Lit by a wall of windows overlooking a bustling intersection where Greenwich Village meets Soho and decorated with feathered dreamcatchers and a gauzy tent, Stone Fox Bride’s loft studio is not necessarily a traditional bridal salon….
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Zig-zagging pleats embellish the facade of this wedding centre in Saitama, Japan, in our fourth recent story about the work of architect Hironaka Ogawa (+ slideshow).
Named Pleats.M, the two-storey building was planned as the first in a chain of marriage centres for a new weddings brand, so Hironaka Ogawa was asked to come up with a strong brand identity that could be reused for other locations.
“To render gorgeousness as a wedding facility, I introduced the idea of pleated walls,” explains the architect. “The pleats can fit into any shape by expanding and contracting. Therefore, the pleated wall is perfect for not only this project but also the future projects on undecided sites.”
Walls inside the building also form pleats, but the creases are inverted to create a reverse of the facade. This gives the impression that the walls are no thicker than a single sheet of metal.
Apart from a length of glazing along the facade, there are no windows to interrupt the pleats. This also helps to shut out any noise from the road.
Wedding parties enter via a double-height entrance foyer, where a processional staircase leads up to the chapel on the first floor. This small hall features an illuminated aisle, faceted benches and a decorative ceiling.
Once the ceremony is over, guests are invited down to a double height room on the ground floor for the reception celebrations.
Other spaces include a waiting room containing two long tables, where lighting fixtures are folded to match the pleated walls.
Hironaka Ogawa set up his studio in 2005 and has also completed another wedding chapel, which features columns shaped like trees. See more architecture by Hironaka Ogawa on Dezeen.
Photography is by Daici Ano.
Here’s a project description from Hironaka Ogawa:
Pleats.M
This is a project for a wedding facility located by a suburban road. The client desired to launch a fresh wedding brand and requested me to create a design that will be repeatable in their following developments.
Also, the client desired a new concept for their facility that reflected their unique site. Ordinary and traditional suburban wedding facilities would not use sites as narrow and irregularly shaped as this one.
First of all, I shut the noise from the heavy traffic on the national road by creating a totally closed façade which dramatizes the extraordinary. In order to construct a building of the maximum building-to-land ratio on the irregular-shape site as well as to render gorgeousness as a wedding facility, I introduced the idea of pleated walls. The uniquely pleated walls serve as both decorations and building structures.
In addition, the pleats make shadows that change slowly by the sun further creating various looks each season. The pleated wall has reversed pattern on its back counterpart. Therefore, even a single pleated wall shows different looks on its exterior and interior simultaneously. The interior space is introverted for the facility function. However, I wanted to link the interior to the exterior by the two important walls; one runs along the main access via the national road, and another runs along the approach from the municipal road.
By attaching the entrance hall, the mezzanine lounge, the chapel, the waiting room and restrooms to the two walls, I planned the pleated walls to be prominent from the inside as well. The pleats can fit into any shape by expanding and contracting. Therefore, the pleated wall is perfect for not only this project but also the future projects on undecided sites.
Considering these factors, I chose the brand name “Pleats” inspired by the architectural shape, and I incorporated the pleats motif on the fixtures, the furniture, and even accessories.
Pleats on clothing bring a unique richness by folding a large fabric. It is a very simple rule to fold. However, diverse folds host many functions such as structure, decorations, and sound reflectors. Thereby the pleated walls create various spaces for wedding ceremonies.
Function: wedding hall
Location: Saitama, Japan
Structure: steel frame
Site area: 1487.46 sqm
Architectural area: 1033.19 sqm
Total floor area: 1398.89 sqm
Above: site plan – click for larger image
Above: ground floor plan – click for larger image
Above: first floor plan – click for larger image
Above: sections – click for larger image
Above: west elevation – click for larger image
Above: east elevation – click for larger image
The post Pleats.M by
Hironaka Ogawa appeared first on Dezeen.
Columns branch outwards like a grove of trees around the aisle of this wedding chapel in Gunma, Japan, by Tokyo architect Hironaka Ogawa (+ slideshow).
The Forest Chapel sits in the garden of an existing wedding centre and Hironaka Ogawa wanted to make a direct reference to the surroundings. “I took the trees in the garden as a design motif and proposed a chapel with randomly placed, tree-shaped columns,” he explains.
The sprawling steel columns are dotted randomly around the interior, creating irregular arches for the bride to walk beneath. “I intended to create various looks by rotating the columns and placing them throughout the space,” adds Ogawa.
