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      Wood and stone surfaces bring “rich texture” to Primrose Hill House interior

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      Architecture for London has updated a 1960s house in London, creating an open-plan interior filled with natural materials and an improved connection to the rear courtyard garden.

      The house is one of two detached properties set in a modernist estate in Primrose Hill that primarily consists of painted brick courtyard houses and small terraces.
      Primrose Hill House was designed by Architecture for LondonThe new owner asked Architecture for London to transform the interior into a modern layout that is better suited to their lifestyle.
      “The house had a very broken plan consisting of lots of small rooms,” the studio’s director Ben Ridley told Dezeen. “The client wanted to create a family house that was more open plan with better views of the garden.”
      The studio added a rooftop extension clad in white bricksThe remodelled interior improves the connection with the garden by incorporating a large picture window in the kitchen, along with sliding wood-framed doors in the living area.

      The ground floor also contains a smaller reception area next to the entrance hall, with folding doors allowing this space to be separated from the kitchen and dining area.
      Sliding wood-framed doors open the living room up to the gardenA bespoke blackened-steel staircase provides access to four bedrooms on the first floor, including a main suite with a juliet balcony overlooking the garden.
      Following a detailed cost and sustainability review, a decision was made to demolish all of the property’s interior walls and rebuild them in order to achieve the required spaces.
      The interior was finished in a rich material paletteThis solution also offered the best energy-efficiency potential, according to Ridley, with a layer of wall insulation added alongside a heat recovery ventilation system (MVHR).
      The home’s first-floor plate was replaced using steel beams and timber joists to enable the demolition of the ground-floor walls and the opening up of the interior.
      Flooring was used to define different zonesspThe project also involved the addition of a timber-framed rooftop extension, clad with white-painted brick to tie in with the rest of the house and set back so it’s largely hidden from view.
      The extension contains a flexible mezzanine space for yoga and meditation that is accessed from the main bedroom suite.

      Architecture for London uses natural materials to renovate studio founder’s home

      Throughout the home, Architecture for London applied a pared-back palette of natural materials that is intended to create a sense of calmness and connection with the garden.
      Internal walls treated with breathable lime plaster provide a neutral backdrop for furniture including a dining table made from locally sourced London plane trees.
      Doors and windows are framed with wood”We intentionally didn’t use a lot of colour so there’s a strong feeling of consistency,” Ridley said. “The choice of stone and timber brings a rich texture to the palette.”
      A reference image of a Portuguese manor house, featuring a tiled trompe l’oeil frieze around a doorway, informed the use of materials to define space within the interior.
      The shared living areas have an open-plan layoutIn the living room, stone floor tiles in different shades create a border around the room, as if an area rug has been placed on the floor to demarcate where furniture could be placed.
      Ben Ridley founded Architecture for London in 2009 following his studies at London’s Barlett School of Architecture. The studio aims to create places that improve how people live and work, with a focus on reducing their operational emissions.
      Wood lines the interior walls of the homeRidley’s own London house recently featured in our round-up of five UK house renovations designed to improve energy efficiency.
      “Ultimately we are going to have to accept some changes in the appearance of our traditional homes,” he said, speaking to Dezeen as part of a feature on architects who have retrofitted their own homes.
      The photography is by Christian Brailey.

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      Luca Nichetto transforms Swedish villa into his own studio and showroom

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      Luca Nichetto has converted a 1940s villa in Stockholm into a studio to display his designs in a domestic setting and provide a comfortable working environment for his team.

      The Italian designer’s studio was previously based out of an apartment in the city’s Midsommarkransen neighbourhood. But when the landlord wanted to raise the rent, Nichetto decided to relocate to a larger property in a nearby suburb.
      Luca Nichetto has turned a 1940s villa into his own studio”I didn’t really need to look for another space in the city centre because it’s not that important for us as we work globally,” Nichetto explained.
      “A week after beginning to search, I saw on the real estate market what is now the Pink Villa. It was simply perfect and I made the offer.”
      A blush-pink staircase leads up to the first floorThe Pink Villa is a typical 1940s wooden house with a gabled roof and a large garden. Nichetto bought the property in 2021 and began adapting the interior to make it suitable for use as a studio.

