Hasta La Ideas

Architects Grimshaw have completed an installation for London department store John Lewis that’s made of suspended cardboard tubes.

The tubes vary in length and sit in the circular holes cut from two vertical sheets of clear acrylic.

The design will debut at John Lewis’ Oxford Street shop for two months before moving around the UK to stores including Cardiff, Edinburgh and Liverpool.

The modular nature of the design allows for various configurations at each department store and designers can either use the tubes to display garments or as screens to enclose their collections.

Other projects by Grimshaw include bus shelters in New York, the RIBA Stirling Prize nominated Bijlmer Station in Amsterdam and an extension to the Excel Exhibition Centre in London.

Photography is by Lim/Grimshaw.

Here’s some information from Grimshaw:

John Lewis approached Grimshaw to provide a temporary exhibit and event space capable of showcasing a variety of designers within their store on Oxford Street.

This unique ‘pop-up’ installation called for an innovative proposal which fused exhibition design and architecture, whilst enabling John Lewis to express their brand in an exciting and striking space.

The installation will be initially located on the first floor at Oxford Street, and will subsequently travel to other John Lewis stores in the UK.

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Comprised of simple cardboard tubes suspended in clear Perspex sheets, the modular panel design creates a flexible and enclosed environment of varying transparency. This flexibility allows for various configurations to be explored in different locations around the UK. A solution is formed with three easily fabricated panel types resulting in an events space which both draws the public in and screens off its surrounding environment, offering a degree of privacy.

Click above for larger image

The long-standing relationship between John Lewis and their collection of fabrics and materials is expressed with a selection of each wrapped around a tubular cardboard spine. The installation celebrates these objects and organises them in an unfamiliar way by creating views beyond and between the different panels. The tubes vary in both length and diameter; each one is suspended within two vertical sheets of acrylic, along with transparent joining rods which are visible amongst the tubes. The range of tube sizes creates a kit of parts whereby designers can choose to display within them or simply frame their exhibited retail range.

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Paper Tower by Shigeru Ban	Mirror of Judgement by Michelangelo Pistoletto	Karis by Suppose Design Office

Architect Rafael Viñoly has completed a visual arts centre in Colchester, England, that is wrapped in polished golden metal.

These copper-aluminium panels create diagonal stripes across the curved exterior walls of the single-storey gallery.

The building is entitled Firstsite, as it is located on the site of one of the first Roman settlements in the UK.

A restored mosaic embedded in the floor of one room will be the gallery’s only permanent exhibit.

Visitors enter the crescent-shaped building through a tall glazed wall at one end.

A reception here leads through to the galleries and to an auditorium lined with fabric diamonds and lengths of timber.

Beyond the galleries, a café leads to an outdoor terrace.

Other shiny metal-covered buildings from the Dezeen archive include a copper-clad hair salon and an office with a face of aluminium shingles.

Photography is by Richard Bryant.

Here are some more details from the architects:

Firstsite, Colchester

The Building

The building plan is a modified crescent that wraps around a D-shaped eighteenth-century garden. It slopes upwards in line with the site topography, culminating in a monumental portico which frames the lobby with full-height glazing. Contemporary in both form and cladding, built on a steel frame and wrapped in TECU Gold (a copper-aluminum alloy), the building engages with the site’s axial geometry and the preexisting period architecture.

All construction took place at elevations above the Scheduled Ancient Monument datum line because buried archaeological artefacts precluded excavation. The building therefore floats on a concrete raft foundation which required no deep excavation. One of those artefacts, the Berryfield Mosaic, is set into the floor beneath protective glass, providing a glimpse of the history buried under the building. Internal levels work with the contours of the site; twelve different floor slab levels create subtle slopes that draw people through the building.

An interior promenade carries visitors from the vast entrance space through to the auditorium, University and Mosaic spaces, learning areas and main exhibition spaces, ending up at the café restaurant, MUSA. The curved form of the building creates the sense of a journey that allows visitors to encounter artwork as they walk through the building. The café restaurant at the end of this promenade provides social space lit by overhead clerestory windows; it includes an outdoor terrace which overlooks the adjacent gardens. Administrative space and galleries aligned on the inside arc of the building feature wide glazing that provides natural light and views of the adjacent eighteenth-century garden. Sensitive landscaping animates the open garden spaces, including artwork designed by artist Simon Periton installed September 2011.

