Markus Andrews

More stories

  • 150 Shares189 Views

    in Rooms

    Studio Paul Chan references Wes Anderson at Boisson bottle shop in LA

    The opening scene from a Wes Anderson film provided a starting point for the interior of this bottle shop in Los Angeles, by locally based Studio Paul Chan.

    The first LA location for Boisson combines elements of mid-century Hollywood design and art deco in a 1,160-square-foot (108-square-metre) space to showcase a selection of non-alcoholic beverages.
    Studio Paul Chan has designed the first Boisson store in Los Angeles”Inspired by great storytelling and glassware in Wes Anderson’s French Dispatch opening scene, where a server scales five flights of stairs to deliver a tray of aperitifs, absinthe, dry white wine, a coke, and an affogato to a meeting of editors, we endeavoured to create a space for the aesthete,” said studio founder Paul Chan.
    The studio installed walnut-stained wooden wall panelling with areas of “calming” dusty green lime wash spaced evenly in between.
    A lamp by Gae Aulenti sits atop a custom glass block counterThese materials are contrasted by thin stainless steel shelves upon which the products are displayed along both side walls.

    “The layered narrative mixes artisanal materials with machine-made elements, creating a conceptual parallel between non-alcoholic drinks and traditional wine,” Chan said.
    A central rack displays and stores bottles of non-alcoholic wineA long narrow wooden table runs through the centre of the space, creating another spot for presenting the bottles on top, and adding storage in the form of open racks below.
    Chan also took cues from Maison de Verre, a modernist house completed by Pierre Chareau and Bernard Bijvoet in 1932, for elements of his design.
    Stainless steel shelves are mounted onto dusty green lime-washed wallsAt the back, illuminated glass bricks are stacked within a steel structure to form a curved counter, upon which a curvaceous Pipistrello Table Lamp by Italian architect Gae Aulenti is placed.
    Sconces that echo the shapes of the glass blocks are positioned on the walls, together creating a warm glow within the space.

    Ten cinematic interiors that could be in a Wes Anderson film

    “There is delight in using the ordinary in extraordinary ways, and I like the element of surprise,” said Chan.
    “Light and shadow can become materials too and as if by magic, heavy things can become unexpectedly weightless.”
    The shapes of the glass blocks are echoed in the wall sconces. Photo by Avery J KleinThe popularity of non-alcoholic wines, beers and spirits has risen significantly over the past few years, and designers have been tapped to imagine both spaces and packaging to market these goods.
    For example, Barber Osgerby created the packaging for a non-alcoholic drink invented by wine writer Matthew Jukes in 2020, while University of Huddersfield graduate Holly Thomas imagined a venue for the consumption of these beverages.
    The glass block counter was influenced by the modernist Maison de Verre. Photo by Avery J KleinThe pastel colours and symmetry in films by visionary director Wes Anderson have influenced many interiors around the world, from a restaurant in Moscow to cafes in Melbourne and Stockholm.
    The director himself also designed a bar inside the Fondazione Prada in Milan, based on old landmarks and cafes in the city.
    The photography is by Ye Rin Mok unless stated otherwise.

    Read more: More

  • 100 Shares149 Views

    in Rooms

    Eight concrete kitchens with raw and tactile surfaces

    Kitchens with exposed concrete surfaces take centre stage in this lookbook, which includes homes in Mexico, Japan and Ireland.

    Concrete is a ubiquitous material in architecture, but it is less commonly used in interiors – particularly in residential spaces such as kitchens.
    However, its durability and impermeability make it an ideal surface material for cooking and food preparation, while its raw aesthetic can create a striking backdrop for dining and entertaining.
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. Other recent editions showcase airy balconies, marble bathrooms and gallery interiors.
    Photo by Toshiyuki YanoHouse in Jiyugaoka, Japan, by Airhouse Design Office

