• 03/04

    Code Black Coffee, Melbourne

    We’re bringing you another coffee shop, this time Melbourne-based coffee roasting company, Code Black. Interior Architects, Zwei, converted two inner-city warehouses, combining an office and coffee shop, where the roasting process is on full display.

    The original warehouse windows were kept, while the rest of the space is lit by warm yellow bulbs.

    Dark and moody, the space features steel framing, polished concrete, and stained OSB board throughout, creating a raw, industrial aesthetic that playfully reflects the colours and textures of rich, dark coffee.

    (Images from Inhabit)

     

     

  • 21/11

    Coin Laundry, Melbourne, Australia

    Coin Laundry, a lovely neighbourhood cafe in Melbourne, Australia has become a favorite brunch spot among locals. The airy cafe that takes its name from the former function of the space, also kept the original signage, and used it as a basis for its interior design. The most distinctive feature of the space is the rows of tea towels draped along the ceiling with bare light bulbs dangling below. Add to this bentwood chairs, concrete floors and exposed brickwork and you have one cool cafe.

    (Images via CafesPhotoBlog)

  • 01/11

    Ex Mauri, Milan

    Ex Mauri is an Venetian Osteria in Milan. The warm interior benefits from beautiful exposed brickwork  and a charming fire place. The rustic space is complemented with a collection of vintage Italian signage and an eclectic mix of furniture. Light fixtures hang low over tables that are minimally set, creating an intimate atmosphere. Instead of a bar the restaurant has a large cabinet stacked to the brim with bottles of liquor and curios like classic Italian espresso makers. The most unusual aspect of this little restaurant is perhaps the glass ‘porthole’ in the floor that leads to a well-stocked basement wine cellar befitting a classic osteria.



    (Images via cosebellemagazine)
  • 14/11

    Vanilla, Berlin by Pandarosa

    Vanilla is a sweet coffee shop in East Berlin – made even sweeter with a little typography inspired interior by design duo Pandarosa. The pink and blue colour scheme harks back to childhood days spent drooling over the ice-cream counter, while the seamless treatment of signage, logo and wallpaper is a very grown-up attitude to holistic design. The looping ‘l’s of ‘Vanilla’ repeat to make a pattern for the wall behind the counter. Vintage touches in fixtures and fittings add to the retro vibe.

    The design is by Ariel Aguilera and Andrea Benyi, whose work has been commissioned by big brands Volkswagen, Lee Jeans and Adidas and can also be seen in Copenhagen’s  Hotel Fox.

    Images via WeHeart

  • 30/10

    Plera Pendant Lamp by DZstudio

    All hail Plera, the  effortlessly elegant pendant lamp from Italian designers Andrea Di Filippo and Enrico Zanolla (better known as DZstudio). The lamp’s name comes from the Italian ‘pleara’ or funnel and it’s this simple upturned shape that gives the product its minimalist beauty and appeal.

    Cold and classic porcelain has been chosen to communicate the simplicity of the small suspension lamp’s form, neatly juxtaposed with a wooden rim for a friendly touch of warmth.

    Andrea and Enrico formed DZstudio in 2004, having graduated from the University of Architecture of Venice (IUAV) the same year. The studio works in research and design for various fields, such as furnishings, yacht and car design.

  • 29/10

    OPEN HOUSE – 20 ROOM VERTICAL GREENHOUSE

    Could this be the future of community centres? Open House is a vertical village of haphazardly stacked house shaped rooms recently opened in Anyang, Korea.

    Raumlaborkorea, a research and intervention unit of the design group Raumlaborberlin, were invited to design, programme and build this centre as part of ‘Anyang public art project/ A new community in the open city’. Described by it’s designers as a ‘social sculpture’, the project aims to knit into the existing urban and social landscape and not only serves the local community but was also built by them!

    Two hundred residents of Anyang took part in building workshops and completed the stacked rooms which include a bicycle rent shop, a children’s play pavillion, a community garden and a tea room.

    I love this project, Raumlaborkorea have reinvented the architecture associated with community and participation and created a playful and exciting project which also looks great!

  • 22/10

    Mother Advertising Agency, Shoreditch

    Mother, a top British advertising agency based in London, have collaborated and carried out their work around a central table since 1996. Now a much larger company, the working concept has grown to fit the company’s success. Central to Chris Wilkinson Architects’ design of their new office in a 42,000ft2 Shoreditch warehouse, is a staggering 250 feet long concrete table, for up to 200 people to pull up their wheely chairs to.

