Hasta La Ideas

Rotating walls with acid green edges slot together like jigsaw pieces between a London lighting showroom and its window display.

Located at the base of the Centre Point tower, the Atrium showroom was designed by Studio RHE.

Reclaimed railway sleepers step down from the window to a bar at the centre of the store for events.

Lighting products are displayed on the ceiling above this space, mounted onto white geometric shapes with the same glossy green edges.

More lighting products are attached to the walls at the back of the showroom.

Photography is by Bjarte Rettedal.

Here are some more details from Studio RHE:

Atrium

For the last twenty years, ‘Atrium’ has been located in the base of the Centrepoint tower, the iconic building that once held the title of the tallest building in London.

Recently ‘Atrium’ has made a professional move away from modern furniture supply to selling the finest lighting products – a move that needed both explanation and celebration.

This then lead to a design Brief that required an interactive open space, with a central reception area that could very easily be converted into a darkened showroom.

‘Studio RHE’ reacted to the Brief by designing a carefully choreographed intertwined space which utilizes a series of rotating, interlocking, hinged, jig‐sawed wall panels that transform the bright day‐lit space to a darkened showroom with a simple twist.

These rotating walls allow natural light to be played with throughout the day as well as adding an ever changing frontage to the streetscape of St. Giles Circus.

This theatrical transformation will let ‘Atrium’ demonstrate their range of ‘Soft Architecture’ lighting by FLOS. ‘Studio RHE’ has emphasized this by arranging a rich mix of tactile materials from high gloss resin to reclaimed Yara timber sleepers.

This has been done whilst keeping to a simple palette of predominantly a clean white, accentuated by a bright acid green used throughout the edges as a luminous highlight.

Finally an darkened ‘inner sanctum’ meeting space has been created with colour change lighting control wheels and integrally plastered fittings within the walls.

These complete the showroom experience before returning to the beautifully fitted central kinetic bar at the heart of the space.

The design direction is continued through the entire space to the Offices above where desks are arranged along a diagonal show wall with integrated screens and net surfing booths that look out over the double height showroom and plaza.

Design: Studio RHE
RHE Lighting: Atrium, FLOS

Main Contractor: ISM Design Ltd
Resin Flooring: Senso Floors

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See also:

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Showroom by Antonio Ravalli	Món Petit by MSB Workshop	Trent Vioro by STAD

Dezeen Screen: here’s a movie about the almost invisible installation by Japanese architect Junya Ishigami that’s on show at the Barbican art gallery in London. Watch the movie »

Shimmering panels of stainless steel create the appearance of a rippling lake above the heads of shoppers at a supermarket in Moscow.

UK architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands designed the food hall and a surrounding mezzanine of restaurants and bars on the upper floors of a seven-storey department store.

The stainless steel panels were beaten then polished before being mounted onto the ceiling, which is visible from retail floors below.

The roof is supported by chunky white columns, which are interspersed between the fresh food counters that fill the hall.

The overlooking mezzanine provides two private restaurants, a 16 metre-long bar and outdoor terraces that overlook the surrounding city.

Other popular markets on Dezeen include a Shanghai supermarket with swooping lighting tracks on the ceiling and an Istanbul fish market covered by a concrete and steel canopy – see all our stories about markets here.

Photography is by Chris Gascoigne.

The following details are from the architects:

Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands creates landmark luxury food destination in Moscow

International architecture studio Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands has completed a luxury food retail and restaurant space at Tsvetnoy Central Market, Moscow, to rival leading international retail stores. Located on Tsvetnoy Boulevard and adjacent to Old Moscow Circus, the 3,930m² (42,300sq.ft) scheme at the new high-end department store features striking, beaten stainless steel interiors.

Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ design for developer RGI International is the practice’s second collaborative project in Europe with specialist consultants Ford McDonald, having previously completed the acclaimed La Rinascente food hall in Milan. It draws on the practice’s expertise in luxury food retail schemes, including a 10 year collaboration with Harvey Nichols involving its stores in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, as well as the landmark restaurant at London’s OXO Tower Wharf.

