Markus Andrews

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    Canadian surf town informs design for taco restaurant by September

    Natural colours and beach textures from a Canadian surf town informed the design of this Vancouver restaurant by local studio September.Kit’s Burrito Bar is located on West 4th Street in the city’s Kitsilano neighbourhood. It is the latest outpost of Tacofino, a Mexican restaurant that serves tacos and burritos in a Californian style.

    September took cues from the “natural features” of Tofino, a small beachside town on the coast of Vancouver Island to outfit the 2,000 square foot (185.8-square-metre) space.

    “The client had requested a fresh space that made reference to Tofino, the Canadian Surf town where the clients live and started the business,” the studio said.

    “To do this we focused on using the minimal amount of materials necessary to make reference to the natural features the area is known for.”

    Exposed electrical wiring is strung across the white ceilings and walls in patterns intended to mimic the shape of ocean waves. Streaks of green paint curve up the walls in similar shapes.
    A banquette constructed with pale green cedar slats wraps around the water tap to form a wall of seating. The sculptural paneling also hangs above the all-black service counter fronted with black rocks and is used at the check-in desk at the entrance.

    To accent the plain walls and the black furnishings the earthy colour is also used on the countertop, bathroom door and bathroom wall.

    Green and yellow Eames chairs fill Tacofino Ocho restaurant in Vancouver

    Each of the rectangular dining tables is topped with black and white beach stone terrazzo slabs designed in collaboration with a local artist. Black chairs with slender wire backs from Afteroom Studio are arranged around the tables.

    Asymmetrical menu boards with black text display the eatery’s offerings. In the bathroom, an irregular, oval-shaped mirror by local designer Kate Richard attaches to the vibrant green wall.
    “References to water and natural forms appear in the wall menu, ovoid mirrors, custom beach stone tabletops, and artwork,” the studio added.

    To brighten the dark restaurant, which is situated partially below grade, a series of bulbs attached to the round sockets fasten to the curving electrical conduit that meanders throughout the space.
    September is a residential and hospitality design firm led by Brendan Callander and Shiloh Sukkau.

    Before establishing the studio in 2019 Sukkau worked on the design for other Tacofino locations, including Tacofino Ocho furnished with Eames dining chairs and bar stools and Oasis, modelled after mid-century Mexican resort towns.
    Photography is by Vishal Marapon.

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    Tsubo House in Hackney features tiny Japanese-style courtyard

    Architecture practice Fraher & Findlay has renovated and extended a home in east London, adding a small courtyard that offers glimpses of old and new parts of the property.Tsubo House was originally built in Hackney during the Victorian era and over the years had come to look shabby and unloved.
    The house’s current owners – the founders of Studio XAG – brought architecture practice Fraher & Findlay on board to carry out a complete overhaul.

    As part of the works, the Brockley-based practice constructed a spacious back-garden extension.

    It was key for this new living space to feel closely connected to existing rooms in the home and not too distanced from the basement level, which is often utilised by visiting friends and family.

    Fraher & Findlay decided to insert a small courtyard at ground level that would visually link together the new and existing parts of the home.

    Fraher & Findlay adds wildflower-topped extension to London house

    It draws upon tsubo-niwas – tiny interior courtyards that are incorporated into Japanese buildings to provide natural views and bring in additional sunlight.
    The courtyards are traditionally the same size as a tsubo, a Japanese measuring unit of 3.3 square metres that’s roughly equivalent to the area of two tatami mats.

    “We wanted an external environment to act as a pivot point between the spaces, whilst acting as an environmental tool to bring in lots of natural light and to aid natural ventilation,” said the practice.
    “It feels like a quiet force, providing life energy to the house.  it is visible from all the rooms in the house with the exception of two bedrooms and one bathroom.”

    The pebbled courtyard is centred by a tree and has an array of potted plants running around its periphery. Leafy climbing plants also wind up its rear wall.
    One window of the courtyard looks through to the older front section of Tsubo House, while the another has views of the new rear extension that accommodates a kitchen and dining area.

