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    Keiji Ashizawa uses “rough materials” to create cosy restaurant interior

    Wood-wool cement-board walls and concrete tabletops feature in this Tokyo restaurant interior by Japanese architect Keiji Ashizawa.Located a few minutes walk from Kawaguchi station in one of Tokyo’s largest commuter towns, Grillno is a cosy, 26-seat restaurant that serves a menu of smoked and grilled dishes.

    Top image: tables and chairs made from concrete, steel and wood furnish the interior. Above: dim lighting sets the mood
    Built on the second floor of a concrete apartment building, the moodily lit interior features walls made from grey wood wool cement board alongside oak floors and doors.
    An open kitchen with a long concrete counter allows diners to watch the chefs at work as they eat.
    “There are two fundamental inspirations,” said Ashizawa, “the building materials used for the thirty-year-old concrete apartment building and the food ingredients the restaurant uses daily.”

    The textured walls are made from grey wood wool cement board

    The 62-square-metre restaurant only opens in the evening, so guests typically experience the space at sunset or after dark.
    “The space gets some natural daylight from the entrance,” Ashizawa told Dezeen. “The gentle light from the setting sun creates a spectacular atmosphere during the opening hours.”

    A concrete counter stretches along the length of the open kitchen
    The restaurant’s owner is a friend of the Tokyo-based architect, as well as a regular collaborator.
    “Since starting his career as a chef, I have been supporting him with the planning of his restaurants — and enjoying eating what he cooks, of course,” Ashizawa explained.
    “As Grillno is a restaurant specialised in smoked and grilled dishes, we began by planning an open kitchen and a long concrete counter around the kitchen so that people could enjoy watching the chef cook while eating.”

    A suspended steel lamp hovers over the concrete counter
    A thin, long steel suspension lamp hangs above the concrete counter to create an even light for dining.
    “We believe that good restaurants can welcome people in many situations, whether you come by yourself, with your friends and family or for your night out,” continued Ashizawa.
    “To make the most out of the space as possible, we planned different types of seating arrangements.”

    Campana brothers use hollow terracotta blocks for São Paulo Aesop store

    These include the rounded counter, which seats up to 14 diners, alongside two cosy wooden tables for couples that are tucked away in a recess, and three tables that seat up to four people on a mix of chairs and benches.

    Dining tables for couples are placed in a recess
    “With a few rough materials, worked expertly by craftsmen, we tried to achieve a relaxing atmosphere with moments of tension to match the food and hospitality,” explained Ashizawa.
    Incorporating industrial materials that are generally perceived as “rough” into commercial interiors is popular among architects and designers.
    Lisbon-based Inês Brandão has created a kitchen from oriented strand board inside a converted barn home in Portugal, while brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana applied hollow ceramic bricks, typically used to build external walls, in a shop interior for Aesop in Sao Paulo.

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    Bureau de Change makes creative use of terrazzo in Frame House renovation

    London studio Bureau de Change has used different varieties of terrazzo to create a richly textured interior for a remodelled family home.Frame House is a Victorian terraced home in south London, renovated and extended by Bureau de Change for a property developer and her family.

    The ground floor of Frame House is split over three levels
    The project involved adding a rear extension, converting the loft and completing revamping the interior. But most importantly, the client wanted to give the home a distinct character and coherency throughout.
    The architecture studio achieved this with a carefully planned colour and material strategy, and through playful use of geometry.

    The lounge occupies the extended rear of the house

    “The brief was to create a coherent journey through all spaces and floors,” explained architect Billy Mavropoulos, who co-founded Bureau de Change with partner Katerina Dionysopoulou.
    “We needed a holistic design, looking at everything from the architecture of the extension, to the layouts and the way the spaces are used, down to the joinery handles and details,” he told Dezeen.
    “The client was after a rich palette of finishes and colours, but one that would feel consistently part of the same narrative.”

