Hasta La Ideas

Slideshow: Spanish studio Langarita-Navarro Arquitectos filled a Madrid warehouse with makeshift huts and a wilderness of plants to accommodate a nomadic music academy organised by drinks brand Red Bull.

The temporary habitat was installed in the autumn to provide individual music studios for the use of 60 artists, as well as staff offices, a lounge and lecture hall and a recording studio.

Piled up sandbags created the soundproofed structure for the recording studio, while each music studio and office was housed inside a gabled wooden hut.

Sandbag walls also surrounded the bulbous lounge and lecture hall, while faceted ceilings overhead displayed stripy monochrome patterns.

Above: photograph is by Miguel de Guzman

Once the festival was over the structures were dismantled without a trace and the shrubbery was replanted around the city, leaving the warehouse intact.

It wasn’t long ago we revealed images of Red Bull’s new Amsterdam headquarters – see them here.

Above: photograph is by Miguel de Guzman

Photography is by Luis Diaz Diaz, apart from where otherwise stated.

Above: photograph is by Miguel de Guzman

Here’s some more information from Langarita-Navarro Arquitectos:

Red Bull Music Academy
Nave de la Música en Matadero Madrid

In many ways this project shares the logic of a Russian matryoshka doll. Not only in the most literal, physical sense, in which one thing is directly incorporated into another, but also in a temporal sense, in which one actually originates within the other. The initial circumstances of this project established a favorable backdrop for this condition:

Above: photograph is by Miguel de Guzman

An emergency project. The Red Bull Music Academy Madrid 2011:

The Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) is a nomadic annual music festival. For the last 14 years, this event has been held in a different world city, welcoming the sixty pre-selected international participants and surrounding them with musicians, producers, and DJs, thereby giving them the opportunity to experiment with and exchange knowledge and ideas about the world of music.

Above: photograph is by Miguel de Guzman

The 2011 edition of RBMA was going to be held in Tokyo, but given the devastating effects of the earthquake, the location had to be changed. With only five months to plan, the city of Madrid took over. The creative space known as Matadero Madrid, which is located in an early 20th century industrial warehouse complex, was designated as the event’s new location.

Above: photograph is by Miguel de Guzman

A medium-term project, The Nave de Música in Matadero Madrid

The RBMA launched the programming for the new Nave de Música (music warehouse), a space specifically dedicated to audio creation and research. Using the existing installation as a starting point and given its experimental character, the construction project was approached as a temporary structure based on the criteria of adaptability and reversibility that would make it easy to completely or partially reconfigure over time.

Above: photograph is by LNA

Under these circumstances and in an emergency situation, the work began on an infrastructure capable of meeting the precise technical and acoustic needs of the event, in addition to accelerating, promoting and enriching a series of extremely intense artistic encounters that would take place between the participating musicians, while at the same time adding an environment that would record and archive everything taking place.

Above: photograph is by Miguel de Guzman

The proposal was developed based on five guidelines:

1. Deadlines and budget. The design had to specifically comply with some very tight deadlines and budgetary concerns. The construction had to be completed in less than two months, implementing solutions that would require only light construction and seeking a balance between standardization and adaptability.

2. Regarding the warehouse. Warehouse 15 of the Matadero is an open space comprised of a metallic structure with a brick facade. This structure, which measures about 4,700 m2, opens directly to the outside. One of the criteria taken into account for this project was that of not modifying the warehouse itself, but rather leaving it exactly as it was before the intervention.

3. Program requirements. The program’s organization clearly establishes a specific configuration that is grouped into four areas: offices, studios for musicians, recording studios and an area used for conferences, radio and as a lounge. The chosen spatial and constructive systems would allow for the reconfiguration of these spaces for future events.

4. Acoustics. The event’s acoustic requirements determined its geometry, as well as the choice of materials and constructive solutions. Each of the areas acquired a specific logic that corresponded with its usage, thereby making it possible to uniquely resolve its acoustic needs. Some heterogeneous solutions included the massive walls in the recording studios, the absorbent surfaces of the cloth domes in the conference room and the structural and geometric independence of the nonparallel pavilions.

5. Temporariness. Given the temporary nature of this project and in order to avoid influencing future interventions in the warehouse, it was designed to be dismantled in such a way so as to not leave a trace. Even the “heaviest” actions were designed to be reversible and to allow for their easy recycling for future events. Examples of this included the use of sandbags to make up the walls of the recording studios and potted plants that could later be transplanted in other areas of the Matadero or the city.