    The inspiration for the concrete table was the iconic 1920’s Giacomo Matte-Trucco roof top race track for Fiat Lingotto in Turin. A 4.2m wide staircase leads up to and becomes the Agency’s feature worktable which cuts dynamically through the building to connect the floors.

    50 light fixtures that each span 2.1m act as acoustic baffles over the enormous table. Covered with unique patterns of Marimekko fabric, selected from archive stock in its’ factory in Helsinki, and padded with 75mm of acoustic foam, the harsh acoustics of the factory space have been overcome.

    With the rest of the office interior left tastefully neutral and pared-down – the striking fabrics of the lampshades really work hard to grab clients’ attention and draw them into the central space.

  • 26/08

    Bus-Tops by Alfie Dennen and Paula Ledieu

    Bus-Tops will be a public art installation on the roofs of bus shelters across London, inspiring wonder and creativity in unexpected places. LED panels will become canvases showcasing digital commissions by a range of established artists, as well as allowing Londoners to display their creativity, play games and express what is special about their London.

    People will be able to submit and view artwork through a number of mediums including website and mobile applications. Using drawing toolkits, people can create images, text or animations for display on the panels. For those unable to view the roofs of bus shelters, the website will provide live updates of the artwork and the opportunity to construct personal ‘routes’ through the works.

    Cutting edge technology will also allow the bus shelters to develop individual personalities, becoming ‘Viziters’ to the city in their own right in the run up to the Games. Over their period of stay, each Bus-Top shelter will develop a unique character through their relationships with each other, members of the public and participating artists.

    The canvases will appear on the roofs of bus shelters across London from July 2011.

    London from Artists Taking the Lead on Vimeo.

  • 02/07

    BIJOU coffee shop by im.architektur

    Milos Mirosavic and Ivana Popovic (otherwise known as im.architecktur) are a pair of Serbian architects that take their coffee seriously. These images are of their BIJOU coffee shop concept, ‘a small and elegant spot for a daily dose of pleasure.’ Designed around notions of jewels and luxury, the bar space is wrapped with metal rods that are covered with tiles intended to ‘flicker like diamonds’ and reflect light over the floor, ceiling and walls.

    The concept has won them much accolade and a prize in the ‘Business Premises’ category of the Tile Awards – a Europe-wide design competition aimed at illustrating new, creative and unusual uses of tiles to create ‘unconventional and sensational’ interiors. The competition, addressed to architects and interior designers under the age of 35, was initiated by German architecture magazine AIT to celebrate newcomers in the industry.

    Concept image.

    The tiles will reflect light on the shop surfaces.

  • 28/06

    Earl's Gourmet Grub by FreelandBuck

    Architectural computation has become increasingly popular in the design of high-tech buildings with interesting shapes; Earl’s Gourmet Grub is a test case of using it on an interior scale as a way of enriching everyday use. Although the design uses very recent technology it fits with the old-world sensibility that that the food inspires.

    The artisanal deli that opened in Los Angeles in May 2010 is intended to be a sort of contemporary interior landscape. Inscribed on the West wall is a technologically refined digital pattern,  this is an abstraction of a picture of the Alps into a series of pixels.  (Check out the drawing at the end to see how they reached the pattern)

    The torqued ceiling surfaces act as light canopies that create depth and an airy feeling. These rhythmic undulations have the added function of dividing the space into pockets and add to the dynamic feel of the space.

    These extremely contemporary elements are combined with rich materials and colours, so that the space not only evokes a technological look but also the feel of alpine landscapes and Viennese cafes. The resulting space can be described as high-tech picturesque.

    (images from FreelandBuck)

  • 25/06

    Extension to the High Line

    Fans of New York’s ‘High Line’ park have some good news to celebrate. The hugely popular urban landscape, designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro in 2009, is due to be extended to twice the length of redundant railway line it currently occupies.

    Through a masterful use of detail and materiality, the design pays homage to the signs of decaying industry that surround it. Concrete planks that allow grass to grow in between them are a poignant reminder of nature’s ability to reclaim the man-made and artificial. The new section, designed in collaboration with James Corner Field Operations, will interpret these ideas further and include a dense area of trees and shrubs chosen for their ability to grow in the shade of skyscrapers. A lounging lawn and a sitting area bordered by an empty billboard frame will also enhance the existing design, which elevates visitors above the bustling city below.

    The park’s much-anticipated extension is due for completion in Spring 2011.