Each steel column comprises eight components, which are fixed together in a cross formation.
A length of glazing skirts the outer walls, letting natural light filter in at ankle level. Two tall windows also puncture an angled wall at the back of the building, directing sunlight around the altar.
Wooden pews provide traditional rows of seating for guests.
The Forest Chapel was completed in 2011 and was one of the nominees in the civic and community category at the World Architecture Festival last summer.
Other wedding chapels we’ve featured include a cylindrical registry office in China and a shimmering golden chapel in England.
Photography is by Daici Ano.
Here’s a statement from Hironaka Ogawa:
This is a new chapel built in the garden of an existing wedding facility which is surrounded by trees. The building looks like a simple white box floating in the air to be in harmony with the existing facility. On the other hand, I took the trees in the garden as a design motif and proposed a chapel with randomly placed, tree-shaped columns using angle irons.
In detail, I gathered eight angle irons composed of four 90 x 90 x 7mm L-angle irons and four 75 x 75 x 6mm L-angle irons to create a cross-shaped column. I intended to create a column that branches out up above depicting gentle curves of a tree. I applied two different curves for both size L-angle irons and created two types of tree-shape columns.
I intended to create various looks by rotating the columns and placing them throughout the space. The tree-shaped columns serve as decorations as well as important structural elements that receive the building’s vertical load and wind pressure.
Each tree-shaped column is placed a decent distance from each other by their branched out, angled irons. It is also rational for the building structure.
The forest in nature also consists of trees that keep certain distances from each other under different conditions. The distances and shapes of the columns’ branches made by rigid angle irons creating the silence and tension that is appropriate for a place like a wedding chapel where people make their vows.
Above: site plan
Above: floor plan – click for larger image
Above: section – click for larger image
Above: east and west elevations – click for larger image
Above: north elevation – click for larger image
Above: south elevation – click for larger image
Above: column detail
The post Forest Chapel by
Hironaka Ogawa appeared first on Dezeen.
In 2010, designer Will Coombs launched Twiddle & Bard with Robb McNeil and Nick Thompson as a response to what they felt had become a lack of proper emotion in digital communication. The Minneapolis-based stationery company has since built a solid repertoire of handcrafted, one-of-a-kind wedding suites and thank-you…
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Move beyond the toaster with these smart selections
For those whose summertime season has been taken over by beach BBQs and wedding obligations with equal frequency, the endless parade of serving plates and dust ruffles can be as draining as the heat. Trump the traditional wedding registry’s usual suspects with something that injects design into a couple’s new life together, while still fulfilling their newlywed needs. We’ve gathered a selection of items for the home that will surely stand out among the piles of presents. Here, eight highlights from our latest installment in the Cool Hunting Gift Guide—wedding wares.
These sleek stone trivets ($75-$100) protect your table while making a design statement at the same time. Water jet-cut from different types of granite and marble, these hexagons and pentagons have leather bottoms inscribed with Fort Standard’s insignia.
NYC-based artist Michele Quan transforms the iconic symbol for opulence and romance into a humbled version of itself with her jewels
collection ($165 and up). These ceramic polygons come in a variety of sizes in either white or multi-colored pattern.
Streamline your home sound system and bring tunes to every room with this all-in-one wireless set-up
($399). When you get the set, you’ve got everything you need to play music from your own library, plus a host of music services from Pandora to Spotify.
Coffee presses have long been known as the best way to make a perfect cup, but this staple-turned-piece-of-art
($50) named after Eileen Gray takes eco-friendly coffee-making to a new high. A three-part stainless steel mesh filter means less waste and more flavor, guaranteed to make your mornings even better.
Holly Berry’s luxurious, cashmere and merino wool blankets
($580) are handwoven at a 250-year-old mill in Scotland, with each forming a tasteful arrangement of rainbow and gray squares that spell out “love” in Morse code. A colorful fringe surrounds these 55” x 75” throws.
Porky Hefer creates a groovy and sexy haven to hang out with his made-to-order weavers nests ($5,000). Taking lawn furniture to the next level, the nests can hang from a favorite tree or perch on stilts.
The American dream receives a 21st-century update with Hatch My House, an interactive website that allows users to involve friends and family in their quest to purchase or decorate a home. Whatever the occasion, the size of the contribution is wholly up to you.
There’s something so satisfyingly functional about a tray, and the design options are endless. Here, crisp but serene colors cut a geometric pattern on birch wood for a piece ($80) that will look great sitting anywhere in the house.
