Hasta La Ideas

Danish studio Space Copenhagen has overhauled the interior of Copenhagen eatery Noma, which was this year named “World’s Best Restaurant” for the third time in a row (+ slideshow).

The designers have replaced the brown hues of the original interior with muted black and grey tones and have also swapped the tables and chairs with ones from the Ren collection they designed for furniture brand Stellar Works.

Fur cloaks hung over the the chairs before and the designers have added more over the new ones.

“We felt a great importance in protecting the honest, earthy feel of the restaurant and balancing it with refinement of detail and elegance,” explained designers Peter Bundgaard Rützou and Signe Bindslev Henriksen. “It was very much about using organic materials such as wood, stone, leather, brass and linen in a new way; materials that age beautifully over time.”

A new oak floor runs through the entire restaurant, while a new wall defines the space in the lounge and the bar is rebuilt using dark wood and brass.

“The most radical change has been the redesign of the lounge area,” said Bindslev Henriksen, before explaining how the renovation gives the restaurant a more cosy Nordic feel. Quoting the words of chef and owner Rene Redzepi, she said: ”It is as if the restaurant has moved 1000 kilometres north.”

Earlier this year architects 3XN transformed Noma’s warehouse into an experimental food laboratory.

We also featured Noma as part of our report into the cross-pollination between the worlds of food and design.

See more stories about restaurants »

Here’s a statement from Peter Bundgaard Rützou and Signe Bindslev Henriksen:

“The complete renovation had to take place while the NOMA team was in London during the Olympics, leaving us a total work period of less than three weeks. Time was a challenge in itself, but also the fact that the NOMA is located in an old listed warehouse building presented a lot of restrictions.

Working with NOMA for so many years has created a mutual respect and understanding of both the space, but also the mindset, values and preferences of all the people involved. That makes dialogue and communication very easy, which is always very valuable for a creative process. But in the beginning we all thought that NOMA should be turned upside down, that we should do something completely new and unexpected. After quite a long initial sketching period, we all came to the conclusion that it seemed forced and pretentious for a place like NOMA to do something too conceptual or formally upscale — whether it was modern, nostalgic or a combination of the two. Rene Redzepi defined his vision: it is important that the space is not perceived as a superficial layer between the costumer and the actual food experience.

We decided to respect and protect the existing atmosphere of NOMA, but work carefully with the space and functional elements in terms of detailing, tactile surfaces, colours — more or less as a 1:1 mood board of samples, wood, stone, leather, textiles, furniture. a balance between the rough and the refined detail and elegance.

We built a brick wall in the lounge and changed the entire floor to a beautiful oak floor from Dinesen in falling width, which made a huge difference in atmosphere. Apart from not doing a lot of actual construction on site, we changed almost anything else.

All the furniture, surfaces, curtains, painted surfaces, toilets have been completely changed or renovated. Especially the lounge area involved quite a lot of construction. We build a long brick wall facing the rest of the building to get a more defined lounge space, and the long massive bar was replaced with spatial elements in grey wood and brass – mounted at the columns which creates a completely different flow and openness of the space.

The chairs and tables in the restaurant are the same design as in the original Noma, but we changed the surfaces and colors. The Chair is from J.L. Møller and the tables we designed ourselves. But in the lounge we changed all the furniture, and here we used the Ren Chair and Sofa which we recently designed. The Ren Chair is a part of a completely new collection we have made and launched in collaboration with Stellarworks. For NOMA we had a modified version made for the new lounge in a different lowered height and materials to accommodate lounge seating dimensions as well as designing a two-seater sofa to complete the area especially for this project.

The chair reflects values that we feel match and complement the aesthetics of Noma. It is a genuine honest chair with high detailed features in black solid wood, brass and black leather. The chair has an organic shaped body and fine detailing in brass, it picks up the tradition of classic Danish design, but also shows a curiosity towards other cultural points of reference, sampling Asian features into the design. The intention is through choice of materials and surface finishes that the chair patinates and builds character over time when being worn.”

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Space Copenhagen appeared first on Dezeen.

The tree-like sculptures growing out of the tables in this canteen by Spanish architects Estudio Nômada are meant to remind diners of eating outdoors.

The studio drew on the culture and traditions of Galicia in north-west Spain to design the museum shop and canteen for Peter Eisenman’s Cidade da Cultura de Galicia.

The legs of the dining tables in the canteen area extend upwards to form stylised trees, which have an aluminium frame beneath the oak exterior and can incorporate additional lighting.

“The idea behind the trees was to evoke, through a contemporary language, the gatherings of people during rural summer festivities,” Enrique de Santiago of Estudio Nômada told Dezeen. “To shelter from the sun these types of celebrations take place under the trees’ shade along long tables, so we designed the tables by elongating their feet into branches.”

