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      Eight welcoming wood-panelled dining rooms

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      For our latest lookbook, we’ve selected eight dining rooms from the Dezeen archive where wooden panelling was used to create cosy, earthy environments with an organic feel.

      From South America to Europe, these wood-panelled dining rooms serve as focal points in the interiors and create social spaces for residents and guests.
      Whether they’re made from timber, pine or plywood, the wooden finishes on these statement walls and ceilings have been used to create welcoming environments with peaceful atmospheres.
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes with focal point wardrobes, statement headboards and homes with pergolas.
      Photography is by Fran Parente and image production is by Victor CorreaER Apartment, Brazil, Pascali Semerdjian Arquitetos

      This apartment in São Paulo has an exposed concrete ceiling and uses natural materials, such as walnut, bronze, onyx and stone in its furnishings and finishes.
      Pascali Semerdjian Arquitetos used vertical timber cladding, local art and furniture by Brazilian architects and designers Oscar Niemeyer and Claudia Moreira Salles in the dining room to make the space “deeply Brazilian and vividly cosmopolitan”.
      Find out more about ER Apartment ›
      Photography is by Eric PetschekCarroll Gardens Townhouse, US, Starling Architecture and Emily Lindberg Design
      Starling Architecture and Emily Lindberg Design combined two units in a Brooklyn townhouse to create this family home. The townhouse features Belgian white oak on the flooring and along the corridor, stairs, mudroom, kitchen and dining area.
      The New York-based studios used neutral tones to decorate the five-story house. In the dining room, wooden cabinets and decorative lamellas match the floor and ceiling.
      Find out more about Carroll Gardens Townhouse ›
      Photography is by Tim CrokerDragon Flat, UK, Tsuruta Architects
      Artificial intelligence (AI) was used to design the patterns engraved on plywood panels that decorate the dining room of the Dragon Flat in London’s Notting Hill. Tsuruta Architects used a CNC router – a computer-controlled cutting machine – to engrave a pattern of the River Thames on the wall.
      The architecture studio also updated the two-level maisonette to include a walk-in wardrobe and tatami room, which features an engraved design on its panelled walls.
      Find out more about Dragon Flat ›
      Photography is by David GrandorgeHomerton College, UK, Feilden Fowles
      Homerton College at the University of Cambridge includes a dining hall by London architecture studio Feilden Fowles made from concrete, timber and 3,200 faience tiles.
      The building, which was constructed with chestnut-laminated timber frames and clerestory windows, features a larger eating space, a smaller eating room, the kitchen and staff amenities.
      It was designed to celebrate handcrafting techniques and contemporary construction and engineering.
      Find out more about Homerton College ›
      Photography is by Roland HalbeHouse in El Peumo, Chile, Cristián Izquierdo Lehmann
      This house, designed by Cristián Izquierdo Lehmann, centres around an open-plan kitchen and dining room with a vaulted ceiling that is used for cooking, dining and socialising.
      A minimalist decor compliments the dramatic ceiling, with red stools used for dining and a bookcase lining the wall.
      Located in El Peumo, Chile, the house was clad with laminated pine and features concrete floors and large windows for the owners to enjoy the green exterior.
      Find out more about House in El Peumo ›

      Another Seedbed, US, Future Projects
      The Another Seedbed loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, serves as both a home and performance space for its owner. To function as both, the space is predominately open, with hidden rooms located around the apartment.
      Warm pine walls mark the dining space, which features a complementary red angular table and wooden sculptural chairs.
      Other walls in the loft are covered in hand-troweled earthen clay plaster, blue penny-round tiles and floor-to-ceiling shelving.
      Find out more about Another Seedbed ›
      Photography is by Art GrayStone Creek Camp, US, Andersson-Wise Architects
      US-based Andersson-Wise Architects designed the Stone Creek Camp in Big Fork, Montana, as a family retreat of cabins and cottages.
      While it is wood-clad, the kitchen and dining area does not feature traditional panelled walls. Instead, one wall is made from wooden logs that have been assembled to create an unusual wall with a highly textured surface.
      The ceiling was clad in wooden panels that match the floorboards in the home.
      Find out more about Stone Creek Camp ›
      Photography is by Marc GoodwinGeilo Valley Cabin, Norway, Lund Hagem
      Panelled with blackened timber, this Norwegian ski cabin shelters residents from harsh weather conditions and offers panoramic views of the Geilo Valley. The cabin’s exterior concrete walls have also been tinted black to reflect the interior panels.
      The walls and ceiling of the dining room use the same timber cladding, matching the kitchen island to create a cosy, coherent atmosphere.
      “The dark tone allows the nature outside to come closer and creates a darkness that contrasts with the white winter landscape,” said the project’s architects Lund Hagem.
      Find out more about Geilo Valley Cabin ›
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes with focal point wardrobes, statement headboards and homes with pergolas.