    Designed to feel “textured, calm and lived in”, the kitchen has been finished with pink raw-plaster walls and timber joinery. Some of the brass light fixtures were also sourced second-hand from eBay, complementing the curved brass handles on the cupboards.
    The extension has a slatted black-timber facade and a green roof, which the studio introduced so that, when viewed from the baby’s nursery upstairs, this part of the home would look as if it’s wearing a “hairy hat”.
    Flooring of the extension was also made lower than the rest of the home, as a mid-way between the ground and basement levels.

    Plaster surfaces continue through into the home’s living room, which the practice has updated to match the owners’ creative personalities. It’s dressed with velvet furnishings, shaggy rugs and a bubblegum-pink edition of Faye Toogood’s Roly-Poly chair.
    Decades-old paintwork has also been stripped back from the ornate cornices, ceiling roses and skirting boards.

    More quirky features appear upstairs – the nursery, for example, has a midnight blue ceiling speckled with stars, and all of the bathrooms feature graphic monochromatic tiled floors. One even includes its own fireplace and a freestanding jet-black tub.
    The project also saw Fraher & Findlay create a loft extension for Tsubo House that accommodates an additional bedroom and wash facilities.

    Fraher & Finlay was established in 2009. The practice has previously created a wildflower-topped extension and renovated a home to feature traces of its original architecture.
    Photography is by Adam Scott.
    Project credits:
    Architect: Fraher & FindlayInterior design: Studio XAGEngineer: PD DesignContractor: Steflay DevelopmentsGarden and planting design: Miria Harris

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    Say No Mo is a gender-neutral beauty salon and cocktail bar in Kyiv

    Concrete surfaces and gold accents define Say No Mo, a salon-cum-cocktail bar in Kyiv that Balbek Bureau has designed to avoid gender stereotypes. Say No Mo salon takes over two floors of an early 20th-century building and includes its own bar where visitors can grab a drink before or after beauty treatments. When locally based
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    Ruxton Rise Residence in Melbourne is arranged around a planted courtyard

    A courtyard dotted with olive trees sits at the heart of this grey-brick home in Melbourne that Studio Four has created for its own co-director.Ruxton Rise Residence has been built for Studio Four’s co-director, Sarah Henry, and sits on a greenfield site in Beaumaris – an affluent suburb of Melbourne that’s host to a number of mid-century properties.
    While keeping in mind the mid-century typology, Henry was keen to create a tranquil home where she could spend quality time with her two daughters.

    “Designing for my own family was an opportunity to pare back a home to the bare essentials, and explore what is required for a young family to live minimally and mindfully,” Henry told Dezeen.

    “The house exemplifies the absence of what is not necessary, in both building form and detail,” she continued.
    “If I could summarise the objective for our new house in one sentence, it would be to create a little bit of something precious rather than a lot of something mediocre.”

    All the communal spaces of Ruxton Rise Residence face onto a central open-air courtyard planted with olive trees.
    It’s designed to act as an additional room in the house where inhabitants can gather together to enjoy the sun, or relax alone with a book.

    “Physically the house envelopes the central garden,” explained the studio’s other co-director, Annabelle Berryman.
    “It connects all internal living spaces and the design enables everyone to enjoy the house together, while providing subtle layers of separation and privacy,” she continued.
    “The landscape, and its movement and shadows, provide a calming effect that permeates the whole house.”

    The courtyard is bordered by a series of expansive glazed panels. These can be slid back to access the home’s interior, where the studio has forgone “trends and illusions” and instead applied a palette of simple and natural materials.
    “Our challenge was to design an interior that reflects the integrity of the built fabric and possesses a high level of humility,” said Henry.
    “All materials and building techniques were selected for their honesty, as well as their ability to patina over time, as it is important a house gets more beautiful as it ages.”

