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      Bunkhouse and Reurbano convert 1940s Mexico City apartments into boutique hotel

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      American hotel brand Bunkhouse and interior design studio Reurbano have used motifs derived from the history of a Mexico City structure when converting it into a boutique hotel.

      Hotel San Fernando is located in the Condesa neighbourhood of Mexico City, a largely residential zone that in recent years has seen an influx of national and international travellers.
      Bunkhouse and Reurbano have converted a 1940s apartment building into a boutique hotel in Mexico CityBunkhouse worked with local interior design studio Reurbano to take a 1940s apartment building and convert it into a 19-room hotel, with finishes informed by the neighbourhood.
      The face of the structure was restored and painted a light green, with darker green used on the awnings that provide coverage for seating attached to the hotel’s lobby and restaurant, which open to the street through glass-paned French doors.
      It features renovated spaces that maintain details of the original structureAn art deco-style logo spells out the name of the hotel above the door. Saint Fernando is known as the patron saint of engineers, and the team wanted to highlight this by maintaining the name of the original building in the branding of the new structure.

      “We wanted to honour this building,” said Bunkhouse senior vice president of design Tenaya Hills.
      “We love the story and the history and like to imagine what it has been for people over the decades.”
      A spiral staircase leads from the lobby to the rooftopThis primary entrance features a metal door with glass panes informed by the original stained glass of the building.
      The entry corridor leads past a lobby lounge, with lighting by Oaxaca studio Oaxifornia and furnishings by local gallery Originario; and design studios Daniel Y Catalina, and La Metropolitana, which also created custom furniture for all of the guest suites.
      At the far end of the lobby lounge is the restaurant’s bar, which features a large semi-circular cabinet with mirrored back to hold the spirits. A chandelier by local sculptor Rebeca Cors hangs above the clay-clad bar.
      French doors feature at the entrance and on some of the roomsThe entrance corridor has green encaustic concrete tiles from the original building. Other original details include the wainscotting and casement windows.
      A reception area is located at the end of the corridor and behind it is a circular staircase with metal-and-wood railing that leads all the way up through the building, with landings on each of its five floors, terminating at a terrace on top of the building.

      Hybrid and Palma include organic elements within brutalist Mexican hotel

      The guest rooms range from single-room setups to multi-room suites, the largest of which are accessed through French doors with opaque windows.
      Here the studio departed from the greens used on the exterior and the lobby and utilised soft orange, pink and white paints.
      Light colours and hand-crafted goods fill the roomsFloors in the rooms are either tile or wood and furniture made from light-coloured wood is covered by locally derived textiles. Three rooms on the rooftop level feature furniture designed by Bunkhouse and fabricated by local design outfit B Collective Studio.
      Pendant lamps and sconces by local ceramicist Anfora are found in the kitchens and bathrooms.
      The rooftop features sculptural breeze blocksThe rooftop features a tiled dining and lounge area surrounded by sculptural breeze blocks, designed to mimic the original building’s patterned stained glass.
      Mexican design studios Mexa and Comité de Proyectos contributed furniture pieces for the rooftop.
      Other hotels in Mexico include a tile-clad structure in San Miguel de Allende by Productora and Esrawe Studio and a hotel in Mexico City with wooden lattices by PPAA.
      The photography is by Chad Wadsworth. 

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      YSG brings boutique-hotel feel to family home in Sydney

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      Interiors studio YSG has upgraded a home in Sydney’s Mosman suburb to feature “lavish yet tranquil” interiors that are more akin to those of a luxury hotel.

      The three-storey house previously had drab grey walls and awkwardly placed partitions but now features more coherently connected rooms finished in a sumptuous mix of materials.
      Black Diamond is a house in Sydney’s Mosman suburb”Our clients wanted a home that felt like a boutique hotel with a lavish yet tranquil tonal intensity that was rich in substance, not excess trimmings,” YSG explained.
      “We took a deep dive, converting it into a tactile haven with nooks for respite amongst spaces that freely ebb and flow.”
      YSG expanded the home’s covered balcony to accommodate a large tableThe studio started by reconfiguring the home’s first floor to make way for more outdoor entertainment space.