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      Trellick Tower apartment revamped in line with Japanese design principles

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      German interior designer Peter Heimer and joinery studio Buchholzberlin used a restrained material palette of concrete, oak and aluminium when renovating this flat inside London’s brutalist Trellick Tower.

      The Grade II-listed building, designed by architect Ernö Goldfinger, originally opened in 1972 to provide social housing for the neighbourhood of Kensal Rise but has since become a landmark of brutalist architecture thanks to its distinctive lift tower.
      Peter Heimer and Buchholzberlin have renovated a Trellick Tower flatThe renovation works were carried out in a privately owned apartment on Trellick Tower’s 21st floor that had not been significantly altered in several years and as a result, was host to narrow rooms and lacklustre white walls.
      Its owners wanted the open up the 86-square-metre floorplan to create the impression of a “cool concrete loft” while offering better views of the surrounding cityscape.
      Views of the London skyline took centre stage”Their taste was also trained by contemporary Japanese design, so they wanted to use a reduced range of pure materials,” Buchholzberlin told Dezeen.

      “Since Trellick Tower is subject to strict preservation requirements, our hands were tied so to speak. But we were able to push through with small improvements.”
      Oak was used to form the kitchen’s cabinetry and breakfast counterThe wall separating two former children’s bedrooms was knocked through to create a larger unified space that now serves as the living area.
      The team also exposed the building’s original concrete walls, laid oak flooring and installed slender aluminium lights across the ceiling.
      A bench seat with inbuilt storage boxes was fitted beneath a row of windows at the front of the room, allowing for uninterrupted vistas of northwest London and beyond.
      A pull-out guest bed is concealed within the desk in the studyThe two doors that previously led to the respective children’s bedrooms were left in place. Between them now stands a huge, double-faced oak sideboard.
      An inlaid mirrored panel reflects the distant skyline and in turn “brings an impression of the city into the apartment’s centre”, according to the team.

      “We couldn’t stop Balfron Tower from being privatised. In fact we probably helped it along”

      More concrete and oakwood surfaces can be seen in the kitchen, which occupies the former living area. Low-lying cabinetry was installed along the room’s back wall, while a large breakfast counter was placed at its centre.
      The counter was custom-built to stand at the exact same height as the railing of the apartment’s balcony, ensuring that sightlines aren’t compromised when the clients sit down to eat.
      The desk also discretely hides new water pipesThe former kitchen, meanwhile, was converted into a study with an oakwood desk snaking around the edges of the room.
      Its base conceals a network of water pipes that had to be redirected to serve appliances in the new cooking quarters. One side of the desk also conceals a pull-out bed that can be used when guests come to stay.
      An oak headboard wraps around the principal bedroomThe principal bedroom was left in its original place but – like the rest of the apartment – was stripped back to expose its concrete walls.
      Oakwood was used here to form the base of the bed and its lengthy headboard, which extends along the lower half of the walls.
      Heimer and Buchholzberlin also removed the time-worn laminate that once covered the small flight of stairs leading down from the apartment’s entrance, revealing the concrete steps beneath.
      Concrete steps were revealed in the apartment’s hallwayTrellick Tower is just one example of the striking council estates that can be found across the British capital, which were recently chronicled in a book by photographer Jack Young.
      Others include Holmefield House with its graphic tiled facade and the Brunel Estate, which has a monumental slide sweeping through its public pathways.
      The photography is by Heiko Prigge.

