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      Beer-filled baths and straw beds feature in Brussels' Bath & Barley spa

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      Set in a vaulted cellar in the old city centre of Brussels, Bath & Barley is an updated take on a traditional Czech beer spa from design studio WeWantMore.

      Beer spas offer beer-infused spa treatments, most notably beer baths where guests soak in water mixed with hops, malt and medicinal herbs.
      WeWantMore has designed the Bath & Barley spa in BrusselsBath & Barley is the “very first” beer spa in Belgium, according to local practice WeWantMore, offering a modern take on the traditional day spas.
      “Beer spas are a tradition in the Czech Republic but not in Belgium, despite our nation’s rich beer culture,” the studio explained.
      Privacy screens were designed to look like stained glass”We noticed that most Czech beer spas are more beer than spa – dark, lots of neon and an overall pub vibe,” the practice added. “This wasn’t our idea of a soothing wellness experience.”

      “Instead, we decided to create a sense of relaxation and intimacy, but with a link to what distinguishes Bath & Barley: beer, bathing and Belgium’s beer.”
      The spa’s reception is located on the ground floorTo realise this vision, the studio drew on a palette of raw natural materials such as lime stucco, wood and straw, alongside copper and stained glass to evoke Belgium’s medieval beer brewing culture.
      The spa is split across two floors, with the oak bathtubs nestled into the vaulted basement and framed by draft beer machines, where guests can pour themselves a pint.
      A stone tasting counter defines the entrance spaceAfter the bathing ritual, guests can use the spa’s sauna or rest on a staw-upholstered lounge that allows them to “connect with nature”, according to WeWantMore.
      “The design supports social wellbeing and creates a unique escape from the daily rush,” WeWantMore said.

      Space Popular uses green tones throughout Infinity Wellbeing spa in Bangkok

      The spa’s reception is located one level up on the ground floor and is wrapped in curved copper sheets to resemble the kettles used in traditional Belgian breweries.
      Dried barley hangs from the ceiling above a stone tasting counter, where guests can taste a variety of beers and select the hops they want to add to their bath. 
      Steel balustrades depict the different stages of brewing beer”The natural scent of the dried barley branches dangling from the ceiling adds to the sensory experience and sets the mood,” said the studio.
      Ecclesial illustrations from Bath & Barley’s visual identity are integrated throughout the interior in the form of privacy screens, which resemble stained-glass church windows, and steel balustrades that depict the different steps of the brewing process.
      Copper accents feature throughout the interiorBath & Barley has been shortlisted in the leisure and wellness interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
      Other projects in the running include a hotel spa in the Maldives designed by Marcio Kogan of Studio MK27 and a Shenzhen cinema with a copper-lined lobby.
      All images are courtesy of WeWantMore.

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      Melanie Raines designs “weird and funky” interiors for Austin residence

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      Interior designer Melanie Raines has applied her experience in hospitality design to ensure the large spaces of this Austin family home feel cosy, playful and “a bit irreverent”.

      Raines, who recently moved to the Texas capital from LA, was discovered by the clients after they visited the Soho Little Beach House in Malibu and researched the team behind its interiors.
      The home’s large living room features vertical elements including a concrete-block fireplace and a swingAfter connecting on LinkedIn and realising they are now based in the same city, the family asked her to design the interiors of a property they were building.
      The house, designed by local firm Ryan Street Architects, was originally conceived as a 12,500-square-foot (1,160-square-metre) California barn-inspired home with vast living spaces, six bedrooms and a guest house.
      Furniture is arranged to create zones, like a seating area framed by a brown leather sofaHowever, the music-loving homeowners decided that the interiors should better reflect their creative personalities, and provide a “weird and funky” environment for their four children and two dogs.

