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New York-based Morris Adjmi Architects has used pink leather, herringbone flooring and green hand-glazed tiles across the interiors of a residential complex the studio designed on the waterfront of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. More
Tall ceilings and large windows allow light to flood the interior of this Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn, designed by New York studio Plan Plan. More
Swedish designer Gustaf Westman displayed existing and new objects including a colourful “puzzle” shelf during a three-day pop-up event in New York City.
Named Gustaf Westman in New York, the show was located in an industrial storefront in Williamsburg and displayed the designer’s colourful objects and furniture on a meandering pink and orange pathway.
Swedish designer Gustaf Westman held a New York City pop-up that gave nod to a museum experienceSmall descriptions were placed on the ground in front of the objects, as “a nod to a museum experience”, while printed pamphlets similar to museum guides were available to visitors.
“The decision was very organic,” Westman told Dezeen. “When we came here, it was like a gallery space. It’s also a bit ironic, because I’ve only been doing this for four years and I’m not really ready to do a museum.”
A brightly coloured pathway weaved through the space, which was divided by Westman’s screens and a larger display wall towards the front.
Gustaf Westman and Swedish Stockings transform nylon tights into “terrazzo-like” tables
Among the new objects displayed was Puzzle Shelf, a shelving unit made of interlocking, stackable rectangular forms that conclude in puzzle-shaped feet. Westman noted that the shelf is 3D-printed and processed to resemble the material qualities of his other ceramic and metal objects.
“I have an obsession with trying to test all different materials and trying to make them look the same,” said Westman. “Even if I work with wood or ceramics or glass, I want to keep the same finish, so [3D printing] is the next step.”
The shelf was made in a host of bright colours such as red, pink, cream, and dark blue.
Existing and new objects from the designer were displayedThe remaining space was filled with pedestals and shelving outfitted with existing glassware and objects such as a spiralling book stand and flower-shaped mirrors, along with furniture such as a coffee table that pinches wine glasses in place.
The designer previously used nylon tights to create “terrazzo-like” tables and displayed his objects during Day Two from Stockholm Design Week 2024.
The photography is by Kate Fatseas unless otherwise stated
Gustaf Westman in New York was on show at 25 Fillmore Place, Brooklyn from 10-13 October. For more events, exhibitions and talks in architecture and design visit the Dezeen Events Guide.
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New York studio Office of Tangible Space has refreshed the interiors of the cafe at the Brooklyn Museum, ahead of the institution’s 200th anniversary next year.
The Brooklyn Museum Cafe is located in the building’s light-filled entry pavilion, which was added to the original beaux-arts building in 2004 by Polshek Partnership Architects (now Ennead Architects).
Furniture at the redesigned Brooklyn Museum Cafe is laid out like “islands and streams”Serving a menu by local restaurateur and sommelier André Hueston Mack, who runs the neighborhood restaurant & Sons, the redesigned cafe is intended for locals and museum-goers to enjoy light bites and drinks.
“Playing off the mission of the museum, [we] envisioned the cafe as a Brooklyn stoop where all are invited,” said Office of Tangible Space. “The space embodies the playfulness, creativity, craft, and expression that make Brooklyn and Brooklynites so unique.”
The cafe occupies a portion of the building’s light-filled entry pavilionThe locally based studio created a fluid layout that allows visitors to meander through the space.
Furniture is arranged in “islands and streams” that can accommodate diners in varied group sizes, as well as those stopping for a casual coffee.
Periwinkle-hued tables with angled sides form snaking shapes through the space”The space is anchored by large islands of seating and undulating streams of custom tables indicating the walking paths,” said Office of Tangible Space.
Aluminium chairs with seats and backs perforated with large holes accompany tables, including circular wooden designs for up to six guests and dark green two-tops.
Dark green two-top tables are accompanied by aluminium chairs perforated with large holesOther tables made from folded sheets of thin periwinkle-hued metal have angled sides, allowing them to form snaking shapes when lined up in a row.