    A chunky grey-brick column loosely divides the living area – on one side lies a formal sitting room dressed with a woven rug and a couple of sloping wooden armchairs.
    On the other side is a cosier snug that has a plump navy sofa and a coffee table carved from a solid block of Oregon wood.

    The warmth and tactility of this table encouraged the studio to introduce a wooden dining set in the kitchen – the chairs are by Danish designer Hans J Wegner. Surrounding walls are clad in concrete-bricks, while the cabinetry is pale grey.

    All-white house by Studio Four blends indoor and outdoor spaces

    This austere palette continues through into the sleeping quarters, which are also painted grey. The same concrete bricks have also been used to form the headboard in the master bedroom.

    In the bathrooms, surfaces have been covered with tadelakt – a type of lime-based waterproof plaster often used in Moroccan architecture to make sinks and baths.
    Even the facade of the home, which is slightly set back from the street, has been washed with grey plaster.

    Ruxton Rise Residence is one of several homes that Studio Four has completed in Melbourne.
    Others include Central Park Road Residence, which has cosy interiors inspired by the Danish concept of hygge, and Bourne Road Residence, which has a stark all-white facade.
    Photography is by Shannon Mcgrath.

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    Rust Architects softens modernist Tel Aviv apartment with oak details

    Tel Aviv studio Rust Architects has renovated an apartment in the Israeli city for a couple who both work from home.The apartment is in a residential building in the city centre built in the modernist-era international style.
    Rust Architects renovated the one-bedroom unit with a pared-down material palette and colour scheme.

    “It is in a modernist building, so we designed the interior as simple and modern,” Rust Architects founder Ranaan Stern told Dezeen.

    “Similar to Bauhaus buildings principles, the apartment has a large span that brings in natural light but maintains comfortable proportions for the space and the hot temperatures of the Tel Aviv summer months.”

    The apartment is for a young couple who are both professional photographers and designers.
    “Both homeowners work from home, so proximity and visual angles between different spaces such as the workroom and living room were essential,” the studio added.

    The apartment comprises an open-plan kitchen, living and dining area with sliding glass doors that access a terrace.
    An L-shaped hallway accommodates the entry and accesses a home office, which was custom-made by Rust Architects and enclosed by a metal frame with glass doors. The partition allows natural light to pass into the corridor.

    Various wood details also feature in the design, particularly a kitchen cabinet made of oak that houses the refrigerator and oven. Its rounded corner meets the hallway and has a series of shelves and doors.

    Maayan Zusman retrofits Tel Aviv apartment for tall sporty couple

    A built-in media console in the living room nearby is also made of wood, and a wall in the office is clad in the same natural material.

    The touches of wood are contrasted with industrial details, such as an exposed concrete block wall in the living room and electrical systems on the ceiling.
    There were left exposed by the studio in order to keep the apartment’s original height.

    A variety of floor coverings provide visual depth across the unit, which otherwise features white surfaces and black window frames.
    Small, black tiles cover the bathroom floors and walls, the home office has wood floors and large concrete tiles cover the kitchen and living room.

    “The concrete tiles on the floor produce a cool and pleasant feeling, especially during the summer months, and the natural oak in the carpentry creates a relaxed and warm feeling,” Rust Architects said.
    The studio, which was founded by Stern in 2016, has also redesigned a 1960s apartment and created a home with cubby holes, shelves and cabinets – both are in Tel Aviv.
    Photography is by Yoav Peled.

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    Forte Forte fashion boutique in Madrid is filled with shapely details

    A pale geometric relief wall offsets brass and green-marble decor details in this Madrid boutique designed by creative duo Giada Forte and Robert Vattilana.Madrid’s Forte Forte store occupies a corner plot in Salamanca – a glamorous district of the city known for its boulevards lined with luxury fashion boutiques and upscale restaurants.

    It was designed by the brand’s co-founder, Giada Forte and her partner, art director Robert Vattilana.

    The pair devised opulent interiors for Forte Forte’s London, Milan, Tokyo and Paris stores, but wanted the new Madrid branch to have a more restrained aesthetic that still offered moments of “poetry and feminine delicacy”.

