Hasta La Ideas

This seaside studio apartment in Barcelona by Spanish studio Colombo and Serboli Architecture has an all-white interior that includes a tiled kitchen and bathroom that can be hidden away (+ slideshow).

Colombo and Serboli Architecture designed the apartment for an art historian and curator who asked for a plain space where he could display his art, music and books.

“The client envisioned a peaceful, open and essential space, furnished with a few carefully selected objects,” said the studio. “In sum, [it is] a peaceful place for introspection, flooded with light.”

The space contains a combined living room and bedroom, with a small kitchenette and bathroom on one side that can be hidden away behind a sliding door and folding panel.

Lighting fixtures are tucked out of sight in the kitchen shelves and around the bathroom, while a light suspended above the window frame illuminates the outdoor space.

The tiled walls are set against dark grey grouting, while other details include white furniture and a resin floor.

A glazed wall comprising a door and several windows leads out onto a shaded outdoor terrace.

Other apartments we’ve featured include a Sao Paulo renovation with cupboards and drawers resembling slices of Swiss cheese, a Ukrainian apartment with a combined bookshelf and stairs and a Barcelona apartment converted from an old laundry space.

See more apartment interiors »
See more Spanish architecture and interiors »

Here’s a project description from the architects:

The White Retreat, Stiges, Spain

The renovation of this 36 square metre apartment came with a defined brief. The client, a French Art historian and curator, professor at the Sorbonne University, came to us with very clear ideas for his small property.

The apartment, located in the city centre of the coast town of Sitges (a few steps from the beach) is completely introverted, facing only an interior courtyard. The lack of views is compensated by silence and light.

The client envisioned a peaceful, open and essential space, furnished with a few carefully selected objects; contemporary artworks, some books, and his records. In sum, a peaceful place for introspection, flooded with light.

An extremely reduced budget asked for simple, inexpensive solutions. The space is conceived through three different blocks: the bathroom/kitchen block, the living/bedroom one and the third, external, the terrace. The last two are extremely permeable, only divided by a large window and a long, oversized louvers one on the bedroom side, both existing elements that were preserved.

The big opening connects a small terrace (11 square meters), unified with the interiors through the use of the continuous white resin flooring and a blank parasol that provides privacy while diffusing the daylight. Indoor and outdoor are therefore connected as a continuous living space.

The Quaderna table (Superstudio 1970), a piece our client desired to incorporate since the project started, inspired the tiles that clad bathroom/kitchen block. The white matte 3x3cm tiles reproduce the table’s grid and are the only texture allowed in the whole project. This block is connected with the living/bedroom area through an opening that reveals the tiles used inside the bathroom.

The same texture was also used inside the kitchen unit, creating a continuous spatial sequence through the consistency of texture, which appears once opened its horizontal book- door. The tiles also disguise the sliding door that leads to the toilet. All containers, such as in the kitchen unit and the closet in the bedroom area, are carefully hidden through the use of white doors.

We took our client’s desire of an all-white space quite literally, to the extreme of choosing this colour for the kitchen sink and all the streamlined taps of kitchen, wash hand basin and shower are matt white (Via Manzoni series by Gessi). All the lighting has been solved through the use of florescent tubes, hidden into the kitchen shelves or displayed like in the bathroom. A line of florescent light suspended on the window frame dividing living and terrace illuminates the indoor and the outdoor space, unifying them. On the outer face of the terrace balustrade, a bright, evergreen, large climber plant covers the wall, defining the threshold of the white space of the project.

The apartment is brought to life through the pieces the client chose. French artist Fabrice Hiber, of which our client is curator, is to perform a graphic piece on one of the walls of the living. A Daniel Riera photo is upon the bed head. Two prints by Cuban artist Félix González-Torres (with the writings “Somewhere Better Then This Place” e “Nowhere Better Then This Place”) are on the bathroom wall. A Hedi Slimane photo, sandwiched in plexiglass became the music table. Next to it, a Muji sofa, futon-like, rigorously white. A military camp table that collapse to form a briefcase and two interweaved raffia wooden chairs from the ’60 furnish the terrace.

The post The White Retreat by Colombo
and Serboli Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.