      “I didn’t want a conventional studio space but rather a space that could be a studio, a showroom and a domestic property to be used on the weekends by my family and during the week by my team,” the designer told Dezeen.
      Nichetto’s Banah sofa for Arflex sits in the living areaThe villa takes its name from its distinctive pink exterior, which was given a fresh coat of bubblegum-pink paint to maintain its characterful presence on the street.
      The property’s existing three bedrooms were transformed into a private office for Nichetto on the first floor and a meeting room and tailor’s workshop on the ground floor, which his wife uses on the weekends.
      La Manufacture’s Soufflé mirror helps to bring character to the spaceA corridor leads from the entrance to a bright living room that looks onto the garden. An opening beyond the stairs up to the first floor connects with the simple custom-built kitchen.
      Along with Nichetto’s office, the upper floor contains a second bathroom and a large open workspace that facilitates flexible use rather than incorporating dedicated workstations.
      Bright and bold colours were used throughout the interiorThe interior features a pared-back palette of materials and colours that provide a neutral backdrop for a selection of products and furniture designed by Nichetto for brands including Offecct, Cassina, Arflex and Bernhardt Design.
      “I wanted to give a touch of warmth and I did that using colour and volumes,” the designer said. “I particularly chose materials culturally connected with the south of Europe and very deliberately mixed them with Scandinavian features.”

      Watch our talk with Ginori 1735 and Luca Nichetto about their new collection of home fragrances

      In the living area, pale-pink walls and white-painted floors contribute to the light and airy feel. Nichetto’s Banah sofa for Arflex and Soufflé mirror for La Manufacture are among the playful designs that bring character to this space.
      Upstairs, the main office spaces feature furniture such as Nichetto’s Torei low table for Cassina and Nico armchair for Bernhardt Design. His office contains the Railway table for De Padova and Robo chairs by Offecct.
      Walls in the living area were painted a light pinkOne of the key qualities that attracted Nichetto to the property is the spacious garden, which includes a terrace furnished with his Esedra table and Pluvia chairs for Ethimo.
      The basement garage was converted into a self-contained guest suite called the Chalet, which includes a living room, bedroom and bathroom with a Swedish sauna.
      The house also has a self-contained guest suiteSince the renovation was completed in April 2022, the Chalet has hosted international visitors including art directors, photographers and designers.
      The property’s location close to a park and to the water was another reason it appealed to Nichetto, who said he enjoys the proximity to nature and the good relationship he has established with his neighbours.
      Ceramic tiles provide a pop of colourA housekeeper was hired to look after the studio and to prepare meals for the team, adding to the sense of it hybrid space that is both domestic and designed for work.
      “It’s like being in a family: we all have lunch together and there are no fixed workstations to work,” he explained. “Moreover, whoever comes to visit us, if he wants, can stay and sleep. The idea is to create a sense of community.”
      Ethimo’s Esedra table and Pluvia chairs decorate the terraceLuca Nichetto established his multidisciplinary practice in Venice, Italy, in 2006 and continues to run a studio there alongside his main office in Stockholm. Nichetto Studio specialises in industrial and product design as well as art direction for design brands.
      Nichetto’s recent work includes a series of home fragrances for Ginori 1735 and his first foray into fashion accessories in the form of the apple-leather Malala handbag.
      The photography is by Max Rommel.

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      Keiji Ashizawa draws on “whiteness of tofu” for tactile Saga Hirakawaya restaurant

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      Japanese designer Keiji Ashizawa paid homage to the food on offer when designing the Saga Hirakawaya tofu restaurant, which hopes to revitalise a depopulated community in Japan.

