Archive for the ‘International’ Category
08/03
Tina Michelle Cheng
After purchasing an old hotel in the West Queen West Art and Design District in 2001, cultural visionary Jeff Stober teamed up with local architect Paul Syme and multi-disciplinary design firm 3rd UNCLE to realize a space that would change the way visitors and locals experience hospitality in Toronto. Through the careful planning and thoughtful renovation of a hotel that was originally built in 1890, the extremely talented creative team preserved iconic elements of the building’s past while infusing it with a new energy.
The interior program at the Drake was reconfigured to include 19 guest rooms and several new functions, which allowed guests to enjoy an intersection of “Hospitality, Culture and Community”. The cohesiveness of the concept and brand identity has continued through subsequent renovations of the hotel. Charm is found in the details throughout the hotel and in the guest rooms, appointed with custom luggage racks reminiscent of the area’s railway history and handmade dolls that patiently await your arrival. Since the re-opening of its doors in 2004, the Drake hotel has established itself as more than just a trend.
With the mélange of activities at the Drake, you really could spend an entire day there wandering from one space to the next. Start the day off right by getting centered at the yoga gym, then stop into the cafe for an espresso and pastry. For lunch, try some innovative sushi at the Raw Bar and then head up to the Sky Yard to mingle in the afternoon sun. Relax in the Lounge for pre-dinner drinks before meeting with friends to enjoy private dining in Room 222. A day at the Drake wouldn’t be complete without checking out a new band at the Underground before returning to the Sky Yard for a warm apple cider by the fire pit. If you feel as though you haven’t had enough upon check out, pop into the General Store on your way out for some Drake-to-go.
Signing off, Drake enthusiast.
Photos via Drake Hotel, 3rd Uncle Design Inc, and George Whiteside
Tags: 3rd uncle design, architect, boutique hotel, brand design, culture, dining, historic renovation, hospitality design, hotel experience, interior, interior-design, jeff stober, lifestyle, paul syme, raw bar, rooftop bar, room 222, sky yard, toronto, Underground concerts, yoga gym
Posted in Bars, International, Restaurants, spaces | No Comments »
Located in one of istanbul’s most populated and diverse neighborhoods, besiktas is an eclectic area with a village-like atmosphere that is in the process of urban renewal. The besiktas fish market is located on a triangular site. it is an iconic venue where many locals and visitors buy fresh fish daily. the construction of the old fish market was in very poor shape and needed to be replaced.
The design solution was to maintain its iconic neighborhood presence, while also reaffirming its welcoming feeling. GAD (global architectural development) designed a triangular shaped concrete shell covering the entire site with large openings at street level. The concrete shell provides a column-free interior space, optimizing the project’s programmatic needs. the new design injects a contemporary and pragmatic solution, at once preserving the fish market’s history.
Via Designboom. All images courtesy GAD.
Tags: Besiktas, Fish Market, GAD, Istanbul
Posted in International, Public Spaces, Retail Spaces | No Comments »
Japanese architects Suppose Design Office have completed a hair salon in Hiroshima, Japan, with a band of mirror glass wrapped around the cutting space. Called Lodge, the salon is divided into three parts by shelves and the mirror strip, which is positioned at customers’ head height and affords a sense of privacy when they are seated. The interior features bare wooden furniture, and the mirror is frosted except for areas where clients will be seated.
Via Dezeen.
Tags: Hair Salon, hiroshima, japan, Lodge, Suppose Design
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48m2 is a collaboration between product and graphic design students at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm. The first group created a series of products and the second a tight campaign for their exhibition.
Furniture was developed by the product design students for a 48 square meter apartment, with the intent of “questioning and twisting preconceptions of home styling”. In response to this work, the advertising/graphic design students developed a killer campaign for the exhibit, creating the concept “Same but Different,” described below:
Is a chair always a chair, an apartment always an apartment? Tilt your head for awhile, and the world will emerge in a different light. Up is down, objects change appearances, the unclear becomes obvious and problems meet their solutions.
The campaign includes a two meter long exhibition catalogue (excerpted top), four promotional films (below and after the jump), and an exhibition in a reconfigured 48m2 apartment.
Tags: 48 square metre, beckmans college, same but different, stockholm
Posted in Exhibitions, International, Products | No Comments »
Japanese designers Nendo have completed the interior of a mental health clinic in Akasaka, Tokyo, where none of the doors open and patients and staff instead move around the building by opening sections of the walls. Called MD.net Clinic Akasaka, the project includes sliding bookcases behind which the consultation rooms can be found and a single opening door at the end of the corridor that reveals a window to the outside.
