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Local art collective Xpan has created a multi-purpose creative studio called Xpan.Ep.1 in Mexico City using raw steel, aluminium, and transparent polycarbonate panels for its interior. More
Dutch design duo Kiki & Joost has opened a public exhibition space attached to the pair’s Eindhoven studio, allowing them to showcase their work in a more “open and free” way than in a traditional gallery. More
Designer Maria Vittoria Paggini has used colourful wallpaper and murals depicting nude bodies concealed behind peepholes to transform her home for Milan design week.
Located in the 5vie design district in the heart of the city, Casa Ornella is annually redesigned by Vittoria Paggini who presents the project during Milan design week.
This year, the property – which is also partly an art gallery, is themed “porno-chic”.
Maria Vittoria Paggini has redesigned her home around the theme of “porno-chic””Casa Ornella is a maximalist house” said the designer, who is opening up her home to the public during the week.
“Porno-chic stems from a strong need for rediscovery and self-awareness. To achieve this, I felt the need to bare myself and decided to use the metaphor of the naked body, pushing it to the extreme to make it invisible to the eyes,” she told Dezeen.
“Going beyond that, porno-chic aims to be a style of ‘rebirth,’ a recognition of oneself through the home or any place to inhabit.”
Tatiana Brodatch’s graphic wallpaper features in the living spaceThe interiors feature a living space characterised by artist Tatiana Brodatch’s striking wallpaper. Oversized spots and stripes in pink and purple hues form the backdrop for images of faceless, nude male sculptures touching themselves.
Finished in Brodatch’s signature lumpy plasticine, the figures look like they are flying through space.
Illustrative nude bodies decorate brown curtainsTwo boothlike, art deco armchairs with burl wood casing were positioned next to this feature wall, as well as a translucent table designed by Vittoria Paggini and topped with twisting, marble and Murano glass candelabras by Aina Kari.
Visitors can see Brodatch’s wallpaper through a circular peephole on one of the corridors, which adds to the “sensual” atmosphere of the home, according to the designer.
A naked mural lines one of the corridorsElsewhere, brown curtains illustrated with naked female bodies and a small but suggestive figurative sculpture sitting on a silver tray are reflected in a swollen gold mirror.
One corridor is characterised by a large-scale floor mural of a nude woman, created as a set of abstract brown and pink shapes.
The only private room is the bedroomThe only room not open to the public is the bedroom, which is decorated with a graphic, floor-to-ceiling mural of naked men surrounded by decadent architecture, influenced by 13th-century paintings.
Visitors can view the bedroom mural, created by Milanese illustrator Damiano Groppi, through another peephole.
A peephole reveals the room’s muralSugary pink walls, striped and chequerboard accents and multiple mirrored surfaces throughout the home add to its maximalist design.
Casa Ornella also includes two more Vittoria Paggini-designed products, which are being debuted for the design week and take cues from “the world of jewellery”.
Six typefaces that make use of the human body and bodily fluids
These are bulbous gold taps created for Milanese brand Manoli – positioned above veiny Gio Ponti basins in the bathroom – and slender light switches designed for Officine Morelli.
According to Vittoria Paggini, these pieces are “what is most characteristic of the porno-chic style”.
“They serve two different functions but have the same language that aims to communicate sensuality and timeless elegance.”
Sugary pink walls feature throughout the homeThe annual Milan design week has kicked off in the Italian city, with projects on display ranging from a collection of everyday objects designed using algae and sculptural lights by Leo Maher that reference “a hot-pot of queer culture”.
The photography is courtesy of Maria Vittoria Paggini.
Casa Ornella is on display at Via Conca di Naviglio 10, Milan, during Milan Design Week from 15 to 21 April 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.
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Collectible design gallery StudioTwentySeven has taken over a huge space in a Tribeca textile building, creating a warm and serene environment to present museum-sized, limited-edition pieces.
The gallery’s New York City flagship at the corner of Church and Leonard Streets covers 7,000 square feet (650 square metres) across the ground floor of a 1901 neoclassical building by architect Henry J Hardenbergh.
StudioTwentySeven founders Nacho Polo and Robert Onsuka introduced curved walls and archways to the interior of their flagship galleryFormerly Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Restaurant 66, the grand space benefits from double-height ceilings and eight 16-foot-tall windows on two sides, overlooking the mirrored Anish Kapoor sculpture squashed beneath Herzog & de Meuron’s “Jenga Tower”.
