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    Ten playful pink kitchens that use colour in unexpected ways

    From the bubble-gum-coloured cabinets of a Tokyo apartment to the rosy mosaics found in a modernist Grecian villa, our latest lookbook rounds up 10 pink kitchens from the Dezeen archives.

    Architects and designers often reach for different shades of pink when they want to add interest and personality to a functional space, such as a kitchen.
    Sometimes this takes the form of isolated pops of colour, as seen below in the kitchen islands in a Minsk design office and a creekside home in Lithuania.
    Elsewhere, all of the surfaces from the walls and floors down to the kitchen sink are finished tonally in different shades of pink, as evidenced here by two different Spanish apartments.
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks showcasing home interiors that make use of statement windows, board-formed concrete and textured cork-covered walls.

    Photo is by Jan VranovskyNagatachō Apartment, Japan, by Adam Nathaniel Furman
    A saccharine, bubblegum-pink kitchen suite sits at the heart of this apartment in Tokyo by British designer Adam Nathaniel Furman, clashed playfully with stripes of “watermelon-green” vinyl flooring.
    “A lot of the way I described the project as I was developing it was through taste and references to cooking and food, so that the colour scheme became a matter of choosing ingredients for a beautifully calibrated visual feast,” Furman told Dezeen.
    Find out more about Nagatachō Apartment ›
    Photo is by Lorenzo ZandriSt Minas House, Greece, by Neiheiser Argyros
    Neiheiser Argyros used playful colours and materials to complement the existing modernist details of a 1970s villa near Athens, which the architecture practice overhauled last year.
    The kitchen’s limited material palette of exposed brick and board-formed concrete was rounded off with unexpected touches, such as perforated aluminium cabinets and a dusty-pink mosaic backsplash with matching counters.
    Find out more about St Minas House ›
    Photo is by JC de MarcosMinimal Fantasy apartment, Spain, by Patricia Bustos Studio
    All of the rooms and most of the surfaces in this holiday apartment in Madrid are finished in some shade of pink – all the way down to the kitchen sink.
    Local practice Patricia Bustos Studio only broke from the colour scheme when it came to the cupboard fronts, which are interrupted by brass detailing and geometric shapes in denim and baby blue.
    Find out more about Minimal Fantasy apartment ›
    Photo is by Luis Díaz DíazMixtape Apartment, Spain, by Azab
    Pale pink walls and cupboard doors help to jazz up this kitchen in a 1960s apartment, which Spanish architecture studio Azab has overhauled for a retiree in Bilbao.
    Mismatched herringbone floor tiles tie the colour scheme together, bringing in little flavours of mint green and cherry red alongside a muted beige to match the timber trim on the kitchen frons.
    Find out more about Mixtape Apartment ›
    Photo is by Dmitry TsyrencshikovStudio11 office, Belarus, by Studio11
    When designing its own workplace in Minsk, interiors practice Studio11 aimed to steer clear of the simple industrial aesthetic favoured by many design and architecture offices.
    That meant juxtaposing the interior’s raw concrete and plaster surfaces with vibrant accents, such as an abstract portrait by Belarusian painter Zakhar Kudin or a blush-coloured counter, which is set in front of the half-painted blue walls in the shared kitchen.
    Find out more about the Studio11 office ›
    Photo is by Javier Agustín RojasLerma workshop, Argentinia, by Estudio Nu
    Argentinian practice Estudio Nu created this communal kitchen when dividing up its own design studio, set in a former dental mechanics workshop in Buenos Aires, in order to create accessible office spaces for other local creatives.
    Here, speckled pink tiles were chosen to match the interior’s muted material palette, which combines rippled glass doors with pale timber walls and concrete floors.
    Find out more about Lerma workshop ›
    Photo is courtesy of ReformDesigners Remix showroom, Denmark, by Reform
    Danish brand Reform, which specialises in customising IKEA kitchen suites, took inspiration from the colour schemes and gradients of makeup palettes when designing the break-out area of this fashion showroom in Copenhagen.
    Here, kitchen fronts from Reform’s Basis collection are finished in progressively deeper pastel shades ranging from peach to blush and dark rose, contrasted against a jet-black sink and tap.
    Find out more about Designers Remix showroom ›
    Photo is by Giedrius MamavičiusHouse and the River, Lithuania, by After Party
    White walls, floors and ceilings create a bright, modern backdrop inside this creek-side house in northern Lithuania, with character added in the form of antique Soviet-era furnishings and splashes of unexpected colour.
    Its monochrome kitchen is tucked under a mezzanine and punctuated by a salmon-coloured island with a terrazzo countertop in ballet-slipper pink.
    Find out more about House and the River ›
    Photo is by Roberto RuizApartment in Born, Spain, by Colombo and Serboli Architecture
    An arched, coral-pink volume squeezes in a second bathroom next to the kitchen of this compact apartment, which is set in a 13th-century residential building in Barcelona’s historic El Born neighbourhood.
    This same motif is repeated in the breakfast island with its curved worktop made of pink quartz and the matching rose-tinted dining table.
    Find out more about Apartment in Born ›
    Photo is by Richard ChiversMaison Pour Dodo, UK, by Studio Merlin
    Pale, plaster-coloured walls and Douglas fir floorboards are contrasted against smokey blue cabinets inside this flat in London’s Stoke Newington, which local practice Studio Merlin overhauled for founder Josh Piddock and his girlfriend.
    The interior combines what Piddock describes as a “spectrum of storage”, ranging from a hacked IKEA kitchen suite topped with a concrete Caesarstone counter to open, pantry-style shelves squeezed in above a small seating nook.
    Find out more about Maison Pour Dodo ›
    This is the latest in our series of lookbooks providing curated visual inspiration from Dezeen’s image archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks showcasing statement windows, board-formed concrete and textured cork-covered walls.