    Airhouse Design Office created this kitchen as part of its renovation of an apartment for a fashion fanatic in Nagoya, Japan.
    Like the rest of the home, the kitchen’s walls, floor and ceiling have been stripped back to expose the concrete beneath. While some areas were left with chipped edges and plaster, others have been polished for a smooth finish.
    Find out more about House in Jiyugaoka ›
    Photo by Daniela Mac AddenCasa H3, Argentina, by Luciano Kruk
    This open-plan kitchen and dining room sits on the ground floor of a holiday home by architect Luciano Kruk in Mar Azul.
    Blending seamlessly into the home’s concrete structure, it features geometric shelving and kitchen counters that extend from the walls and floor. Its industrial look is complemented by an enamel pendant light and a pair of wireframe chairs.
    Find out more about Casa H3 ›
    Photo by Rory GardinerCasa Alférez, Mexico, by Ludwig Godefroy
    In a pine forest in Mexico, architect Ludwig Godefroy created a brutalist cube-shaped home that is built from concrete cast in situ.
    This includes its kitchen, where the shelving and worktops are also all cast from concrete. Here, their raw finishes are juxtaposed with delicate ceramics and Danish designer Hans Wegner’s Wishbone chairs, visually softening the space.
    Find out more about Casa Alférez ›
    Photo by João FerrandFlower House, Portugal, by Ezzo
    The concrete worktops of this sunken kitchen double up as a smooth floor for the dining room at Flower House, a renovated dwelling in Porto.
    Wood-fronted cabinets slot in beneath the flooring, which was hand-poured on site and has been covered with a waterproof coating to give it a polished look.
    Find out more about Flower House ›
    Photo by Onnis Luque and Fabian MartinezToad’s House, Mexico, by Espacio 18 Arquitectura
    Throughout the minimalist Toad’s House on Zapotengo Beach in Oaxaca, architecture studio Espacio 18 has left the concrete structure unfinished and exposed.
    In the bar-style kitchen, the board-marked walls are teamed with glass ornaments and woven baskets, while a central island has been topped with a wooden countertop.
    Find out more about Toad’s House ›
    Photo by Toshiyuki YanoHouse T, Japan, by Suppose Design Office
    This concrete kitchen is among the purposely dark and cave-like living spaces in the monolithic home that Suppose Design Office designed for its founder in Tokyo.
    Its concrete walls and worktops have tactile finishes, which stand against a backdrop of large stone floor tiles and wooden furnishings.
    Find out more about ›
    Photo by Aisling McCoyHollybrook Road, Ireland, by TOB Architect
    Irish studio TOB Architect designed this concrete kitchen extension to evoke the feeling of “being a child under a very robust table”.
    It was cast in situ as one geometric form with the goal of creating a seamless and cavernous look inside. The architect chose an otherwise restrained material palette of terrazzo, walnut and Accoya wood in an effort to retain focus on the texture of the concrete.
    Find out more about Hollybrook Road ›
    Photo by Daniela Mac AddenCasa Golf, Argentina, by Luciano Kruk
    Another concrete kitchen by architect Luciano Kruk is found in Casa Golf, a holiday home on the Argentinian coastline.
    Paired with black cabinets and extractor ducting, its dark-grey surfaces add texture to the space without distracting from the outward views framed by the variety of windows that line the space.
    Find out more about Casa Golf ›
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. Other recent editions showcase airy balconies, marble bathrooms and gallery interiors.

    Read more: More

  • 113 Shares189 Views

    in Rooms

    Birch Selsdon hotel takes over 19th-century mansion in Croydon

    British hotel chain Birch has opened an outpost in south London, with grounds rewilded by designer Sebastian Cox and interiors conceived by local studios A-nrd and Sella Concept.

    Birch Selsdon is housed in a 19th-century mansion in the borough of Croydon and accommodates 181 rooms alongside a wellness space and lido, co-working facilities and a medley of restaurants and bars.
    Birch Selsdon takes over a 19th-century mansionThe building was first turned into a hotel in the 1920s, with slapdash extensions and modifications added over the following century.
    Local studios A-nrd and Sella Concept took a “restorative approach” to the interior works, stripping back much of the existing fit-out to allow the building’s original architecture to come to the fore.
    The building’s original stone walls and bas-relief ceilings can be seen in the lobbyRestoration was also the focus for Sebastian Cox, who developed a woodland management plan for the hotel’s grounds as well as a rewilding strategy for its 18-hole golf course.

