Concept

  • 14/03

    Starbucks, Fukuoka

    Following our last post on Starbucks Amsterdam, here is another one that strays from the norm.

    Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has designed a sculptural interior for the coffee chain to sit inside plain box-shaped structure. Timber posts criss-cross to create a geometric web that lines the entire space. In typical Japanese fashion the rest of the space is left relatively bare with unassuming furniture and a zig-zag banquette – all in greys, blacks and untreated OSB. The minimalist approach to furniture complements the sculptural nature of the timber installation; providing an impressive, but not overwhelming interior.

    (Images via Contemporist)

  • 25/01

    Lucas Maassen & Sons Furniture Factory.

    Lucas Maassen, a Dutch designer, ingeniously employed his three sons, Thijme (9), Julian (7) and Maris (7) to paint the furniture hand built in his factory. The boys get paid 1 Euro per piece of furniture painted, as agreed in their contracts and due to Dutch child labour laws they are only allowed to work three hours a week. This motivates the boys to paint fast, influencing the final aesthetic. The resulting pieces are simple, honest and revelatory of the manufacturing process.

    Film and images by Mike Roelofs.

  • 19/12

    The Exchange, Amsterdam

    The Exchange, a brand new Amsterdam hotel located on the Damrak, one of the liveliest and oldest streets of Amsterdam, has a special love of fashion. The hotel was developed in close collaboration with the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI) and is part of ‘The Red Carpet’, an urban-renewal project.

    The hotel is spread across three buildings, one of them dating back to the 17th century, and shares the buildings with a contemporary department store, Options! and a restaurant, Stock. The project was initiated by Lloyd Hotel and Cultural Embassy with Suzanne Oxenaar and Otto Nan responsible for the concept.

    Each of the 61 rooms in the hotel have been dressed up like models on a catwalk by graduates and alumni of the AMFI. The result is a mix of interior and fashion design, with each room having a distinct identity. The diverse rooms draw inspiration from the multiplicity of the neighbourhood the hotel is located in.

  • 16/11

    21c Museum Hotel, Louisville

    The 21c Museum Hotel opened five years ago in Louisville, but still seems fresh and above all interesting. New York-based architect Deborah Berke is responsible for the design of this museum / hotel – the only one of its kind in the entire US. Like a museum its exhibits change regularly, most of the pieces come from the private collection of the hotel’s owners – Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown.

    The statement making hotel distinguishes itself from the outset, red plastic penguins from the Venice Biennale are perched on top of the building’s large entrance and have become visual markers as well as impromptu mascots for the hotel. An installation of four sculptures of children by Judy Fox loom over the reception desk of a lobby that has an uncanny resemblance to that of a contemporary museum.

    As guests move through the rest of the hotel they can admire (and even interact with some of) the everchanging artworks on display, from communal areas right down to the stylish bedrooms.

    This unusual concept hotel is so successful that the owners are currently planning two new locations, one in Cincannati and another in Bentonville.

    (Images via Design Milk)
  • 03/11

    New Bus for London by Heatherwick Studio

    In January 2010, Heatherwick Studio joined the team leading the design of a New Bus for London. The project marks the first time in more than 50 years that TfL has commissioned and overseen the development of a bus built specifically for the capital.

    Working alongside specialist bus manufacturer, Wrightbus, the external design has been developed to reflect the functional requirements of the vehicle. A long asymmetric front window provides the driver with clear kerbside views, while a wrapped glazing panel reflects passenger circulation – bringing more daylight into the bus and offering views out over London.

    By incorporating an open platform at its rear, the bus reinstates one of the much-loved features of the 1950s Routemaster which offered a ‘hop-on hop-off’ service. The new design will also have three doors and two staircases, making it quicker and easier for passengers to board.

    In engineering terms, the New Bus for London will be 15 per cent more fuel efficient than existing hybrid buses and 40 per cent more efficient than conventional diesel double-deckers.

    Designs for the new bus were unveiled by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in May 2010. A first prototype developed by Wrightbus was completed earlier this year.

