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      Bermonds Locke hotel in London evokes sunny California deserts

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      Mirage-like mirrored ceilings and cacti-filled planters are some of the features that interiors studio Holloway Li has incorporated in this hotel in London, which is meant to echo California deserts.Bermonds Locke is located at the heart of southeast London’s Bermondsey neighbourhood, just a few minutes walk from notable landmarks such as The Shard and Tower Bridge.

      Top image: a moon-like panel hovers over Bermonds Locke’s concierge desk. Above: mirrored panels line the ceiling of the reception
      Despite the hotel’s markedly urban setting, when it came to designing its communal areas and 143 guest rooms, Holloway Li took inspiration from sun-scorched places in California like the Mojave desert and Joshua Tree National Park.

      “We eschewed traditional London vernacular tropes and prevailing design trends, looking further afield for our inspirations, to create a new space that had an escapist identity,” the studio’s co-founder, Alex Holloway, told Dezeen.

      Furniture in the reception is made from reused construction materials
      The theme is subtly introduced in the hotel’s reception where mirrors have been used to line sections of the ceiling, mimicking the shiny quality of desert mirages, which are often mistaken for bodies of water.
      A white, mottled semi-circular panel has been fitted to the ceiling directly above the concierge counter, its reflection forming a huge moon-like image.

      The reception area of the hotel doubles-up as a co-working space
      Surrounding surfaces have been largely rendered with neutral materials like clay bricks and timber that the studio felt matched the desert landscape.
      This excludes a handful of walls and structural columns that are clad with passivated zinc, which boasts a rainbow-coloured surface finish.
      “Joshua Tree is known as a pilgrimage destination for the Californian hallucinogenic travellers,” said Holloway. “The iridescence effect on the metal is reminiscent of dizzying colour saturation of the psychedelic experience – the brilliant purples, yellows and pinks.”

      Surrounding walls are clad with passivated zinc
      A variety of seating areas have also been incorporated in Bermonds Locke’s reception so that it can serve as a co-working space.
      Where possible, the studio has tried to repurpose construction materials that otherwise would have been destined for landfill, influenced by the ad-hoc building methods used when creating cabins across Joshua Tree.
      For example, salvaged concrete test cubes have been used to form the base of a six-metre-long terrazzo desk. The cubes are covered with pre-used tiles, some of which are still marked with graffiti.

      Cacti-filled planters separate the hotel’s bar from the restaurant
      “Joshua Tree has been a recluse for fringe creatives escaping LA for the past 30 years,” explained Holloway. “We were particularly interested in the eccentric language of bricolage found in desert cabins dotted around Joshua Tree, composed of salvaged materials that happen to be available by chance.”
      “We were also inspired by the work of artists like Philip K Smith III and Noah Purifoy, whose ‘Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture’ is an incredible world made of the detritus of LA,” he continued.
      “This tied back with the studio’s recent research on the circular material economy…design in this context becomes almost like a curatorial practice, about how an existing set of materials can be rearranged in a very specific way to define new uses.”

      Guest rooms come with their own kitchenettes
      In another nod to hot, arid landscapes, huge planters filled with different cacti and succulents have been added throughout the hotel’s reception and used to separate its cocktail bar from the restaurant.

      Grzywinski + Pons tailors Leman Locke hotel to make nomadic workers feel at home

      Bermonds Locke’s upper floors play host to the guest suites. Each one comes complete with its own kitchenette and laundry facilities, allowing guests to stay self-sufficiently in their rooms for longer periods of time.
      Fixtures and soft furnishings have been made in colours evocative of desert sunsets, ranging from pale blues to burnt oranges and vivid reds. The focal point of each room is the bed, which is enclosed by a bespoke black frame draped with sheets of linen.

      Colours throughout the rooms were taken from desert sunsets
      “Typical hotel room design is very codified by two functions; sleeping and washing – a Locke room adds eat, work, live into that mix, so there is a lot to fit into just one room,” added the studio’s co-founder, Na Li.
      “It was key for us to impart some separation between the areas, which we achieved by creating a sense of enclosure around the bed with the bedframes and drapes.”

