Hasta La Ideas

The penultimate project in Polish designer Karina Wiciak’s series of fantasy restaurants depicts tables locked up in prison cells.

Karina Wiciak, of Poland studio Wamhouse, created the renderings of a restaurant to emulate a prison and called the design Poczekalnia, which means “waiting room” in Polish.

“Not only the interior but also the name of the restaurant itself is a kind of metaphor, because the prison itself can be euphemistically described as a kind of waiting room,” said the designer.

Orange fabric used for curtains and rugs references the bright uniforms worn by prisoners. The otherwise monochrome interior features whitewashed bricks walls and wooden floors, with black bars forming partitions and covering the windows.

These vertical bars are also used for the backs of chairs and the bases of tables. VIP tables are caged-in on all sides, accessed by doors with giant locks.

Lights are fixed into handcuffs and suspended from the ceiling on long chains, while chandeliers are formed from sets of keys.

The restaurant’s serving counter is also surrounded by bars, where a knotted length of orange material leads out of a barred window like an escape route.

This project is the eleventh of twelve conceptual restaurant designs by Wiciak. Previous interiors in the series are modelled on an artist’s paint palette, a sewing machine and a slaughterhouse.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

Poczekalnia

Poczekalnia is the eleventh project of the collection “XII”, designed entirely by Karina Wiciak.

Poczekalnia (which in Polish means “waiting room”) is a restaurant inspired by the prison.

Not only the interior but also the name of the restaurant itself is a kind of metaphor, because the prison itself can be euphemistically described as a kind of waiting room.

The entire interior was done in white and black Pop Art colours, with the addition of orange fabric – as a characteristic element of clothing of convicts in prison.

Prison bars, and even the cells in which paradoxically the VIP rooms are located, are the main element of the design. The bar is also behind the prison bars, and the toilets are designed in the form of iron cages, enclosed with orange curtains and glass wall (outside).

Hanging lamps in the shape of handcuffs and a chandelier in the form of a key chain are another prison motives. Interiors are complemented by tables and chairs with motive of bars and a big key lock.

The project of “Poczekalnia” also includes:

» Table “kraty” (which in Polish means “prison bars”)
» Chair “kraty” (which in Polish means “prison bars”)
» Hooker chair “kraty” (which in Polish means “prison bars”)
» Hanging lamp “kajdanki” (which in Polish means “handcuffs”)
» Chandelier “klucze” (which in Polish means “keys”)

About the collection XII – entirely designed by Karina Wiciak

The collection “XII” will consist of 12 thematic interior designs, together with furniture and fittings, which in each part will be interconnected, not only in terms of style, but also by name. Each subsequent design will be created within one month, and the entire collection will take one year to create.

Here, visualisation is to constitute more than a design, which is thrown away after implementation of the interior design, but mainly an image, which has a deeper meaning and can function individually.

These will not be interiors made to a specific order, but designs based on the author’s fantasy and his fascinations of various sorts. It will be possible to order a specific interior design in the form of adaptation of the selected part of the collection, on the basis of exclusivity.

The author’s assumption was not to create trite, fashionable interiors, but non-standard places, full of symbols and metaphors, at the borderline between architecture and scenography.

Due to their nature, these are mostly commercial interiors, intended for use and reception by a larger group of people. Yet, it was not supposed to be an art gallery, in which art is merely watched, but places in which it could be put into use and to do virtually everything – depending on the purpose and function of the premises.

The author of the collection did not strive to artificially ascribe ideology to random ideas, but rather to make the entire design readable and coherent, and at the same time to design every item specifically for the given interior.

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like a prison by Karina Wiciak appeared first on Dezeen.

Lithuanian studio Inblum Architects has inserted a bar into the attic of an old house in Minsk, Belarus (+ slideshow).

The building was reconstructed following damages caused during World War II and now accommodates offices on two floors. Inblum Architects was commissioned to design a bar for the uppermost floor, under the roof.

The architects left brick walls exposed and used the same type of bricks to build a bar that runs along on side of the space.

A wooden framework fits around the bar and extends along the walls, doubling as shelving and a coat rack. It also creates an overhead canopy that resembles a series of rafters, which lowers the ceiling height on that side and makes the space feel more intimate.

“When we started designing this bar our goal was to create a space with its own unique atmosphere where old and new mix together in a perfect way,” architect Dmitrij Kudin told Dezeen.

Second-hand furniture surrounds the bar and was sourced from various places including an old school in Ireland and flea markets in Sweden.