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    Diseño Norteño completes concrete apartments with lattices in Tijuana

    Mexican studio Diseño Norteño has created a multi-storey residential building that features an earthy colour palette and frontal lattices that provide privacy.

    The project, called CLNS 12401, is located in Tijuana, a city located along Mexico’s border with the United States.
    CLNS 12401 is located in TijuanaThe building was constructed in a transitioning area, historically dominated by single-family homes, and it sits across from an abandoned park that is slowly returning to use.
    The building backs up to a steep slope, which led local firm Diseño Norteño to conceive the project sectionally, with the spaces becoming larger as the building reaches the higher floors.
    Diseño Norteño built the project across from an abandoned park”This resulted in a simple, four-level structure that is supported on its perimetral walls, generating a flexible, open floor plan,” the architecture studio said.

    “This building’s design allows higher density while maintaining a friendly, urban scale for the surrounding context,” it added.
    The staircase acts as a courtyardThe design comprises two blocks of habitations with an open stairwell between them. The staircase acts as a courtyard that helps promote neighbourly encounters.
    The architecture studio noted that the stairwell acts a pergola, regulating the amount of sun entering the public spaces and walkways.
    Concrete defines the apartment’s interiorThe building’s two bottom levels have concrete bearing walls, while the upper portion is made of concrete block.
    Facades are painted in hues of sage green and creamy white. Terraces are lined with metal lattices that provides privacy and a sense of safety.
    Facades are painted in hues of sage greenThe ground level contains the building entrance and garages, while the upper floors hold a total of six rental units. There are three different layouts, which are mirrored on each level.
    The first level’s units are 700 square feet (65 square metres), while the second and third levels are 1,00 and 900 square feet, respectively (93 and 84 square metres).
    “As the structure rises, the topography enables bigger units,” the architects noted.

    Rafael Pardo creates towering Zoncuantla Apartments from pigmented concrete

    In each unit, social spaces face the street and the park, while bedrooms are in the rear, next to the hillside. The uppermost unit has a spacious terrace that enables the public zone to flow outdoors.
    The architects said that simple materials, such as concrete and metal, helped keep costs down, which enabled the building to be accessible to younger residents in Tijuana.
    Simple materials helped to keep costs down”The building’s design breaks traditional urban development rules in favour of the people who actually live in the area,” the team said.
    Other projects in Tijuana include a house by Gracia Studio that has an exterior made of concrete and weathering steel, and a purple bridge by Legorreta that is meant to make crossing the Mexico-US border much quicker.
    The photography is by Lorena Darquea.

