Hasta La Ideas

A suspended ceiling folds erratically around the uppermost apartment of a Lisbon block that Portuguese architect Jorge Mealha has refurbished.

The walls of the apartment also comprise a series of angled planes, which converge awkwardly with the faceted ceilings to surround lower level living rooms and a mezzanine deck above.

These folding walls are repeated in the building’s access corridors as well as inside some of the seven other apartments in the building.

Decorative white shutters hinge across windows throughout the block, while existing pine floors have been retained and restored.

We’ve published a few other white-rendered buildings by Jorge Mealha on Dezeen, which you can see here.

Photography is by João Morgado.

More explanation from the architects can be found below:

This project concerns the rehabilitation of an old building, presumably built at the end of the XIX century, but that was only registered in 1906.

A cost-controlled operation, proposed by the owner, Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, intended to rehab this building that was at risk of collapse.

The project seeks to preserve as much as possible of the original elements of the building – floors and walls – proposing a reformulation of the existing subdivision, which was characterized by having too cramped spaces, resulting in the creation of eight apartments, two of which are duplexe.

Taking advantage of the need for the introduction of a lift, the entrance lobby is redesigned, suggesting a path that bypasses the volume – released from outer walls – required for the placing of this equipment.

The new design of the atrium that extends its original dimension, emphasises the perspective on the existent ladder, which is maintained, allowing for a better natural lighting and offering a few scale games and cross perspectives.

Whenever possible, the strategy was to preserve the existing floor – pine wood – assuming the amendments in the areas where due to its degradation it has been replaced.

The walls and ceilings are plastered and painted white.

Some elements are finished with stone or birth.

The shutters of the windows were restored and painted white, while maintaining the original.

Access doors to the apartments are also maintained, leaving marks of previous interventions and wood working as notes of color and texture on the stairs.

The external walls and elements are painted in white in their entirety in order to allow the design of its parts to he read by the incident light throughout the day.

Author: Jorge Mealha
Project Team: João Sítima (Site Works Leader), Rita Melancia (Project Leader), Teófilo Raposo, Gonçalo Silva, Pedro Hormigo, Ricardo Manaia

Local: Calçada do Lavra, 11 – 11A, Lisbon

Project: 2006 – 2008
Building: 2010 – 2011

A comprehensive look at 16 years of contemporary design spanning products, architecture and art installations

Aiming to rethink the way we interact with design in our everyday lives, Paris-based Matali Crasset creates unconventional work in nearly every area of design from products and interiors to architecture and art, asserting herself as one of the most acclaimed and intriguing designers in contemporary culture. Celebrating this extensive body of work is “Matali Crasset: Works“, a massive monograph spanning 16 years of diverse projects.

Organized in reverse chronological order and separated into color-coded sections whose graduated pages form an easily navigable and nicely graphic index, the book offers a visual timeline of Crasset’s design portfolio from 1995-2011 with insightful essays and more than 700 brightly hued images. Her clever and colorful designs create their own social narrative through multi-use spaces and objects in the designer’s distinct way that esteemed curator Zoe Ryan says extends “beyond traditional questions of form and function” in the book’s introduction.

Bucking conventional methods by publishing the introduction on the yellow hard cover, the anthology starts before even being opened, asking the reader, “Do Matali Crasset’s designs playfully return experience to its central place in our relationship with the world?” At the same time that Ryan points out Crasset’s boundless style, she outlines the designer’s three fundamental values—conviction, an heuristic approahc and a horizon—before we even open the book.

One clear example of Masset’s spirit of design can be seen in Phytolab, a transparent educational room where students learn the benefits of plant life simply by being surrounded by it. This unique design encourages guests to interact with the plants through gardening, drawing a connection to how we view and care of ourselves. The innovative laboratory of sorts embodies Casset’s drive to improve the way we experience design and navigate our surroundings.

The comprehensive “Matali Crasset: Works” is now available directly through Rizzoli and from Amazon as well. For a deeper look into Matali Crasset: Works see the gallery below.

Slideshow: diagonally skewed lighting disrupts the perpendicular arrangement of this creative workspace in Seoul by Korean architecture and design studio M4.

Named Saii+Kama, the room provides an informal meeting space, cafe and archive for artists at the Moonji Cultural Institute.

The room has a restricted colour palette of just grey and yellow, comprising unfinished pine, exposed concrete and engineering bricks.

Square-gridded bookshelves wrap across the walls and ceiling beams, while stools and benches surround a central bar counter.