      “By the time we were brought onto the project, they were hoping to see more of themselves in the interior design: colorful, playful, and artful people who love music and don’t take things too seriously,” Raines told Dezeen.
      Above the bar, a section of mezzanine floor is replaced with a rope net”For this reason, the central design challenge was to marry the architecture of exposed steel and reclaimed wood with an interior that felt fresh, playful, and distinctive.”
      One of the biggest challenges was to make the huge open living room feel intimate and cosy.
      Walnut is used throughout the home and prominently in the kitchenThis was achieved by arranging furniture in different zones, a trick borrowed from Raines’ career in the boutique hospitality sector.
      A large wooden ping-pong table that doubles as a dining surface sits at the centre, accompanied by velvet-upholstered stools.
      The millwork echoes the exterior reclaimed timber cladding visible through large windowsOn the other side, a curve chocolate-brown leather sofa sits atop textured red rugs to create a nook in front of a bar area, which has a built-in pizza oven.
      Above the bar, a cut-out in the floor of a mezzanine balcony is replaced with a rope net to form a hammock.
      The primary bedroom is decorated in dark colours to create a relaxing atmosphereOther vertical elements help to draw the eye up, including the fireplace clad in split-face, industrial concrete blocks and a swing suspended on ropes from the 22-foot (6.7-metre) ceiling.
      To unite the various ground-floor spaces, walnut is repeated across several surfaces and details.
      Colour is used boldly in several of the smaller rooms”Occasionally we joked that it’s the ‘house that walnut built’ – the floors, millwork, and many of the furnishings are a beautiful American black walnut,” Raines said.
      This is especially true in the kitchen, where millwork on the island and built-in cabinetry are all crafted from the material – echoing the reclaimed timber ceilings and the exterior cladding visible through giant windows.
      A green sofa set the retro tone in the dark movie roomWhile colour is used sparingly as accents in the living area, a much bolder approach was taken in other rooms.
      “The clients came to develop a trust in some colour sensibilities that became the moods around the home,” explained Raines. “We landed on a creamy off-white in the main spaces, then got especially playful in the ancillary spaces.”

      Clayton Korte clads Hartford Residence in Austin with limestone and fibre cement

      Dark blues were chosen to create a relaxing atmosphere in the primary bedroom, where a corner is designated for the couple to enjoy tea together, while a retro aesthetic was guided by a green sofa in the near-black movie room.
      Smaller spaces like closets and bathrooms are decorated with a variety of patterned wallpapers, some of which Raines described as “PG-13”.
      Wallpaper chosen for closets and powder rooms includes a design that Raines described as “PG-13″In the guest house, wood panelling paired with tan and orange leathers offers a “1970s lakehouse feel”, and the primary powder bath has a black terrazzo stone ceiling.
      “The atmosphere needed to be creative, inspirational, artful, and un-precious,” said Raines. “Anything ‘fancy’ was immediately thrown out!”
      “It was a reaction on both my part and theirs to the age of over-design, and we were really able to throw some wild ideas out to see what stuck, then remix them to create an intentional – but a bit irreverent – final design,” she added.
      The ombre wallpaper in this powder room is another example of the designer’s playful approachAustin is one of the fastest-growing cities in the US and has seen a spike in residential architecture and interior projects as a result.
      Others that have been completed recently include a gabled family home clad in limestone and fibre cement by Clayton Korte and a residence with dark grey walls and a crisp silhouette by Side Angle Side.
      The photography is by Chase Daniel.

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      Ten homes with arched openings that add architectural interest

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      In this lookbook, we’ve rounded up 10 home interiors that use archways to punctuate spaces and elevate the transition between rooms.

      An arch is a curved structure that spans over an opening, typically to distribute the weight above it. Because of their structural effectiveness, arches were used as early as Roman times for the construction of bridges and aqueducts.
      Arches have been reinterpreted throughout history and are often used to evoke classical or traditional architecture.
      They can add charm and architectural detail to doorways, entrances and passageways in residential spaces, and are often framed with ornate mouldings to create a sense of grandeur.
      Arched openings can also be used to mark transitions between rooms and punctuate otherwise plain walls in contemporary interiors.

