Hasta La Ideas

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Giant paintbrushes hold up the splattered ceiling of this conceptual restaurant by Polish designer Karina Wiciak (+ slideshow).

Wiciak, of design studio Wamhouse, created the fantasy interior as the tenth of 12 bars and restaurants that each have a different theme.

Titled Pracownia, meaning workshop in Polish, this design is modelled on a painter’s studio and includes surfaces and furniture decorated with paint splashes.

The structural columns look like oversized paintbrushes, plus glass table tops and pendant lights are shaped like palettes.

Table bases, lamps and seats are formed from buckets, with lounge chairs created from large upturned pales and bar stools made from smaller ones. A bucket is also used as the bowl of a toilet.

Wiciak’s earlier designs in this series include an interior with surfaces that appear to be stitched together with thick black thread and another inspired by a slaughterhouse.

Here’s some extra information from the designer:

Pracownia is the tenth project of the collection XII, designed entirely by Karina Wiciak

The restaurant is called “Pracownia” (which in Polish means “workshop”), because it was designed as a light pastiche of a painter’s studio. The most characteristic features of the interior are colourful blobs, because almost the entire interior of the “Papiernia” has been splashed with paint, from floor through furniture to the ceiling. It was not designed to be youth interior in the pop-art style, but to be modern, elegant restaurant. That is why, beyond the blots, the white and silver metal finish dominates.

To the topic of painting studio, some other design elements have been matched. Structural columns resemble enlarged paint brushes. Glass, pendant lamps and table tops have a shape of palette.

A bucket (of course a paint bucket) is present both in the design of tables, chairs and pendant lamps. Brush ends (sticking out of a bucket placed in the table) are used instead of the usual candles or table lamps.

Since the whole interior is designed like a painter’s studio, also the toilets cannot deviate from the topic. Therefore, the design of compact toilet bowl and sink also uses a form of bucket, and the counter top and mirror are mounted on a large easel.

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Karina Wiciak appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: in our first video report from Singapore, Colin Seah of local architecture studio Ministry of Design tells us how the recent cultural shift away from mass-market shops and restaurants is helping transform attitudes towards design in the city. 

“Singapore was known as a clean and green city,” says Seah. “Clean almost to the point of being boring.”

“There seemed to be a saturation of mass-market experiences. But from 2000 to 2005, things started to rapidly open up. Singapore now is a lot more exciting.”

Seah claims that many Singaporeans are choosing to stay away from established chains, preferring to spend their money in more boutique shops and restaurants.

In the movie he takes us to two recently rejuvenated parts of the city where independent retailers and food outlets are flourishing.

The first is Dempsey Hill, a former British colonial army barracks to the west of the city centre, which now hosts a wide range of independent restaurants and cafes.

“It was the first major adaptive reuse project in Singapore, where a building that was once governmental or institutional was given back to the market,” says Seah. “That shift has taken root and you see more districts now being reclaimed this way.”

Closer to the city centre is Haji Lane, a narrow street lined with two-storey shophouses in the Arab quarter of the city, in sharp contrast to the towering skyscrapers of the nearby financial district that Singapore is more famous for.

“Along Haji Lane you’ll find maybe 30 independent boutiques,” says Seah. “Just a great amount of variety without having to see a brand that you would find also in California or the UK.”

One of the first boutique hotels in Singapore was designed by Seah’s studio, Ministry of Design. Called New Majestic Hotel, it comprises four converted shophouse tucked away down a quiet street in Singapore’s Chinatown.

Seah believes that the recent demand for hotels like New Majestic Hotel provides an important source of work for designers in the city.

“Without this increased level of curiosity and diversity, firms like ours would not really be able to exist,” he says. “There would just be no market for the work that we do.”

He also believes that the cultural shift is encouraging more young people to study architecture and design.

“Because of the need for more firms to provide work of this nature, I think young people feel that it’s less of a risk to enter the design field,” he says.

“In Singapore, most of our parents want us to be accountants or lawyers or doctors. [To be an] architect is a bit dodgy and [if you study] interior design or art, you’re a lost cause. But not any more.”

Singapore’s government is also starting to take design seriously, Seah says. In 2008 it established SOTA (School of the Arts), which offers an arts and design-based curriculum for 13 to 18 year olds.

Private art schools have also emerged, such as Lasalle College of the Arts, designed by Singapore practice RSP Architects.

“Schools like SOTA are not just great physical examples of architecture,” Seah concludes. “They are also symbols of where Singapore is headed in terms of culture, in terms of design.”

We are in Singapore for World Architecture Festival and Inside Festival, and will be publishing interviews with some of the key speakers in the coming weeks.