    “[The store] is charged with a sensual energy polarized on the offset of masculine and feminine, curves and angles, geometry and sentiment,” Forte and Vattilana explained.
    “There’s a recognizable grammar of surfaces, treatments, colors uniting the different spaces that’s born from our creative dialogue, but the narration takes on a different metric and tone.”

    An off-white relief wall that features a haphazard array of raised geometric shapes runs down one side of Forte Forte’s ground level.
    A structural column in the store has been given a similarly geometric form. It extends up through a circular opening in the ceiling that has been backlit to look as if natural light is beaming through from the outdoors.

    At the centre of the store is a low-lying semicircular bench perched on a mottled pink rug. The flooring that runs underneath has been inlaid with mismatch cuts of grooved and plain stone, as well as tiny triangles made from emerald-green Iranian marble.
    The same veiny marble has been used to make the store’s door handle and its rounded service counter.
    Directly above the counter, thin brass stems have been loosely arranged in a grid-like formation to form a hanging sculpture. It supports a handful of warped glass orbs.

    Heavy gold velvet curtains help screen-off the cylindrical changing booth that dominates the rear corner of the store.
    Brass doors punctuated by small portholes can be pulled back to grant access to the inside of the booth, where teal-blue carpet has been fitted to match the blue underside of the curtains.

    Fashion sits alongside found objects at the Forte Forte boutique in Milan

    Garments are hung from spindly brass rails, while accessories and lifestyle items are presented on a set of brass shelves held up by a pole that’s been made to resemble an oversized bolt.

    A curving blush-pink staircase leads up to the store’s second floor. Forte and Vattilana have used the expansive landing that sits between the staircase’s two flights of steps as an additional display area.
    It’s dressed with a huge leafy plant, another brass clothes rail and an organically-shaped mirror.

    Forte Forte opened its first brick-and-mortar store in 2018 – until then, the brand’s clothing could exclusively be purchased online.
    The inaugural store in Milan has been decorated with a curious array of found objects including a nude sketch, a lump of coral and a bust of the goddess Venus that came from an old French foundry.

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    Debaixo do Bloco Arquitetura remodels 1960s Brasília apartment

    Brazilian studio Debaixo do Bloco Arquitetura has opened up the layout of an apartment in Brasília built in the 1960s to meet a family’s contemporary requirements.The remodelled apartment is located in residential building 308S in Brasília’s model superquadra, one of the first completed apartment blocks of the urban design scheme conceived by architect Lucio Costa and landscape architect Burle Marx.

    Local studio Debaixo do Bloco Arquitetura reconfigured the apartment’s standard layout, which split the main living areas into two separate spaces.

    In the updated floor plan the exposed concrete walls are cut open to form a single, shared space for the family to gather.

    The studio was careful to preserve modernist design elements in the apartment, including its granilite flooring and white cobogo screens.
    “The project is summed up in an exaltation of the Brazilian architecture lighting what is most typical in the city’s residences and buildings while joining the modernist and contemporary office technologies and references,” said the studio.

    Black cabinetry with corrugated glass doors contrasts with the white countertops in the kitchen. Natural light passes through the square cut-outs on the cobogo wall to brighten the narrow space.
    In the living room low-lying wood shelving units wrap around the space forming a bench in front of the large windows and a surface for storing objects along the interior wall. The lounge is furnished with a grey couch and wood tables.

    Bloco Arquitetos reconfigures 1960s Brasília apartment with translucent walls

    In the dining area and library, a massive wooden bookshelf is stacked with books and audio equipment.
    Three doorways that lead to the bedrooms and bathroom are concealed within the unit, which the studio custom-built.

    In the master bedroom, the backside of the shelf forms a decorative wall of wood panelling. Opposite the large windows, a row of black doors creates a closet that doubles as a doorway to enter the bathroom situated between the two bedrooms.
    Walls in the shared bathroom are clad with vertically-laid green tiles. A large rectangular mirror hangs above the wood vanity, which is topped with two circular sink basins.