    Different varieties of terrazzo were chosen for different areas
    As is common with Victorian terraces, Frame House has a split-level layout that helps to make the floor plan more efficient.
    In the new layout, the ground floor is divided over three levels, comprising the kitchen, dining space and lounge. The two split-level upper storeys contain three en-suite bedrooms, a separate bathroom and a study room.
    Terrazzo was the material that Mavropoulos and Dionysopoulou chose to unite the various spaces. It is a material the pair are familiar with, having previously used it in another residential project, Folds House.

    Different shades of taupe feature on each of the ground floor levels
    Here, they decided to work with different varieties of terrazzo to give each space its own character, while subtly tying them all together.
    On the ground floor the flooring is a taupe terrazzo in three slightly different shades – one for each level. This creates a gentle transition from light to dark, starting with the kitchen at the front of the house and ending with the lounge at the rear.

    A green marble terrazzo was chosen for the staircase handrail
    “We chose them very carefully so that they are all of the same family but vary in darkness/density,” said Mavropoulos.
    “The colour difference is very subtle as we did not want the floor to take over. But when you look closely you notice the difference.”
    Other details have been picked out contrasting terrazzo varieties: a kitchen island features shades of red and black, the staircase handrails are a green marble terrazzo, and each bathroom has its own different shade.

    The master bedroom on the first floor features an en-suite with grey terrazzo
    The geometries of the design are based around the rear extension, which gives the occupants a large living space.
    Keen to avoid the 45-degree angled roof and frameless glass typical of infill extensions, the architects opted for a more cuboidal approach. Steel frames create staggered glass boxes, which Mavropoulos and Dionysopoulou liken to museum display cases.

    The new loft bedroom features an en-suite with pale terrazzo and pink walls
    “When we looked at the cascading volumes in plan and section, we felt there was an element of fragility to them, almost like a jewel stone, so we decided to make them out of glass to enhance that feel,” said Mavropoulos.
    “These distinctly cubist glass volumes are articulated through their bold steel-frame construction, expressing each edge in a manner that creates shifting patterns of light and space, and a paradoxical sense of both levity and solidity,” added Dionysopoulou.

    The terrazzo also extends into the garden, forming cascading planters
    These cascading box forms are referenced in other places, such as the proportions of the split floor levels, or the planting boxes in the garden. There’s also a glass display case in the dining area.
    Other details contribute to the personality of these spaces. The lounge room brings together a floral-patterned rug and a large cactus plant, while the dining space features a wall of shelving filled with various objects and books.
    The architects hope the result is one of “theatre and tactility”.
    Photography is by Gilbert McCarragher.
    Project credits
    Architect: Bureau de ChangeInteriors: Bureau de ChangeEngineer: SymmetrysM&E: MWLContractor: Argyll LondonLandscape: Tulip Landscapes

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    “The uncomfortable truth is that 2020 might just have been exactly what we needed”

    After a turbulent 2020, this year designers should be braver and bolder, says Michelle Ogundehin in her interior design anti-trends report for 2021.I concluded my 2020 Interiors Report with the words, “I still believe that we can be as brilliantly inventive as we have previously been so terribly destructive. However, 2020 is our make-or-break year to prove it.”
    Six months later I wrote about the potential impact of the coronavirus on our homes. In summary, your environment is as fundamental to your health and well-being as nutrition and exercise.

    However, Covid is not the only issue impacting society. The pandemic simply crunched years of behavioural change into months. Resistance wears away when something becomes a necessity. And while some of the responses to global lockdowns gave us a glimpse of potential solutions, other factors are having an equally noxious affect on the way we live.
    As Christopher Ryan says in his book, Civilised to Death: The Price of Progress, “the zoo we’ve designed for ourselves is a poor reflection of the world in which our species evolved, and is thus a profoundly unhealthy, unhappy place for too many of the human animals it contains.”

