Hasta La Ideas

Turntables and Tokyobikes will be available to hire at the latest addition to the Ace Hotel chain, designed by London practice Universal Design Studio and opening later this month in Shoreditch.

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby’s Universal Design Studio designed the interior and exterior of the 258-room hotel on Shoreditch High Street, behind a new facade designed by the team.

Dark engineering brick will clad the ground floor, with lighter rendering on the upper storeys.

“Both exterior and interior design focus on traditional craftsmanship, embedding the space within the historic context and material heritage of Shoreditch,” said Universal Design Studio director Jason Holley.

A large glass-walled event space on top will have panoramic views of London and the basement will feature a bar and performance space. The hotel will also contain a flower shop, brasserie, takeaway juice bar and cafe.

Cork ceilings fitted with custom copper light fixtures and timber parquet flooring are to be installed in communal areas on the ground floor.

Original work by local artists will adorn walls of the minimal bedrooms, in some of which guests can request to have Martin guitars and Rega RP1 turntables. Guests will also be able to hire bicycles to explore the city from local shop Tokyobike.

Monochrome tiles will line the bathrooms, which will feature mirror-faced bathtubs and lights designed for outside.

Universal Design Studio was founded by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, designers of the London 2012 Olympic torch. The studio has also completed interiors for fashion brand Mulberry’s stores in Manchester and New Bond Street, London, plus a pleated facade for an H&M shop in Seoul.

These images show model rooms representing the finished guest facilities at the hotel. Photographs are by Mads Perch, unless otherwise stated.

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Here’s a full project description from the hotel:

Ace Hotel London Shoreditch – Design Narrative

Ace Hotel worked with London-based architecture and interior design firm Universal Design Studio to design exteriors and interiors, including 258 guest rooms, an 1,800 square foot seventh floor event space, a 2,700 square foot restaurant, Hoi Polloi, and a 3,900 square foot lounge and reception area comprised of retail units, a bar, café and art gallery. Our approach was to tune in to the authentic voice of Shoreditch, to engage local artists, craftspersons and builders to foster a sense of place at home with its surroundings, a place that is, according to Ace co-founder Alex Calderwood, “of London and for London.”

Known for their distinctive design aesthetic, recognisable for its simplicity and clever use of material details, and a bespoke approach to each client, Universal Design Studio was a natural choice to help translate the Ace ethos into a London vernacular. Both exterior and interior design focus on traditional craftsmanship, embedding the space within the historic context and material heritage of Shoreditch. Material choices are informed by East London’s longstanding role as a centre for the performing arts, as well as a historic home to skilled trades like shoemaking, furniture making, rope making, ship building and silk weaving.

Façade & Exterior Details

Immediately facing a conservation area, the area surrounding Ace Hotel London Shoreditch has a rich architectural history, composed of a tightly knit grain of warehouses, shops, residential and industrial buildings. The intent of the façade is to mesh with the urban fabric around us. Contemporary takes on traditional material cues use expressive brickwork, infill and pattern to reanimate the street level of the building, bringing activity to the front and breaking the façade into a number of independent units and uses. Dark ‘engineering brick’, often found in traditional utilitarian buildings is used to ground the base in local tradition. A rich mixture of textural changes — brick bonds and receded bricks alongside glazed and unglazed patterning — create a series of distinct identities across the span of the façade. In reference to local metalwork traditions, Crittall windows, doors and industrial elements like grids, cast bronze, galvanised steel and waxed finishes add to the authentically local character.

Public Areas

Communal areas at Ace Hotel London Shoreditch include the ground floor lobby, a communal table, café, lobby bar and gallery space. The lobby is envisioned as a hub for interaction for hotel guests as well as the surrounding community, and continues the real-Shoreditch tone set by the exterior, with common local materials like brick, metalwork and Crittall glazing. A series of room-like zones are created through furniture arrangements and a series of full-height Crittall glass and steel screens, inviting the language of articulated shop fronts, that begins with the façade, indoors. A cork ceiling fitted with custom copper light fixtures and timber parquet flooring steeps the setting in the local visual culture.

A rich theatrical history is reflected in moments throughout the communal spaces as well, like a custom theatre-style light grid installed in the external entrance foyer. Ace Hotel London Shoreditch sits on the original site of the Shoreditch Empire, later the London Music Hall. The Empire, designed by prolific theatrical architect Frank Matcham, opened in 1856 and played host to stars like Charlie Chaplin.