      Beds in the rooms sit under linen canopies
      Holloway Li was established in 2015 and has offices in north London.
      Its Bermonds Locke project joins several hotels that the Locke hospitality group has dotted across the UK. Others include the Whitworth Locke in Manchester, where rooms have been painted different shades of grey to reflect the city’s typically overcast skies.
      There’s also the Eden Locke in Edinburgh, which takes over an 18th-century Georgian terrace house.
      Photography is by Edmund Dabney.

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      Adytum Library in Canberra is arranged around a single book-lined counter

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      A chunky, wedge-shaped island crafted from plaster and beeswax anchors the sparse interior of this pop-up library, shop and exhibition space that design studio Pattern has created in Canberra.The temporary library is situated in the trendy suburb of Braddon and belongs to new Australian wellness brand Adytum, which produces eco-conscious self-care products such as teas, face oils and bath soaks.

      Adytum Library is anchored by a huge island
      Although the brand is set to open the doors to its first spa in 2021, it was keen to conceive a slightly different style of wellness space that instead celebrates books and the “intellectual nourishment one receives from the written word”.

      Sydney-based studio Pattern – which is also developing the interiors of Adytum’s spa – was asked to design the library. The brand’s key request was that the pop-up had minimal environmental impact.

      Books and products from Adytum are displayed across the island
      With this in mind, Pattern ditched the idea of overhauling the entire retail unit and instead created just one striking element – a huge wedge-shaped island that sits at the centre of the floor plan, built around two existing structural columns.
      “While we didn’t have a tenancy of cathedral-like proportions to work with, we drew inspiration from the concepts of purity, simplicity, and clarity often found in religious architectural spaces,” Pattern’s co-founder, Lily Goodwin, told Dezeen.

      Incense is burned in the pop-up throughout the day
      The island, which gradually tapers off to a narrow point, has a reclaimed MDF frame that’s been covered with natural plaster and finished with a coating of beeswax.

      Pattern completes understated interiors for Locura bar in Byron Bay

      An array of design, architecture and art titles are displayed across the surface, which can be purchased by visitors or borrowed via Adytum’s membership scheme. The books are softly illuminated by a couple of white table lamps by Danish brand Hay which have been dotted across the island.
      There is also a handful of Adytum’s products, including incense sticks that will be burnt throughout the day.

      Adytum Library also exhibits work by Australian artists
      The outer periphery of Adytum Library is used to display works from Australian artists Traianos Pakioufakis and Alana Wilson.
      Pakioufakis’s expansive photographic prints are draped across bent copper pipes that were found in construction site waste, while Wilson’s collection of ceramic vessels – which have been darkened with metal-oxide glazes – perch on rough plinths that the studio salvaged from a local stonemason.

      Artworks are displayed on stone plinths or copper pipes
      Pattern was established in 2016 by Lily Goodwin and Josh Cain. Previous projects by the studio include Locura, a cocktail and small-plates bar in Byron Bay that’s meant to evoke the “raw beauty” of late-night eateries in Mexico.
      It also created rose-tinted interiors for The Daily Edited, an accessories shop in Melbourne.
      Photography is by Traianos Pakioufakis.

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      Lost House by David Adjaye features black interiors and bedroom with a pool

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      Black walls, built-in raw concrete furniture and a fish pond in a lightwell define Lost House, a residential project designed by David Adjaye in London’s King’s Cross, which has recently come on the market.Royal Gold Medal-winner Adjaye, the founder of Adjaye Associates, designed Lost House in 2004.

      Top: the swimming pool. Above: a central lightwell holds a fish pond
      The house has come back on the market recently, granting an opportunity to see the interiors of one of the architect’s early residential works in detail.

      Original features have been preserved, including an all-green sunken cinema room and a water gardens in planted courtyards that double as lightwells.