In accordance with the design mandate to turn the traditional white cube gallery inside-out, extensive natural lighting and clear internal orientation is maintained by preserving sightlines to the outdoors. Floor-level strips of windows animate the design by revealing to visitors in the garden the movement of people inside, while also providing diffused light to the interior; clerestory windows give further natural light.

The Site

The site, near the town centre of one of Britain’s first Roman settlements, sits on Scheduled Ancient Monument land, with an intact Roman wall defining the southern boundary. Because archaeological remains are scattered throughout the site, maximum loads on the ground and a no-dig policy, the building had to impose a minimum load on the existing topography.

As the first project in the revitalisation of Colchester’s historic St Botolph’s Quarter, firstsite anchors the long-term development plan of an underused district. Rafael Viñoly Architects PC proposed a number of revisions to the original St Botolph’s Quarter master plan, all of which were subsequently adopted. The proposed building site was moved eastward, away from the town centre, redistributing the area of redevelopment. This faciliated a more sensitive relationship between the building and the historic assets of Colchester; specifically, by preserving the character of the north-south Queen Street/St Botolph’s Street corridor, which connects the Colchester Castle Museum (to the north) and the Colchester Town train station (to the south) with a gently curving street of historical buildings.

The new location situates the building in a park, creating new public space as an appropriate setting for a cultural destination. (A bus station was relocated to accommodate this new construction.) The site is now directly south of the eighteenth-century Grade I Listed East Hill House, which firstsite faces across a D-shaped garden that lends it its crescent shape, and whose Grade II gothic folly was separated from the house in the mid twentieth century by the construction of a bus station. Views from the museum to the first-century Roman wall emphasise the historical importance of this ancient structure. Other prominent nearby structures include Grade II Listed twelfth century St James’s Church and the Minories Art Gallery, the latter a red-brick Georgian townhouse that served as firstsite’s original home, and which has been a gallery since the 1950s.

Spaces

The auditorium is clad internally with diamond-patterned, suede-like acoustic fabric and overlapping European cherry timber shells. It will be used for film screenings, performances, lectures and presentations. Situated behind the Entrance space, it leads visitors on to the main gallery areas which are defined by a varied materials palette of an ammonia-fumed oak floor and angled/curving plasterboard walls. The Foundation for Sport and the Arts Gallery, a climate-controlled, museum-quality hanging space, is accompanied by many adaptable display opportunities. The flexible spatial configuration promotes interaction between visitors and artists, as spaces can be opened up to the galleries to encompass learning, artist residencies, and exhibitions. Programmed spaces are clustered, with the learning spaces in one area, conference and administration facilities in another, the galleries are concentrated near the centre of the building, and the café restaurant MUSA at the far eastern end.

The newly restored Berryfield Roman Mosaic is located at the heart of the firstsite building. Dating from around AD200, the mosaic was unearthed in 1923 by a local tenant on the site where firstsite now stands. The Mosaic originally formed part of the dining room floor of a wealthy Roman townhouse. After 80 years in Colchester Castle, the Mosaic has been painstakingly restored and returned to its rightful home, as firstsiteÊs only permanent exhibit. Its design consists of a central rose motif surrounded by four panels depicting sea monsters chasing Dolphins.
The Mosaic, which has been carefully cleaned and now benefits from a new lightweight backing, is displayed horizontally in a case embedded into the floor of the building.

MUSA, firstsiteÊs contemporary café restaurant will be open every day to gallery visitors and the general public. Award winning chef Paul Boorman will lead a talented young team in the kitchen to create an innovative modern British menu, applying cutting-edge techniques to traditionally inspired dishes. Open 8am ! 6pm Monday to Saturday and 10am ! 5pm on Sunday, diners can enjoy a drink at the bar and eat inside or on the terrace. On Sundays, there will be an all-day brunch menu available, and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, MUSA will open from 7pm as a destination restaurant for Colchester and North Essex.