    This report then is less about trends, than exposed truths

    Certainly, if we peel back the cladding on much of the residential housing built over the last few decades, it reveals a horrifying disrespect for the humane as the dignity of the occupants is routinely sacrificed at the altar of profit – tiny windows, minimal footprints, cramped rooms, no easy access to outside space, and not least, cheap and dangerous building materials.
    It’s a symptom of where we find ourselves, but also a contributor to the cause as it affects our primal need for a safe place to call home. This report then is less about trends, than exposed truths.
    After all, even before Covid, normal wasn’t working. To quote the American socio-biologist Edward O Wilson, “The real problem of humanity is the following: we have palaeolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and godlike technology.” Or as Sophocles would have it, “nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse”.

    Sexy eco, monochrome and plus-size furniture: interior design trends for 2020

    In other words, the flip side of the incredible technology we have at our fingertips is that it’s simultaneously being used as a tool to erode the very fabric of society – community, connection, reality and considered thought (which I explain as the desire to check sources and decide for ourselves before accepting opinion as fact). Plus, apps to run our baths, ever faster broadband, the ability to manipulate genes, Klarna, deep fakes and cheap flights to far-flung lands? Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

    Blurring the boundaries between home and work is not without repercussion

    It had already been estimated that by 2020, 50 per cent of the UK workforce would be working from home. Campaigning for the flexibility it offered had previously been vociferous, especially for women.
    Besides, employees were at breaking point. The toxic culture of presenteeism resulted in 44 per cent of all UK work-related absences being due to stress and anxiety. In short, work as we knew it was already broken. It was just the bosses who feared staff would be less productive if given more freedom. The opposite has been proven to be true. 
    Nevertheless, blurring the boundaries between home and work is not without repercussion. Alongside the impossibility of overlaying parenting with employment in the same space and hours, even without children in tow, the ability to WFH assumes you have adequate room, equipment and support. And if you injure yourself on-the-job at home, are you insured?
    We would also do well to remember the salutary tale of “Bob”, the US software developer who in 2013 outsourced his job to a Chinese consulting firm for a fifth of his salary. His work didn’t suffer.
    In fact, he was regularly marked out as being one of the company’s top-performing programmers. Until he was rumbled. But here’s the thing, if WFH makes it easy for you to outsource your job without being detected, it also makes it easy for your boss to outsource you. If you can do your job anywhere, can anyone do your job?
    For these reasons alone, the demise of the office is over-stated. Besides, according to an Arup survey published in The Sunday Times, for every 100 office workers, four jobs are sustained in the food/drink sector; six in hospitality and seven in retail. But, if businesses are smart, offices will be smaller and used as three-day week hub points for shared learning, innovation and collaboration. People are innately social animals. We need to come together to get things done. This will engender improved productivity and creativity with a happier workforce.

    Fear is not a trustworthy motivator for long-term survival

    And yet, living with uncertainty can be a great spur to innovation and discovery. Regardless, in so many aspects of life we have become more fearful. We begin to believe that it’s OK to attempt to live forever, plan an exodus to Mars, medicate our way out of aging, or see the world as something to be perpetually controlled and conquered. This is not progress, it’s to rail against the natural order of life. Fear is not a trustworthy motivator for long-term survival.
    For example, a vaccine is a reprieve from fear, but a vaccine is not a cure. It’s a shield. Like a mask. Or hand-sanitising. Absolutely required to protect the most vulnerable, but mass inoculation does little to address the cause.
    And when another pandemic occurs, our response cannot be a repeat performance of the ‘muzzle-up-and-shut-down’ while waiting to be saved, as already witnessed. The collateral damage of disrupted lives, broken livelihoods and the inevitable mental health fall-out are too severe. There has to be another way.

    “In the future home, form will follow infection”

    We could start by taking some personal responsibility. As Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet put it, “Our liberties depend on our wellbeing”. And yet, “we create the risks that threaten us… Our space for manoeuvre is narrowing. Pandemics are the new normal. We had better understand that. And get used to it.”
    Thankfully, we already have inside us one of the most potent infection-fighting bits of kit imaginable, our immune systems. We need to bolster these. However contemporary life for many does precisely the opposite. We will spend on average 90 per cent of our time indoors and by 2050 the UN had predicted that 68 per cent of the world population would be living in profoundly urban environments.

