Markus Andrews

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    Old Spanish workshop converted into tactile family home by Nomos

    Tactile bricks and pinewood partitions decorate the La Nave apartment, which Nomos has slotted into the concrete shell of a disused workshop in Madrid, Spain.La Nave was developed by Nomos as a family home for two of its partners, Ophélie Herranz and Paul Galindo, who head up its Spanish office.
    The project has since been shortlisted for apartment interior of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020.

    Wood and brick partitions divide the old workshop’s concrete shell
    La Nave was originally used as a large, open-plan printshop arranged around a structural concrete grid measuring 34 metres in length and 10 metres in depth.

    Nomos’ intervention retains this structure but converts its open layout into a continuous loop of living areas, arranged around enclosed private rooms.

    The new partitions are positioned at angles to the outer walls
    “La Nave is the transformation of an industrial space into a place for life, which takes place as a continuous sequence, with very little difference between work and family leisure,” said the studio, which also has offices in Geneva and Lisbon.
    “La Nave’s plan escapes any typological definition. It results from the search for new spatialities required by existing constraints.”

    Bricks and wood were used to warm the existing concrete structure
    Nomos’ initial plan for the apartment was to position the enclosed spaces and wet areas on the rear wall – opposite to the only facade with windows.
    However, La Nave’s existing plumbing is attached to the central concrete columns, meaning the wet areas had to be placed centrally too.

    The bedrooms and bathrooms are enclosed by the new partitions
    To achieve this while ensuring natural light could enter the depths of the apartment, Nomos positioned the wet areas and enclosed rooms in line with the central columns, but at a 45-degree angle to the outer walls.
    They are divided into two parts and set back from windows, making space either side and in between to ensuring light from the windows can pass through.

    Glazed bricks line the wet areas and bathrooms
    “The typological strategy started from the search for the optimal location of the service spaces,” Herranz told Dezeen.
    “The wet cores had to reach the downspouts, attached to the central pillars, but we wanted to move them towards the back of the space, to offer more light to the living spaces. We rotated them 45 degrees and explored the potential of the diagonal.”

    Original beams and brickwork add warmth to pared-back Madrid apartment

    The layout creates a continuous loop of shared living spaces around the perimeter of the apartment, which are used for work, play and dining.
    “We never thought of creating a large, open, loft-like space, but rather a sequence of well-defined spaces, which would give rise to multiple situations,” Herranz added.

    Bedrooms are positioned through the centre of the apartment
    By setting the private living spaces away from the windows, Nomos also made space for a “winter garden” along the window wall.
    This area doubles as a thermal buffer – a space that separates living areas from the outside to reduce dependence on artificial heating and cooling.

    The “winter garden” doubles as a thermal buffer
    The predominant material throughout the renovation is glazed brick, finished in white and cobalt blue, teamed with a pinewood framework and MDF panels.
    The materials were chosen by Nomos to complement the existing concrete structure while providing the space with a warmer and more homely atmosphere.

    Patterns are made with glazed and unglazed bricks
    “The qualities of traditional materials provide comfort and reinforce the idea of home, of domesticity, in contrast to the surrounding industrial space,” said Herranz.
    “The glazed bricks provide a note of brightness and colour typical of a more ornamental language.”

    A loop of living spaces wraps the central rooms
    The bricks were used to build most of the partitions, with their glazed sides lining bathrooms and kitchen and the unglazed faces exposed in the living rooms.
    Their glazed and unglazed sides are also alternated in places to create patterns.

    A kitchen aligns with old workshop’s existing plumbing
    The majority of furniture in the space is bespoke, designed by Nomos from pine wood specifically for La Nave.
    This includes a low-lying, circular table and coffee table made from pine, and terrazzo detailing made with old flooring that was removed from the workshop.
    Other projects that are shortlisted for apartment interior of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020 a sea-facing residence in Jaffa by Pitsou Kedem and a two-storey dwelling by Coffey Architects that is covered in thousands of wooden blocks.
    Photography is by Luis Asin.