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      Penthouse at Richard Rogers-designed New York tower overlooks City Hall Park

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      A penthouse has been unveiled inside British architecture firm RSHP’s first residential project in New York City: a tower overlooking City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan.

      With interiors by local studio Ash Staging, Penthouse 3 is one of 30 residences within No 33 Park Row, which was designed by RSHP’s late founder, Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Richard Rogers, before his death in 2021.
      Penthouse 3 at No 33 Park Row boasts 15-foot (4.5-metre) ceilingsFrom the 23-storey tower, the 5,403-square-foot (502-square-metre) penthouse has an unobstructed view of the Manhattan park, and features dark-coloured steel framing intended to reference the area’s industrial-era buildings.
      Visible through the huge windows are the building’s copper fins, an architectural element similar to the firm’s previous residential buildings such as One Hyde Park in London.
      The corner residence boasts views of City Hall through huge windows”One Hyde Park and 33 Park Row each face a park to the north and exhibit a similarity in terms of aspiration and quality with carefully composed facades that exhibit a richness of depth, shadow and texture,” said studio partner Graham Stirk, who worked alongside Rogers on the building.

      The penthouse interior features a double-height, open-plan living area that wraps around the huge north-facing windows to form an L shape.
      A staircase with glass balustrades connects to the upper levelTwo generously sized seating areas are positioned on either side of a 10-person dining table in the corner, while an adjacent bar area can be hidden away behind folding pocket doors.
      Above the grey marble kitchen is a grand wood-panelled storage and display wall that extends all the way up to the ceiling, with high shelves accessible via a rolling ladder as well as the mezzanine corridor.
      Each of the five bedrooms features a different aestheticA metal staircase with glass balustrades doglegs around a curved platform to reach the upper level, where a workspace is located on the glass-edged balcony.
      Five bedrooms all have tall ceilings but are decorated with different detailing. One is entirely neutral-toned, while another features pale teal walls, blue upholstery and rug, and copper table lamps.

      One Wall Street skyscraper completes conversion from offices to apartments

      In the 5.5 baths, richly veined book-matched Montclair Danby marble patterns the walls and floors, and an outdoor terrace measuring 108 square feet (10 square metres) has a wooden deck that echoes some of the millwork inside.
      The penthouse’s eventual residents will also have access to the fifth-floor amenities, which include an indoor/outdoor fitness centre and yoga studio, an outdoor kitchenette and dining area, as well as a rooftop terrace, library, craft studio, screening room and bike storage.
      Richly veined, book-matched Montclair Danby marble features in the bathroomsFounded as Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the firm rebranded as RSHP in June 2022 following Rogers’ death. It has since revealed designs for “open and welcoming” Shenzhen skyscraper.
      The studio’s other projects in New York City include the 80-storey Three World Trade Center, which was completed in 2018 not far from No 33 Park Row.
      Dark-coloured steel framing on the exterior is intended to reference Lower Manhattan’s industrial-era buildingsOnce almost exclusively occupied by commercial property, Manhattan’s Financial District is becoming increasingly residential.
      Some of the existing offices towers are being converted into homes, like the recently opened One Wall Street, while new skyscrapers like David Adjaye’s newly completed 130 William are purpose-built for living.
      The photography is by Evan Joseph.

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      Eight pared-back kitchens with minimalist storage solutions

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      Sometimes the simple solutions are the best, as seen in this lookbook featuring tidy kitchen interiors where minimalist closed cabinets are combined with decorative materials.

      In these kitchens, found in homes from Sweden to Mexico, architects and designers largely chose simple storage solutions but added material interest in the form of marble, steel and brick details.
      By hiding utensils and crockery away, benches and kitchen islands are freed up to use for food preparation. In some of these kitchens, open shelves above the work areas also provide spaces to hold decorative plates, bowls and cookbooks.
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes where the wardrobe is the focal point, bedrooms with statement headboards and homes with pergolas.
      Photo by Lorenzo ZandriSteele’s Road House, UK, by Neiheiser Argyros

