:

.

MS café by Wunderteam	Apartment+LIM by Isolation Unit	Lim Code by Isolation Unit