by Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi When MINI Australia tapped Berlin-based Sigurd Larsen to exhibit furniture as part of their temporary concept space, little did they know the Danish-born architect would translate…
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Inside Festival 2013: a Barcelona apartment renovation with triangular patterned floor tiles has been named World Interior of the Year at the Inside Festival in Singapore.
The floor of the Carrer Avinyó apartment by London studio David Kohn Architects is covered in triangular tiles that gradually change colour from green to red across the space.
The architects designed the apartment as a holiday home for two brothers who live in Hong Kong. They removed the internal partitions to form a large living area and restored the original ceiling mouldings – read our full story about the project here.
We recently featured the interior in a roundup of tiled Barcelona apartments, which we’ve published a few of this year.
After the announcement David Kohn commented: “We are absolutely delighted to have won the award. The project demonstrates how an interior can be about the city in which it is situated. An homage to Barcelona.”
“The project has a quality we set out to find today, that is the quality of magic,” said Inside Awards head judge Nigel Coates at the awards ceremony. “Spanning extremes of scale, it has become a suitcase you can sleep in but also a place for celebration and entertainment. The newly achieved large central room combines simplicity with a sense of space that stimulates curiosity.”
Winning the Residential category at the awards yesterday, the project triumphed over the other category winners at the Inside Awards, revealed yesterday and the day before.
Inside Festival is held every two years and in 2011 the World Interior of the Year accolade went to The Waterhouse at South Bund hotel in Shanghai by Chinese studio Neri&Hu. Check out our interview with Lyndon Neri after the announcement.
The festival is being held alongside the World Architecture Festival for the first time this year and Dezeen is media partner for both events, which conclude today. The World Building of the Year at WAF was awarded to the Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand.
See all our coverage of Inside Festival 2013 »
Photography is by Jose Hevia Blach.
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World Interior of the Year 2013 appeared first on Dezeen.
Partitions that don’t reach the ceiling create the illusion of a larger space in this renovated flat in Japan by Naruse Inokuma Architects (+ slideshow).
Naruse Inokuma Architects completed the single-storey renovation in an older building and retained the existing ceiling beams, painting sections of the ceilings in five subtly different pale colours.
The arrangement of colours doesn’t match up with the positions of the wooden divisions, so the individual rooms feel more spacious because the edge of the ceiling extends beyond the wall and can’t be seen.
“We kept all the partitions at a height below the beams to create connected spaces while maintaining a sense of privacy,” said the architects.
“The colours emphasise an expanse of space beyond the separate rooms and alter their expression dramatically with the smallest change in lighting,” they added.
The compact flat includes two bedrooms separated by an atelier, plus a large combined living and dining room. The kitchen and bathroom are separated by the main entrance hall.
Wooden furniture and floorboards also feature throughout the flat.
Other projects by Naruse Inokuma on Dezeen include a shared occupancy house with communal areas for cooking, eating and relaxing and a renovated apartment with unfinished plywood and cement smeared over concrete.
See more projects by Naruse Inokuma »
See more Japanese houses »
Photography is by Masao Nishikawa.
Here’s a short description from the architects:
Skyroom
This is a renovation project for an old, 80m2 flat. Here, creating an expanse of space within a small, limited area was our biggest theme.
We kept all the partitions at a height below the beams to create connected spaces while maintaining a sense of privacy. The ceiling, crisscrossed with beams, was painted in five kinds of pale colours.
Slightly shifted from the layout of the rooms, these colours emphasise an expanse of space beyond the separate rooms and alter their expression dramatically with the smallest change in lighting. Although they compose the small interiors of an 80m2 space, these rooms feel as though they embrace the wide-open sky that changes in expression every moment of every day.
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Inokuma Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
Inside Festival 2013: Dezeen is in Singapore for this year’s Inside Festival, where category winners of the awards programme from the first day include a shopping centre with colour-coded atriums and a lift scaling the fortified city walls of Valletta.
The winners were selected from a shortlist of 59 projects by a jury headed by designer Nigel Coates and featuring designers Jason Bruges, Lyndon Neri of Neri & Hu and Sadie Morgan of dRMM. Dezeen is media partner for the biennial Inside Festival 2013 and we’ll be announcing winners from day two tomorrow.
Each category winner will be put forward for the title World Interior of the Year, to be announced at the festival on Friday.
