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    Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe designs Utrecht care facility like a boutique hotel

    Domstate Zorghotel is a rehabilitation centre in Utrecht, the Netherlands, designed by Dutch studio Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe to give patients a hotel experience.Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe deliberately approached the interiors of the 84-bed health facility like they were creating a 4-star hotel to give patients a more comfortable stay.
    “Unlike similar ‘healing environments’, this care hotel is designed from the user’s perspective,” said the studio.
    “The interior actively participates in the rehabilitation process of the patients,” they added. “From small interior accessories to large spatial gestures, everything is focussed on the process of healing.”

    Top: the care facility has 84 bedrooms. Above: a grand piano sits in the lobby

    In the patients’ rooms elements such as a mirror, a shelf and a headboard hang from a curved rail on the wall on thick leather straps. As well as providing a striking visual element, the rail can be used for rehabilitation exercises.
    Straps on handles and peepholes placed at different levels cater to patients with different levels of mobility.

    Door handles have accessible straps
    To add to the boutique hotel vibe, each floor of rooms has a different colour scheme.
    Colour is a central part of making the interiors feel less institutional. The lobby features a grey-blue curving reception desk and rounded seating with a mustard-yellow base.

    Parking for mobility walkers and plants
    Fabric curtains on rails can be used to screen areas off and a grand piano can be used for practices and performances.
    Graphic markings on the floor mimic different floor finishes and change colour according to the area, such as blue in the lobby, green in the dining room and pink in staff areas.

    Staff areas are also colourful
    In Domstate Zorghotel’s restaurant, a curving green unit provides a discreet place to park wheelchairs and walkers. Rooms such as this are designed to subtly encourage guests to practise for real-world situations when they leave.
    Plants spill out of boxes in the built-in dividers and seating areas.

    Colourful patterns cover the floors
    Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe were careful to make sure the staff areas are fun and comfortable too.
    A pink curved multi-level banquette screened by plants in pink planters forms an attractive place for employees to sit outside of their desks. Geometric markings in the pink floor add interest to another staff area.

    Integrated Field decorates children’s hospital in Thailand with slides and a pool

    “In the areas of the building where employees work, it’s OK for them to colour outside the lines,” said Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe.
    “The design for these areas is aimed at making the most of innovation and diversity in day-to-day work.”

    Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe designed the facility to be fun
    Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe was founded in 1998 by Dutch designers Miriam van der Lubbe and Niels van Eijk. Their previous work includes a mirrored concept car and the refurbishment of a concert hall in Eindhoven.
    Domstate Zorghotel has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the leisure and wellness interior category, alongside a children’s hospital in Thailand and an underground spa in New York.

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    Ten home kitchens that use colour to make a statement

    We’ve rounded up 10 residential kitchens by designers who have experimented with bright tiles and coloured cabinets to challenge the ongoing trend of all-white cooking spaces.

    Plaster Fun House, Australia, by Sans-Arc Studio
    A pink-terrazzo breakfast bar is complemented by duck-egg blue cabinetry, spherical pendant lights and abundant brass detailing in this kitchen by Sans-Arc Studio.
    It was built as part of an extension to a cottage in Torrensville and takes its cues from art deco and P&O architecture – a style that emerged following the popularity of cruise liners in the 1930s.
    Find out more about Plaster Fun House ›

    Delawyk Module House, UK, by R2 Studio
    R2 Studio introduced mustard-yellow cabinets to the cooking space of this 1960s home on a London council estate, as part of a playful redesign of the dwelling for a young family.
    The kitchen units are teamed with retro, orange splashback tiles, minimal silver handles and an oak floor has been stained dark for contrast.
    Find out more about Delawyk Module House ›

    Nagatachō Apartment, Japan, by Adam Nathaniel Furman
    A bubblegum-pink kitchen suite sits at the heart of this Tokyo apartment that Adam Nathaniel Furman designed as “a place of happiness, joy and lightness” for a retired couple.
    The units are paired with slender, blue wall tiles that are arranged in a herringbone pattern and a stripy watermelon-green floor. There is also an adjoining breakfast nook with a lilac carpet that is intended to resemble icing.
    Find out more about Nagatachō Apartment ›