In the lobby bar area, a lighter colour of brick, articulated brick patterns, and a skylight that draws natural daylight lend to the uniqueness of the space. Artist Max Lamb was commissioned to design the bar cladding, bar stools and cocktail tables. A long, sixteen-seat communal work table by Benchmark in the lobby is a bespoke piece made of cast iron, oak and copper which can be used as an informal meeting or work space.

The café features a range of rich finishes including handmade tiles and patterned timber floors. The gallery space will rotate artist exhibitions and we’re collaborating with local artists on details throughout the lobby.

Restaurant Concept

At Hoi Polloi, Universal and Atelier Ace worked with the Hoi Polloi team to create an English modernist brasserie inspired by mid-twentieth century European bistros. Stepping in from bustling Shoreditch High Street, Hattie Fox’s That Flower Shop is a floral interlude before discovering the restaurant. On entering Hoi Polloi, guests encounter an informal bar area made up of a series of banquette booths. The high-ceilinged space accommodates a variety of paces — fast-moving and leisurely. Moving into the main dining space, soft banquette seating creates a range of areas focused around a central seating section. A sense of spontaneity fosters the feeling of ‘an occasion,’ somewhere for everyday, yet special every time. It’s a dynamic space, as ideal for daytimes spent working on a laptop as it is for evening drinks or supper.

Design details include a complex palette of materials like fluted timber-paneled walls with horizontally mirrored panels to create further depth. The bar is wrapped with natural stone while banquettes are finished in leather. Flecked linoleum tabletops contrast with stone surfaces, while Douglas Fir-paneled banquettes standout against warm Iroko timber wall panels. Hexagonal timber flooring in the bar area shifts to encaustic ceramic tiles in the dining room. Polished brass light fixtures sit on low walls behind banquette seating and custom pendant lights by Philippe Malouin light the main dining space. Ercol Love Seats and classic Butterfly chairs echo classic British dining rooms.

Guest Rooms

The approach to the guest rooms was to think of them as a friend’s Shoreditch apartment, a collection of furniture and objects acquired over time, each with stories and memories attached. Each guest finds a curated shelf with a distinct identity and experience of place — useful crafted elements (maps, sketch pads) from local makers, records, books, a pin-up cork board and found curiosities. This magnetic shelf by T Nevill & Co. can be changed or added to by guests during their visit.

A utilitarian colour palette on the walls of the rooms creates a modest shell, a low-key canvas for simple but considered bespoke elements like folding metal display shelving, matte-finish oak bed platforms and expansive daybeds with reverse-denim upholstery. The full-width daybed encourages social interaction and a round table replaces the standard hotel room desk with something more domestic and multi-functional. The mixture of matte-finish solid white European oak, black powder- coated metal and fabrics add texture in consonance with the cool, pared-back approach throughout, to allow for curated objects to stand out.

Custom tile patterns, mirror-faced bathtubs and ‘exterior’ light fittings in bathrooms are complementary patterns against a monochrome palette.

Lovage

Lovage is a seasonal farm-to-street elixir and treat stand rooted in the essentials of British folk medicine and based on the idea that wellness comes from nature. The menu content will change seasonally and the interior walls will transition accordingly from white washed spruce to dark, charred cedar panels. The reversible panels are hung from raw breeze block walls with blackened steel barnyard ironmongery, a material gesture inspired by unfussy, rural Japanese kitchens and traditional village apothecaries.

Other notes include cast bronze light fixtures and a Noren curtain made of vintage boro fabric, contrasted with stainless steel work surfaces and a floor made of black hexagonal encaustic tiles. Signage and graphics are screen-printed on plywood. The warm, earthen atmosphere, set against a clean, utilitarian space complements the objective of providing natural, holistic sustenance in the midst of travel and work.

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Dezeen is now selling the latest edition of writer and editor Max Fraser’s London Design Guide, and we’ve also got five copies to give away.

Released today, this third edition of Max Fraser‘s 208-page guide to design in the British capital features reviews of more than 150 new and established retailers, galleries, museums and bookshops, including our Dezeen Watch Store retail space on page 191.

The book is divided into ten neighbourhood chapters, each accompanied by detailed maps and listings for specific streets that feature copious design venues.

A selection of restaurant, bar and café recommendations for each area are picked for interior design credentials as well as food and service quality.

This issue also includes essays about the state of retail and the future of physical shops, written by a series of experts.

You can buy the London Design Guide 2014-2015 here for £12, or in combination with our Dezeen Book of Ideas for just £18.

We’re also giving readers the chance to win one of five copies. See details of how to enter below.

