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    Cho Thompson unearths Boston building’s history to inform office interiors

    US studio Atelier Cho Thompson has redesigned the shared spaces for an office building in Boston, borrowing shapes and materials from its history for new interior elements.

    The project involved reimagining the communal areas at 179 Lincoln Street, a full-block building in the city’s Leather District that was constructed as a shoe factory in 1899.
    Arched motifs on the facade of 179 Lincoln Street were reinterpreted as grooves in the lobby’s plaster wallsAtelier Cho Thompson looked to this history to guide the design of areas at the margins of the building, including the under-utilized lobby space, a dark central core, and empty pocket spaces on each of five floors – all totalling 8,000 square feet (743 square metres).
    “We unearthed and amplified the building’s rich history while creating a space that is responsive to the needs of the post-pandemic workplace,” said studio founder Cho Thompson.
    Finger-shaped backrests for a bench are wrapped in leather to nod to the building’s shoe-making pastWork began with removing the layers of previous renovations, including vinyl tile and commercial carpet, which had left areas “dark and generic”.

    The team uncovered original terrazzo floors in some areas and worked with experts to restore any sections that were damaged.
    Arches are also hewn into the white oak counter front in the receptionThey also looked to the arched geometry and detailed ornamentation of the building’s historic facade for interior design cues.
    The arches are repeated in the lobby as grooved patterns across the hand-troweled plaster walls, and again at a smaller scale around the white oak front of the marble-topped reception counter.
    Brass details including handrails match the building’s original mail chute”With a modern sensibility, we developed a language of detail that brought elements of the exterior into the building’s core,” Thompson said.
    “In that transformation, we brought a playful spirit, bringing massive forms down to human size and creating juxtapositions of materials, patterns, and scales.”
    In other communal areas, original red brick walls and terrazzo floors are exposedShiny black floors contrast the pale colour palette used across all other surfaces, while brass – chosen to match the building’s mail chute – provides a bright accent on railings, drawer handles and other details.
    Lighting fixtures by Lam Partners comprise globe-shaped components attached to thin brass supports, in a variety of linear configurations.
    Multiple counters are provided for group work and conversations between colleaguesIn other “in-between” communal areas, red brick walls and columns are exposed beneath skylights.
    A series of brass-topped counters are scattered through these spaces, creating spots for casual conversation between colleagues.

    GRT Architects restores facade and overhauls lobby of New York’s Fashion Tower

    Banquettes and benches also provide opportunities for group and collaborative work outside of typical meeting rooms.
    These are upholstered in dusty pink leather as a nod to the building’s shoe-making past.
    These casual meeting spaces are designed to respond to the changing needs of office workers”This project responds to the changing landscape of office life by offering opportunities that go beyond what we can experience in only working from home,” said Thompson.
    “With a hospitality approach, the spaces of the project offer a fresh, welcoming, and inclusive place to spend time with colleagues.”
    Polished brass is also used for signage and wayfinding. Photo by Samara ViseReimagining historic buildings as contemporary workplaces is a common challenge for architects and designers, and refreshing communal or public-facing spaces is typically an impactful place to start.
    Similarly, GRT Architects overhauled the entrance to the art deco Fashion Tower in New York, restoring its facade and modernising the lobby.
    The photography is by Jared Kuzia, unless stated otherwise.
    Project credits:
    Client: EQ OfficeArchitect: Atelier Cho ThompsonLighting designer: Lam Partners

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    Most Architecture creates micro factory with “everything on display” for Charge Cars

    UK studio Most Architecture has converted an industrial shed in west London into an all-black-and-white showroom and production facility for electric car start-up Charge Cars.

    Created to manufacture Charge Cars’ first vehicle the ’67 – an all-electric version of the 1960s Ford Mustang Fastback built using components from electric vehicle brand Arrival – the facility also acts as an office and showroom.
    Most Architecture has created a factory for electric car start-up Charge Cars”Charge designs and makes its unique cars in a single facility,” said Most Architecture founder Olga McMurdo. “Like an open-kitchen restaurant, everything is on display to the staff and customers.”
    “So we created an environment that allows immediate access to every aspect of the process from design through to production,” she told Dezeen. “The factory, and all of its contents, are at once an agile design and manufacturing centre, a customer showroom, and a design statement.”
    The building is arranged around the workshopThe facility in Stockley Close, west London, was designed around the idea of promoting a connection between Charge Cars’ clients and the engineers building and customising the cars.