  • 12/10

    Lisbonaire, Lisbon

    The Lisbonaire is a new type of hotel in the hart of Lisbon. It occupies a 1960s building that received a full make-over this year, and consists of 19 apartments. While the overall design is coherent in its use of furniture, each apartment was designed by a different artist / designer and as a result has its own distinct character, which adds surprise and personality to the hotel.

    The apartment by Alva:

    Ana Cunha’s apartment:

    Barbra Says created an apartment with a haphazard, urban feel by arranging posters randomly on walls and ceilings.

    Joana and Mariana are responsible for an earthy toned apartment:

    João Maio Pinto created playful graphics for the walls of his space:

    Gwendolyn Van der Velden and Quim Albergaria created a colourful illustration of the city of Lisbon:

    Nuno Luz’s suite has a bit of a pop art feel:

    MAGA, a design studio in Lisbon created a unique space with innovative use of paper, not only on the walls, but also for folded light fittings.

    Musa Worklab created three dimensional graphics for the walls,

    DesignbyNada, an agency specializing in identity created a monochromatic interior with a strong typographic focus.

    Pedro Falcão’s suite:

    Mackintóxico’s suite:

    Marco Balesteros created a wall that resembles a loose timeline:

    Silva!Designers drew inspiration from neon hotel signs:

    Vanessa Teodoro’s suite:

    Vivóeusébio, a design collective, created a wallpaper that resembles vintage food wrappers – in the nicest possible way.

    The identity of the hotel is visible in each of the individual interiors that are all refreshingly playful in their own way.

    (Images via Lisbonaire)

  • 10/10

    The Past Was a Mirage I Had Left Far Behind, Josiah McElheny at the Whitechapel Gallery

    New York based sculptor and writer Josiah McElheny created a large-scale installation for the Whitechapel Gallery. Seven large, mirrored sculptures are dotted around the space. Abstract films are projected onto the screens and mirrors of these minimal sculptures to great  visual and spatial effect.

    The exhibition forms part of The Bloomberg Commission that invites international artists to create annual site-specific artwork inspired by the rich history of gallery 2, the former reading room of the Whitechapel Library,  a creative haven for early modernist thinkers like Isaac Rosenberg and Mark Gertler.

    McElheny’s installation explores how abstraction is used to depict an image of visual enlightenment.  The reflections and refractions created by the installation saturates the gallery in images and light, distorted and multiplied. The installation will be tranformed constantly by alternating the visuals projected onto the sculptures.

    (Images via Whitechapel Gallery)

  • 04/10

    The Disappearing Dining Club, London

    The Disappearing Dining Club is a step away from the conventional restaurant experience. It occupies a permanent ‘Dining Room’, a one table space that can only host ten people at a time, in Featherstone Street near Old Street, but also throws dinner and drinks parties in empty warehouses, hidden rooftops and basements, secret galleries and gardens, and just about any unusual space you can think of.

    The interior of the Dining Room, which opens only for bookings, is warm and homely. Guests are encouraged to forget about time, as all of the clocks on the walls have stopped long ago. The shelf that runs all around the room just below ceiling level is stacked with well-thumbed novels and 20th century bric-a-brac. The large wooden table is set with mismatched cutlery and old-fashioned glassware and creates the feeling of sitting down to a big family meal. The dimly lit interior, along with its quirky decor and limited amount of place settings creates a nostalgic dining experience that you are unlikely to have anywhere else.

    (Images via The Disappearing Dining Club)

  • 03/10

    Derrier, Paris

    Mourad Mazouz’s restaurant Derrier is described as a ‘home away from home’ – and I can see why: the restaurant, styled as a family apartment, gives the impression of having stumbled into an eccentric friend’s well-lived in home. The restaurant follows the idea of ‘home’ and is structured like one, diners can sit in the lounge, dining room, bedroom or boudoir. The main room is fit out with a kitchen table, comfy sofas and oddly, a ping pong table for amusement between courses.

    The restaurant takes its name from its location, it is hidden in a courtyard at the back of 404 and Andy Wahloo, Mazouz’s other Paris restaurants. The off -hand chic interior is just as tongue in the cheek as the name of the restaurant. The eclectic interior mixes styles that gives the feeling of nonchalance.  Throughout the restaurant shelves filled with books and other knick-knacks line the walls, along with an assortment of photos, paintings, posters and the odd empty frame. The food is French, simple and wholesome, made with the finest quality products.

