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      Ravi Raj and Evan Watts expose chunky timber in Spears Building Loft renovation

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      Architects Ravi Raj and Evan Watts have created a monolithic, concrete-like chimney in the overhaul of a loft apartment inside a former cigarette packing factory in New York City’s Chelsea neighbourhood. Raj, who runs RARARA, worked with Watts of D&A Companies to overhaul the residence in the former factory, which was completed by the Kinney Brothers in 1880. It also served as a furniture warehouse before it was converted into a condo building in 1996.

      Previously featuring “dark dwelling spaces”, as described by the team, the residence was renovated to create a bright and open living space for a couple.

      This included stripping out walls and dropped ceilings to create larger spaces and revealing existing brickwork and timber columns and beams.

      At the rear of the residence, the team reconfigured the layout of the bedrooms and bathrooms, creating a third bedroom and making a new hallway.

      “Extraneous millwork and partitions blocking daylight to the interior were thoughtfully removed to help open each room and improve the flow between them,” said Ravi Raj Architect.
      “The great room presented an unexpected discovery after the team removed the dropped ceilings and unnecessary wall enclosures, revealing the original heavy timber structure – in surprisingly great condition. This move both simplified the layout while also paying homage to the building’s historical fabric.”

      Throughout Spears Building Loft, the designers chose a soft and pale material palette that complements the existing details and also brightens the interiors.
      Bleached walnut planks covers the floor in the living area, while the walls and built-in storage are painted bright-white or yellow.

      Gold paint drips down green mural at Chelsea Pied-à-Terre by Stadt Architecture

      A wood-burning stove is updated with a hearth covered in a plaster that looks like concrete and extends into a bench either side. The team chose the render because it is meant to reference the warehouse’s poured concrete floors.

      Pale wood also forms the base of the white-marble island in the kitchen topped and old corner cabinets are ebonized black. They form a series of dark detail throughout, like the dark wooden dining chairs and artwork.
      “The owners took care in selecting minimal yet soft and textured furnishings paired with colourful art that highlight the industrial-like quality of the space,” the team added.

      The red brick is painted white in the bedrooms to make them all them light and bright, while the bathrooms display a mix of black, white and grey marbles.
      Spears Building Loft is located in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood next to the city’s elevated park, the High Line.
      Other renovation projects in the area include a residence that architecture duo BoND turned into a light-filled home with a stainless steel fireplace surround and an apartment with a green mural dripping in gold paint.
      Photography is by Nick Glimenakis.

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      ACDF outfits Montreal FlightHub office with vibrant colours

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      Curving glass walls and brightly coloured curtains for partitioning workspaces are among the details Canadian studio ACDF Architecture has used in an office renovation for a Montreal travel agency. FlightHub, an online travel agency, asked the local studio to design a workspace to accommodate the expanding operations in its Montreal headquarters.

      The office occupies 12,800 square feet (1,189 square metres) and spans an entire floor. Its design is intended to embody the agency’s three key elements: technology, travel and tribes.

      Private offices, open-plan workstations and conference rooms are set up around the perimeter of the floor and divided into the company’s teams.
      In the centre a circular room houses communal spaces, including a reception area, kitchen, lounge and game room.

      “The design includes common areas at its core, with distinct ‘tribal’ zones beyond those spaces where teams can retreat to their different lines of business,” said ACDF partner Joan Renaud. “The layout provides a functional balance of flow and concentration that is conducive to the FlightHub culture.”

      A circular glass wall detailed with narrow translucent panes wraps around the common area concealing the interior from the outer spaces. Inside, a rectangular volume, reminiscent of aerospace technology, is clad with perforated aluminium foam to block ambient sounds.

      Playster Headquarters by ACDF includes brightly coloured workspaces

      To separate the spaces within the communal zone the studio has installed several fabric curtains and used vibrant wall colours and furnishings that also act as a wayfinding system.

      In the kitchen stainless steel appliances and a rounded counter are paired with a green ceiling and floor, while the lounge features red office chairs and matching walls. Blue chairs in the reception area blend with the hues used on the walls and in the game room the bright yellow paint stands out against the foosball table and other furnishings.