      The original brickwork was uncovered in parts of this London flat, including in the kitchen where it forms the backdrop to the room’s minimalist cabinets.
      Pale-wood cupboards sit underneath the brick wall, which also features shelves to add more storage.
      Designers Neiheiser Argyros added a curved window seat, as well as a wooden kitchen table and stool to match the cabinets and give the room a more natural feel.
      Find out more about Steele’s Road House ›
      Photo by Giulio GhirardiHausmann apartment, France, by Rodolphe Parente
      This Parisian apartment in a 19th-century Haussmann building in Paris was given an overhaul by interior designer Rodolphe Parente, who took cues from the owner’s art collection.
      In the kitchen, stainless steel cabinets were used to form storage and workspaces, creating an industrial feel that is tempered by pastel-pink walls.
      “The kitchen is a deconstructed block sitting in the Haussmanian environment,” Parente told Dezeen. “It is connected to the historical elements through its composition.”
      Find out more about the Hausmann apartment ›
      Photo by Scott NorsworthyHouse M, Canada, by Studio Vaaro
      Studio Vaaro used oak cabinetry for the kitchen of this home in Canada, while matching oak shelving provides additional storage above the workspaces.
      To contrast the warm wood, the studio chose grey marble for the countertops and splashbacks, which gives the kitchen an organic feel. Additional storage can be found in the pale grey cabinets that frame the kitchen.
      Find out more about House M ›
      Photo by Edmund DabneyLondon apartment, UK, by Holloway Li
      A kitchen clad in circle-brushed stainless steel clads one wall in this London flat by local studio Holloway Li. Designed in reference to the city’s many fish-and-chip shops, it features a striking curved splashback.
      Above the workspaces, a built-in open shelf provides space to store glasses and cooking utensils, with the rest of the storage is hidden behind patterned-steel cabinet doors.
      Find out more about London apartment ›
      Photo by Ronan MézièreMontreal apartment, Canada, by Naturehumanie
      Fresh minty hues decorate the kitchen of this Montreal apartment, which was given a modern update while retaining many of its traditional details.
      The green colour matches that of the apartment’s existing stained glass doors. And the kitchen island and cabinets both have inviting curved forms, finished in a glossy paint that complements the rougher tiles above the counters.
      Find out more about the Montreal apartment ›
      Photo by Gareth HackerHighbury House, UK, by Daytrip
      Located in Highbury in north London, this home juxtaposes a gallery-like minimalism with more organic forms.
      This is evident in the kitchen, where pared-back storage cabinets in an unusual rectangular shape sit underneath a decorative marble countertop.
      Sculptural vases, plates and cooking utensils decorate the matching marble kitchen island as well as a small ledge that functions as both storage and display counter.
      Find out more about Highbury House ›
      Photo by Yoshihiro MakinoEastern Columbia Loft, US, by Sheft Farrace
      Architecture studio Sheft Farrace renovated this flat, which is located in the iconic art deco Eastern Columbia building in Los Angeles, creating minimalist interiors that draw on the building’s exterior.
      In the kitchen, this can be seen in the curved corners of the counters and the elongated cabinet hardware, which reference 1930s design. Florida Brush quartzite was used to cover much of the kitchen, adding a striking decorative detail that is complemented by white oak.
      Find out more about Eastern Columbia Loft ›
      Photo courtesy of Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen of Norm ArchitectsArchipelago House, Sweden, by Norm Architects
      Danish studio Norm Architects designed this home on the west coast of Sweden to embody both Scandinavian and Japanese aesthetics.
      In the white-walled kitchen, a stainless-steel kitchen island offers both a practical workspace and cupboards for storage. Open wood shelving was decorated with black ceramics to create an art installation-style feature on one wall.
      Find out more about Archipelago House ›
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes where the wardrobe is the focal point, bedrooms with statement headboards and homes with pergolas.

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      André Fu designs colourful Casetify shop in Japan informed by shoji lanterns

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      Hong Kong-based architect and interior designer André Fu has completed the first global flagship store for electronic accessory brand Casetify in Osaka, combining traditional Japanese shoji paper lanterns with bright colours.