To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “London Design Guide 2014-2015” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers. Read our privacy policy here.

You need to subscribe to our newsletter to have a chance of winning. Sign up here.

Competition closes 10 October 2013. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

Read on for more information about the London Design Guide 2014-2015:

London design guide 2014-2015 edition, edited by Max Fraser

London’s only comprehensive design guide returns with new content and contributors in this totally updated and rewritten third edition.

For fans of contemporary and vintage design and those looking to access it, London Design Guide gives a fresh insight into the city’s design retailers, galleries, museums and bookshops. More than 150 new and established hotspots are compiled and reviewed, providing a tantalising viewpoint of the design capital of the world.

Each entry is categorised by neighbourhood and accompanied by detailed maps to help navigate the best that the city has to offer. In each of the ten neighbourhood chapters, we’ve honed in on streets that demonstrate a healthy mix of independent shops and services and asked selected business owners to comment on their evolution and attributes, with contributors including Stephen Webster, Ally Capellino, Sam & Sam Clarke and Michael Anastassiades. Furthermore, restaurant, bar and café recommendations are featured for each area, selected as much for their design credentials as for the quality of food and service.

Every edition of London Design Guide includes themed essays from a variety of design experts and commentators. In this edition, we’ve examined the state of retail during a period when shops are undoubtedly struggling with a weak economy, tapered footfall, high rents and the great might of internet shopping. We ask retailers and analysts, including Sheridan Coakley (scp), Simon Alderson (twentytwentyone), Lina Kanafani (Mint) and Magnus Englund (Skandium), what’s the future trajectory of bricks-and-mortar shops?

The 208-page London Design Guide is a snapshot of the design scene today, a celebration of creativity and a practical tool for Londoners and tourists alike. There’s no better incentive for exploring the wealth of design in the capital.

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by Max Fraser appeared first on Dezeen.

Masters of Pie nous offre cette magnifique vidéo d’animation réalisée à l’occasion du premier anniversaire des Jeux Olympiques de Londres. En 3D low-poly, « The Olympians » symbolise la course de la flamme olympique contre les Dieux de l’Olympe au coeur de la capitale anglais. Plus dans la suite.

News: architect Rafael Viñoly has admitted he knew the facade of his curvy Walkie Talkie skyscraper in London would focus an intense beam of sunlight onto a neighbouring street, but says that he “didn’t realise it was going to be so hot”.

Speaking to Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright, Viñoly said that his curvaceous 37-storey tower at 20 Fenchurch Street was originally designed with horizontal sun louvres that would prevent a glare strong enough to melt the paint and bodywork of parked vehicles on Eastcheap Street, but that they were removed to cut costs.

“We made a lot of mistakes with this building,” he said, “and we will take care of it.”

The architect claims to have identified the problem during the design stages, but says he was without appropriate tools or software to analyse the precise effect.

“When it was spotted on a second design iteration, we judged the temperature was going to be about 36 degrees,” he said. “But it’s turned out to be more like 72 degrees. They are calling it the ‘death ray’, because if you go there you might die. It is phenomenal, this thing.”

He also suggested that the problem could be down to changing climate. “When I first came to London years ago, it wasn’t like this,” he said. “Now you have all these sunny days. So you should blame this thing on global warming too, right?”

This week developers installed a two-storey netted shield to cover the facade of the building, now nicknamed “Walkie Scorchie”, while city officials have suspended three parking bays until a more permanent solution can be found.

Reports first surfaced at the start of the week that the building was damaging vehicles. Since then it has been reported to have cracked pavement tiles, started a fire and even been used to fry an egg.

This isn’t the first time that Viñoly has had complaints about sun reflecting from one of his buildings. In 2010, guests at the Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas complained of scorched hair and melted drinks glasses.

“That was a completely different problem,” Viñoly told the paper, stating that the brief for that project had called for curvy towers. “We pointed out that would be an issue too, but who cares if you fry somebody in Las Vegas, right?”

The Walkie Talkie is scheduled to complete next year.

See more architecture by Rafael Viñoly »
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Images of the Walkie Talkie are courtesy of Shutterstock.

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says Walkie Scorchie architect Viñoly appeared first on Dezeen.

London studio Duggan Morris Architects has completed a community facility in south London that combines exposed concrete frames with raw brickwork and warm oak (+ slideshow).

Named ORTUS, the three-storey building provides an education and events centre for Maudsley, a charitable foundation that acts to promote mental healthcare and well-being, and is used to host workshops and exhibitions that involve the entire community.