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    Luke Edward Hall stirs print and colour inside Hotel Les Deux Gares in Paris

    A clashing mix of pea-green walls, leopard-print furnishings and candy-striped beds feature in this hotel that British designer Luke Edward Hall has completed in Paris.Hotel Les Deux Gares is tucked down a narrow street in Paris’ 10th arrondissement, set between two of the city’s major train stations – Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est.

    The hotel’s entrance lobby. Top image: one of the hotel’s olive-green guest bedrooms
    The five-storey building had been left vacant for a number of years, but when Luke Edward Hall was brought on board to design the interiors, the focus wasn’t on making the rooms seem more contemporary.

    Hall instead set out to fashion an “anti-modern” aesthetic that nodded to a Paris of the past.

    Chintzy wallpaper and leopard-print furniture decorate the lobby
    “I love listening to stories from the past and feeling as though I’m entering another, more elegant era,” explained Hall, who is based in London.
    “I always begin my projects by leafing through old books and magazines; then, I visit galleries and museums. I allow myself the time to dream and invent stories.”

    Breakfast and coffee is also offered to guests in the lobby
    The hotel is entered via a vivid lobby, where Hall has created a riotous collision of pattern and colour. The lower half of the walls have been painted pea-green, while the upper half has been covered in chintzy, pale blue wallpaper with a maroon-coloured motif.
    Black-and-white chevron flooring runs throughout.

    Headboards have a candy-striped pattern
    Guests can sit back on the room’s plush sofas – one of which is completely upholstered in leopard print fabric, the other is cobalt blue with bright-red fringing. There’s also a couple of striped pink-satin armchairs arranged beneath a portrait that Hall painted himself.
    “I really wanted this space to feel above all joyful and welcoming and alive, classic but a little bonkers at the same time,” added Hall.

    Luke Edward Hall has added illustrations to the bedrooms’ lampshades
    This bold palette continues upstairs in the forty guest bedrooms, which have been painted sky blue, violet or olive green.
    Each room features geometric carpeting, a candy-striped headboard and a canary-yellow armchair and pouf created bespoke by Hall.
    The designer has also personalised the reading lamps above the bedside tables with sketchy doodles of martini glasses, the Eiffel tower and different French words.

    Bathrooms in the hotel are equally bright in colour
    Even the hotel’s gym boasts graphic red-and-white checkerboard flooring and floral wallpaper from Swedish homeware brand Svenskt Tenn.

    Hoy hotel is designed to be a calming refuge at the heart of Paris

    Breakfast can be enjoyed down in the lobby, or across the street from the hotel in Cafe Les Deux Gares which Hall also designed.

    The gym features floral wallpaper and checkboard flooring
    Intended to feel much like a traditional Parisian eatery, the space has been finished with stripy seating banquettes and wooden bistro chairs from Thonet.
    Vintage exhibition posters have also been mounted on the walls in a wink at the fact that the city’s cafes were once hotspots for “social and cultural exchange”.
    The cafe is topped by a tortoiseshell-effect ceiling painted by local artist Pauline Leyravaud.

    The hotel’s cafe across the road boasts a tortoiseshell-effect ceiling
    Hotel Les Deux Gares is the first large-scale interiors project by Luke Edward Hall, who set up his self-titled design studio in 2015.
    Other spots to stay around the French capital include hotel Hoy, which has TV-free rooms and an in-house yoga studio so that guests can escape the chaotic hustle and bustle of Paris’ streets.
    Photography is by Benoit Linero.

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    DooSooGoBang restaurant in South Korea references Buddhist practices

    The ascetic lifestyle and diets of Korean Buddist monks influenced the interiors that Limtaehee Design Studio has created for DooSooGoBang restaurant in the city of Suwon, South Korea.DooSooGoBang, which is shortlisted in the restaurant interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards, is located east of Suwon in the district of Yeongtong-gu and serves Korean temple food.
    The cuisine originated 1,700 years ago in Korea’s early Buddhist temples and sees organic, seasonal meals prepared without the use of onions, garlic, chives, leeks and spring onions.

