Hasta La Ideas

Paris studio Jouin Manku installed a sculptural fireplace and chose materials with natural tones and textures to give this lounge in Munich‘s Bayerischer Hof hotel the feel of a fantasy forest landscape.

Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku of Jouin Manku designed the lounge on the sixth floor of the Bayerischer Hof hotel, along with an adjacent restaurant and a private dining room.

A funnel-shaped chimney drops down from the ceiling of the lounge to cover an elliptical stone fireplace, which is surrounded by curving benches.

Porcelain ribs encircling the base of the chimney also feature on the front of the curving bar and create surfaces with constantly shifting reflections.

Alcoves containing benches interrupt the pale green walls that complement the stone flooring and furniture made from wood and leather.

A restaurant next to the lounge features alcoves containing benches with undulating three-dimensional back panels carved from aerated concrete to suggest a mountainous scene.

“Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku’s idea was to offer guests views even inside the room, recreating a natural landscape and fantasy all at once,” the designers explained.

Lighting hidden in the curving folds of the surfaces illuminates their topographical shape, based on “a mineral horizon made ​​of stone and snow which appears to be carved into the rock.”

A terrace connected to the restaurant provides additional dining space with views across the city towards the distant mountains.

Louvred panels on the ceiling conceal lighting and are arranged in a staggered formation that leads towards the windows.

Supporting beams made from American walnut continue over the walls to enhance the natural feel of the space.

Between the dining room and the lounge is an area dedicated to buffets, with two rounded service areas standing on a concrete floor beneath a copper ceiling that evokes traditional cooking pans.

Jouin Manku designed a further room located on the seventh floor called the Bird’s Nest, set to open later in the spring. It will house a single dining table for private events with a view across the city.

Photography is by Nicolas Matheus.

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German firm Buero Wagner has designed a bar for mixology company Gamsei with ceramic bottles of ingredients hanging from a metal grid on the ceiling (+ slideshow).

Munich-based Gamsei specialises in using foraged and locally sourced ingredients for their cocktail blends.

The brand wanted to encourage drinkers to watch the barmen mixing their cocktails, so Buero Wagner designed seating as two sets of solid oak steps that rise to meet two opposing walls, while the bar tenders make the drinks at two bars in the middle.

“Gamsei is a wholly integrated concept that turns the event of drinking a cocktail into a novel experience,” said Buero Wagner.

“By eliminating the common separation of bartender and guest, here the interaction is key and everybody has a front row seat: from either side guests can enjoy a view onto the two centrally placed bars,” the designers added.

An oak cupboard and shelving unit covers the whole of the far wall, part of which opens up as a hidden door into the bathroom.

Oak shutters can be pushed up to reveal the coffee machine and the many shelves are used to store dried leaves, herbs and white ceramic bottles full of Gamsei’s self-made liqueurs, syrups and essences.

These bottles also hang in neat lines from a black steel mesh covering the celling.

Just like Gamsei’s drinks, the wood, steel and ceramic used for the bar were all locally sourced.

Gamsei opened in 2013 and is owned and founded by Australian bartender Matthew Bax.

The Buero Wagner designers who completed this project were Fabian A. Wagner and Andreas Kreft.

Here’s a project description from the designers:

GAMSEI

Sex on the Beach, Cosmopolitan, White Russian. A cocktail bar is usually rated by the quality of the classic drinks (and their modern adaptations), but those who hope to get a taste of them at Gamsei, may either look elsewhere, or dare find out what a Lavender Drunk Bee is made of.

Juniper schnapps, verjuice, lavender honey. When owner and head bartender Matthew Bax opened Gamsei 2013 in Munich’s trendy neighbourhood Glockenbach, he introduced hyper-localism to a field of practice which had until then been mainly confined to the food scene.

At Gamsei, ingredients for cocktails like Lavender Drunk Bee, Mid-Life Crisis and Frühlingserwachen, are either wildly foraged by Bax and his team or grown by local artesian farmers, thus reestablishing a connection with local products, region and culture and offering something that is unique in its kind.

Bax, an Australian artist and founder of three bars among which award winning bar Der Raum in Melbourne envisioned his fourth as an antidote to the globalisation of cocktail bars; why drink the very same cocktail in every bar you go to in the world? Why not experience the excitement of the new when sipping a cocktail?