The facade of this black and white house by British architect Matthew Heywood is sliced up into irregular shapes to mimic the crooked angles of tree branches (+ slideshow).

Matthew Heywood wanted to create an affinity with the surrounding woodland when designing the five-bedroom property, located in a small village in Kent, England.

The architect used slanted columns – known as raking columns – to form the structure of the building, referencing criss-crossing branches and twigs.

“Large expanses of glass fill the gaps between the structure and allow you to appreciate the landscape and setting as if you were peering out from between the trunks and branches of the trees,” explained Heywood.

The residence is clad in a mixture of black-stained and white-painted clapboard, which is commonly found on houses in this part of England. “The weatherboarding represents the foliage wrapping the building and enclosing the spaces within,” Heywood said.

The monochrome colour palette continues inside the house with dark flooring, white walls and furnishings in shades of grey.

The ground floor of the property includes a large reception area with a suspended fireplace and sliding doors that open out onto the garden.

A staircase with a glass balustrade leads to the first floor, which accommodates five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a dressing room.

Matthew Heywood doesn’t just work on buildings – the London-based architect previously tried his hand at redesigning London’s buses.

Other British houses we’ve recently featured include a small wooden house on the Isle of Skye and a house with a mirrored facade that slides across to cover the windows. See all our stories about British houses »

Photography is by Jefferson Smith.

Engineer – Fothergill & Company
Main Contractor – Ecolibrium Solutions

Here’s a description from the architect:

Trish House Yalding

The design of the house developed in direct response to the site and its location within the beautiful village of Yalding in Kent.

The building’s structure is composed to reflect the surrounding woodland with the raking columns representing the irregular angles of tree trunks and branches.

Large expanses of glass fill the gaps between the structure and allow you to appreciate the landscape and setting as if you were peering out from between the trunks and branches of the trees.

The traditional Kentish black and white weatherboarding represents the foliage wrapping the building and enclosing the spaces within. In contrast to the surrounding nature, the form and lines of the house are intentionally very geometric and crisp, creating a dialogue between the organic woodland and the modernist box.

The post Trish House Yalding
by Matthew Heywood appeared first on Dezeen.

German artist Tobias Rehberger has created a temporary replica of his favourite Frankfurt bar in a New York hotel and covered the entire thing in bold geometric stripes (+ slideshow).

New York Bar Oppenheimer has exactly the same size and proportions of the original Bar Oppenheimer, a regular hangout for the artistic community in Frankfurt. It contains the same furniture and details, from the lighting fixtures to the tall radiators.

Unlike the original, Rehberger has decorated every surface of the replica bar with black and white stripes, which zigzag in every direction and are interspersed with flashes of red and orange.

The patterns are based on the concept of “dazzle camouflage”, a tactic employed during World War I to make it difficult for soldiers to pinpoint a target.

New York Bar Oppenheimer opened last week at Hôtel Americano, coinciding with the annual Frieze New York art fair. Functioning as both an installation and a working bar, it will remain in place until 14 July.

“The way I look at it is like a suitcase,” Rehberger told Wallpaper magazine. “I’m going to be in New York for a bit so I’m able to pack up my favourite bar and take it with me. And because I’m there for the art fair, the bar has to come dressed as a work of art.”

Other monochrome interiors featured on Dezeen include a house-shaped cultural centre and a series of fashion boutiques designed by Zaha Hadid. See more black and white interiors.

See more bars on Dezeen, including one made from scrap materials.

Here’s some more information from the exhibition organisers:

Tobias Rehberger Bar Oppenheimer

Pilar Corrias, London and Hôtel Americano are pleased to announce a new sculptural artwork, Tobias Rehberger Bar Oppenheimer by the German artist Tobias Rehberger. Presented from 11 May until 14 July 2013, the piece opened to coincide with Frieze New York and is on view at Hôtel Americano.