    House P, China, by MDDM Studio
    MDDM Studio combined vibrant yellow walls with earthy terrazzo fixtures made from green, orange and beige stones to create this colourful kitchen in a Beijing apartment.
    Contrasting turquoise accents, seen on the cabinets and sliding doors to the room, were also added to accentuate the colour of the green stone in the terrazzo.
    Find out more about House P ›

    Klinker Apartment, Spain, by Colombo and Serboli Architecture
    Terracotta-coloured cement lines the ceiling, wall and floor of the kitchen inside of Klinker Apartment, a holiday home by Colombo and Serboli Architecture in an art-nouveau building in Barcelona.
    These warm surfaces are complemented by matching cabinetry and a central breakfast island but contrasted with the surrounding patterned floor tiles that were saved from the flat’s previous fit-out.
    Find out more about Klinker Apartment ›

    Belgian Apartment, Belgium, by Carmine Van Der Linden and Thomas Geldof
    The birch-wood cabinets and shelving that line this apartment’s kitchen have been stained a murky shade of green to evoke seaweed and marram grasses, paying homage to its setting on the Belgian coast.
    They are paired with a dusky plaster wall finished in the same colour, alongside chunky industrial steel detailing, light marble worktops and a speckled grey floor.
    Find out more about Belgian Apartment ›

    Kennington House, UK, by R2 Studio
    Kennington House’s multi-coloured cooking space was designed by R2 Studio as “a kitchen that doesn’t scream ‘kitchen'” by avoiding the use of cold and shiny surfaces.
    Instead, it is lined with birchwood cupboards that have cobalt blue, lemon yellow and sage green matt finishes, adorned with coral-hued stools and concrete countertops.
    Find out more about Kennington House ›

    Esperinos, Greece, by Stamos Michael
    This kitchen is one of several rooms in a guest house in Athens that Greek designer Stamos Michael overhauled to evoke a gallery-style space.
    Warm plum-purple walls are animated by a large piece of modern art and set against emerald-hued cabinetry and black, industrial-style shelves.
    Find out more about Esperinos ›

    Apartment in Born, Spain, by Colombo and Serboli Architecture
    Blush-coloured quartz was used to craft the flecked breakfast island and splashback inside this kitchen in a 13th-century apartment in Barcelona.
    They are offset with grey kitchen units with brass handles, exposed oxblood-hued extraction ducting and a coral-coloured arched volume on one side that conceals a small toilet.
    Find out more about Apartment in Born ›

    White Rabbit House, UK, by Gundry & Ducker
    A large green kitchen island with an overhanging monochrome worktop made from terrazzo is positioned at the centre of this kitchen in Gundry & Ducker’s White Rabbit House.
    The island is teamed with a backdrop of matching built-in wall cabinets, arched windows and doorways, and a floor lined with large slabs of luminous white, blue and grey terrazzo.
    Find out more about White Rabbit House ›

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    Freitag's Sweat-Yourself-Shop is a tiny factory for making bags

    Swiss brand Freitag has created a shop in Zurich, which is a “micro-factory” where customers can help make their own bag out of recycled tarpaulins.Named Sweat-Yourself-Shop, the interactive retail space on Grüngasse was designed by Freitag to take their existing customisation options one step further.

    Freitag bags are made of recycled truck tarpaulins
    The 80-square-metre retail space was originally a standard shop for the brand but has been given a factory-style makeover.
    “We were looking for a unique pilot retail experience to reduce used truck tarp leftovers from our factory,” explained Freitag.
    “With the new shop, customers can get further involved by assembling their bag to their own taste and getting involved in the final production steps,” added the brand.
    “From now on, Freitag is transferring the final stages of production and the entire responsibility for the bag’s design to future owners, in our newly converted micro-factory.”

    Customers can operate a conveyor belt of material

    Founded in 1993 by graphic designers Markus and Daniel Freitag, Freitag specialises in practical bags made out of recycled tarpaulins.
    Used tarpaulin bought from trucking companies in Europe are cleaned, cut up and fashioned into bags. The material, polyester fabric coated with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), makes for durable and waterproof accessories.