The bar interior, designed and executed by Fabian A. Wagner of Buero Wagner (Munich, Germany) with Andreas Kreft, is a clear continuation of this philosophy – looking for surprising configurations whilst paying a tribute to the local Bavarian culture and craftsmanship.

The ambience of a typical Bavarian beer hall has been applied to the 40m² interior through amphitheater-style benches against opposing walls thus eliminating the common separation of bartender and guest, here interaction is key and everybody has a first row seat: from either tribune guests enjoy a view onto the two centrally placed bars and follow how Bax and his team mix, shake and stir up the cocktails. Also the bars have been stripped of all boundaries: workspace and bar are one.

Dried flowers, herbs and leaves are stored and displayed in a wooden built-in cupboard that stretches the full length of the back wall; Besides ingredients, also the coffee machine and even the doors to the bathrooms and laboratory are seamlessly integrated and can be flexibly displayed or disguised behind lattices. Tribunes, bars and cupboards are executed in solid oak with a natural oil finish.

White ceramic bottles are suspended from a black steel mesh attached to the ceiling, which contain self-made liqueurs, syrups and essences, in-between which light bulbs make for a reduced lighting scheme by night. Just like Bax’s cocktail ingredients, Buero Wagner procured all materials such as wood, ceramics (custom-made by Gefäß & Objekt) and steel locally, and worked in close collaboration with local carpenters and manufacturers to produce custom-made solutions.

Gamsei is a wholly integrated concept that turns the event of drinking a cocktail into a novel experience. The refreshing take on the cocktail bar extends further: bartenders, dressed in uniform leather aprons, serve their guests an amuse-gueule such as “Biersand”, after taking their coats upon entering, and the tribunes on either side – to be climbed only without shoes – allow for sports broadcasts.

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A hotel in Munich is stretched, twisted, distorted and exploded in this series of 88 manipulated photographs by Spanish photographer Victor Enrich (+ movie).

Victor Enrich, who also works as a 3D architectural visualiser, based the entire series of images on one view of the Deutscher Kaiser hotel, a building he passed regularly during a two-month stay in the city.

Some images show parts of the building turned on their sides, while others show sections of it duplicated or sliced away. Some shots show it curving into different shapes and some show it pulled it apart.

Describing the manipulation process, Enrich told Dezeen: “What I basically do is create a 3D virtual environment out of a 2D photograph. The process involves capturing the perspective, then the geometry, then the materials and finally the lighting.”

“The techniques I use are often described as ‘camera matching’ or ‘perspective matching’ and several 3D software packages provide functionalities that allow you to perform this,” he explained, but added that he tends to add do a lot of the work by hand to “reach the level of detail needed to achieve high photorealism”.

“Then is just a matter of time, much time, spent working on it,” he said.

Other images in the series include one where the top of the building is transformed into a floating orb.

There’s also one where the tower features zigzagging walls, and another where the base of the building is missing and the tower is raised up on pilotis.

Enrich previously worked on a similar series of manipulated images, called City Portraits, which adapted images of other buildings in Munich as well as structures in Riga and Tel Aviv.

“The experiment started in 2005 and I’ve done several buildings, all from cities where I’ve stayed for periods longer than a year,” he said.

“If everything goes well, there will be some new works about some American cities during 2014,” he added.

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hotel upside down and inside out appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Dutch office UNStudio has won a competition to design a residential and office complex in the German city of Munich.

UNStudio‘s design for the city’s new Baumkirchen Mitte development features a 60 metre tower with a facade divided by horizontal ribs that continue across the front of an adjoining housing block.

“In the design for the facade of the building we chose for an articulated sobriety, incorporating contrasting scales of detail,” said architect Ben van Berkel. “The horizontal bands which wrap and organise the building present a sober articulation from a distance, however as you get closer to the building you discover a refined scale of intricate, complex detailing.”

Metal and wood will combine to create contrast on the building’s facade, which the architects explained will give the building “the appearance of a custom-made furniture piece for the urban space.”

The office building will house flexible work spaces with foyers, lobbies and meeting areas providing neutral and adaptable public areas.

Flexibility is also key to the design of the residential wing, with floor plans that can be configured in numerous ways and individual apartments that can be customised to meet the needs of their occupants.