      A glass alcove that used to jut into the balcony was removed, allowing room for a large table where the clients can sit and take in views of the nearby harbour.
      A custom timber table is the centrepiece of the dining areaThe expanded balcony means there is now less room on the interior. But YSG worked around this by removing the kitchen’s cumbersome bulkhead and two partition walls that once framed its breakfast island.
      The revamped kitchen now features a black counter clad with leathered marble and shimmering mosaic tiles.
      A plaster-washed stairwell leads up to the second floorBlack mosaic tiles also cover a section of the floor and the chimney breast in the living room, leading the studio to nickname the project Black Diamond.
      “Combined with the dark timber floors and ceiling, they provide sheltered respite from the brilliant glare and frenzied harbour activity, enabling the room to take an inward-looking approach,” YSG said.
      The principal bedroom is decked out in natural huesThe living room was dressed with a plump cream swivel chair and an alpaca-wool sofa finished in the same lilac colour as the flowers of the Jacaranda trees that surround the home.
      A custom timber table is the centrepiece of the dining area. It sits beside a partition made of smoked-glass blocks, which YSG constructed around three steel struts that now provide structural support in place of a solid wall.

      YSG designs playful Sydney penthouse for empty nesters

      A plaster-washed stairwell leads up to the home’s second floor and is doused in natural light via a newly installed glass-brick facade. Some of these bricks are made from yellow glass, chosen by YSG to reflect the home’s “sunny disposition”.
      The staircase’s lower steps were ebonised to complement the black tiling that appears throughout the first floor while the upper steps are crafted from a pale timber to signal a change of space.
      Striking raffia-weave wallpaper lines cupboards in the walk-in wardrobeThe home’s top floor accommodates the principal bedroom, entered via a doorway lined in Rosso travertine. The bed is positioned at the centre of the room, set against a new low-lying partition.
      Behind it, the studio installed extra storage and established a new entryway to the walk-in wardrobe, which could previously only be accessed from the en-suite.
      The bedroom’s nook now accommodates a comfy curved banquetteGeometric raffia-weave wallpaper lines the front of all the cupboards, complementing the warm, natural hues that feature throughout the rest of the room.
      The bedroom leads off to a curved nook that used to contain a jumble of furnishings but now has a wooden desk and dramatic boucle-covered banquet that winds around its outer perimeter.
      Sea-green furnishings and decor feature in the studyThe project also saw YSG decrease the size of the kids’ playroom on the home’s ground floor in order to enlarge the utility room.
      A spare bedroom at this level was converted into a study and finished with sea-green furniture.
      Pink-hued Tiberio marble covers surfaces in the first-floor powder roomOutside, the studio replaced weathered decking with “crazy paving” composed of jagged slabs of pale stone and constructed a cushioned day bed that cantilevers over the pool.
      Other fun elements of the home include the ground-level powder room, which is clad top-to-bottom in pinkish Tiberio marble, and the wine cellar door with its tangerine-orange porthole windows that provide a glimpse of the bottles inside.
      The pool area features fresh paving and a cantilevering daybedYSG is behind the design of several residences in Sydney. There’s Budge Over Dover, a tactile home decked out in brick, brass and coloured plasters, and the playful penthouse Dream Weaver, curated to suit the owner’s bolder post-lockdown aesthetic.
      The photography is by Anson Smart.
      Project credits:
      Interior design and styling: YSGBuilder: Promena Projects

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      RA! clads Mexico City taco restaurant with broken tiles

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      Local architecture studio RA! took cues from Latin American art deco design when creating the tiny interior of Los Alexis, a small taqueria in Mexico City’s Roma Norte neighbourhood.

      Los Alexis is a taco eatery – or taqueria – in Roma, a famed district in Mexico City, which features examples of art deco architecture.
      Los Alexis is a small taqueriaRA! drew on the “vibrant personality” of the area when designing the single 15-square-metre room restaurant, housed within a former beer depository.
      “One of the most important requests of our client was for this tiny space to shine among the rest of the retail premises on the street,” said studio co-founder and designer Pedro Ramírez de Aguilar.
      RA! clad the floors and walls in a mosaic of broken tilesRA! clad the walls and floors in a distinctive mosaic of broken ceramic tiles with green joints as an ode to Barcelona, where chef Alexis Ayala spent time training, the designer told Dezeen.

      A curved bar finished in slabs of ribbed green material fronts the open kitchen, which is positioned on the right of the small open space.
      Utilitarian materials were selected for their resilienceUtilitarian materials, including the tiles, were chosen throughout the restaurant for their “endurance and fast cleaning processes”.
      White-painted steel breakfast-style stools line the bar, which has a bartop made of steel – selected for its resistance to grease, according to Ramírez de Aguilar.