Site plan – click above for larger image

The museum shop next door features tall wooden shelving that can be adjusted to accommodate all potential products on sale. The two spaces are linked by apertures carved into the dividing wall and unified by a long counter tiled in the architects’ interpretation of “rural Galician façades along the coastline, like for example the tiled façades at the village of Corrubedo.”

Floor plan – click above for larger image

Completed in 2010, the Cidade da Cultura de Galicia incorporates a museum, library, archive facility, arts centre and performing arts centre, surrounded by 25 hectares of parkland. You can read our earlier story about the Cidade da Cultura de Galicia here.

Diagram of tree construction – click above for larger image

Photographs are by Santos-Diez/BISimages

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Estudio Nômada appeared first on Dezeen.

Workspaces are gathered in islands of red, blue, orange or green throughout this office in Delft by Dutch interior architects i29.

Combiwerk Delft is a “social workplace” company that helps to reintegrate people with physical or mental difficulties into the workforce, so i29 tried to reflect this purpose in the design.

The designers found that the workers were very attached to their surroundings and routines, so they recruited another social workplace company to restore 250 different second-hand chairs so that each worker could choose their own.

Social involvement was the main theme, the designers explained. “We aimed for empowerment by creating a serious and distinguished interior,” they said. “Not a nondescript backwater building, but something sparkling, colourful and unique. We hope that this will contribute to a sense of pride in the users.”

The building’s grey exterior is continued through the walls, floors and ceilings of the interior and then broken up with islands of colour.

Each island has desks, chairs, shelves and cabinets in various tones of the same hue.

Other projects by i29 we’ve featured recently include a pop-up furniture shop where every item is painted grey and an advertising office where the walls, furniture and lights are covered in felt.

We’ve featured lots of other colourful workspaces, including an office for a Russian internet company with pixellated patterns on the walls and a Lego office that has a slide as well as stairs.

See all our stories about i29 »
See all our stories about offices »
See all our stories about interiors »

Photography is by i29 except where stated.

Here’s some extra information from the designers:

Social 01

Combiwerk Delft is a Social Workplace (SW) company and offers custom work to people who, due to a physical, psychological or mental limitation, are not able to find a regular job. Besides these limitations, the possibilities and talents are especially looked at. A lot has changed and the emphasis lately has been shifted more to reintegration into the regular work force. The job centre (career square) has become much more important with respect to workplaces. Training is offered and tests are done in the kitchen of the company restaurant, the cleaning service and the office. Assembling, sorting and packing are done at the workplaces. Green and environmental services are also an important branch of the social workplace.

The ambitious attitude of the company is striking. There is a strong, positive culture. The new construction was intended to clearly reflect this. Despite the limited resources and a clear wish for a sober approach, the building and decoration had to radiate quality. It had to convey attention and involvement, in order to stimulate a sense of pride in its users. An environment that supports that valuable work is being done here, with special people.

Secret garden

The building was designed by VMX Architects and has a total surface area of 8500 square metres. For the interior, which includes 4000 square metres of office space, a company restaurant, the career square, entrance ways and a lobby, i29 interior architects was consulted. The central space is a large atrium where the restaurant, the career square and the reception are situated. The building itself is a completely closed, grey monolithic shape. The same grey can also be found in the walls, floors and ceilings of the interior. When you come in, you are surprised by colourful islands, which are placed freely in the space and which only show themselves after you enter the premises. In an almost fairytale-like way, the building contains a secret garden full of colour and vitality, which is, of course, a wonderful reference to the contrast between external appearances and inner richness.

Colourful islands

People are often pigeon-holed or end up that way unintentionally. Such a ‘box’ is only a part of the story and often there are many nuances. This was the foundation for the design theme to i29. Everyone at Combiwerk is unique and special, nuanced and varied. We have translated this theme into the interior in an abstract way. The custom-designed furniture contains many ‘boxes’ where every user (so to speak) can tell his own story. In various colour nuances and variation possibilities, together with the carpets, they form colourful islands in an otherwise grey world. Most the users have a psychological or mental limitation, to a smaller or larger degree, and are therefore often very attached to their surroundings and routines (this was shown in interviews we conducted). We were going to create a completely new environment for people who generally are not fond of change. That is why an important point of departure in the design was that, in tandem with all the new things, old and authentic elements also had to return. This led us to the collection of over 250 different second-hand wooden chairs that were restored and re-used. Not only can everyone pick their favourite chair, they are also a nice analogy for the variety of the unique people occupying the space.