Chinese firm Urbanus has created a cylindrical registry office in Shenzhen that looks like it’s been showered with confetti.
The architects wanted to create a more romantic environment for marriage registration, which they claim has lost its sense of ceremony due to the setting of most registry offices in China.
Wedding parties at the Nanshan Marriage Registration Centre arrive and depart ceremoniously across long narrow bridges, which oversail a pool of water in front of the building.
Small square panels speckle the building’s gridded aluminium skin to create the confetti-like exterior.
Inside the building, all the partitioning walls are curved and the metal facade is visible behind a glazed curtain wall.
Other wedding venues on Dezeen include a pop-up chapel made of cardboard and a coin-operated marriage machine.
See all our stories about weddings »
Photography is by MengYan and Wu Qiwei.
Here’s some more details from Urbanus:
Nanshan Marriage Registration Centre
In China, the marriage registration office’s image is closely linked with the Government. In reality, the Registry is an office of the civil affairs department, so it is normally perceived as a common and dull place, as part of the bureaucracy. This situation turns the supposedly romantic and exciting idea of marriage registration into a routine and boring experience.
Nanshan Marriage Registration Center is a new architectural type, for which the architects hope to bring new life experiences to new couples, and to create a medium for information display, recording of newly registered couples, and also retain for the city a permanent memory of the journey of marriage.
The site of the project is in Lijing Park in Nanshan district, located in the Northeast corner of the park, approximately 100 meters long and 25 meters in width. The main building is placed in the northern side of the site, close to the street corner.
A small pavilion on the southern side is connected with the main building by two bridges floating on a reflecting pool. The overall arrangement reveals this series of ceremonial spaces gradually. At the same time, it also makes the main building a symbolic civil landmark.
A key point of this design is to discover how to organize the personal ceremonial experience. A continuous spiral shows part of the process in the whole sequence—“arriving, approaching to the wedding hall with the focus of relatives, photographing, waiting, registering, ascending, overlooking, issuing, descending slope, passing the water pool, and reuniting with relatives”.
For the design of the building, the whole volume is divided into smaller spaces to achieve relative privacy. The remainder of the whole building is full of a flow that creates a rich spatial effect.
The building’s skin is separated into a double layer structure, with the first layer using a floral mesh aluminum to reveal the interior, and the second layer using glass walls to provide a weatherproof structure. The overall inside space and the outside facade are all white in order to show the saintly atmosphere of marriage registration.
Location: The intersection of Changxing Rd.and Nantou St.,Nanshan Distrit, Shenzhen
Design Period: 2008-2011
Construction: 2009.11-2011.10
Site Area: 3002.5m2
Floor Area: 977.5m2
Description of Structural System: Steel Structure
Principal Materials Used: Steel, Aluminum plate, Glass, Stone, etc.
Project Designers:
Design Director: Meng Yan
Technical Director: Zhu Jialin ，Wu Wenyi
Project Director: Fu Zhuoheng, Zhang Zhen，Wei Zhijiao
Architecture Designers: Wang Jun, Hu Zhigao，Yin Yujun, Li Qiang, Zhang Xinfeng
Landscape Designers: Liao Zhixiong, Lin Ting, Yu Xiaolan, Liu Jie
Collaborator: Guoqun Studio (Interior Design);
Shenzhen Keyuan Construction Group co.,Ltd (Curtain wall Design)
Client: Public Works Bureau of Nanshan District
Construction Bureau of Nanshan District
(LDI) Structure/ MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing):
Guangzhou RBS Architecture Engineer Design Associates
General Contractor: Shenzhen Decoration and Construction Industrial co.,Ltd
Guangdong 8th Construction Group co.,Ltd
Pop-up shops might be commonplace in retail but would you consider getting married in a pop-up chapel made of cardboard?
Top: photograph by Melissa Murphy
Above: photograph by Celine Willard
Twelve couples tied the knot beneath a temporary cardboard arch by Z-A Studio in New York’s Central Park at the end of last month.
Above: photograph by Nadia Chaudhury
The architects won a competition to design the Kiss chapel, which was constructed from 130 wedges of honeycomb cardboard.
The structure was designed and assembled in under a week to celebrate the recently passed Marriage Equality Act of New York, which legalises same-sex marriage in the state.
Above: photograph by Melissa Murphy
A photograph of bright red poppies printed onto billboard vinyl provided the floor of the chapel.
This is the second Dezeen story about convenient ways to wed this summer, following a coin-operated wedding machine.
