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Halleroed inserts sculptural travertine display plinths in Axel Arigato's Paris store
Design studio Halleroed has used travertine podiums to display sneakers like sculptures in the Paris store of streetwear label Axel Arigato. More
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CUT Architectures designs sunset-hued interior for Parisian burger joint in ode to California
The mid-century architecture and roadside diners of the American west informed the interior of this nostalgic hamburger restaurant in Paris designed by CUT Architectures. More
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Snarkitecture adds Nike Air Max chandelier to Kith streetwear store in Parisian mansion
A chandelier of Nike sneakers now hangs inside 19th-century mansion Pershing Hall, where design studio Snarkitecture has created a new flagship for American streetwear brand Kith. More
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Pierre-Louis Gerlier Architecte gives Paris studio apartment hotel-like aesthetic
French architecture studio Pierre-Louis Gerlier Architecte has renovated a studio apartment in Paris, adding a curved wall with scalloped wood panelling. More
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Franklin Azzi Architecture completes The Bureau co-working space in Paris
French practice Franklin Azzi Architecture took tips from the work of Frank Lloyd Wright to design this Parisian co-working space, which features open areas for working, dining and lounging.The co-working space can be found along Rue du Quatre-Septembre in Paris’ second arrondissement, joining two other branches of The Bureau in the capital’s eighth arrondissement.
This new location is set inside a Hausmann building that dates back to the 19th century, but when it came to devising the interiors, Franklin Azzi Architecture had a more modern point of reference – mid-century homes created by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.Top image: The Bureau’s restaurant. Above: one of the building’s communal work areas
“Those houses are manifestos because Frank Lloyd Wright broke free from unnecessary partitions to reveal open areas largely bathed in light, which was very innovative for the beginning of the 20th century,” the practice’s eponymous founder, Franklin Azzi, told Dezeen.
“For me, they are timeless works that reflect a real desire for integration into their environment through horizontality.”An oak partition is inbuilt with private work booths
In keeping with Llyod Wright’s architecture, The Bureau’s ground level has been made to have a largely open layout.
The floor plan is interrupted by just one oak-lined partition, which is inbuilt with deep-set bookshelves and private booths where members can escape to take calls or do more focused work.The concierge desk can be screened off by heavy green curtains
Adjacently lies an expansive workroom that features a long communal desk. Dangling above is a chandelier composed of glass spheres and silver-metal spokes.
Towards the front of the room is a concierge desk, which can be screened off by floor-to-ceiling green curtains if necessary.Members will be able to dine at an in-house restaurant called The Comptoir
The Bureau’s in-house restaurant, called The Comptoir, has been created in a corner of the ground floor. A grey seating banquette winds around the wall, accompanied by brass-edged tables and wooden dining chairs.
Surrounding surfaces, including the structural columns and part of the ceiling, have been lined with slim mirrored panels.
Just in front of the restaurant is a striking, 70s-style decor feature – a sunken conversation pit complete with a plush, deep-green sofa and carpeting to match.Franklin Azzi Architecture converts Nantes warehouses into art school
“In terms of inspiration, I position myself as an assembler, picking uninhibitedly from different periods and several registers,” explained Azzi.
“We immersed ourselves in the 1970s world of American offices, as well as the colours and material codes infused with Oscar Niemeyer’s work to create a unique hybrid identity for The Bureau.”A sunken conversation pit lies in front of the restaurant
The upper levels of the building play host to more private work areas and meeting rooms, which boast original fireplaces and ornate ceiling cornicing.
Here, as well as downstairs, are a number of furnishings and ornaments sourced by French decorators The Socialite Family.Meeting rooms upstairs showcase the building’s original features
The pandemic may have put co-working on hold for now, but shared offices are still continuing to pop up. Earlier this year, architect Caro Lundin opened the doors to ARC Club in east London, which is specifically designed for those tired of working from home.
Photography is by Valerio Geraci.Read more: More
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Neri&Hu keeps time-worn details in Parisian restaurant Papi
A huge cylindrical volume clad in white tiles sits amongst aged stone walls inside Papi, a restaurant in Paris designed by Neri&Hu.Papi can be found in the French capital’s ninth arrondissement, taking over the ground floor of a 19th-century Haussmann building.