“Imagine an old attic where you can find all sorts of old things that tell their own story; your secret hideaway from your childhood games,” Kudin said. “And now, when you are grown up you come back to it, clean up the space, use the furniture you have found and make a place for yourself and your friends where you can have a drink and chat about the old days.”

Brick-shaped pieces of mirror are attached to the wall behind the bar, as well as next to washbasins in the bathroom, while garlands of exposed lightbulbs have been strung around the wooden canopy.

The building is set into a hillside and visitors can access the bar directly from the street via a small wooden deck that offers views across the surrounding rooftops.

Photography is by Darius Petrulaitis.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Attic Bar – (Cherdak Bar)

This bar in the attic of a newly rebuilt house in Minsk Old Town stands out as an example of honest use of raw materials. The original brickwork is left bare, the bar counter is executed in the same brick.

Two main features organise the space. First, it is a multifunctional structure in pine boards, which spans across the entire space. It has a bar, a lamp, a shelf and a coat rack. Taken together, it highlights the space as an archetypal attic. Second, it is a soft seating structure occupying an otherwise unusable space found under a low ceiling.

The dividing elements “mirror” the sloped ceiling, so the space becomes complete. Smaller objects of the interior, new or old, have been carefully collected by architects from different sources.

The old-fashioned garland comes from USA, the bar stools are from brilliant German designers, old chairs come from a school in Ireland, a number of armchairs bought in Lithuania and renovated date back to the Soviet period, other objects come from Swedish flea markets.

Here the architects’ prime concern has been to create a certain atmosphere, no wonder the place has acquired a unique soul.

“Reminiscences of childhood, inspiration and throes of creation, the smell of an old wooden house, mirrors reflecting fragments of our life, the truth of a character and a material, a nostalgia for the gone incandescent light bulb, paying a due tribute to these days of our life” – this is what we thought of and felt while designing this bar.

Design by Inblum Architects, Vilnius, Lithuania
Team: Dmitrij Kudin, Laura Malcaite
Assistant: Janina Basova
Location: Minsk, Belarus
Year of design and construction: 2013

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by Inblum Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Movie: in our next exclusive video interview from Inside Festival, interior designer Joyce Wang discusses the custom-made fittings and furniture she designed for Ammo bar and restaurant in Hong Kong.

Ammo, which won the Bars and Restaurants category at last month’s Inside Festival, is part of a new museum and headquarters for the Asia Society in Hong Kong.

“It was previously an ammunition storage facility that the British used to store explosives about a hundred years ago,” Wang explains. “We were asked by the client to convert the space into a museum café and from that a more luxurious and high-end dining experience was born.”

Despite only having three months to take the project from design conception to completion, Wang says that most of the furniture and fittings were custom-made for the project, including three sculptural chandeliers shaped like spiral staircases.

“Practically everything apart from the lightbulbs [was custom designed],” Wang claims. “We didn’t want people to identify any of the furnishings, accessories or bits of furniture.”

She continues: “The space has three feature staircase chandeliers. We worked closely with the fabricator and lighting consultant on how to use plumbing pipes to construct these really complicated forms and have electricity running through them.”

Wang says she wanted the restaurant to be dramatic because many people would use the space to enter the museum as well as eat there.

“The arrival experience was very important to us,” she says. “Instead of conceiving of it as a museum café it became this lobby of arrival for the museum. We wanted it to have different clues as to what was going to happen upstairs in the museum.”

“A lot of people visit the restaurant and they don’t realise that the bunker-like ceiling pays tribute to the vaulted ceiling of the museum above.”

The restaurant has been very successful since it opened, Wang claims.

“There’s a two-month-long waiting list and it’s difficult to get into, especially for dinner,” she says. “I think it’s an interesting space because from lunchtime to dinner it really feels quite different.”

This movie was filmed at Inside Festival 2013, which took place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore from 2 to 4 October. The next Inside Festival will take place at the same venue from 1 to 3 October 2014. Award entries are open February to June 2014.

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features “spiral staircase” chandeliers appeared first on Dezeen.

Here are some images of the restaurant inside the Serpentine Sackler Gallery extension by London architect Zaha Hadid, which opened today in the city’s Kensington Gardens (+ slideshow).

The Magazine is a new restaurant venture, taking up residence in the new addition to the Serpentine Sackler Gallery with the interior, kitchen area, bar and structure itself all designed by Zaha Hadid.

Chef Oliver Lange’s Japanese cuisine is served beneath the undulating fabric roof, which curves down to meet the ground at three points around the periphery.

The entrance to the extension is located on one side of the adjacent 200-year-old brick building formerly used as a gunpowder store, which houses the gallery.