    The main dining hall of DooSooGoBang restaurant
    Monks and nuns typically avoid these five ingredients as they’re said to disrupt harmonious spiritual practice, instead relying on elements such as mushroom powders and fermented soybean pastes for flavour.

    These practices came to be a key point of reference for Limtaehee Design Studio, which wanted the interiors of the restaurant to evoke the same “humbleness” as a Korean Buddhist temple and the dishes developed there.

    A platform at the back of the room is used for traditional Korean-style dining, where guests sit on floor cushions
    The restaurant has been divided into three areas – the first is a spacious hall-style room which will act as the main dining room, finished with black-tile flooring and walls washed with pale grey plaster.
    Cabinets around the room openly display ceramic ornaments.

    Various Associates designs Voisin Organique restaurant to resemble a gloomy valley

    Towards the rear of the room is a platform where diners can eat seated on floor cushions, in traditional Korean style. Additional bench seats and wooden dining tables have also been scattered throughout the room.

    Shutters look through to the second dining area
    Wooden shutters lead through to the restaurant’s second area, which is meant to have a more intimate ambience.
    “Contrary to a rather public image of the main hall, this area offers a feeling that you are away from the city and meditating in a temple in the mountains,” explained the studio.
    The focal point of the room is the timber-inlaid dining table, which has a stream of water trickling down from its side into a rough stone bowl that sits on the floor.

    The room is arranged around a communal table inlaid with timber
    Diners must take off their shoes before entering the third area of the restaurant, which has been entirely lined in white hanji – a type of Korean paper handmade from the inner bark of a mulberry tree.
    Limtaehee Design Studio likens this area to a sarangbang, a room in a traditional Korean home sometimes used for leisure activities or to entertain visitors.
    “We prepared this room imagining [head chef] Jung Kwan sharing conversation with guests, or relaxing herself,” the studio added.

    The restaurant’s third dining area is lined with hanji paper
    Limtaehee Design Studio is based in Seoul. Its DooSooGoBang project will compete in this year’s Dezeen Awards against projects such as Tori Tori by Esware Studio, an eatery in Mexico that takes design cues from the armour of a samurai warrior.
    Also in the running is Voisin Organique by Various Associates, a restaurant in China with shadowy rooms and soaring ceilings intended to make diners feel like they’re wandering through a mountain valley.
    Photography is by Youngchae Park.

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    Mythology crafts warm plywood interiors for Shen beauty store in Brooklyn

    Plywood covers almost every surface in this store that creative studio Mythology has designed for beauty retailer Shen in Brooklyn, New York.Shen’s new retail space is nestled in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighbourhood and measures 1,550 square metres.
    The former store of the beauty retailer – which is known for selling a roster of independent makeup and skincare brands – had been located in the nearby area of Carroll Gardens and featured a mix of white and lavender-pink walls.

    The interior of Shen’s store is lined with plywood
    Manhattan-based Mythology has fashioned a warmer fit-out for this location, opting to line every surface in Baltic birch plywood.

    “We challenged ourselves to use a singular material because we wanted to juxtapose a humble utilitarian material like plywood with the high-end products featured in Shen’s product offering,” Ted Galperin, a partner and director of retail at Mythology, told Dezeen.
    “Using both the face and end-grain of the plywood allowed us to create a multitude of custom applications, and add visual variety to the space.”

    Colour is provided by hand-drawn wall murals
    Inside, Shen has been loosely divided into three sections. The first section is dedicated to customer browsing and lies towards the left of the store.
    Plywood has been used here to make a sequence of storage units that fan outwards from the wall, each one complete with vanity mirror and shelving where products are openly displayed. Names of different brands that are on offer have been carved into plywood panels set directly above the units.