Top image: the exterior of Papi. Above: steel-framed windows can be pushed back to open up the restaurant to the street
Rather than modernising the 52-square-metre site of the restaurant, Neri&Hu has instead tried to showcase the “layers of material heritage” that denote the building’s long and storied past.
The Shanghai-based studio explained the building works had to be carried out “as carefully as an archaeological dig”.Neri & Hu stripped back the interior to expose old brick and limestone surfaces
“Every single existing element was meticulously examined, and the challenge was in resisting the urge to fix every imperfection, to instead honour the imprint of time upon each surface,” added Neri&Hu.
“Each fragment represents a different period in Paris’ history, forming a beautiful yet challenging existing canvas for [Neri&Hu] to intervene.”The dining area is enclosed within a cylindrical volume
Wallcoverings and finishes that have built up over the years from previous occupants have been peeled back to reveal the building’s older brick or limestone surfaces.
Aged stone moulding that borders the entrance door has also been exposed, and a slim cut-out has been made in the facade to reveal an existing steel lintel.
Similar steel has been used to frame the expansive panels of glazing that front the restaurant. These can be slid back during the warmer months, diffusing the boundary between Papi’s diners and passersby on the street.Slim white tiles clad the inside and outside of the volume
The most significant contemporary addition that Neri&Hu have made to the interior is a towering cylindrical volume that encompasses Papi’s eating area.
Clad in narrow white tiles, the volume has been placed slightly off-centre so that it butts up against the right-hand side of the restaurant.Neri&Hu looked to “traditional courtyard house typology” for Tsingpu Yangzhou Retreat
Inside are a handful of wooden dining tables and chairs. Guests can alternatively opt to sit on one of the bench seats that have been fitted in the birch plywood-lined openings running around the perimeter of the volume.
The volume hugs against the restaurant’s right-hand wall
Other than a couple of tube lights – specifically chosen by Neri&Hu to stand in “stark modern contrast” to the crumbling stone walls – decor in Papi has been kept to a minimum.
A few mirrors have also been incorporated within the cylinder.
“[The mirrors] create dynamic perspectives and voyeuristic moments between interior and exterior, but also invite guests within to cross gazes,” concluded the studio.Bench seats have been integrated into the volume’s openings
Neri&Hu has been established since 2004. Other projects that the studio has completed this year include a cultural centre in Beijing that’s covered with aluminium louvres and a hotel in Taipei that takes design cues from the city’s urban landscape.
Photography is by Simone Bossi.Read more: More
Atelier L2 creates modular wooden interiors for Ateliers des Capucins
Rennes studio Atelier L2 has installed 20 wooden boxes as modular units for shops, exhibitions and hospitality businesses inside Ateliers des Capucins, a covered square in a 19th-century arsenal in Brest, France.The Ateliers des Capucins has been shortlisted for a Dezeen Awards 2020 in the large workspace interior category.
The studio’s brief was to design a number of shells in order to create an interior street with two floors inside the historical arsenal building, covering 5,000 square metres.Top: the project is located inside the 10,000 square-metres former arsenal. Above: Units with gabled roofs are slotted into the ceiling
Atelier L2 used laminated veneer lumber (LVL) for the shells, which were designed to stand out against the metal structure and pitched glass roof of the 10,000 square-metres Ateliers des Capucins.Each wooden shell measures between 150 and 400 square metres, with some of the concept stores in the space using more than one.
Some facades are as tall as 13 metres
“In this way, the client would be able to find buyers who could convert each ‘box’ to complete the cultural and service offer,” Atelier L2 co-founder Pierre Lelièvre told Dezeen.
The boxes are a permanent fixture of the Ateliers des Capucins – which functions as a large, covered market space – and can’t be moved.
“Even though their appearance suggests it, the ‘boxes’ are absolutely fixed and cannot be moved under any circumstances,” Lelièvre said.
“Their technical and structural complexity does not allow such flexibility. They are indeed equipped with all the necessary networks to host any kind of activity: exhibitions, restaurants, offices, breweries, co-working.”Laminated veneer lumber was used for the facades and floors
The studio chose to use LVL made of spruce veneers for the structure of the facades and the floors, which span 10 to 14 metres, as it allowed them to create the units with as little impact on the existing building as possible.Studio VDGA lines office in India with curving walls of honeycomb cardboard
“The entire design of the project was thought out with respect for natural resources,” Lelièvre explained.