Rehberger creates objects, sculptures and environments as diverse as they are prolific. Drawing on a repertoire of quotidian objects appropriated from everyday mass-culture, Rehberger translates, alters and expands ordinary situations and objects with which we are familiar. It is in this spirit that Rehberger has created a ‘second edition’ of Bar Oppenheimer, the Frankfurt late-night hangout he frequents and which is at the heart of the city’s artistic community. The work is a sculpture and, at the same time, a fully functioning bar. Rehberger remains faithful to the essence of the original bar: dimensions of space and objects are replicated and re-imagined to produce a familiar yet unfamiliar environment. Vodka Steins, Rehberger’s own favourite drink, are seconded to New York, transporting the artist’s own Frankfurt Oppenheimer Bar experience to Hôtel Americano for two months only.

A place where creatives and thinkers meet to form, discuss, argue, and pursue ideas and follies late into the night, Bar Oppenheimer acts as a catalyst for change. Repatriated in New York as Tobias Rehberger Bar Oppenheimer, the artist is curious as to the effect that its influence will have on a new audience.

11 May – 14 July 2013
Tues – Sat 5pm – midnight
Hôtel Americano, 518 W. 27th Street, New York

The post New York Bar Oppenheimer
by Tobias Rehberger appeared first on Dezeen.

Zaha Hadid Architects has completed five new boutiques for Milan-based fashion designer Neil Barrett, with each one containing portions of an abstract volume that was designed in one piece (+ slideshow).

Above: Shinsegae Main, Seoul

The “Shop in Shop” concept was devised to encompass four stores in Seoul and one in Hong Kong. The architects designed a free-flowing shape, then divided it up into 16 pieces that could be distributed to each of the stores for use as a modular display system.

 Above: Shinsegae Main, Seoul

Referred to by Zaha Hadid Architects as an “artificial landscape”, the curving shapes feature a variety of twists, folds and rotations that reference the moulded interior of Neil Barrett’s flagship Tokyo store, completed by the studio in 2008.

Above: Galleria Main, Seoul

Each block is different and can be used in a variety of arrangements to display different garments, shoes and accessories.

Above: Galleria Main, Seoul

The stark white colour of the objects contrasts with the polished black flooring underneath. This monochrome theme continues throughout each store, where walls are painted in alternating shades of white and black.

Above: Galleria Main, Seoul

The studio is now working with Neil Barrett to roll out more Shop in Shop stores in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere in Seoul.

Above: Hyundai Daegu, Seoul

Zaha Hadid Architects has been busy over recent weeks. In the last month the studio has released images of a lakeside cultural complex underway in China, revealed designs for a complex of towers in Bratislava and launched a system of twisting auditorium seats. See more architecture and design by Zaha Hadid on Dezeen.

Above: Hyundai Daegu, Seoul

As well as collaborating with Hadid, British designer Neil Barrett has also worked with Italian studio AquiliAlberg, who designed the angular scenography for his 2010 Autumn Winter catwalk.

Above: Hyundai Daegu, Seoul

Photography is by Virgile Simon Bertrand.

Above: Hyundai Daegu, Seoul

Here’s some more information from Zaha Hadid Architects:

Neil Barrett Shop in Shop

A display landscape

The ‘Shop in Shop’ concept for Neil Barrett is based on a singular, cohesive project that is divided into sixteen separate pieces. Specific pieces have then been selected and installed into each of the four Neil Barrett Shop in Shop’s in Seoul, and also into the Hong Kong shop; creating a unique display landscape within each store. Each separate element acts as a piece in a puzzle of the original ensemble, ensuring each shop maintains a relationship to the defined whole and with the other Neil Barrett Shop In Shop locations.

Above: Hyundai Daegu, Seoul

The pieces have been carved and moulded from the original solid as pairs that define each other to create an artificial landscape that unfolds multiple layers for display. The emerging forms engage the same design principles adopted for the Neil Barrett Flagship Store in Tokyo; the characteristic peeling, twisting and folding of surfaces has been extended to incorporate double curvatures and rotations.

Above: Hyundai Main, Seoul

Adaption to multiple conditions

The display landscape is a flexible modular system that allows multiple arrangements and adaptations according to specific locations and multiple conditions, developing an original space at every location. The pieces can be used individually or pieces can be used in conjunction with others from the collection accordingly to suit the scale and spaces of each shop, with each piece able to display shoes, bags or accessories.