    UK government schemes like Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s eat-out-to-help-out initiative imply that it’s our moral and civic duty to support the economy. But is it?

    Previously eradicated diseases like rickets and gout are returning to developed nations, alongside childhood myopia and obesity, all attributable to increasingly screen-based, sedentary lifestyles with a profound lack of outside time. As a result, instead of getting stronger as a species, we appear to be getting weaker. This is a pathology of society, not just our bodies.
    As the Journal of Affective Disorders stated in 2012 (from Christopher Ryan’s Civilised to Death): “The economic and marketing forces of modern society have engineered an environment… that maximise[s] consumption at the long-term cost of well-being.
    In effect, humans have dragged a body with a long hominid history into an overfed, malnourished, sedentary, sunlight-deficient, sleep-deprived, competitive, inequitable and socially-isolating environment with dire consequences.”
    Surely then the vital question must be: if city centres were previously considered the engines of the economy, but urban hubs don’t work for us and we need more room for homeworking as well as outside space, what must change – us, or the way we view “the economy”?
    UK government schemes like Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s eat-out-to-help-out initiative imply that it’s our moral and civic duty to support the economy. But is it? If a recession is on the horizon, shouldn’t I be saving or downsizing? But if I don’t spend, do I in effect prompt the downturn? Catch 22.
    And what of that other political punchbag, education. “The Future of Jobs Report” prepared by the World Economic Forum in 2016 stated that 65 per ceny of the children entering primary school then would end up in jobs that don’t currently exist. Despite this, existing measurements of learning — annual exams, one-size-fits-all curriculae – do little to assess and develop character traits like curiosity, resilience and independence of thought. Essential for our children both today and if they are to be employable in the future.

    Everything that we believed comprised ‘civilised society’ has been shown to be more fragile than we thought

    So where do we go from here? We’ve shattered the economy and ideas of sovereignty. Contemporary society has repeatedly been shown to be fractured along racial, faith and class lines. Most political systems have always been broken (in my opinion, governments are but a country’s HR department: there for the business, never the people). National security was no match for an invisible foe. And healthcare can only ever be based on assumed knowledge. 
    Basically, everything that we believed comprised ‘civilised society’ has been shown to be more fragile than we thought. It presents a dilemma. It seems we need to go back in order to go forwards, but nostalgia is a mistake, and the future is unknown.
    Our global interconnectedness appears to be both our passage to, yet also from, destruction. The return of the analogue is manna for our sanity but automation and robotization are essential for convenience. We cannot deny the might of the ‘attention economy’ — I am still ‘seen’ even in lockdown; therefore, I exist — but it urgently needs to be recalibrated.

    “Grey alone would be too depressing for 2021’s colour of the year”

    Writing as an optimistic realist, I maintain that the power to proactively prompt big change for our best interests has never been so vested with the Everyman. And in that lies our opportunity.
    My hope is that over the next few years such conscious consumerism will drive market value rather than the customary manufacturer-prompted lure of the new. Because, while we will almost certainly keep spending, swiping, click and collecting, what I see changing is the awareness that every time we do so, we advocate for the provider to stay in business.
    We can individually vote with our wallets for greener energy suppliers and sustainable manufacturers, boycott apps that unnecessarily distract or hook users, or globally demonstrate for cleaner air and ethical governance. Anything rejected by such a collective mainstream will be undermined. In this way even the most established edifices become vulnerable unless they move with the times. 