Other interior design projects from South Korea include a library condensed into a cube – see all our stories about interiors here.

Photography is by Lee Pyo-Joon.

The text below is from M4:

Munji Culture Center located in Donggyo-dong at Mapo-ku, Korea is a complex place mixed with literature, arts, humanities and social sciences.

This space performs various spectrums of culture and experiment arts and specially the main role of experiment arts, meeting different artists.

This space is for the purpose of break room and also sharing the information about experiment arts and interdisciplinary arts.

We suggest the program mixing café and archive in one space.

This place is programmed for open space, we set up the bar table in the middle and filled with lots of bookcases so that people can use this space for events, rest , reading or lecture.

The square wood frames are for the use of bookshelf, display or other usages.

The space of saii is emphasizing on the importance of true essence of the ingredients and making the morphological feeling very simple. We haven’t used any artificial ingredients but used the true essence of the ingredients. This was done to fill the space with the “color” formed from the mixture of the artist’s ideology.

We think the basic detail is meeting basic arts and we follows the basic concept to be flexible to cover all kinds of events.

We also expect the future to be filled with variouscolors.

Project: saii+kama (creative crictic space)
Design: Yun, Young-sub / Han, Kwang-hyun / m4 /

Design team: Kim-Rang,Kim jae-jin / m4
Constructor: Lee cheon-hee / m4

Location: 184-24 ho-pyung B/D, donggyo-dong, mapo-gu, seoul, korea
Use: creative crictic space
Area: 36 m2
Design Period: November 2011
Completion Period: December 2011
Photo by : Lee Pyo-joon

Vintage beach chairs repurposed as modern indoor lanterns

More than just bringing the outdoors in, French design studio Colonel recreates a bygone era of carefree beach bumming and camping that’s infinitely more subtle than the theme-party decor such a notion might conjure. Founders Isabelle Gilles and Yann Poncelet reference vintage outdoor gear throughout their collections, from the umbrella-like Faced floor lamps to the oversized, vibrantly printed canvas and metal chair called Caracas.

The retro beach vibe shines through in the cheerful Suzie collection of suspension and floor lanterns for inside the home. Made from the plastic bands of ’60s-era American camping chairs which are hand-sewn over metal frames, each of the lights comprises a unique combination of colors and geometric patterns. While the repurposed lounger parts are recognizable at close glance, their overall effect makes for a thoroughly clean and modern accent in an interior scheme, whether it’s waterfront or not.

Suzie lamps and pieces from other Colonel collections are available to order through their website.

Slideshow: a chandelier made from jam jars hangs from the grilled ceiling of this barbeque restaurant in north east Athens by Greek architects K-studio.

The illuminated jars hang in front of walls patterned with square-cut wooden blocks, which were designed to resemble traditional butcher’s chopping boards.

A selection of mismatched chairs surround wooden tables, while stools line a grey tiled bar.

We’re featured quite a few restaurants recently where furniture is deliberately unmatching – click here to see one where no two items of furniture or crockery are the same.

Photography is by Vangelis Paterakis.

Here’s some more explanation from K-studio:

barQue

barQue sits on the corner of Harilao Trikoupi and Strofiliou in Nea Erythraia.

The cuisine revolves around barbequed meats. This was the starting point for our design and the branding concept.

Barbequing is a social activity, so the design opens up the kitchen and allows the choreography of the chefs to become part of the dining experience, with some diners even sitting along the kitchen worktop to eat.

A steel grille, reminiscent of a barbeque grill, acts as a false ceiling that accentuates the height and gives the space a dark, masculine weight.

A deep frieze of cut pine blocks, arranged as an abstraction of the traditional butchers chopping table, is suspended above the activity allowing continuity between the interior and exterior dining areas.

The glow of the wood-block frieze combines with varied pieces of wooden furniture and a large, glass-jar chandelier to warm the space, balancing soft, crafted and delicate textures with the rough black steel ceiling and the blaze of the grill from the open kitchen.

In collaboration with DGGD the branding completes the atmosphere by borrowing the font from the tool used to brand meat before hanging, to design the restaurant logo. The ‘Taste the Fun’ neon motto reminds everyone that barbequing is a sociable activity and that the preparation, grilling and eating of good quality meat should be celebrated.

Name: barQue
Location: Nea Erythraia, Athens
Designed By: k-studio
Branding: DGGD, k-studio
Lighting: Halo
Status: Completed 2011