A multipurpose roof garden will incorporate ornamental plants and grasses, vegetable gardens, bee hives, play areas and rainwater harvesting. The linear design of the landscaping is influenced by the building’s location on the site of a former rail yard.

UNStudio collaborated with OR else Landscapes on the design, which was selected over entries from firms including BIG and J. Mayer H. Architects. It will be built at the entrance to the Baumkirchen Mitte development, which is located between Munich East station and the Berg am Laim suburb.

Here’s a press release from UNStudio:

Ben van Berkel / UNStudio’s design selected as winning entry for the Baumkirchen Mitte in Munich

UNStudio’s design for the Baumkirchen Mitte in Munich has been selected as the winning entry from a shortlist of 6 finalists which included, among others, BIG Architects, Juergen Mayer H Architects and Schneider + Schumacher Architects. 
UNStudio worked in collaboration with OR else Landscapes on the design for the 18,500m2 residential and office complex located in the east of Munich. With its 60 metre high tower the project will become the focal point for the entrance to the new Baumkirchen Mitte development.

Ben van Berkel: “In the design for the facade of the building we chose for an articulated sobriety, incorporating contrasting scales of detail. The horizontal bands which wrap and organise the building present a sober articulation from a distance, however as you get closer to the building you discover a refined scale of intricate, complex detailing.”

New work 


Concentrated individual work, brainstorming sessions and impromptu meetings are fast becoming part of contemporary work culture and require spaces and layouts that can respond flexibly to these new demands. In UNStudio’s design neutral spaces, such as foyers, lobbies and meeting areas are used to establish the identity of the building. The design combines both zones that guarantee maximum flexibility for varying combinations of users and exclusively designed areas that provide spaces for communication and creativity.

New living

Changing demands and expectations in contemporary living form the starting point for the residential areas within UNStudio’s design. Flexible accommodation types are incorporated which afford variable constellations and offer the possibility to combine adjacent units. In addition, flexible floor plans enable a variety of configurations in the apartment layouts, thereby directly addressing the specific and individual needs of the residents.

Outdoor spaces vary in scale and form an integral part of the apartments. The living experience is therefore not confined to the dwellings alone, but instead begins as you arrive at the building and enter the circulation areas. Thereafter it extends into shared and private outdoor spaces. This extension of the living concept stimulates interaction between residents and creates a balance between activated public spaces and the need for privacy.

Duality

The facade design reflects the duality of the programme, with two contrasting materials defining the look and feel of the building. Bright metal forms the background, lending the structure a contemporary and light aesthetic, whilst the contrasting use of wood affords the building the appearance of a custom-made furniture piece for the urban space.

A sustainable living landscape

The remaining traces on the location of a previous rail yard form the blueprint for the structure of the roof gardens. The linear frameworks in the landscaping of the gardens accommodate fields of kitchen gardens and play areas, as well as rows of ornamental grasses and flowering perennials and are inspired by the spontaneous vegetation of the track fields. Through the integration of vegetable gardens, systems for rainwater harvesting, composting and beekeeping areas the roof garden becomes more than just a recreation area. It additionally plays an important ecological role by contributing to a sustainable living environment. The sustainability concept for the complex is based on a requirement specific application of different types of façade, while reducing active technical building components.

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Foster + Partners has completed a new gallery wing clad with golden pipes at the Lenbachhaus art museum in Munich (+ slideshow).

The three-storey extension branches out from the southern facade of the 120-year-old Lenbachhaus, which was first constructed as the home and studio of nineteenth-century painter Franz von Lenbach. It was converted into a museum in the 1920s and had been incrementally extended over the years, so architecture firm Foster + Partners was brought in to rationalise the layout, as well as to add the new gallery wing.

“Our main challenge has been to maintain the same amount of exhibition area within the museum’s footprint, while creating new circulation and visitor spaces,” said architect and studio founder Norman Foster. “Given the way that the different parts of the museum had evolved, there was no such thing as a typical space – every corner is unique and required individual attention and different design decisions.”

Rows of metal pipes made from a copper-aluminium alloy clad each elevation of the extension, designed to complement the restored yellow-ochre render on the walls of the original building. Together, the new and old structures frame the outline of a new courtyard with an entrance at the point where they cross.