    At its centre is a large open workshop where the cars are built and customised, which is overlooked by various offices and meeting spaces.
    Charge Cars’ ’67 will be manufactured in the factory”Our client came to us with an ambition to re-define a classic design icon using cutting-edge electric vehicle technology and to create a customer experience that engenders a visceral response to the product, and the process of creating it,” said McMurdo.
    “Their space had to accommodate both the manufacturing and the design process, facilitating teamwork and recreation, testing, a showroom, and areas for customer engagement,” she continued.
    “All that had to happen within one architectural volume, and so the primary challenge was to facilitate all of these activities simultaneously and symbiotically, whilst projecting a clear and coherent design statement reflecting the client’s philosophy.”
    Office spaces overlook the workshopUnlike the majority of car factories, the Charge Cars facility was designed so that its customers can visit at any time to observe how the vehicle is designed and assembled.
    “Charge wanted the customer journey to be mapped out by the design of the building,” said McMurdo.

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    “The customer’s access to, and experience of, the factory is an integral part of the product,” she continued.
    “They have a personal relationship with the engineers that are making their car, and are able to see the car as it is being constructed.”
    The Charge Cars factory is almost entirely black and whiteMost Architecture designed the spaces with a stripped-back aesthetic united by a largely white and black colour palette, including a black light fixture above the building’s entrance.
    “The white and the black amplify each other by contrast, representing the fusion of a laboratory and a garage, and the constant dynamic between research and production,” explained McMurdo.
    “Using this pallet we also wanted to make an impactful design statement on entry to the building. The result was a large anamorphic light fixture, which coalesces into a Feynman diagram from a single vantage point, becoming a composition of independent pieces.”
    Cars are designed, built and tested at the facilityOther recent electric car factories featured on Dezeen include a black steel and glass facility designed by Snøhetta for car brand Polestar in Chengdu, China. In Sweden, Danish architecture studio Cobe is designing a development centre for Chinese car manufacturer Geely, which it describes as a “chamber of secrets”.
    The photography is by Paul Riddle.
    Project credits:
    Client: Charge CarsLead architect: Most ArchitectureInterior concepts: Evgeniy BulatnikovMechanical engineer: AironElectrical engineer: Smart Techno SystemsStructural engineer: HLS StructuralLighting: Gaismas MagijaBuilding control: The Building InspectorsWind consultant: Buro HappoldFire engineer: QFSMCDM advisor: Andrew Goddard AssociatesMain contractor: Hansa GroupSteel mezzanine contractor: System Store SolutionsLighting manufacturer: Esse-Ci

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    DAB Studio lines kitchen of Dutch home with oak and Afromosia wood

    Dutch interior design practice DAB Studio has transformed the kitchen of a family home in Zwaag, the Netherlands, by covering the floors and ceiling in one type of wood and the walls and cabinets in another.

    DAB Studio aimed to create a “calm yet soulful” interior with an earthy colour palette made up of tan and neutral shades.
    Quarter-sawn Afromosia wood lines the walls and kitchen unitsThe floors and ceiling were covered in hand-scraped oak with a smoked and black-oiled finish, laid in a pattern of side-by-side plank pairs.
    Afromosia wood, a tropical hardwood native to west Africa, was applied to the walls and cabinets. The wood was quarter sawn to create a decorative grain pattern and add a sense of playfulness to the interior.
    Oak planks were laid in side-by-side pairs on the floors and ceilingDAB Studio co-founders, Lotte and Dennis Bruns, designed the interior to be a space that would balance “feminine and masculine elements” and reflect both of the owners’ design tastes.