StudioTwentySeven founders Nacho Polo and Robert Onsuka, who started their venture in Miami in 2018, chose this location for the New York flagship for its “monumental scale” and ability to showcase huge sculptural works.
The double-height ceilings allow large-scale pieces to be displayed, like a hanging bear sculpture by Paola Pivi”The building’s elaborately carved facade, and its stone entry staircase leading to beautifully restored original triple doors, set the tone for what clients of StudioTwentySeven will experience inside – a space that is sophisticated yet genuinely welcoming,” said the duo.
Led by Polo, the renovation of interiors involved the introduction of curved walls and a rotunda, along with an archway fitted with a 12-foot-tall, hand-carved chestnut door.
A giant bronze and glass chandelier hangs above an organic-shaped dining tableThe team worked with lighting specialists L’Observatorie to design a custom system that imbues the space with a warm atmospheric quality, complementing the pieces on display.
A massive bronze and glass chandelier comprising hundreds of individual petals is suspended above an organically shaped French oak and waxed bronze dining table.
Eight homes kept cool and bright by central courtyards
Pale oak floors run throughout the gallery, in places separated from the walls by glowing bands of light, and sheer curtains diffuse the abundance of natural light that enters during the day.
Other architectural details include a tall fireplace shaped into the hand-plastered walls and a chestnut-lined library hidden behind a pair of discreet doors, designed to “create moments of surprise”.
The founders also created a rotunda space for displaying specific piecesFor the gallery’s opening in February 2023, several museum-sized works from Polo and Onsuka’s private collection were installed in the space.
These include a hanging bear by Italian artist Paola Pivi, which had to be transported from the Aspen Art Museum in a special truck, and a bronze sculpture titled Owl and Boy by Japan-based Otani Workshop.
“Moments of surprise” include a hidden library lined in chestnutPolo and Onsuka, who were judges for Dezeen Awards 2023, also have gallery spaces in Miami’s Little River and London’s Mayfair – open by appointment only.
Their new flagship in Tribeca joins a multitude of collectible design galleries in the Downtown NYC neighbourhood, like R & Company and Egg Collective, where expansive former industrial lofts provide ideal settings for presenting furniture, lighting and art.
The photography is by William Jess Laird.
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Danish fashion brand Samsøe Samsøe has launched a pop-up gallery for Paris Fashion Week that features an all-white interior decorated with artwork and furniture made from the brand’s T-shirts.
The exhibition space was designed to have a pared-down feel in a nod to the brand’s Basic collection, which is launching during the fashion week in the French capital.
Samsøe Samsøe’s in-house design team created the gallery together with set designer Fatima Fransson to be a “blank canvas” and bring the brand’s vision of “Scandinavian simplicity” to life.
The minimalist pop-up is located in Paris’ Le Marais area”The overall design is inspired by the way in which our Basic collection is structured,” Samsøe Samsøe art director Jelena Fijan told Dezeen.
“We took the timeless, long-lasting approach of the product to be central at the space, which gives it a contemporary art gallery feel,” she added.
“[We wanted] to create a welcoming but abstract feeling for the visitor.”
It features a central counter covered in white T-shirtsThe resulting space, located in Paris’s Le Marais neighbourhood, has a stark all-white interior punctuated by a central counter partly made from the brand’s clothes.
“By creating a high-block bar, the installation functions both as an art piece and as a community table for people to connect and talk,” Fijan said.
Halleroed references Swedish Grace and Carlo Scarpa for Toteme flagship store
“As this is the central piece in the space, we left some room for the brain to work, and we wanted to create a minimalist and long-lasting feel,” she added.
The block was made from plywood and epoxy resin, which was then covered in reclaimed T-shirts worn by the Samsøe Samsøe team.
Grey jumpers were turned into artworks on a concrete backgroundThe space also features artworks made from cashmere knits that were placed in plywood forms layered with a concrete-mixed plaster.
After Paris Fashion Week ends, the set will be moved to the brand’s headquarters in Copenhagen.
The space was designed to reference Samsøe Samsøe’s “Scandinavian minimalism”Other fashion stores with a minimalist interior include Swedish brand Toteme’s flagship London store, designed by Halleroed, and Balenciaga’s concrete Berlin store, which references the city’s modernist architecture.
The photography is courtesy of Samsøe Samsøe.
The Samsøe Samsøe gallery is located on 16 Rue Caffarelli, 75003 Paris, and will be open 28 February to 3 March. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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Chinese studio Neri&Hu has designed a contemporary art gallery for Ota Fine Arts in Shanghai with a focus on the “sublime beauty of the banal”.
