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      Office S&M injects bold colours into renovated Mo-tel House in London

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      An abundance of bright hues and recycled materials were used by London studio Office S&M to renovate a Georgian townhouse in Islington.

      Mo-tel House now has a kitchen at the front
      The Mo-tel House project involved remodelling the lower ground floor of a home owned by the founder of online fashion rental service On Loan and her family.
      The company promotes reusing garments rather than buying new, so the architects took a similar approach when selecting materials for the renovation.

      Rearranging the layout created a space for dining to the rear

      These include melted, discarded milk bottles and chopping boards for bathroom counters; leftover marble chips for kitchen worktops; and crushed bricks for ceramic pendant lamps.
      “Mo-tel challenged us to see reuse as a design tool for bold new ideas, and we found value and opportunities in materials that would otherwise have been overlooked,” said Office S&M founding partner Catrina Stewart.

      Custom furniture pieces include a seating nook for the dining area, which also incorporates storage
      Overhauling the terraced north London home began with opening up the dark and cramped space at the home’s entrance level.
      Removing the internal dividing wall allowed light to enter the living area from both front and back elevations, and also afforded a change of layout. The kitchen was moved to the front of the building, and a dining and seating area inserted towards the rear.

      A wide variety of colours are applied across the open-plan space
      Larger design elements were treated like scaled-down architectural features. For example, a pale pink structure with a double-pitched “roof” was added to provide a dining bench, seating nook and storage unit.
      In the kitchen, a light blue volume with a rounded top forms a pantry and acts as a visual anchor for green terrazzo countertops made from the recycled marble.

      Pink and green house designed by Office S&M to offer antidote to London’s “dire rental market”

      An apple-green shade was applied to the ceiling, window recesses and a band around the upper walls, complementing the surface of a pill-shaped dining table.
      Office S&M, founded by Stewart and partner Hugh McEwen, is no stranger to colour. Its previous projects in London include a house extension with bright yellow accents and a property painted Millennial pink.

      A ground floor bathroom pairs pale pink and dark tiles
      At Mo-tel House, the studio also chose teal cupboards, a pink tile kitchen backsplash, and tinted mirrors throughout the home.
      Pale timber floorboards are laid diagonally and contrast with the brightly coloured surfaces, which extend to hardware like radiators, light switches, electrical outlets and door handles.

      A colourful staircase leads up to another bathroom
      The renovation, totalling 55 square metres, also encompassed bathrooms on two levels that are stacked at the back of the building.
      On the lower ground floor, the first is reached through a pink utility room and is lined with dark tiles.

      The ground-floor bathroom features yellow accents and recycled plastic counters
      The second bathroom is reached by climbing a staircase decorated in pink and yellow. This washroom was reconfigured to fit a shower as well as a bathtub, and now features the recycled plastic surfaces made from recycled plastic.
      Yellow tile grout was chosen to match the bathroom’s window frame and shower curtain, while the rest of the space is white.
      Photography is by French + Tye.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Office S&MEngineer: Foster StructuresContractor: McEllingott BuildingFurniture build: McEllingott BuildingKitchen surfaces: In OperaRecycled plastic surfaces: Smile Plastics

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      New Dezeen Lookbooks section presents curated picks of home interiors from Dezeen's archive

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      Dezeen has launched Dezeen Lookbooks, a new section featuring roundups of home interiors and decor trends to help designers and design lovers plan their projects.

      Published each Saturday, the visually driven Dezeen Lookbooks present roundups of images of contemporary interiors selected from our vast archive of over 750,000 images.
      Each roundup is curated by the Dezeen editorial team and addresses a different room and theme.

      Top: an image from our cosy living rooms lookbook. Above: a project from the peaceful bedrooms lookbook

      Lookbooks published so far feature living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms.
      Dezeen Lookbooks is a response to the surge of interest in home design since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen people spending much more time at home.
      As a result, web traffic to Dezeen posts about home interiors has soared.