      A courtyard garden in a lightwell
      Hidden behind an unassuming brick facade in an alleyway, Lost House was formerly a delivery yard complete with a loading platform.
      Adjaye Associates turned the concrete loading platform into a plinth for an upper-level swimming pool with black-painted sides next to the pink-walled main bedroom.

      The ground floor is an open plan living space
      On the ground floor, there is a large open plan living, dining and kitchen area with a double-height ceiling.
      The sunken conversation pit with a cinema room-style projector, complete with zesty lime walls, built-in bookshelves and wide sofas, is off to one side.

      Raw concrete countertops are part of the kitchen
      Three tall, glass-walled lightwells stretch up to the black-painted timber eaves of the roof, bringing natural daylight down into the room instead of windows.
      In the centre of the living area is a lightwell filled with a fishpond.

      A sunken conversation pit is entirely bright green
      The square courtyards in the lightwells are planted with tropical greenery. At the back, next to the kitchen, the courtyard features wooden decking around clusters of circular concrete benches inset with the same grey pebbles that surround them.
      The black chipboard walls, ceiling and exposed timber beams are reflected in the shiny black resin floor.

      Concrete benches in the courtyard garden
      Adding to the industrial look are the thick concrete elements of the built-in kitchen, which forms a continuous countertop and splashback.

      Ten key projects by RIBA Royal Gold Medal winner David Adjaye

      A concrete element continues from the kitchen to the living area, were it forms a low bench upholstered in black leather cushions.

      Black walls and floors around the pool and bathroom
      Steps lead to the raised ground floor, where the old loading bay plinth supports the lap pool. Black stone tiles surround the pool, which is part of the master bathroom for the main bedroom.
      Two stone sinks sit on a concrete shelf below mirrored cabinets. A wet-room style shower allows the residents to wash before and after swimming.

      The master bedroom is entirely pink
      This bathroom connects directly to the back of the master suite, which has a separate toilet and a long corridor connecting to the stairs. The bedroom is decorated all pink to contrast with the ink-black interiors
      A second bedroom is located on this floor, with a third bedroom located up on the first floor that is currently being used as a home office.

      An upstairs room is a work from home office
      David Adjaye founded Adjaye Associates in 2000 and began his career designing high-end residential projects in north London such as Lost House. Other notable all-black houses by the studio include Dirty House and Sunken House.
      Photography is courtesy of United Kingdom Sotheby’s International Realty.

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      Creating sets for Normal People took a mixture of intuition and second-hand gems says production designer

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      Using second-hand finds to create “clinical but tasteful” spaces reflective of protagonist Marianne Sheridan’s family life drove the set design of hit series Normal People, says production designer Lucy van Lonkhuyzen.Van Lonkhuyzen aimed to create a sense of realism when designing the show, which is set in the small, fictional town of Carricklea in Sligo, Ireland and later in Dublin.
      Making the sets look “lived-in” was one of Van Lonkhuyzen’s main objectives in production design, which she achieved by sourcing all props and details second-hand, from online marketplace Gumtree as well as charity, antique and vintage shops.
      “Finding these things is completely down to chance,” the designer told Dezeen. “That’s why I hoard!”
      “I hate to work with anything new,” she continued. “So I didn’t want to go to any big, major furniture places. I don’t do it and I never will.”
      “I wanted every set to be unique, and for the viewer to see that character in that set. I wanted everything on screen to look the best it possibly could be without looking like a set.”

      Top image and above: The Sheridan house in Sligo. Images by Suzie Lavelle.
      The 12-part production, which first aired in the UK in April 2020, is an adaptation of the best-selling book Normal People by Sally Rooney.