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Carrasco Airport by Rafael Viñoly	Stem Cell Building by Rafael Viñoly	Cleveland Museum by Rafael Viñoly

British architect John Pawson has installed the largest lens ever made by crystal brand Swarovski in the southwest tower of St Paul’s Cathedral for the London Design Festival, which starts on Saturday.

Called Perspectives, the installation comprises a spherical mirror suspended at the top of the 23-metre tower, mirrored in a hemisphere below the lens at the foot of the staircase to create a composite image of the whole tower for visitors gathered at ground level.

The spiralling Geometric Staircase connects the Dean’s door to the upper levels of the cathedral and is normally closed to the public.

Pawson’s installation marks the 300th anniversary of the cathedral’s completion and remains open to the public until January 2012.

See all our stories about the London Design Festival in our special category.

Photographs are by Gilbert McCarragher.

The information below is from Swarovski Crystal Palace:

John Pawson installs Perspectives, a new work for Swarovski Crystal Palace, in partnership with the London Design Festival, within St Paul’s Cathedral, marking the 300th anniversary of the completion of Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece.

The UK’s leading minimalist, John Pawson, and Swarovski Crystal Palace have created a spectacular installation in the Geometric Staircase of St Paul’s Cathedral to reveal a new perspective of this architectural masterpiece and the genius of Sir Christopher Wren.

Entitled ‘Perspectives’, this experiential work will be unveiled during the London Design Festival, 17th to 25th September, and will remain open to the public until January 2012.

Reflecting Wren’s desire that his buildings should incorporate scientific elements, ‘Perspectives’ uses the largest Swarovski lens ever manufactured to create a dramatic optical experience which depends on scientific subtlety, material simplicity and a complex combination of light, space and proportion to reflect an environment rich in history and beauty.

At the foot of Wren’s elegant spiralling Geometric Staircase a concave Swarovski crystal meniscus will sit on a much larger reflective hemisphere, with a spherical convex mirror suspended 23m above in the tower’s cupola. Together, these optical elements will create an extraordinary composite image of the view up through the tower for visitors gathered round the hemisphere at the base, allowing them, as Pawson says, “to see beyond the level of the naked eye” and gain a perspective never before seen of one of Britain’s most iconic buildings.

John Pawson explains: “St Paul’s is one of the most recognisable buildings in the country. Inevitably it’s the grand architectural moves which everyone knows – the west elevation, the nave and the dome. In collaboration with Swarovski, I have been given the chance to turn the focus on a less familiar element – the Geometric Staircase – which is a detail, but also a complete architectural moment in its own right. The cathedral is an immensely complex work of architecture and the temptation when you visit is to try to take in everything. This is about offering a spatial experience based around a single, sharply honed perspective. The form this experience takes is shaped by Wren’s own interest in creating scientific instruments out of buildings.”

For Swarovski, the collaboration marks a high point of its Crystal Palace project, an experimental design platform developed by Nadja Swarovski which allows world class designers to develop extraordinary work using the medium of crystal. In the past ten years, collaborations with the likes of Ron Arad, Zaha Hadid, Tom Dixon, Ross Lovegrove, Tord Boontje, Arik Levy and Yves Behar have resulted in a spectacular body of work which provides a snapshot of the most exciting and creative minds of the 21st century.

Nadja Swarovski, Member of the Executive Board, Swarovski, commented: “It has been an inspirational and rewarding experience to work with John Pawson on such an illuminating project. A true visionary like Wren, John continuously pushes the boundaries of traditional architecture. His new and innovative use of crystal within this modest but magical design reflects Swarovski Crystal Palace’s mission continually to evolve and to contribute to culture and design.”

The work is a fitting climax to a year of tercentennial celebrations for St Paul’s, which was declared complete by Parliament exactly 300 years ago. The Reverend Canon Mark Oakley, Treasurer of St Paul’s Cathedral, said: “John Pawson invites us in this installation to observe the Geometric Staircase of the cathedral with a deepened focus. Like the spiritual life itself, here we are invited to look within in order to see out with greater clarity and wonder. We are delighted that Swarovski and the London Design Festival bring this meditative meniscus into St Paul’s to enrich our understanding of Wren’s work and to alert us to the fact that transformations often occur when we become more visually literate.”