      This Barcelona apartment features in our colourful kitchens lookbook
      Popular Lookbook stories we’ve published over the last few months include our showcases of living rooms with calm interiors, bold bathroom designs and thirty kitchens designed by architects.
      We’ll be adding more image-led roundups over the coming weeks and plan to expand the section to include other types of interiors plus trend reports in future.
      Interior design fans can also check out our sections on residential interiors, apartments and houses.

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      O-office Architects transforms abandoned factory buildings into Chinese tea museum

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      O-office Architects has converted several buildings on a tea plantation near Guangzhou, China, into a cultural centre featuring a rooftop garden wrapped in bamboo screens.As part of the (Re)forming Duichuan Tea Yards project, local firm O-office Architects was tasked with revitalising three disused buildings at the plantation in the Gaoming District of Guangdong Province.

      O-office Architects has converted three factory buildings into an exhibition space
      The site in Duichuan Village was established as a tea plantation in the 1950s and comprises more than 300 acres of gently rolling hills dotted with small lakes.
      O-office Architects was approached to help transform three factory buildings into an exhibition space in 2017, after the tea yard had been abandoned and fallen into disrepair when the demand for its tea declined at the start of the 21st century.

      The buildings are decorated with bamboo screens. Photo is by Huang Chengqiang

      The exhibition space is located at the heart of the reestablished production facility, which will soon begin harvesting its first new crop of Duichuan tea.
      The renovated buildings now contain exhibits offering visitors a historic overview of Duichuan tea culture, alongside a fine-dining restaurant and the tea yard’s offices.

      A new stone podium wrapping the buildings frames views of the landscape
      The three 1980s edifices are situated on a small island in an artificial reservoir that also contains woodland, with low-rise former workers’ housing nestled amongst the trees.
      Exposed concrete structures and narrow-framed steel windows were retained to evoke the buildings’ industrial heritage. The architects also sought to enhance the connection between the former production spaces and the surrounding plantation.

      The complex is surrounded by several ponds and trees
      “We tried to find a simple spatial prototype for the reconstruction of the site to load the envisioned cultural settlement,” said the architects in a project statement.
      “The design gradually approached a concept of the mixture of ‘pavilion’ and ‘podium’,” the studio added. “We tried to evolve the prototype of the ‘pavilion’ into a settlement that encompasses production and detour.”

      Roof gardens are connected by bridges
      To house the main cultural and public spaces dedicated to the history of tea production, a new podium made from blocks of dark local granite was constructed around the base of the existing buildings.
      This structure functions as a viewing platform and contains openings that redefine the relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces, lending the facility a more porous and welcoming character.

      The podium is composed of blocks of dark local granite
      New roof gardens on top of the three factory buildings are connected by bridges so visitors can traverse the site whilst taking in aerial views of the plantation.
      The garden courtyards are lined with bamboo screens that also extend onto staircases at the corners of the buildings. The stairs connect the rooftop with the stone viewing platform, creating a route that leads visitors all the way around and over the site.

      The factories’ original concrete structures are exposed inside
      “This connection creates a vertical yet horizontal promenade that wraps around the original production space,” the architects pointed out.
      “We hope this tour can evoke a sense of ‘in search of a lost time’ [whilst] at the same time acting as a response against the rapid industrialisation of modern urban and rural areas.”

      O-office Architects reinterprets traditional Chinese courtyard house in concrete and steel

      The blending of the industrial buildings with the plantation is enhanced by landscaping that includes several ponds and trees that reach through apertures in the stone podium.

      The new podium contains public spaces
      O-office Architects was established by He Jianxiang and Jiang Ying in Guangzhou in 2007. The firm works on projects across various scales, from urban design and architecture to the exhibition and furniture design.
      Several of O-office Architects’ projects focus on renovation and conserving the architectural history of the Pearl River Delta. It previously worked on a residence inspired by vernacular courtyard houses found in the region.
      Photography is by Zhang Chao unless stated.
      Project credits:
      Architect: O-office ArchitectsClient: Midea GroupDesign team: He Jianxiang, Jiang Ying, Dong Jingyu, Huang Chengqiang, Zhang Wanyi, Cai Lehuan, Wu Yifei, He Zhenzhong, He Wenkang and Peng WeisenStructural consultant: Situ Ying, Luo Qiyao and Luo JiajieM.E. consultant: Bun Cong M&E DesignV.I. Design: TheWhy art x design