      The store, which marks the first retail project by Fu in Japan, was informed by the urban landscape of the Shinsaibashi neighbourhood in Osaka where the store is located.
      The store is located in Shinsaibashi, the main shopping area in OsakaAccording to Fu, the interiors aim to bring “the allure of the dynamic Shinsaibashi neighbourhood into the store”.
      “The overall concept is rooted in a vision to celebrate the distinct context of the project with contrasting shapes and forms, capturing the neighbourhood’s cinematic streetscape in a world where bold geometries juxtapose against each other,” said Fu.
      Curved shoji screens form the product display wallThe storefront was designed as a floor-to-ceiling shoji lantern framed in bright orange. Customers are greeted by a round display table encircled by cylindrical shoji screens, with the same circular arrangement mirrored at the back of the store and its upper floor.

      At the centre of the Casetify store sit cabinets that have been decorated with old phone cases, donated by customers in the recycling box located next to them.
      A secret shoji window at the rear of the ground floor can be slid open to unveil customised online purchases.

      André Fu outfits apartment in Jean Nouvel’s MoMA tower

      “A lot of my work is rooted in the idea of a journey that takes the contextual quality of each project into an architectural medium,” Fu explained.
      “The world of shoji lanterns that goes around you, that folds and unfolds, creates that effect,” he added.
      “It transports you from the everyday reality of the neighbourhood to an imaginary, illusionistic expression that blends a relaxed sense of luxury with the popping Casetify colours that the brand is so well known for.”
      Cabinets are covered with materials made from recycled phone casesFu is known for his work on luxury hotels and restaurants, including the Upper House hotel in Hong Kong, the Berkeley London, and the Mitsui hotel in Kyoto.
      More recently, he created a two-person “conversation” chair in collaboration with Louis Vuitton’s Objects Nomades, and furnished a model apartment inside the Jean Nouvel tower in New York with his homeware collection.
      The photography is courtesy of Casetify.

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      Roar recreates dizzying Indian stepwells in Jaipur Rugs’ Dubai showroom

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      UAE-based studio Roar has paid homage to the Escher-esque stepwells of India in its interior design for Jaipur Rugs’ showroom in Dubai, which features cascading, rainbow-coloured staircases.

      The Jaipur Rugs showroom, the Indian brand’s first in the Middle East, is located in the creative district of Aserkal, in one of the former industrial area’s previously abandoned warehouses.
      Roar’s design for the space nods to the architecture of Jaipur, the rug manufacturer’s home city, and in particular its famous stepwells — reservoirs built with staggered terraces and dizzying sets of stairs all the way down into their depths.
      The Jaipur Rugs Dubai showroom is designed with reference to India’s stepwells”The design concept was born from a simple sketch that I did after my first meeting with the client,” Roar founder and architect Pallavi Dean told Dezeen.
      “I was so inspired by the stepwells that I’d seen in Jaipur during my first visit that I wanted to bring them to life in my design,” she added.

      “I wanted to strip the idea to its bare minimum though, and work within its architectural purity, in order to avoid any plain pastiche.”
      The stairs are carpeted in a gradient of rainbow huesIn Dean’s design, the repeating staircases feature across three of the walls, making a striking impression in the double-height space while connecting the ground-floor browsing area to the offices and sales suites on the mezzanine.
      The arches that are typical to stepwells also feature in the 780-square-metre showroom, forming doorways or alcoves wallpapered with decorative rugs.
      The hues in these rug displays are echoed in the carpet on the stairs, which is rendered in a jewel-toned rainbow colour gradient starting at indigo on one side of the space and ending in ruby red.
      Some of the stairs read to alcoves with rug displaysDean called the construction of the staircases a “structural feat” that required navigating challenging approval processes.
      “We had to ensure the steps were safe to use by installing a glass balustrade, which gives the impression that they’re floating when they’re actually carefully enclosed!” she said.