Round cushioned poufs upholstered in pale blue and green are placed around the perimeter, which is demarcated by a set of freestanding wooden dividers and potted plants.
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“The incorporation of bold color and material add to playfulness and tactility of the space,” the studio said.
For the new space, the museum and Office of Tangible Space commissioned 10 local artists to design one-off stools that are peppered through the cafe.
Large round poufs are provided for more casual seatingThe handcrafted wooden seats, manufactured by Sundays, have been customised by Minjae Kim, Chen Chen and Kai Williams, Ellen Pong, Kim Mupangilaï and more.
“These handcrafted pieces not only complement the cafe’s design but also echo the philosophy that food, like art, is an immersive experience – engaging the senses, sparking conversation, and creating a connection between the creator and the audience,” said Office of Tangible Space.
The cafe was redesigned ahead of the Brooklyn Museum’s 200th anniversaryThe Brooklyn Museum’s building, designed by McKim, Mead & White and completed in 1895, will host a variety of exhibitions and events planned to celebrate its bicentenary.
These include Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200, a showcase celebrating the institution’s collection and legacy that opens in February 2025.
Founded by Michael Yarinsky and Kelley Perumbeti, Office of Tangible Space was longlisted in the emerging interior designer of the year category of Dezeen Awards 2020.
The photography is by Matthew Gordon.
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Canadian studio Bureau Tempo has completed a “gentle redesign” of a loft space in Brooklyn, New York, which features a subtle pale green kitchen and fritted glass partition walls.
The home faces the busy Atlantic Avenue thoroughfare that runs through the Brooklyn Heights neighbourhood and enjoys tall ceilings and large windows at either end.
A mural depicting Prospect Park is painted above the loft’s den areaMeasuring 1,600 square feet (150 square metres), the loft is roughly divided into three sections.
At the front are the primary bedroom – painted in a colour called Dead Salmon by Farrow & Ball – and an office space that is equipped with a foldaway Murphy bed that can be deployed for guests.
The dining room features a large black table and matching Windsor chairsThis multifunctional space is separated from the living area by a partition of wood and fritted glass panels.
Folding doors open to connect with the lounge and dining area, but the light can still reach these central spaces when closed thanks to the glass.
The lounge is furnished with comfy sofas and armchairs, plus an oxblood-coloured coffee table”The addition of an operable wood and fluted-glass wall between the primary space and the Atlantic Avenue end of the home allows for an open office by day and an inviting and private quarters when hosting guests,” said Bureau Tempo.
The lounge is furnished with comfy sofas and armchairs, plus an oxblood-coloured coffee table, all placed atop a rug by Armadillo.
The office space can be opened up to the rest of the apartment with folding panelsBeyond is the dining area, where a large black table is accompanied by six Windsor chairs and a pair of stretched-fabric pendant lights that hang overhead.
The final portion of the loft is raised up two steps, and contains a den area with more soft seating and the kitchen.
A retractable Murphy bed allows the office to double as a guest roomAbove a section of bead-board panelling where the TV is mounted, a mural by artist and friend of the loft’s owners Melody Lockerman depicts nearby Prospect Park.
“Painted in tones that compliment choices throughout, the mural adds a welcome touch of levity,” Bureau Tempo said.
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In the kitchen opposite, textured four-by-four-inch ceramic tiles create a subtle checkerboard pattern of pale pink and white across the floor.
Millwork on the central island and lower cabinets was painted a very light shade of green and is accented with brass hardware.
Fritted glass panels allow light from the front window to penetrate deeper into the apartment”These rooms share a direct connection with the intimate yet spacious and light-filled north facing terrace, which dramatically extends the perception of the home’s size,” the team said.
The majority of the walls throughout the apartment are covered in a textured lime plaster finish by Bauwerk Colour, complementing exposed wooden ceiling beams in each room.
