Hasta La Ideas

This faceted red volume in a Shanghai office, designed by 3Gatti Architecture Studio of Rome and Shanghai, houses two meeting rooms and a cafe.

Called A Red Object, the enclosure forms part of an office inside a former factory.

The project also involved inserting two mezzanine levels, coating much of the concrete interior in white resin, and installing a black reception desk and workbench around the stairwell.

Photographs are by Masato Kawano.

The information that follows is from 3Gatti Architecture Studio:

A red object
Conversion of an ex factory into a office building

Red and black are historically avant-garde colours. In the last century they represented bold uncompromising ideologies and artistic movements that combined ethical and cultural beliefs with innovative forms of expression.

These were the colours that represented a certain turbulence or tension towards the essence of objects whereas white represented a vacuum or void in which to collocate their significance or meaning.

A blank sheet of paper on which nothing has yet been written is white; once there is a text, the colour red is used to underline words. In a similar way and in a contemporary setting Francesco Gatti associates colours to the objects he designs.

To convert an ex factory in the centre of Shanghai, the Italian architect was given certain criteria to follow and final requirements to be met: there should be premises to be used as offices, versatile spaces, meeting rooms, a reception and a café.

Taking into account the height of the rooms, it was decided to divide the upper space into two mezzanine floors joined together by two bridge-corridors. In this way a neutral central void was created.

The use of white resin for the floors and epoxy applied directly onto the concrete makes the double height a perfect setting for the utility functions, all housed among objects resembling sculptures.

Click for larger image

A faceted red object contains two meeting rooms and a kitchen in its lower level. It is separated from the floor by an illuminated slice of void and it reflects onto the white resin. Other less startling sculptures, are the reception desk which lies in the bend of the banister of the stairs and another long belt-like surface which can be used as a working surface which leads the way into the central area.

Click for larger image

Programme: Two storeys office events open spaces, two meeting rooms, reception area, bar, special dress storage-exhibition room, storage room, server room.

Click for larger image

Architect: 3GATTI.COM ARCHITECTURE STUDIO
Chief architect: Francesco Gatti
Project manager: Ingrid Pu
Collaborators: Paola Riceci, Jessie Zheng, Candy Zhang, Vivian Husiyue, Ben Hou, Peter Ye, Sunny Wang, Chen Han Yi, Robin Feng
Contractor: K2Lab
Engineer: Jachy Yan
Client: Italia Servizi s.r.l.
Location: Jing An district, Shanghai, China.
Total area: 708 m²

Click for larger image

Materials:
ground floor: white resin
mezzanine: steel structure, concrete floor with transparent epoxy
red object: concrete and brick structure, wooden secondary structure, plasterboard skin with plexiglass windows
reception desk: steel structure, wooden skin with grey piano painting

See also:

.

Cheap Monday Office by Uglycute	Goldberger by Tervhivatal	Wieden + Kennedy offices by Featherstone Young

Change up homes, offices and more with oversized adhesive pixels

One of the highlights at Valencia Disseny Week 2010 was the constantly changing Pixels XL booth, a concept developed by Valencia-based CDRoig design studio.

The square tiles easily attach to the wall, and are just as easily removed to suit any color, mood or event. The genius in the design is its simplicity, flexibility, and ease of use, working well for temporary needs like events or meetings, freshening up rooms in your house, and keeping kids busy for hours at a time. Just about any material can be affixed to the front of the tile—such as aluminum, wood or plastic, making the incredibly simple design applicable to a wide scope of uses.

A clear way to graphically communicate or create relevant themes for various office projects without completely changing a space, Pixels XL also encourage creativity within the home.

The patent-pending design adheres without leaving behind holes in the wall or a sticky residue. Not available yet for purchase, contact CDRoig for availability and pricing.

Hong Kong studio Davidclovers have covered the interior of this house in aluminium strips to create patterns of light and shadow that change throughout the day.

Situated at Clearwater Bay in Hong Kong and called House DE, the design merged two existing homes into one,  joined by three staircases.

The undulating fins admit natural light through the ceiling during the daytime while emitting artificial illumination at night.

Photographs are by Almond Chu.

Here’s more from the architects:

Davidclover

House DE is an “infill” townhouse, spectacularly sited on a hillside above Clearwater Bay, Hong Kong.

Combining two existing units into one, the design uses the volumes of three staircases to blend, burrow and interlock spaces vertically across four floors.

Each “interaction” is materially monolithic, using stone, wood and a series of delicate aluminum fins.

Defined by these fins, the texture and form of the lantern-volume subtly changes shape and depth, casting shadow and emitting light in different ways throughout the day.

Each stair-volume pries open the house vertically and horizontally, pulling in daylight and emitting artificial light.

Thickening the existing building enclosure and stretching it across the front and rear, the bedrooms and new master suite on the upper floors are protected from the elements, yet opens up to views of the natural surroundings.

Towards the South, the facade thickens and torques, providing shade for bedrooms and balconies; while on the North, the facade transforms into a garden trellis for an outdoor dining terrace.