The event continues at the Marina Bay Sands hotel and conference centre in Singapore until 4 October, coinciding with the World Architecture Festival. Look out for day one winners from WAF 2013, which we’ll publish later on today.
Here are the details of today’s six winning interior projects:
Creative Re-use category: Dardanel Administration Building by Alatas Architecture & Consulting
Turkish firm Alatas Architecture & Consulting redesigned the interior of this wooden waterside mansion in Istanbul to include steel reinforcement to improve earthquake resistance, plus a transparent staircase and elevator.
Culture category winner: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp, FJMT + Archimedia (Architects in Association)
Tree-like canopies with wooden patterns cover the entry forecourt, atrium and gallery areas of the Auckland Art Gallery by Australian firm FJMT and New Zealand studio Archimedia. Large transparent walls allow views from the galleries to the city’s Albert Park.
Health category winner: Knowledge Centre, St. Olavs Hospital by Nordic Office of Architecture
The new laboratories, auditoriums and catering facilities at this hospital in Trondheim, Norway, by Nordic Office of Architecture have exposed lattices of wooden ceiling beams that contrast with raw concrete stairwells.
Office category winner: Clemenger BBDO by Hassell
Advertising and marketing agency Clemenger BBDO’s Sydney office was designed by architects Hassell to be a workshop-like space with an informal layout and open offices.
Shops category winner: Tashya by Charged Void
Ornately patterned wood screens are used a copper and steel elements to create a contemporary take on traditional Indian interiors at this fashion and jewellery boutique by design studio Charged Voids.
Shopping Centres category winner: Emporia by Wingårdh arkitektkontor
Swedish architects Wingårdh colour coded the glass atriums in this shopping centre in Malmö to help shoppers navigate the huge complex, which has a giant golden chasm at its entrance – read more about the project in our previous story.
Transport category winner: Barrakka Lift by Architecture Project
As part of the regeneration of Valletta, this 20-storey-high public lift from the recently restored harbour to the top of the Maltese capital’s fortified walls has an aluminium mesh skin and glazed lift carriages to offer views out to the sea – read more about the project in our previous story.
Also highly recommended by the judges were Google Japan by Klein Dytham Architects in the offices category and Sydney Cruise Terminal by Johnson Pilton Walker Architects in the transport category.
Stay tuned for movies from Singapore we’re filming for the latest leg of our Dezeen and MINI World Tour.
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winners announced appeared first on Dezeen.
Here are some more images of Zaha Hadid’s Milanese shoe boutique for American footwear designer Stuart Weitzman.
The first of Zaha Hadid‘s chain of shoe boutiques for Stuart Weitzman opened in Milan last month – find out more in our earlier story.
These images show shoes presented on sinuous display stands with metallic edges, while wall-mounted shelves curve out from vertical surfaces surrounded by more flowing forms.
Large lights recessed into the ceiling illuminate the space, while accessories on plinths and shelves are highlighted with additional lighting.
Hadid explained that stores in New York, Hong Kong and Rome planned for 2014 will each have their own identity but follow a similar style.
The London architect has previously created boutiques for Milan-based fashion designer Neil Barrett. She’s also designed a number of shoes herself, including pairs for brands Lacoste, United Nude and Melissa.
See more architecture and design by Zaha Hadid »
See more retail interior design »
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by Zaha Hadid appeared first on Dezeen.
You may recognize the deco-inflected globetrotter look of Christopher Guy from the sets of The Thomas Crown Affair and Casino Royale. In the wake of the ribbon-cutting on the brand’s showroom at the New York Design Center, designer Christopher Guy Harrison was on hand to discuss his “contemporary with classical values” style and how he conveys it in an increasingly digital world. We sent writer Nancy Lazarus to pull up a sumptuous chaise longue and observe.
While online platforms have left their mark on interior design in recent years, they’ll never replace the need to discover and experience design in person. Interactive technology has created innovative ways for designers to build their brands and businesses, communicate with clients, go shopping and provide inspiration, said Elledecor.com editor Amy Preiser at last week’s New York Design Center What’s New/What’s Next event.
Digital platforms are certainly not a substitute for perusing a design showroom, especially when it’s a colorful state-of-the-art NYDC penthouse. Christopher Guy Harrison, CEO and founder of Christopher Guy, shared his brand’s approach to digital from his new flagship space. His furnishings have been featured in movies such as The Thomas Crown Affair, The Devil Wears Prada, and The Hangover, and he’s designed hotels like the Bellagio and Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas as well as the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo.