Paul Sandilands, Director at Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, said, “Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ design for the food emporium at Tsvetnoy Central Market echos the site’s rich history as the location of Moscow’s famous 19th century flower market. With our previous experience in retail and hospitality design, we created a reflective stainless steel interior to capture the colour, buzz and activity in the space. This creates a sense of drama, which shimmers down to the lower retail levels, drawing visitors up through the building. Tsvetnoy Central Market is set to become Moscow’s ultimate food destination.”

Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ scheme occupies the upper floors of the seven storey department store and is centred around a 1,700m² (18,300sq.ft) delicatessen food hall. Located above, a large-scale mezzanine level houses a 16m long bar, two private dining restaurants and destination outdoor terraces with stunning views across the Moscow skyline.

With floor-to-ceiling windows throughout, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands has harnessed full design control over the only ‘editable’ plane within the space – the ceiling – to create a strong identity for the building. The suspended internal ceiling is comprised of 2,600 components made from highly-polished beaten stainless steel. This technically innovative feature addresses the common issue of underperformance on the upper floors of department stores, by creating a lively and colourful destination at the top to entice customers upwards through the building.

Visible from the ground floor entrance of the department store through a large full-height atrium, the ceiling provides visitors with a glimpse of the colourful produce and activities within the 7m high food hall above. Sitting inside the external envelope, the reflective surfaces wrap and unify the two food retail floors, creating movement through abstract shifting patterns of colour, which make reference to the site’s history as a flower marketplace as well as the architectural innovation and geometry of the new building, designed by Moscow-based architectural studio Project Meganom.

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Hugely impressed by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ stainless steel design, the client also drew the surface down to the lower levels of the department store, including the entrance and central atrium spaces. This mirrored edging unifies the retail floors, driving footfall and sales throughout the store.

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Mahipat Singh at Tsvetnoy Central Market said, “We are very excited by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ work at Tsvetnoy Central Market, which provides the store with a unique visual identity and atmosphere. I am certain that the market will become an integral part of our customers’ lifestyles as it has revolutionised food shopping in the city, embodying the modern spirit of Moscow. Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ expertise has been a crucial element in establishing Tsvetnoy Central Market as a rival to the world’s leading department stores in New York, London, Paris, Milan and Hong Kong.”

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The food hall is flanked by six over-the-counter fresh food concessions, including a European delicatessen, a bakery and patisserie, an Asian sushi bar, fish and poultry counters, and a wine shop. The market also retails a wide range of goods including fresh fruits and vegetables, dry groceries, frozen food and flowers. To ensure that the acoustics from the busy market hall would not reverberate into the open private dining areas above, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands worked with acoustic consultant, Cole Jarman.

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Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands has used feature ceilings on a number of retail schemes as a device to entice customers store wide. This approach was applied to the highly successful restaurant, bar and brasserie for Harvey Nichols at Oxo Tower Wharf, London, which features a cantilevered aerofoil roof with rotating coloured louvre blades that swivel to allow light and acoustic variations. At the La Rinascente food hall in Milan, the practice designed a glowing three-dimensional ceiling, which unified the food concessions and restaurants on the top floor
of the historic department store.

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Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ architectural approach to the client’s brief, utilising space, light and technology to its maximum as opposed to an interior design solution, has resulted in a sophisticated and accessible experience for visitors to Tsvetnoy Central Market.

See also:

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Lotus Fresh by Head Architecture	Besiktas Fish Market by GAD	Barceloneta Market by MiAS Architects

Folding back these perforated screens reconfigures an apartment that’s combined with a dance and choreography studio near Paris.

Light glows through the circular holes to give a star-studded appearance to the walls, which were designed by French studio Cut Architectures.