The gallery sits on the ground floor of a mixed-use tower at Rockbund, a development amidst the historical Bund in Shanghai along the Huangpu River, where a series of restored colonial art deco buildings are located.
The entrance of the gallery features an oversized sliding door”The primary design challenge was to utilise the areas along the facade for both storage and display, blurring the distinction between functional and experiential space,” explained Neri&Hu.
“This deepened threshold condition found on both facades defines the visitor’s arrival sequence and journey within.”
The facade of the gallery is framed in aged steel to contrast the contemporary galleryThe facade of the gallery was framed in aged steel, with portions of solid metal and large glass panels arranged to form a window display for the artworks.
Handmade ivory tiles line the inner side of the window in a subtle woven pattern, serving as a neutral backdrop for the art pieces.
A warehouse-sized door can be fully open on the west facade for easy transport of large art piecesAn oversized sliding door marks the entry to the gallery on the eastern facade. When opened, the entrance of the gallery is revealed, with the outer sliding door framing the window display next to it.
When closed, the door slides back to its original position and allows the full-height glazed window to be exposed.
The western facade features a warehouse-sized door that can be fully opened using a custom-designed handle. This allows large artworks to be delivered directly from a designated parking area into the gallery.
Neri&Hu divides Shanghai fashion boutique with fabrics and marble screens
Neri&Hu also added fluted glass to the exterior, which glows in the evening to illuminate the adjacent Rockbund courtyard and add elegance to the functional facade.
Inside the gallery, the 350 square-metre space is divided into two zones – a 150-square-metre main public viewing gallery and a private zone that houses VIP rooms and office space.
The pared-back, white VIP rooms feature contemporary furniture pieces with custom-made white tiles and a stained oak floor and were designed to create a relaxing environment, in which the attention can be focused on the art itself.
The interior of the gallery has a neutral and simplistic tone”The project’s understated material palette and overall conceptual underpinning lies in the juxtaposition of old and new, raw and refined, ordinary and spectacular,” said Neri&Hu.
“We hope one can appreciate the sublime beauty of the banal, as much as the brilliance of contemporary art,” it added.
Clean white rooms are intended to highlight the art pieceNeri&Hu was founded by architects Lyndon Neri and Rosanna Hu in 2004 in Shanghai.
Other recent projects completed by the studio include the Sanya Wellness Retreat hotel on the Chinese island of Hainan and a fashion boutique with fabrics and marble screens.
The photography is by Zhu Runzi.
Project credits:
Partners-in-charge: Lyndon Neri, Rossana HuAssociate-in-charge: Jacqueline MinSenior interior designer-in-charge: Phil WangDesign team: Rovi QuFF&E procurement: Design RepublicContractors: ETQ Project (Shanghai) Limited
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Contemporary German furniture designs are displayed alongside vintage pieces at this travelling gallery that multidisciplinary designer Vanessa Heepen has launched in Berlin.
Rather than having a permanent home, Forma will take over different locations across the German capital.
Forma’s first exhibition was held in a building next to the Spree riverThe gallery’s inaugural exhibition, titled The Room I Walk the Line, was recently on show on the ground floor of a mixed-use building in Friedrichshain, nestled in between fragments of the Berlin Wall on the banks of the river Spree.
“To be honest, the area is not where I would typically choose to open a gallery,” Heepen told Dezeen. “But when I first saw a picture of it on a real estate website, I was deeply touched by its huge windows, red columns and by the water, of course.”
It featured German designers including Nazara Lázaro (left) and Studio Kuhlmann (top right)A trained interior designer, Heepen largely left the space in its found state but worked with her team to create a simple mahogany bar counter and storage unit for the gallery.
She also asked “soft architecture” studio Curetain to create a white latex screen for the corner of the gallery.
As part of the exhibition, this served as the backdrop for a tall white spectator shelf by Stuttgart-based Freia Achenbach, along with a graphic white stool by local designer Nazara Lázaro.
This wiggly coat stand was mong the vintage pieces featuredOther pieces in the exhibition included a pigmented concrete chair by Carsten in der Elst and hanging metallic stars by Studio Kuhlmann, both from Cologne, as well as a translucent shelf by Berlin’s Lotto Studio.
Forma also sourced a number of vintage pieces from Moho – a 20th-century furniture showroom in Prenzlauer Berg – among them an embossed metal cabinet and a wriggly coat stand.