See also: all our stories about cardboard.
Photography is by Roman Francisco, apart from where otherwise stated.
The following information is from Z-A Studio:
Kiss
Kiss is the proud winner of the Architizer + Pop Up Chapel competition. 12 couples were married in Kiss on July 30th 2011 to celebrate Marriage Equality Act of New York. Kiss was designed in two days, fabricated in three and put together in two hours at the entrance to Central Park.
Above: photograph by Unusually Fine
Kiss is literal: two separate parts, made of the same DNA but layered differently are essentially two unique individuals that when joined together create a stable entity that is more than the sum of its parts.
Above: photograph by Unusually Fine
Kiss is abstract: 130 components, made of the same DNA but layered differently are essentially two unique wall sections that when joined together create a stable structure that is more than the sum of its parts.
Kiss is a playful vaulted chapel.
Kiss gages contrasting identities, it’s made of rough materials which generate delicate forms, it is sturdy like an elephant and light like a flamingo.
Give Kiss a chance!
Above: photograph by Chiara Tiberti
The stuff Kiss is made of:
_
Kiss has no footprint:
_
Kiss was concocted by: Z-A studio / Guy Zucker
Team: Harriet Bramley, Travis Lydon, Chiara Tiberti
Fabrication Assistance: Tietz-Baccon
Dimensions: 130 pieces 96”x18”x2”
.
 |  |  |
| Cardboard Cloud by Fantastic Norway | Hidden Lines by Studio JVM | Back Side Flip 360° by O-S Architectes |
Reinvented wedding photography captures modern love
Cover bands and Jordan almonds aside, the real make-or-break wedding detail comes down to the one thing that may even outlast the vows—the photos. One wedding photographer reinventing traditional wedding photography is Los Angeles-based lensman Max Wanger. With a confident eye, Wanger captures effortlessly elegant images of love-filled weddings, engagements or couple’s lives, creating tangible memories that wouldn’t look out of place in a glossy publication. Describing his work as “offbeat, whimsical and romantic” and inspired by everything from Mos Def to “little kids who are way cooler than me,” this blogger-photographer-retailer had plenty to tell us about love, lens choice and lifelong commitment.
I’m not sure how to adequately articulate that. As a photographer, I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by love all the time and I’m lucky enough to be able to capture it. In that sense, love is what I see all around me.
I built my first camera when I was seven-years-old. I made a Polaroid out of paper and scotch tape. I suppose that was the beginning of my photography career.
As silly as it sounds, it just happened one day. I thought there might be a way to put my own spin on weddings, to photograph them differently. So I tried. Now, two years later, here I am.
I try to stay invisible as much as I can. The beginning of a shoot is always the hardest for clients because very few are comfortable in front of a camera. After a few minutes though, you get into a rhythm and it becomes all about them, and at that point I’m just an observer.
Yes, I got married last year. Shooting my own wedding would have been a pretty impressive feat, but, thankfully and luckily, we have amazing friends who are also amazing photographers so they shot it for us.
Photo mechanic to sort through images, Photoshop to process… Oh yeah, a few 5D Mark IIs, a handful of Polaroids and a Contax G2.
The blog was a necessity to get the work out there, to establish a voice. The shop was started because I wanted to do something different; I wanted to push myself in another way. The original idea behind it was to sell limited edition shirts based on my photographs. The hope was to sell a different shirt every month so people could collect them. I’ve since changed it so it isn’t monthly anymore. When I feel inspired to put another design out there, I do it. We actually just released our first hoodie and we also sell prints and postcards.
Someone once told me that I made them believe in love again. That was a pretty good one.
I don’t think so. If anything, I feel like I embrace it more behind the lens. When I’m behind the camera, I feel like I’m seeing a world no one else sees. I think that every photographer needs to feel that way, otherwise what’s the point? Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the moment that I have to be careful—I’ve almost fallen off of a cliff and a roof, and I’ve actually fallen into a pool. Not my finest moment.
I like them. I think they’re fun. Ultimately, that’s what photography is about—having fun, experimenting and letting go.
When I’m not shooting, I’m processing. When I’m not processing, I’m responding to e-mails. There’s no end to learning how to run a business.
Off the top of my head—Rodney Smith, Tim Walker, Paolo Pellegrin, Mos Def, New York, Tokyo, negative space, simplicity, little kids who are way cooler than me.
The immediate are trips to New York, London and Ireland. In the future are commercial gigs, personal projects, a little golf and a lot of sleep.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