    Plywood counters displaying products slope out from the walls
    The second section comprises a couple of triangular plywood islands in the middle of the store, where Shen staff can spotlight certain products and talk through them in detail with customers or demonstrate how they’re used.
    On the right-hand side of the store is the third section, which is used for services like makeup tutorials. There’s also an angled plywood counter here that showcases candles and scents for the home, running beneath a three-dimensional plywood sign of Shen’s company logo.

    The store includes an area for makeup tutorials
    Excluding a handful of restored 1950s stools from Thonet, furnishings and decorative elements in the store have been kept to a minimum.
    A splash of colour is added by a bespoke mural created by New York artist Petra Börner, which features a black-line illustration of a person’s face surrounded by wobbly blotches of green and turquoise paint.

    Beauty treatment rooms lie towards the rear of the store
    Another mural by Börner using pink and orange tones appears in the treatment area at the rear of the store, where customers can come for treatments like facials, waxing, and microblading.
    Walls here have also been painted a pinkish hue, but exposed plywood can still be seen on the floor, built-in sofas and beauticians’ cupboards.

    Walls in the treatment rooms have been painted pink
    Mythology isn’t the only design studio that has created a striking retail interior using just one material.
    Brooks + Scarpa lined the walls of an Aesop shop in downtown Los Angeles with cardboard fabric rolls salvaged from local fashion houses and costume shops, while Valerio Olgiati blanketed a Celine store in Miami in blue-tinged marble.
    An Ace & Tate store in Antwerp is also lined exclusively in white terrazzo tiles inlaid with red and blue aggregate.
    Photography is by Brooke Holm.

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    Minimal interiors of Bodice store in New Delhi champions slow fashion

    Bodice founder Ruchika Sachdeva has designed the pared-back interiors of the womenswear brand’s store in New Delhi to counter the “more, new and now” culture of fast fashion.Bodice’s flagship is located in New Delhi’s affluent Vasant Kunj neighbourhood, occupying a building on the same site as the brand’s design studio.
    Sachdeva took on the task of designing the interiors of the store herself, setting out to create a simple, thoughtful space that would encourage customers to “think more consciously about what they’re buying and why”.

    Top image: the exterior of Bodice’s New Delhi flagship. Above: floor-to-ceiling windows flood the store with natural light
    “I feel there is a need to question the way we consume clothes,” Sachdeva told Dezeen. “The fast-paced, retail-driven space like a market or a mall does the opposite by encouraging customers to buy quantity instead of quality.”

    “The culture there makes it alright to buy more and dispose quickly whereas our philosophy at Bodice is a little different,” continued Sachdeva, who is a judge for Dezeen Awards 2020. “We focus on longevity and for us, the essence of the product is a lot more important than the number of collections.”
    “We are not really in the favour of feeding the ‘more and new and now’ culture, so I felt that the store should reflect that.”

    Bamboo blinds partially cover the windows
    Fixtures and furnishings throughout the open-plan store are therefore few and far between – those that do appear have been made from naturally sourced materials.
    This sustainable ethos is also applied to Bodice’s clothing, which is designed to be a more minimal, practical alternative to garments currently offered to women in India.
    Pieces are fabricated from non-synthetic textiles like wool or silk and then dyed with natural pigments such as those sourced from indigo plants.

    Furniture inside the store has been kept to a minimum
    The blinds in the store that partially shroud the floor-to-ceiling windows are made from bamboo. The triangular-frame rails where garments are hung have been crafted from light-hued mango wood.
    Sachdeva also designed some of the tables and chairs that have been scattered throughout the space, borrowing samples from the adjacent studio.

    Bodice clothes are for the women “challenging conventions” in Indian society

    “Since this was the first space I have designed, I organically had a very clear idea of what I wanted,” she explained.
    “I knew I wanted it to be surrounded by trees and nature, [the store] has a lot of clear glass so I wanted it to be filled with sunlight and since we are in India, we have plenty of it,” Sachdeva added.
    “I feel that the store was a culmination of years of visual information that I have been processing.”