Duggan Morris Architects drew inspiration from neighbouring Georgian architecture to formulate the proportions of the building’s facade.  A precast concrete framework gives each elevation a strict grid, which is then infilled with a sequence of brickwork and glass.

“The building has a simple rectilinear form, with elevations composed to compliment the Georgian principles of proportion, scale, hierarchy and materiality,” said architects Joe Morris and Mary Duggan.

The brickwork appears to fade from the base of the structure to the top, changing from a typical London stock to a lighter greyish red.

Floors inside the building are staggered to create half storeys, helping to integrate activities in different spaces. These level changes are visible on the exterior walls and all centre around a grand top-lit staircase.

A cafe located near the ground-floor entrance is intended to entice visitors into the building. The first of several events spaces is positioned on one side, separated by a wide staircase that integrates an informal seating area.

“At ground level, the landscape is envisaged as a series of connected rooms, mirroring the internal configurations thus ensuring that learning activities can spill out in a controlled manner,” said the architects.

Flexible and sub-dividable spaces fill the two storeys above, plus there’s a concealed terrace on the roof.

Other projects by Duggan Morris Architects include a brick house on the site of a former plaster-moulding workshop and a converted nineteenth century farm building.

See more architecture by Duggan Morris Architects »
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Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.

Read on for more information from Duggan Morris:

ORTUS, Home of Maudsley Learning

ORTUS, home of Maudsley Learning is a 1,550sqm pavilion housing learning and event facilities, cafe and exhibition spaces. The central focus of this unique project, initially coined ‘Project Learning Potential’, is to create a totally immersive learning environment generating a series of interconnecting spaces to encourage intuitive learning activities either in groups or individually and also to create possibilities for digital learning via social media.

The project was initially developed through an 18 month immersion process involving research and consultation workshops with user groups, Kings College Hospital, the Institute of Psychiatry and community groups, with Duggan Morris Architects commissioned to develop the client’s brief. This process was ultimately captured through a series of ‘Vision Statements’, which guided the wider team through the project providing a constant reference point during the design development stages.

The building is now home to Maudsley Learning, a Community Interest Company which has been set up to run the building. It’s vision is to raise knowledge and awareness of mental health and wellbeing which it intends to achieve through the building, through the development of a virtual learning environment and the creation of learning events focusing on mental health and wellbeing across a broad audience.

In response to locally evident contextual influences the building has been conceived as a free standing pavilion, regular in both plan and volume.

The building has a simple rectilinear form, with elevations composed to compliment the Georgian principles of proportion, scale, hierarchy and materiality. A 1200 mm vertical grid, of precast concrete fins, articulates the contrasting materials of brick and glass, whilst floor slabs are expressed in the same material ensuring the stagger of the floor plates is abundantly clear to even the casual passer-by. Terraces at ground, inset balconies above, and a large roof terrace further articulate the simplicity of the building, whilst creating positive connections between internal spaces and the abundant landscape which sits in and around the project.

At ground level, the landscape is envisaged as a series of connected rooms, mirroring the internal configurations thus ensuring that learning activities can spill out in a controlled manner. A cafe at the ground floor is intended as a marker near the building entrance, aiming to help de-stigmatise preconceptions of mental health and well being, by making the building more accessible to the wider community, sharing with the campus a vision which includes doctors, nurses, teachers, service users and carers in promoting an integrated learning environment; ‘Learning for anyone, anywhere, at anytime’.

Spatially, the building is planned as a series of flexible, sub-dividable spaces positioned around a central multifunctional tiered space, navigated by a grand ‘open’ staircase. In cross-section, these floor plates stagger across the section by a half storey, thus the grouping of learning spaces appears to extend from the half landing of the open stair; the aim being to create a stronger visual link between floors enhancing the ethos of an immersive learning environment. The open staircase with its shortened connections across the plan is intended to encourage a domestic scale circulation system and is set away from the lift core to encourage movement and visible activity.

The central space is key to controlling the environmental performance of the building, which is uniquely passive, by introducing abundant natural light from a glazed roof into the heart of the plan, feeding each floor plate. In turn automated glazed vents throughout the building envelope introduce cooling air as required at each level throughout day and night, feeding the central stack of the void.

The building was delivered through a PPC 2000 Partnering project, tailored for Construction Management procurement. It was delivered on time and on budget. As a highly sustainable building it is designed to BREEAM excellent standard and has an ‘A’ energy rating.

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by Duggan Morris Architects appeared first on Dezeen.