“We need to embrace the internet to add another dimension. At its start, the internet was just an extension of the catalogue,” said Guy. For his business, the web and digital tools have become a priority, and he reported having a dedicated web staff of 20 in his Singapore office. He uses the platforms to showcase interactive spaces, share design influences, and convey different moods.
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Mirrored walls and glass ceilings transform this office interior in Shanghai into a labyrinth of reflected light and imagery (+ slideshow).
Shanghai studio AIM Architecture designed the office for Soho China, the property developers behind Zaha Hadid’s Galaxy Soho and Wangjing Soho projects, and it occupies a space in the company’s Fuxing Plaza complex.
The space functions as a showroom, so the architects wanted to show customers the raw condition of the office units available to rent.
“As Soho rents out the offices in this building in bare shell state, the main design idea is to show the customers what they are actually getting, and at the same time add a layer of inspiring luxury to it,” they said.
Ventilation ducts and other service pipes are visible through a continuous glass ceiling, while glass floors surround individual meeting rooms.
Mirrored partitions alternate with glass screens and windows, juxtaposing views between rooms with framed apertures of the Shanghai skyline.
“The glass-only approach allows a complexity that emerges from a simple choice,” added the architects.
The entrance to the office is via an all-white corridor, where strips of light are reflected to create the illusion of a never-ending grid.
Other offices filled with mirrors and glass include a Tokyo office with a hidden slide and a production studio in New York with translucent screens and glass partitions. See more office interiors »
Photography is by Jerry Yin, Chief Architect, SOHO China.
Here’s a project description from AIM Architecture:
Glass office by AIM Architecture for SOHO China
An all glass and mirror inner cladding exposes the infrastructure of SOHO’s new office building in Shanghai. The glass creates manifold reflections of the sales models and meeting rooms, while leaving the original height and structure in view. This creates a ‘double reality’ that merges with the stunning views of downtown Shanghai.
Membrane ceilings create extra attention for the models. Light and surfaces reflect throughout the space, even further diffused by half see-through mirrors. Some of the floors are islands of stone or carpet, to create static moments to offset this sea of reflectivity.
As SOHO rents out the offices in this building in bare shell state, the main design idea is to show the customers what they are actually getting, and at the same time add a layer of inspiring luxury to it.
The glass-only approach allows creating a complexity that emerges from a simple choice. That is what makes this project bold and layered at the same time.
This project by AIM Architecture is part of Fuxing Plaza, a large mixed-use complex (140.000m2) that hopefully will boost more energy and surprises for the city.
Date of realisation: September 2013
Design team: Wendy Saunders, Vincent de Graaf, German Roig, Carter Chen and Jiao Yan.
Client: SOHO China
The post Glass office for Soho China
by AIM Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.
Long wooden panels give a shed-like aesthetic to the walls and cabinets of this apartment in A Coruña, Spain, by Sinaldaba Estudio de Arquitectura.
Spanish studio Sinaldaba Estudio de Arquitectura adapted the narrow, confined layout of the apartment to create a single, open-plan living space at one end and a bedroom at the other.
Working with a limited budget, the architects used recycled materials to construct partitions between rooms, as well as to build worktops and cabinets for the kitchen.
White tiles were stripped from the kitchen worktop and replaced with a stainless steel surface and sink.
Rugged stone walls were painted white, as were the timber floorboards and ceiling beams. Architect Ignacio Reigada describes this as a “necessary luminosity” that results in “a neutral volume – white, bright [and] airy”.
An entrance corridor, bathroom and small study space separate the bedroom from the living and dining area.
Bare lightbulbs and recycled furniture complete the interior. “The furniture is all recycled. We saw it in other apartments of this building, that still aren’t restored, so we decided to include it in the project,” added Reigada.
Other Spanish apartments we’ve featured include a seaside home with an all-white interior and an apartment with mosaic floors and a decorative ceiling. See more Spanish architecture and design »
Photography is by Abraham Viqueira.
Here’s a project description from the architects:
A Coruña
A top floor in a late nineteenth century building, located one of the central streets of A Coruña, in conditions very unfavourable maintenance, on a shoestring budget but with total freedom and trust from the client to choose the solutions, have us believe appropriate.