      On the outer ring each of the four zones is outfitted with storage, a printing room, a small kitchenette, private phone call booths and a conference room.
      Workspaces comprise clusters of eight desks arranged in two rows of four. A low-lying black screen divides the row of desks to create a privacy wall between workers.

      ADCF completed the project in April 2020 before businesses reconsidered how to layout offices to adhere to social distancing protocols as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. However, it believes the design scheme reduces contact between people.
      The circular plan forms two pathways and entrances for moving through the space and the small kitchen and meeting rooms in each “tribe” reduce the likelihood of large gatherings in the communal areas.

      ACDF is led by Canadian architects Maxime-Alexis Frappier, Joan Renaud and Étienne Laplante Courchesne.
      The studio has completed a number of office projects in Montreal, including a colourful workspace for entertainment service Playster and offices for software company Lightspeed that combines historic brickwork with pastel hues.
      Photography is by Maxime Brouillet.

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      Kelly Wearstler's “fiercely local” Santa Monica Proper Hotel named AHEAD Americas Hotel of the Year

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      American designer Kelly Wearstler describes how she worked with local artisans and artists on the Santa Monica Proper Hotel in this video produced by Dezeen for the AHEAD Awards.Wearstler is the designer of Santa Monica Proper Hotel, a 271-room boutique hotel seven blocks away from the beach in Santa Monica, California.

      American interior designer Kelly Wearstler designed the Santa Monica Proper Hotel
      The project was named Hotel of the Year at the 2020 AHEAD Americas hospitality awards, as well as winner of the Guestrooms and Lobby & Public Spaces categories.

      The Californian interior designer, who has appeared as a judge on the Bravo reality show Top Design and designed homes for celebrities including Cameron Diaz and Gwen Stefani, described the hotel as “fiercely local” in an exclusive interview filmed by Dezeen.

      Santa Monica Proper Hotel was named Hotel of the Year at the AHEAD Americas awards 2020
      “We wanted to design a hotel where it felt like you’re in Santa Monica,” she said. “The inspiration came from everything that surrounds the hotel, the palm trees, the organic nature of the architecture, everything that you would find at the beach.”
      Natural and heavily textured materials, neutral colours and vintage furniture are used throughout the hotel to create a sensory experience that references Santa Monica’s beachside identity.

      Kelly Wearstler designs relaxed and beachy Santa Monica Proper hotel

      “There is a connection of materiality that speaks to the location” said Wearstler. “Organic materials, neutral colour stories, everything has a texture.”
      “There’s a patina, there’s a hand, there’s something that feels very warm.”

      The hotel also won in the Guestrooms and Lobby & Public Spaces categories
      Santa Monica Proper Hotel is filled with artworks and furniture pieces created specifically for the property by local artists and artisans.
      “Everything’s connected to somebody that is local in the city,” Wearstler said. “We’re so lucky to be in Los Angeles, the talent pool here is extraordinary.”

      The site comprises an historic 1920s building and a new curvilinear extension
      The site consists of the 1920s Santa Monica Professional Building, to which an extension by local firm Howard Laks Architects was added.
      “There’s an historic building that was built in 1928, in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, and then there’s a new contemporary building,” explained Wearstler. “We had to connect these two buildings with one voice.”

      Kelly Wearstler furnishes San Francisco Proper hotel with vintage European design

      “The atmosphere is something that’s just very relaxed,” the designer asserted. “When you come to California, it’s just super relaxed and it’s friendly, and there is a sense of style – it’s just cool. We can connect you to that coming to Santa Monica Proper.”
      The hotel is the latest in the Proper brand, which was founded by Wearstler’s developer husband Brad Korzen alongside hotelier Brian De Lowe, following the San Francisco Proper which Wearstler also designed.