      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 statement balustrades, interiors that feature the Eames chair and living spaces with decorative use of tiles.
      Photo is by German SáizConde Duque Apartment, Spain, by Sierra + De La Higuera
      Spanish architecture studio Sierra + De La Higuera refurbished this Madrid apartment by organising open-plan living and dining areas on either side of a wood-panelled entrance hall.
      The studio added two arched openings in wooden frames central to the hall, creating an intimate buffer zone in the open apartment.
      Find out more about Conde Duque Apartment ›
      Photo is by Andrew SnowBroadview Loft, Canada, by StudioAC
      Canadian firm StudioAC inserted a millwork box with a large arched cutout into this open rectangular apartment in Toronto, separating the bedroom from the living space.
      The impactful entry and lowered wall height of the box help to mark the transition from the open living space to the cosy sleeping nook.
      Find out more about Broadview Loft ›
      Photo is by Serena EllerDiplomat’s Apartment, Italy, by 02A
      This one-bed flat in Rome was designed by architecture and interiors studio 02A to adequately display the owner’s extensive collection of antique furniture and objects.
      An arched passage with an integrated bookcase leads from the lounge to an intimate dining area. The change of space is also indicated by the change in pattern on the solid-oak parquet flooring.
      Find out more about the Diplomat’s Apartment ›
      Photo is by Darius PetrulaitisGreetings from Rome, Lithuania, by 2XJ
      Three arches punctuate a structural stone wall that separates social and private spaces in this family apartment in the old town of Vilnius, designed by local architecture firm 2XJ.
      The arches reminded the architects of the Colosseum in Rome, lending the project its tongue-in-cheek name – Greetings from Rome – and leading the studio to clad the wall in the material used for the landmark’s external walls, Italian travertine.
      Find out more about Greetings from Rome ›

      Casa Mille, Italy, by Fabio Fantolino
      For his own apartment, Italian architect Fabio Fantolino overhauled the 1930s extension of a 19th-century palatial building in Turin by introducing accents of bright green and blue colours.
      In the living room an opening with curved corners looks through to a dining area, which is complemented by the rounded corners of the taupe sofa.
      Find out more about Casa Mille ›
      Photo is by Ståle EriksenUpper Wimpole Street Apartment, UK, by Jonathan Tuckey Design
      Architecture studio Jonathan Tuckey Design introduced MDF storage walls with built-in cupboards and arched niches to this townhouse apartment in London.
      The studio also added tall arched openings into the joinery, which were informed by 15th-century oil paintings depicting biblical figures under soaring archways.
      Find out more about Upper Wimpole Street Apartment ›
      Photo is by Kazuhisa KotaHouse in Akishima, Japan, Office M-SA
      This house in Akishima, Tokyo, was arranged by Japanese architecture studio Office M-SA around a series of exposed concrete elements, including a staircase that runs over an archway that separates the kitchen and dining area from the study.
      The concrete elements were designed to be permanent anchor points for the home’s timber wall construction, which can be altered or extended in the future to suit the owner’s needs.
      Find out more about House in Akishima ›
      Photo is by Michael SinclairA Room for Two, UK, by Studio Ben Allen
      Built inside a flat in London’s Barbican Estate, this plywood structure designed by architecture firm Studio Ben Allen transforms the room into a pair of bedrooms and studies for two children.
      The cut-out arches, which mimic the barrel-vaulted shape of the housing estate’s terrace apartments, indicate the entrances to each child’s space.
      Find out more about A Room for Two ›
      Photo is by Adrià Goula SardàMaison à Colombages, France, by 05 AM Arquitectura
      Spanish studio 05 AM Arquitectura aimed to incorporate a contemporary aesthetic while maintaining the traditional features of this 19th-century house located near Paris.
      The studio removed partitions in the archways between the kitchen, dining and living spaces to connect the spaces and improve natural lighting while retaining the ornate wall mouldings that frame the openings.
      Find out more about Maison à Colombages ›
      Photo is by José HeviaPenthouse, Spain by PMAA
      Architecture studio PMAA divided the living space of this Barcelona apartment with partition walls punctuated by a series of arched openings.
      A large modular sofa dominates the living space and morphs around the columns of the archways. The geometric repetition of the arch was informed by the apartment’s vaulted ceiling and arched windows.
      Find out more about Penthouse ›
      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 statement balustrades, interiors that feature the Eames chair and living spaces with decorative use of tiles.