    This will involve introducing grazing pigs and ponies, which can naturally distribute seeds and shape growing vegetation. The former fairways of the golf course will become wetlands, while the sandy bunkers will eventually attract small reptiles and other animals.
    Timber from the grounds was used to create the shingled reception desksCox has also turned trees harvested from the grounds into a series of furnishings for the hotel, creating affordable, locally produced products while providing ecosystem benefits for the woodland.
    “Managed woodlands have higher biodiversity because when you harvest the trees, light gets onto the woodland floor and other vegetation can grow,” Cox explained during a recent episode of Dezeen’s Climate Salon podcast.
    “So we can categorically say that our furniture actually makes a net contribution. It doesn’t just harvest materials, it actually contributes to the spaces that the materials come from.”
    An arched nook discovered during the hotel’s renovation is now a dining spaceAmong Cox’s furniture contributions is a pair of shingled timber reception desks in the entrance lobby, backed by an ombre curtain that mirrors the shifting seasonal hues of the landscape around Birch Selsdon.
    The lobby’s floral bas-relief ceiling was preserved alongside the original masonry walls, which peek out from behind the curtain.
    Peach-coloured surfaces appear in Birch Selsdon’s Meadow BarDotted throughout the space are moss-green velvet sofas as well as wicker armchairs, potted plants and vintage petal-shaped pendant lamps made from Murano glass.
    When guests are hungry, they can head to the hotel’s all-day restaurant Vervain, which serves a farm-to-table menu.

    Red Deer and Jan Hendzel Studio combine ceramics, beaten copper and recycled plastic for hotel valet stands

    The space is anchored by two huge, arched banquettes featuring seat cushions upholstered in an abstract camouflage print and sawn-timber backrests, which were also sourced from the hotel’s woodland.
    Oversized rice paper lanterns hang from the ceiling overhead, which is painted a rich apricot shade to highlight the existing ornate bas-relief.
    The hotel includes another bar called The Snug with wood-panelled wallsFor drinks, guests can head to the hotel’s peachy-hued Meadow Bar or to the Snug, which has a slightly more grown-up aesthetic thanks to the dark, wood-panelled walls that are original to the building.
    The space is dressed with vintage travertine coffee tables and an array of lounge chairs in sumptuous colours like ochre, olive green and damson purple.
    Chequerboard flooring in The Orangery nods to the Victorian periodTo one side of the room lies a curved seating nook that was uncovered during the renovation works. Its interior was rendered in blush pink to foster a warm, intimate dining ambience.
    There’s also the option to relax in The Orangery, a light-filled space centred by a wiggly cobalt-blue sofa. Terracotta tiles are arranged in a traditional checkerboard pattern across the floor in a nod to the building’s Victorian past.
    Bedrooms are filled with textural details like linen curtains and sisal rugsThe aesthetic of the hotel’s communal spaces is maintained in the guest bedrooms, which are finished with textural decorative elements like linen curtains and hand-blown glass lamps that cast dappled light across the limewashed walls.
    Larger suites come complete with lounge areas, dressed with plump armchairs and sisal rugs.
    Timber from the hotel’s woods was also used to produce 352 bedside tables for the rooms, all crafted in Cox’s Kent workshop.
    The bedside tables are also made with timber from the hotel’s groundsThe launch of Birch Selsdon comes just three years after the opening of the inaugural Birch branch near Hertfordshire.
    It was designed by architecture studio Red Deer to challenge the notion of a luxury hotel and features a series of pared-back rooms with quirky, unfinished details.
    The photography is by Adam Lynk.

    Read more: More

  • 113 Shares169 Views

    in Rooms

    EBBA Architects transforms former jellied-eel restaurant into eyewear store

    Local studio EBBA Architects has designed a store for eyewear brand Cubitts that preserves and draws on the original 1930s interior of the traditional F Cooke restaurant on London’s Broadway Market.