      Wearstler collaborated with local artists and artisans to furnish Santa Monica Proper Hotel
      Previous hospitality collaborations from Wearstler and Korzen include the Tides hotel in South Beach, Florida, the Avalon and Maison 140 hotels in Beverly Hills, and hotels for the Viceroy brand in Miami, Palm Springs and Santa Monica.
      This year’s AHEAD Americas awards were shown in a video ceremony as part of Dezeen’s Virtual Design Festival after the event was called off due to the coronavirus pandemic. Previous winners of the Hotel of the Year award include the opulent Siren Hotel in Detroit and the Calistoga Motor Lodge and Spa, a renovated motel in California.

      Natural materials and neutral colours reference the hotel’s beachside location
      This video was produced by Dezeen for AHEAD. Photography is by The Ingalls and Matthieu Salvaing.

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      Casa Atibaia designed to be “ideal modernist jungle home”

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      Creatives Charlotte Taylor and Nicholas Préaud took cues from the modernist architecture of Lina Bo Bardi to dream up these renderings of Casa Atibaia, an imaginary home that hides in a São Paulo forest.In a series of ultra-realistic renderings, the pair have envisioned Casa Atibaia to be nestled amongst the forested banks of the Atibaia river in São Paulo.
      This is the first collaborative project between Préaud, who is co-founder of 3D visualisation practice Ni.acki, and Taylor, who runs Maison de Sable, a studio that works with a range of visual artists to create fictional spaces.

      The imaginary home was informed by Casa de Vidro, or Glass House, which Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi designed in 1951 for herself and her husband, writer and curator Pietro Maria Bardi.

      Comprising a concrete and glass volume supported by slim pilotis, the house is considered a significant example of Brazilian modernism – an architectural movement that both Taylor and Préaud have come to admire during their careers.

      “Lina Bo Bari has been a huge inspiration for the most part of my career,” Taylor told Dezeen.
      “Discovering Nicholas had an equal passion and excitement towards Brazilian modernism was a perfect match, something we had to explore.”
      “Having lived and studied architecture in Brazil, I was overwhelmed by the presence and national pride around modernist jewels such as Casa de Vidro or Casa das Canoas by Oscar Niemeyer,” continued Préaud.
      “These homes have become landmarks not only for their style and modern construction methods at the time, but also because of the simplicity of the lifestyle they implemented.”

      Like Bo Bardi’s Casa de Vidro, the imaginary Casa Atibaia features a white-concrete framework and expansive glass windows.
      However, instead of pilotis, this house would instead be elevated by huge jagged boulders that jut out from the terrain below.

      Taylor and Préaud’s creation would also be much more sinuous in shape – the river-facing elevation of winding inwards to form a courtyard around a cluster of existing palm trees.
      This courtyard would help loosely separate the private and communal quarters of the home.
      “Lina Bo Bardi’s Casa de Vidro was an inspiration mostly in terms of this ethereal feeling of a delicately suspended home… gentle curves, extended raw concrete slabs and a primal relationship with the elements are our tribute to Brazilian modernism,” the pair explained.

      Some of the boulders propping up the home would pierce through the interior and be adapted into functional elements like bookcases, a bed headboard, or craggy plinths for displaying earth-tone vases.

      Casa Plenaire is an imaginary holiday home for lockdown escapism

      In the living room, a curving cream-coloured sofa is accompanied by a couple of sloping armchairs and a floor lamp with a concertina-fold shade.
      Wooden high-back chairs surround the stone breakfast island in the adjacent kitchen.

      The home would otherwise be dressed with a blend of contemporary and antique decorative pieces, ideally from the likes of French designers like Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Chapo.
      “It would definitely be a dream home for us in another life,” added Taylor and Préaud.

      “Casa Atibaia is a design experiment in which we combined both our impressions and aspirations of the ideal modernist jungle home,” the pair continued.
      “Through this experiment we sought to squeeze out the essence of what Brazilian modernism means to us, blurring the boundaries between inside and out while maintaining a cosy, homey feeling.”

      Charlotte Taylor was one of nine individuals to feature in Dezeen’s roundup of 3D designers, visualisers and image-makers.
      She said the recent rise of dreamy renderings coming from the likes of her and Préaud may be down to the fact that, in light of the global coronavirus lockdowns, the appetite for escapism is “at an all-time high”.
      Earlier this year, in response to the pandemic, Child Studio designed Casa Plenaire – a fictitious seaside villa where those stuck at home could imagine having the “perfect holiday”.

