Hasta La Ideas

Dutch designer Dirk van Berkel has converted a fireplace shop in Amsterdam into a salon and hairdressing school with copper pipes snaking across the walls and ceiling.

The first stages in the renovation were to line the walls with plasterboard, add a new concrete floor and install a series of windows in the slanted ceilings to let in more light.

Dirk van Berkel was keen to avoid creating a space that was too clinical. He explains: “To avoid a ‘dental practice look’ we applied pure and raw materials such as unfinished metal, glass, okoumé wood and copper.”

Copper pipes for the heating system wind back and forth to create a towel rack by the sinks, while on the ceiling they line up with the suspended copper lighting fixtures.

Industrial-looking steel cabinets and screens divide the space, providing workstations and storage, and separating styling stations from washing areas. Glass infills allow views between the zones.

Plants are suspended from the ceiling in the waiting area and a large blossoming tree is positioned centrally.

Other salons completed recently include a forest-like beauty salon filled with birch trees and a minimal hair salon with a concrete floor and ceiling. See more salon and spa interiors.

Photography is by Caroline Westdijk.

Here’s a project description from Dirk van Berkel:

Mogeen Salon & Hairschool

A former hearth boutique across the excavation of the north/south metro line (train) along the Vijzelgracht in Amsterdam has been transformed into a modern hairsalon and school. The upcoming area around the Vijzelgracht is attractive for hip, trendy and decadent businesses. The neighbourhood forms a remarkable contrast with the large nearby shopping area of the city’s centre, where well known stores such as H&M, Nike and Zara predominate. The foundation of the building itself had been reconstructed because of the damage that was caused by the construction and excavation of the North/ South line. In order to gain sufficient square meters a roof has been built over the courtyard, where the hairschool is located.

The interior walls of a building of this stature are required to be fireproof up to one hour. To achieve this all the walls have been fitted with a double layer of fireproof plasterboard/sheet rock. Tilt windows have been placed in the slanting ceilings to let in sufficient natural sunlight, and floor heating has been installed in the newly built concrete floors. The heating systems copper piping continues through the sinks into the walls where it serves its second purpose: a heated towel rack.

The owners of Mogeen are talented hairstylists who often work for famous and well known fashion magazines and designers. Passion and feeling play a key part in Mogeen’s style and we wanted that to visible in the interior. The sleek, mainly white coloured walls yielded the right lighting but didn’t give the interior the atmosphere that we were looking for. To avoid a ‘dental practice look’ we applied pure and raw materials such as unfinished metal, glass, okoumé wood and copper. Lighting is an essential element in a salon. Thats why we used high end dimmable fluorescent lighting and in height adjustable hanging lamps above the washing units. The copper piping in which the electricity runs are visible on the walls to interrupt the large white surfaces. To make clients and customers feel at home the lobby/ waiting area contains a large comfortable sofa, a dining table packed with food and a pantry built into a bookcase with architecture, hair and art magazines and literature.

The salon and hairschool had to have a flexible layout. That made the choice for mobile dressing tables and a folding wall that separates the salon and the school. The large elongated sink was inspired by a trough and functions as a sink and a countertop. The high pressure laminate elements and air grids above the dressing tables can be placed and used in any spot in the elongated sink. This creates a flexible work environment. The complete inventory has been kept as transparent as possible: The use of glass in partitioning walls and see through cabinets has kept the inventory as transparent. As a result one can look through the entire salon. All these aspects combined accentuate and define the creative activity and atmosphere in this new hairsalon and school.

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Dirk van Berkel appeared first on Dezeen.

Claire Droppert est une photographe et graphiste freelance résidant aux Pays-Bas. Cherchant l’inspiration à travers tous les paysages qu’elle observe, cette artiste toujours inspirées par la simplicité et le minimalisme nous offre des clichés absolument magnifiques à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

Focus sur le photographe Bruxelles5 qui nous rappelle avec diverses photographies à quel point la culture de la tulipe en Hollande permet d’obtenir des champs colorés d’une beauté incroyable. Une superbe série et compilation naturellement intitulée « Tulip Fields » à découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.

