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    Sulkin Askenazi arranges yellow school interiors around wooden tree

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    Splashes of bright yellow, round openings and a giant timber tree are among the playful touches Mexican design studio Sulkin Askenazi has included in Ikigai Sisu, a school in the Dominican Republic.

    Sulkin Askenazi arranged the elementary school around a central wooden tree in the lobby, which provides a playful feature for the children to sit on when learning indoors.
    Sulkin Askenazi has added yellow hues inside Ikigai SisuCalled Ikigai Sisu, the 500-square-metre school opened in September 2021 and is located in the town of Punta Cana on the eastern coast of Dominican Republic.
    Sulkin Askenazi was informed by Finnish schools, where shared recreational areas are given par with traditional learning spaces such as classrooms. The school is designed to encourage learning through play and exploration.
    Rooms are arranged around an artificial tree in the lobby”The origin of the project is aligned with the Finnish educational model, where recreational spaces play an important role in the development of children by providing a stimulating and inclusive place that fosters ties, curiosity and interaction,” said Jack Sulkin, co-founder of Sulkin Askenazi.

    “We wanted to design a school where the entire space felt connected and flexible and not too divided or fractioned into isolated spaces,” he told Dezeen.
    An area for physical education is at the back of the buildingAt the heart of Ikigai Sisu is a trunk made from locally sourced white oak slats that children can sit on. Also in the lobby is a reception desk, a climbing wall and soft stools clad in yellow and grey fabric.
    Classrooms with wooden tables and chairs line the front of the building while at the back there is a soft play area for physical exercise lessons. A kitchen can also be found in one of the main classrooms.
    Classrooms are coloured in the same yellow schemeSulkin wanted the colour yellow, which is the school’s colour, to act as a sensory stimulus. Yellow tiles are found in the bathrooms while sunny hued paint continues the colour theme in the classrooms.
    The yellow is countered with grey accents which appear on soft furnishings such as rugs, pouffes and activity mats.

    Walls with integrated furniture and yellow nooks encourage play in Madrid school

    “We wanted the project to have a more vibrant monochrome look and feel; an aesthetic that alludes to the school’s philosophy,” Sulkin explained.
    “The vibrancy of yellow, applied to our ever-flowing spaces through the school design, unquestionably triggers imagination and the ever changing minds of young children who roam the space.”
    Cubby holes and rounded openings are dotted throughoutAccording to Sulkin, the other “main character” in the school is the use of wood.
    “The project has two main characters, the first one is the colour yellow, and the second is the low thick wooden ribbon that organically flows throughout the project,” Sulkin explained.
    “We tried to instil a free-flowing, interactive, energy invigorating space with Ikigai,” he added.
    The bathroom is clad in bright yellow tilesDotted throughout the low slung school are little wooden cubby holes set at different heights and cushioned nooks that allow children to hide and peek through.
    This same wood forms an array of shelving units to display learning material and cabinets for storage.
    Bright colours are a popular feature in contemporary educational architecture around the world.
    Dezeen rounded up 10 colourful kindergartens that encourage kids to crawl, jump and learn including a pastel coloured learning centre in Melbourne by Danielle Brustaman and a hot pink kindergarten in China by Crossboundaries
    Photography is by Thiago da Cunha.

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      Grand Cayman beach hotel Palm Heights is styled like a 1970s Caribbean mansion

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      Interior designer Gabriella Khalil has created Grand Cayman’s first boutique hotel, the beachfront Palm Heights, filled with collectible design pieces like Mario Bellini sofas, Ingo Maurer lights and an Ettore Sottsass rug.Khalil is the creative director and founder of Palm Heights, located on the well-known, white sand Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman, the largest of the three Cayman Islands in the Caribbean.

      Palms Heights hotel is designed to be like a 1970s mansion
      Working with designers Sarita Posada and Courtney Applebaum, the London-based interior designer developed the design aesthetic to be like a 1970s-era mansion. The trio sourced suitable designs to decorate the property from Parisian flea markets, Los Angeles and Mexico.
      “The design concept was inspired by the idea of a 70s era Caribbean mansion featuring collectible unique design pieces from Marcel Breuer, Mario Bellini, artworks by Pierre Paulin, and Vladimir Kagan to name a few,” said the team.

      Guests rooms are decorated in an eclectic mix of materials

      A number of these can be found in the guest lounge, which is intended as the heart of the 50-bedroom hotel, including a chequered Sottsass rug hung on the wall like a piece of art and a series of Maurer’s Uchiwa wall lamps behind the curved reception desk.
      Pieces by a range of European designers and architects like Hungarian-born Marcel Breuer, French furniture designer Pierre Chapo, Italian designers Massimo and Lella Vignelli, and Italian architect and designer Mario Bellini also decorate this space.

      Each features artwork selected by Gabriella Khalil
      Khalil travelled through North Africa to research textiles for the project and has included a range of patterns and materials throughout.
      Woven fabrics with black outlines cover the walls in a sitting area, providing a contract to blush lime-green sofas running underneath. They face wooden tables and white-painted wicker chairs with green trims.
      The 50 bedroom suites are similarly decorated with unique artwork and pieces from designers including French furniture designer Pierre Paulin, American furniture designer Vladimir Kagan, Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Italian architect Gae Aulenti and Dutch jewellery and industrial designer Gijs Bakker.

      Earthy and blue hues are reminiscent of the beach
      Sandy yellows and bold blue tones, reminiscent of the beach, run throughout each room. Details include pale stone flooring sourced from Italy and pale brown sofa upholstery and curtains.

      Kasiiya Papagayo has tented guest rooms that peek from a tropical forest in Costa Rica

      The suites open onto the balconies at the rear of the property, which is designed to stagger down towards Palm Heights’ slice of the beach. Some of the suites have outdoor spaces with dining tables and sun loungers, where guests can laze and enjoy the sea views.

      A range of fabrics and materials are used throughout
      Eateries in the hotel include The Coconut Club, a casual beach bar, and the main restaurant Tillies, which has an outdoor area overlooking the sea and an indoor dining room.
      There are two swimming pools divided by green hedges to provide privacy for the guests – one of the pools is flanked by palm trees and extends towards the sea. Guests can also relax on the hotel’s sun loungers on the beach, which have yellow- and white-striped umbrellas, or play ping-pong at branded tables.

      The hotel has two swimming pools
      Khalil is currently working with architect Dong-Ping Wong, who runs New York studio Food, to complete an outdoor wellness space called The Garden Club, which is set to open later this year.
      Palm Heights is billed as the first boutique hotel in Grand Cayman.

      The building staggers down towards the beach at the rear
      Other recently completed boutique hotels in spectacular settings across the world include Kasiiya Papagayo, which has tented guest rooms that peek from a tropical forest in Costa Rica, and Casa Grande Hotel in Spain, which occupies 18th-century stone manor house.
      Photography is by Clement Pascal.

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