    In the bedroom diners are perched on mattresses, complete with alarm clocks at bedside.

    And somewhere, behind one of the many mirrors in Derrier, is a secret smoking room.

    (Images via derrier-resto.com)

  • 30/09

    John Lewis Fashion Pavilion by Grimshaw

    London department store John Lewis has commissioned Grimshaw Architects to design a pop-up installation for their Oxford Street store. The installation is made of cardboard tubes of various lengths and diameters suspended in sheets of perspex held together with transparent rods, creating the illusion of a floating cardboard screen.

    After two months in London it will travel to other John Lewis stores in the UK. The modular nature of the installation means that it can easily be dismantled and reconfigured to suit the needs of specific stores and spaces. The ‘tube walls’ separate spaces in an unusual way by partially obscuring views and revealing glimpses of adjacent spaces.

    (Images via Dezeen)

  • 28/09

    Depot Basel

    Basel is synonymous with contemporary art, but it has been lagging on the contemporary design front. This is set to change: Laura Pregger and Matylda Krzykowski co-found Depot Basel to provide space dedicated to contemporary design. It is hosted in a disused grain factory, provided by the Habitat Foundation, and what what better way to furnish the space than to invite designers to create pieces purpose made for the it?

    Nine designers were handpicked by the founders and spent five days with the distinctive silo structure, which inspired a dialogue between space and craft. The narrative that developed can be seen in the objects created by each designer for the initial prelude ‘Infrastructure’. The finished pieces walk the fine line between concept and functionality and evoke a strong sense of the space they inhabit, while clearly reflecting the voice of each individual designer.

    Julien Renault + Camille Blin, Lightbox Library

    Damien Gernay, Display Table

    Damien Gernay, Lounge Chair

    Florian Hauswirth, Rammed Clay Bench

    Kaspar Hamacher, 3 L Shelf

    Mieke Meijer, Service Desk

    Mieke Meijer, Triangle Display

    Max Lipsey, Tree Bark Benches

    Max Lipsey, Concentration Chair

    Tristan Cochrane, Podium Desks

    (Images via yatzer)

  • 27/09

    Blueware by Glithero

    Blueware is a collection of ceramics by London-based product design duo Glithero. Age-old processes of preservation and photography are deconstructed and inventively recombined with surprising results. Botanical specimens of weeds found in inner London are pressed, dried and composed into delicate patterns and placed on ceramic tiles and vases. Light sensitive chemicals and UV light are then used to ‘expose’ white photograms of  the silhouettes of specimens. The resultant ceramics are thoroughly contemporary, but also traditional in the colours and production methods they employ.

    Glithero’s work has a strong emphasis on the process of production, which for them is more important than the actual products. As a result of this fascination they have created a beautiful machine for the production of the vases and carefully choreograph and document all of their production practices.

    But to really appreciate the product and the process behind it, it is best to watch the beautifully made video documenting the intricacies of the production of a vase.

    (Images via Glithero)

  • 21/09

    Size + Matter by David Chipperfield

    The London Design Festival never fails to transform an already interesting city into a treasure trove of installations. This year, in true form, it features designs by big names in architecture and design, with David Chipperfield Architects’ design for Size + Matter one of the most notable.

    Size + Matter pairs designers with materials / manufacturing processes so that the dynamics between design and materiality can be explored. This year’s material is Sefar Architecture Vision fabric, a metal-coated fabric mesh sandwiched between two sheets of glass to give a translucent / reflective effect that is black on one side and metallic on the the other.

    This unusual material has been used by the architects to create a sculptural pavilion that plays with the orientation of the different surfaces of the glass to make full use of both it’s translucent and reflective qualities. Unframed laminated glass panels create simple vertical elements that visitors can move through, each time having a different experience depending on time of day and levels of activity.

    The delicate, complementing relationship between the installation and its host site, the Royal Festival Hall, becomes apparent both in the designers drawings and in the physical manifestation of the design.