      Located in the hot spring resort Takeo Onsen in Japan’s Saga prefecture, the curved restaurant was designed to blend in with the surrounding environment, including a historical tower gate.
      The Saga Hirakawaya restaurant is located next to a historical tower gate”Tofu, a food culture rooted in the region of Saga prefecture, is the main ingredient of this restaurant,” Ashizawa told Dezeen. “Since tofu is a simple food, we chose materials with a sense of simplicity such as wood, concrete and walls finished in plaster to bring out the texture in the materials.”
      “With a background of wishing to use local materials, wood was used for the entrance, windows and undersurface of eaves to match the wood from Ariake, a furniture brand based in Saga.”
      Volcanic ash was used for the plasterThe studio also used shirasu – a type of volcanic ash from Mount Sakurajima in Kyushu – as a plastering material for the building’s exterior walls.

      Saga Hirakawaya has a curved design forming a semi-open interior courtyard, which holds a foot bath with hot spring water that aims to encourage the restaurant’s customers to eat and stay outside the establishment for longer.
      Wooden furniture matches the pared-down interiorInside the 435-square-metre restaurant, the interior matches the exterior with pale grey walls that nod to the food on the menu.
      “As the ceiling and walls are curved, pale colours are used to extend the light beautifully in the restaurant, complemented by the use of grey colours on the walls and floors,” Ashizawa said. “It also signifies the whiteness of the tofu.”

      Keiji Ashizawa adds Blue Bottle Coffee shop to Kobe department store

      The restaurant’s ground floor houses a shop selling tofu-based products and sweets, while the first floor is home to a restaurant serving onsen yudofu – a type of tofu made using hot spring water.
      An open atrium connects the shop and restaurant, which both feature large windows.
      The ground floor houses a shopCircular lamps made by local paper manufacturer Nao Washi hang over the tables while the wooden furniture was made by furniture brand Ariake, which manufactures in Saga prefecture.
      The decision to open the Saga Hirakawaya restaurant in Takeo Onsen was made by its owner, who was born and raised in the area and wanted to help revitalise the community, which has suffered from a population decline.
      Paper lamps hang over tables”Depopulation is inevitable in rural areas of Japan,” Ashizawa said. “But in order to revitalise a region, it is important to attract people to the area through tourism.”
      “The client decided to create a restaurant serving onsen yudofu, believing that the region’s unique culinary culture could be an incentive to visit the area for sightseeing.”
      A restaurant space is located on the first floor”We deeply sympathise with the client’s hope to make the most of the wonderful location in front of the historical tower gate of Takeo Onsen, an important cultural asset, and to combine it with the region’s unique food culture to attract tourists from both inside and outside of Japan, contributing to the revitalisation of the area,” he added.
      Other recent projects by Ashizawa include a Blue Bottle Coffee shop in Kobe and a mid-century-modern-informed residence in Tokyo.
      The photography is by Ben Richards.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Keiji Ashizawa DesignProject architect: Keiji Ashizawa, Kentaro Yamaguchi, Tsubasa FuruichiConstruction: Yamakami IncFurniture: Hirata Chair/LegnatecLighting: Saito Shomei/Nao Washi

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      Get your event listed in Dezeen's guide to Stockholm Design Week 2023

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      There is still time to feature your event in Dezeen’s guide to Stockholm Design Week, which will spotlight the key exhibitions, talks and other events taking place during the festival.

      Dezeen Events Guide will publish the digital guide a week ahead of the festival, which takes place from 6 to 12 February 2023.
      The trade show Stockholm Furniture Fair takes place in the city during the week, along with hundreds of fringe events.
      The Stockholm Design Week guide follows on from the success of our digital guides to Milan design week and London Design Festival last year, which received over 60,000 page views combined. In total, Dezeen Events Guide received over 400,000 page views in 2022.
      To be considered for inclusion in the guide, email [email protected]. Events will be selected by the Dezeen team to ensure that the best events are included.