    The restaurant, which sold cockney dishes such as jellied eel and pie and mash, had been located on the east London street since 1900 but was given a modernist update in the 1930s.
    The Cubitts store on Broadway Market is located inside a former restaurantEBBA Architects turned the space into a 145-square-metre Cubitts store but kept almost all the original interiors of the Grade II-listed restaurant, which had been unoccupied since 2019.
    F Cooke’s marble tables were given new legs made from stained birch plywood and now hold eyewear display cases in a sunny hue that matches the original wall tiles.
    Pale yellow tiles clad the walls”The tables are original but we designed the legs to kind of make it feel like a new feature,” EBBA Architects founder Benni Allan told Dezeen.

    “The table has just been scrubbed up,” he said. “Imagine how many nice pies have been eaten on that table.”
    “I think what’s nice is that everything below [the tables] has had this quite warm treatment to bring in a nice texture and tone, and then everything above is much lighter.”
    Different coloured material samples are displayed on wooden shelvesThe studio also kept the original stained-glass windows and the counter that used to serve food, turning it into a point of sale, while a repair station for glasses fills the window facing the street.
    Pale yellow tiles bordered by bands of contrasting blue and turquoise tiles decorate the walls. These are the original interior from 1930 and were cleaned using “loads of elbow grease”, Allan said.
    The former food counter was turned into a point of saleIn the main showroom of the two-storey store, the studio also kept the restaurant’s mirrors, only removing one to create a display case and sales point.
    “All the additions are kind of appendages or accoutrements on the base of the original structure,” Cubitts founder Tom Broughton told Dezeen.
    An orange staircase leads to the lower floorDownstairs, EBBA Architects made more interventions, as the space was dark and hadn’t been furnished to the same level as the main upstairs space.
    “It was really quite dark and dingy down there, so the colours from upstairs informed this really bright orange in the staircase,” Allan said.

    Cubitts eyewear store in Leeds taps into seminal design movements throughout history

    The studio used stained plywood to create a sliding wood screen with a square pattern based on the tiles in the main store, as well as creating a bright-coloured staff room with a “secret door”.
    It also added tiled floors with a decorative pattern in a colour palette that references that of the restaurant.
    “There’s that really beautiful intricate detailing upstairs, so we wanted to sort of mirror that down here with these different patterns in the floor,” Allan said.
    EBBA Architects designed a sliding door for the eye-test roomDownstairs also holds the eyewear testing centre, which is located underneath the street above.
    Broughton and Allan tried to keep as many of the original details from the restaurant as possible. The tank where the live eels were once kept before being boiled is left standing in an outdoor space downstairs and the restaurant’s sign remains above the front door.
    The store has retained its original signage and one of the benchesOne of the benches, on which people used to sit and eat, has been placed outside the store. And the Cooke family behind the restaurant chain – which still has two outposts – has lent Cubitts some of its original pie tins alongside the bowls used to serve jellied eels and a picture of founder Bob Cooke.
    The Cubitts Broadway Market store is located in an area that has become increasingly gentrified over the past decade, with many local shops being taken over by chains.
    Original stained-glass windows decorate the interiorThough some people have been nostalgic about the time when the store was a pie-and-mash shop, Allan and Broughton said there have also been positive reactions to the refurbishment
    “People have actually been really chuffed that it stayed the same,” Allan said.
    “Someone could come in here in a decade or two and actually put it back into a pie and mash shop. Even though [the changes] feel purposeful, it’s quite a light touch. If anything, we’ve kind of given it a new lease of life, because it was actually pretty grimy.”
    A repair station sits in the windowThis is also the general tactic for Cubitts, Broughton said. When looking for new stores, the brand focuses on finding spaces that have existing interiors, with other outposts set in a 19th-century townhouse in Belgravia and a Victorian arcade in Leeds.
    “Ideally, [the store] already has this existing structure and framework that you can clean up and add a bit of product and a few fittings to,” he said.
    “And that’s the really nice thing, right? If you can take something that’s already beautiful, give it a new lease of life and make it relevant to someone today, that’s really cool.”

    Read more: More

  • 163 Shares199 Views

    in Rooms

    6a Architects brings Soho sex shop windows to JW Anderson Milan flagship store

    British fashion brand JW Anderson has opened a flagship store in Milan that was designed by British studio 6a Architects and draws on the local atmosphere as well as Soho sex shops.