“The facing of the facades is made of spruce, the internal bracing uses gypsum boards and the insulation is made of wood wool. The floor boxes are ballasted with aggregates.”The wood stands out against the 19th-century building
Windows were inserted into the facades of the wooden shells, to make them resemble many smaller houses inside the bigger building.
The ceiling height of the huge hall space means some of the boxes have facades that reach as high as 13 metres, and gabled roofs that have been slotted into the ceiling.The units are used for retail spaces, offices and more
“The use of wood was a way for us to stand out against the existing building, which is entirely made of stone and metal, while also giving an ephemeral side to our layout,” Lelièvre said.
“We wanted to give the feeling that our project was simply set down in this historical and remarkable setting.”
Atelier L2 is based in Rennes and was founded by Julie de Legge and Pierre Lelièvre.
Also on the shortlist for the large workspace interior category are the monochrome interiors for KCC Office in a former factory, and The Audo hotel in Copenhagen that doubles as a showroom.Read more: More
Luke Edward Hall stirs print and colour inside Hotel Les Deux Gares in Paris
A clashing mix of pea-green walls, leopard-print furnishings and candy-striped beds feature in this hotel that British designer Luke Edward Hall has completed in Paris.Hotel Les Deux Gares is tucked down a narrow street in Paris’ 10th arrondissement, set between two of the city’s major train stations – Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est.
The hotel’s entrance lobby. Top image: one of the hotel’s olive-green guest bedrooms
The five-storey building had been left vacant for a number of years, but when Luke Edward Hall was brought on board to design the interiors, the focus wasn’t on making the rooms seem more contemporary.Hall instead set out to fashion an “anti-modern” aesthetic that nodded to a Paris of the past.
Chintzy wallpaper and leopard-print furniture decorate the lobby
“I love listening to stories from the past and feeling as though I’m entering another, more elegant era,” explained Hall, who is based in London.
“I always begin my projects by leafing through old books and magazines; then, I visit galleries and museums. I allow myself the time to dream and invent stories.”Breakfast and coffee is also offered to guests in the lobby
The hotel is entered via a vivid lobby, where Hall has created a riotous collision of pattern and colour. The lower half of the walls have been painted pea-green, while the upper half has been covered in chintzy, pale blue wallpaper with a maroon-coloured motif.
Black-and-white chevron flooring runs throughout.Headboards have a candy-striped pattern
Guests can sit back on the room’s plush sofas – one of which is completely upholstered in leopard print fabric, the other is cobalt blue with bright-red fringing. There’s also a couple of striped pink-satin armchairs arranged beneath a portrait that Hall painted himself.
“I really wanted this space to feel above all joyful and welcoming and alive, classic but a little bonkers at the same time,” added Hall.Luke Edward Hall has added illustrations to the bedrooms’ lampshades
This bold palette continues upstairs in the forty guest bedrooms, which have been painted sky blue, violet or olive green.
Each room features geometric carpeting, a candy-striped headboard and a canary-yellow armchair and pouf created bespoke by Hall.
The designer has also personalised the reading lamps above the bedside tables with sketchy doodles of martini glasses, the Eiffel tower and different French words.Bathrooms in the hotel are equally bright in colour
Even the hotel’s gym boasts graphic red-and-white checkerboard flooring and floral wallpaper from Swedish homeware brand Svenskt Tenn.Hoy hotel is designed to be a calming refuge at the heart of Paris
Breakfast can be enjoyed down in the lobby, or across the street from the hotel in Cafe Les Deux Gares which Hall also designed.
The gym features floral wallpaper and checkboard flooring
Intended to feel much like a traditional Parisian eatery, the space has been finished with stripy seating banquettes and wooden bistro chairs from Thonet.
Vintage exhibition posters have also been mounted on the walls in a wink at the fact that the city’s cafes were once hotspots for “social and cultural exchange”.
The cafe is topped by a tortoiseshell-effect ceiling painted by local artist Pauline Leyravaud.The hotel’s cafe across the road boasts a tortoiseshell-effect ceiling
Hotel Les Deux Gares is the first large-scale interiors project by Luke Edward Hall, who set up his self-titled design studio in 2015.
Other spots to stay around the French capital include hotel Hoy, which has TV-free rooms and an in-house yoga studio so that guests can escape the chaotic hustle and bustle of Paris’ streets.
Photography is by Benoit Linero.Read more: More