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    OMA designs Tiffany & Co pop-up in Paris to take visitors on a “journey across time”

    Architecture studio OMA has created a pop-up shop for Tiffany & Co in Paris that showcases an assortment of pieces from the jeweller’s 185-year history.

    The pop-up is located in the eighth arrondissement and functions as a cross between a boutique and an exhibition, spotlighting Tiffany pieces from both past and present.
    Visitors enter the Tiffany & Co pop-up in Paris through a blue rotunda”Tiffany & Co has a rich history both in making jewellery and in product design,” said OMA partner Ellen van Loon. “For us, it was important to showcase that history.”
    “More than an occasion to discover Tiffany’s latest collection, a visit to the store also becomes a journey across time.”
    The room displays archival jewellery piecesUpon entering the store, visitors walk into a deep-blue rotunda where Tiffany & Co is showcasing some of its archival jewellery designs.

    The pieces are presented within wall niches or inside pyramidal glass cases that sit on chunky plinths. Tall screens display blown-up imagery of the designs so visitors can take a look at their finer details.
    A gold-toned room showcases Tiffany’s current jewellery collectionA short corridor takes visitors through to a gold-toned room, where Tiffany & Co’s current collection is put on show. At the periphery of the space, a small seating nook provides a place to rest alongside a couple of pale-pink armchairs and poufs.
    The room is anchored by an antique stained-glass pendant light that echoes the lamps designed by Tiffany & Co’s first design director Louis Comfort Tiffany in the early 1900s.
    In keeping with this theme, faux stained-glass panelling was also added to the pop-up’s facade.
    Stained-glass lamps and pink soft furnishings decorate the spaceA velvet-lined archway looks through to the shop’s final room, where high-jewellery appointments are held.
    This smaller, more intimate space features faceted metallic walls and powder-blue carpet that, in an ombre effect, gradually deepens to a darker blue as visitors make their way back to the front of the store.
    A consultation room lies at the rear of the pop-up shopTiffany & Co’s Paris pop-up will be open until May 2023 and will be subtly updated throughout the year to reflect the brand’s new collections as they are put on display.
    OMA is also currently working on a major renovation of the jewellery brand’s flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue. The project will see a three-storey glass volume added to the building’s roof, providing space for exhibitions and events.
    The photography is by Benoit Florençon, courtesy of OMA.
    Project credits:
    Design: OMAPartner: Ellen van LoonProject architect: Giulio MargheriTeam: Jacopo Bellina, Sebastian Bernardy, Miguel Herreras San José, Mateusz Kiercz, Philippe Le Quellec, Mingda Zhang

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    Arco Suites is a cliffside hotel in Crete with rooms carved out of the rock

    Cave-like suites and a yoga studio with an arching bamboo roof feature inside this wellness hotel on the Greek island of Crete, which local hoteliers Danae and Konstantina Orfanake have perched on a rocky precipice above the sea.

    The Orfanake sisters spent almost five years designing and developing the Arco Suites resort together with Athenian architecture office Utopia Hotel Design and interior designer Manos Kipritidis.
    Arco Suites is set on a cliffside in Crete’s Mononaftis bayThe complex accommodates 49 suites and villas in buildings constructed from locally sourced stone and wood, which were designed to blend into their surroundings along Crete’s Mononaftis bay.
    Some of the stone was excavated directly on-site while the rest was sourced from Mount Ida, the highest mountain on the island.
    The hotel overlooks the Aegean SeaEach of the hotel’s suites has its own private saltwater pool with views of the Aegean Sea and interiors finished in a palette of natural materials.