    Discomfort begets the new comfort. This is the year for the interiors equivalent of speaking your own truth

    The uncomfortable truth is that 2020 might just have been exactly what we needed. A year so damned unsettling that a majority finally woke up and saw that we must understand, even if not accept, polarising points of view. That real evolution is all about balance: new and old; real and virtual; left and right; East and West. Combative duelling is rarely the path to sensible compromise. 
    And regarding Interior trends for 2021? Discomfort begets the new comfort. This is the year for the interiors equivalent of speaking your own truth. To be braver, bolder and create your own interiors narrative.
    To understand that the best homes are about the feeling they give you not the stuff they contain, the “right” colours or “hot” looks. A tidy home doesn’t necessarily make a happy home. And being surrounded by memories is not the same as living in the past — our roots keep us anchored in the present. 
    Quite simply, we are all products of our environment. If we intentionally create more supportive spaces in which to live, i.e. spaces which reflect our authentic likes and lives rather than anything dictated externally, we will be more able to weather the myriad messy curveballs of life itself. This alone is the true purpose of home. And the impact of fully recognising this could be game-changing, if not potentially life-saving. 
    Michelle Ogundehin is the author of Happy Inside: How to Harness the Power of Home for Health and Happiness and the head judge on TV series Interior Design Masters.Main image is of the Dezeen Awards-shortlisted Writer’s Studio by Eric J Smith.
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    Norm Architects bases jewellery store interior on the studios of Picasso and Matisse

    Norm Architects used natural materials such as oak, clay, linen and travertine to create a jewellery showroom in Copenhagen informed by modernist artists’ studios.Located on Ny Østergade in the city’s old town, the flagship store belongs to jewellery brand Dulong and features an open-plan layout broken only by a few existing cast-iron columns.

    Dulong’s flagship store features travertine tables and counters
    Its “serene, soft and welcoming” interior is arranged much like a living room, with a curved sofa and round coffee table at its centre.
    To enhance the sense of homeliness, the local firm opted for natural materials such as oak flooring, clay walls, travertine display tables and caramel-coloured suede and linen curtains.

    The walls were finished with clay

    According to Norm Architects, the selection is intended to reflect the jewellery brand’s “timeless and exclusive” pieces but was also inspired by the studios of great modernist artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși.

    Granite boulders feature in jewellery showroom by Richard Stampton Architects

    The oak parquet flooring is original, while everything else, including the clay walls, has been added.
    Burnished brass, glass and walnut feature as material accents across the store’s lighting, as well as in the bespoke furniture pieces that were designed for the space by Norm Architects.

    The studio kept the original oak parquet flooring
    A colonnade stretches across the entire back wall of the store in a nod to the neoclassical architecture of Copenhagen. Within each of its recesses sits a travertine plinth with a glass vitrine displaying an individual piece of jewellery or artwork.
    At the back of the store is a private room where customers can try on jewellery, alongside a separate kitchen space and restroom.

    A colonnade runs along the store’s back wall
    “The quality craftsmanship with which the jewellery has been designed is reflected in the carefully selected choice of finishes and elegantly feminine, balanced tonal palette,” said the Danish practice.
    Founded in 2008 by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen and Kasper Rønn Von Lotzbeck, Norm Architects is renowned for its understated design and sensitive use of natural colours and materials.

    Linen curtains and suede-clad display cases feature throughout the space
    In Tokyo, the studio renovated a pair of formerly light-starved apartments to create “transparent” living spaces with concrete walls, wooden floors and simple furnishings.
    Meanwhile in Hamburg, the practice used oak, grey stone and yellow-tinted glass in a minimal makeover of a department store’s menswear section.
    Photography is by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.

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    IE University taught me about strategic interior design says Araceli Torres Muñoz

    Dezeen promotion: graduating from the IE School of Architecture and Design provided the skills to design adaptable spaces for the post-pandemic workplace, according to designer Araceli Torres Muñoz.Torres Muñoz, who is a workplace strategist and designer at architecture studio Sshape in Washington DC, received a master’s in Strategic Design of Spaces from the IE School of Architecture and Design at IE University.
    According to Torres Muñoz, the skills she learnt during the course taught her to embrace change and utilise technology to develop her workspace designs.
    “It was there that I received the tools to react with agility and view change as an opportunity,” she said.
    “Technology has served as our ally in this change. This is an idea I’ve internalised since I completed the master’s at IE University. There, we were encouraged to integrate technology in all the phases of the design process – from analysis to development to execution of the project and, finally, to monitoring the project’s performance.”