      Get listed in Dezeen’s digital Stockholm guide
      Dezeen offers standard, enhanced and featured listings in its Stockholm guide.
      Standard listing: For only £100, you can feature your event name, date and location details plus a website link. These listings will also feature up to 50 words of text about the event.
      Enhanced listing: For £150, you can include all of the above plus an image at the top of the listing’s page and an image in the listing preview on the Stockholm guide page. These listings can also feature up to 100 words of text about the event.
      Featured listing: For £300, your listing will feature everything as part of an enhanced listing plus inclusion in the featured events carousel and accompanying posts on Dezeen Events Guide social media channels. These listings can also feature up to 150 words of text about the event, and can include commercial information and additional links to website pages such as ticket sales, newsletter signups etc.
      For more information about partnering with us to help amplify your event, contact the team at [email protected].
      About Dezeen Events Guide
      Dezeen Events Guide lists events across the globe, which can be filtered by location and type.
      Events taking place later in the year include DesignMarch 2023, NYCxDesign 2023 and 3 Days of Design.
      The illustration is by Rima Sabina Aouf.

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      Watch the AHEAD Global 2022 hospitality awards ceremony

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      Today, AHEAD will announce the winners of the AHEAD Global 2022 hospitality design awards and its headline Ultimate Accolade. Dezeen is collaborating with the brand to show the ceremony here at 1pm London time.

      The AHEAD Awards is an annual programme highlighting striking hospitality around the world, split across Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA), Asia and the Americas.
      For its climactic Global leg, regional winners are pitted against each other to determine the ultimate winner in each category. The winners will be announced over a digital broadcast aired on Dezeen and AHEAD’s website.
      This year the programme received over 630 entries spanning 60 countries, which were judged by a panel of leading hoteliers, architects, interior designers and industry experts.

      AHEAD Global awards 2021 winners announced in series of video ceremonies on Dezeen

      Previous AHEAD winners include the Six Senses hotel by Jonathon Leitersdorf, a luxury resort in Cala Xarraca, Ibiza, which was named the winner of the spa and wellness category at the AHEAD Europe awards 2021.

      NoMad London, a former prison transformed into a luxury hotel, was named Hotel of the Year for the AHEAD Europe 2021 award, while the One & Only Mandarina luxury resort in Mexico was awarded the Hotel of the Year for the AHEAD Americas 2021 award.
      Partnership content
      This ceremony was broadcast by Dezeen for AHEAD as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here. Images courtesy of AHEAD.

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      Get listed in Dezeen's digital guide for Stockholm Design Week 2023

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      Are you putting on an exhibition, talk or other event in Stockholm next month? Get your event listed in our digital guide to Stockholm Design Week on Dezeen Events Guide, which will highlight the key events taking place from 6 to 12 February 2023.

      Stockholm Design Week hosts hundreds of events, including exhibitions, open showrooms, talks and parties, as well as the trade show Stockholm Furniture Fair.
      Dezeen’s guide, which will be published a week ahead of the design week, will provide visitors with all the key information about the festival with listings for the must-see events.
      The Stockholm Design Week guide follows on from the success of our digital guides to Milan design week and London Design Festival last year, which received over 60,000 page views combined. In total, Dezeen Events Guide received over 400,000 page views in 2022.
      To be considered for inclusion in the guide, email [email protected]. Events will be selected by the Dezeen team to ensure that the best events are included.

      Get listed in Dezeen’s digital Stockholm guide
      Dezeen offers standard, enhanced and featured listings in its Stockholm guide.
      Standard listing: For only £100, you can feature your event name, date and location details plus a website link. These listings will also feature up to 50 words of text about the event.
      Enhanced listing: For £150, you can include all of the above plus an image at the top of the listing’s page and an image in the listing preview on the Stockholm guide page. These listings can also feature up to 100 words of text about the event.
      Featured listing: For £300, your listing will feature everything as part of an enhanced listing plus inclusion in the featured events carousel and accompanying posts on Dezeen Events Guide social media channels. These listings can also feature up to 150 words of text about the event and can include commercial information and additional links to website pages such as ticket sales, newsletter signups etc.
      For more information about partnering with us to help amplify your event, contact the team at [email protected].
      About Dezeen Events Guide
      Dezeen Events Guide lists events across the globe, which can be filtered by location and type.
      Events taking place later in the year include Nomad St Moritz 2023, Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 and Design Shanghai 2023.
      The illustration is by Rima Sabina Aouf.