      Canadian surf town informs design for taco restaurant by September

      The studio decided to preserve the space’s original, peeling ceiling “to create a wider contrast [within the eatery] and to remember the old premises”.
      Informal seating lines the pavement just outside of the taqueria where customers can eat and socialise.
      The one-room eatery is defined by its bar and open kitchenOther than a small bathroom at the back of Los Alexis, the one-room restaurant is purposefully defined by its bar and open kitchen.
      “Typical ‘changarros’ [small shops] in Mexico City are all about the conversation with the cookers, so we tried to have this interaction between people as a main objective,” explained Ramírez de Aguilar.
      Founded in 2017, RA! previously created the interiors for a restaurant in the city’s Polanco neighbourhood with a bar counter shaped like an inverted ziggurat.
      DOT Coffee Station is another hole-in-the-wall cafe in Kyiv, Ukraine, which YOD Group designed with a similar floor-to-ceiling mosaic of tiles.
      The photography is courtesy of RA!

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      “We must abandon the ordered, rational, learned good taste and comfort we’ve become used to”

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      Interior design must begin facing up to uncomfortable truths about our planet and health in 2024, Michelle Ogundehin writes in her annual trends report.

      This must be the year of truth. It’s no time to be distracted by talk of trends, new or latest looks. The tactic of holding facts at arm’s length has only enabled denial, obfuscation, and fakery, as well as cauterising our moral obligation to change. Mark Twain aptly summarises our current malaise with the pithy: “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know, it’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
      Thankfully, the zeitgeist is shifting. We see it in current TV programming, ever a prescient reflection of public mood. Consider Channel 4’s punchy The Great Climate Fight, which volubly charges the British government with incompetence, to ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office, dramatising the scandalous lies behind a huge miscarriage of justice.
      It’s no time to be distracted by talk of trends, new or latest looks
      The desire for unvarnished veracity is there in Netflix’s new tranche of documentaries. Think Robbie Williams: Behind the Scenes and its Jeffrey Epstein exposé. Even Disney’s Wagatha Christie vehicle was about truth-telling.

      It reflects the shattering of any persistent facade that everything’s just fine. In the face of extreme weather patterns – from tornados in Manchester in the north of England to record-breaking monsoons in Pakistan – and the escalating rates of chronic disease, anxiety, depression, loneliness epidemics, and other mental-health disorders seen worldwide, surely, finally, our eyes are opening?
      In case not, here are a couple of truths that we may need to be reminded of.

      Maximalism to make way for “quiet refinement” in 2024 say interior designers

      One: the perpetual quest for economic growth is unsustainable on a finite planet, yet it prevails because we’ve been hoodwinked into believing that better always means newer, faster, or more. We are entreated to consume for the good of the economy – the work-to-spend cycle. The implication being that if we don’t, we’re responsible for mass unemployment and the failure of honest businesses.
      Ergo, consumer-driven economies are routinely prioritised over basic citizen welfare, and material goods have become proxies for our dreams and aspirations, even our expressions of love.
      Two: the environments in which we live are increasingly toxic – physically, socially, and mentally. Yet we’re reneging on personal responsibility for our wellbeing with the misguided assumption that big industry would never create products dangerous to human health, and that our healthcare providers are there to patch us up if they do. We need to focus on causes and prevention instead of lucrative (but futile) searches for cures for diseases like cancer.
      It wasn’t so long ago that the desire to exercise, seek wellbeing, or be social were reasons to leave the home
      What’s tricky is that potential solutions to the above don’t wash well with legislators or many politicians because they appear slow, unduly restrictive, difficult, or inconvenient. Immediate results (i.e. within a single term of office) are seldom forthcoming, thus a stance of head-in-the-sand, or a default to fast fixes, becomes entrenched as the go-to action.
      And yet, research suggests that we, the people, feel differently. According to the 10th annual Life at Home report produced this year by IKEA (one of the world’s largest home surveys, encompassing the views of 37,428 people aged 18-plus across 38 countries), searches for “slow living” have doubled since 2015.
      So where does this leave us?
      We’re being pushed and pulled in many contradictory directions. It wasn’t so long ago that the desire to exercise, seek wellbeing, or be social were reasons to leave the home. Now these activities all happen within the same four walls.