As a result, the project unfolded in the warehouse’s interior in the form of a fragmented urban structure in which the variable relationship between proximity and independence, and preexistence and performance could offer unexpected stages to its community of inhabitants.

Architects: Langarita-Navarro Arquitectos, María Langarita y Víctor Navarro
Collaborators: Juan Palencia, Gonzalo Gutierrez, Tonia Papanikolau, Paula García-Masedo
Surveyor: Javier Reñones
Landscape: Jerónimo Hagerman
Mechanicals: Úrculo ingenieros
Acoustics: Imar Sanmartí Acousthink S.L.
Structures: Mecanismo S.L.
Light structures: Arquiges y Cuatro50
Ending date: 2011

New York Fashion Week is in full swing, and on Friday morning, Kate Spade presented a Paris-infused fall 2012 collection dappled with polka dots and painterly prints, all smartly styled by Brad “Pop of Color” Goreski. “I’m kind of the Kate Spade girl but a boy,” he says. “I connect very well with the clothes and the aesthetic.” Meanwhile, Deborah Lloyd‘s ever-sharper, retro-chic brand is also busy rolling out cheeky spring offerings, a tribute to Australian textile designer Florence Broadhurst (1899-1977; we like to imagine her palling around with a young Edna Everage and going by the nickname “FloBro”), with the help of a boldly patterned bus-cum-pop-up shop. The collection is part of a larger collaboration with Helen and David Lennie‘s Signature Prints, which controls the Broadhurst design library. In addition to handbags, shift dresses, and Tretorn sneakers in her mod-nouveau Japanese Floral pattern, Kate Spade has debuted homegoods awash in graphic FloBro patterns. Now on offer at the brand’s just-launched Florence Broadhurst Decor Shop are eye-catching cushion covers, old-school luggage, china, and, of course, wallpaper. Bedding and other items incorporating Broadhurst prints will be added in the months ahead.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Israeli architects Pitsou Kedem have completed a showroom for furniture brand B&B Italia inside an industrial warehouse by the harbour in Tel Aviv.

Silicate panels line the western wall of the 11-metre-high hall, while other interior walls are clad in concrete panels.

A deep-framed entrance leads visitors inside, where a rusted metal staircase climbs up to a narrow mezzanine that bridges the full width of the showroom.

A wall of metal-framed window panels divides the space into two and some of them pivot open as doors.

Furniture on show inside the warehouse currently includes a sofa by designer Patricia Urquiola – find out more about it here and see more stories about B&B Italia here.

The text below is from Pisou Kedem:

The Shell and its Contents – Italia B&B Showroom

The designer breathed new life into an abandoned and dilapidated building in the Tel Aviv harbor area, and created, around one of the finest furniture collections in the world of design, a space that is both powerful and yet restrained at one and the same time.

The 11 meter high structure with a unique façade consisting of a line of pillars that creates a clear and well defined construction grid, was used by the designer as the base for the entire outer shell.

The architect chose to leave in place only the pillars and beams and to remove everything else leaving just a hint of the structures history with the rectangular, silicate western wall, being specially treated to preserve its original look.

In the design for the interior of the building, the architect expresses his own, local interpretation for the display space where there is a continuous space, achieved through light, sight and movement along with the use of industrial materials that correspond with the industrial look of the outer shell.

The aim was to create a display space that was both impressive and powerful but without detracting from the importance of the furniture on display.

The central idea was to create a shell that would stand as an architectural element in its own right whilst still respecting the contents of the structure.

The use of unprocessed materials in their natural and original form (such as concrete panels and rusted iron) succeeded in empowering the industrialized look but also not to overpower of the furniture display.

The outside of the structure was sheathed in industrial, concrete looking panels and, despite the buildings great height; the architect designed a low, metal entrance that emphasizes to all those entering the structure the human relationship and the contrasts that strengthen the power of the space’s height once inside the building itself.

From outside, the façade is almost anonymous and, for the most part, sealed.

Due to the decision not to adorn it with huge signs as is usually the case with other showrooms, but rather to preserve the minimalistic and restrained look from the outside, the company’s logo was positioned on the walls of the entrance “tunnel” thus strengthening the effect of the contents – furniture display.