Now in its ninth year, the London Design Festival is established as the preeminent creative festival in the world. This year’s Festival will be the largest and most significant yet, with an expected 180 partners and almost 300 events celebrating the world’s creative capital and offering a range of projects across the city from St Paul’s Cathedral to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Ben Evans, Director of the London Design Festival said: “The London Design Festival works in the greatest quality spaces London has to offer and you can’t get greater than St Paul’s Cathedral. The installation we have there by John Pawson complements and contrasts with the stunningly beautiful space that we’re using. It’s very special – unmissable from my point of view.”

Swarovski will also sponsor the fifth presentation of the London Design Medal Dinner, which will be held on Monday 19th September in the Crypt of St Paul’s. Previous winners of the medal include Zaha Hadid (2007), Marc Newson (2008), Sir Paul Smith (2009), and Thomas Heatherwick (2010).

Visiting hours during London Design Festival

Monday 19th September – Friday 23rd September, 10am- 6pm, visitors will be able to access ‘Perspectives’ through the Dean’s Door .This entrance is in the South Churchyard of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Visiting hours after the London Design Festival

Saturday 24th September – mid January 2012 (closed Sundays) regular guided access throughout the day will be available to visitors during sightseeing hours. Requests outside these hours by prior arrangement only.

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Ribbons for Japan by John Pawson	John Pawson: Plain Space at the Design Museum	Dezeen podcast: John Pawson at the Design Museum

Charred larch clads the curved walls of a seafood restaurant that projects towards the harbour in Folkestone, England.

Rocksalt Restaurant by British studio Guy Hollaway Architects sits atop a new sea wall beside a historic brick viaduct and is shielded from stray boats by a screen of timber columns.

A cantilevered balcony with a glass balustrade wraps around the sea-facing facade of the restaurant, sheltered by a canopy.

The building is raised on a stepped slate plinth to protect it from flooding.

Locally caught fish will be served inside the restaurant, where lamps designed to look like lobster cages hang above circular tables and leather seating booths.

This is the first completed building from architect Terry Farrell‘s seafront masterplan.

Another popular seafront restaurant on Dezeen is located in a remote forested gorge in southern China – see all our stories about restaurants here.

Photography is by Paul Freeman.

Here are some more details from the architects:

Rocksalt Seafood Restaurant Folkestone Harbour, Kent

Rocksalt Restaurant and Bar is a newly built destination restaurant in Folkestone Harbour and is the first restaurant venture for executive chef Mark Sargeant, former head chef at Gordon Ramsay’s Claridge’s.

Won at national competition by Guy Hollaway Architects, it is the first complete building to be realized as part of Sir Terry Farrell’s Folkestone masterplan. The completed restaurant and bar forms a crucial milestone in the regeneration of Folkestone’s ‘Old Town’ and harbour, serving to reconnect visitors and the population of the coastal town with the working harbour and seafront. The restaurant is located on Folkestone’s harbour edge, adjacent to its working slipway where local fishermen unload their catch, delivering fresh fish to the restaurant daily. It is hoped that the project will catalyse the ‘Padstow effect’.

Perched in the corner of the tidal harbour between a listed brick viaduct and cobbled street, the restaurant faces the former fish market. Folkestone boasts a small fishing fleet who off-load catches on to the slipway directly adjacent to the restaurant. The building sits on a new curved sea wall and borrows back land to form a wine cellar. Timber dolphin piles protect the building from stray boats.

On approach, the building presents itself from under a brick arch and then peels away from the cobbled street to reveal the harbour. Three curved walls, decreasing in height are clad in shot blasted black larch to echo the surrounding context. A slate plinth raises the building from the flood risk zone and elevates the views. Angled reveals on picture windows allow sight into the kitchen, reflecting the working nature of the fish market, and offer views back to the street. The slate steps leading to the entrance merge into public bench seating at the top of the jetty facing out to sea.