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      Virgil Abloh and AMO design flexible flagship Off-White store in Miami that “can host a runway show”

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      Fashion designer Virgil Abloh and AMO director Samir Bantal have designed the Off-White flagship store in Miami Design District to be a fulfilment centre and a multipurpose events space. Abloh, who owns the brand Off-White, and Bantal, director of architecture firm OMA’s research arm AMO, designed the store to rethink how physical shops should operate amid the growing popularity of digital shopping.

      “We’re niche entities, AMO, Off-White, Samir and myself, so we’re able to sort of wear our heart on our sleeve or our brain on our sleeve,” Abloh told Dezeen. “The first slide that Samir sent for the development was like, is shopping relevant?”

      “If we’re able to kind of fulfil our needs by ordering a lot of things online, what’s the role of a physical store?,” Bantal added.

      The idea is that the store is flexible, according to Abloh, who citied the annual Art Basel and Design Miami events that take place in Miami as examples of when it could be used to host a variety of activities, like art and music events, and talks.
      “There might be 1,000 people, you know, in key moments of that year where the shop can host a runway show, it can host a talk, it can host a cafe,” Abloh said.
      “It’ll be a cafe that extends out into the street, it’ll be what the environment needs it to be rather than the betting on, hey, this square footage needs to be used for retail 24 seven,” he added.
      “Who knows, by the time it opens I might turn it into like an Uber delivery of Off-White – that’s the freedom and the fun.”

      In response, the store is stripped back to only provide storage space for apparel on sale so it could easily be used for a variety of activities and cultural events.
      “We played with the idea of translating the store into a fulfilment center,” Bantal explained. “Fulfillment of not only the monetary transaction you do by buying a product, but also fulfilment in terms of like the engagement you have with a brand, or the aura of a brand.”
      “This, of course, being in Miami Design District led to the idea of creating a space that is adjustable and transformable over time,” Bantal continued. “We should be able to kind of compress the retail parts to almost like a storage element in the store, and open the store to a kind of variety of cultural events.”

      Located at 127 NE 41 Street, the two-storey store is fronted with an opaque polycarbonate wall on the ground floor that can be pushed back, squeezing the storage of the apparel to the rear and opening the front to the street.
      “You almost push everything that is retail and compress it in the space behind and then of course, ultimately it ends up in storage,” said Bantal. “While the space in front of that facade is completely open and free and can be used for any function.”
      Above the moveable wall is the word Shop with a red cross in front – a tongue-in-cheek nod to the concept behind the project.
      “This is the first Off White store to have a facade you know, that street level so the expression, the signage, you know, as the words Shop is a shop, but then has like, an X through the middle, and it’s very, like monolithic,” said Abloh. “The face of the concept is expressed on the facade.”

      Inside, the team aimed to continue to the theme of the fulfilment centre through a stripped-back industrial aesthetic – including floors rendered in lightly stained concrete, walls lined in corrugated metal and mesh ceiling panels.
      Off-White apparel will be displayed on either stainless steel shelving or black marquina and white Carrara marble rails. All the furniture is placed on wheels or is collapsible so it can be moved about to accommodate events.
      The pared-back style acts as a backdrop to a series of artworks that will be installed in the store and the bold electric blue stair that leads to the first floor. On this level, the brand intends to host more intimate events like dinner parties.

      Abloh, who is also the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection, founded his Off-White brand as a ready-to-wear streetwear label in 2012. He previously teamed up with Bantal to design Figures of Speech, a retrospective exhibition of his career at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA).
      The store joins a number of fashion flagships in Miami Design District, which Craig Robins transformed from a formerly neglected area into the hub for design boutiques, luxury fashion brands and art galleries.
      Others include Joseph, which London firm Sybarite design with a spiral black staircase, Christian Louboutin, which is covered in tree bark, Dior, which has a boutique sheathed in curved white concrete panels, and Tom Ford, which is housed in a pleated concrete shop designed by ArandaLasch.