      Along with finding the right props from second-hand sources, the main challenge for Van Lonkhuyzen was forming the sets from the limited visual prompts in Rooney’s original narrative.
      “From a location perspective, Sally Rooney isn’t very descriptive in her books – she lets you kind of do the thinking on it. So it was really tricky,” she said.
      Cold colour palettes emulate Marianne’s family life
      The drama series follows the turbulent relationship between Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron – played by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal – as they grow from teenagers to adults.
      Both the novel and TV series centre around Marianne’s complicated home life. Her father, who is deceased, is revealed to have been a domestic abuser, while her brother Alan is portrayed to carry many of the same traits, and is abusive to Marianne throughout the series.

      Connell’s bedroom in Sligo. Image by Suzie Lavelle.
      Van Lonkhuyzen wanted the sets to feed into this difficult dynamic. The Sheridan household is a large country-style estate featuring a “sedatory” interior colour palette of muted blue and grey tones.
      “I wanted the character of Marianne’s mother to be reflected in her [family] house,” Van Lonkhuyzen told Dezeen. “[Denise] is a solicitor who was born in Dublin but now lives in Sligo. She’s not a nice character, but she has taste.”
      “So, inherently, I wanted the Sheridan household to be quite cold, but yet there’s still little pockets of taste in there,” she continued.
      “By doing that, we literally didn’t buy anything new; everything was from auctions or from Gumtree. I didn’t want the house to look like anything else.”
      “If people notice that [the set] was designed… I haven’t done my job”
      The subdued colour palette provides the backdrop for tasteful pieces of art and furniture that Van Lonkhuyzen imagines to have been inherited from parents and grandparents, which she used to convey a sense of controlled sophistication.
      “It’s even in the way the house is laid out – she’d be quite progressive putting the kitchen in the front room, but yet she still has her traditional dining room across the hallway,” said the designer.

      Marianne’s bedroom in Sligo. Image by Suzie Lavelle.
      According to Van Lonkhuyzen, it was important to contrast Marianne’s cold, and at times dark, upbringing to the love-filled relationship that fellow protagonist Connell has with his mother, Lorraine, who works as a cleaner for the wealthy Sheridan family.
      The two characters live in a terraced house in the suburbs, which features warm tones and walls covered with worn wallpaper that is dotted with framed photographs of the mother and son.
      “Lorraine, even though she’s a single mom and money is tight, she has pride in her house,” said Van Lonkhuyzen. “So I wanted to give her a bit of design as well – the kind that didn’t jump out at you, but where everything just blended in.”
      “I’m not talking about colours or palettes here, I’m talking about look,” she continued. “Because, for me, if people notice that it was designed… well then I haven’t done my job.”
      “With shoots like Normal People, your first instinct needs to be right”
      The process of creating realistic sets was made easier by working with the location manager Eoin Holohan, who also happens to be Van Lonkhuyzen’s husband.
      “Locations are so important in anything like this. But also it was mainly just intuition. As soon as you step into place, you think, yeah, this is right,” she said.

      The kitchen in Marianne’s university house in Dublin. Image by Suzie Lavelle.
      “With shoots like Normal People you don’t really have time to think; your first instinct needs to be right, and if it’s not then you’re in trouble,” she continued.
      “I was lucky in that, instinctively, myself and my team got it correct eight or nine times out of 10. Once the Sheridan house was nailed, it made everything a lot easier because you had a basis to work from.”

      Marianne’s Wellington Road house. Image by Lucy van Lonkhuyzen.
      Later in the series, Marianne and Connell leave Sligo to attend university at Trinity College Dublin.
      For Marianne’s university accommodation, which is located on Wellington Road, Van Lonkhuyzen wanted to bring in some of the same design elements seen in her mother’s home, but with a more vibrant and less constrained touch.
      Marianne’s university flat reflects her freedom from hometown
      While the set conveys her new-found independence and freedom that was granted by moving out of her family home, it still shows that she hasn’t quite been able to let go of the style that formed her, said the designer.
      “She’s come from such a cold and clinical, but tasteful, environment, so I wanted to bring a sense of warmth and security into Wellington road.”
      This was formed with the help of colourful, “bourgeois-style” furniture and “much looser” artworks than was seen in the Sheridan home, which hang on pistachio green walls alongside shelves full of random objects and trinkets.