The house has the classic spatial configuration of a Gothic story plot: elongated, narrow, narrow, multi confined spaces? Is that what we all wanted? Quite the opposite. We proposed to completely empty the floor early on, keeping only the main stairwell. We got a single space, open, broad, bounded by a strip that houses furniture-kitchen-toilet-cabinet-study, i.e. a longitudinal continuous section running along the floor and containing all needs, freeing the volume and providing a spatial and visual continuity to housing.
The solutions adopted for the realisation of the idea happen to be fully reversible. We basically reinforced all beams that needed it with metallic elements, fir wood is used for the longitudinal strip and to repair the core of stairs. Both the stone walls and floors and ceilings are painted white, providing a necessary luminosity, as it is also the cheapest option. The result is a neutral volume, white, bright, airy, acting as a container for a small wooden box for communications and other longitudinal collecting the necessary elements to inhabit.
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Estudio de Arquitectura appeared first on Dezeen.
Designer Hella Jongerius and architect Rem Koolhaas have renovated the North Delegates’ Lounge at the United Nations buildings in New York (+ slideshow).
Working alongside a team of Dutch creatives that included graphic designer Irma Boom, artist Gabriel Lester and theorist Louise Schouwenberg, Jongerius and Koolhaas have reconfigured the layout and added new furniture to the lounge – one of the key spaces in the complex designed during the 1960s by a team of architects including Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer.
Koolhaas’ OMA began by removing a mezzanine that had been added in 1978, opening up a view towards the East River. Hella Jongerius then added a bead curtain made from hand-knotted yarn and 30,000 porcelain beads.
Furniture is arranged so that one end of the lounge accommodates formal meetings and the other is more suited to coffee and drinks. Jongerius designed two new pieces for the space – the Sphere Table and the UN Lounge Chair – which are accompanied by original Knoll chairs.
A new bar is made from black resin, while the existing information desk is retained and repositioned alongside the original clock and signage.
Jongerius was responsible for the colour palette, adding an orange carpet alongside the purple, blue and green upholstery.
“The renovation and redesign of the lounge is a gift from the Netherlands to the UN,” said the designers.
Dezeen recently filmed a series of interviews with Jongerius discussing her latest projects and why she chose to relocate to Berlin. Watch the movies »
See more stories about Hella Jongerius »
See more stories about Rem Koolhaas »
Photography is by Frank Oudeman.
Here’s a project description from Jongeriuslab:
New interior for United Nations North Delegates’ Lounge (New York)
More than sixty years after the opening of the UN North Delegates’ Lounge, Hella Jongerius has redesigned the lounge in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas, Irma Boom, Gabriel Lester and Louise Schouwenberg.
Their aim was to create a space of both comfort and professional informality. The team carefully edited the history of the space, retaining some of the iconic Scandinavian designs and creating a new perspective on the works of art already on display. They removed the mezzanine that had blocked the view of the East River, restoring the open architectural space.
Jongerius designed two new pieces of furniture for the lounge: the Sphere Table and the UN Lounge Chair, produced by Vitra. For the East Facade Jongerius designed the Knots & Beads Curtain, with hand-knotted yarn and 30,000 porcelain beads made from Dutch clay by Royal Tichelaar Makkum. Jongerius was also responsible for revitalizing the colour palette, selecting the furniture and designing the cradle-to-cradle Grid Carpet.
The UN buildings in New York date from 1951, six years after the foundation of the UN. Referred to as ‘A Workshop for Peace’, the complex was designed by a team of architects including Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and Wallace K. Harrison. In 2009, the UN launched a large-scale renovation project, which is now nearly complete. At the request of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hella Jongerius formed a team to redesign the lounge and bring it into a new era. The renovation and redesign of the lounge is a gift from the Netherlands to the UN.
The lounge will be officially opened on September 25, 2013 by Queen Máxima of the Netherlands and the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frans Timmermans, in the presence of Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Year: 2013
Material: Various
Dimensions: Various
Commission: United Nations/ Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Category: Industrial production
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by Hella Jongerius and Rem Koolhaas appeared first on Dezeen.
Contemporary artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have turned five galleries at the V&A museum in London into the apartment of a fictional architect for an exhibition that opens next month.
The V&A invited Elmgreen & Dragset to develop an installation for its former textile galleries, which have been closed to the public for several years.