    Clothes rails are crafted from mango wood
    A growing number of designers and brands are attempting to slow the pace of the fashion industry and make consumers more considerate of what they purchase.
    Earlier this year, Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele announced that the high-end label will now be holding just two fashion shows per year instead of the traditional five in a bid to reduce waste that accumulates from producing each collection and the subsequent harm to the environment.

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    Ten tranquil bathrooms with dark and soothing interiors

    A charred-wood washroom and a monolithic, concrete bathtub feature in this roundup of 10 zen bathrooms that swap traditional white walls for dark, moody hues and tactile materials.

    Untitled House, UK, by Szczepaniak Astridge

    Smooth, dark, concrete characterises the walls and monolithic bathtub of this bathroom, which Szczepaniak Astridge designed as part of a house renovation in Camberwell, London.
    The bath is screened by stainless steel Crittal windows that enclose a void through the home and is teamed with a bespoke, polished stone sink. According to the studio, the aim was to design a “place to retreat to, to guiltlessly linger and hang out”.
    Find out more about Untitled House ›

    Pioneer Square Loft, USA, by Plum Design and Corey Kingston
    A washroom, shower, toilet and sauna are all enclosed in the dark, tactile boxes that wrap around the central open-plan living area of this apartment in Seattle, Washington.
    Accessed through frosted glass doors, the bathroom facilities have walls and ceilings lined with blackened wood, charred using the traditional Japanese technique called Shou Sugi Ban, while the floors are covered with dark cement tiles.
    Find out more about Pioneer Square Loft ›

    Villa Molli, Italy, by Lorenzo Guzzini
    A palette of serpentine stone, concrete and smokey, natural lime plaster gives rise to the atmospheric interiors of this bathroom in Villa Molli, a dwelling overlooking Lake Como in Sala Comacina.
    It forms part of one of the house’s large bedrooms, in an effort to challenge the traditional boxed-off design of bathrooms, and features large windows that frame views out to the lake.
    Find out more about Villa Molli ›

    Belgian Apartment, Belgium, by Carmine Van Der Linden and Thomas Geldof
    Deep seaweed-coloured walls enclose this apartment’s guest bathroom, which Carmine Van Der Linden and Thomas Geldof designed to emulate its calming, coastal setting.
    It is accessed through a green, wood-lined door and is teamed with dark-grey terrazzo flooring and a statement Gris Violet marble basin that has polished metal pipes.
    Find out more about Belgian Apartment ›

    Cloister House, Australia, by MORQ
    The shell of this Australian house is made from rammed-concrete, which has been left exposed in the bathroom and other interior spaces to create “a sense of refuge”.
    Its textured, brutalist aesthetic is softly lit by a small window at one end, and warmed by a brushed nickel tapware and a rough-sawn red hardwood ceiling, vanity and joinery.
    Find out more about Cloister House ›

    House 23, USA, by Vondalwig Architecture
    This bathroom takes its cues from Japanese interiors and was designed as part of Vondalwig Architecture’s overhaul of a 1960s house in Hudson Valley.
    It is animated by the speckled grey, stone tiles that line its walls and floor, which has been complemented by portions of Port Orford Cedar and a steep-sided, ofuro soaking tub at one end.
    Find out more about House 23 ›

    Screen House, Australia, by Carter Williamson Architects
    Carter Williamson Architects created the spa-like setting for the bathroom of Screen House by enveloping it from floor to ceiling with tactile black tiles.
    Interest is added with an asymmetric pitched roof, a wooden basin and window frames, and a bubble-liked pendant light that is suspended above the freestanding bathtub.
    Find out more about Screen House ›

    Sunken Bath, UK, by Studio 304
    This bathroom, added to a ground-floor flat in east London, features a large sunken bathtub that looks into a garden and invites residents to relax by engaging in Japanese ritual bathing.
    The majority of the room’s surfaces are lined with a waterproof cement-based coating, chosen for a “Japanese-inspired concrete aesthetic”, and offset by golden fixtures and wooden boards.
    Find out more about Sunken Bath ›

