Anyone with an eye for minimalist design will tell you, less is more. But do Dieter Rams’ sagely timeless words apply to restaurant design? Vancouver-based Scott and Scott Architects believe so. And with a budget of just over $15,000 and 750 square…
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We’ve recently featured a 1920s styled bar by Herzog & de Meuron in Basel and the creation of an Italian restaurant by Neri&Hu in Shanghai, so our latest Pinterest board gathers together eclectic bars and restaurants from all over the globe.
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A jumble of wooden boxes provide a compact storage solution in this São Paulo micro apartment by Brazilian architect Alan Chu (+ slideshow).
In an attempt to save space, Alan Chu confined all the storage to a single wall, with an entertainment system in crate-like boxes at one end and kitchen cupboards that swing or slide open at the other.
“The idea is to use a single element to organise the space of the small apartment with an area of 36-square-metres, distributed over two floors,” he told Dezeen.
Red surfaces inside the pinewood units match the scarlet fridge and rug, the only colour in the otherwise monochrome and wood interior.
“The apartment is the temporary residence of a recently divorced young businessman and the decor plays with the transience of the moment: a time of changes, improvisation and reorganisation,” Chu said.
White tiles laid in a brickwork pattern cover three walls of the lower floor while the fourth is taken up by floor-to-ceiling windows.
A large sofa bed beneath the double-height portion of the apartment takes up the majority of the floor space, though there is also room for a small table and chairs.
A black metal staircase spirals up to the mezzanine through another wooden box that sits opposite the bathroom, tucked in one corner and surrounded by dark walls.
Black is also used for the wall behind the bed, the only item of furniture on the glass-edged balcony apart from a chair and a wall-mounted lamp.
Dark wood covering the ceiling below is also laid on the mezzanine floor and glass panels form balustrades that help retain an open feeling.
Last year we posted a secret tea shop hidden behind rolling, swinging and sliding walls that Chu also designed.
This isn’t the smallest home we’ve written about. Previously we featured Renzo Piano’s tiny wooden cabin at the Vitra Campus for one inhabitant and a mini prefabricated guest house that gets delivered by helicopter.
Photos are by Djan Chu.
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Alan Chu appeared first on Dezeen.
Food with edible packaging is served around a circular counter at the WikiBar in Paris by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur.
The cafe is the first in a proposed chain of WikiBars selling an innovative range of WikiPearl foods that are protected by an edible skin. Products in the range include ice creams that don’t melt when touched, yoghurts that can be eaten without a spoon and cheeses that don’t need to be wrapped in foil.
Referencing the molecular structure of the food, Mathieu Lehanneur used a tessellated pattern of hexagons as the motif for the cafe’s interior.
This motif was applied to a mirrored light on the ceiling and a seating area beside the window. The outlines of hexagons also shine through the counter from lighting concealed underneath.
Glass cloches surround a selection of treats on sale, which can also be taken home using simple biodegradable bags to keep them clean. Meanwhile, the story of the brand is displayed across the rear wall.
Harvard professor David Edwards started the WikiFoods company with designer François Azambourg and biologist Don Ingber, after first developing a concept for foods that can survive without protective plastic packaging. Edwards is also the founder of ArtScience Labs and collaborated with Philippe Starck on an aerosol spray that lets users enjoy alcohol without getting drunk.
Another Wikibar is set to open soon in Massachusetts and a series of pop-up and mobile bars are also planned for the near future.
Designer Mathieu Lehanneur has worked on several unusual interior design projects, from an advertising agency with caves made from pulped paper to a room at the Centre Pompidou where teenagers can hang out. See more design by Mathieu Lehanneur.
See more stories about food design on Dezeen, including prototypes for 3D-printed burgers and an edible desk lamp.
Photography is by Michel Giesbrecht.
Here’s a project description from the design team:
Wikibar by Mathieu Lehanneur
Mathieu Lehanneur is responsible for the interior design of the WikiBar, the first of many, that will open its doors at 4 Rue de Bouloi in the 1st district in Paris. A simple as well as radical concept: to offer good and eco-responsible food fighting and addressing the problem of pollution from packaging. This Wiki Food incorporates the natural principle of grapes: a sphere with an edible coating to protect the food. A principle adaptable to drinks, cream and from now onwards ice creams created in collaboration with Philippe Faure, the maestro of ice creams. Ice creams that do not melt in your hand are available in this first WikiBar!