    (images from Inhabitat)

  • 24/06

    Chorus at the Wapping Project

    In the dark industrial interior of the Boiler House at the Wapping Project, United Visual Artists are presenting ‘Chorus’, an installation that explores the relationship between performance, sculpture and installation. Constructed of a series of motor assisted pendulums, lights and speakers, it is very striking and heightens the drama of its unique setting.

    The dynamic installation is almost hypnotic with variations of chaotic and orderly rhythms. It is described by its designers as a new kind of musical instrument, where the spatial location of each sound is critical to the composition of the piece.

    The Wapping Project alone is worth a visit, located in the historic Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. The multipurpose exhibition and performance space hosts an ever changing array of artists from a range of disciplines.

    The Engine and Turbine Houses resemble the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern, but with the added benefit of delicious food from restaurant and bar it houses. With its rich architectural fabric and remnants of its industrial past it really makes for a memorable dining experience. The stripped back Boiler and Filter Houses,  in turn provide unusual exhibition and performance spaces.

    Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, Wapping Wall, London
    15th June – 18th July 2010
    Mon – Fri, 12 -10.30pm, Sat 10 – 10.30pm & Sun 10 – 6pm

    (images from United Visual Artist and The Wapping Project)

  • 23/06

    South London Gallery extension

    The South London Gallery, already a big player internationally showing work from famous artists like Steve McQueen, Eva Rothschild and Alfredo Jaar, have built an extension.With the help of 6A Architects they have renovated a derelict house to accommodate exhibition space, a cafe and a flat for artists-in-residence. In addition they built a three storey extension with a double height gallery space and a studio in the back garden that interestingly sits on the footprint of a lecture theatre destroyed by WWII.

    The designers made good use of the architectural fabric provided by the site. The studio has two surviving brick walls as a starting point and in the gallery the existing building’s features are exposed, displaying beautiful elements like weathered brickwork and roof trusses. The architectural language is abstracted and reduced, creating a calm feeling. It has a few surprizes up its sleeve though, the West wall pivots, breaking down the boundary between the interior and the back garden.




    (via Dezeen)

  • 17/06

    Tape installation

    This must be one of the coolest installations I’ve seen in a while, such an innovative use of material. The installation by Croatian design collective use/numen is made of 530 rolls of transparent self adhesive tape (thats 35 600m, 45kg!). The amorphous surface was created by continuously wrapping strands of tape between columns in an ex-stock exchange building.

    The concept of the installation evolved from the idea of recording the movement of dancers, the resulting shape is meant to be a ‘mapping’ of the choreography. The result is an organic looking web that complements the architectural fabric in a rather eerie way.

    The installation in Berlin, presented by the Vienna Design Week Embassy, is a follow up on a previous installation by the same artists the gallery of the Croatian Designer’s Society. First time round they used 19 cardboard tubes and 118 roles of tape. The entire installation took 96 hours and €95 to complete.

    (via designboom)

  • 10/06

    Central Saint Martins Pop Up 2060

    103 students x 20 objects = 2060 Pop Up

    After a five week process that I imagine involved a lot of hard work the second year BA Graphic design students from Central Saint Martins hosted a week long pop up shop in Clerkenwell. The focus was on manufacture being an integral part of design, and we’re all very grateful, it gave us a chance to buy work from talented young designers.

    Apart from the great work they were selling they also hosted interesting events, they had everything from children’s design workshops to design speed dating.

    Here are some pictures of the goods that were on sale:

    (via Notcot)

  • 01/06

    Clerkenwell Design Week 2010

    Clerkenwell has more than 60 design showrooms and loads of design and architectural practices amongst its elegant greens, squares and historic buildings. Not to mention all the cool pop-up clubs and shops, restaurants and hip bars. All of this makes it perfect location to host a design festival, and the organizers of Clerkenwell Design Week did just that. The three-day annual festival celebrated design’s creative richness, its social impact and its power for change.

    The festival was packed with an interesting mix of exhibitions, product launches from leading brands, street entertainment, music, food and parties. It also included a stimulating series of seminars, workshops and debates by big names in design that tackled key issues facing creatives today.

    All in all the Clerkenwell Design Week was entertaining, inspiring and challenged all your preconceptions.

    (via Clerkenwell Design Week and Treehugger)

  • 26/05

    Pantone Hotel

    Pantone Universe expanded their range of colorful, design-inspired products to now include accommodation. The Pantone Hotel opened just around the corner from Avenue Louise, a glamorous shopping and business district in Brussels. It combines a chic, colorful aesthetic with comfortable guest rooms. The project was a collaboration between Belgian interior designer Michel Penneman and Belgian architect Olivier Hannaert. They Hotel is designed so that each of the seven floors and 59 rooms are accented by different color palettes to complement guests’ emotions with distinctive hues – whether vivid or subdued.

