Hasta La Ideas

Raw concrete and colourful fabrics are combined in this fashion store in Dubai by London designers Studio Toogood (+ slideshow).

Studio Toogood designed the boutique for Dubai fashion brand Mahani, introducing cast-concrete and monolithic forms intended as “an antidote” to the glamourous opulence of shops elsewhere in the Emirates.

Richly coloured drapes divide the space, while stools designed by Faye Toogood are upholstered in bright satin, providing relief from the plain concrete surfaces.

Garments can be hung from simple black railings that run along the perimeter of the store or suspended from discrete hooks that protrude from the walls.

Bespoke pieces of furniture constructed from metal mesh are used to display items such as shoes and jewellery.

A concrete catwalk spans the length of the store, providing opportunities for fashion shows and events, while white animal sculptures are dotted around the edges of the space.

A chandelier made from bare light bulbs hangs from the ceiling. Elsewhere, angled spotlights are combined with suspended strip lights to add to the store’s raw aesthetic.

The final addition is an in-store bakery serving tea, coffee and desserts made by food design collective Arabeschi di Latte, who Studio Toogood previously collaborated with on an installation where participants were served black food at midnight in a darkened apartment.

Other projects we’ve featured by Studio Toogood include a bar where guests selected wine by smelling scented totem poles and an installation featuring boxes decorated with multi-coloured electrical tape.

See all our stories about Studio Toogood »
See more retail interiors »

Here’s a description from Studio Toogood:

Studio Toogood’s design for the new Mahani – Dubai’s first concept store – is an antidote to the polished slickness of modern retail in the Emirates.

The walls and fittings of the store – which opened in May 2013 – are cast in raw concrete, creating a neutral, Modernist-inspired environment to showcase the fashion-forward collections on sale.

The ascetic qualities of the space are offset by subtle touches of femininity, including richly coloured drapes and satin upholstery on bespoke pieces designed by Faye Toogood; meanwhile, a series of animal sculptures add a playful element.

Mahani’s in-store “bakery” serves tea, coffee and sweet treats by food designers Arabeschi di Latte, while a dedicated catwalk area running the length of the boutique allows for exclusive shows by cutting-edge and emerging designers.

The interplay of Studio Toogood’s monolithic modern interior with the soft femininity of the directional clothes makes Mahani an exciting, exclusive and distinctive new fashion destination in Dubai.

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Studio Toogood appeared first on Dezeen.

This gentle twist of concrete bridges an Alpine river on a scenic road between two towns in western Austria.

Designed by Austrian studio Marte.Marte Architects, the bridge crosses the Schanerloch gorge on the road that leads from the city of Dornbirn towards the hamlet of Ebnit to the south.

Referencing the arched stone bridges traditionally constructed in the region, the architects created a solid concrete volume with a gently arching profile and a twist in its middle that responds to the angle of the road.

“The result is a concrete sculpture that might look unspectacular in plan and from the driver’s point of view,” says architect Marina Hämmerle, “but from the shore of the river winding through the gorge it unveils its compelling fascination: it playfully mimes the frozen dynamic of the mountain road and captures the dramatic place in reinforced concrete.”

The Schanerloch Bridge was completed in 2005, but has been seen by few others than the drivers passing through.

A number of bridge designs have been unveiled recently. OMA proposes a bridge for hosting events in Bordeaux, while Thomas Heatherwick has designed a garden to span the River Thames in London.

See more bridges on Dezeen »
See more architecture in Austria »

Photography is by Marc Lins.

Here’s a project description from Marina Hämmerle:

Schanerloch Bridge, Ebnit Dornbirn

The bridge through the Schanerloch gorge is part of the impressive road from the city of Dornbirn to the hamlet of Ebnit which picturesquely situated by the well of the river Dornbirner Ache at the foot of scenic mountains. The spectacular route to this ancient settlement area is characterised by a series of natural rock tunnels and stone bridges.