    IE University taught Torres Muñoz to embrace change and utilise technology to develop her workspace designs. Photograph by Manolo Yllera

    This knowledge has become especially valuable over the past year as the coronavirus pandemic has forced numerous companies to adapt their workspaces and adopt digital working strategies.
    “Although we’d spotted this new style of work approaching on the horizon, we still weren’t prepared for it,” said Torres Muñoz. “In a blink of an eye, our work environments and lives were reduced to a screen and a keyboard. We were forced to go virtual.”
    “As a workplace strategist and designer at Sshape in Washington DC, I had to rethink my approach to work in that moment. I needed to provide solutions for my clients, who were facing an unforeseen situation with high levels of uncertainty,” she continued.

    Technology has become an essential tool for connecting employees to their workspaces, says Torres Muñoz. Photograph by Manolo Yllera
    Since the pandemic began, Torres Muñoz has observed that technology has become an essential tool for connecting employees to their workspaces.
    “Technology has become the link between designers and the users of the spaces; it is the open communication channel between both extremes,” she explained.
    “The immediacy and capacity for data collection and analysis that new technologies provide are the foundations an interior design strategy should be built upon,” she continued.
    “They allow offices to become efficient and, above all, flexible spaces that attract talent and respond to the needs of their users.”
    Below Torres Muñoz outlines four areas of strategic interior design where technology is driving change:
    Technology can confront uncertainty, measure change and predict the future
    “Anything that cannot be measured cannot be improved. Understanding how employees work, their needs, routines, timings, etc. is key to developing a knowledge base that serves as a foundation for strategic interior design,” she said.
    “Online survey tools help us perform these internal analyses and detect changes in work models. Additionally, they allow employees to express themselves freely and encourage all voices to be heard.”
    Technology to reinforce company culture and build engagement
    One of the principal problems of the shift to working virtually is the feeling of personal disconnect. Working from home can lead to isolation. For companies, this means that successfully transmitting their mission and values can be a difficult task.
    We use gamification techniques to increase engagement and ensure employees take ownership of the office design project. These platforms and activities give us an understanding of the company culture; the unwritten rules that define the behaviour of people in a group. This critical information helps companies build a more flexible culture that encourages continuous learning and lets interior design strategists design an office that transmits and reinforces its values.
    Technology and leveraging virtual reality for architecture
    Designing, and above all, explaining online projects can be complex. We often find that it’s difficult for customers to understand detailed plans and schematics from behind a screen.
    With the integration of the Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology and virtual reality technologies, designers can offer companies virtual tours of their future workspaces. They can walk through the different areas, see what the materials will look like and experience the final result before even beginning construction.
    Space and technology: A perfect symbiosis
    The future of workspaces lies in flexible and connected spaces. We must emphasise the design of wireless spaces where walls, screens and furniture can move and adapt to the needs of the moment. We will see outlets and lights on rails, air stream systems integrated into each space and a generally flexible office space that allows its users to adjust it to their needs.
    For the hybrid work model to function, we have to implement a simple and efficient space-reservation system that can adapt to different teams during distinct project phases. This requires state-of-the-art technology that serves both people and spaces.
    Partnership content
    This article was written by Dezeen for IE University as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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    Minimalist micro-apartments in Seoul form “blank canvas for tenants”

    Interior designer Ian Lee has lined the walls of the LIFE micro-apartments in South Korea with birch wood to offer tenants pared-back spaces that they can personalise.Located in Seoul’s Gangnam District, the apartments form part of a 16-storey co-living building for young adults, developed by co-working-space provider Fastfive.
    The block contains a total of 140 rooms, which vary between 16 and 23 square metres in size, alongside shared living areas that Vancouver-based Lee also designed.