At ground floor level, the restaurant has 86 covers and the opportunity for a private dining room. Large glass sliding doors allow uninterrupted panoramic views of fishing boats at high tide and sandy shingle flats at low tide. From the restaurant’s interior a cantilevered balcony, with a glass balustrade and curved soffit creates an extension of the internal dining area.

Liz Jeanes, interior designer at Guy Hollaway Architects led the interior scheme, taking strong influences from the immediate context. The interior colours emulate colours of the sea and sky – rising from dark, aquatic greens and dark tones of timber at ground floor; rising to a lighter palette of blues, greys and whites, contrasting with warmer shades of iroko on the first floor bar and terrace. A marble top to the ground floor bar and marble floor tiles show influences from traditional fishmonger interiors, whilst the main restaurant uses herringbone laid oak parquet flooring to emulate the scales of a fish.

Tall backed leather booth seats sit beneath the low curved ceiling, enveloping diners into the restaurant. The curved ceiling then extends from the restaurant back wall, opening out to the sea and is designed to reflect the smooth curved form of a fish’s side. Dark stained larch panelling at ground floor level echo the exterior envelope treatment, and including concealed acoustic insulation between slats within the busy restaurant.

Hidden LED strips wash light across ceilings and down walls, providing a subtle radiance to the interior spaces. Feature pendants are reminiscent of lobster pots and accentuate the bar and central table on the ground floor.

The building directly engages with the harbour – at ground floor, three large sliding doors blur inside and outside, and at first floor large sliding doors open fully to merge the bar and external terrace seamlessly. Beyond the pebble filled roof elevated views of the harbour and to the English Channel beyond are offered.

The completed building sees its concept realised by re-engaging visitors and local residents alike with Folkestone’s rich coastal heritage, serving as a catalyst to revitalise the local area.

Client: Folkestone Harbour Company
Date: June 2010 – June 2011
Contract Value: £2.3m

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Pollen Street Social by Neri&Hu (NHDRO)	Tree Restaurant by Koichi Takada Architects	Living Lab by Ab Rogers for Pizza Express

How the leader in fishing tackle innovation and technology has stayed that way since 1872

Inspired by founder William Hardy’s initial foray into gunsmithing in 1872, the Hardy family has designed intricate reels and rods for over a century, creating mechanisms as eye-fetching as they are functional. Their pivotal innovation came in 1880, when Hardy (based in Alnick, England) turned to the exotic yet industrious material of bamboo as a material for their line of rods, becoming the first manufacturer to incorporate the material into a tackle device. The Hardy Fishing legacy continues today, bridging traditional craftsmanship with advanced technical design, establishing it as the leading name in game fishing tackle.

Appealing to anglers, Hardy’s dynamic Demon Reels, made of high-impact glass spools, have launched the company into the 21st century with what Trout Fisherman magazine describes as “Beautifully engineered…totally different from anything else on the market.” With detail as the driving force behind their products, Hardy products have continuously pioneered the future of fishing, earning them numerous Royal Warrants and the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement along the way.

Ranging from the classic St. George Hotspur Salmon reel—made between 1920 and 1925 and just reintroduced— to the increased weight sustainability of the performance reel, the Angel 2 Reels, Hardy also keeps improvement at the heart of its production. The approach has brought the brand international recognition too as the first non-Japanese manufacturer to receive the Japanese Industrial Design Award five times over and being awarded the American Kudos Award for Design Excellence.

Hardy also takes a forward-thinking approach with its SINTRIX fly fishing rods, a carbon fiber comprised of silica nano matrix material that enables a higher resistance to line drag and a stronger cast. Originally designed for the aerospace industry, Hardy is the sole U.K. license-holder of the patent.

As the forerunner of fishing tackle design, Hardy has seamlessly expanded into performance clothing with its EWS MK2 Range and an accessory line featuring tools like scissors, nets and pliers. To learn how to angle with the best of them, Hardy also has academy training centers throughout England.

Reels and rods begin around $500 and reach $8,000 for the new lightweight Zane Ti titanium reels.