    The 53 square-metre-store is located on the Via Sant’Andrea luxury shopping street in Milan’s Quadrilatero shopping district. It is set across a single floor and comprises two rooms.
    JW Anderson’s first Milan store was designed by 6a ArchitectsWhile the boutique primarily draws reference from its “bourgeoise” Milanese surroundings, the retail space also pulls from designer Jonathan Anderson’s first JW Anderson store in Soho and from the 2017 exhibition Disobedient Bodies, which was curated by him.
    It was designed by 6a Architects, who Anderson began working with in 2017 after selecting the studio to design the set for Disobedient Bodies at The Hepworth Wakefield.
    It draws on a Milanese atmosphere”I thought [6a Architects] really grasped how to take my visual language and turn it into something which was able to be educational,” Anderson told Dezeen.

    “They’re very good at hybrid, old or new. They’re very good at this combination, they’re great architects.”
    “The store actually is a combination of Disobedient Bodies and a store. It’s a little bit more elevated,” he said. “The front of the building feels Soho, and as you go in, it feels more kind of domestic Milanese.”
    It carries over elements from the Soho storeIn a nod to the store frontages of the sex shops found in London’s Soho area, the windows of the Milanese store were decorated with neon lighting and rainbow-slatted curtains.
    Anderson and 6a Architects used the design as a juxtaposition against the more typical Milanese interior.
    “For me, there is something very sexual about neon lighting,” said Anderson. “I think we associate it with grand gestures and I felt like a window is kind of like a television set. There’s something with neon that it does, it kind of tricks you.”
    Traditional Italian furnishings and finishes fill the interior”There are little alleyways and they have all these amazing sex stores on and these curtains,” Anderson continued.
    “I liked the idea that we have this in Milan and then suddenly you enter into a kind of Milanese setting, something which is very bourgeoise.”

    JW Anderson fashion show in video-game arcade features clothing made from computer keys

    Inside, gridded handmade terrazzo covers the floor and visually divides areas of the interior through bespoke contrasting tones of grey and sand.
    Brassy, metallic curtains ripple along the rear walls of the store, in a similar way to 6a Architects’ use of curtains in the exhibition design for Disobedient Bodies.
    Jonathan Anderson selected furniture and artwork for the interiorAluminium scaffolding, which was also carried over from Anderson’s Soho store, was translated into display shelving and brought an “angst” to the interior that contrasts against traditional Italian furnishings, such as fluted walnut panelling that envelops two curved walls.
    “There is something slightly more underground in terms of the construction of a JW Anderson store, whereas, I think Loewe [for which Anderson is creative director] is about a heightened perfection,” said Anderson. “With JW Anderson, there’s always a bit of slight angst to it.”
    “It’s softer inside, and then you have this harshness with the windows where there’s neons and sex curtains and it’s kind of like a theatre. It has moveable parts and in a weird way the store becomes a giant window.”
    It has furniture by Mac CollinsFurniture and artworks personally selected by Anderson fill the interior.
    Designer Mac Collins’ black Iklwa chair was paired with matching side tables, while a Cardinal Hat pendant light by Lutyens Furniture is suspended from the ceiling of the main space.
    Oil paintings by Chinese artist Hongyan appear to float on the ripples of the brass-coloured curtains, and images by photographer Wolfgang Tillmans sit on the walls of the store’s fitting room.
    An image by Wolfgang Tillmans is placed in the fitting room”I don’t believe that stores should be completely cookie-cutter,” said Anderson. “I feel like the key is to make sure that each store has a different universe because there’s no point in having something which is just a duplication, duplication, duplication.”
    Jonathan Anderson founded his eponymous label JW Anderson in 2008 and was appointed creative director of Spanish luxury house Loewe in 2014, which recently announced the winner of its sixth annual craft prize.
    During London Fashion Week, JW Anderson presented a “parallel world of people trapped in their computers” for its Spring Summer 2023 collection.
    The photography is by DePasquale+Maffini, courtesy of JW Anderson.

    Read more: More

  • 138 Shares129 Views

    in Rooms

    Ringo Studio positions sex toys in athletic-themed room at Contact Sports

    Brooklyn-based Ringo Studio has reimagined the experience of shopping for sex toys, creating a store in New York modelled on a collegiate locker room.