The primary bedroom is painted in Dead Salmon by Farrow & Ball to contrast the lime plaster in other spacesMany of Brooklyn’s former industrial buildings now house chic apartments and lofts, many of which maintain nods to their past.
At a residence in Gowanus, wooden structural elements were uncovered and retreated during renovations by General Assembly, while a home inside a former chocolate factory in Bedford-Stuyvesant has ductwork and services are left exposed.
The photography is by Alex Lesage.
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Local entrepreneur Varun Kataria has unveiled a venue with a mix of colourful, retro details that contains the only permanent roller rink in New York City.
Set in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Xanadu occupies a former industrial warehouse, which was converted by Kataria and his team, who also run the nearby restaurant and venue Turks Inn and Sultan Room.
Xanadu is a multi-functional space with a massive roller rink in BrooklynThe multi-functional space now contains a roller rink, stage, bar area and large bathrooms, one of which can be converted into a smaller “club within a club”.
According to Kataria, the space originally had columns throughout, but to make a large enough surface for an uninterrupted roller rink the ceiling needed to be supported without columns.
It includes a mix of colours and patternsWorking with a local architect friend, Kataria created a structure around the existing structure, suspending the ceiling from the superstructure in order to support the weight, essentially creating a second ceiling.
This allows for a wide space centred around the hand-painted, maple-wood rink, but without sacrificing details for the attendant spaces.
Plentiful seating lines the leisure spaces around the rinkThe result is a “fun and maximum” space that contains a dizzying mix of patterns and colours.
At the entrance, a desk was placed to rent out custom skates. From here, a walkway passes under an archway anchored by a sofa that wraps around a pole. Guests pass a long bar and on the wall across from it are raised seating areas.
Banquet seating wraps the far side of the space and throughout, multiple entryways have been placed to give access to the massive rink.
It has a massive maple wood roller rinkThe ceiling has incongruous shapes cut into it with track lighting. Kataria said that the Memphis Group design movement in part influenced the shape, giving the space the sense of an “elevated adult day care.
“It’s not afraid to be playful,” said Kataria. “And the relationship with color became a real joy.”
A stage sits adjacent to the ringHe added that the combination of many influences and time-periods was meant to have an “uncanny” effect on the visitors.
Details such as infinity mirrors in the long sloping bar, colourful patterns in the carpet and vinyl surface coverings – almost every vinyl surface has a different pattern – create a mix of historical time periods that Kataria said work together to “push nostalgic buttons”, while being contemporary.
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He said that the idea was to revive a entertainment form that people often associate more squarely with the past.
“I’m not gonna say it’s an industry in decline, but the spaces themselves are in decline, right?” Kataria told Dezeen.
“They’re usually old. But there’s more skaters than ever now. So I think as a cultural practice, it’s exploding, you know, with new energy.”
One bathroom can be converted into a mini clubThe bathrooms are mostly monotone – one red and one blue. The red one has a hidden DJ set up so that it can become Club Flush.
Other recent rinks include an ice skating rink built in Canada by architecture studio Lemay, which it says is the largest in the world.
The photography is by Matt Harrington.
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Taupe walls and walnut banquettes create a calming atmosphere in this wine bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, designed by California-based Studio Ahead.
Named With Others, the bar on Bedford Avenue specialises in natural wines from small-production, low-impact wineries.
Studio Ahead designed the With Others wine bar to have a soothing atmosphereSouth Williamsburg, which has seen a dramatic transformation over the past three decades – from creative backwater, to hipster locale, to commercial hotspot.
Owner Shanna Nasiri wanted to take her patrons back to the creative spirit of the neighbourhood’s heyday in late 1990s and early 2000s.
Industrial elements include metal-mesh shelving behind the barShe invited Homan Rajai and Elena Dendiberia, founders of Studio Ahead in San Francisco, to design the interiors with a “rough around the edges” feel.
“This is not the Williamsburg of Hermès and homogeny, but of carefully selected wines served in a space of carefully selected artisans where you wave to the people you know across the room,” said Studio Ahead. “A neighborhood bar.”