Originating from the well-known typology of the stone arch bridge, modern technology takes the geometry of the arch to its very limits. The reduction of the arch rise to a statically necessary minimum is combined with a twist along one axis. The latter is also responding to the bending road as a curve immediately follows the bridge in both driving directions.

The result is a concrete sculpture that might look unspectacular in plan and from the driver’s point of view, but from the shore of the river winding through the gorge it unveils its compelling fascination: it playfully mimes the frozen dynamic of the mountain road and captures the dramatic place in reinforced concrete.

Perfect in form, a masterpiece of design and statical calculation precisely fixed in the spectacular scenery.

Client: City of Dornbirn
Location: Ebniter Straße, 6850 Dornbirn
Architecture: Marte.Marte Architekten ZT GmbH, Weiler
(Arch.DI Bernhard Marte, Arch.DI Stefan Marte)
Overall length: approx. 23m
Overall width: 5,50m bis 6,50m
Driving clearance (width): minimum 4,75m
Reinforced concrete arch: minimum thickness 35cm
Conrete volume: approx. 180m3
Footing: directly into the adjacent rock wall

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Marte.Marte Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Athens studio Tense Architecture Network has completed a concrete house that staggers down a hillside in rural Greece (+ slideshow).

Residence in Kallitechnoupolis is a three-storey building that begins near the top of the slope. As it descends, the building widens to create tiered balconies facing out across the landscape.

Tense Architecture Network describes the structure as a protective shell that shields the house from its neighbours and concentrates views in only one direction.

“The inclined prism of the shell follows the natural inclination and descends towards the ground via the intensely oblique cut of its eastern front,” says the studio.

The base of the building cantilevers outwards, making room for a swimming pool on the lowest level, plus an outdoor staircase climbs down one of the side walls to meet a terrace positioned halfway down.

The architects used concrete for the entire structure, adding a dark tint to the exterior walls so that they contrast with the pale grey interior surfaces.

“Earthly dark at the outside, lighter in the inside, its colouring is aiming at the maximum possible tension of the shell’s introvertedness,” say the architects.

Living and dining rooms can be found on the two upper floors, while bedrooms are located on the bottom floor around a series of curved partitions.

Tense Architecture Network have completed several residential projects recently, including an angular house with a partially submerged body and a house with a boxy concrete upper floor.

See more architecture by Tense Architecture Network »
See more architecture in Greece »

Photography is by Filippo Poli.

Here’s a project description from Tense Architecture Network:

Residence in Kallitechnoupolis

The residence’s view is a slope: a naked attic slope. The site is significantly inclined and is accessed only through its narrow upper side. The declivity of the site faces an equally slanted hill –the predominant point of visual reference. As the residence neighbours with two extrovert residences on both sides, it realises enclosure, concentration of the view and an introvert escalating development of its open spaces towards the east. The opposing landscape of the hill is perceived from a distance.

The inclined prism of the shell follows the natural inclination and descends towards the ground via the intensely oblique cut of its eastern front. The cut opens the residence to the opposed microcosmos: the air, the light, the barberries, the horizontal ridge, the long lonely railing of the opposite side. A swimming pool is comprised in the shell’s lowest point, partly in cantilever. At the level of the access an elongated excision of the prism allows for a walled yet unroofed outdoor space that eventually concludes to the open eastern front and the view.

The exterior cortex is constructed by exposed reinforced concrete: the shell is two-coloured. Earthly dark at the outside, lighter in the inside, its colouring is aiming at the maximum possible tension of the shell’s introvertness. The geometric austerity of the prism is violently ruptured in three areas: the shell is ultimately found broken, the rupture of its boundaries is performed from within, the remote nature is allowed in. Yet, only as Actio in Distans: only as view.

Project Team: Tilemachos Andrianopoulos, Kostas Mavros, Nestoras Kanellos
Structural design: Athanasios Kontizas

The post Residence in Kallitechnoupolis
by Tense Architecture Network appeared first on Dezeen.

This rural house in Switzerland by local studio Architetti Pedrozzi e Diaz Saravia is raised off the hillside on a pair of gigantic concrete columns (+ slideshow).