Above: Hyundai Main, Seoul

Materiality

The Shop in Shop concept continues the geometries of the Tokyo Flagship Store, developing a dialogue between the Cartesian language of the existing envelope walls with the sculptural, smooth finish of each piece. This contrast of materials in combination with the formal language of the design plays with these visual and tactile characteristics and is further accentuated by the black polished floor.

Above: Hyundai Main, Seoul

Neil Barrett Shop in Shop designs are located in Seoul and Hong Kong:
» Galleria Main, 3F, Galleria Luxury Hall East, 515, Apgujung-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
» Hyundai Main, 4F, Hyundai DPS, 429, Apgujung-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
» Shinsegae Main, 5F, Shinsegae DPS, 52-5, Choongmuro 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul
» Hyundai Daegu, 2F, Hyundai DPS, 2-ga, Gyeosan-dong, Jung-gu, Daegu. Seoul
» The Landmark, B1/F, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong

Zaha Hadid Architects and Neil Barrett are continuing their collaboration on further Shop in Shop concepts to open in Beijing, Shanghai and Seoul.

The post Neil Barrett Shop in Shop
by Zaha Hadid Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

If you liked the last monochrome boutique with a checkout in the changing rooms by architect Nelson Chow, here’s another one.

Both stores were completed in Hong Kong for fashion brand Shine, who showcase clothing by different designers.

Visitors enter through a faceted glass facade into a symmetrical gallery room at the front of store, where mannequins model new collections.

Fluorescent tube lights are arranged into star-shaped patterns on the ceiling, while white shelves displaying bags and shoes create bright recesses along the black-painted walls.

A staircase that appears to hover above the floor leads shoppers to the first-floor dressing rooms and sales area, where garments hang from suspended metal grids.

Some other monochrome interiors we’ve featured include a hotel where statues have their heads in the clouds and a boutique filled with fake doors.

Photography is by Dennis Lo Designs.

Here’s some more text from Chow:

Shine Fashion Store

Shine is one of Hong Kong’s most renowned high end multi-brand fashion stores, known for bringing pioneering foreign brands to the trend conscious locals. For the second shop located in the high traffic youth-oriented shopping district of Causeway Bay, the owner specifically requested for NCDA to produce a design that would reinforce the company’s identity as an avant-garde and experimental fashion store.

Inspired by the name of the store, a 7m tall asymmetrical glowing star-like structure forms the primary street identity along Leighton Road, attracting both pedestrians and motorists.

The pristine white shell embodies a black interior wall that further unfolds to create three main rooms: The entrance gallery, the upper level sales area & finally the dressing room. Equipped with 3 display platforms and suspended mannequins, the entrance gallery acts as an extension of the window display and forms a stage for the evolving seasonal Merchandise displays.

The crystalline black wall unfolds to form a suspended stair leading to the upper level sales area, and a row of geometrically arranged fluorescent lights is placed above the stair to emit a cool futuristic sci-fi glow which goes in line with the progressive spirit of the clothing.

The upper level sales area showcases the men’s and women’s ready-to-wear collections in the black crystalline niches on both sides.

Special attention is given to the display of the latest pieces, which are suspended on two central uplit racks. Pieces from various designers are presented against a monochromatic background.

A continuous metal edge above each niche allows for the flexible placement of magnetic brand tags in order to showcase the evolving selection of designers.

Finally, the dressing room conceals the leather padded fitting rooms and cashier entrances behind a continuously folded kaleidoscopic mirror partition, forming the most intimate and private area within the overall shop.

Inspired by music videos and computer generated effects, the dressing room enclosure creates a ‘hyper-real state’, where the customer can see multiple reflections of themselves at different angles in the mirror.

The back lit stretched ceiling creates a false sense of depth to the 2m headroom yet provides abundant light to the person trying on the clothes.

The design of the Shine flagship store in the Leighton Center showcases how the idea of a ‘shining star’ could be translated architecturally into a fashion retail space, creating a visually striking yet highly functional contemporary store.

Project Title: Shine Fashion Store
Location: Shop G09, 77 Leighton Road, The Leighton Center, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Design: NC Design & Architecture Ltd. (NCDA)
Design Team: Nelson Chow (NCDA)
Client: Shine Trading (HK) Ltd.