    The shop is set up as a “micro-factory” for bags
    At Sweat-Yourself-Shop, customers can make their own shopper-style bag.
    The interiors of the micro-factory are designed to look “functional and industrial”, with grey walls and floors. Freitag painted all the machinery in Colour Index industrial green, the brand’s signature shade.

    The shopper bag is fully customisable
    A rainbow of tarpaulin panels are clipped to hangers dangling from a looped conveyor belt that runs along the shop’s ceiling.
    Customers can press a button to power the conveyor belt, bringing more colour choices out from behind windows of frosted glass.

    Customers can watch their bag being stitched
    Workshop stations allow them to pick out colours for the main bag and the outer pocket and watch them be cut and stitched together.

    Miniwiz creates pop-up store where rubbish is exchanged for recycled products

    “The sheer amount of colour choices for tarp pieces that go into the F718 BUH shopper will probably have our part-time bag makers in the new Sweat-Yourself-Shop perspiring more heavily than the production work itself,” joked the brand.

    The whole process is visible through big display windows
    Large windows frame the shop so that passersby can also watch the process from the street.
    Sweat-Yourself-Shop is shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the small retail interior category, alongside projects including a tiny bakery in Japan and beauty brand Glossier’s Seattle shop that’s covered in moss.

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    Thirty domestic bathrooms by architects including concrete, travertine and pink-tiled designs

    Making improvements to your home because you’re spending so much more time there? Here are 30 bathrooms designed by architects to give you some ideas.

    Minimal Fantasy apartment by Patricia Bustos Studio
    Designed by Patricia Bustos Studio, this pink bathroom has shiny pink curtains and mirrors with pink frames to match the rest of the apartment in Madrid, which is almost entirely pink.

    Botaniczna Apartment by Agnieszka Owsiany Studio
    This bathroom in a Poznań apartment designed by Agnieszka Owsiany Studio for a couple working in medicine has travertine marble walls and a travertine basin.

    House 6 by Zooco Estudio
    Zooco Estudio covered the walls and floors of this bathroom in Madrid with white tiles and blue grouting. A geometric counter clad with blue tiles snakes across the ground and up the wall to form a storage closet in the space.

    Porto house by Fala Atelier 
    Fala Atelier used square white tiles for this bathroom in a house in Porto. The tiles are paired with marble countertops, blue cupboard doors and a large round mirror over the sink.

    Makepeace Mansions apartment by Surman Weston 
    The bathroom in this apartment designed by Surman Weston is finished with hand-painted tiles that are arranged to form a black-and-white graphic pattern that mimics the housing block’s mock-Tudor facade.

    Unit 622 by Rainville Sangaré
    Set in an apartment within Moshe Safdie’s brutalist Habitat 67 housing complex in Montreal, this bathroom designed by Rainville Sangaré has colour-changing shower screens.

    Rylett House by Studio 30 Architects
    Created as part of the renovation of a Victorian maisonette in London, this small en-suite bathroom is finished with a black grid of tiles and a bright yellow wall.

    Cats’ Pink House by KC Design Studio 
    This holiday home in Taiwan is designed with a focus on the owner’s cat and includes cat ladders, a rotating carousel-shaped climbing frame and a fluffy pink swing. Its bathroom combines larger square pink floor tiles with a wall made from terrazzo with large flecks of pink and grey.

    Borden house by StudioAC
    This en-suite bathroom at the front of a house designed by StudioAC has pitched walls covered in grey tiles.

    Spinmolenplein apartment by Jürgen Vandewalle
    This bathroom in an apartment in Ghent’s tallest building is enclosed within a white lacquered-wood box and is accessed by a set of barn-style doors. Internally the bathroom is finished with earthy, pink-tone micro cement to contrast the white wood.

    Cloister House by MORQ
    The rammed-concrete walls of Cloister House in Perth have been left exposed in the bathroom where they are softened with timber slatted floors and a timber-clad bath and sink.

    Akari House by Mas-aqui
    Designed by Architecture studio Mas-aqui as part of a renovation of a 20th-century apartment in the mountains above Barcelona, this small bathroom combines red floor tiles with white wall tiles.

    Louisville Road house by 2LG Studio
    Created by 2LG Studio as part of a colourful overhaul of a period house in south London, this bathroom has pale marble walls and a baby-blue tiled floor. The baby-blue colour was also used for the taps and mirror surround, which contrast with the coral vanity unit.