      “Peach is the right colour, but for all the wrong reasons”

      This creates many tensions. Should our domestic caves be linked to the world via the latest high-tech gizmos, or be our deliberate respite from the techno-frazzle? How do we square a wish for personal privacy with the sensation of living in more open spaces? Can we work from home without feeling like we live at work?
      It was no surprise to me that Squishmallows were the hit toy of 2023. These soft, malleable cute-character cushions are acutely comforting to hold. Even the revered investor Warren Buffet now has the company in his portfolio. They are a potent symbol of a need.
      In response, the popular press touts voluminous La-Z-Boy-style recliners as the next big thing, but is an inducement to lounge ever further into denial really what’s called for?
      Our ability to thrive must become the guiding principle for all design
      Humans are the ultimate adaptors, but we require stimulus to learn and grow, if not an element of discomfort. While your genes may load the gun, your environment pulls the trigger. Currently, for many, that’s somewhere hyperconnected yet also physically disconnected, temperature-controlled and sedentary.
      Align this with the current cult of convenience – that which enhances personal comfort or advantage over everything else, and therein lies the downward spiral.
      We must abandon the ordered, rational, learned good taste and comfort that we’ve become used to in favour of something more instinctive and rugged. Less a singular design aesthetic than a profoundly sensory desire to touch, smell and feel intensely. It is the personal over the predictable. The umami in the dish. The idea that owes its genus to a singular moment of unique creative vision, or innovation.

      Dezeen readers name Casa Tres Árboles best home interior of 2023

      We must aim for a societal stability that does not rely on the continuous fetishisation of “novelty” to drive ever-increasing consumption if economic activity is to have a hope of remaining within ecological scale. Our ability to thrive must become the guiding principle for all design, if not perceptions of success.
      Most importantly, we can no longer be afraid to speak or hear these truths, starting at home – the environment over which we have the most agency.
      Here, then, are some final “home” truths that bear repeating.
      Most homes are more polluted on the inside than a busy street corner outside due to the build-up of invisible toxins therein, yet we spend 90 per cent of our time indoors. Some examples: gas hobs leak benzene, a known carcinogen, even when they’re off – this has been linked to one in eight cases of childhood asthma.
      We have been living in a time of fantastical storytelling
      Microplastics have been found in the placentas of unborn babies. Chemicals in everyday personal care products can cause chronic hormonal disruption that leads to breast cancer. Chemical flame retardants legally mandated for use on your upholstery increase smoke toxicity more than they reduce fire growth.
      And Wi-Fi may not be as benign as you think. The World Health Organisation, in association with the International Agency on Cancer, formally classified electromagnetic field radiation (as emitted by Wi-Fi connected devices) as a Class 2B human carcinogen (potentially harmful to health) over a decade ago.
      In summary, we have been living in a time of fantastical storytelling, fictions of delusional positivity that obscure the truth. Plato considered that truth is a correspondence between belief and reality. Time to wake up then if we are to stand a chance of survival, as our current reality almost beggars belief.
      Michelle Ogundehin is a thought leader on interiors, trends, style and wellbeing. Originally trained as an architect and the former editor-in-chief of ELLE Decoration UK, she is the head judge on the BBC’s Interior Design Masters, and the author of Happy Inside: How to Harness the Power of Home for Health and Happiness, a guide to living well. She is also a regular contributor to publications including Vogue Living, FT How to Spend It magazine and Dezeen.
      The photo, of a Kyiv apartment designed by Olga Fradina, is by Yevhenii Avramenko.
      Dezeen In DepthIf you enjoy reading Dezeen’s interviews, opinions and features, subscribe to Dezeen In Depth. Sent on the last Friday of each month, this newsletter provides a single place to read about the design and architecture stories behind the headlines.

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      PSLab’s monochromatic Berlin showroom is a “sacred place for light”

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      A pared-back palette of raw materials creates a calm backdrop for PSLab’s lighting products inside the brand’s Berlin workshop and showroom space, designed in collaboration with Belgian firm B-bis architecten.