    The Contact Sports shop on Mercer Street in Soho is designed to feel very different to the typical spaces in which products for sex are purchased.
    The store interior features walnut panelling and mosaic flooring”In a survey conducted before launch, the majority of people reported feeling uncomfortable walking into a sex store,” said the studio. “Uninviting exteriors felt intimidating, the aisles were hard to navigate, and the shelves stocked hundreds of products that were hard to decipher.”
    Working with Ringo Studio founder Madelynn Ringo – who has designed retail spaces for Glossier, Bala and Our Place – the brand devised a shopping experience based around sport, and used cues from this world to inform the interiors.
    Merchandise is displayed on brass rails and shelvingThe retail space includes an area at the front that sells long-stem roses in singles or bundles, including a 15-foot (4.5 metre) wall on which the fresh-cut red flowers are stored.

    Beyond, dark walnut panelling, brass rails and shelves, and green cushions give the store a collegiate atmosphere, while mosaic floor tiles and baskets of towels evoke a locker room.
    Walnut panelling forms locker-like cubby holes for displaying productsVintage sporting ephemera like tennis rackets, boxing gloves and American football helmets are displayed on higher shelves.
    Below, the selection of “entry-level gear and sensual gifts” from brands such as Kiki de Montparnasse, Lelo, Dame, Maude, Future Method and more are merchandised in locker-style cubbyholes.

    Six unusual sex toys with innovative designs

    “Contact Sports flips the traditional model on its head and takes a more curated approach, stocking only 70 products at launch,” the studio said.
    “Their team spent more than a year vetting a category that includes tens of thousands to offer only the best of the best, with unexpected touches that enhance the full experience around the sport.”
    The store features a Joe Chair shaped like a baseball gloveThe space is illuminated from above by a light box behind a wooden lattice, while softer lighting is installed in the cubbies.
    An iconic chair shaped like a giant baseball mitt by designers Jonathan de Pas, Donato D’urbino and Paolo Lomazzi sits next to the white counter, above which the brand’s cursive logo glows in neon.
    Long-stem red roses are sold at the front of the storeThe sex toy industry has grown significantly in recent years, as taboos have broken and social acceptance has widened. See some of the most unusual sex toys featured on Dezeen.
    However, “the retail experience itself had yet to evolve,” said the Contacts Sports team, which hopes the store will change how shopping for sex gear should look and feel.
    The photography is by Anna Morgowicz.

    Read more: More

  • 125 Shares179 Views

    in Rooms

    Boyy flagship in Milan reveals layers of the store’s history

    Danish artist Thomas Poulsen, also known as FOS, has revamped the flagship store of accessories brand Boyy in Milan, keeping time-worn surfaces left over from the site’s former fit-outs.

    This marks the third time that FOS has refreshed the space on Via Bagutta since 2021, as part of the artist’s plan to create a dynamic “evolving” store.
    FOS has redesigned Boyy’s flagship in MilanIn its first incarnation, the Boyy flagship had funhouse-style mirrors, walls draped in faded pink fabric and cobalt-blue carpets emblazoned with everyday objects.
    This colour scheme was inverted for the second iteration of the store featuring blue walls and bubblegum-pink carpet. Elements of both of these schemes now remain in the store’s third and final form, which was left purposefully unfinished.
    Unpanelled sections of the wall reveal the store’s past fit-outs”This space was an experiment in formulating a shared language for how Boyy could develop as a brand,” FOS explained.

    “We started by creating an installation – the first rendition – then used that experience to create a second installation, and finally built upon the combined experience to create this final permanent space that we have now arrived at.”
    “We always envisioned the third rendition as the final act,” added Boyy co-founder Jesse Dorsey.
    Accessories are displayed inside illuminated glass vitrinesThe Boyy flagship now has walls panelled with the same grey ceppo stone that clads the store’s facade.
    Some areas were left without panelling, revealing the aged, fabric-lined walls left behind by a previous occupant – a 50-year-old antique shop that sold quaint Americana-style objects for the home.
    Blue fabric can also be seen hanging in the rear corner, saved from FOS’s second overhaul of the space.