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      Gonzalez Haase AAS creates minimal interior for Berlin communications office

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      Architecture studio Gonzalez Haase AAS used aluminium and translucent sheets of polycarbonate to create the few fixtures and furnishings that appear inside this sparse Berlin office.The office belongs to trendy communications agency BAM and has been designed by Gonzalez Haase AAS as a celebration of “raw materiality and geometric simplicity”.
      “The raw, minimalistic aesthetic serves as a blank canvas for the agency’s creative projects,” the studio explained.

      Measuring 270 square metres, the office takes over the ground and first floor of a building at the heart of the German capital.

      The spacious lower level has been left open so that the agency can use it for large-scale meetings, or transform into a showroom or gallery-style space for events.

      It’s only interrupted by a floor-to-ceiling sliding partition that can be pulled across to divide the space into two separate rooms when necessary.
      The partition is crafted from four sheets of polycarbonate and has intentionally been positioned to sit slightly diagonally to contrast the sharp right angles that appear elsewhere throughout the space.

      A white flight of stairs with a wire-frame balustrade leads up to the office proper.
      Raw aluminium has been used to craft a series of blocky furnishings at this level, most notably a 22.5-metre-long shelf that extends from one side of the room to the other.
      The shelf incorporates several open and closed storage cupboards, and a bench seat where staff can sit to eat their lunch.

      Aluminium has additionally been used to make the long central work desk and the cabinetry in the small kitchenette.
      Another angled polycarbonate partition appears at this level, but in this instance separates a boardroom.

      “These monumental [aluminium] elements find balance in the large, translucent walls of polycarbonate sheeting,” added the studio.

      Berlin’s Brutalist Silence office has barely anything inside

      Further textual interest is created by the chipped wood and wool acoustic panels that have been staggered across the ceiling. They’re inset with simple strip lights that illuminate work areas below.

      Gonzalez Haase AAS was established in 1999 by Pierre Jorge Gonzalez and Judith Haase.
      The studio often applies a pared-back aesthetic to its projects – last year it completed Tem-plate, a fashion concept store in Lisbon that has been simply finished with white walls, concrete floors and display fixtures clad in crinkled silver metal.

      As well as BAM’s office, other minimal workspaces in Berlin include Brutalist Silence, an office designed by Annabell Kutucu that features exclusively concrete surfaces and only a handful of furniture.
      Photography is by Thomas Meyer.

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      YSG carries out tactile overhaul of Budge Over Dover house in Sydney

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      Terracotta brick, aged brass, and aubergine-hued plaster are just some of the materials that interior design studio YSG has included in its revamp of this house in Sydney.The house – nicknamed Budge Over Dover – is located in Dover Heights, a coastal suburb that lies to the east of Sydney.
      Despite the home’s spacious 825-square-metre floor plan, it previously played host to a rabbit-warren of light-starved rooms and poky corridors.

      Local studio YSG was brought on board to create a more “fluid” sense of space across the ground floor and improve the home’s visual connection to its sizeable garden.

      YSG began by knocking down a majority of existing partition walls to form a sweeping living and dining space.

      Surfaces throughout have been loosely rendered with aubergine or toffee-hued Marmorino plaster, forming a discrete backdrop to the studio’s “interplay of polished and raw finishes”.
      “Settings are embellished by tonal and tactile variations that delineate the neutral zones via swathes of colour and surface patinas,” explained the studio.

      At its rear lies a kitchen that boasts black-stained timber cabinetry. It’s anchored by a chunky prep counter, the base of which is crafted from aged brass while its countertop is made from veiny Black Panther marble.
      In front of the countertop is a row of stools upholstered in fluffy cream wool, and an oversized white lantern dangles overhead.
      “Wall sconces and lamps were selected to consciously pool light in areas and brushed velvet tonal depths as opposed to installing integrated ceiling lights,” added the studio.