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      Laila Architecture centres Tel Aviv apartment with birch plywood “iceberg”

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      A birch plywood storage volume that resembles an iceberg helps to divide the living spaces inside this Tel Aviv apartment revamped by Laila Architecture.

      Decked out in natural materials and pale hues, the Iceberg apartment is designed to be a serene haven in the city for its retired owners.
      The Iceberg apartment is arranged around a birch ply storage unitLocal practice Laila Architecture kick-started the home’s renovation by removing all the existing partition walls to form a brighter, more open floor plan.
      At its heart now sits an eight-metre-long birch plywood volume, which the practice likens to an iceberg due to its large, angular form.
      The unit includes a couple of display niches and a tiny drinks barThe volume effectively forms a partition to separate the open-plan living area from the private quarters, creating a narrow corridor that leads to the bedroom on one side.

      Here, the unit is fitted with slender storage cupboards while on the lounge-facing side it houses a niche for displaying art, a trio of bookshelves and a hatch door that can be flipped down to reveal a tiny drinks bar.
      A sideboard with an integrated sofa runs along one side of the living areaThe apartment’s sizeable open-plan living area integrates a kitchen finished with birch ply cabinetry and an eight-metre-long sideboard that runs along the length of the room.
      A sofa is built into one end of the sideboard, while the remainder can provide extra storage, seating or a low table where the owners’ grandchildren can enjoy their dinner.
      Birch plywood was also used to form the kitchen cabinetryThe apartment’s private quarters are slightly gloomier and contain two beige-coloured bathrooms alongside the principal bedroom which, in keeping with the rest of the scheme, was rendered in natural lime plaster.
      As this side of the apartment has less access to natural light, the practice installed brightening white terrazzo floors.
      The same tiles also feature on the public side of the apartment but in a warmer sandy hue.
      Natural lime plaster was washed over the bedroom wallsAs part of the renovation, Laila Architecture opened up the apartment’s two balconies to give the owners space to indulge in their love of gardening while creating a small buffer between the home and the hot Israeli sun.
      Iceberg has been shortlisted in the apartment interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
      The bathrooms were painted a complementary shade of beigeOther projects in the running include a home in Gdańsk that “gently cocoons” its inhabitants in timber joinery and a live-work space in London belonging to the founders of environmental communication agency Earthrise Studio.
      The photography is by Mikaela Burstow.

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      GRT Architects combines oak and mosaic tiles for East Village Apartment renovation

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      New York-based GRT Architects has rearranged the layout of an apartment in the East Village and added warm materials during its renovation.

      The studio undertook the project in Onyx Court, a six-storey corner Beaux-Arts structure on Second Avenue built in 1902 by Harde & Short.
      The East Village Apartment renovation involved relocating the kitchen to a brighter spaceGoals for the renovation included reorganising rooms to improve sightlines through the apartment and optimising the natural light available in each room.
      “Our renovation completely rethought the apartment’s layout while preserving its turn-of-the-century disposition,” said the GRT Architects team. “The space is neither more open nor closed than when we found it.”
      The kitchen, living and dining areas are all connected but intended to be read as separate roomsThe first move was to straighten a corridor from the entrance, to provide a view of an east-facing window from the front door.