There is an awareness of the importance of the furniture collection on display and of its designers and of a sincere attempt to follow the so fragile and delicate dividing line, to design both a showroom that is impressive and eternal whilst not imposing the architecture on the contents.

Design: Pitsou Kedem Architects
Design Team: Pitsou Kedem, Irene Goldberg, Raz Melamed

Threads of plastic hang like hair from the ceiling of this dark beauty salon in Belgrade, Serbia.

Designers a2rhitektura painted the walls of the Cabello salon black and hung the threads to mask an uneven ceiling.

A rectangular ash bench lines one wall of the salon, while a line of chairs opposite face a single mirror with a red outline.

We’ve published quite a few salons on Dezeen – have a look at them all here.

Photography is by Vladimir Andjelkovic.

Here’s a short description from the architects:

“Cabello”

Cosmetic salon “cabello” is located in new belgrade, at the omladinskih brigada street 90b, airport city. It is made for a private investor who has given freedom to designers in addition to interior design and company name and overall visual identity.

Since it is a rented space in which the previous owner made certain changes in the level of ceiling (plaster pronounced ceiling beams) which should not have to be changed, the designers have decided that the entire treatment area in a black tone that allowed visual hide (removal of the third dimension) of the dominant elements of the ceiling as well as other inherited structures in the interior.

In order to achieve continuous ceiling height to the existing structure is hung “hair”, or black plastic threads on the distance a thick hide allow the existing ceiling structure and the formation of flickering ceiling, which is slightly shifted due to air flow and movement of people at the local level.

In addition to black tones dominate the interior elements of furniture made of natural wood-ash brushed, which, with its very distinctive structure emphasises natural materials. Tactility and natural materials applied to a desk, bench seating and a large shelf was imperative in making the project and details of furniture. as the only focus in space, there is a particular shade of purple light, which marks the visual space and reminds us that this is a women’s hairdresser.

Although in its interior measurements relatively small, the author realised it pieces of furniture made of brushed natural ash, specially designed printed application on the walls and glass surfaces and literally applied a new visual identity of the space, making it important for authors.

Studio: a2arhitektura
Authors: Dijana Adžemović Anđelković dia, Vladimir Anđelković dia, Aleksandar Bogojević dia, Ranko Pavlović dia

Japanese designers Nendo have a furnished a suit store in Okayama like an office, with conference tables, bookshelves and desk lamps.

Suits at the Halsuit concept store for menswear retailer Haruyama hang beneath the wooden tables, while accessories are arranged on the wall-mounted shelves.

Circular mannequin stands conceal a set of fitting rooms in the centre of the store.

Elsewhere, the floor and ceiling surfaces change in colour and material to highlight an area where shirts are displayed.

Other boutiques designed by Nendo include one filled with fake doors and another where shoes are showcased on timber staircases – see all our stories about Nendo here.

Photography is by Masaya Yoshimura.

Here’s some more text from Nendo:

“HALSUIT” design concept

A concept shop for high-volume mens suit retailer Haruyama.

Haruyama offers its customers a dizzying number of options for suits, shirts and ties. Variety of choice is one of Haruyama’s strengths, but customers can also be overwhelmed by the number of options, and find it difficult to choose the best matches for their suit.

Families can get bored, and the overall atmosphere isn’t always as conducive to relaxed, pleasant shopping as Haruyama would like. Our first decision was to move the fitting rooms from the edge of the shop floor to its centre. We used the front exterior walls of the fitting rooms as showcases for different ways of coordinating the suits, and installed a counter with magazines and television for friends and families. Matchable accessories are arrayed around the area, making it into a focal point where shoppers can develop an image of the suit they’d like to have.

Most suits are worn to the office, so we used lighting reminiscent of desk lamps, and shelving in the style of office storage units to create the right scene. We replaced posters with LCD screens, and transformed the sales area for shirts into a server room.

Shoppers make their purchases at a ‘reception desk’, and lounge and conference room-type spaces help shoppers to imagine their own work styles as they select their suit. The space reflects Haruyama’s brand concept, that men should define and enjoy their personal working style.

We used louvers that change colour depending on the angle from which they’re viewed for the shop exterior, so that the image of the shop varies, depending on the direction from which drivers approach.