See also:

.

Barker Residence by Davidclovers	Yud Yud by Davidclovers and C.E.B. Reas	House in Fukuyama by Suppose Design Office

Toys are displayed between steel fins at this second-hand shop in Andorra by Miquel Merce Architect and MSB Workshop.

Called Món Petit, the space is also used as a meeting place and to host workshops.

Items for sale are displayed between the vertical recycled-steel plates.

More stories about retail »

The following information is from the architects:

A store more than just a store. A singular shop, not only for its premiere in Andorra as a sustainable space of pre-owned baby items, but also for its expressive and sincere architecture.

This shop come into being in a specific period: crisis, ecology, sustainability… a set of factors that makes us react and change. Retrieve, save, consider, are verbs that we have to go along with in this new phase, and demonstrate that they are not only a philosophy of a minority, but they should be the philosophy of everyone and everything.

More than a store: here the customer brings the product, making it complicit in this new concept, where fashion and marketing becomes necessity and reality. Opening up endless possibilities, in terms of volume and sizes, of products on display. First difficulty: flexibility, it should be possible to expose both small and large items, in varying amounts without having to turn constantly the space.

Any product intended to children has striking colours, shapes, motifs… that concentrated in such stores are intensified up disconcerting. In many cases, this visual intensity plays against the order and serenity of the space, the content can “beat” the container. Second complexity: the space must control children’s products usually striking.

We respond to this problematic creating a single item, which transmit this philosophy of sustainability, and natural recovery. It doesn’t want to be furniture, but to be immaterial, sculptural and essential. We create an element that, like everything else in this space, can be reused, giving him a second chance, without adornment or gimmicks, without irreversible manipulations … It is not decoration or vogue; it is sincerity, philosophy… Architecture.

Those elements are recycled black steel plate, chosen especially for this space for its elegant and evocative dark texture. Pushed to the limit of their strength, those plans give the sensation of “floating” lightly in space, helping to create a special and unique atmosphere.

Thanks to its constructive and material sincerity, it enhances the value of the products exhibited. With its repetition, it gives rhythm and vibration to space. Opaque and heavy laterally, invisible and clear front side, the steel elements metamorphoses dramatically forcing the viewer to move, to change perspective, interacting with it. It is a geometric reality: to see all the products, the customer is forced to enter and go at the back of the store, participating and living this sculptural architecture.

Mixed with this trading area, there is a space for kids and parents, where meetings, conferences, workshops are possible to emphasize even more this idea of interaction with space, mixture client/seller, and new philosophy of sustainable trade.

In short, we wanted to create a sculptural space, useful and critic of the times we live in, doing with the minimum, the maximum, giving a new sustainable dimension to the “less is more” of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. A space formed by a repetition of reusable elements with sculptural rhythm, that beyond a commercial or environmentalist discourse wants to bring it spectator into a architectural world where elegance and sustainability works; Where necessity and art mingle; where things can have other uses, and still make us vibrate for its naturalness. It is not interior design or decoration, is a change in our society, our way of thinking and seeing things,a change in our time, in short, Architecture.

Miquel Merce Architect + MSB workshop office Andorra, October 2010.

Name: Món petit
Location: Av. de les Escoles no5 Escaldes-Engordany ANDORRA
Program: Commercial and meetings space
Surface: 60m2
Architectural project: Miquel Merce Architect + MSB Workshop office d’arquitectura i disseny
Fotography: Miquel Merce Architect
Graphic design: BAG Disseny Constructor: Lizarte Blacksmith: Cortals

See also:

.

9 Department Store and Gallery by Case-Real	Ahoti by Studio Lama	Foldaway Bookshop by Campaign

A diagonal wall clad in copper plates partially hides the interior of this boutique in Tenjin Fukuoka, Japan, by Japanese architect Toru Shimokawa of STAD.

The copper pieces are sized to match those of the stone floor tiles, and will oxidise over time as a result of shoppers touching the surface.

Called Trent Vioro, the boutique is located inside a mall.

See also: eel shop clad in burnt cedar by STAD

The following information is from the architect:

Trent Vioro

Boutique in VIORO in Tenjin Fukuoka.

Client make me two contrary requests, one is open facade in order to invite guests and another is closed interior not to be seen from outside.

As a solution, We constructed the closed shop like wrapped up that has a wide opened facade with a hanging diagonal wall to the opposite angle that also meets fire department’s requirements in shopping mall.

And this inclined facade wall crossing with elevator line made up a peculiar visual. The facade wall is covered with hundreds of copper sheets same size as the stone plates on the floor. Hundreds of copper sheets on the facade wall same size as the stone plates on the floor, going to lose lustre by touch of people who are interested in, and their color turns reddish-brown (It’s only copper and bronze) by oxidation and corroding as time goes by.

By reason that TRENT has established shops on streets by this time, I intend to create their brand image by using materials such as copper, stones, concrete blocks and scaffold just like other TRENT shops been done.

See also:

.

Eel shop clad in burnt cedar by STAD	Copper-clad concert hall	More interiors stories