      To enable this, a shallow-arched opening was created in a load-bearing brick wall – the only structural change made during the overhaul.
      A full storage wall in the living room includes a panel that hides the TV”The journey down this corridor celebrates the building’s irregularity with asymmetrical niches and rounded openings in thick plaster walls,” GRT Architects said.
      This journey ends at the semi-open kitchen, which was relocated from diagonally across the apartment, to an area with better light and improved integration into the rest of the home.
      A textured sliding door reveals a small office behindAn island clad in oxblood-coloured tiles sits at the centre, surrounded by white oak cabinetry with oversized handles and a satin white countertop.
      Chequerboard two-inch mosaic tiling across the kitchen floor ends below a storage unit suspended from brass bars, clearly defining this space from the adjacent dining room.
      The primary bedroom now sits where the kitchen once wasA minimal brass pendant hangs above the walnut dining table, while the living room is found through a cased opening and also demarcated by a strip of herringbone parquet flooring.
      Largely decorated in a cooler grey hue compared to the warmer tones elsewhere, the living room features accents like a yellow armchair that matches the upholstery of the dining chairs, and a storage wall backed with sienna-coloured panels.
      Custom built-in closets were added to the bedroom”We organised this space around a full wall of built-in shelves which includes a sliding panel that conceals a television,” said GRT Architects.
      “A series of complementary colours emphasise the relief of this composition while oak pulls tie it back to the kitchen.”
      The second bedroom acts as both an office and a sleeping area thanks to a retractable murphy bedTucked behind a sliding textured glass door, a small office continues the same sienna shade across all four walls.
      The primary bedroom is located in place of the old kitchen and includes custom built-in closets – one occupying the shaft of a defunct dumbwaiter.

      GRT Architects blends old and new at renovated Brooklyn townhouse

      An adjacent bathroom combines a variety of hard and soft materials, ranging from flecked terrazzo and green mosaic tiles to oak cabinet doors that visually tie back to the kitchen.
      In the second bedroom, a murphy bed enables the space to be used as another office when needed.
      Materials in the bathroom echo those in the kitchenA powder room was also slotted into the floor plan as part of the reorganisation.
      “We found space for this small room by greatly reducing circulation space without compromising privacy,” the team said.
      The apartment is now organised along a straight corridorGRT Architects, founded by Tal Schori and Rustam-Marc Mehta in 2014, has worked on a variety of projects in New York City – from a Brooklyn townhouse overhaul to a cosy bakery.
      More recently, the firm has expanded further afield, completing a cedar bungalow above marshland on the Connecticut shoreline and a black house with huge triangular windows in Dutchess County.
      The photography is by Nicole Franzen.
      Project credits:
      Design architect and architect of record: GRT Architects: Rustam Mehta, Tal Schori, Pablo Taberna, Chelsea StittMEP engineer: ANZStructural engineer: Old Structures

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      Ten inventive bookshop interiors designed to enhance the browsing experience

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      A second-hand bookstore styled like a greengrocer and an outlet modelled on old libraries are among the projects collected in our latest lookbook, which explores bookshop interior designs.

      Architects and designers across the globe have created bookstores with striking interiors that offer more than just a place to buy things.
      From a hall of zigzagged staircases in China to a yellow-hued grotto in east London, here are 10 bookshop interiors that provide immersive and unusual browsing experiences.
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring brutalist interiors, light-filled atriums and walk-in wardrobes.
      Photo is by Hu YanyunDeja Vu Recycle Store, China, by Offhand Practice

      Chinese architecture studio Offhand Practice designed a second-hand bookshop in Shanghai to mimic the interior of a greengrocer by displaying items in familiar supermarket-style crates.
      Created to counter the “shabby” image commonly associated with second-hand retailers, Deja Vu Recycle Store features a light interior defined by stone off-cut mosaic tiles and natural pine.
      “[The project] breaks the stereotypical image of a second-hand store and erases the ritualistic impression of a traditional bookstore full of full-height bookshelves,” said Offhand Practice.
      Find out more about Deja Vu Recycle Store ›
      Photo is by Jonas Bjerre-PoulsenNew Mags, Denmark, by Norm Architects
      Coffee table book distributor New Mags commissioned Norm Architects to design the interior of its flagship store in Copenhagen, which nods to the serenity of old libraries.
      Natural oak panels were used to create towering display walls for books. Various publications are also presented on stone plinths that echo a looming, organically shaped stone sculpture by local artist Josefine Winding.
      Find out more about New Mags ›
      Photo is by Shao FengChongqing Zhongshuge Bookstore, China, by X+Living
      A maze of intricate staircases, amplified by a mirrored ceiling, forms a dramatic backdrop for this bookshop in Chongqing by Shanghai-based studio X+Living.
      Thanks to their wide treads, the stairs double as reading nooks for customers, while the overall stepped outline created in the central space intends to reference Chongqing’s urban skyline.
      Find out more about Chongqing Zhongshuge Bookstore ›