This shop and office complex by Dutch architects MVRDV is disguised as an old farmhouse, but its walls and roof are actually made from glass.

The building is located in the market square of small Dutch town Schijndel, where MVRDV partner Winy Maas grew up. The town suffered damages during World War II, and Maas has been campaigning since the 1980s to replace a destroyed structure in the space between the church and the town hall.

Thirty years and six failed proposals later, the architects and the town council agreed to develop the site within the traditional building envelope specified by the town planners.

MVRDV reinterpreted this volume in glass, then compiled photographs of traditional local farmhouses by artist Frank van der Salm and created a collage of images to apply to each surface of the facade. Using a fritting technique the architects were able to print the images straight onto the glass, creating the illusion of brick walls and a thatched roof.

The building is out of scale with the original farmhouses, so it appears to be two storeys high rather than three, while visible doors measure at a height of around four metres.

“When adults interact with the building, they can experience toddler size again, possibly adding an element of nostalgic remembrance to their reception of the building,” say the architects.

The actual windows and doors don’t line up with the printed images, so entrances look like they pass through brick walls and windows appear as semi-transparent blobs.

Above: photograph is by Jeroen Musch

The architects explain that the building is “more or less translucent” and at night it is illuminated from the inside to appear as a glowing presence in the square.

Named Glass House, the building contains shops, restaurants, offices and a health centre.

MVRDV has completed a number of projects in recent months, including the new Oslo headquarters for Norwegian bank DNB and a public library inside a glass pyramid.

See more architecture by MVRDV, including the Balancing Barn holiday home.

Here’s a project description from MVRDV:

Completion of MVRDV Glass Farm, Schijndel, Netherlands

Today RemBrand developers, the Town of Schijndel and MVRDV complete the Glass Farm, a multifunctional building in the village square. The building with a total surface area of 1600m2 contains shops, restaurants, offices and a wellness centre. The exterior is printed glass with a collage of typical local farms; a monument to the past but 1,6 times larger than life. This concept can be seen as a contemporary response to retro-architecture whilst respecting the public’s wish for vernacular authenticity. In 1944 the small Brabant town of Schijndel which is the birthplace of Winy Maas suffered from WWII Operation Market Garden damages resulting in an oversized market square. In 1980 the then 20 year old Winy Maas urged the mayor to fill in the gap, 23 years after this first initiative the building is now completed.

Schijndel’s market square suffered from Operation Market Garden damages during the Second World War and has been subject to numerous enlargements and refurbishments. Winy Maas wrote a letter in 1980, and in 2000 the town council adopted the idea of a new structure in the square between the church, town hall and main street. MVRDV since then iteratively proposed new options that could fill the gap of this unusually large village square. The Glass Farm is MVRDV’s seventh proposal for the site, earlier designs included a theatre.

The village engaged vividly in the process resulting in heated debates, polls and polemics in the local press – by supporters and adversaries. The 1600m² building which is entirely covered by a glass facade consists primarily of a series of public amenities such as restaurants, shops and a wellness centre.

By coincidence, the maximum envelope that was defined by the town planners had the form of a traditional Schijndel farm. All remaining historical local farms were measured, analyzed and an ‘ideal’ average was conceived from this data. In collaboration with MVRDV, artist Frank van der Salm photographed all the remaining traditional farms, and from these an image of the ‘typical farm’ was composed. This image was printed using fritted procedure onto the 1800m2 glass facade, resulting in an effect such as a stained glass window in a cathedral. The print is more or less translucent depending on the need for light and views.

At night the structure will be illuminated from the inside, becoming a monument to the farm. At a height of 14 metres the Glass Farm is intentionally designed out of scale and is 1.6 times larger than a real farm, symbolizing the village growing into a town. The printed image follows this ‘augmented history’, with the superimposed farm door for example appearing 4 metres tall. When adults interact with the building, they can experience toddler size again, possibly adding an element of nostalgic remembrance to their reception of the building. To enhance this further, there will be a table and swing next to the building, a scaled up farmyard.