The hinged panels are hollow and a transparent PVC pipe lines each perforation.

Hidden wheels allow the partitions to be easily manoeuvred.

A second set of screens extends around a set of french windows in the bedroom.

This is the third project by Cut Architectures recently featured on Dezeen, following a glass-fronted music room and a coffee laboratory – see both stories here.

Photography is by David Foessel.

Here are some more details from Cut Architectures:

The apartment is designed after its owner who’s a dancer and a choreographer seeking for a flexible and evolving space. The design offers a continuous, fluid dual aspect 55m² free space which can adapt itself to actual or future uses according to the choreographer’s imagination.

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A mobile and articulated partition wall can reshape the space creating either a living room, a dining room, a library, a spare bedroom or a closet. Appearing like thick walls the panels are very light and can be easily manipulated by a single person.

Composed of  a 100mm pine frame covered with light grey painted MDF boards the panels are attached together with simple hinges. They stand on industrial wheels concealed within the depth of the frame. The panels are randomly perforated and PVC pipes connect the holes in between the MDF boards creating light tunnels that glow like stars in the room.

Another partition wall in the bedroom divides the room with the study and works as shutters for the bedroom.

The apartment is always in movement, the walls dance to change the rooms proportions in a snap.

See also:

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Nagi by Eiri Ota and Irene Gardpoit Chan	Therefore Offices by West Architecture	Switch by Yuko Shibata

Wall coverings have been peeled away to reveal a vaulted stone ceiling that’s several hundred years old inside this refurbished apartment in Tel Aviv.

Israeli architects Pitsou Kedem removed walls between the sandstone brick columns to create an open plan living and dining room surrounded by arches.

An exterior wall was replaced by a thinly framed glass arch that now links the living room to a balcony overlooking the port of Old Jaffa.

The architects installed Corian shelving and surfaces to rooms, as well as a stainless steel kitchen.

A transparent glass cylinder surrounds a shower in the bedroom.

Framed glass doors provide access from this bedroom to a second outdoor terrace.

Other refurbished interiors featured on Dezeen include a Tokyo apartment with the appearance of an elegant building site and a former poet’s house converted into a writer’s retreat.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Here are some more details from Pitsou Kedem:

Jaffa Flat

The language of minimalism imbedded in a historic residence in Old Jaffa.

The 100 square meter residential home is located in Old Jaffa. Its location is unique in that it is set above the harbor, facing west with all of its openings facing the majestic splendor of the Mediterranean Sea.

Whilst it is difficult to determine the buildings exact age, it is clear that it is hundreds of years old.

Over the years, it has undergone many changes and had many additions made that have damaged the original quality of the building and its spaces.

The central idea was to restore the structure’s original, characteristics, the stone walls, the segmented ceilings and the arches including the exposure of the original materials (a combination of pottery and beach sand).

The building has been cleaned of all of the extraneous elements, from newer wall coverings and has undergone a peeling process to expose its original state.

Surprisingly, modern, minimalistic construction styles remind us of and correspond with the ascetic style of the past, and this despite the vast time difference between them.

The central idea was to combine the old and the new whilst maintaining the qualities of each and to create new spaces that blend the styles together even intensify them because of the contrast and tension between the different periods.

The historical is expressed by preserving the textures and materials of the buildings outer shell and by respecting the building engineering accord.

The modern is expressed by the opening of spaces and by altering the internal flow to one more open and free and the creation of an urban loft environment along with the use of stainless steel, iron and Corian in the various partitions, in the openings and in the furniture.

The project succeeds in both honoring and preserving the historical and almost romantic values of the structure whilst creating a contemporary project, modern and suited to its period.

Despite the time differences, the tensions and the dichotomy between the periods exist in a surprisingly balanced and harmonic space.

Design team: Pitsou Kedem & Raz Melamed

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Messner Mountain Museum by EM2	Alemanys 5 by Anna Noguera	The Waterhouse by NHDRO