      Photo is by Žiga Lovšin
      Book Centre Trieste, Italy, by SoNo Arhitekti
      Another store interior that takes cues from its setting, this Trieste bookshop features boxy shelving that was informed by the diamond brick patterns of the nearby Trieste National Hall.
      Slovenian studio SoNo Arhitekti repeated this motif on the shop’s two sofas, which have grid-patterned upholstery. It also reserved space for chunky display podiums and a children’s reading corner.
      Find out more about Book Centre Trieste ›
      Photo is by NakanimamasakhlisiThey Said Books, Georgia, by Lado Lomitashvili
      They Said Books is a bookshop-cum-cafe in Tbilisi with an interior characterised by Tetris cube-style shelving, yellowed terrazzo tiles and bubble-shaped reflective wall sculptures.
      Georgian designer Lado Lomitashvili created the store, which is housed inside a 1930s building, to support the “cultural development” of the country’s capital city.
      Find out more about They Said Books ›
      Photo is courtesy of Pulse OnSFC Shangying Cinema Luxe, China, by Pulse On
      Hong Kong-based firm Pulse On was informed by the strings of musical instruments when designing the delicate interior of this Shanghai bookshop, which is also the lobby of a cinema.
      Thin metal slats extend vertically from floor to ceiling to create bookshelves, while integrated lighting bathes various seating areas in a soft glow.
      “We wanted to create a zen resting space for the guests through the mix of ‘strings’ and ‘books’,” explained the designers. “All of this boils down to simplicity and purity of lines – no highly-contrasting colours are used.”
      Find out more about SFC Shangying Cinema Luxe ›
      Photo is courtesy of SelgasCanoLibreria, UK, by SelgasCano
      Author Jorge Luis Borges’ 1940s tale The Library of Babel informed the winding, cavernous interior of Libreria, a London bookshop designed by Spanish studio SelgasCano.
      Handmade shelves were crafted in irregular shapes by artists from the Slade School of Fine Art using unfinished recycled wood. They house the store’s many books, which are arranged thematically rather than categorised traditionally, in order to encourage “chance encounters while browsing”.
      Find out more about Libreria ›
      Photo is by CreatAR ImagesDuoyun Bookstore, China, by Wutopia Lab and Office ZHU
      Five different colours delineate the zones inside this Huangyan bookstore, which includes reproductions of rare books exhibited in a tall, wood-panelled stairwell.
      Duoyun Bookstore was designed by Wutopia Lab and Office ZHU to feature layers of perforated metal on its facade – a move that saw two disused buildings renovated to create the shop.
      Find out more about Duoyun Bookstore ›
      Photo is by Arch-ExistXinglong Lake Citic Bookstore, China, by MUDA Architects
      Chinese studio MUDA Architects topped a lakeside bookstore in Chengdu with a roof shaped like an upturned book that creates a sweeping ceiling on the interior.
      Large rectilinear windows are positioned at the edge of the lake to offer views of the surrounding scenery, while the glass extends beneath the waterline to create a peaceful and immersive setting for reading.
      Find out more about Xinglong Lake Citic Bookstore ›
      Photo is by Fernando GuerraLivraria Cultura, Brazil, by Studio MK27
      The Livraria Cultura – or Culture Bookshop – was designed by Studio MK27 in Brazil’s São Paulo to be “a bookstore of the 21st century” that encourages social interactions.
      A vast double-height room is defined by wooden bleachers that span the 21-metre width of the space, where customers are invited to stay and read or meet up even after they have bought their books.
      Find out more about Livraria Cultura ›
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring colourful living rooms, decorative ceilings and deliberately unfinished interiors.

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      “Maximalism is a manifestation of a desire for a different world”

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      A return to the frivolous aesthetics of the British Empire tells us that all is not right in the world, writes Samuel Johnson-Schlee, author of the book Living Rooms.