Tables are positioned around the sculptural columns extending down from oval skylights. Diners can enjoy views of the surrounding landscaped gardens through the glass walls that curve around the space.

The extension to the gallery officially opened in September, when we featured a full set of images by photographer Luke Hayes.

Photography is by Ed Reeve unless otherwise stated.

The Magazine

Chef Oliver Lange opens The Magazine restaurant at the new Serpentine Sackler Gallery.

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid’s first designed restaurant space in her first building in central London, will open on 1 November 2013 at the new Serpentine Sackler Gallery in Kensington Gardens operated by celebrated hospitality company K&K London Ltd. At the helm of The Magazine restaurant and bar is Berlin-born chef Oliver Lange, one of the most exciting contemporary chefs in the industry, and a past guest chef for Kofler & Kompanie’s notable Pret A Diner events in London.

The Magazine bar will be serving a small selection of light bar snacks, 10am until 7pm daily, catering for the visitors to the gallery.

The Serpentine Sackler Gallery gives new life to the Magazine, a former 1805 gunpowder store, located five minutes walk from the Serpentine Gallery on the north side of the Serpentine Bridge. With 900 square metres of new gallery, restaurant and social space, the gallery will be a new cultural destination in the heart of London and will present an unrivalled programme of exhibitions and events.

Oliver Lange was brought up in a family passionate about food and so began to cook at an early age. While studying art he realised it was cooking that was his real passion, and so he travelled to learn about the different cuisines of the world. His first great love was Japan: he dedicated his young talent to immersing himself in the tastes, techniques and textures of the Japanese kitchen. He was so successful at incorporating the precision and dedication of Japanese cooking into his own European heritage, that his masters awarded him the name Ollysan.

There is an organic flow to the newly designed structure – the continued movement stems from the membrane roof that playfully undulates and is penetrated only by columns filtering natural light into the room – while clear glass walls give the impression of dining within the surrounding garden, landscaped by Arabella Lennox-Boyd.

Ollysan’s experimental cooking, combined with Zaha Hadid’s inspirational and contemporary architecture, creates an overall distinctive and innovative dining narrative – whilst the marriage of the original building instils The Magazine restaurant’s rich and vibrant history. His vision for the food compliments the two contrasting linked buildings – where the traditional meets the modern. Ollysan brings the philosophy of Japanese cooking into his kitchen – its dedication, respect for the purity of ingredients, balancing of tastes and most importantly kokoro (heart and soul) to British and European cooking.

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Sackler Gallery extension by Zaha Hadid appeared first on Dezeen.

Giant paintbrushes hold up the splattered ceiling of this conceptual restaurant by Polish designer Karina Wiciak (+ slideshow).

Wiciak, of design studio Wamhouse, created the fantasy interior as the tenth of 12 bars and restaurants that each have a different theme.

Titled Pracownia, meaning workshop in Polish, this design is modelled on a painter’s studio and includes surfaces and furniture decorated with paint splashes.

The structural columns look like oversized paintbrushes, plus glass table tops and pendant lights are shaped like palettes.

Table bases, lamps and seats are formed from buckets, with lounge chairs created from large upturned pales and bar stools made from smaller ones. A bucket is also used as the bowl of a toilet.

Wiciak’s earlier designs in this series include an interior with surfaces that appear to be stitched together with thick black thread and another inspired by a slaughterhouse.

Here’s some extra information from the designer:

Pracownia is the tenth project of the collection XII, designed entirely by Karina Wiciak

The restaurant is called “Pracownia” (which in Polish means “workshop”), because it was designed as a light pastiche of a painter’s studio. The most characteristic features of the interior are colourful blobs, because almost the entire interior of the “Papiernia” has been splashed with paint, from floor through furniture to the ceiling. It was not designed to be youth interior in the pop-art style, but to be modern, elegant restaurant. That is why, beyond the blots, the white and silver metal finish dominates.

To the topic of painting studio, some other design elements have been matched. Structural columns resemble enlarged paint brushes. Glass, pendant lamps and table tops have a shape of palette.

A bucket (of course a paint bucket) is present both in the design of tables, chairs and pendant lamps. Brush ends (sticking out of a bucket placed in the table) are used instead of the usual candles or table lamps.

Since the whole interior is designed like a painter’s studio, also the toilets cannot deviate from the topic. Therefore, the design of compact toilet bowl and sink also uses a form of bucket, and the counter top and mirror are mounted on a large easel.

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Karina Wiciak appeared first on Dezeen.