      The living room in Marianne’s Wellington Road house. Image by Lucy van Lonkhuyzen.
      While Marianne’s family home and Wellington road flat were filmed in-situ, other settings were built from scratch in a studio to better host some of the show’s more intimate sex scenes. This included Connell’s bedroom at his family home in Sligo.
      “Connell’s [family] house was tiny, and the bedroom was even smaller. So because of the nature of the scenes, it made complete sense to put it into a studio,” explained van Lonkhuyzen.
      “We built it so we could have a slightly bigger space that was better for camera angles and lighting and privacy, in order to get the right atmosphere for the scene that they needed to get.”

      Connell’s bedroom in Sligo. Image by Lucy van Lonkhuyzen.
      This room was one that Van Lonkhuyzen worried about the most, she explained, as it was important to make it effortlessly seem like any other ordinary bedroom belonging to a boy in his late-teens.
      The room is characterised by its messy, mismatched bedding and posters taped to the wall, which Van Lonkhuyzen confesses she “hates for various reasons”. However, she still managed to get one of her favourite pieces in – a simple yellow and red lamp from the 1980s, found in a nearby charity shop.
      “I was petrified of getting it wrong,” she said. “But then two women with sons in their late teens visited the set one day, and said ‘oh my god this looks exactly like my boy’s bedroom!’, so it turned out perfect.”

      Dressing scenes for Killing Eve was “like finding treasure” says set decorator

      Normal People was first released in the UK online on BBC Three on 26 April 2020, before premiering on RTÉ One in Ireland on 28 April and in the US on Hulu on 29 April. The full series is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
      Images courtesy of Suzie Lavelle and Lucy van Lonkhuyzen.

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      Ritz & Ghougassian uses bricks and Australian wood inside Melbourne's Prior cafe

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      The rustic materiality of this Melbourne cafe designed by architecture studio Ritz & Ghougassian is meant to reflect the fuss-free dishes on the menu.Prior is situated along the lively high street of Melbourne’s Thornbury suburb, taking over a building that once served as an industrial printing house.

      Prior cafe occupies a building that was once a printing house
      When Ritz & Ghougassian were brought on board to develop the interiors of the cafe, it stripped back any decorative elements left behind from the old fit-out, only preserving the brick walls and eight-metre-high truss ceiling.

      “It was clear to us that we had to honour the original space by proposing an intervention that sat apart from the original framework of the building,” the studio’s co-founder, Jean-Paul Ghougassian, told Dezeen.

      Bricks cover the cafe’s floor and the base of the service bar
      The space now features just a handful of elements made from unfussy materials that reflect the simple “paddock-to-plate” ethos that Prior applies to its menu.
      Bricks run across the floor and form the base of the service bar that lies on one side of the room.

      Concrete and terrazzo furniture feature in Ritz&Ghougassian’s minimal cafe interior

      Apricot-hued concrete forms the upper half of the bar and the chunky ledge that runs around its outer side, providing a place for customers to rest beverages or snacks.
      The hot drinks menu is presented on a mirrored panel behind the bar. It stands beside a single shelf that displays a curated selection of wine or bags of coffee which are available to buy.

      Apricot-hued concrete forms the top of the service bar
      “Honest, elegant and refined flavours informed the built environment; by taking a reductive approach to the design both in materiality and form ultimately allowed the food to be the hero,” Ghougassian explained.
      “Rather than simply creating a slick new eatery, there’s a warmth and richness to the space, celebrating the unevenness and rough textures of the walls and floors.”

      Seating throughout the cafe is crafted from Australian Blackbutt wood
      Customers can alternatively dine at the black-steel counters that have been built into the cafe’s front windows or along the seating banquette that runs along the far side of the room, upholstered in chestnut-brown leather.
      The banquette faces onto a row of dining tables which, along with the cafe’s bench-style seats and stools, have been crafted from Australian Blackbutt wood.
      “Like much of our work, using materials that are locally sourced and manufactured is important to us – this brings about an authenticity and specificity to the design that isn’t easily replicated,” added Ghougassian.