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      One week to go until entries for Dezeen Awards 2021 open

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      Dezeen Awards 2021 will open for entries on 2 February, with the discounted early-entry period running until 31 March. Enter your project or studio from next week on and sign up to the Dezeen Awards newsletter to receive more information!Now in its fourth year, Dezeen Awards celebrates the world’s best architecture, interiors and design and has become the benchmark for international design excellence and the ultimate accolade for architects and designers everywhere.
      The low entry prices are designed to attract smaller studios and avoid categories being dominated by large companies that can afford to enter multiple categories, making Dezeen Awards one of the most affordable programmes in the industry.

      Every longlisted and shortlisted project gets its own page on the site, and shortlisted projects will be given full editorial coverage on Dezeen.
      Shortlisted entries are also automatically entered into the Dezeen Awards public vote, where the projects and studios that are most popular with or readers will win a special certificate.
      All Dezeen Awards winners receive a bespoke hand-made trophy designed by Atelier NL and a certificate.
      Interested? Below is a reminder of our key dates so you don’t miss your chance to enter this year:
      2 February 2021
      Dezeen Awards 2021 opens for entries. Make sure you’re subscribed to the Dezeen Awards newsletter to receive updates!
      31 March 2021
      Early entry deadline. If you want to save money, submit your entry before this date.
      2 June 2021
      Standard entry deadline. This is your last chance to enter at the standard entry price!
      9 June 2021
      Late entry deadline. If you can’t get your entry in by the standard entry, don’t worry! But the entry fees will be higher.
      August 2021
      This is when we’ll publish the architecture, interiors and design longlists. Every longlisted project gets its own page on the Dezeen Awards website.
      See the 2020 longlists ›
      Early September 2021
      This is when you’ll find out if your project or product made it onto the shortlist. Every shortlisted project gets its own page on the Dezeen Awards website and also gets a dedicated write-up on Dezeen.
      See the 2020 shortlists ›
      Late September 2021
      The public vote opens. Which projects do Dezeen’s readers think are the best?
      October 2021
      We unveil the winners of the public vote.
      See the 2020 public vote winners ›
      November 2021
      Time to celebrate the best architecture, interiors and design projects and studios of the year! We announce the winners of Dezeen Awards 2021.
      See the 2020 winners ›
      Questions?
      If you have any questions about Dezeen Awards 2021 you can contact the team by emailing awards@dezeen.com. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Dezeen Awards newsletter to be sure of getting regular updates. More

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      MWAI designs Mayfair apartment as if it were a hotel suite

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      From a mini-fridge to a folding desk and a concealed make-up mirror, this compact London apartment designed by local firm MWAI features a variety of space-saving solutions.Commissioned by a busy, professional client who works internationally, the architects were asked to transform a 37-square-metre, one-bedroom apartment in a Mayfair mansion block into a minimalist “pied-à-terre”.

      Top image: an open-plan area includes the kitchen, living room and workspace. Above: neutral colours were used throughout
      “We thought accommodating sleeping, living, dining and working in a 37-square-metre apartment while also delivering the feel of a spacious interior was a very challenging brief,” said the practice.
      “We decided we should not look at it like a residential project but rather like a hotel suite, where all functions are carefully and discreetly planned to provide a functional response to business and leisure travelling needs.”

      The apartment’s built-in storage includes a folding desk

      Finished in a palette of natural materials like wood and stone, the apartment features an abundance of bespoke, built-in storage.
      According to MWAI, the main challenge was to maximise the limited amount of useable space in the apartment. Restricted by sloping ceilings, the apartment had a poor existing layout and was in need of renovation.

      Walls in the bedroom are painted grey
      In order to create a more efficient footprint in the London apartment, the practice began by removing and replacing all of the walls, floors and ceilings.
      Particular attention was paid to minimising the footprint of the bathroom and kitchen by placing them into the centre of the plan, sandwiched between the living room and bedroom.