    The guest rooms are largely monochrome to provide a crisp canvas for saturated pops of vibrant color. Adding to the artistry, rooms feature photographic installations created by renowned Belgian photographer Victor Levy that include a spectrum of vibrant PANTONE Colors to create a unique ambiance in each room. Even the city is washed in color as sections of the windows are color tinted.

    (via Dezeen)

  • 20/05

    Rosa's Soho

    After much success in Spitalfields, Rosa’s Thai restaurant opened a ‘Pop-Up’ in Soho called Noodles, this was so well received that people in Soho now have permanent access to a Rosa’s fix.

    The interior design, done by Gundry and Ducker, features moulded oak panelling lined with brass plates at the edges. The design is intended to be reminiscent of a traditional British cafe with a Thai edge. A warm and inviting interior is achieved by using soft lighting and red and brown tones. This color scheme is used throughout the ground floor, with lighter tones as it is intended primarily for daytime use.Booths and partitions are formed by the moulded oak panelling, which are modified in places to form coat hooks and lamps. The oak profiles are echoed in the borders of the laser-cut brass plates that decorate the walls. The basement is much darker, featuring gloss, gray and reclaimed teak, reflecting its purpose as an evening space.


    And here is a little bit about the Pop-Up, in case you missed it:

    The designers chose to celebrate the temporary nature of the restaurant by whitewashing the  interior of the shop it was located in as they found it and using materials and construction methods that are usually associated with impermanence. They placed a series of plywood booths throughout, these had glowing red interiors and arched entrances. Chairs were also made of plywood and were held together by cable ties. They made use of illuminated signage and arrows, and this, along with the color scheme was intended to acknowledge Soho’s red-light district heritage. Displayed on the shelves were laser cut highlights from the menu, each in a typeface reflecting its character.


    (via Dezeen and Gundry+Ducker)

  • 18/05

    London buses

    The familiar face of a London bus will soon be less familiar. British designer Thomas Heatherwick has designed the replacement for London’s iconic Routemaster bus, in collaboration with bus company the Wright Group. The new design is set to hit the London streets in 2012.

    It will be made of lightweight materials, with glass highlighting key features, that will produce a light and airy feel inside the bus. Visually dramatic, it will be asymmetric and features a glass ‘swoop’ at the rear and along its side.

    In addition to its futuristic looking, flashy exterior the bus will use the latest green technology and will be 15 per cent more fuel efficient than existing hybrid buses, and 40 per cent more efficient than conventional diesel double decks and much quieter on the streets.

    Its defining feature is the open platform, inspired by the Routemaster of old, which allows the reinstatement of a hop-on, hop-off service, speedy boarding will also be aided by three doors and two staircases.

    A a static mock up of the bus is currently being worked on and we will probably get a glimpse of it later this year, but we’ll have to wait until late next year to see a full working prototype.

    (via Dezeen)

  • 12/05

    Bethnal Green Town Hall Hotel

    There’s a new designer hotel on the block in Bethnal Green, in the familiar shell of its Old Town Hall. Behind the Grade II listed building’s Edwardian/Art Deco facade now sit some of the most stylish hotel rooms and luxury apartments in the city. Hip French architects, Rare, have worked with hotelier, Peng Loh, to give the giving the building a complete make over.

    In keeping with the East End’s creative reputation, they worked together with Artsadmin to commission works by up and coming young, local artists. The spacious apartments are fitted out  with a mix of one of a kind vintage furniture and contemporary Scandinavian pieces, and each comes with their own designer kitchen. Not that guests would need a kitchen… The Hotel’s restaurant, Viajantes, headed by chef Nuno Mendes promises to be a culinary treat. The interior features bespoke, handcrafted furniture and has an intimate atmosphere to complete the dining experience.

    This chic addition to Bethnal Green is  a design hotel with a difference, perfectly combining sleek city style with old world elegance.


    (images via Design Hotels)

  • 10/05

    Shunt Money

    The experimental collective, Shunt, are as surprizing and unusual as ever with their take on Zola’s 1890 novel L’Argent. The traditional stage-audience setup is done away with as you are thrust into a rabbit hole of sorts, and it just gets more exciting as you go along.