Herzog & de Meuron’s Museum of the 20th Century an “environmental disgrace” say critics
One of Heepen’s main motivations for founding the gallery was to carve out a space for showcasing design-led furnishings in Berlin, which she says is something of a rarity in the German capital.
“It is a discursive topic, and people have always been unsure about the success of it,” she explained. “After Forma’s first edition, I am glad to say it was hugely successful”.
Contemporary design pieces included a translucent shelf by Lotto StudioThe designer is currently on the hunt for Forma’s next location and will let the new setting inform her selection of furnishings.
“I’m always open to something new that occurs within the process,” she said. “I hold on to my vision, but I am also open to taking a detour.”
Also featured was a pigmented concrete chair by Carsten in der ElsElsewhere in Berlin, Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron is currently constructing a major new museum for modern art.
The building’s design came under fire at the end of last year, when it was discovered its complex air conditioning system would result in the venue using four times as much energy as a nearby museum from the 1800s.
The photography is by Matthias Leidinger.
The Room I Walk the Line was on show at Mühlenstrasse 63 in Berlin from 15 June to 15 July 2023. For more exhibitions, events and talk in architecture and design, visit Dezeen Events Guide.
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Architecture studio Holland Harvey has overhauled the ground-floor cafe at the Tate Modern in London so it doubles as the gallery’s first late-night bar.
Tucked away in the museum’s northwest corner, the interior of the Corner cafe was originally designed in 2000 when Herzog & de Meuron created a home for the UK’s national collection of modern art inside the disused power station on the Southbank.
Corner is a new cafe and bar at the Tate ModenSince then, the Tate had made no changes to the space until Holland Harvey was brought on board to refresh the interior at the start of 2022.
“It was quite a cold space,” the studio’s co-founder Richard Holland told Dezeen. “All very Herzog & de Meuron-y.”
“They’re amazing at what they do in so many ways,” he continued. “But this was not their best food and beverage space.”
A grey stone bar forms the centrepiece of the roomHolland Harvey stripped back many of the cafe’s hard, reflective finishes, sanding away the black gloss paint on the floors to reveal the parquet underneath and removing the mirrored glass that Herzog & de Meuron had used to enclose the building’s original riveted columns.
Fluorescent lights were replaced with more muted spots by London studio There’s Light, while the dropped ceiling above the bar was rounded off and covered in foam insulation to soften the interior – both visually and acoustically.
Otherwise, many of the cafe’s core elements including the servicing as well as the kitchen and toilets remained largely untouched to prevent excessive waste and maintain the integrity of the building.
“You don’t really want to mess around with the servicing because 12 feet above your head is a Picasso,” Holland said. “So it was pretty light touch.”
The cafe backs onto the Tate’s Turbine Hall. Photo by Edward BishopThe biggest intervention came in the form of a newly added riverside entrance, allowing passersby to stroll straight into Corner rather than having to take the long way through the gallery.
At the other end of the open-plan room, a door leads directly into Tate’s famous Turbine Hall, effectively linking it with the public spaces of the Southbank.
Stone seating banquettes double as impromptu climbing frames”The Turbine Hall is one of the most successful public spaces in London,” Holland said. “It’s one of the few indoor places you can go, where people happily sit down on the floor in the middle of the day.”
“And obviously, the Southbank is an amazing public offering as well,” he continued. “So this felt like an opportunity to connect the two, which led a lot of the thinking around the design.”
With the idea of extending the public realm, many of the newly added pieces are robust and fixed in place, much like street furniture. Among them are the double-sided Vicenza Stone banquettes, which can also serve as impromptu climbing frames for young children.
UXUS designs “permanently temporary” gift shop for Herzog & de Meuron’s extended Tate Modern
Holland Harvey created a number of other seating areas throughout Corner to suit different accessibility needs, with a focus on supporting local manufacturers and small businesses while reducing waste wherever possible.
Corner’s long sharing tables and benches were made by marginalised young people from west London as part of a carpentry apprenticeship programme run by social enterprise Goldfinger, using trees that were felled by local authorities to stop the spread of ash dieback.
“Every table has the coordinates of where the tree has felled on it, so there’s a provenance to the furniture,” Holland said.
The chairs were taken from Tate’s own storage and refinishedThe chairs, meanwhile, were salvaged from the gallery’s own storage before being refinished and reupholstered, while the smaller tables were made by Brighton company Spared using waste coffee grounds from Tate’s other cafes.
These were baked at a low temperature to remove any moisture before being mixed with oyster shells and a water-based gypsum binder.