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      GSL Gallery takes over disused Parisian factory with “punk” interiors

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      Weathered walls and concrete floors feature in this design gallery that creative collective The Guild of Saint Luke and architecture firm Studio ECOA have set up inside a former factory in Paris.

      Spread across one storey and two mezzanines, GSL Gallery provides a mixture of studio and exhibition space for the group of architects, artists and artisans that make up The Guild of Saint Luke.
      GSL Gallery sits inside an old factoryThe gallery occupies a disused factory in Pantin, a neighbourhood in northeastern Paris with a growing arts and culture scene.
      In recent years, the building operated as a classic car garage but was purchased by art dealer and gallerist Hadrien de Montferrand during the pandemic with the aim of transforming the site into a gallery.
      The building’s concrete floors were retainedDe Montferrand enlisted locally based Studio ECOA to carry out all the necessary architectural changes and asked The Guild of Saint Luke (GSL) to steer the building’s design and become its first tenant.

      “We were charmed by the space and found the patina and raw walls to be punk and accidentally on-point,” GSL’s creative director John Whelan told Dezeen.
      Clean white panelling was added to give the space the look of a typical gallery”Working in close collaboration with Studio ECOA, we proposed a project that retained all of the rawness of the spaces with very minimal design interventions,” he continued.
      “We felt that it would be criminal to interfere with the existing mood, which is melancholic and eerily beautiful.”
      Studio ECOA restored the building’s facade and aluminium roof, as well as preserving its original concrete flooring.
      A live-work space can be found on GSL Gallery’s first mezzanineBoxy storage units were built on either side of the front door to form a corridor-like entrance to the ground floor, where white panelling was added across the lower half of the patchy, time-worn walls to emulate the look of a typical gallery.
      This ground-floor space will be used to display a changing roster of avant-garde installations, which GSL hopes to finance by using the gallery’s workspaces to produce more commercial projects for design brands.

      Maison François brasserie in London takes cues from Ricardo Bofill’s architecture

      “Commercial endeavours will help to fund more proactive ‘passion projects’, where we will exhibit GSL’s own designs along with designers and artists that we admire,” Whelan said.
      “Our chief motivation is creative freedom, as we hope to produce installations that do not necessarily adhere to a commercial brief.”
      Bathroom facilities are contained in a mirrored volumeThe building’s two existing mezzanines were cut back to create a central atrium, which draws natural light into the gallery’s interior.
      The lower mezzanine now houses a hybrid live-work space where GSL members or visiting artists can stay the night.
      This space is centred by a large Donald Judd-style wooden table and also accommodates a bed, kitchenette and a bathroom concealed within a mirrored volume.
      Metal sanitary ware reflects the light in the bathroomExtra exhibition space is provided on the secondary mezzanine that sits beneath the building’s roof, directly under a series of expansive skylights.
      Prior to now, GSL has largely specialised in hospitality interiors – restoring historic brasseries across Paris and devising opulent restaurants such as Nolinski near the Musée du Louvre and Maison Francois in London.
      The lower mezzanine also houses a bed and a large table”We hope that the gallery will be an extension of the aesthetic that we are trying to develop, embracing new ideas but never abandoning the pursuit of beauty,” Whelan explained.
      “It feels like a good time to do so, as Covid has cleared and a mood of optimism in design has emerged. This bracing, minimal space feels almost like a clean slate and invites a multitude of possibilities.”
      The second mezzanine sits directly underneath the building’s skylightsOther recent additions to Paris’s cultural landscape include a major extension of the Musée Albert Kahn by Kengo Kuma and Associates, which made room for a historic collection of 72,000 photographs.
      Elsewhere in the French capital, Bruno Gaudin Architectes just completed a 15-year renovation of the National Library of France, incorporating a number of new circulation routes and public spaces.
      The photography is by Oskar Proctor. 

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      Earthy colours bring warmth to clifftop Aethos Ericeira hotel in Portugal

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      Lisbon-based Pedra Silva Arquitectos has teamed up with Spanish design studio Astet to convert a former clifftop farmstead on Portugal’s west coast into a destination for surfers.