The single-storey House in Sonvico is constructed on a 20-metre long concrete slab, which is elevated above the ground on one side to line up with the highest level of the site.

“We and the clients both wanted to create a single-storey house,” architect Martino Pedrozzi told Dezeen. “Because of the slope, we invented a level section.”

Rather than create an entrance at the point where the building meets the ground, Architetti Pedrozzi e Diaz Saravia designed the house with a hollow centre so that residents climb up from underneath to enter. This arrangement also creates a terrace beneath the building with a swimming pool alongside.

Timber-framed windows sit within the houses’s chunky concrete frame. White ceramic tiles clad any walls between and feature a mixture of polished and matte finishes.

The rooms of the house are arranged in sequence around the perimeter, while a corridor runs around the inside. There are also circular rooms inside the columns and one contains a staircases so it can double up as a second entrance.

Other houses completed recently in Switzerland include a family home with a corner missing from its roof and a house with vertical seams. See more Swiss houses on Dezeen.

Photography is by Pino Brioschi.

Here’s a project description from Architetti Pedrozzi e Diaz Saravia:

House in Sonvico

A one storey house on a quite steep slope. That was the challenge imposed by topography and client. A most welcome challenge of course: to us one storey architecture is the best condition for good architecture. Its solution stays in the section of the project: a big horizontal prestressed slab of fifteen by twenty metres sitting on the natural land on one hand and laying on two gigantic round pillars on the opposite site. Above twenty pillars sustain the roof. Under a main space is created for outdoor living.

The house structure is external and integrally made in concrete. None of its parts penetrate the internal insulated spaces that are organised around a central void, between slab and roof. Ceramic white tiles, shiny and opaque defining a graphic pattern, contrast with concrete and enclose the indoor living spaces.

Where the house lays on the ground, there is the access. Descending upstream the slope a big porch introduces the house main door. Inside, the square-shaped ground floor is divided between public and private spaces. Public spaces like entrance hall, living room, dining room and studio are placed in the middle of the sides. Private spaces like bedrooms and kitchen find their place in the corners and when it is necessary can be isolated from the rest.

The central void makes the connection between indoor and outdoor living spaces. A staircase leads down to a paved and partially covered surface integrating a swimming pool, a laying and a dining area, surrounded by an impressive natural environment.

The post House in Sonvico by
Architetti Pedrozzi e Diaz Saravia appeared first on Dezeen.

Unfinished concrete is combined with exposed plywood in this Tokyo apartment renovated by Japanese architecture firm TANK (+ slideshow)

TANK wanted to create a more spacious and flexible layout in the compact Japanese apartment, which was previously divided by a narrow corridor into various cramped rooms.

“I considered that the room should have flexibility and the tenant can arrange it as she likes,” explains the designer.

The team began by making the bathroom much larger and inserting sliding doors on both sides, enabling an extra route between the bedroom and the hallway.

The narrow entrance hall is designed as a “Doma” – a traditional Japanese entranceway – with a bare concrete floor that contrasts with the raised wooden flooring of the living area.

An exposed larch frame extends out beneath a raw concrete ceiling, while vertical batons combine with plywood sheets to form a screen dividing the bedroom from the living area.

The bedroom and adjacent closet are doorless, with walls and ceilings designed to look deliberately incomplete.

“There are no doors for the bedroom or walk-in closet,” explains TANK. “The walls and ceiling have an unfinished look, I leave it to the tenant’s taste as to how to utilise these rooms.”

A clear glass lampshade houses a bare bulb that descends from the ceiling in the bedroom, casting long shadows from the wooden frame.

Other projects we’ve featured by TANK on Dezeen include an apartment with floors and ceilings covered in the same boards and a Tokyo apartment with removable patches of carpet to be used as flip flops.

See more Japanese houses on Dezeen, or see our Pinterest board filled with Japanese residences.

The post 8Kumo
by TANK appeared first on Dezeen.