Rather than getting patients back to a ‘zero’, a neutral starting place, the traditional model for mental health care, the clinic aims to provide patients with something extra: a further richness in their daily lives that they did not have before starting treatment. The interior design is an attempt to express this philosophy in space. The ‘doors’ that line the walls of the clinic do not open, and ‘ordinary’ parts of the walls open up into new spaces. The consultation rooms are entered by sliding the bookshelves sideways. The door at the end of the hallway opens onto a window; the amount of light in the hallway is controlled by opening and closing the door. By providing alternate perspectives for viewing the world, and avoiding being trapped by pre-existing perceptions, the interior allows visitors–and staff members–to experience opening new doors in their hearts, one after the other.
Via Dezeen
Tags: MD.net, mental health clinic, nendo, Tokyo
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The Busride Design Studio is an emerging design practice in Mumbai, having a lot of quirky and inventive projects in their protfolio. Featured here is an office they designed for Idea Spice Design. The company looked to shift gears in profile, so the new office was meant to reflect the new projected identity in essence and spirit to their clients and themselves. The project was done while at Idea Spice, maybe one of the reasons why it does feature bunk beds on top of all the desks, even though they claim that “the design was a result of in-depth understanding of the work style and culture, individual and collective needs, and resulted in a built environment that became the tangible form of the new identity.”
Tags: bunk bed, busride design studio, idea spice design, mumbai, office space
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Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka will exhibit a glass window made of 500 crystal prisms at MUSEUM. beyond museum in Seoul this May. Called Rainbow Church, the eight metre-high installation will create rainbows within the space as the light is refracted.
I experienced a space filled with the light of Matisse: Being bathed in the sunlight of the Provence, the stained glass with Matisse’s vibrant colors suffused the room with full of colors. Since then, I had been dreaming of designing an architecture where people can feel the light with all senses.
Tags: Beyond Museum, korea, Rainbow Church, Seoul, Tokujin-Yoshioka
Posted in Exhibitions, International, Public Spaces | No Comments »
One pallet kitchen is a stackable kitchen made from wood chips and natural resin, designed by dutch designers Steie van Vugt and Frank Winnubst. Most kitchens are made from cheap pressed wood (chipboard) and laminate. But this one is incredible easy to assemble requiring no glue or screws.
Our aim is to show the quality of pressed wood by using the material as a three dimensional shape. Our design process is driven by function, where the function becomes the construction. One Pallet Kitchen’s stackable nature makes it a flexible kitchen for a flexible Lifestyle.
Tags: chipboard, Frank Winnubst, kitchen, One Pallet Kitchen, Steie van Vugt
Posted in International, Restaurants | No Comments »
“Revolving Realities” is an auto-reactive installation by
the Interpalazzo group, developed for Dornbracht Edges – an exhibition series at the interface
between architecture, design and art. Curated by Mike Meire, it was presented in the FACTORY during the Passagen of the imm International Furniture Fair in Cologne. An amazing audio-visual experience, that looked like a futurist laser show – even though it was simple white strings that reflected the black light. What a simple yet stylish way to create goose bumps of enthusiasm! Also in the show was a high-end set of deSede sofas, looking like a huge spine, snaking through the gallery.
Tags: cologne, interpalazzo, mike meire, revolving realitues
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Design Real is the first design-focused show to be presented at the Serpentine and represents the development of the Gallery’s long-standing commitment to design through the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion programme, which celebrates its tenth year in 2010. Design Real is curated by Konstantin Grcic and designed in collaboration with Alex Rich and Jürg Lehni. The exhibition features an information space which expands on themes developed in the exhibition allowing visitors to investigate the origins and applications of the products on view. A dedicated internet site, designed by Alex Rich and Jürg Lehni, is the exhibition’s central resource and integral to its concept. Grcic says about the exhibition:
Like contemporary art, design both shapes and reflects our constantly changing society. Good design understands human behaviour, offers pragmatic solutions to problems and enhances our everyday experience. Curating the Serpentine Gallery’s first design related exhibition DESIGN REAL my concept focuses on ‘real’ items, industrially made products that have a significance in everyday life,
The exhibition is still on til 7th February. A catalogue (designed by Alex Rich) is published on the occasion of the exhibition DESIGN REAL by Serpentine Gallery and Koenig Books Ltd. featuring essays by Emily King and Jonathan Olivares.
Tags: design real, konstantin grcic, london, serpentine gallery
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