      There’s also a brown-leather seating banquette
      At the centre of the floor plan is a box filled with timber logs and a wood burner that the studio hopes will serve as a comforting focal point of the cafe, especially during the chilly winter months.
      Surrounding walls and the ceiling were freshened up with a coat of white paint.

      A wood burner sits at the centre of the cafe
      Ritz & Ghougassian was founded in 2016 by Jean-Paul Ghougassian and Gilad Ritz. Prior isn’t the only cafe that the studio has designed in its home city of Melbourne – back in 2018 it completed Bentwood, which boasts brick-red interiors.
      In 2017, the studio also created Penta, a minimal cafe that features concrete, terrazzo and silver-metal surfaces.
      Photography is by Tom Ross.

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      Aston Martin collaborates with S3 Architecture to design first residential project

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      US studio S3 Architecture worked with luxury carmaker Aston Martin’s architectural design service to create Sylvan Rock, an angular black-cedar home in Hudson Valley, New York.With building works set to start in early 2021, Sylvan Rock by S3 Architecture will be the first property to be fully realised under Aston Martin’s Automotive Galleries and Lairs service, which launched last year.

      The form of Sylvan Rock house will mimic jagged rock formations nearby
      The service sees the carmaker team up with architecture practices across the world to design bespoke spaces where its clients can show off their most cherished motors.

      Sylvan Rock will be situated two hours away from Manhattan, hidden amongst a 55-acre plot of forested land in Hudson Valley that will allow inhabitants to “reconnect with nature”.

      Luxury cars will be displayed in a glass gallery-style room
      A sweeping driveway that spans 2,000 feet (609 metres) will lead up to the front door of the house. The facade will be composed of expansive panels of glazing and blackened cedar.
      Its dark metal roof will be faceted to emulate the jagged shape of surrounding rock formations, at one point dramatically dipping downwards to form a covered entryway.

      The house will also include a subterranean office
      “When designing, we always let the land speak first and respond to it,” said Christopher Dierig, partner at S3 Architecture.
      “It’s as if the home is born of and launching from the landscape. The resulting design blends our modernist aesthetic with the privacy and context of the rural location to create a unique luxury experience.”

      Parquet flooring and dark-wood joinery will feature throughout living spaces on the ground floor
      Cars will be displayed in a subterranean gallery-style room that’s completely enclosed by panels of glass.
      It will look through to a wine lounge where bottles are kept in floor-to-ceiling latticed shelves that subtly nod to the intersecting lines seen in Aston Martin’s logo.

      Lounge areas will overlook the green landscape
      At this level there will also be an office where the inhabitants can escape to do work without interruption. It will feature a huge window that offers an up-close glimpse of the craggy rocks outdoors.
      From here guests can head upstairs to the ground floor where there will be a kitchen, cosy den, dining room, formal sitting area and an array of other shared living spaces that look out across the home’s decked pool area and verdant landscape.

      Other rooms will have views of the home’s pool
      Aston Martin – which will be responsible for the home’s interiors – imagines each room to be finished with parquet flooring and rich chocolate-brown storage cabinetry.
      Marble-topped tables and plush, leather-trimmed soft furnishings will further enhance the opulent feel of the home.

      The first-floor master bedroom will cantilever towards the Catskill mountains
      Elevated views across the treetops and towards the nearby Catskill Mountains will be available up in the first-floor master bedroom, which will cantilever over the house’s ground floor.

      Aston Martin launches architectural service to design homes focused around your car

      “Our architecture and design team was immediately in sync with the Aston Martin design team, both emphasizing clean lines and the luxury of natural materials and textures,” the studio’s partner, Doug Maxwell, told Dezeen.
      “Working with them we evolved our creative process to view the residence in a similar way as designing an Aston Martin car – by designing in 360 degrees, where no specific angle or facade took precedence or dominates.”