      The newly opened studio occupies the ground floor and basement of a 1907 residential building in the city’s Charlottenburg district.
      PSLab has opened a new workshop and showroom in BerlinPSLab, which designs and manufactures light fixtures for architectural projects, set out to create a showroom where customers can experience lighting effects in a home-like environment.
      “PSLab is not a digital platform where clients pick and buy products,” the company’s founder Dimitri Saddi told Dezeen. “Therefore the physical space as a ‘home’ is most important for one-on-one communication.”
      “In Berlin, as with all our studios, we wanted to design a canvas to show the quality of our light and to show the process of our bespoke design approach by integrating a material library of endless opportunities and possibilities.”

      The space includes a materials library with a movable ladderWorking together with B-bis architecten, the design team looked to create a contemporary space that contrasts with Charlottenburg’s classical architecture whilst retaining references to common elements like colonnades, arches and symmetrical forms.
      The entrance takes the form of a large zinc-and-glass sliding door that is set into the facade of the building on Niebuhrstrasse. Moving the door aside reveals a full-height opening that welcomes visitors into the studio.
      The interior was designed to present the brand’s lighting to its best advantageInside, a double-height space with a six-metre-high ceiling allows lighting products to be hung in various heights and configurations.
      Arched openings on either side of the staircase void lead through to a garden room that looks onto a leafy courtyard. Daylight streams into the space through large windows to create a tranquil atmosphere.

      JamesPlumb converts Victorian tannery into London HQ for PSLab

      The workshop space includes a materials library where visitors can touch and explore the physical qualities of the brand’s lighting products. A movable ladder provides access to items on the library’s upper rows.
      The cosy basement level is a place for informal conversations with clients. A projector in this parlour space also allows the team to display the company’s extensive digital library.
      The basement serves as a cosy loungeThroughout the studio, PSLab chose materials and finishes including lime wash, concrete, zinc and textiles that focus attention on how the space is lit rather than its architectural features to create a kind of “sacred place for light”.
      “It is all about monochromatics and textures, which are specific to the location,” said Mario Weck, a partner at PSLab GmbH. “The atmosphere lets people focus on our approach.”
      Gantries provide support for various light sourcesOn the ceiling of both the front room and garden room is a grey-steel gantry that helps unify the spaces whilst supporting various light sources as well as technical elements, much like on a theatre stage.
      Furniture is mostly built in, with simple cushions providing casual seating while cylindrical wooden side tables and coffee tables offer somewhere to place a cup or catalogue.
      The showroom is set in Berlin’s CharlottenburgPSLab has studios in Antwerp, Bologna, London, Stuttgart and Beirut, where the firm originated. For its UK headquarters, the company commissioned JamesPlumb to convert a Victorian tannery into a space that evokes the “quiet brutalism” of the former industrial building.
      Previously, the lighting brand has collaborated with Parisian studio Tolila+Gilliland on the design of an Aesop store in London featuring felt-covered walls and slim black pendant lights.
      The photography is by Nate Cook.

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      Jialun Xiong highlights “intricacies and textures” at Sichuanese restaurant in LA

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      Subtle nods to traditional Chinese architecture can be found throughout this restaurant in California, designed by LA-based Jialun Xiong.

      Sichuan Impression’s third outpost, located in Alhambra, occupies a 2,000-square-foot (186-square-metre) space that “takes an elegantly pared-down approach to family-style dining”.
      Jialun Xiong chose a pared-back palette for the Sichuan Impression interiors, creating a relaxed atmosphereJialun Xiong took an equally relaxed approach to the interiors, combining warm and soft colours with walnut furniture and metal accents.
      “For Sichuan Impression, I chose a muted palette and natural materials to encourage guests to look a little longer and see the intricacies and textures that aren’t so obvious at first glance,” said Xiong.
      A free-seating area beside the bar features walnut furniture and floating metal cabinetsThe restaurant is roughly divided into four dining areas, each open to one another but defined by the style of seating.

      To the left of the entrance is a sequence of partitions that alternate between heavy grey plaster and delicate metal mesh screens supported by antique brass frames.
      Plaster partitions separate the various sections of the restaurantEach has a circular opening, which align to provide a continuous view along the minimalist walnut tables and benches that run along the same axis.
      One table extends through an opening, accommodating larger parties when needed, and each compartment features an oversized, raw silk cloth light shade suspended above.
      Walls and screens of different heights and thickness create a hierarchy of spaces”The custom chandeliers nod to traditional Chinese lanterns and reflect Xiong’s skeletal furniture designs,” said the restaurant team.
      In front of the bar is a free-seating space furnished with more wooden tables and chairs, which match the cabinetry against the far wall, while glass-fronted metal cabinets are mounted above.