    LIFE micro-apartments are lined with birch joinery

    Lee’s goal for the LIFE apartments was to create deliberately simple, timeless interiors that were visually uncluttered.
    While helping to distract from the small size of the rooms, this offers tenants the opportunity to create homely, private spaces with their own furniture and belongings.

    The birch is intended to offer a minimalist finish
    “Like in many densely populated cities, most young adults in Seoul struggle to find homes as housing prices climb,” explained Lee.
    “I wanted this co-living space and the community it would build to be an accessible alternative to traditional housing options that can eventually give its residents a sense of belonging.”

    Built-in window seats and reading nooks feature in some rooms
    “One of my aims in designing these rental units was to find that balance, where the space feels timeless and comfortable as it is, but also like a blank canvas for tenants to personalise,” Lee continued.
    “The overarching goal was to evoke a sense of home.”

    Playful arched cut-outs are the only decorative elements
    Each apartment is fully equipped with a private kitchen and bathroom, with storage and appliances built-in or hidden within the birch-lined walls to maximise useable space.
    Some units are fitted with sliding glass partitions that can be used to divide the flats offering tenants flexibility while ensuring natural light can still filter through.

    Some apartments feature sliding partitions
    Lee chose birch as the main material for the micro-apartments to create a cosy finish, but also because the material forms a neutral backdrop for furnishings.
    The only decorative elements he has included are playful arched cut-outs, reading nooks and window seats, which he hopes contribute to the cosy aesthetic.

    A Little Design maximises space in tiny 22-metre-square Taiwan apartment

    “Rental homes can feel generic, cold and utilitarian,” Lee explained. “The soft spatial elements like arches and curves were used to infuse warmth and emotions into the rooms.”

    Storage is built-in to maximise useable space
    The shared living spaces, which were not photographed, include a communal kitchen, workspace, lounge, gym and rooftop garden.
    Finished with an equally minimalist design, these are hoped to help foster community amongst tenants.

    Each apartment is fully equipped with a kitchen
    Other micro-apartments on Dezeen that feature wood-lined interiors include A Little Design’s 17.6-square-metre residence in Taiwan, which features built-in, space-saving furniture.
    Elsewhere in Taiwan, the studio also designed a 22-metre-square apartment with storage spanning one entire wall, covering the 3.3 metres from floor to ceiling.
    Photography is by Texture on Texture.

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    Biasol plays off Wes Anderson's whimsical style with The Budapest Cafe in Melbourne

    Melbourne-based interior design studio Biasol used earthy hues and stylised architectural motifs to create a destination inspired by Wes Anderson’s symmetry and nostalgic colour palette.The Budapest Cafe in Carlton, Melbourne is Biasol’s second edition of its Wes Anderson-informed concept, following a first location in Chengdu, China, that featured marble surfaces and pale pastel greens.
    The 94 square-metre cafe has similar pastel shades, but in earthy colours that have been adapted to its Carlton setting and audience. 

    Top image: counter sits within focal archway. Above image: the studio cover walls with earthy shades

    “Our design draws on Anderson’s meticulous, memorable and magical worlds to create an inviting destination with whimsical character and mythical scenes,” Biasol founder Jean-Pierre Biasol told Dezeen.
    “We were also inspired by his symmetry and quirky set designs; vivid and nostalgic colour palettes; and the sentiment that infuses his films,” Biasol continued. 

    Caned chairs and banquette seating fill the space
    The studio played with depth by applying dark tones like terracotta and orange to the walls, while softer beige and sand hues blanket the fanciful elements in the foreground – including focal archways reminiscent of Wes Anderson’s 2014 feature film, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
    “We evolved the design and experience to an earthy colour palette reflecting our local sensibilities,” Biasol explained.
    Rust-red upholstered banquettes wrap around the space, adding texture and warmth to the double-height space, and envelop a bar table that functions as the centre of the seating area. 