      Sylvan Rock will also include three pods where guests can stay
      The grounds of Sylvan Rock will additionally accommodate three gabled guest pods that will stagger down a grassy embankment towards a pond.
      They will enable visiting friends and family to have a sense of privacy when they come to stay but, when not in use, can alternatively serve as a health and fitness space or a quiet area for homeschooling.
      There will also be a small produce garden where fruit and vegetables can be grown, as well as a pitched-roof treehouse where inhabitants or guests can choose to spend a night under the stars, closer to the site’s wildlife.

      There will also be a treehouse on site
      Aston Martin’s Automotive Galleries and Lairs service is not the brand’s first venture outside of carmaking. Last year it unveiled its inaugural motorcycle model, AMB 001, which features a 180-horsepower turbocharged engine and a carbon-fibre body.
      Images are by S3 Architecture, courtesy of Corcoran Country Living.

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      Ten pink interiors that range from rose blush to bright coral

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      From homes with peach-coloured walls to rose-tinted shops and restaurants, we’ve rounded up 10 interiors projects to make you think pink.

      Cats’ Pink House, Taiwan, KC Design Studio

      This holiday home in Taiwan is all pink – even the basketball court. KC Design Studio created the house by the sea for a client who owns several cats, so the interior includes pink cat ladders and a fluffy swing for the feline companions to recline on.
      Find out more about Cats’ Pink House ›

      The Daily Edited, Australia, Pattern Studio
      Pattern Studio created a shop in Melbourne entirely in the signature colour of lifestyle brand The Daily Edited.
      Blush-coloured walls are complemented by pale terrazzo floors and slabs of Norwegian rose marble.
      Find out more about The Daily Edited ›

      Ecnesse, China, by Penda China
      Penda China used a rosy colour palette to create cosy cave-like interiors for high-end beauty salon Ecnesse in Beijing.
      The rounded edges of the pink furniture echo the arched mirrors and doorways, which can be screened off using deep red velvet curtains.
      Find out more about Ecnesse ›

      Waterfront Nikis Apartment, Greece, by Stamatios Giannikis
      Colourful flamingo-coloured walls are a standout feature of this apartment in an art deco building in Thessaloniki.
      Architect Stamatios Giannikis, who hosts dinners and exhibitions in this apartment he designed, chose the pink walls to enhance the views of the sea from beyond the balcony.
      Find out more about Waterfront Nikis Apartment ›

      His House and Her House, China, Wutopia Labs
      Part house, part installation, His House and Her House is a pair of structures that Chinese studio Wutopia Labs used to explore ideas around gender.
      The feminine side of the project is painted entirely in pastel pinks, featuring billowing pink curtains across the facade and a patio filled with pink rock salt instead of gravel.
      Find out more about His House and Her House ›

      Minimal Fantasy, Spain, Patricia Bustos Studio
      This striking holiday rental apartment in Madrid is decorated in 12 different shades of pink. Patricia Bustos Studio wanted to create something on of a kind, using bubblegum hues, satin sheets and surfaces with iridescent sheen.
      “Pink is already the colour of a whole generation,” said the studio. “The generation of the brave, those who are not afraid of change.”
      Find out more about Minimal Fantasy ›

      Specus Corallii, Italy, Antonino Cardillo
      Specus Corallii, or The Coral Cave, is a music room in Sicily that’s decorated in homage to the shell imagery associated with the city of  Trapani.
      The walls are covered in rough plasterwork that has been painted a muted pink to create a grotto-like interior, complimented by slabs of honey-coloured limestone.
      Find out more about Specus Corallii ›