Mathieu Lehanneur has created a decor symbolised by a mirror-light, an illuminating and reflective object formed of hexagons “a geometrical reference to the molecular structure of WikiPearl laminations (). A graphic design and a matter of cookery demonstrations for this revolutionary concept.” A symbol of the approximation of science and design, a logical onward step for the designer who has regularly collaborated with Le Laboratoire since the production of “Andrea,” the air purification system through plants. Mobile WikiBar, pop-up wiki bars are already on the horizon, and the next permanent Wiki Bar will be in the forthcoming Lab Cambridge, currently being designed. The American version of the Parisian Le Laboratoire initiated by David Edwards.
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Mathieu Lehanneur appeared first on Dezeen.
Architectural Digest recently took over the New York Design Center for “AD Loves,” a celebration of favorite finds from the 16-story, 500,000-square-foot to-the-trade design mecca. We sent writer Nancy Lazarus to scout the showrooms for some standout pieces.
Philip Nimmo’s Mattonella Fire Screen, available through Profiles at the New York Design Center.
Decorative screens provide high visual appeal and a measure of privacy in an era when the verb ‘screen’ is more commonly associated with preventing unwanted phone calls, emails, online, and TV ads. Whether one, two, or three panels, screens serve those living in tight spaces and others with open lofts to partition—and fireplaces aren’t required. At a recent event showcasing Architectural Digest’s favorite finds from the New York Design Center, we spotted a few notable screens perched in the showrooms.
Mattonella Fire Screen (Profiles showroom)
Philip Nimmo designed this single-panel fire screen that stands three feet high. Made of wrought iron with an array of optional finishes, it features a pomegranate-shaped design with tempered glass globs that resemble large seeds.
Philip Nimmo’s Goccia Fire Screen, available through Profiles at the New York Design Center.
Goccia Fire Screen (Profiles)
This double-panel fire screen is another Nimmo creation. The abstract design is highlighted with glass rondels in the shapes and colors of citrus fruits.
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Swedish design studio TAF has created offices for a Stockholm branding and design agency with walls that resemble cardboard boxes (+ slideshow).
Gabriella Gustafson and Mattias Ståhlbom of TAF chose the cardboard motif to reference client NINE‘s work in packaging design.
Partitions made from corrugated metal sheets painted to resemble cardboard were added to create meeting spaces within the open-plan office and existing walls were clad to maintain the paper aesthetic.
“The painted metal sheets create a basic trompe l’oeil effect, like big paper packaging turning into spaces,” Mattias Ståhlbom told Dezeen. “The benefit of using metal is that it is more durable and long lasting than real cardboard.”
Meeting rooms are differentiated by bright orange and green furniture and accessories. “The different colour themes chosen for the furniture create small visible ‘islands’ in the white and paper brown space,” adds Ståhlbom.
The designers also used their own Soft Parcels furniture range made from soft blocks of foam wrapped in fabric that look like paper-wrapped packages to provide casual seating in one of the spaces.
Previous interior designs by the same studio include a shoe store for Camper with tables that look like they’re made from lollipop sticks and a healthcare centre inspired by bandages and plasters.
Japanese studio Nendo has designed an office with meeting rooms surrounded by walls that peel apart to create entrances, while Google has opened a new office in Japan filled with traditional Japanese iconography.
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Photography is by Patrik Lindell.
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by TAF appeared first on Dezeen.
Swiss architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron referenced 1920s interiors for the renovation of this bar and brasserie near its offices in Basel.
The two rooms are located at the Volkshaus Basel, a cultural venue that dates back to the fourteenth century. The present building was built in 1925 and is currently undergoing a phased renovation to reinstate the library, hotel and restaurant that were included when it first opened.
By adding traditional materials and classic furniture pieces to the restored spaces, Herzog & de Meuron aimed to reincarnate the character of the old bar and brasserie.
“We started out by removing all the built-in additions and cladding applied to the building in the late 1970s,” explain the designers. “Whenever possible we recovered the original architecture of 1925.”
In the brasserie, pendant lighting hangs from the newly exposed ceiling beams, while the clean white walls are decorated with rectangular and circular mirrors.
High-backed seating divides the space and is complemented by wooden tables and chairs – a reconstruction of the original Volkshaus chair with a variety of different back pieces.