    This ranges from raw silk bed covers to furnishings custom-made by local artisans using marble from nearby Feistos.
    The hotel’s Cave Suites are carved out of the cliffsideSome of the suites were carved directly out of the cliffside, with parts of the rockface left exposed around the pool terraces and throughout the interiors to preserve their cave-like feel.
    The stone walls also help to maintain a pleasant temperature all year round, reducing the need for heating and air conditioning.
    The hotel’s external stone walls were crafted by Cretan sculptors, as were the custom-made clay light fixtures in the Cave Suites.
    A thatched roof covers the Circle BarKipritidis worked closely with the Orfanake sisters on the design of the hotel’s Cremnos restaurant and the Circle cocktail bar.
    Echoing the natural look of the suites, the restaurant is furnished with custom-made marble furniture, natural fabrics and copper and wood details.

    KRAK Architects imagines subterranean house on Cretan coast

    The Circle bar features a ceiling made from Makuti – a type of East African thatching that consists of sun-dried coconut palm leaves.
    This natural material provides shade and sways in the breeze, creating a relaxing atmosphere.
    The spa area combines wooden joinery with rough stone surfacesUtopia Hotel Design was brought in to help with the design of the in-house spa, which features an oval layout and smooth stone surfaces contrasted against roughly hewn walls and wooden doors.
    The wellness area houses a Byzantine hammam, a Finnish sauna, two treatment rooms, an outdoor pool and a heated pool.
    The spa contains an outdoor poolThe hotel’s Asana yoga studio is covered by an impressive arching roof that was custom made in Crete using wood and bamboo from Thailand.
    Danae and Konstantina Orfanake are members of a prominent Cretan hotelier family. Arco Suites is the latest addition to their growing portfolio of resorts on the island.
    The hotel’s yoga studio has an arching bamboo roofA number of other design studios have explored the idea of embedding buildings into the rugged topography of the Greek islands.
    KRAK Architects recently developed a concept for an underground house with an infinity pool on Crete’s south coast. And on Mykonos, Kyriakos Tsolakis Architects has blended a wellness hotel into the surrounding hillside using stones excavated on-site.
    The photography is by Giorgos Sfakianakis.

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    Formafatal uses glass and light to denote treatment zones in Prague spa

    Curved cement-screed walls with embedded rows of vertical glass bars characterise this spa in Prague designed by local studio Formafatal.

    The Cellularium spa is located in the Institute of Natural Medicine, where it occupies one curved corner of a floor in the Main Point Pankrac building, which has a glazed exterior broken up by vertical aluminum sheets.
    Light fixtures in the ceilings and walls punctuate the interiorThe spa’s main treatment area features three rooms that are delineated by rows of perpendicular glass bars, in reference to the vertical design of the building’s facade. These transparent rods are lit according to the function of the space inside.
    “There is no need to describe the purpose of the room to customers,” explained Formafatal. “The colour itself defines the content: sauna as fire (red), cryosauna as ice (blue) and air flow as wind (gray)”.
    Blue-hued light denotes the cryosaunaThe 155-square-metre interior comprises an entrance foyer and a waiting room, doctor’s office, locker rooms and treatment areas. The spaces were strategically placed around the building’s inclined structural columns.

    “You can hardly find a flat wall in the floor plan,” said the architects, who acknowledged the confines of the existing space by using curved subdividing walls.
    Locker room doors emerge from the curved wallsA convex divider decorated with metal fins separates the doctor’s office from the waiting area and nods to the exterior of the building in which the spa is located.
    “The outer shell of the surgery is lined with vertical steel plates, which gradually fold down to a flat smooth cladding with integrated doors,” the team explained.
    The exterior of the doctor’s office is accessed by a flush concealed doorAn undulating ceiling punctuated by square, solid oak dowel rods of varying lengths unites the different areas in the spa.
    Formafatal used a toned-down colour and material palette in the scheme to focus the attention on the curved shapes of the interior.