Above: photograph is by Jeroen Musch

Coinciding with the completion of the building, an exhibition opens in the local Museum Jan Heestershuis about Context and Authenticity. Later this year a book will be published by NAi Publishers exploring the development of the Glass Farm, including a literary description of the lengthy processes which lead to its realisation.

Above: photograph is by Jeroen Musch

MVRDV realised the building for RemBrand developers, a combination of Van Den Brand Real Estate and Remmers Construction Group, together with Hooijen Engineers, IOC Ridderkerk for installations, Brakel Atmos for the facade and AGC for the print.

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by MVRDV appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch studio Shift has converted a suburban house in the south of the Netherlands and turned it into a dental surgery with a new zinc-clad wing (+ slideshow).

Located in the small village of Best, the old house follows a traditional vernacular with brick walls and a tiled roof. The extension mirrors the profile of the house, but is clad with zinc across both its roof and walls.

Shift explains: “This strengthens the iconic quality of the archetype and renders the new extension into a ‘contextual alien’ that blends into the rural surroundings and at the same time creates a clear new landmark that expresses its new function.”

A row of four treatment rooms spans the length of the new wing and each one features a pointed ceiling, formed by the ridge of the gabled roof overhead.

Small skylights direct daylight onto the dentist’s chair, while a single long window runs along the rear wall of the four rooms and offers a generous ledge for flower boxes or outdoor seating.

A glazed corridor connects the new wing with the old house, which contains reception spaces, a kitchen and secondary treatment rooms. “The patient enters and waits in a homely and familiar atmosphere,” say the architects.

Shift architecture urbanism is based in Rotterdam and other projects by the firm include a townhouse with a three-storey bookshelf and the stone-clad Faculty Club pavilion.

See more dentists on Dezeen, including one with stripy glass screens.

Photography is by Rene de Wit.

Here’s some extra text from Shift:

Dentist with a View, by Shift architecture urbanism

The task of this project was to transform and extend an historical house in the centre of Best, a village in the south of The Netherlands, into a dental practice with four treatment rooms. The central question was how the extension responds to the existing architecture and how it profits from the green setting.

The four new treatment rooms are situated in a new volume that at the same time mimics and contrasts the existing house. Its archetypical volume is derived from the existing house – it takes over the exact same inclination of the pitched roof – while it is being materialized in a very different material. Both the roof and the facades of the extension are clad with zinc. This strengthens the iconic quality of the archetype and renders the new extension into a “contextual alien” that blends into the rural surroundings and at the same time creates a clear new landmark that expresses its new function.

The new volume provides each treatment room with an archetypical space of a miniature house. Its high ridge and steep ceiling results in a vertical space that connects to the perspective of a patient in the dentist chair. A roof light in each treatment room enables the patients to relate with the outside, even during treatment. A large ‘flower window’, that also serves as a bench, floods the rooms with daylight and provides both the staff and their patients with a framed view of the surrounding green.

All secondary functions of the dentist practice are positioned in the existing house without harming its structure and typical 1930’s details. The patient enters and waits in a homely and familiar atmosphere that, together with the experience of the surrounding garden from the extension, makes the necessary visit to the dentist a (slightly) more comforting experience.

Above: site plan

Above: floor plan

Above: long section

Above: front elevation

Above: side elevation

Above: back elevation

Above: side elevation

Address: Oranjestraat 55, 5682 CA Best
Client: Lisette van Gils & Ruben Timmermans

Design: Shift architecture urbanism, Rotterdam
Project architects: Harm Timmermans, Pieter Heymans
Advisor construction: B2CO, Richard Fielt, Ede
Adviseur installations: Van Delft Groep, Nieuwkuijk

Contractor: Van der Weegen Bouwgroep, Tilburg
Contractor Furniture: Bots Bouwgroep, Deurne
Sub contractor zinc facade: Bax koper en zinkspecialist, Bergeijk
Sub contractor frames: Hoefnagels Groep, Tilburg
Gross surface area: 292 m2
Building costs: €340.000 excl. vat

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by Shift appeared first on Dezeen.