      The bathroom walls are finished in waterproof cement
      A wet room is now accessed from the bedroom, with a pivoting flush door used to separate the rooms.

      Freaks Architecture divides tiny Parisian pied-à-terre with mobile storage unit

      The bathroom walls are clad in a waterproof cement polymer render, providing a textured finish that is enhanced by recessed lighting. Sleek industrial fixtures and sanitaryware were chosen to offset the textured walls.

      The kitchen conceals appliances and features sleek hardware
      To maximise floor space in the kitchen, the architects concealed units and equipment, including a mini-fridge, behind panels in the wall lining.
      A kitchen island accommodates the hob and oven and also doubles as a dining table.

      Light flooring runs throughout the apartment
      A wall of bespoke storage is built into the bedroom, including a make-up cabinet with a concealed mirror and clothes steamer.
      In the living room, custom-made cabinets with an integrated folding desk are installed along one wall and furnishings are kept to a minimum. A simple fireplace made from Vicenza stone acts as a focal point for the space.

      The stone fireplace is a focal point
      Other architecture firms that have created clever, space-saving solutions for compact apartments include Ukrainian firm Ater Architects, which hung curtains in place of walls in a Kyiv flat.
      In Madrid, Spanish studio Husos Arquitectos designed a 46-square-metre plywood-lined apartment that features a vertical garden and sleeping pod.
      Photography is by Billy Bolton.

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      Buckley Gray Yeoman gives Panagram office in London a “retro-pop aesthetic”

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      UK architecture studio Buckley Gray Yeoman has revived a 1980s office building in Central London, creating colourful spaces using painted ductwork, translucent curtains and speckled terrazzo.The newly opened Panagram encompasses 4,830 square metres in the city’s Clerkenwell neighbourhood and offers rentable office spaces across multiple levels.

      Buckley Gray Yeoman’s renovation of the 1980s building included creating an open and informal reception area
      Using the original building’s pink granite cladding as a design cue, the team at Buckley Gray Yeoman devised a colourful scheme for the interior renovation to create a relaxed setting.
      “A retro-pop aesthetic has replaced the corporate look and feel of the building as physical and metaphorical barriers are broken down to bring about a more convivial and lively set of workspaces,” said the architecture studio.

      The foyer features subway-tiled seating but no reception desk

      To modernise the existing architecture, glazing was added along the ground floor facing Goswell Road – a thoroughfare that is home to store locations of several prominent design brands.
      Visitors enter from the street into a large open-plan foyer, furnished with custom seating elements but no traditional reception desk – hosts emerge from a behind a translucent curtain instead.

      A koi carp pond sits in the centre of the tiled bench
      The sculptural seats include a plinth clad in white New York City subway tiles, with a koi carp pond and a bright yellow steel column at its centre. Another is wrapped in leather and surrounds a ficus tree.

      Fashion Street by Buckley Gray Yeoman

      “We have tried to create an almost gallery-type space upon entry; with a series of beautiful objects set amongst planting and trees,” said Oliver Bayliss, director at Buckley Gray Yeoman.
      “These accents continue throughout the building and provide moments of joy that will hopefully lift the spirits of the people who pass through.”

      A wooden staircase with bleacher-style seating creates a multi-purpose space
      A wooden staircase that incorporates bleacher-style seating and another ficus curves down to the garden-level, combining circulation space with an informal work, meeting or auditorium area.
      Lifts illuminated with coloured lighting connect the expansive rentable office spaces on the levels above, and ductwork is painted pink and blue on alternating levels.

      Lifts to the upper office levels are illuminated with coloured lighting
      On the second floor, Buckley Gray Yeoman has designed a workspace to demonstrate the potential of Panagram’s spatial offering.
      This model office combines pale timber, soft colours and translucent materials to continue the playful aesthetic seen downstairs.

      Buckley Gray Yeoman’s showcase office for Panagram features a pale palette with pastel colours
      A casual meeting area is enclosed by a sheer yellow curtain and furnished with comfy chairs, while private booths are lined in grey felt.
      Drapes are also used to partition the wood-lined reception area and the green-themed kitchen if needed. In the bathrooms, white subway tiles are paired with tinted speckled terrazzo.