      Jialun Xiong balances contrasts at “retro-futurist” restaurant in Los Angeles

      A pair of chunky plaster-wrapped columns and low partitions separate a collection of booths with leather seats and upholstered cushioned backs on the other side.
      The green fabric was chosen to resemble bamboo – a common material used in Sichuanese design.
      Booth seating is upholstered with a green fabric chosen to evoke bambooAt the back of the restaurant is the private dining area, which can accommodate 16 guests altogether, or two groups of eight when a sliding partition is closed.
      A circular window offers a glimpse into the private space, where the pared-back material palette is continued.
      A private dining room at the back has an intimate feel and can be spied through a circular window”The secluded space is designed to feel like home with its bespoke circular dining table and ambient lighting,” said Xiong. “I believe good design doesn’t always have to be instantly recognisable, it can simply blend in.”
      Xiong, who is originally from Chongqing, has also completed the retro-futuristic Chinese restaurant 19 Town close to Downtown LA. The designer recently showed her furniture and lighting pieces as part of the INTRO/LA showcase in November 2023, and at the Alcova exhibition during Art Basel in Miami in December.

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      Eight well-designed sheds and outbuildings that extend the home

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      This week’s lookbook explores eight clever shed and outbuilding interiors, ranging from self-built renovations to finely crafted new builds.

      By repurposing rundown sheds and garages or capitalising on extra garden space, these projects offer additional room for hobbies, workspaces, living quarters or simply respite for their owners.
      Among this list of projects is a bold-coloured garage renovation hosting a work area and greenhouse in Norwich, UK, as well as a scenic timber outbuilding designed for recreation and socialising for a retired couple in Lillehammer, Norway.
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes created on a budget, living rooms with industrial material palettes and airy and pared-back loft conversions.
      Photo by Simon KennedyThe Orangery, UK, by McCloy and Muchemwa

      Original blockwork walls were retained in this self-build renovation of a dilapidated garage by London-based studio McCloy and Muchemwa.
      An orange, timber roof structure was matched with furniture in the same colour throughout the interior, which contains a storage area, hobby zone and workbench along with a well-lit greenhouse clad in polycarbonate.
      Find out more about The Orangery ›
      Photo by ZAC and ZACGrange Garage Studio, Scotland, by Konishi Gaffney
      This 1950s garage conversion by Konishi Gaffney, adjacent to an existing Georgian property, houses an artist’s music studio and features a rhythmic facade made from wooden battens.
      The space has a calm and refined material palette, with dark-stained furniture used to match the wooden beams in the studio’s interior.
      Find out more about Grange Garage Studio ›
      Photo by Rafael SoldiShed-O-Vation, US, by Best Practice Architecture
      Best Practice Architecture renovated this outbuilding in Seattle to host an office and small gym as an expansion of the property’s main house.
      Black synthetic rubber was used to cover the interior floor and one side of the room’s walls, while the remaining walls were lined with birch plywood along with a boldly coloured workspace.
      Find out more about Shed-O-Vation ›
      Photo by Chris SnookThe Light Shed, UK, by Richard John Andrews
      The Light Shed is a 12-metre-square, multifunctional shed designed and built by architect Richard John Andrews and an assistant in just 21 days to house Andrews’ architecture studio in his back garden.
      The interior is lined with plywood providing shelving and desk space for two to three people. The studio also doubles as a space for hosting functions and gatherings.
      Find out more about The Light Shed ›
      Photo by Knut BryBarn House, Norway, by Jon Danielsen Aarhus
      Replacing an existing run-down outbuilding, Barn House in Lillehammer, Norway, was designed by Jon Danielsen Aarhus to create a space in which a retired couple can paint, garden and host friends.
      An all-red entrance hall is followed by a timber interior. The building contains a brightly lit art studio upstairs and a gardening room and garages on the lower floor.
      Find out more about Barn House ›
      Photo by Jean-Philippe DelageEton Accessory Building, Canada, by Motiv Architects
      Made from cross-laminated timber (CLT), Eton Accessory Building by Canadian studio Motiv Architects is a 30-square-metre workshop connected to the owners’ home via a garden.
      Hard-wearing flooring and evenly distributed skylights create an industrial-style workspace. A CLT mezzanine is used for additional storage.
      Find out more about Eton Accessory Building ›
      Photo by Wai Ming NgCork Study, UK, by Surman Weston
      This cork-covered studio designed by Surman Weston provides space for sewing and music-making in the back garden of a London home.
      On the interior, birch plywood lines the walls, with the pale material also used to construct a central working space with built-in shelving and storage.
      Find out more about Cork Study ›
      Photo by Willem-Dirk du ToitBroadway, Australia, by Foomann
      Replacing an old garage, this two-floor outbuilding hosts a gym, swimming pool and parking garage on the site of an Edwardian property in Melbourne.
      A refined material palette of white walls set off by wood and dark flooring works to create a relaxing, beachy feel throughout the spaces.
      Find out more about Broadway ›
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes created on a budget, living rooms with industrial material palettes and airy and pared-back loft conversions.

