Hasta La Ideas

News: the seminal London home designed by British architect Richard Rogers for his parents – and which influenced his later design for the Pompidou Centre – has been put on the market for the first time since it was built in 1968 (+ slideshow).

Rogers House, at Wimbledon in south-west London, was designed to provide a flexible, open interior and is cited by Rogers himself as the precursor to the Pompidou Centre, the groundbreaking 1977 arts centre in Paris he designed with Renzo Piano.

The Grade II*-listed property, regarded as one of the finest and most historically important modern houses in England, has been owned by Rogers’ family since it was built but is now on the market for £3.2 million with estate agent The Modern House.

In their description of the property, the agents describe it as “one of the most important and celebrated houses of the 20th century”.

Talking to Dezeen recently about the house, Rogers said: “If you look at the house in Wimbledon for my parents, which is a single storey house, it’s steel and highly insulated, it’s transparent, the bathroom is very compact and all the partitions can move – you can see a link from that to the Pompidou with the difference being about a thousand times the scale,” Rogers said.

The main house is a single-storey building with a simple yellow-painted steel frame, which is fully glazed at both ends. The internal moveable partitions within the buildings allow residents to utilise and section the spaces as they wish.

The house represented Britain at the 1967 Paris Biennale and was described as “the most technically interesting and visually striking house in Europe” by Richard Einzig in  his book, Classic Modern Houses in Europe.

The building is set in gardens landscaped by Rogers’ mother, Dada Rogers, and faces a second, smaller building with a similar yellow-steel frame that was originally built as a pottery studio. Both buildings retain their original, vibrant colour scheme, which was developed by Rogers’ mother in conjunction with Richard and Su Rogers.

At the rear of the garden there is a third building, designed by Rogers’ son and the house’s most recent occupant, Ab Rogers. This consists of a single open space and kitchenette.

The house was given a grade II* listing earlier this year – a rare accolade for such a recent building.

At the time the listing was announced, culture secretary Ed Vaizey said: “This is an outstanding and innovative example of a high-tech steel frame house that has clearly stood the test of time. Though many will always associate Lord Rogers with iconic works like the Lloyds Building in London, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the National Assembly of Wales in Cardiff, this much earlier building is highly significant too; a masterpiece from one of the most imaginative and exciting periods in private house building in this country.”

The sale coincides with the opening of the Richard Rogers: Inside Out exhibition at the Royal Academy in London this month.

Ahead of the exhibition, Rogers spoke to Dezeen about how architecture’s civic responsibility has been eroded in “an age of greed”. Read the interview »

See all our stories about Richard Rogers

Photographs are copyright Tim Crocker/The Modern House.

The post Rogers House by Richard Rogers
goes on sale for the first time appeared first on Dezeen.

The curved plasterwork of typical Mediterranean architecture influenced the smooth white interior of this store for skin and haircare brand Aesop in London’s Covent Garden.

Aesop Covent Garden is the fifth store by French studio Ciguë. The team designed shelves and surfaces with naturally chamfered edges, just like in the old houses of Greece, Spain and Italy.

“We did a residential project for a family in Paris and the staircase was in traditional plaster,” designer Hugo Haas told Dezeen. “I thought this finish would make a really beautiful concept for Aesop.”

The shelves are loosely laid out in seven different zones, for displaying each of Aesop’s product ranges, while the sink and countertop run along one wall.

The floor is covered with hexagonal green tiles that are engraved with geometric patterns. “We wanted something in contrast, to find a balance,” said Haas.

This hexagonal motif is also picked up elsewhere, including on the perforations in the sink’s plughole.

“It’s possible you don’t notice it, and it’s ok,” said Haas, “but I like the feeling when you notice it. It was all about developing a formal language.”

A custom-made lamp is suspended from the ceiling, built using industrial fixtures from the 1920s, while plants frame an extra window at the rear of the space.

Ciguë’s past projects for Aesop include a Paris store where items are displayed on rows of hand-made iron nails and a north London shop modelled on a 1930s medical laboratory. See more design by Ciguë »

Dezeen interviewed Aesop founder Dennis Paphitis last year about why no two stores have the same design. “I was horrified at the thought of a soulless chain,” he said.

Other Aesop stores have been designed by well-known architects and designers, from Japanese architect Jo Nagasaka to London designer Ilse Crawford and American architect William O’Brien Jr. See more Aesop stores on Dezeen »

Here’s some more information from Aesop:

Aesop opens in Covent Garden

A hand-crafted space that honours the art of plastering

London recently welcomed its sixth Aesop signature store, in Covent Garden.

This fresh collaboration with Parisian architects Ciguë began with four key design references: a Virginia Woolf quote, a Francis Bacon painting, a Henry Moore sculpture, and an excerpt from Beauty and the Beast. These inspired a space that eloquently expresses the brand, just as it embodies Ciguë’s philosophy: ‘We are very curious about history, and very attentive to transformations. We look out for old know-how and poetry in functionality.’

The brilliantly whitewashed walls reflect abundant natural light, which warms during the afternoon in step with neighbouring pubs. Exposed copper plumbing and light fixtures offer utilitarian adornment. A floor of engraved green cement tiles pays homage to the area’s Italianate piazza – London’s first open square, constructed in the seventeenth century. The colour is replicated in lush vegetation which climbs the walls from an interior window box, complementing the neighbouring gardens of Saint Paul’s Church.

The post Aesop Covent Garden
by Ciguë appeared first on Dezeen.

In this movie filmed at Clerkenwell Design Week, French designer Erwan Bouroullec tells Dezeen he believes offices need new dividing systems now there is much less storage for paper and books.

Speaking at Vitra‘s Clerkenwell showroom at an installation showcasing Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec‘s Alcove furniture and a new office system currently in development called Workbays, Bouroullec explains that office spaces used to be divided up by storage.

But “storage is disappearing,” he says. “We don’t have real paper, we don’t have real books, not in the quantity that we used to have.”

The Workbays system Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec are developing, in which work stations are surrounded by soft fleece walls, is an attempt to re-privatise the working environment, Bouroullec goes on to explain.

“Instead of storage, we are creating a number of small enclosures in which you kind of nest, you disappear a little,” he says.

“[What] we propose are, let’s say, some elements that act as dividers in a way. But they’re not as limited as a wall system. They’re more about the function that is inside.”

See all our stories from Clerkenwell Design Week 2013 »

The music featured in this movie is a track called Octave by Junior Size, released by French record label Atelier du Sample . You can listen to more Junior Size tracks on Dezeen Music Project.

The post “Storage is disappearing from
offices” – Erwan Bouroullec appeared first on Dezeen.

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