    According to the duo, the repeating wood choices for the different surfaces give the space a sense of completeness.
    Marble worktops extend down the sides of the kitchen units”Per the client’s request, we wanted to merge the feminine and masculine vision of their new home, balancing each other out in one curated space,” the co-founders told Dezeen.
    “This allowed us to create unique areas in line with our client’s habits and interests while imbuing the space with a sense of spaciousness and lightness.”
    “In order to merge all elements of the design, it felt important to prioritise the theme of consistency,” the duo added.
    “For that particular reason, the wood of the floor is repeated on the ceiling, and the wood used for cabinetry is continued into the walls of the room.”

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    The centrepiece of the kitchen is the island, which features Afromosia wood cabinet doors and a waterfall countertop made from Arebescato Orobico marble.
    Wood cabinets along one kitchen wall were also topped with a marble worktop, which extends down one side to frame the unit.
    The studio balanced “masculine and feminine” elements in the interiorDAB Studio added a dining nook below a window, designed to be a space flooded with natural light where the family can gather.
    Seating with rounded corners wraps the three walls of the nook. The seating base was covered in the same wood as the interior walls, while the seat and backrest are covered in plush upholstery.
    The quarter-sawn Afromosia wood creates a decorative grainAt the centre of the nook, a rectangular table with two blocky legs made from Arebescato Orobico marble contrasts the rounded seating.
    “The dining nook is where the family can spend time together, welcome new conversations, and create core memories,” said Lotte and Dennis Bruns.
    “The asymmetrical built-in banquette seating feels inviting with its round edges, and adds a dynamic feel to the space.”
    The dining nook sits below a windowDecorative items and free-standing furniture were introduced to the interior to add more rounded elements, including a Wiggle Chair by Frank Gehry.
    Elsewhere in the Netherlands, Francois Verhoeven Architects has created a bungalow clad in vertical timber slats and Julia van Beuningen added a plywood staircase to a barn conversion.
    The photography is by Daniëlle Siobhán.

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    Kelly Wearstler designs Los Angeles bar to feel “like it has been there for ages”

    Interior designer Kelly Wearstler paired clay plaster walls with Moroccan cement tiles at this eclectic cocktail bar in the Downtown LA Proper hotel.

    Named after Mexico’s national flower, the Dahlia bar features a blushing interior that was designed to echo the rest of the hotel – also created by Wearstler.
    The designer looked to the same Spanish, Mexican and Moroccan influences that define the wider Downtown LA Proper, such as terracotta Roman clay plaster walls and ceilings when conceptualising the bar.
    Dahlia is a cocktail lounge within the Downtown LA Proper hotel”The warm, earthy tones of the lounge are in concert with the larger hotel while striking their own note entirely,” said Wearstler.
    “Dahlia feels like it has been there for ages,” added the designer, who has been named as a judge for the inaugural Dezeen Awards China.

    Moroccan cement tiles clad the barVisitors enter the bar through yellow-tinged stained glass doors that were custom-made for the venue by Los Angeles’ historic Judson Studios, which claims to be the oldest family-run stained glass company in America.
    Seating was created from a mix of built-in reddish banquettes and low-slung curved armchairs that hug circular timber tables, while a geometric chandelier draped in light-filtering silk was suspended overhead.

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    In one corner, an embossed and low-slung black cabinet supports two squat table lamps that look like oversized green olives.
    Wearstler adorned the clay plaster walls with a mishmash of vintage and contemporary textural artwork, which was finished in ceramic and sand. Various local artists were included in the mix.
    Kelly Wearstler imbued the venue with her signature eclectic styleDefined by “saturated hues and dramatic lighting,” the cocktail lounge also features a bar clad with lilac-hued Moroccan cement tiles and woven crimson rugs.
    “This is the kind of space where you can entirely lose track of time,” said the designer.
    Known for her distinctively eclectic style, Wearstler has created interiors for various other destinations that are part of the Proper Hotel Group. The designer scoured vintage shops to source the furniture that decorates the living room-style lobby of a Santa Monica branch while an Austin location features a sculptural oak staircase that doubles as a plinth for Wearstler’s own glazed earthenware pots and vases.
    The images are courtesy of Kelly Wearstler.