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      Olga Fradina uses natural tones and textures for interior of Ukrainian holistic healing centre

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      Ukrainian designer Olga Fradina has completed a monochromatic interior for Space, a wellness centre in Kyiv, where textures rather than colours provide interest and create a soothing atmosphere.

      Space is a holistic wellness centre that includes areas for practising yoga, meditation and acupuncture, as well as traditional healing practices such as reiki and qigong.
      Space houses a yoga studio (above) and massage rooms (top image)The project commenced just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the company’s founder – entrepreneur and wellness enthusiast Kateryna Bakhirka – eventually deciding to move forward as she felt a space for healing practices was important at a time of global turbulence.
      Bakhirka had previously commissioned Fradina to design her private apartment in the city and asked the designer to follow a similar direction, although with a warmer palette than the cosily dark residence.
      Artwork by Nikita Vlasov decorates the massage rooms”I aimed to make the space as comfortable as possible, creating somewhere people would like to stay longer and where they could easily relax,” Fradina told Dezeen.

      Space is located on the ground floor of an early 20th-century building in Kyiv’s Podil district that once functioned as a candle factory.
      The four-storey building had previously been divided into several apartments and Fradina began by removing internal partitions to open up the cellular space.
      The wellness centre has a muted tonal colour paletteThe reconfigured interior comprises several functional zones – a small entrance hall, a locker room, a room for group classes, two massage rooms, a tea lounge and a room with a bathtub that is used for certain healing practices.
      The bright and airy hall used for group sessions is lined with mirrors on one side, while the opposite wall is painted with a subtle gradient to evoke a sunset.
      A raw-edged wooden table anchors the tea roomA darker palette is employed in the massage rooms to create a more soothing and intimate ambience. The only touch of brightness is provided by a brass panel painted with a dynamic symbol by Ukrainian artist Nikita Vlasov.
      The tearoom is also rendered in muted shades and accommodates a three-metre-long raw-edged wooden table that was custom-made by local workshop Staritska Maysternya.
      A nearby bar counter is clad with bricks salvaged from an old house and is topped with Cambrian Black granite. Objects purchased by Bakhirka on her travels through Asia and South America are displayed on backlit shelves.

      Olga Fradina uses dark colours and natural textures to create cosy Kyiv apartment

      The main materials used throughout the project are micro cement, plaster, wood, copper and vintage brick, which Fradina chose due to her fondness for “monochrome interiors where the main accents are textures”.
      “I love natural and tactile materials, playing a little bit on the slight contrast of textures such as wood, stone and rough plaster,” the designer added. “Each one has its own structure, reflectivity, roughness. Coming together they create an expressive but not flashy emotion.”
      The nearby bar is constructed from salvaged bricksRegular blackouts in Kyiv due to the ongoing war made construction work challenging, according to Fradina, with contractors often needing to bring their own generators to provide electricity.
      The designer herself regularly had to take cover in a subway station during site visits when shelling was taking place. The war has also taken an emotional toll and altered her approach to her practice, Fradina revealed.
      Found objects are displayed on backlit shelves”It’s hard enough for me to design now, it feels like I’ve lost my connection to the physical world,” she said. “During these years of active war, I have been mostly involved in digital art and I’m better able to interact with abstract matter now.”
      Also in Kyiv, Yana Molodykh has designed a light-filled interior for a compact attic apartment while Makhno Studio has created an all-beige residence with bumpy textures and intricate ceramic walls.
      The photography is by Yevhenii Avramenko.

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