Beyond the entrance, visitors are greeted with a triple-height atrium that wraps around the corner of the old exterior walls. A long narrow skylight runs along the edge of the roof and is screened by louvres that cast stripy shadows across the walls, while an installation by Olafur Eliasson is suspended from the centre of the ceiling.

“[An] important aspect of our design has been creating new opportunities for works of art to be exhibited outside the traditional confines of the gallery, such as in the atrium,” added Foster. “This space develops the idea of the ‘urban room’. It is the museum’s public and social heart, and point of connection with the wider city.”

Galleries occupy the two upper floors of the new wing and are dedicated to the display of the Blue Rider collection of expressionist paintings by artists including Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc.

The ground floor contains a temporary exhibition space and an education room, plus a glazed restaurant that opens out to a terrace around the edge of the building.

As part of the renovation, the architects also addressed the energy efficiency of the existing building. They added new heating and cooling systems in the floors, replaced lighting fixtures and introduced a rainwater harvesting system.

Past museum and gallery projects by London firm Foster + Partners include the Sperone Westwater gallery in New York and the Great Court at the British Museum. The team is also currently developing an art museum with four overlapping peaks for Datong, China. See more design by Foster + Partners.

Other museum and gallery buildings we’ve featured with golden cladding include a brass arts centre in Portugal and the Islamic art galleries at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. See more golden buildings on Dezeen.

Photography is by Nigel Young.

Here’s a statement from Foster + Partners:

Lenbachhaus Museum reopens

The Museum’s historic buildings have been carefully restored and the exhibition spaces augmented by a spectacular new wing, which provides an ideal environment for viewing the magnificent ‘Blue Rider’ collection. As well as radically improving the buildings’ environmental performance, the remodelling has created a new entrance and social spaces, including a restaurant, terrace, education facilities and a dramatic full-height atrium, where the old is articulated within the new.

Built in 1891 as a studio and villa for the artist Franz von Lenbach, the Lenbachhaus Museum has been gradually extended over the last century. However, its buildings were in need of renewal and the museum lacked the facilities to cater to a growing audience of 280,000 people a year. Redefining circulation throughout the site, the project has transformed a complex sequence of spaces of different periods into a unified, legible museum that is accessible and open to all.

Peeling away the unnecessary historical accretions, a 1972 extension has been removed to reveal the wall of the original villa, which has been sympathetically restored in ochre render. The different historical elements are then unified along Richard-Wagner Street by a new gallery pavilion, containing two levels of exhibition space. The new building is intended as a ‘jewel box’ for the treasures of the gallery – it is clad in metal tubes of an alloy of copper and aluminium, their colour and form designed to complement the villa’s rich ochre hue and textured facades.

Inside the new building, a sequence of intimate galleries display the Museum’s internationally-renowned ‘Blue Rider’ collection of early twentieth-century Expressionist paintings, echoing the domestic scale of their original setting in the villa Lenbach. As many of the works of art were painted in ‘plein-air’, indirect natural light has been deliberately drawn into the upper level galleries to create the optimum environment for their display.

A new entrance has been created adjacent to the restaurant, accessed via a new landscaped piazza to the east of the museum – this move reclaims the courtyard garden, turning it from a pedestrian thoroughfare into a tranquil space for visitors. The restaurant is open outside of the Museum’s opening hours and its seating continues outside, helping to enliven the surrounding streets and attracting new visitors into the galleries.

The new social heart of the building is a dramatic top-lit atrium, with ticket and information desks, access to a new temporary exhibition space on the ground floor and a grand, cantilevered stair to the upper level galleries. Clearly articulating the old within the new, its impressive volume incorporates the ochre exterior wall of the original villa and is scaled to accommodate large-scale works of art. The Museum commissioned the artist Olafur Eliasson for a site specific work titled Wirbelwerk. During the day sunlight washes the white walls via a long, slender opening at roof level and horizontal louvres cast changing patterns of light and shade within the space.

As well as repairing the fabric of the existing buildings, one of the main aims of the project has been to radically improve the museum’s environmental performance. A water-based heating and cooling system within the floors has been implemented – using significantly less energy than an air based heating, this represents an innovative step in a gallery context. Rainwater is also collected and recycled and lighting has been replaced and upgraded with low-energy systems.

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