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    “Not having architectural education makes you find different solutions” says Charlotte Taylor

    Visualisation artist Charlotte Taylor discusses how she is translating her digital design work into built architecture projects for the first time in this interview.

    Taylor is the founder of 3D-design studio Maison de Sable, where she collaborates with other 3D designers on renderings of imaginary, fantastical interiors and buildings.
    Recently Taylor’s designs have become less fantasy-driven and closer to real spaces, with some of them set to get built as physical architecture projects.
    “In the long term, I’d like to move more into architecture,” Taylor told Dezeen.
    Taylor is venturing into built architecture projects for the first time. Image by Thea Caroline Sneve Løvstad and top image by Nicholas PréaudHaving not pursued formal architecture training, the designer believes there should be more non-traditional pathways to designing buildings.

    “I didn’t train in architecture at all,” she said. “I think it would be great if there were more entries into architecture because it’s such a hard career to get into.”
    “I’d like to think that there’s hope that you can get into building physical spaces through unconventional means.”
    Casa Atibaia is a fictional home in Brazil that is due to be built. Image by Nicholas PréaudOne of Taylor’s designs due to be built is Casa Atibaia, a house that was originally conceived as an imaginary project in collaboration with designer Nicholas Préaud.
    The duo imagined the house situated by the Atibaia River in São Paulo, creating a digital model of part of the riverbank based on information from Google Maps.
    The interior of Casa Atibaia features on the front cover of Taylor’s bookFrom this, Taylor and Préaud designed a concrete and glass fantasy home raised on huge boulders, the interior of which features on the front cover of Taylor’s first book, Design Dreams, published last month.
    Although the project was not originally intended to be built, Taylor is now in the process of finding a plot of land suitable to actualise the design.
    The fantasy home is raised from the floor on boulders. Image by Nicholas PréaudTaylor has also collaborated with architectural designer Andrew Trotter on a house in Utah, which forms part of Trotter’s wider design for a hotel and retreat centre named Paréa.
    The house, which is currently under construction, was designed to blend into the desert landscape with large spans of glazing and walls finished in lime plaster.
    Taylor also worked on a house in Utah that is currently under construction. Image by Klaudia AdamiakAccording to Taylor her fictional designs have received a mixed response from architects, with some saying that “in the real world, it doesn’t work like that”.
    But for Taylor, not having an architecture degree and exploring spatial design digitally without being constrained by lighting, noise, safety and budget requirements allows for more creativity.
    The house in Utah was designed to blend into the landscape. Image by Klaudia Adamiak”It acts as a sort of creative playground for me in which I can test out all these concepts and see how they work visually,” said Taylor.
    “Then bringing that into the physical world and working with engineers and architects, it becomes pared down.”
    “I think not having architectural education makes you find different solutions or ideas to bring to the real world that wouldn’t have come from just designing an actual space,” she added.
    According to Taylor, digital design allows for more creativity than designing for the real world. Image by Klaudia AdamiakThe designer mentioned that her design icon Carlo Scarpa also never became a licenced architect.
    “My icon, Carlo Scarpa, never had his full qualification, so there are little stories that inspire me, but the general thinking is quite rigid – this particular entry is a bit frowned upon from what I’ve experienced,” said Taylor.