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    “Dark tones and smooth screed on surfaces together with daylight significantly underline the playfully modelled space,” the studio said.
    “We left the nurse’s and the doctor’s office in soft light shades that do not distract the visitor,” it continued.
    Inclined structural columns are most prominent in the doctor’s and nurses’s officesLocker rooms feature mirrors with bespoke backlighting housed within perforated metal sheet backing.
    “We lit up the small circular locker rooms into a play of light and shadow, again with a grid of vertical strips,” Formafatal said.
    The locker rooms employ the materials used throughout the rest of the space”We repeated all these principles and materials in other modified forms throughout the interior to achieve a harmonious whole,” it concluded.
    Formafatal is a Prague-based architecture studio founded in 2015 that works across the residential, leisure, hospitality and commercial sectors.
    Other projects by Formafatal include a villa in the Costa Rican jungle made up of monolithic concrete volumes.
    The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

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    Plantea Estudio pairs rough textures and earthy tones in Madrid restaurant Hermosilla

    The way that daylight plays on bricks served as the starting point for this neutral-toned restaurant interior, which architecture practice Plantea Estudio has completed in its hometown of Madrid, Spain.

    Located in the city’s Salamanca neighbourhood, Hermosilla is a 210-square-metre restaurant serving Mediterranean-style dishes made from local artisan produce alongside a small list of low-intervention wines.
    Earthy tones define the interior of Madrid restaurant HermosillaTo complement the menu, Plantea Estudio said it wanted to create a “timeless” interior for the eatery that eschews trends and fads.
    “We were looking for a composition that was specific to this space, making the most of its qualities,” said the studio’s co-founder Luis Gil. “The aim was to achieve a little emotion with the minimum of artifice.”
    Tall fig trees emphasise the height of the spaceHermosilla occupies a corner unit on the ground floor of a multi-use building by modernist Spanish architect Luis Gutiérrez Soto that was completed in 1952.

    As a starting point for the restaurant’s interior scheme, Plantea Estudio looked to the earthy tones of the building’s dark red-orange bricks and the way they subtly change colour as the light shifts throughout the day.
    Coral-red marble was used to finish tables and worktops”The main idea was to colour the environment with various complementary tones that reinforce this broad, natural spectrum of light and colour,” Gil explained.
    “The colours are enlivened and distinguished from each other or tempered and blended, depending on the moment.”

    Plantea Estudio casts minimalist Madrid restaurant in shades of beige

    The studio said it also hoped to “emphasise the power of the building” by creating a textured, cave-like interior that celebrates its original concrete, brick and plaster structure as well as the wooden flooring.
    These historical materials are seamlessly blended with new additions such as the curved wall that encloses the pizza oven, the coral-red marble worktops and washbasins, and the dark wood accents found in the fixed furniture.
    Plantea Estudio retained the building’s original wooden floorboardsTo temper these darker tones, Plantea Estudio specified a light birchwood version of Alvar Aalto’s Chair 69 and aluminium seats by Danish company Frama, which the studio likens to vibrant “accessories”.
    Similarly, white lighting fixtures designed by modernist architects Arne Jacobsen and Charlotte Perriand serve as bright accents, while two fig trees were added to emphasise the height of the space.
    The interior combines a range of contrasting textures such as brick, wood and marblePlantea Estudio was founded by brothers Lorenzo Gil and Luis Gil in 2008. Since then, the studio has renovated 30 houses and designed more than 25 restaurants, including the minimalist Madrid street food restaurant Zuppa.
    Other projects include offices, art galleries, shops and a multi-purpose theatre that was formerly an adult-film cinema.
    The photography is by Salva López.

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    Leckie Studio imitates stalactite formations inside Vancouver's AER Skinlab

    Quarries and caves served as visual references for this marble-lined skincare clinic in Vancouver, Canada, designed by local firm Leckie Studio.

    Set on the ground level of Vancouver’s Waterfall Building, AER Skinlab offers a selection of cosmetic injections and laser treatments.
    Walls throughout the AER Skinlab clinic in Vancouver are lined with grey marbleLeckie Studio wanted to create a calm, grounding interior for the clinic to make it look as if it was “excavated from the stillness of rock”.
    The studio’s key reference point for this aesthetic was a series of photographs by Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky, which captures the dramatic topography of quarries around the world.
    In homage, the clinic’s service desk and almost all of its walls were clad with vast panels of grey marble sourced from nearby Vancouver Island. Each slab was given a subtle striated finish to emulate the irregular surface texture of stone.