Walls and ceilings in the bar are painted black, drawing attention to the row of spherical light bulbs overhead. Tin covers the bar and tables, and circular windows provide peepholes to rooms beyond.
The bathrooms are fitted with reclaimed sinks and are lined with wallpaper depicting imagery from seventeenth century etchings.
This the first interior design by Herzog & de Meuron to feature on Dezeen, but recent architecture projects by the firm include a 57-storey residential tower for Miami and a school of government and public policy at the University of Oxford.
Dezeen also interviewed studio founders Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron at the preview of their 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London. See more stories about Herzog & de Meuron.
Photography is by Adriano Biondo.
Here’s a project description from Herzog & de Meuron:
Volkshaus Basel Bar, Brasserie Basel, Switzerland 2011 – 2012
The history of the Burgvogtei, a medieval manor and later the Volkshaus Basel, goes back to the 14th century. The location has always been a site of concentrated and varied use – a piece of city within the city. In 1845, a brewery with a restaurant was erected there and expanded in 1874 to house a beer and a concert hall. When the premises were taken over by the city of Basel in 1905, the facilities, with their diverse spaces, became a hub of political, social and cultural activities. The popularity of the location led to a shortage of space and the ensuing architectural competition in 1919 was won by the architect Henri Baur. The new Volkshaus Basel, built in 1925, incorporated the existing concert hall and was expanded to include new halls of various sizes, offices, conference rooms, a library, a restaurant and a hotel. In the 1970s, the Volkshaus just barely escaped demolition; the interior was completely renovated and the building refurbished to meet the latest technical standards. However, in consequence, the building underwent substantial change and today nothing remains of the original character of the beer and concert hall. The concert hall is architecturally defined by the acoustic requirements of its use as an orchestral recording studio. All of the galleries and window openings had to be walled up. The bar and the brasserie were also remodeled to such an extent that little of the original spirit of the space has survived. In particular, the integration of HVAC and other technological facilities led to invasive architectural modifications. The diversity of uses was reduced as well since the head building is now used primarily for offices.
In several steps, the Volkshaus will now be remodeled and former uses reinstated such as hotel, shop and library. Our intervention aims to revitalize the diversity of this location which is so important to the life of Basel, while at the same time restoring its architectural identity. The extent of our intervention will vary from room to room, determined by the individual requirements of each space and based on detailed analysis of its current status. Based on the original architecture of 1925, the Volkshaus will be preserved in all its diversity and complexity and will reflect the spirit of its own history.
In order to achieve this, we started out by removing all the built-in additions and cladding applied to the building in the late 1970s. Whenever possible we recovered the original architecture of 1925. Where this was too costly, technically unfeasible or unreasonable, we worked with the current status. The study and analysis of plans and visual materials from the archives played an important role, enabling us to identify the original character of the architecture and the defining elements of the interiors. The next step involved working out how the later addition of HVAC and technical services could be integrated into the original architectural idiom, with only slight modifications.
In the brasserie, we removed the lowered ceiling to reveal the old ceiling beams and then doubled them to house the ventilation ducts. The distinctive spatial structure of the brasserie is thus restored and even enhanced. Since the original room dividers no longer exist, we added high-backed seating to subdivide the brasserie into various zones. The historical chandeliers resonate in the pendant LED lamps with thick, mouth-blown glass diffusers. The chair is a reconstruction of the original Volkshaus chair, except for the back which can be automatically individualized thanks to computer-aided production.
The tin traditionally used for the countertop now covers the entire bar and the tabletops as well. It was important for us to work exclusively with quality materials like tin, leather and wood, which acquire a patina through years of use. Striking architectural elements of 1925 have been reiterated elsewhere in various scales and articulations. For instance, the oval window above the entry resonates in the window to the public passage that leads to the inner courtyard, in the swinging door between the bar and the brasserie, in an opening that reveals the historical staircase and in the mirrors of the restrooms.
The sinks in the restrooms are recycled items found in Basel’s building components exchange. Seventeenth century etchings have been transferred to the wallpaper used in the antechambers of the restrooms, thus establishing a link with Basel in the days of the former medieval manor.
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by Herzog & de Meuron appeared first on Dezeen.
Walls are peeled back to reveal meeting rooms at this office in Yokohama by Japanese design studio Nendo (+ slideshow).