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    Having learned most of her design skills from experimenting with digital design and collaborating with other designers, Taylor describes herself as “self-studious” and encourages other designers to create work that they feel best represents themselves.
    “Strive to build a portfolio that excites you and represents you the most,” Taylor said.
    “Through building a portfolio and working with 3D designers and architects was how I learnt – it’s very research-heavy.”
    She founded the 3D-design studio Maison de Sable. Image by Klaudia AdamiakTaylor’s Design Dreams book features 3D designs of buildings and interiors created by herself and other artists.
    The curation includes fantasy-like environments as well as renderings of interiors that appear like real, tangible spaces.
    “[The book] became a space in which to share my personal projects, the artists I work with and work I admire around the field of interiors and architecture,” said Taylor.
    Taylor recently published her first book. Image by Klaudia AdamiakAlthough most of the images are already widely shared online, by collating them all into one volume Taylor hopes readers will enjoy getting lost in the printed format.
    “The same way that the Instagram page acts where people go to get lost in the images, to have that in a physical format means you are able to spend more time in detail than you can on a phone screen,” she said.
    Design Dreams features work by Taylor and other digital designers”To take something digital that doesn’t exist in the physical world and bring it to print was quite important for me, to see it in that way,” the designer added.
    Although they work in the digital sphere, Taylor maintains that 3D-visual creators play a part in interior design trends.
    It collates digital designs into a physical format”The arts trends that happen in 3D gradually make their way into interior spaces, and it’s really interesting to see the Pinterest effect,” she said.
    “People love to collect images and make their ideal moodboard with them, and these spaces really play into that. People are constructing their own ideas and making architecture and interiors more accessible rather than something very professional.”
    In her own interior visual designs, Taylor includes elements from her actual home to make the spaces feel more relatable than traditional architecture renderings.
    The Design Dreams book includes fantasy interiors and ones that look like real spaces”It’s down to the construction of the images, they have this sort of lightning and familiarity, and we always put little props that will often be things from my home,” she said.
    “These little details make it lived-in and more relatable versus traditional architectural visualisation, which can be very sterile and not aesthetically relatable.”
    Taylor has also previously worked on various NFT projects, including a video artwork informed by an OMA-design sculpture and NFT capsules that contain digital images of fantasy architecture projects.
    The images are by Charlotte Taylor unless stated.
    Dezeen In Depth
    If you enjoy reading Dezeen’s interviews, opinions and features, subscribe to Dezeen In Depth. Sent on the last Friday of each month, this newsletter provides a single place to read about the design and architecture stories behind the headlines.

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    Crosby Studios uses steel kitchen equipment to create Berlin jewellery store interior

    A faux industrial kitchen and yellow camping furniture feature in this store in Berlin by Crosby Studios for jewellery brand Avgvst.

    The studio put the space together from scratch using repurposed furniture and fittings including office blinds, camping chairs and kitchen equipment.
    The store’s colour scheme is dominated by grey, silver and yellowThe space is situated on the ground floor of a 19th-century building and retains a conventional glazed shop front. In contrast, the interior aims to distance itself from traditional jewellery stores.
    “The main idea was to create a new sense of retail in a non-traditional commercial way,” Crosby Studios told Dezeen.
    Cookers, storage and washing stations have become jewellery display casesThe store draws on the concept of a dark kitchen, a fast food outlet that provides food for deliveries and takeaways but doesn’t have a dedicated area for in-house dining.

    “We purchased all the steel appliances and shelving from the kitchen supply store in Berlin,” the studio said. “We needed sturdy stainless shelves with sliding drawers, which is why we decided to repurpose restaurant equipment.”
    Splashes of yellow animate the store’s interiorThe interior scheme is unified by its use of yellow paint, which is Avgvst’s signature brand colour.
    Yellow details at the front of the store include a kitchen sink, a rinsing tap with a coiled arm and numerous small display stands for jewellery.

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    The back of the space features yellow storage cabinets, curtains and foldable furniture, as well as yellow and green flowers and plants that soften the space’s industrial feel.
    “Yellow is associated with gold, which is reflected in Avgvst’s jewellery,” the studio said.
    Yellow details are picked out in display stands, seating, signage and wiringAside from the dominant use of yellow, other features include the space’s original exposed brick walls and wooden door lintels that have been lined with slats from repurposed office blinds.
    Foldable camping tables, chairs and stools are set up as permanent furniture to add to the interior’s playful atmosphere.
    Yellow flowers and green foliage soften the industrial aesthetic of the shopJewellery has been laid out on top of stainless steel equipment in the spots once dedicated to food preparation, replacing ingredients and dishes with high-end jewellery.
    To celebrate the store’s opening, Avgvst designed a range of pieces that mimic the shape of knives, forks and spoons.
    The tattoo studio is situated towards the back of the spaceAs well as a jewellery shop, the space houses a tattoo studio and a garden area.
    “The tattoo studio works as a pop-up space for the artists, whose style and aesthetics we like,” the studio said.
    “They make their own tattoos, as well as the flash sets inspired by the designs of our jewellery. The garden will host yoga classes, meditation sessions and pop-up dinners.”
    Other retail design projects published on Dezeen include a clothing boutique in Shanghai that incorporates oversized buttons and an Aesop store in London piled high with sage green books.
    The photography is courtesy of Crosby Studios.