Walnut banquettes feature tall backs and thin cushionsThe building’s weathered facade, complete with “scratches, graffiti, patina, grime”, was left largely untouched.
Inside, a soft-industrial aesthetic is evoked through elements like metal-mesh shelving behind the bar, fabricated by local company Wombat.
Small square tiles cover the front of the bar counter and the floorSmall square tiles cover the floor and the sides of the bar counter, matching the Farrow and Ball paint on the walls and ceiling.
Along one side of the space runs a series of minimalist walnut banquettes with tall backs and thin seat cushions.
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Georg stools by Chris Liljenberg Halstrom for Fritz Hansen, which feature cushions strapped to simple wooden frames, appear in two heights.
Artworks and objects dotted through the interior include a wooden vase by artist Ido Yoshimoto, and small dishes and bowl by ceramicist Katie Coughlin.
With Others nods to the recent history of its Williamsburg locationOn the walls, cube-shaped washi paper lanterns by artist John Gnorski depict “Dionysian scenes of friendship and frolic”.
The minimalist forms and muted colour palette throughout the space offer a “soothing contrast to bright loud furious New York” according to Studio Ahead.
The building’s weathered facade was left largely untouchedWilliamsburg may have changed over the years, but it’s still one of New York City’s most popular neighbourhoods.
Recent additions to the area include a Moxy hotel designed by Basile Studio and a Kith store with an “industrial ambiance”.
The photography is by Ekaterina Izmestevia.
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Brooklyn practice Almost Studio has completed an apartment renovation inside a former chocolate factory, retaining an open layout while adding level changes to demarcate functional spaces.
The Loft for a Chocolatier occupies part of a 1947 industrial building along Myrtle Avenue, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The loft’s kitchen revolves around an island that’s anchored by a structural column surrounded by corrugated metalThe apartment boasts many features typical of loft-style living, including high ceilings, large windows, and exposed pipes and ductwork.
In one sense, Almost Studio founders Anthony Gagliardi and Dorian Booth aimed to retain this character through an open floor plan, adding powder-coated white mesh boxes and metallic accents.
Exposed ductwork and white powder-coated mesh boxes highlight the industrial character of the spaceIn another, the pair chose to denote or separate some of the functional areas using changes in angle or elevation.
They looked to artists like Kazimir Malevich and Josef Albers for ways to honour the original spatial composition while organising the various spaces.
The kitchen counter integrates a work-from-home area, where pale wood panels are contrasted by lime-green storage niches”It became a way for us to distinguish different areas – such as entry, kitchen, living room, dining room, and office – through these subtle rotational moves in a space that was otherwise entirely open,” said Gagliardi and Booth.
“In many lofts, every space is equally capable of hosting any activity, and is therefore equally inadequate to host any activity,” the duo continued. “If a dining room can also be an office, gym, and workshop – is it the best place to have dinner?”
A lounge area is located in the middle of the open-plan spaceThe apartment’s dining room is therefore located on a raised platform at the end of the space, where the ceiling is also lowered using the mesh boxes.
This set-up aims to create “a closer relationship with the high loft windows, and light, as well as a smaller, more intimate space for conversations”, Gagliardi and Booth said.
The dining area is raised on a platform to differentiate it from the rest of the apartmentThe raised area is accessed via a short staircase that’s covered in green carpet and flanked by sculptural pale pink screens.
These elements – covered in Shirasu Kabe plaster – are indicative of the studio’s approach to softening the industrial architecture, along with cork flooring and wainscoting, and upholstered seating.
Shutters can be opened to connect the mezzanine bedroom and the main living areaPale millwork fronts the pill-shaped kitchen island and curved cabinets behind, while other niches are left open and lined in chartreuse.
The kitchen counter integrates an area for a desk, used as a home office, where the shelving also continues overhead.
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Meanwhile, corrugated metal surrounds a structural column that anchors the island, and the dining chairs have tubular steel frames.