Although the resulting pieces aren’t fully circular since they can’t be recycled, Holland hopes they tell a story about the value that can be found in waste.
Waste coffee grounds from the gallery’s other cafes were turned into table tops”We’re by no means saying that it’s an exemplar project in that sense,” he explained. “We were just trying to find opportunities to tell stories through all the different elements rather than just going to the large corporate suppliers.”
“And that’s really our wider impact: people realising that there’s a different way to procure a table. Imagine if all of Tate’s furniture moving forward is made by Goldfinger,” he continued.
The cafe also has high counter seating for remote workingIn the evenings, the space can be transitioned into a bar and events space by switching to warmer, higher-contrast lighting, while a section of the central banquette can be turned into a raised DJ booth by pressing a button that is hidden under the cushions.
“This place can get quite wild in the evening,” Holland said.
Timber shelves are used to display productsThe last significant amendment to the Tate Modern building was Herzog & de Meuron’s Switch House extension, which opened to the public in 2016.
The building contains a gift shop designed by Amsterdam studio UXUS, alongside various galleries and a viewing level on the top floor, which is currently closed to the public after Tate lost a high-profile privacy lawsuit brought by the inhabitants of a neighbouring residential tower.
The photography is by Jack Hobhouse unless otherwise stated.
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Iranian-French architect India Mahdavi has designed an exhibition to present works by French painter Pierre Bonnard at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.
Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi presents more than 100 works by the famed 20th-century artist who is celebrated for applying an iridescent palette.
India Mahdavi has offered her take on Pierre Bonnard’s paintings through the exhibition scenographyThe scenography design by Mahdavi, also known for her use of colour, is intended to create “an impression of his world, through my own eyes” according to the architect.
Instead of typical white gallery walls, the spaces are awash with bold hues and patterns that she has chosen to complement the artworks.
The architect chose colors and patterns to complement the artworksMany of the shades of yellow, pink, orange and green that adorn the walls and floors are lifted directly from the canvases, while floral-inspired repeated patterns offer a contrasting backdrop.
Large carpets continue these motifs at different scales across the floors.
Many of the colours were lifted from the artworksMahdavi has also placed some of her own furniture designs in the gallery spaces, offering visitors the opportunity to pause and appreciate the paintings and their surroundings.
“Mahdavi envelopes Pierre Bonnard’s works in an environment that complements Bonnard’s distinct use of colour and texture, and evokes the wistful domestic intimacy for which his paintings are renowned,” said the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
Several of Mahdavi’s furniture designs are placed in the galleriesBonnard was born in 1867, and his artistic career took off in the 1890s in Paris, where he began capturing street life.
The artist’s focus then moved to domesticity, followed by landscapes thanks to the influence of his friend and neighbour in Normandy, Claude Monet.
The exhibition is divided into 11 themes based on the subject matter of Bonnard’s paintingsBonnard later relocated to the south of France and created a large body of work there before his death in 1947.
“The paintings of Pierre Bonnard depict intimate domestic interiors, natural landscapes and urban scenes with subtlety, wit and a sensuous approach to colour and light,” said the gallery.
Some of the spaces are decorated entirely in one colourThe exhibition features loans from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which holds the world’s largest collection of Bonnard’s work, along with significant loans from other museums and private collections from around the world.
It is organised around 11 themes, which include landscapes, interiors, still life, early nudes, and large decorations.
India Mahdavi’s striped scenography provides backdrop for furniture exhibition
There are also sections dedicated to his depictions of music and theatre, views from his 1920s studio in Le Cannet, and scenes of nature and daily life around the town.
“For Bonnard, landscape painting was a hybrid genre and often included glimpses of interiors and still lifes,” said the gallery.
Mahdavi is renowned for her use of colourThe gallery has hosted many immersive exhibitions and installations in recent years, including a scaled-down version of Greece’s famous Parthenon temple, a mist-filled chasm in its sculpture garden, and Nendo’s take on the drawings of MC Escher.
Mahdavi’s best-known projects include the Gallery dining room at London restaurant Sketch, which she originally created in pale pink, then transformed with golden tones in 2022.
Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi runs until 8 October 2023She recently updated six rooms within Rome’s 16th-century Villa Medici to feature an array of contemporary and colourful furniture.
Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi forms part of NGV’s Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series, and runs from 9 June to 8 October 2023. For more exhibitions, events and talks in architecture and design visit Dezeen’s Events Guide.
The photography is by Lillie Thompson.
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