    Western Studio, USA, by GoCstudio
    The Western Studio apartment’s bathroom is contained within a stained plywood box that is intended to offer a snug counterpoint to the brighter, open-plan interiors of the dwelling.
    Its moody aesthetic was created using inky venetian plaster on the walls, paired with black Dornbracht fixtures and a large bespoke sink carved from warm Jatoba wood.
    Find out more about Western Studio ›

    Kyle House, UK, by GRAS
    Tactile plaster and large charcoal-coloured stone tiles line the surfaces of this generously-sized bathroom, which GRAS designed as part of a renovation of a derelict house in the Scottish Highlands.
    It features a freestanding black bath, placed beside a window overlooking Ben Loyal mountain, and is brightened by Danish oak ceiling panels, window frames and cabinetry that conceals the toilet.
    Find out more about Kyle House ›

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    Bermonds Locke hotel in London evokes sunny California deserts

    Mirage-like mirrored ceilings and cacti-filled planters are some of the features that interiors studio Holloway Li has incorporated in this hotel in London, which is meant to echo California deserts.Bermonds Locke is located at the heart of southeast London’s Bermondsey neighbourhood, just a few minutes walk from notable landmarks such as The Shard and Tower Bridge.

    Top image: a moon-like panel hovers over Bermonds Locke’s concierge desk. Above: mirrored panels line the ceiling of the reception
    Despite the hotel’s markedly urban setting, when it came to designing its communal areas and 143 guest rooms, Holloway Li took inspiration from sun-scorched places in California like the Mojave desert and Joshua Tree National Park.

    “We eschewed traditional London vernacular tropes and prevailing design trends, looking further afield for our inspirations, to create a new space that had an escapist identity,” the studio’s co-founder, Alex Holloway, told Dezeen.

    Furniture in the reception is made from reused construction materials
    The theme is subtly introduced in the hotel’s reception where mirrors have been used to line sections of the ceiling, mimicking the shiny quality of desert mirages, which are often mistaken for bodies of water.
    A white, mottled semi-circular panel has been fitted to the ceiling directly above the concierge counter, its reflection forming a huge moon-like image.

    The reception area of the hotel doubles-up as a co-working space
    Surrounding surfaces have been largely rendered with neutral materials like clay bricks and timber that the studio felt matched the desert landscape.
    This excludes a handful of walls and structural columns that are clad with passivated zinc, which boasts a rainbow-coloured surface finish.
    “Joshua Tree is known as a pilgrimage destination for the Californian hallucinogenic travellers,” said Holloway. “The iridescence effect on the metal is reminiscent of dizzying colour saturation of the psychedelic experience – the brilliant purples, yellows and pinks.”

    Surrounding walls are clad with passivated zinc
    A variety of seating areas have also been incorporated in Bermonds Locke’s reception so that it can serve as a co-working space.
    Where possible, the studio has tried to repurpose construction materials that otherwise would have been destined for landfill, influenced by the ad-hoc building methods used when creating cabins across Joshua Tree.
    For example, salvaged concrete test cubes have been used to form the base of a six-metre-long terrazzo desk. The cubes are covered with pre-used tiles, some of which are still marked with graffiti.

    Cacti-filled planters separate the hotel’s bar from the restaurant
    “Joshua Tree has been a recluse for fringe creatives escaping LA for the past 30 years,” explained Holloway. “We were particularly interested in the eccentric language of bricolage found in desert cabins dotted around Joshua Tree, composed of salvaged materials that happen to be available by chance.”
    “We were also inspired by the work of artists like Philip K Smith III and Noah Purifoy, whose ‘Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture’ is an incredible world made of the detritus of LA,” he continued.
    “This tied back with the studio’s recent research on the circular material economy…design in this context becomes almost like a curatorial practice, about how an existing set of materials can be rearranged in a very specific way to define new uses.”

    Guest rooms come with their own kitchenettes
    In another nod to hot, arid landscapes, huge planters filled with different cacti and succulents have been added throughout the hotel’s reception and used to separate its cocktail bar from the restaurant.