      Kasturi Balotia’s first original rug is “the future of design”

      Also nestled between the staircases on the ground floor are two rooms described as immersive experiences, the Sapphire and Emerald rooms, which are covered floor to ceiling with rugs custom-made by Jaipur Rugs’ weavers as part of the brand’s Manchaha intiative.
      In the project, the artisans design the rugs themselves spontaneously on the loom as they weave, using leftover yarn from the industry.
      Two “immersive” rooms are carpeted in rugs designed by Jaipur Rugs’ weaversThey would typically use a broader range of colours for the rugs in this series, but were briefed to work with emerald and sapphire tones for the showroom and given the precise dimensions.
      The lack of sound in these rooms, created by the acoustic properties of the rugs, adds a dramatic dimension to visitors’ experience, according to Dean.
      One room is emerald and the other is sapphire huedNext to the rooms, along the fourth wall, is the showroom’s rug library, with custom-made sliding panels allowing visitors to browse freely.
      The walls and floors are finished with a warm-grey micro-cement and textured paint, forming a neutral base for the colourful features.
      Metallic rose gold features in doorframes, cabinetry and other details, in another reference to Jaipur, which is sometimes called the Pink City.
      Metallic rose gold touches nod to Jaipur’s nickname of the “Pink City””All of our designs come from a place of empathy, and this one is no exception,” Dean said. “We always endeavour to understand what the client is trying to achieve – here, the client was trying to create a bold statement for their first flagship store in the Middle East.”
      “It also had to be an experiential space, which can be intuitively navigated by its users. This is why, for example, we decided to build bespoke rug libraries with sliding doors for clients to flick through instead of having the rugs stacked on the floor, which, in my opinion, are so inconvenient to browse!”
      The showroom is located in a formerly abandoned warehouseDean founded Roar in 2013. The studio’s past projects include the interiors for cafe Drop Coffee and the Nursery of the Future, both in Dubai.
      Last year it announced it was expanding into digital design after purchasing two plots of land for a showroom in the metaverse.

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      Ten Foster + Partners-designed Apple Stores

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      With Apple opening its latest Foster + Partners-designed store in the newly renovated Battersea Power Station, our latest roundup spotlights 10 Apple Stores designed by the British architecture studio.

      Apple has been working with Foster + Partners since 2014, when the technology company and architecture studio initiated its almost decade-long relationship to complete a retail location in Istanbul, Turkey.
      Apple describes its first stores as looking “like nothing else”, but is now more focused on renovating and restoring buildings such as its Los Angeles store, Champs-Élysées store and Rome flagship.
      “I think that the evolution of retail for Apple is really interesting – starting with very bold statement with stores that look like nothing else,” said Bill Bergeron Mirsky, a global retail design lead at Apple, at the opening of the brand’s Battersea Power Station store.
      “And then over time, you move to the Apple Store being very ubiquitous. And now it’s come around to being a responsibility approach,” he continued. “As we see the rise of Apple in the world and the importance people place on the brand and the values that it represents.”

      With Apple now having stores in 526 locations across the world Dezeen has selected 10 striking recent stores from its archive:

      Battersea Power Station, UK, 2023
      Apple’s most recently opened store is located within the newly renovated Battersea Power Station in London, which marks the technology company’s 40th UK store.
      The store is set on the ground floor of the shopping centre within the power station’s 1930s Turbine Hall A. The interior was organised around four original brick columns and beneath steel roof supports that were left exposed.
      Find out more about Battersea Powerstation Apple store ›