      Aethos Ericeira is a 50-room hotel positioned high up on sandstone cliffs, overlooking the beach on a stretch of coastline known to offer some of the best waves in Portugal.
      Aethos Ericeira occupies a converted farmhouse. Photo is by Francisco NogueiraPedra Silva Arquitectos oversaw the building work, which included reworking the facades, while Astet replanned the spatial flow and designed the visual aesthetic of the interiors.
      Their design draws from its setting, combining references to the rural landscape with elements of surf culture, and also taking advantage of the elevated view.
      The original facade is updated with protruding box windows. Photo is by Francisco NogueiraGrand windows, simple furnishings and an earthy colour palette help to create an environment where visitors can feel relaxed and connected with the setting.

      “When we came across the property, we immediately knew it was a unique opportunity – a secluded destination on top of a 40-metre cliff, surrounded by lush fields with unrivalled ocean views,” said CEO and co-founder Benjamin Habbel.
      “The building, a former farmhouse turned into a rehab centre, had been abandoned for many years,” he told Dezeen. “Despite its bad shape, we saw huge potential.”
      Arched windows are a key feature in the lobby. Photo is by PION StudioThe venue is one of five properties under the Aethos brand, along with locations in France and Italy.
      Like its sister venues, the ethos behind Aethos Ericeira is to promote mindfulness among guests, by offering wellbeing-focused spaces and experiences.
      The materials palette includes wood, rattan and soft-green tiles. Photo is by PION StudioFor Pedra Silva Arquitectos, this meant bringing a greater sense of cohesion to the existing buildings and the various extensions that had been added over the years.
      The old farmhouse was kept simple, with light-rendered walls, a clay tile roof, arched recesses and protruding box windows. Meanwhile other parts of the building were updated with timber slats and metal panelling.

      Ian Pablo Amores creates pink hotel with courtyard garden in San Miguel de Allende

      “We felt the solution was to establish a clear distinction between old and new, restoring the existing building to something closer to its original state, and giving recent extensions and new construction their own distinct character,” said studio founder Luís Pedra Silva.
      “For the areas of more recent expansion, the challenge was to achieve a contemporary look and feel that was well integrated,” added architect Bernardo Nadais.
      “We achieved this by combining a strong materiality with surgical instances of demolition – removing some sloped roofs, opening up the balconies – allowing us to reinterpret the facades into clearer shapes and volumes.”
      Timber slats clad one of the newer buildings. Photo by PION StudioAstet’s interior design strategy centred around the year-round experience.
      The materials palette incorporates warm natural materials like wood, velvet and rattan, but also brings in cooler surfaces that include marble and stone.
      A swimming pool is framed by the buildings. Photo by PION Studio”Ericeira can be great and sunny but there are a few months where it’s windy and rainy, so the number one goal was for rooms and common spaces to function in the summer and be cosy in the winter,” said Astet’s Ala Zureikat.
      “Yet we didn’t want to be too literal and use Portuguese tiles, because I think that’s the first thing that everyone associates with Portugal,” he told Dezeen. “We wanted to achieve a more sophisticated twist.”
      The hotel is designed for surfing enthusiasts. Photo is by PION StudioThe most distinctive space is the hotel reception, which is characterised by the original arched windows, soft-green tiles and large louvre screens.
      The bedrooms are more minimal, with custom headboards, muted fabrics and wooden flooring.
      “The door of the room is a full-size mirror, so wherever you are, you always have a view of the ocean,” said Zureikat.
      Onda is the hotel restaurant. Photo is by PION StudioAethos Ericeira facilities include a restaurant, a gym, a heated saltwater pool, a meditation and yoga deck, and a spa with hammam, hot slab and treatment rooms.
      Landscape works help to create easy flow between these spaces, and link up with pathways leading to the beach.
      Other recent beach hotels to open include Ethos Vegan Suites in Santorini, Villa W in Saint-Tropez, and Patina Maldives.
      The photography is by Francisco Nogueira and PION Studio.

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