    Grzywinski + Pons tailors Leman Locke hotel to make nomadic workers feel at home

    Bermonds Locke’s upper floors play host to the guest suites. Each one comes complete with its own kitchenette and laundry facilities, allowing guests to stay self-sufficiently in their rooms for longer periods of time.
    Fixtures and soft furnishings have been made in colours evocative of desert sunsets, ranging from pale blues to burnt oranges and vivid reds. The focal point of each room is the bed, which is enclosed by a bespoke black frame draped with sheets of linen.

    Colours throughout the rooms were taken from desert sunsets
    “Typical hotel room design is very codified by two functions; sleeping and washing – a Locke room adds eat, work, live into that mix, so there is a lot to fit into just one room,” added the studio’s co-founder, Na Li.
    “It was key for us to impart some separation between the areas, which we achieved by creating a sense of enclosure around the bed with the bedframes and drapes.”

    Beds in the rooms sit under linen canopies
    Holloway Li was established in 2015 and has offices in north London.
    Its Bermonds Locke project joins several hotels that the Locke hospitality group has dotted across the UK. Others include the Whitworth Locke in Manchester, where rooms have been painted different shades of grey to reflect the city’s typically overcast skies.
    There’s also the Eden Locke in Edinburgh, which takes over an 18th-century Georgian terrace house.
    Photography is by Edmund Dabney.

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    Adytum Library in Canberra is arranged around a single book-lined counter

    A chunky, wedge-shaped island crafted from plaster and beeswax anchors the sparse interior of this pop-up library, shop and exhibition space that design studio Pattern has created in Canberra.The temporary library is situated in the trendy suburb of Braddon and belongs to new Australian wellness brand Adytum, which produces eco-conscious self-care products such as teas, face oils and bath soaks.

    Adytum Library is anchored by a huge island
    Although the brand is set to open the doors to its first spa in 2021, it was keen to conceive a slightly different style of wellness space that instead celebrates books and the “intellectual nourishment one receives from the written word”.

    Sydney-based studio Pattern – which is also developing the interiors of Adytum’s spa – was asked to design the library. The brand’s key request was that the pop-up had minimal environmental impact.

    Books and products from Adytum are displayed across the island
    With this in mind, Pattern ditched the idea of overhauling the entire retail unit and instead created just one striking element – a huge wedge-shaped island that sits at the centre of the floor plan, built around two existing structural columns.
    “While we didn’t have a tenancy of cathedral-like proportions to work with, we drew inspiration from the concepts of purity, simplicity, and clarity often found in religious architectural spaces,” Pattern’s co-founder, Lily Goodwin, told Dezeen.

    Incense is burned in the pop-up throughout the day
    The island, which gradually tapers off to a narrow point, has a reclaimed MDF frame that’s been covered with natural plaster and finished with a coating of beeswax.

    Pattern completes understated interiors for Locura bar in Byron Bay

    An array of design, architecture and art titles are displayed across the surface, which can be purchased by visitors or borrowed via Adytum’s membership scheme. The books are softly illuminated by a couple of white table lamps by Danish brand Hay which have been dotted across the island.
    There is also a handful of Adytum’s products, including incense sticks that will be burnt throughout the day.

    Adytum Library also exhibits work by Australian artists
    The outer periphery of Adytum Library is used to display works from Australian artists Traianos Pakioufakis and Alana Wilson.
    Pakioufakis’s expansive photographic prints are draped across bent copper pipes that were found in construction site waste, while Wilson’s collection of ceramic vessels – which have been darkened with metal-oxide glazes – perch on rough plinths that the studio salvaged from a local stonemason.

    Artworks are displayed on stone plinths or copper pipes
    Pattern was established in 2016 by Lily Goodwin and Josh Cain. Previous projects by the studio include Locura, a cocktail and small-plates bar in Byron Bay that’s meant to evoke the “raw beauty” of late-night eateries in Mexico.
    It also created rose-tinted interiors for The Daily Edited, an accessories shop in Melbourne.
    Photography is by Traianos Pakioufakis.

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