      Mumbai, India, 2023
      India’s first flagship Apple Store contains a wooden canopy made from 450,000 hand-crafted oak elements that form 1,000 triangular ceiling tiles.
      The walls of the store were made from stone sourced from Rajasthan and have a fine grain that is meant to convey the texture of Georgette fabric. It was enclosed by two eight-metre-high glass walls that allow light to flood the double-height interior.
      Find out more about Mumbai Apple store ›
      Photo by Nigel YoungBrompton Road, UK, 2022
      An arched timber ceiling with seven-metre tall interiors defines the Brompton Road Apple store in west London. The arched timber ceiling mirrors the profile and shape of the window bays located at the facade of the building.
      The studio removed a mezzanine level from the shop interiors and incorporated six Castagna stone columns, four Ficus trees and a terrazzo floor made from castor oil resin, aggregate and recycled glass.
      Find out more about Brompton Road Apple store ›
      Photo by Nigel YoungAbu Dhabi, UAE, 2022
      Apple’s Abu Dhabi store on Al Maryah Island was built on top of a raised podium and surrounded by a stepped waterfall around all of its four sides.
      The podium the building is set on is pyramid shaped and constructed from black granite stone. The store is accessed via two bridges that extend over the water feature from a waterfront promenade.
      Find out more about Abu Dhabi Apple store ›
      Photo by Nigel YoungLos Angeles, US, 2021
      In Downtown Los Angeles, Foster + Partners worked with Apple to renovate a historic 1920s, baroque revival-style movie theatre that was designed by American architect S Charles Lee in 1927.
      The sensitive renovation of the formerly abandoned theatre saw the studio restore its corner clock tower, terracotta facade, exterior canopy, and grand entry hall that is complete with bronze handrails and marble columns.
      Find out more about Los Angeles Apple store ›
      Photo is by Nigel YoungIstanbul, Turkey, 2021
      Two large travertine walls flank the interior of Istanbul’s Bagdat Caddesi Apple store. Benefitting from a column-free interior encompasses two levels with a sunken double-height space at its rear.
      The building is set back from the street and appears to be a single-storey structure as a result of its sunken lower level. The structure was topped with a large overhanging roof.
      Find out more about Istanbul Apple store ›

      Via Del Corso, Italy, 2021
      Another restoration project saw Foster + Partners convert and restore a historic palazzo in Rome, which is located in the centre of the Italian city.
      Palazzo Marignoli was constructed between 1873 and 1878 and served as a home for Italian politician Marquis Filippo Marignoli. Foster + Partners wanted to celebrate the building’s history by restoring and highlighting its grandeur and historic features. Hand-painted patterned ceilings and frescos were restored throughout.
      Find out more about Rome Apple store ›

      Singapore Apple, Singapore, 2020
      Noted as Apple’s “most ambitious retail project”, its Marina Bay Sands store in Singapore is a spherical glass structure that is completely surrounded by water and accessed via a 45-metre-long underwater tunnel.
      The store’s interior is an open-plan space that measures 30 metres wide beneath a self-supporting glass and steel dome, which is made from 114 pieces of glass with 10 steel vertical mullions that provide structural support.
      Find out more about Singapore Apple store ›
      Photo by Bear and TerryBangkok Apple, Thailand, 2020
      Named Apple Central World, this Bangkok store is organised around a timber-clad column and a large overhanging roof that was designed to resemble the canopy of a tree.
      The store has a 24.4-metre diameter with a timber column that is clad in 1,461 slats of European white oak at its centre. The column fans out at ceiling level and adjoins the roof and extends past the glass perimeter of the store, forming a three-metre cantilever over the glazing.
      Find out more about Bangkok Apple store ›

      Miami, US, 2019
      An undulating white concrete roof, which draws on Miami’s art deco buildings, tops the Apple Aventura store that is located in Aventura Mall in the north of Miami.
      The structure is a boxy, two-storey building with glass walls and indoor trees. The roof of the store is made up of seven, precast six-metre-wide white concrete arches to form a barrel-vaulted ceiling.
      Find out more about Miami Apple store ›

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      Benedetti Architects uncovers forgotten Victorian skylights inside BAFTA headquarters

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      The Grade II-listed BAFTA headquarters in London’s Picadilly have received an overhaul from local studio Benedetti Architects, who raised the roof to squeeze in a new top floor while unifying its disparate interiors.

      Constructed in 1883, the building originally served as the Royal Institute of Painting in Watercolours and was adapted ad hoc over the subsequent years before the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) took over in 1976.
      Benedetti Architects was brought on board in 2016 after winning a competition to completely rework the space.
      Benedetti Architects renovated the BAFTA headquarters in London. Photo by Rory MulveyScrambling around in the loft as part of his research, project lead Renato Benedetti discovered two vast Victorian roof lanterns, complete with ornate plasterwork, that had been boarded up more than 40 years prior when BAFTA created a cinema in the space below.
      The practice’s pitch centred on lifting up the roof and turning the loft into a members’ area, with the two huge skylights being removed, restored and reinstated as the crowning glory of the new top storey.