    They constructed a three storey ‘machine’ that forms the set inside a former tobacco warehouse. You are led through this clunking machine as the story unfolds around, above and below you. The truly impressive set is used to its full potential, characters crawling out of the vents and the flick of a light switch revealing omnious meetings below. Eventhough the narrative is little hard to follow at times you stay utterly engaged.

  • 06/05

    Undercover

    It was love at first sight when I saw images of the new Undercover shop in Kanazawa by fashion designer, Jun Takahashi, and interior designer, Kazuya Sasaki. The Japanese brand’s ninth boutique is based on the interior design of its flagship in Aoyama.

    Both spaces are characterized by their beautiful light bulb infused ceilings, without a doubt the most striking feature. Even though they first did this in July 2009, it is still painfully fresh. They allowed the this ethereal looking installation to take center stage by keeping the rest of the interior minimal and muted. The Dieter Rams audio equipment and shelving, along with industrial detailing, perfectly compliment the overall look.

    My only problem with this project is that I probably won’t get to see it firsthand any time soon.

    (images courtesy of solediction)

  • 04/05

    Look Mum No Hands

    Look Mum No Hands is the clever name of a new cafe/bar/bike workshop that recently opened in Old Street. Here you can enjoy some seriously delicious coffee and cake while your bike is being tended to by an expert bicycle mechanic. The interior of the former architectural showroom is pared down and airy, with a select few beautiful vintage bikes on display in the window and some large prints of past races on the walls. The minimalist look of the space is enhanced with striking details, such as the vintage lamps above the bar that have the added quirky touch of hanging from bicycle chains. They also have a lovely outdoor area that will no doubt be very busy on sunny days. The relaxed, fuss free space and staff have won me over and I will definitely not wait for bicycle problems to go there again.

  • 27/04

    Speed of light

    United Visual Artists, a London based art and design practice, came up with some interesting light installations in the Bargehouse, an old industrial warehouse on the South Bank. It ran from 9-19 April and was commissioned by Virgin Media in celebration of ten years of broadband internet in the UK.

    Drawing inspiration from the materiality of fibre optics, a thin strand of glass with a flickering beam of light, the installation starts with a single beam of light, fueled by user input. As visitors move through the already dramatic warehouse setting, the light installation evolves into a variety of atmospheric light shows.

    Moving through the six rooms, spread across four floors, visitors are immersed into diverse visual experiences created by the 148 lasers used. Through their exploration of communication and modernity, they have also showed how dramatically spaces can be altered without physically changing the fabric of the building.

  • Skitsch

    New Italian brand, Skitsch, has opened shop in Brompton Road, London, after success at last years Salone. The showroom playfully displays interesting furniture by Maarten Baas, Naoto Fukasawa, Konstantin Grcic and Marcel Wanders, as well as new talent 5.5 and Luca Nichetto. Founder, Renato Preti, aims to have beautiful yet surprising pieces in the collection, steering away from a particular style so that shoppers can choose from different design personalities. The space was designed to be inviting and features tactile surfaces and lively compositions, so as not to be intimidating as showrooms sometimes tend to be.

    image courtesy of Wallpaper*

    image courtesy of Wallpaper*

  • 15/09

    Architectural Association Pavillion Exhibition 2009

    Driftwood was selected by a panel of judges from three student pavilion proposals present by intermediate  unit 2, the concept author, Danecia Sibingo, and her three team members, Lyn Hayek, Yoojin Kim, Taeyoung Lee had worked together to turn the concept into a full design proposal for a summer pavilion.

    The final design consist of 28 layers of plywood which conceal an internal “Kerto” (a renewable spruce plywood) Structural system. Fabrication took seven weeks at the AA’s Hooke Park workshop in Dorset, assisted by Charlie Corry-Wright. Once its components were made, Driftwood was assembled into six manageable sections before being transported to Bedford Square for its final connection and Public unveiling.

    The finished Driftwood has come a long way from the units visit to Helsinki, Finland in October 2008 where the projects financial sponsors, FinnForest, are based. Inspired by images of the Jordanian city Petram Sibingo sought a sensuous spatial effect Which she achieved with her original concept. Unit masters Charles Walker and Martin Self and senior Engineer Ching Luan Lau ensured that creativity remained cost-effective and eco friendly bounds.

    Architectural Association Pavillion Exhibition 2009

    Architectural Association Pavillion Exhibition 2009

    Architectural Association Pavillion Exhibition 2009

    Architectural Association Pavillion Exhibition 2009

    Architectural Association Pavillion Exhibition 2009