See all our coverage of World Architecture Festival 2013 »

We drove around Singapore in our MINI Cooper S Paceman. The music in the movie is a track called Feeling Beast by Man Oeuvre. You can listen to more music by Man Oeuvre on Dezeen Music Project.

Watch all our Dezeen and MINI World Tour movies »

The post “Most of our parents wanted us to be
lawyers or doctors. Not anymore.” appeared first on Dezeen.

This steel and glass restaurant extension by Austrian studio Architekten Rüf Stasi Partner juts out over the edge of Karren Mountain in the Austrian Alps (+ slideshow).

Local studio Architekten Rüf Stasi Partner added the new hollow structure to increase the size of the dining room at a timber-clad restaurant and cable-car facility.

Elevated above a paved terrace, the new restaurant is held in place by long steel columns rooted into the mountain and connected to the main building by a glass passageway.

It is located 956 metres above sea level, allowing panoramic views towards Switzerland, Germany, Lake Constance and the Rhine Valley.

“The aim of the design, in addition to functional requirements, was to bring a sense of calm to the ensemble and create a more holistic appearance for the Karren cable-car station,” said the studio.

The architects also renovated the existing building. Parts of the timber structure were prefabricated before being flown to the site by helicopter, along with the pre-assembled steel parts for the restaurant, and both were erected on site.

Other mountain-top architecture we’ve featured includes a concrete mountain cabin also in the Austrian Alps, a seesaw-shaped lookout along a Mexican pilgrimage route and  a hunting lodge and hotel on Sognefjorden in Norway.

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See more Austrian architecture and design »

Photography is by Zooey Braun.

Here’s some information from the architects:

Panoramarestaurant Karren, Austria

Dornbirns’ ‘house mountain’ The Karren, is the most popular destination in the city. Due to the steady growth of domestic and foreign visitors, the capacity of the restaurant slowly became overwhelmed.

Jointly developed with the client, the owners, the business manager and the Architects Rüf Stasi Partners (ARSP), a sustainable concept for the expansion and renovation of the new panoramic restaurant Karren, was developed. The concept not only doubles the seating within the panoramic dining room and increases the outdoor terrace area; it also provides an optimisation of internal service processes, completely reconfiguring the restaurant kitchen and the storage areas.

The analysis of the existing building revealed a diverse mixture of renovations and extensions added over generations. As a consequence the existing construction and style had become chaotic. The aim of the design was therefore, in addition to the functional requirements, to bring a sense of calm of the ensemble and create a more holistic appearance for the Karren cable-car station.

A new steel and glass structure was attached to the front end of the existing panoramic restaurant (built in 1996) on the first floor. This component was rotated through 90 ° and then connected via a second glass passageway to the main building. Together this glass ring creates an open sided atrium which floats over the guests as they arrive from the cable-car or from the mountain path.

Inside the glass structure provides diners with an uninterrupted view of the Swiss and Austrian Alps in all directions. The advantageous cliff position also provides stunning views of Lake Constance and the Rhine Valley. At the same time, a harmonious appearance of steel and glass in the construction is achieved.The old south-facing wooden construction has been completely dismantled and replaced by a new, larger floor plan.

Through the extension of the building to the South, the required area for the kitchen extension is achieved and the previously hectic façade is calmed by removing many of the volume jumps creating a smoother outer shell. The new timber façade continues over the concrete construction of the cable car station in the east and over the services area, cladding almost all of the building in the same material to enhance the calming effect. The guests can also enjoy new views in the east (the ‘Staufenblick’) and north (the view of Dornbirn along the cable car route) which were previously not possible.

All building work had to be completed within a 10 week period during the winter months and at 956m above sea level. The main site entrance was only accessible through an extremely steep and narrow forest path.

Only through meticulous logistical planning was the perfect interaction of all counterparts on this tight construction schedule possible.

From the outset, planning was optimised through the extensive use of prefabrication. This allowed all timber construction to be made in an assembly hall before being flown to the site in less than 4 hours by helicopter. This allowed the entire wooden structure to be erected within two days on site. The pre-assembled steel parts were individually transported via the mountain road and fully assembled on the terrace.

Using the most powerful crane in the foothills of the Alps, the entire steel construction was lifted into place on the 11th of April 2013, and the end result was accurate to within 1mm. In parallel, the interior work and the technical installations were pushed hard to meet the deadline, which were completed three days early on the 8th of May. With the kitchens in full operation the new Karren Restaurant was proudly opened on time with a full festival.

Structure: Panoramic restaurant Karren
Planning and site supervision: Architekten Rüf Stasi Partner – Albert Rüf and Frank Stasi
Additional personnel: DI Arch Rike Kress
Construction time: 10 weeks
Altitude: 956m above sea level
Extension: 180 seat panoramic restaurant and 120 seats on the terrace

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Architekten Rüf Stasi Partner appeared first on Dezeen.