    (Images via Dezeen)

  • 08/08

    Happy Kitchen

    Happy Kitchen is a new café-cum-organic food shop right next to London Fields station. What makes it really special does not immediately meet the eye (unless you read a bit more about them on the blackboards that line the walls), the owners try to source all ingredients locally as far as possible, reducing environmental impact and supporting smaller, local suppliers.

    Situated in a converted railway arch, it serves delicious coffee and home baked cakes, using only ingredients that are in season. Customers are encouraged to bring their own containers to buy dried grains, nuts and fruits.

    The playful interior reflects their eco-consciousness, chairs are upholstered with re-used hessian coffee sacks and organic vegetables are on display in wooden apple crates.

  • 21/07

    The Truvia Voyage of Discovery

    The rooftop of Selfridges, Oxford street has been transformed beyond recognition by jelly mongers, Bompas and Parr. The Truvia Voyage of Discovery is a celebration of the arrival of Truvia sweetener in Britain that runs from the 21st to the 24th of July, tickets have sadly sold out already.

    Bompas and Parr have lived up to their reputation of delivering the strange and exciting, creating a rooftop landscape complete with rowing lake and waterfall. Rounded off by rows of the Stevia plant from which the natural, calorie-free sweetener is derived.

    Guests at the event can sip on cocktails by the Experimental Cocktail Club or teas and coffees by Caravan and the Rare Tea Company while drinking in their unusual surroundings and an amazing view over the heart of London shopping.

    (Images via Notcot)

  • 30/06

    DIG by Snarkitecture

    Dig is an exhibition and performance at Storefront for Art and Architecture by Daniel Arsham/Snarkitecture that explores the architecture of excavation. Storefront’s distinctive gallery space will be filled with a solid volume of EPS architectural foam, engulfing the existing interior in an unyielding flood of white. The volume will then be excavated using simple tools – hammers, picks and chisels – to transform a stock industrial material into a strange, unexpected cavern for both work and play.

    An exhibition will document an ongoing dialogue between ideas of notational precision and fabricated looseness. This negotiation of design logic with sculptural intuition sets the stage for the interaction between the artist and viewer. Daniel Arsham/Snarkitecture will both create and inhabit Digfor the duration of the subsequent month-long installation, carving spaces from solid infill in a performance open to public view. The façade of Storefront will act as a human ant farm, framing the work occurring within for outside passerby. Inside the remaining gallery space, a cave-like entrance will open into the solid form, inviting viewers to watch the excavation of an unreal space in real time.

    Dig is an experiment between the precision of the architectural plan and the looseness of the unknown. The installation and performance explore an intersection of primitivism and contemporary architecture; the complexity of the final surfaces and form suggests a digital origin and conceals the simplicity of a space made entirely by hand. The solid volume is excavated and inhabited by basic necessity, but also engages in careful play with the existing architecture of Storefront. Dig uncovers the inconceivable within the conceivable.

    At the close of the installation, the material was returned to the manufacturer and recycled into rigid foam insulation.

    Dig is made possible by OHWOW and Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin.

    Via Mydesignstories

  • 23/06

    Printed Wikipedia by Rob Matthews

    Not that this is a subject particularly related to interior design, but nevertheless it has become an important tool in most of our lives, so I do think it is worthwhile to feature it: London designer Rob Matthews has printed the full version of all featured Wikipedia articles and bound them into the possibly thickest book on this planet. The self-updating and information balancing nature of Wikipedia obviously doesn’t work in this version anymore, but it still is impressive to see in tangible form the sheer information that the site consists of. It contains more than 5000 pages and can probably be named the most influential encyclopedia of the 21st century.


  • 26/04

    Mr. Beam transforms white living room with 3D projectors

    Certainly improvable in terms of style (taste?), but definitely a very interesting concept is this white living room that can be transformed with a mouse click into any design you desire. Working like a life size digital picture frame, the white furniture serves as a canvas for the imagery of two 3D projectors, which allows the user to change the texture style of the room into anything desired. The masterminds behind this project are Mo Assem and Ruben van Esterik from the Netherlands. They are working together as Mr. Beam and have a whole lot of other very interesting projects involving 3D projectors.

    Living Room from Mr.Beam on Vimeo.