      Colour continues in the green kitchen, which can be partitioned off with a translucent grey curtain
      The open-plan office layout benefits from plenty of natural light, and is peppered with potted plants. More greenery can be found on terraces that offer City of London views.
      “It’s easy to look at a building like this and assume you have to start again,” said Bayliss.
      “We saw an opportunity to create something really different and highly sustainable. Panagram has great volume and therefore great natural light, which in turn allows the building to be extremely desirable and flexible.”

      Panagram is located in London’s Clerkenwell neighbourhood, facing onto Goswell Road
      Buckley Gray Yeoman, which has offices in London and Bristol, is known for its imaginative conversion and restoration projects. The employee-owned firm has also turned a fire-damaged former market hall in Shoreditch into Corten-clad university offices, and was profiled as part of Dezeen’s Virtual Design Festival last year.
      Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.
      Project credits:Client: DorringtonArchitect: Buckley Gray YeomanContractor: Open ContractsProject manager: Blackburn & CoStructural engineers: Heyne Tillett SteelPlanning consultant: JLLLandscape architect: SpacehubBranding and design agency: Everything In BetweenM&E consultant: Peter Deer and AssociatesQuantity surveyor: ExigereLighting Designer: Pritchard ThemisFire engineer: MLMRights of Light/Party Wall surveyor: Point2SurveyorsBuilding control: MLMBuilding app: Smart SpacesIT consultants: DP SystemsAgents: Colliers, Allsop, Richard Susskind & CompanyBuilding managers: Workman

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      Keiji Ashizawa uses “rough materials” to create cosy restaurant interior

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      Wood-wool cement-board walls and concrete tabletops feature in this Tokyo restaurant interior by Japanese architect Keiji Ashizawa.Located a few minutes walk from Kawaguchi station in one of Tokyo’s largest commuter towns, Grillno is a cosy, 26-seat restaurant that serves a menu of smoked and grilled dishes.

      Top image: tables and chairs made from concrete, steel and wood furnish the interior. Above: dim lighting sets the mood
      Built on the second floor of a concrete apartment building, the moodily lit interior features walls made from grey wood wool cement board alongside oak floors and doors.
      An open kitchen with a long concrete counter allows diners to watch the chefs at work as they eat.
      “There are two fundamental inspirations,” said Ashizawa, “the building materials used for the thirty-year-old concrete apartment building and the food ingredients the restaurant uses daily.”

      The textured walls are made from grey wood wool cement board

      The 62-square-metre restaurant only opens in the evening, so guests typically experience the space at sunset or after dark.
      “The space gets some natural daylight from the entrance,” Ashizawa told Dezeen. “The gentle light from the setting sun creates a spectacular atmosphere during the opening hours.”

      A concrete counter stretches along the length of the open kitchen
      The restaurant’s owner is a friend of the Tokyo-based architect, as well as a regular collaborator.
      “Since starting his career as a chef, I have been supporting him with the planning of his restaurants — and enjoying eating what he cooks, of course,” Ashizawa explained.
      “As Grillno is a restaurant specialised in smoked and grilled dishes, we began by planning an open kitchen and a long concrete counter around the kitchen so that people could enjoy watching the chef cook while eating.”

      A suspended steel lamp hovers over the concrete counter
      A thin, long steel suspension lamp hangs above the concrete counter to create an even light for dining.
      “We believe that good restaurants can welcome people in many situations, whether you come by yourself, with your friends and family or for your night out,” continued Ashizawa.
      “To make the most out of the space as possible, we planned different types of seating arrangements.”

      Campana brothers use hollow terracotta blocks for São Paulo Aesop store

      These include the rounded counter, which seats up to 14 diners, alongside two cosy wooden tables for couples that are tucked away in a recess, and three tables that seat up to four people on a mix of chairs and benches.

      Dining tables for couples are placed in a recess
      “With a few rough materials, worked expertly by craftsmen, we tried to achieve a relaxing atmosphere with moments of tension to match the food and hospitality,” explained Ashizawa.
      Incorporating industrial materials that are generally perceived as “rough” into commercial interiors is popular among architects and designers.
      Lisbon-based Inês Brandão has created a kitchen from oriented strand board inside a converted barn home in Portugal, while brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana applied hollow ceramic bricks, typically used to build external walls, in a shop interior for Aesop in Sao Paulo.