    The existing cobogo screen and concrete wall from the kitchen continue into the second bedroom. In this bedroom the closet is covered with a series of mirrors that reflect the space’s wood furnishings and the decorative window treatment.
    Several of the wood furniture pieces in the apartment are designed by Debaixo do Bloco Arquitetura architect Clay Rodrigues. The studio also cut a hole into the cobogo wall so the client’s cats could access their litter box.

    Brazilian studio Bloco Arquitetos also renovated an apartment on the same building block in Brasília. As part of the remodel the studio added sliding translucent glass walls.
    Other projects by Debaixo do Bloco Arquitetura, which translates to English as Under the Block, include an abandoned hospital transformed into a contemporary art gallery.
    Photography is by Joana France.

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    Cabinette co-working space in Valencia plays off Jacques Tati's film Playtime

    The 1960s film Playtime by renowned French director Jacques Tati set the tone for this whimsical co-working office that Masquespacio has designed in Valencia.Cabinette is a co-working space for creatives set inside a mixed-use building in Valencia’s La Fuensanta neighbourhood.

    It takes over a ground-floor unit that was originally fit-out to serve as an apartment. Leaving the existing bathroom facilities in place, interiors studio Masquespacio reconfigured the rest of the floor plan to accommodate a series of work areas for Cabinette’s members.

    The studio’s founders, Christophe Penasse and Ana Milena Hernández Palacios, wanted to give the 200-square-metre space a retrofuturist aesthetic that’s attractive to millennials but also makes “a clear wink to the past”.

    A particular point of reference was Playtime – a 1967 comedy film directed by Jaques Tati that follows character Monsieur Hulot as he navigates a gadget-filled version of future Paris.
    It’s revered for its satirical take on modern life and was also included in Dezeen’s list of 10 films with amazing architecture.

    Masquespacio creates colour-clashing interior for phone-repair shop in Valencia

    “We once visited a museum installation here in Valencia where they showcased some fragments of the movie, especially a moment where the leading actor goes to a meeting,” Penasse told Dezeen.

    In the film, when Hulot arrives at the meeting, he enters a huge office where each employee’s desk is closed in by a cabinet-lined box – a feature which inspired Cabinette’s name.
    Penasse and Palacious have similarly divided desks in the co-working space, but instead of individual boxes have erected low-lying partitions.
    As with the interior of the boxes in Playtime, the desks and chairs in Cabinette are a pastel green-blue colour.

    The same colour features across the floor, as well as the counter, tiled splashback and a couple of cupboards in the kitchen, which sits in the corner of the room.
    Walls and part of the floor here are painted chocolate-brown, complementing the steel stools from Masquespacio’s Déjà-Vu collection that appear beside the counter. They each feature tiers of brown, ochre and blue fringing.
    Another wall in Cabinette is clad in mirrored panels, while one on the far side of the office is a bright lilac hue. It’s decorated with various graphic-print canvases and rows of illuminated tube lights.

    A set of stairs leads up to a mezzanine where there are a pair of intimate meeting rooms that members can use for group work or take private phone calls.
    They’re screened off by the same shiny silver curtains that hang in front of the full-height windows at ground level that look through to an outdoor terrace.

    There is also a more formal boardroom that features deep-purple surfaces. The central lacquered-wood table is surrounded by Masquespacio’s gold-framed Arco chairs, which are upholstered in burnt-orange velvet.
    The studio’s eye-shaped Wink lights are also mounted on the wall.

    Masquespacio was established in 2010 by Penasse and Ana Milena Hernández Palacios. The studio has applied its colourful aesthetic to a number of projects.
    These include a phone repair shop that features a clashing mix of salmon-pink and turquoise surfaces, and a tropical green and maroon restaurant that offers Brazilian-Japanese cuisine.
    Photography is by Luis Beltran.

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