      In a moment where climate breakdown, economic uncertainty, geopolitical crisis, and many other things threaten to destroy the things that the middle classes take for granted, there appears to be a renewed interest in the extravagant, the ornate, and the rococo.
      For instance, Lulu Lytle, whose design studio Soane Britain – named presumably after the influential architect John Soane – is remarkably upfront in its use of an imperial aesthetic; it even has a range called Egyptomania.
      It makes sense that Boris Johnson chose this designer for his controversial Downing Street flat refurbishment, given that they share a nostalgia for an era of British power and colonial plunder. Why though, in a moment where it feels like there is more awareness than ever of the violence and injustice wrought by the British Empire, are we returning to such an aesthetic?
      We return to the ornate for some of the same things that were sought from similar aesthetics in the past

      On 15 October, the Leighton House Museum re-opened in Holland Park after a major refit. Previously something of a secret, the museum’s publicity machine is now in full swing. The house of a neo-classical Victorian painter, Frederic Leighton, was designed to reflect his enthusiasm for that generically foreign Victorian obsession, The Orient.
      The most magnificent room in the house is the so-called Arab Hall. This room was an extension to the house built between 1877 and 1881, designed to display textiles and ceramics gathered from Leighton’s trips to Turkey, Egypt, and Syria.
      Some of these objects were purchased, others were “procured” by a friend in the East India Company. A wild array of tiles cover the walls and beneath the golden-domed ceiling, a small fountain burbles. This should not be mistaken for a simple marker of admiration for different cultures – as the great critic of orientalism Edward Said puts it: “European culture gained in strength and identity by setting itself off against the Orient”.
      Why are we drawn back to this aesthetic? It is too simple to attribute it to nostalgia alone and should be seen in the broader context of the trend for maximalism. We return to the ornate for some of the same things that were sought from similar aesthetics in the past.

      Studio Job opts for maximalism inside new Antwerp headquarters

      If you scroll through Instagram you will find many of the elements of the bourgeois home of the nineteenth century. Pot plants, gallery walls, velvet, wallpaper, lace: the basic language of the fashionable urban middle classes from the early decades of industrialised capitalism are making a comeback. Perhaps we are doing something akin to the Orientalists, setting modern life off against an impossibly distant other in order to better come to terms with the world we live in.
      The designers House of Hackney are purveyors of a pattern-clashing William Morris redux; it is as if Dennis Severs’ house had been processed through a succession of lurid Instagram filters. However, they do not tend to dwell on their obvious historical influences.
      On their website, their Wallpaper Plantasia, a multi-coloured riff on the landscapes of French Toile du Jouy, is described as: “our vision of an idyllic landscape, completely untouched by man”. Instead of claiming authenticity via craftsmanship or historical detail, they are reproducing the back-to-nature fantasies of people like philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau who, reeling at the alienation of the coming Industrial Age, idealised the life of the pre-cultural ‘savage’ [sic].
      There is also an element of the surreal in the current trend for maximalism
      This untethered enthusiasm for an imagined naturalness recalls bourgeois Victorian crazes for natural history, such as the vogue for ferns known as pteridomania, which launched dozens of designs, including the decoration on a custard cream biscuit. The House of Hackney designers wear their romanticism on their sleeves, their expensive products offer a way of introducing a reconstructed pastoral life within the confines of an East London home.
      There is also an element of the surreal in the current trend for maximalism. In a recent article on this site, the live-in premises of Studio Job present what the designer Job Smeets refers to as a ‘visual assault’.
      In the Design Museum, the exhibition Objects of Desire draws our attention to the history of surrealism and interior design. Particularly striking are the dream-like interiors that Salvador Dalí helped design for Edward James’ Sussex home Monkton House. Plush colour-clashing rooms include chairs with hands, telephones with Lobsters on top, and Mae West’s lips transformed into a sofa.
      One of the best objects in the exhibition is a green carpet decorated with the footprints of James’ wife after leaving the bath. The effect of such extravagance is to create a kind of dream world, a space where it seems that the rules of reality are suspended and that all of your wishes might be fulfilled.
      We create a space in which we can retreat from all the terror outside
      We are looking for the same things in this aesthetic as the bourgeois did in their nineteenth-century apartments. The philosopher Walter Benjamin compared the homes of wealthy city-dwellers in the nineteenth century to the inside of a compass case, the body held in place by folds of violet velour. He described the wildly busy world of knickknacks, doilies, chintz and velvet as if it were the manifestation of a kind of religion, calling these objects ‘fallen household deities’ arranged to protect the householder from the violence and cruelty of the world outside. The same world that these people were profiting from.
      By cultivating somewhere to live that is dream-like, natural, or utterly different from our everyday lives, we create a space in which we can retreat from all the terror outside. And just as was the case in the nineteenth century, the more money you spend the more protected you can become, hidden amongst your excessive home décor.