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      Bureau de Change makes creative use of terrazzo in Frame House renovation

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      London studio Bureau de Change has used different varieties of terrazzo to create a richly textured interior for a remodelled family home.Frame House is a Victorian terraced home in south London, renovated and extended by Bureau de Change for a property developer and her family.

      The ground floor of Frame House is split over three levels
      The project involved adding a rear extension, converting the loft and completing revamping the interior. But most importantly, the client wanted to give the home a distinct character and coherency throughout.
      The architecture studio achieved this with a carefully planned colour and material strategy, and through playful use of geometry.

      The lounge occupies the extended rear of the house

      “The brief was to create a coherent journey through all spaces and floors,” explained architect Billy Mavropoulos, who co-founded Bureau de Change with partner Katerina Dionysopoulou.
      “We needed a holistic design, looking at everything from the architecture of the extension, to the layouts and the way the spaces are used, down to the joinery handles and details,” he told Dezeen.
      “The client was after a rich palette of finishes and colours, but one that would feel consistently part of the same narrative.”

      Different varieties of terrazzo were chosen for different areas
      As is common with Victorian terraces, Frame House has a split-level layout that helps to make the floor plan more efficient.
      In the new layout, the ground floor is divided over three levels, comprising the kitchen, dining space and lounge. The two split-level upper storeys contain three en-suite bedrooms, a separate bathroom and a study room.
      Terrazzo was the material that Mavropoulos and Dionysopoulou chose to unite the various spaces. It is a material the pair are familiar with, having previously used it in another residential project, Folds House.

      Different shades of taupe feature on each of the ground floor levels
      Here, they decided to work with different varieties of terrazzo to give each space its own character, while subtly tying them all together.
      On the ground floor the flooring is a taupe terrazzo in three slightly different shades – one for each level. This creates a gentle transition from light to dark, starting with the kitchen at the front of the house and ending with the lounge at the rear.

      A green marble terrazzo was chosen for the staircase handrail
      “We chose them very carefully so that they are all of the same family but vary in darkness/density,” said Mavropoulos.
      “The colour difference is very subtle as we did not want the floor to take over. But when you look closely you notice the difference.”
      Other details have been picked out contrasting terrazzo varieties: a kitchen island features shades of red and black, the staircase handrails are a green marble terrazzo, and each bathroom has its own different shade.

      The master bedroom on the first floor features an en-suite with grey terrazzo
      The geometries of the design are based around the rear extension, which gives the occupants a large living space.
      Keen to avoid the 45-degree angled roof and frameless glass typical of infill extensions, the architects opted for a more cuboidal approach. Steel frames create staggered glass boxes, which Mavropoulos and Dionysopoulou liken to museum display cases.

      The new loft bedroom features an en-suite with pale terrazzo and pink walls
      “When we looked at the cascading volumes in plan and section, we felt there was an element of fragility to them, almost like a jewel stone, so we decided to make them out of glass to enhance that feel,” said Mavropoulos.
      “These distinctly cubist glass volumes are articulated through their bold steel-frame construction, expressing each edge in a manner that creates shifting patterns of light and space, and a paradoxical sense of both levity and solidity,” added Dionysopoulou.

      The terrazzo also extends into the garden, forming cascading planters
      These cascading box forms are referenced in other places, such as the proportions of the split floor levels, or the planting boxes in the garden. There’s also a glass display case in the dining area.
      Other details contribute to the personality of these spaces. The lounge room brings together a floral-patterned rug and a large cactus plant, while the dining space features a wall of shelving filled with various objects and books.
      The architects hope the result is one of “theatre and tactility”.
      Photography is by Gilbert McCarragher.
      Project credits
      Architect: Bureau de ChangeInteriors: Bureau de ChangeEngineer: SymmetrysM&E: MWLContractor: Argyll LondonLandscape: Tulip Landscapes

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