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    Viruta Lab blankets former fisherman’s house in Valencia with chequerboard tiles

    Spanish interiors studio Viruta Lab has renovated a compact house in El Cabanyal, Valencia’s traditional fishing neighbourhood, using geometric blue-and-white tiling for an understated nautical aesthetic.

    Built in 1946, the humble two-storey building once belonged to the grandparents of the current owner but had been boarded up for many years.
    Viruta Lab has renovated a former fisherman’s house in ValenciaViruta Lab was brought on board to transform the small 85-square-metre home into a modern holiday residence while respecting its great sentimental value to the family.
    “Emotion was a very important starting point,” the studio told Dezeen.
    The interior is dominated by chequerboard tiles”The house is a family legacy and the image they have of it is very deep, so it was necessary for any intervention to be as respectful as possible and with a language that they understood and took as their own,” Viruta Lab continued.

    “We understood that the architecture already had a value, that we only had to beautify it, preserve it.”
    Green upholstery provides a contrast with the blue-and-white colour schemeViruta Lab uncovered the building’s original brick walls from under layers of peeling paint and carefully repaired the pre-existing mouldings “to give height and nostalgic value to the interior design”.
    Liberal chequerboard tiling provides a contrast to these traditional design details, featured throughout all the rooms from the kitchen to the sleeping quarters.
    Viruta Lab restored the home’s original mouldingsIn a suitably nautical palette of navy and off-white, the tiles reference the great variety of tiled facades found in the El Cabanyal neighbourhood.
    “The dominant colours on the facades of the Cabanyal are white, blue and green, which are associated with a lifestyle linked to the resources offered by the sea,” the studio said.

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    “It was clear that we had to respect the local traditions, the architecture and the essence of the house and give it a maritime aesthetic, reinterpreting the Mediterranean style to adapt it to the tradition of the neighbourhood using its own materials.”
    Green shows up throughout the interior in the form of simple upholstered furniture – including a sofa, pouffe, benches and stools – all custom-designed by Viruta Lab for this compact space.
    European oak was used to form joinery detailsThe interior woodwork in European oak was stained to resemble Canaletto walnut, matching the tones of the two remaining original interior doors that were painstakingly restored and repurposed as sliding doors.
    “We wanted the woodwork to provide a quality counterpoint to the cold tones of the blues and greens, with an imprint and weight,” the studio said.
    The remaining interior doors were restored and repurposed as sliding doorsAnother key local material – esparto grass fibre – is less noticeable than the tiles but pops up throughout the house to add textural interest.
    Traditionally used to make ropes, baskets, mats and espadrille sandals, the flexible natural material was repurposed to form headboards and backrests, and even clad the suspended ceilings in the bathrooms.
    Esparto grass was used to from headboards and backrests”This material has been used because of its roots in the traditions and life in the Mediterranean area, especially in the Valencian community,” the studio said.
    “For Viruta Lab, the legacy comes from its use by men of the countryside and the sea, by the original residents of the Cabanyal, those men who used to wear espadrilles.”
    The house has a shaded outdoor dining area on the roofAs well as a clay-tiled roof terrace with a shaded outdoor dining area, the house also features a sensitively restored inner courtyard, complete with a stone water trough where the owner’s grandfather once dried his fishing nets at the end of a day’s work.
    Other projects that celebrate Valencia’s historic architecture include a 1920s penthouse that was renovated to celebrate its original mosaic floors and an octogenarian home in El Cabanyal that was updated using traditional construction techniques and local materials.
    The photography is by David Zarzoso.

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