      The Olive Houses, Spain, by Mar Plus Ask
      The Olive Houses are a cluster of off-the-grid guesthouses in Mallorca designed as a retreat for artists and writers seeking a place to create free from interruptions.
      Architecture studio Mar Plus Ask built the retreat around the boulders that litter the ancient olive grove, plastering the walls in a pale-pink stucco chosen to compliment the delicate green leaves of the trees.
      Find out more about The Olive Houses ›

      Humble Pizza, UK, Child Studio
      Child Studio created interiors for this vegan pizza restaurant in London that pay tribute to 1950s greasy spoon cafes.
      Candy pink walls and furnishings highlight the pink Formica tables and countertops, all the flatware is pink and pink newspapers are used as decoration as well as reading material.
      Find out more about Humble Pizza ›

      Angle + Eart St Studio, Australia, by BoardGrove Architects
      Three different tones of peach were selected by BoardGrove Architects to decorate the interiors of this shared office space in Melbourne. The trio of colours subtly differentiates between the front of house, workspaces and back of house zones.
      See more Angle + Eart St Studio ›

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      KCC Design creates monochrome office for own studio in former factory space

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      KCC Design has completed the interior design for its own office in Shanghai, which features an exhibition space and 21 enclosed boxes for individual work in a subdued colour palette.The studio, which works in architecture and interior design as well as wayfinding, regional planning and lighting design, created the office in an old factory building that has been converted into office space.
      KCC Design designed its new office, which has been shortlisted for the Dezeen Awards 2020 in the large workspace interior category, to make a move away from open-plan working.

      Top: the KCC Office reception area. Above: the ground floor is taken up by an exhibition space
      “The most important thing is that we have been working in an open office working environment so far,” KCC Design principal and design director Marco De La Torre told Dezeen.

      “We thought it is problematic because more and more people no longer want this kind of working environment but a living environment,” he added.
      “After all, as a design company, we spend a longer time at the office, so we need to re-think how an office should be.”

      The studio wanted the office to be a “living environment”
      Though the studio was working from home in February due to the coronavirus pandemic, life in Shanghai returned to a sense of normalcy after March, De La Torre said, enabling it to come back to the office.
      “We are wearing masks for public transportation and public venues like cinemas, all other activities have returned to normality,” De La Torre said.

      On the first floor, 21 boxes function as more private workspaces
      The studio discussed how to combine ideas of “individual and independent thinking” with “collective and cooperation creating” for the design of its office.
      The solution was to divide the space into separate uses for separate floors. The ground floor of the office is the studio’s public area, which it calls its “living space”.
      This floor has meeting rooms and tea rooms for client meetings, as well as an exhibition space that can also host events.

      White and grey were the only colours used for the interior
      Upstairs on the first floor, the core office area has 21 enclosed boxes that are used as the studio’s main workspaces. They are designed to function as private work areas where team members can also feel at home.
      “This office design is for the people to feel ‘living’ here, not only as work display,” De La Torre said.

      Old nylon factory converted into “cathedral-like” office space

      KCC Design worked with a limited material and colour palette when designing the space. When it came to colour, the studio kept its office mainly white and grey, and said the reason behind its colour and material choices was simple.
      “Concrete and paint are the only two materials,” said De La Torre. “The reason for choosing such materials is their extreme plasticity. These inert materials also symbolise human wisdom and technology.”

      The office entrance features geometric shapes
      “They have no personality,” De La Torre explained. “As dead as an inorganic substance. This extreme quietness is what we need most in a noisy urban environment and an impetuous work environment.”
      “Of course, the white of the whole wall also has the meaning of white paper to the designer,” he added. “It represents the birth can be anything.”
      Describing interior and architectural design as a poetic, logical system, De La Torre said artificial space should be respected as an artefact.
      “Therefore, the space poetry of this office space is ‘we living here instead of working here now’,” he said. “And the logical principle of our interior is a ‘fluid and continuous public space’ and a ‘solid and independent private space’.”
      Many former factory spaces and warehouses have been turned into offices, including an old nylon factory in Arnhem that is now a “cathedral-like office space and a heritage building in Mumbai.

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