The office, for digital marketing agency Spicebox, contains seven rectangular meeting rooms designed by Nendo to look like wooden boxes, each with a different size and colour finish.
“The firm’s name symbolises the ability to deliver surprises and delight, like a variety of stimuli that come tumbling out of a box,” explain the designers.
The chunky walls curve outwards to reveal glazed entrances for each room. Each space has an entirely white interior, contrasting with the dark floors and ceilings of the surrounding spaces.
Unattractive office devices such as photocopiers and rubbish bins can be hidden behind the meeting rooms, leaving the larger spaces free for rows of desks.
“Our idea was to make not only the boxes’ interior but also the area around them into an active office environment where people can easily work and interact,” says Nendo.
Furniture for the office includes the iconic Emeco Navy chair and Nendo’s own Ribbon stool.
Led by designer Oki Sato, Nendo also recently completed an interior for shoe brand Camper containing over a thousand ghostly white shoes and refurbished the womenswear floor of La Rinascente department store in Milan. See more design by Nendo.
Photography is by Daici Ano.
Here’s more information from Nendo:
Spicebox Office for Spicebox
The office space design for Spicebox, a comprehensive digital agency that works across strategic planning, interactive promotion and creative digital marketing, and is part of the Hakuhodo stable.
The firm’s name symbolises the ability to deliver surprises and delight, like a variety of stimuli that come tumbling out of a box, so we placed seven box-shaped meeting rooms of differing sizes and finishes around the office, all of which are entered by a wall that has been ‘flipping open’. Each box is ‘opened’ in a slightly different way, subtly connecting interior and exterior and shaping sightlines to create a spatial experience in which each box reveals itself as you walk around the room.
The flipped-open entrances turn the area around each box into a semi-open communication corner, and functional elements that don’t need to be on display like the photocopier, waste bins and refrigerator can be hidden behind the boxes. Our idea was to make not only the boxes’ interior but also the area around them into an active office environment where people can easily work and interact.
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by Nendo appeared first on Dezeen.
Chinese studio Neri&Hu has unmasked the I-beams structure of the oldest steel-framed building in Shanghai to create an Italian restaurant with a raw industrial interior (+ slideshow).
Neri&Hu stripped the inside of the space, leaving exposed brickwork, peeling plaster and Victorian ceilings mouldings intact. The architects then added steel-framed partitions to create a drinks bar, a pizza bar and a series of private dining rooms.
“Stripping back the strata of finishes that have built up after years of renovations, the design concept celebrates the beauty of the bare structural elements,” say the architects.
The main dining area is loosely modelled on a traditional marketplace, which inspired the name Mercato. The two bars are located at the centre and feature industrial steel shelving and reclaimed timber canopies, while glass lamps hang over tables like street lights.
Banquette seating runs through one section of the restaurant, which the architects built using wood found onsite and tubular steel frames.
The three private dining rooms are surrounded by an amalgamation of materials that includes antique mirrors, blackboards, metal mesh, recycled wood, raw steel and textured glass.
“Constantly playing the new against the old, [our] design is a reflection of the complex identity of not only the historical Bund, but of Shanghai at large,” says the studio.
The entrance to the restaurant is a sliding metal gate with words spelled out between its horizontal bars.
Mercato is one of six restaurants at Three on the Bund, a department store along the river in central Shanghai, and it is run by French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
Architects Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu have worked on several renovation projects in Shanghai, including a design gallery in a former colonial police station and the reworking of a 1930s townhouse. Speaking to Dezeen last year, the pair explained that interest in conservation and small scale development is growing in China.
The studio also won World Interior of the Year in 2011 for transforming a disused Japanese army headquarters into a hotel in the same neighbourhood.
See more design by Neri&Hu »
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Photography is by Pedro Pegenaute.
Here’s some more text from Neri&Hu
Mercato at Three on the Bund
Neri&Hu puts the “industrial” back in three Michelin star dining and refined interior at Mercato.
Situated within the prestigious Three on the Bund, Mercato is renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s newest culinary destination in Shanghai, the first of which to serve up an upscale yet rustic Italian fare. Neri&Hu’s design for the 1,000 square metre restaurant draws not only from the chef’s culinary vision but also from the rich historical context of its locale, harkening to early 1900s Shanghai, when the Bund was a bustling industrial hub.