At the opposite end from the dining room, another elevated portion of the space houses a bedroom, which is closed off from the rest of the apartment.
The light-filled bedroom features cork wainscoting and plenty of built-in storageThis space is more intimate, and features cream walls, built-in storage, and an arched niche beside the bed that’s lined with more green carpet for the owner’s cats to nap in.
A fritted glass door slides across for privacy, and a series of shutters that offer views between the bedroom and the main living area can be closed when desired.
An arched niche lined with green carpet provides a spot for cat napsBrooklyn has many former industrial buildings that have been converted for residential use over the past decade.
Others include a 19th-century hat factory in Williamsburg that is now home to an apartment that doubles as a performance space and a warehouse in Dumbo where one loft features a book-filled mezzanine.
The photography is by Jonathan Hokklo.
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Local architecture studio Bench Architecture has topped a Brooklyn brewery with a pizzeria and bar outfitted in a “colourfully tactile palette” including a wall of aqua-blue tile.
In East Williamsburg, Lala’s Brooklyn Apizza shop is located above the Grimm Artisanal Ales brewery – a converted automobile shop that opened in 2018 and was also designed by Brooklyn-based Bench Architecture.
Local studio Bench Architecture has topped a brewery with a pizzeria in BrooklynThe second-floor pizzeria consists of a large open space flanked on either side by a pizza kitchen and terracotta-clad bar, while a series of bi-fold doors lead out onto a rooftop terrace.
“A colourfully tactile palette was used to frame two poles of the space,” the studio said.
The space sits on top of a converted autobody shop The space sits on top of a converted autobody shop
At one end of the interior space, a pizza oven is surrounded by light green Portuguese tile, while a white mosaic tile was used to clad the oven itself. A bar counter topped with moonstone and wrapped in corrugated wood frames the oven, with a small service window lined with the same moonstone placed to the side.
Across the space, a service bar was wrapped in fluted terracotta tiles and topped with a dark grey Mexican Cantera stone counter.
The studio organized the interior into “nodes”A wall of aqua-blue concrete tile sits behind the bar, extending along the space and outside onto the terrace.
Magenta-pink curtains line the back wall and a wood-slatted ceiling connects these two bars, which the studio refers to as “nodes”. The two countertops were designed to have contrasting materiality.
Wood and terracotta-clad bar counters on either end of a dining space”These ‘rough’ and ‘polished’ nodes are unified by a curved wood-slat ceiling and magenta curtain which accent primary surfaces as well as soften the acoustics of the space,” said the studio.
An angled mirror was placed above the curtain and spans its width to visually connect the interior space to the terrace, according to the studio.
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Outside, the terrace is flanked on both sides by walls of light pink and blue tile, with a Cantera stone floor covering the entirety of the space.
Simple wooden picnic tables populate both the interior dining area and outdoor space, with shelving and a rack of firewood dispersed around them.
Colourful tile was used to line the interior and exterior wallsBench Architecture expanded upon similar themes it used for the brewery and taproom on the ground floor below, which opened in 2018.
Similar red-hued curtains line the space and a corrugated metal-clad bar was placed along the building’s front windows to provide space for brewery production.
The space opens onto a terrace through a series of bi-fold glass doorsA series of pendants hang from the ceiling, which marks an original mezzanine design for the space.
“A grid of hanging pendant lights create a ‘ceiling’ to the space, which outlines the extent of the original mezzanine design for the room, which was superseded by the rooftop extension,” said the studio.
Bench Architecture is a Brooklyn-based architecture studio founded by David Bench in 2020 that specializes in residential, retail and event spaces.
Other interior projects recently completed in the Williamsburg area include a residential loft that doubles as a performance space and a Kith store featuring a brick silo at its centre.
The photography is by Nicholas Venezia
Project credits:
Architecture and interiors: Bench ArchitectureConstruction manager: Bench ArchitectureMEP: ABS EngineeringStructural: Becker
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