The artists appropriated over 100 objects from the museum’s collections and combined them with their own artworks and antique market purchases to create a mock up of a domestic interior.
“Making this exhibition is like creating a detailed set for a film, but with access to the incredible collections of the V&A to choose from,” said the artists. “While selecting objects to furnish the apartment we began to envision pieces of dialogue between characters that we could imagine might inhabit the space.”
To accompany the set design, Elmgreen & Dragset have written a script that describes the lifestyle of the disillusioned retired architect who inhabits the space.
Visitors will be given a copy of the script and invited to wander through the rooms, interacting with character’s furniture and possessions so they can better understand the societal issues of ageing, disappointment and alienation that inspired the story.
“We are excited to be working with two of the world’s leading contemporary artists on this ambitious project,” said V&A director Martin Roth. “The result will be unsettling and provoking and above all will present the V&A’s collections in a radically new and memorable way for our visitors.”
The exhibition opens to the public on 1 October 2013 and will continue until 2 January 2014.
Elmgreen & Dragset are known for their subversive sculptures and installations, which draw on diverse influences including social politics, performance and architecture. Previous installations by the duo include a sculpture of a boy on a rocking horse on top of the vacant fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square and a full scale replica of a Prada boutique built in the Texan desert.
For the London Design Festival, the V&A is currently showing a set design depicting a dinner party in progress by designers Scholten & Baijings, an installation of 5000 paper windmills that fills an enormous doorway, and a colourful chandelier that descends from the ceiling of its main hall.
Recent exhibitions at the V&A include an overview of fashion influenced by London’s clubbing scene of the 1980s and an exhibition dedicated to David Bowie memorabilia.
See more stories about the V&A »
See more exhibitions »
Photography is by Stephen White, courtesy of the artists and Victoria Miro, London © Elmgreen & Dragset.
Here’s some more information from the V&A:
Tomorrow – Elmgreen & Dragset at the V&A In partnership with AlixPartners 1 October 2013 – 2 January 2014
The V&A has commissioned a major site-specific installation over five galleries by leading contemporary artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset. Opening in October 2013, Tomorrow will transform the V&A’s former textile galleries into an apartment belonging to a fictional, elderly and disillusioned architect.
The installation will feature over 100 objects from the V&A’s collections, which will sit alongside works by the artists, as well as items sourced from antique markets. The juxtaposition of objects, which will be arranged as a grand domestic interior, will create ambiguity and raise questions about cultural heritage. Martin Roth, V&A Director, said: “We are excited to be working with two of the world’s leading contemporary artists on this ambitious project. The result will be unsettling and provoking and above all will present the V&A’s collections in a radically new and memorable way for our visitors.”
Elmgreen & Dragset’s exhibition Tomorrow will appear like a set for an unrealised film. To accompany it, the artists have written a script, which will be available to visitors as a printed book. The drama centres on a retired architect who had great vision but very little success in his professional life. In his twilight years, and with the family fortune long gone, he is forced to sell his inherited home and all his possessions. The script comments on issues of ageing, disappointment and alienation in today’s society.
Within the domestic setting, visitors will act as uninvited guests, able to curl up in the architect’s bed, recline on his sofa, or rifle through books placed by the artists to hint at the imagined events that could have taken place here.
Tomorrow will examine interests that have abided throughout the artists’ careers – those of redefining the way in which art is presented and experienced, issues around social models and how spaces and objects both inflict on and reflect our behavioural patterns. Such ideas are visible in many of the artist duo’s previous exhibitions, including The Welfare Show at Serpentine Gallery in 2006, The Collectors at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 and The One and The Many at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam in 2011.
Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset said: “On one of our early visits to the V&A to discuss the show, we encountered the former textile galleries which were being used for storage and closed to the public. When we found these spaces we knew right away what we wanted to do. Making this exhibition is like creating a detailed set for a film, but with access to the incredible collections of the V&A to choose from. While selecting objects to furnish the apartment we began to envision pieces of dialogue between characters that we could imagine might inhabit the space. So we wrote a script. It was sort of a reversed process where the props in our film set initiated the narrative. Now it’s our hope that visitors will interact freely with this set and discover their own clues as to who our fictional and quite eccentric inhabitant might be.”
Elmgreen & Dragset have worked closely with V&A curator Louise Shannon to research and select objects from the V&A collections.
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at the V&A appeared first on Dezeen.
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