Above: photograph is by Ronald Tilleman

Social involvement

A social workplace must be social; that was the starting point for all the parties involved. Social involvement was therefore the main theme in the design and realisation on various levels. At the level of the design, we aimed for empowerment by creating a serious and distinguished interior. Not a nondescript backwater building, but something sparkling, colourful and unique. We hope that this will contribute to a sense of pride in the users. In terms of sustainability, where possible, we aimed for recycling and re-use. All the wooden chairs in the atrium were bought second-hand and restored by another SW-company, just like all the furniture for the 4000 m2 office space, including desks, chairs, cabinets and filing drawers. A new colourful top layer was applied to the re-used furniture so that they are as good as new and also fit beautifully into the colour spectrum in combination with the carpets.

Client: Combiwerk Delft
Size: 8500 m2
Interior architect: i29 l interior architects
Architect: VMX Architects

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by i29 appeared first on Dezeen.

Garments and accessories are sparingly displayed in a three-dimensional grid of white steel cubes at this boutique in Osaka by NI&Co. Architects.

Named Bianco Nero, which translates as ‘Black White’, the shop has a monochrome colour scheme to complement the selection of clothing on show.

Some of the metal cubes contain glass shelves for hats and bags, while items of clothing hang from the horizontal elements.

Gaps in the grid create frames for larger items, as well as doorways for shoppers to wander through.

The installation is the only shelving within the space, giving it the look of a temporary shop, but designer Nina Funahashi says that she has created “a sustainable and changeable design that can be used for a long period.”

Photography is by Yuko Tada.

The information below is from the designers:

‘Bianco Nero’ in Japan / Architect : NI&Co. Architects

It is an Italian mode boutique in Osaka, Japan.

‘Bianco Nero’ means ‘white and black’ in Italy, and we were required that the shop design suit the monotone clothes selected. We designed the small space in underground shopping center as widely as possible, and the space still keeps the functionality as a shop. The steel grid shelf in the shop has two functions that are to part the big space as if it were divided into some small ones and to bring a moderate distance between salesclerks and customers.

The layer-like shelf that overlaps several times creates a depth feel and a sense of unity to space, and has an effect that tightens the whole space. In addition, the shelf consists of 6 units and it can respond to various shopping space by changing the combination of units.

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NI&Co. Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Portuguese studio Comoco Architects has converted a warehouse in Coimbra once used for storing industrial materials into an indoor football ground (+ slideshow).

A blanket of bright green turf stretches along the length of the building, creating a pair of pitches beneath the arched metal trusses that support the roof.

At the end of these pitches, the architects have inserted a new wooden structure, which contains changing rooms, showers and reception areas.

“We took advantage of the warehouse’s material rawness and rough surfaces to introduce a softer element within it, an element made with light materials and smooth surfaces, chiefly by using MDF board panels,” architect Nelson Mota told Dezeen.

A wooden grid forms a trellis-like ceiling over the new rooms and bare light bulbs hang down in the spaces between.

Mota explained how the high floor-to-ceiling height of the existing warehouse allowed them to “explore the roof of the new facility as a permeable, or even absent, surface, where the various compartments would be protected not at regular ceiling height, but high above by the arched metallic ceiling.”

The only change the architects made to the exterior of the building was to punch an entrance through one of the walls, which they’ve surrounded with a boxy metal frame.

Other indoor football grounds we’ve featured include a sports centre in Vienna and a training centre in South Africa.

See more stories about design for sport »

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s a project description from Comoco:

Our approach to the design of “N10-Eiras” indoor sports facility was determined twofold: on the one hand by the specific characteristics of the existing industrial pavilion in which we ought to insert our solution.

On the other hand by the brief, which asked for three main areas: reception; changing rooms and showers; and a party room.

One volume was created, organizing the two main areas at both sides of the reception area, which is also where the entrance is located.

The new volume thus created occupies the entire width of the existing pavilion, and its own width results from the subtraction of the football field from the pavilion’s total length.

The building system defines the materialization of the volume. A porticoed frame made of American pine wood beams and columns creates the basic structure.

The infill of this structure, both in the roof as in the walls, is made through the use of MDF boards, assembled in such a way as to perform both structural and formal roles in the overall construction.

The raw use of the MDF boards is followed by a straightforward use of white ceramic tiles in the changing rooms and showers, and by the design of the furniture components, which are also made of raw pine wood elements and black lacquered MDF panels.

The layout of the illumination devices was designed in order to accomplish an intense and expressive plasticity out of the volume’s formal and material characteristics.

A tunnel-like element pierces the pavilion’s existing wall to announce in the outside the entrance to the facility.

Location: Coimbra
Client: N10 Indoor
Architecture: Luís Miguel Correia, Nelson Mota, Susana Constantino

Project / Construction: 2011
Area: 2385.00m2

Total Investment: €1.000.000,00
Construction: € 200.000,00

Engineering: MyOption
Building Contractor: Timotec; Flexifusão, Lda

Axonometric – click above for larger image

Building plan – click above for larger image

Longitudinal section – click above for larger image

Elevation – click above for larger image

Elevation – click above for larger image

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by Comoco Architects appeared first on Dezeen.