    Gaetano Pesce designs his first-ever handbag for Bottega Veneta

    These swathes of time-worn fabric were enclosed inside aluminium window frames, as were some of the store’s display units.
    Elsewhere, Boyy’s selection of shoes and handbags can be showcased in several illuminated glass vitrines or on the ledge that runs around the periphery of the store.
    The store has been finished with terrazzo flooringFOS also created a display shelf around a crumbling structural column that sits in the middle of the floor plan.
    A couple of tiered, sea-green bench seats were dotted throughout the store as decoration, complementing the flecks of greens stone that are found in the terrazzo floor.
    Curved benches provide seating throughout the storeMilan is home to an abundance of visually striking retail spaces.
    Others include the Moschino flagship, which was designed to reference the history of ancient Italy, and the Off-White store, which is decked out with natural materials like Patagonia granite.

    Read more: More

  • 138 Shares99 Views

    in Rooms

    Sukchulmok adds curved brick forms to rooftop of Parconido Bakery Cafe

    Curved forms and arched openings feature in this cafe, which Seoul studio Sukchulmok has added to an existing building in South Korea’s Gyeonggi-do province.

    Named Parconido Bakery Cafe, the cafe is made from red bricks and features playful curved shapes and rounded walls designed to create an illusion-like effect.
    Parconido Bakery Cafe was designed by Sukchulmok”The space, created through one rule, was designed to give a sense of expansion and the experience of an optical illusion image,” lead architect Park Hyunhee told Dezeen.
    Arranged across three floors including a rooftop level, the cafe was designed by architecture studio Sukchulmok to resemble European public squares in reference to the client’s time spent in Italy.
    The studio topped the roof with curving brick volumes”The client who spent his youth living in Italy is a clothing businessman, opening the cafe as a business expansion to provide people with a space for peaceful rest,” said Park.

    “These two aspects naturally reminded me of the image of the European square, where people are huddled together talking on a sunny day between red brick buildings and stone pillars.”
    The design drew references from nostalgic memories of ItalyOn the rooftop level and terrace, the outdoor dining spaces are punctuated by clay brick columns with arched connections and walls with U-shaped openings.
    Built around steel frames that extend into curved forms above the brick walls, the curved elements are coated in bricks cut to two-thirds of their original thickness to lighten their weight.
    The walls and floors have curved edgesA long stainless steel table with a curved underside, along with circular stools and planting, is shaded by a removable canopy made from green, orange and white fabrics.
    Curved walls lined with white tiles join with the tiled floor and ceiling to create rooms with rounded forms on the interior levels of the cafe.
    The rooms are covered in small tiles of travertine limestone, selected for its use in the fountains of European squares.

    Nameless Architecture creates “artificial valley” at base of Gyeryongsan Mountain

    Kitchens are built into recesses in the curved walls, while wooden elements, including wall panels and pipes that line a portion of the ceiling, add a feeling of warmth to the interior.
    Throughout the spaces, uniquely designed seating areas and bespoke circular furnishings provide spaces for dining.
    The interior was covered in different textural materialsComprising twelve different designs, the cafe’s set of furniture was designed to exhibit a variety of shapes, textures, and materials, including leftover finishing materials, wood, overlapping pipes, and concrete castings.
    “Although they have slightly different shapes and textures, the pieces of furniture are all in harmony with the space and show good synergy with space as an object,” said Park.
    The cafe’s curved edges all have a radius of 600 millimetresTo maintain a sense of uniformity, the studio based the design of each element, including the walls, columns and furniture, around a circle with a constant radius of 600 millimetres.
    “A radius of 600 millimetres was used as an act of connecting spaces that were not monotonous,” said Park. “It was simply based on the idea that the distance from the height of the door and window to the ceiling finish is 600 millimetres.”
    Furniture was specially designed for the interiorOther South Korean cafes recently featured on Dezeen include a bakery with a curved courtyard designed to act as an “artificial valley” and a Seoul cafe with a vertical farm.
    The photography is by Hong Seokgyu.

    Read more: More