      The kitchen directly faces onto a lounge area that has a large fawn-coloured sectional sofa dressed with mismatch patterned cushions.
      A breakfast nook has also been created in the corner, with a seating banquette made bespoke to curve in line with the wall.
      Inhabitants can choose to dine here or at the more formal dining table that’s surrounded by tubular-framed chairs with tan leather seats.

      This entire living space has been elevated to sit on an expansive platform covered with handmade terracotta tiles, bringing it in line with the garden patio.
      YSG purposefully used the same tiles to clad the floor of the patio in attempt to “draw the outside in”.

      The project also saw the studio cut back the size of the pool, which used to butt up against the back door, making space for more outdoor furnishings.

      Amber Road uses dark tones to furnish 1906 apartment in Sydney

      Beyond the brick-lined portion of the ground floor is an additional seating area that features the home’s original travertine flooring. Here, a beige sofa perches on a forest-green velvet rug, along with an angular maroon armchair.
      A complementary green-tone painting has also been mounted on the breast of the huge fireplace, which curves out from the wall.

      Upstairs, the studio has continued the rich palette but with “more saturated intensity”.
      The master bedroom has been painted a dark, mossy green shade to draw attention to the impressive ocean views seen from the windows.

      Another bedroom has dusky pink surfaces, brass light fixtures and an opulent natural-stone vanity table.
      Lighter tones are offered in one of the kid’s bedrooms, which has sky-blue walls and whimsical cloud-shaped lamps hanging from the ceiling.

      YSG was established at the beginning of 2020. Prior to this the studio’s founder, Yasmine Saleh Ghoniem, led interior design studio Amber Road alongside her sister, landscape architect Katy Svalbe.
      Previous projects by Amber Road – which has now closed for business – include Polychrome House, a colourful 1960s-era property, and the dark-hued 1906 Apartment – which is owned by the same family who reside in Budge Over Dover.
      Photography is by Prue Ruscoe.

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      Think Architecture completes Zurich home with lake and vineyard views

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      Swiss practice Think Architecture has created House at a Vineyard, which includes a veranda and sunken courtyard that have vistas across the waters of Lake Zurich.The house is situated in a wildflower-filled meadow that lies beyond a small vineyard near Lake Zurich.
      It was created by Think Architecture for a young family of four who, after showing the practice a few inspirational images from Pinterest, said their key request was that their home was modern and had a simple, symmetrical layout.

      “Though symmetrical villas have long dominated architectural history, in recent decades they have tended to appear only as neoclassical imitations,” said the practice.

      “House at a Vineyard aims to prove that this specific spatial arrangement still has its place and can be translated into a contemporary design.”

      The house comprises a stacked pair of rectilinear volumes, both of which are punctuated with tall recessed windows that offer views of the surrounding landscape.
      A three-metre-wide veranda runs the entire length of the lower volume of the house that boasts herringbone-pattern decked flooring.

      At its centre is a small, sunken courtyard centred by a single tree, which the practice has specifically placed to fall in line with the sequence of reception rooms indoors.
      Cushioned seating runs around the perimeter of the courtyard, allowing the family to relax there during the warm summer months while overlooking the waters of the lake.

      To complement the exterior of the house, which is rendered with pale, off-white plaster, surfaces of the internal living spaces have been washed with lime. Herringbone oak flooring also runs throughout, mirroring the decking on the veranda.

      Think Architecture creates minimal hilltop house in Zurich

      Think Architecture worked alongside Atelier Zurich to develop the aesthetic of the home’s interiors, which have been finished with a few standout decorative elements.

      In the kitchen, the breakfast island is topped with a slab of murky-green marble, while the dining room has a long blood-red table surrounded by cane-back chairs.
      This room is flanked by staircases that lead to the first floor, where blue-grey joinery and wall panelling has been introduced. Several contemporary artworks have also been mounted on the walls.

      Think Architecture was established in 2008 and is co-led by Ralph Brogle and Marco Zbinden.
      This isn’t the only residential project that the practice has completed in its home city of Zurich – last year it created House in a Park, which comprises a series of stone and plaster-lined volumes.
      Photography is by Simone Bossi.

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