      Ten maximalist interiors that are saturated with colours and patterns

      I’m not making a judgment, I am as susceptible to a brightly coloured wall and a clashing floral pattern as the next person, but it is important to recognise that even the most apparently frivolous design is shaped by the present moment. In contrast to the optimism that accompanied the slick minimalism of the nineties, the terrifying situation that we live in today has conjured a desire for the wealthy to hide themselves away.
      But it is more than simple escape that drives this trend – I think unconsciously we are reaching for something. Maximalism is a manifestation of a desire for a different world, and if we can reflect critically on the kinds of things we are reaching for, we might also be able to find greater impetus to act to prevent the coming of the world that is so frightening.
      Sam Johnson-Schlee is an academic and writer living by the sea in North Essex. He teaches Town Planning at London South Bank University. His first book, Living Rooms, is published by Peninsula Press on 10 November this year.

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      Weathered-steel staircase wraps plant-filled atrium at Midtown Workplace

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      Weathered-steel balconies with cascading plants wrap the skylit atrium at the centre of this office in Brisbane, refurbished by Australian studio Cox Architecture.

      Named Midtown Workplace, the office occupies the top nine floors of a development that has been created by merging two separate towers in the Australian capital into a single building.
      The project has been shortlisted in the large workspace interior category of Dezeen Awards 2022.
      Cox Architecture has refurbished the Midtown Workplace in BrisbaneUsing the idea of connectivity between the two towers as a starting point, Cox Architecture created a stepped concrete auditorium at the base of the office called “The Pit”, with bridge links above based on the idea of an internal high street.
      “The tower is a story of two halves, two existing towers connected as one, old structures connected with new,” said the studio.

      It features an atrium with cascading plants”Our approach to the workplace celebrated this, with the void and bridge links positioned as the connecting piece between two existing towers,” it continued.
      At either side of Midtown Workplace’s central, skylit atrium, the cores of the existing towers have been used to house circulation and smaller meeting rooms, surrounded by areas of flexible workspace.
      A stepped concrete auditorium sits at the baseBanks of desks and booths are complemented by more informal seating areas at different points along the office’s “high street”, such as benches installed alongside planters and stools overlooking the atrium.
      “The new workplace explores an alternative to standard workspaces, creating a diverse and blended model that is supported by a high proportion of hackable, collaborative areas,” said Cox Architecture.

      Zaha Hadid Architects and Cox Architecture reveal visuals of Sydney airport

      “Thirty per cent of the primary work points are moveable, affording teams complete autonomy and control over their workspace,” it continued.
      In The Pit, curved concrete amphitheatre-style seating dotted with planters faces a presentation space with views of the city as its backdrop. It is overlooked by all of the atrium’s balconies, creating a “magnet for cultural exchange.”
      Cox Architecture used a material palette with earthy tonesMidtown Workplace’s material palette adopts earthy tones drawn from the exposed concrete and orangey-brown weathered steel.
      The bare concrete is complemented by exposed metalwork and services across the office ceilings.
      The ceilings have exposed metalwork and servicesOther projects that have been shortlisted in the large workspace interior category of Dezeen Awards 2022 include the Design District Bureau Club in London by Roz Barr Architects, and the Dyson Global HQ in Singapore by M Moser Associates.
      Elsewhere, Cox Architecture is currently developing an airport in Sydney with Zaha Hadid Architects and recently completed The National Maritime Museum of China, which features a cluster of hull-like roofs.

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