Stripping back the strata of finishes that have built up after years of renovations, the design concept celebrates the beauty of the bare structural elements. Three on the Bund was the first building in Shanghai to be built out of steel, and the architects’ decision to reveal the original steel columns pays homage to this extraordinary feat. Against the textured backdrop of the existing brickwork, concrete, plaster and mouldings, new insertions are clearly demarcated. Constantly playing the new against the old, Neri&Hu’s design is a reflection of the complex identity of not only the historical Bund, but of Shanghai at large.
Coming off the lift, one notices immediately the Victorian plaster ceilings above, its gorgeous aged patina juxtaposed against raw steel insertions: a series of lockers along the wall, a sliding metal gate threshold, and the suspended rail from which a collection of eclectic glass bulbs hang—the opulence of old Shanghai coinciding with a grittier side.
Making reference to the restaurant’s name, the vibrant atmosphere inside the main dining space recalls a street side marketplace, featuring at its centre the Bar and the Pizza Bar, both encased in steel mesh and wire glass boxes with recycled wood canopies. Above, a network of tube steel members, inspired by old-time butcher’s rails, intertwine with the exposed ductwork and form a system for hanging both shelving and lighting. Like a deconstructed sofa, the banquettes along the edge of the dining area are made from wood salvaged on site and embedded into a metal frame.
The private dining rooms are also featured in the space as metal-framed enclosures, infilled with panels of varying materials: reclaimed wood, natural steel, antique mirror, metal mesh and chalk board. A band of textured glass along the top edge of each PDR affords some transparency, while sliding doors between each room provide maximum flexibility. This language continues into the corridor between the kitchen and dining area, where a back lit wall of textured glass panels – inspired by old warehouse windows – encourages interaction between the chef and his patrons.
Diners seated along the edges of the room experience a different sort of ambiance. To bring lightness into the space, the perimeter represents an in-between zone: between interior and exterior, between architecture and landscape, between the domestic and the urban. Clad in white travertine, the walls here act as a temporary departure from the other rich textures and palettes. The focus here is simply the breathtaking views of the Bund beyond, drawing the far reaches of the city into the dining space itself.
The post Mercato at Three on the Bund
by Neri&Hu appeared first on Dezeen.
London architect Dingle Price has revamped a warehouse in Hackney to create a bright spacious home and studio for a painter and his family.
Dingle Price began by stripping the interior of the old Victorian warehouse where the artist and his wife had already been living for several years. Making use of an existing mezzanine, the architect divided the space in half to create two-storey living quarters on one side and a double-height studio on the other.
“This idea of subdividing the space into equal parts led to a concept of inserting a house within the studio,” Price told Dezeen. “The position of the existing mezzanine decided which half would be which.”
North-facing skylights allow daylight to flood the inside of the studio, where high ceilings offer enough room for several large canvases.
Windows puncture the partition wall so residents can look into the studio from their two upstairs bedrooms.
“It’s quite an internalised world,” said Price. “When you’re in there you don’t really look out. It’s a kind of internal landscape where, instead of looking at a landscape, you’re looking across a sequence of spaces.”
Walls and ceilings are plastered white throughout and there are a mixture of both painted and exposed pine floorboards.
Other artists’ studios to feature on Dezeen include a series of buildings on a Canadian island and a faceted house and studio for an artist in Spain.
Photography is by Ioana Marinescu.
Here’s a project description from Dingle Price:
House for a Painter
Attracted by the large volume and excellent natural light, the artist and his wife lived and worked in this warehouse building in an ad hoc manner for some years, before the arrival of their first child necessitated a more formal inhabitation.
Dingle Price Architects proposed the insertion of a two storey house with a front facade overlooking and animating the studio space which attains the character of a small piazza or garden, a feeling further enhanced by the large landscape paintings in progress.
The design draws on the symmetrical character of the existing building to provide a series of interconnected rooms of varied scale and proportion. The existing interior consisted principally of white plastered walls, and both unfinished and white painted pine floorboards. Rather than introducing new materials, we chose to adopt and extend the use of this palette – staircase and cabinetry are constructed from southern yellow pine planks, and the elevation of the residence if partially clad in painted pine boards of a matching width to the floorboards.
Whilst the residence can be entirely or partially closed off from the studio when necessary, opening the doors and shutters reveals scenic views across the internal landscape.
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Dingle Price Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
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