    Architectural motifs decorate the walls
    A large sand-textured archway frames a glossy, tubular point-of-sale counter in terracotta, both of which draw customers through the space. Subtle silver hardware, meanwhile, provides a bright, metallic contrast to the softer tones. 
    The studio’s fondness for modern abstract art, design, and hospitality informed its decision to create “an immersive gallery-like experience,” Biasol said.
    This led to an exploration of form and colour, with the aim of designing a place where art meets architecture.

    Danielle Brustman decorates children’s centre in Melbourne with pastel hues and rainbow murals

    By reducing the interior’s built form, the studio created a dramatic visual aesthetic. Stylised steps to nowhere embellish the venue’s walls, rising behind the tubular counter framed within arched alcoves and encouraging patrons to engage with and capture the “imaginative and evocative” design.

    Appliances contrast the earthy setting
    “With a richer palette and bolder design, the new cafe is timeless and contemporary for its Melbourne patrons, while still offering a relaxed and indulgent atmosphere and hospitality experience,” Biasol said.
    The Budapest Cafe is one of many projects the studio have completed globally. In 2019 Biasol completed contemporary dining spaces for Grind in southeast London, as well the interiors for this east London townhouse.
    Photography is by Derek Swalwell.

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    Plantea Estudio casts minimalist Madrid restaurant in shades of beige

    Spanish firm Plantea Estudio has layered “light and warm” materials such as plywood and chipboard to create the interior of this Madrid street food restaurant.Called Zuppa, the eaterie is located on one of the city centre’s main streets, the Calle de Atocha, and occupies a commercial space that was previously home to an Indian takeaway.

    The informal dining area features steel frame furniture (above) and a central oak table (top image)
    The 127-square-metre restaurant offers a menu of street food and homemade soups, which can be taken to go or eaten inside of a small, informal dining area.
    Plantea Estudio restored the original storefront, which had been altered by the previous owners, and installed bespoke pivoting doors with frames made of plywood and iron, and topped with marble handles.

    Built-in benches are paired with wooden stools and steel tables

    For the interior, the firm said it selected materials in “light and warm tones” to create a feeling of continuity and make the space appear larger.
    Although similar in colouring, the materials were chosen for their different textural qualities, with micro-cement and plywood boards forming the walls and floors while chipboard was used to panel the ceiling.

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    “The light from the outside envelops them in such a way, that the limits between one and the other blur and the space is expanded to the maximum,” explained the architects.

    The space is anchored by a large communal table
    In contrast to the soft beige tones of the walls and floors, the studio installed furniture and fittings made from black lacquered steel with “geometric and precise” forms.
    Much of this was designed specifically for the project, including a large communal table made from solid oak and finished with a sanded steel top.
    Placed in the centre of the space, it helps to channel the flow of customers between the two entrance doors.

    High tables in front of the counter feature marble tops
    Two built-in, upholstered benches run along the walls on either side, paired with rows of lacquered steel tables and oak stools.
    In the space beyond, two high tables with a steel base and grey Ruivina marble top sit in front of a serving counter made from these same materials and illuminated through integrated lighting.
    Here, customers can eat their food either standing or seated on one of the bar stools with their oak veneer seats.

    A soap dispenser and marble sink are mounted to the bathroom walls
    “All of these elements are introduced into a space where the floor and walls are finished in the same colour, so it looks like they are ‘floating’ in a warm atmosphere,” Plantea Estudio director Luis Gill told Dezeen.
    “The materials that are touched by hand are kind and solid, always pleasant.”
    The illusion of objects levitating in space is carried through to the toilets, where a marble sink and soap dispenser are suspended from the walls.

    Plantea Estudio built custom plywood doors with marble handles
    The interior’s neutral colour scheme chimes with paint brand Dulux’s choice of colour of the year for 2021 – a “reassuring” earthy beige called Brave Gound.
    Dulux argued that this “elemental” shade reflects “our growing desire to align more with the planet and looking towards the future”.
    Plantea Estudio, which was shortlisted for emerging interior design practice of the year at the 2019 Dezeen Awards, has previously transformed a defunct erotic cinema into an art-nouveau theatre.

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