      “BAFTA loved the idea although they didn’t think it was possible,” Benedetti told Dezeen. “But that’s exactly what we did and it has been the driver for the whole project.”
      The studio uncovered the building’s two hidden skylightsMoulds were made before the intricate plaster was carefully removed, allowing specialist restorers to match new sections seamlessly with the original design.
      Other than the roof lights, almost all the building’s original features such as flooring and staircases were lost as sections of the building were rented out by different tenants over its haphazard history.
      Under the bank of seating in the cinema though, the team found just enough of the original oak flooring to fit inside the new top-floor boardroom.
      “The long strips were quite damaged, so we cut them down to shorter lengths and laid them in a geometric pattern,” said Benedetti.
      Ornate plater mouldings were carefully restoredSimilarly, the remaining bits of marble from different schemes around the BAFTA headquarters were collaged together to create a statement countertop for the boardroom.
      The room is centred by an oval timber table, which the studio designed to feel “more friendly and less hierarchical” than a typical boardroom, complete with comfortable “wrap-around” chairs that can also be stacked.
      “We used a character grade of oak with big knots and imperfections, which I love,” said Benedetti. “It makes the timber more interesting.”
      The BAFTA boardroom is centred on an oval wooden table. Photo by James NewtonElsewhere across the building, responsibly sourced European oak was laid in a variety of patterns to cover floors and walls.
      For the main circulation areas such as the entrance hall and the stairs, the studio used an ivory-coloured terrazzo with brass trims peeking out between the large-format tiles.
      Brass accents are repeated throughout the building on handrails, trims, lighting and on the reveals around the lifts. “Here, the sheet brass has a slight sheen, a little lustre but not too blingy,” said Benedetti.

      Benedetti Architects chosen to refurbish RIBA headquarters

      The terrazzo, too, is flecked with gold-coloured specks that increase in quantity as the user ascends up through the building and peak on the members’ floor at the top.
      “The top floor feels like the culmination, the crescendo of the space,” said Benedetti.
      This same idea is repeated across the walls, with the lower floors wrapped in stained-oak slats punctuated by black acoustic panels while on the members’ floor, there’s a more refined profile to the oak slats and the panels are replaced by a brass mesh.
      The new top floor houses a members’ area. Photo by Jim StephensonTravertine is the final key element of the headquarters’ material palette, used in huge slabs and as fluted tiles as well as forming one of the building’s bars.
      “It has a great texture and it has been in use since Roman times, so it’s quite timeless,” the architect explained.
      The building’s trio of roof lanterns, including the two that were newly uncovered, now sit over the David Attenborough rooms – a members’ area that looks out across the tree canopy of St James’ churchyard.
      A red marble bar inspired the colour palette for the adjacent cinema. Photo by Thomas AlexanderThe furniture here was chosen by the architect in collaboration with Soho Home – the interiors arm of members’ club Soho House.
      To reduce heat gain and keep out harmful UV rays, the roof lights are integrated with solar shading windows by Dutch company Eyrise.
      “It’s an interesting new material, from the inside it appears to be clear, but from outside it looks almost black,” Benedetti explained.
      European oakwood panelling features throughout the interior. Photo by Jim StephensonThe members’ floor also houses a new intimate 41-seat cinema, its rich red colour palette informed the choice of red Italian marble for the adjacent bar.
      The larger original cinema was completely updated in partnership with Dolby, integrating a high-tech audio-visual system.
      Meanwhile, the Ray Dolby Room is designed as a versatile event space, where the conventionally wood-panelled walls and moulded ceiling can be quickly transformed into a space for 360-degree wall-mapping projections.
      The Ray Dolby Room can be used for 360-degree wall-mapping projections. Photo by Jordan AndersonBenedetti was recently named as the architect on another high-profile renovation in the British capital – the £20-million revamp of the Grade II-listed RIBA headquarters.
      Previously, the architect was one half of McDowell+Benedetti, which was known for innovative bridge designs including Hull’s Scale Lane Bridge and Castleford Bridge in West Yorkshire before the duo disbanded in 2016.
      The photography is by Luca Piffaretti unless otherwise stated.
      Jorda Anderson, Thomas Alexander, Rory Mulvey, James Newton, and Jim Stephenson.

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