    The marble was striated to emulate the uneven surface texture of stoneSimilar striations were made on AER Skinlab’s glass facade, obscuring the interior from passersby to preserve patients’ privacy.
    Crowning the clinic’s reception area is a striking ceiling installation that was produced by Leckie Studio in collaboration with local art and design practice Tangible Interaction.
    It consists of strips of Tyvek, a type of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) fabric, which are hung at different lengths. Clustered together, these resemble pointed mineral formations called stalactites that are created when water drips through a cave ceiling.
    Leckie Studio and Tangible Interaction created a hanging installation for the clinic”The ceiling installation was very ambitious from both a design detailing and installation perspective,” Leckie Studio told Dezeen.
    “We prioritised the experiential aspect while also ensuring compliance with local building codes, life safety, HVAC [heating, ventilation and air conditioning] and lighting performance.”
    Consultation and treatment rooms are simply finishedOne of the walls in the clinic’s reception is punctuated with a narrow niche, where AER Skinlab displays its line of skincare products.
    An arched corridor leads through to a consultation area and a trio of treatment rooms that were finished with pale plaster walls and grey soft furnishings to complement the rest of the interior scheme.
    The clinic’s striated glass facade was designed to preserve patients’ privacyLeckie Studio has completed a number of projects around its hometown of Vancouver. Among them is Courtyard House, a family home that contains only the most essential living spaces.
    The studio also designed the Vancouver office of Slack Technologies – the company behind workplace messaging system Slack – which occupies a former warehouse.
    The photography is by Ema Peter.
    Project credits:
    Design: Leckie StudioCeiling installation: Tanglible InteractionBrand identity: Glasfurd & Walker

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    Holky Rády Architekturu creates “fun” but compact ice cream shop in Brno

    Arches and undulating surfaces fill this small ice cream parlour, which Czech studio Holky Rády Architekturu has designed in the city of Brno.

    Called Ještě Jednu, the shop has a footprint of just 29.5 square metres but accommodates a kitchen, ice cream bar, freezer and coffee corner.
    Arched forms feature in the interior of the Ještě Jednu ice cream shop in BrnoLocal practice Holky Rády Architekturu – meaning “girls who like architecture” in Czech – said it wanted to make the interior a “fun” environment using the building’s arched openings and ceilings as a starting point.
    This motif is picked up throughout the shop in the form of sweeping lighting fixtures and stainless steel sinks, where staff and customers can wash their sticky hands.
    Its serving counter is fronted by a fluted white concrete panelThe prep kitchen is separated from the main ice cream bar using a glass partition, which reflects the shop’s pendant lights and makes the space appear larger.

    “People behind the glass become the alchemists who prepare the frozen delicacies,” said Barbora Kudelová and Kristýna Sirováa, founders of Holky Rády Architekturu.
    A reflective glass partition separates the kitchen from the ice cream barA calming palette of desaturated pastel colours was selected to allow the ice cream offering to stand out, while cool stainless steel surfaces reflect their surroundings.
    The studio also incorporated subtle design references to the local area and to Italy – the birthplace of gelato.

    Little Sky ice cream shop in Melbourne aims to capture the “theatre of gelato”

    These include the serving counter, which is fronted by a fluted white concrete panel that recalls both classical columns and the pillars of a 13th-century church nearby in Brno.
    Similarly, the shop’s stainless steel sinks nod to the water fountains that are often found in the streets of Italian towns and cities.
    Stainless steel sinks offer a place to wash sticky handsOther ice cream shops featured on Dezeen include Little Sky in Melbourne, which was designed to capture the “theatre of gelato”, and an Instagram-friendly store in central London that features cloud-like ceilings and neon signage.
    The photography is by Barbora Kudelová.

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