    Apartment A by Atelier Dialect
    This en-suite bathroom, which forms part of a large open-plan master bedroom in an Antwerp apartment designed by Belgian studio Atelier Dialect, has a rectangular freestanding tub at its centre.
    The bath is wrapped in mirrored steel to compliment a stainless-steel basin, while the walls are finished with subway tiles and mint-green paint.

    House V by Martin Skoček
    Martin Skoček used salvaged bricks throughout the interiors of this gabled house near Bratislava, Slovakia. The master bedroom has a dramatic en-suite bedroom with a freestanding bathtub that is alined with the apex of the pitched timber roof.

    308 S apartment by Bloco Arquitetos 
    The bathroom in this 1960s apartment renovated by Bloco Arquitetos in Brasília incorporates white tiles as a reference to architecture in the city in the 6os. The white walls and ceiling are combined with a vanity counter and floor made from Branco São Paulo – a matte-finished granite.

    Mexican holiday home by Palma
    This slim shower room is tucked behind a bedroom in a holiday home designed by architecture studio Palma. It has slatted wooden doors that open directly to the exterior.

    South Yarra Townhouse by Winter Architecture
    This bathroom designed by Winter Architecture in a Melbourne townhouse combines exposed-aggregate grey tiles and thin, horizontal white tiles with towels rails and taps made from gold-hued brass.

    Edinburgh apartment by Luke and Joanne McClelland
    The main bathroom in this Georgian apartment in Edinburgh has glazed green tiles on the lower half of the walls and the front of the tub. Alongside the bath, a sink was placed on a restored 1960s wooden sideboard by Danish designer Ib Kofod Larsen.

    Ruxton Rise Residence by Studio Four
    Built for Studio Four’s co-director Sarah Henry, this tranquil house in the Melbourne suburb of Beaumaris has bathrooms with surfaces covered in tadelakt – a waterproof, lime-based plaster that is often used in Moroccan architecture to make sinks and baths.

    House with Three Eyes by Innauer-Matt Architekten
    In House with Three Eyes, the bathroom has a full-height glass wall that has views out across the surrounding Austrian countryside. The marble-clad bath is positioned right next to this window so bathers can enjoy the views.

    Hygge Studio by Melina Romano
    Brazilian designer Melina Romano designed this fern green coloured bathroom to extend from a bedroom in a São Paulo apartment. It features a striking black toilet, a corner mirror and a vanity unit built from red brick that has an open slot for storing towels and toiletries.

    Ready-made Home by Azab
    This en-suite bathroom in Azab’s Ready-made Home is separated from the bedroom by an angled blue curtain. The triangular bathroom space is differentiated from the bedroom by its blue tiles on the floor, which extend up the front of the bath and walls.

    Immeuble Molitor apartment by Le Corbusier
    This small bathroom was designed by Le Corbusier in the Immeuble Molitor apartment in Paris that was his home for over 30 years. The room, which has walls that are painted sky blue and covered with small white tiles, has a short bath and sink.

    Apartment in Born by Colombo and Serboli Architecture
    Colombo and Serboli Architecture added a new guest bathroom to this apartment in Barcelona’s historic El Born neighbourhood, which has by blush-toned tiles and a circular mirror.

    130 William skyscraper model apartment by David Adjaye
    Built within an apartment in David Adjaye’s 130 William skyscraper in New York, this bathroom is lined with serrated grey marble tiles and has a wooden sink unit with a matching profile.

    Pioneer Square Loft by Plum Design and Corey Kingston
    The bathroom facilities in this loft apartment in Seattle are located in a custom-built L-shaped wooden box in one of the room’s corners, which is topped with a bedroom.
    A washroom, shower, toilet and sauna are each located in different boxes that are each clad in wood charred using the traditional Japanese technique known as Shou Sugi Ban.

    VS House by Sārānsh
    The bathroom in VS House by Sārānsh in Ahmedabad, India, combines two clashing Indian stone finishes. Floors and walls are made from flecked grey tiles, while an emerald-coloured marble surrounds the toilets and mirror.

    Nagatachō Apartment by Adam Nathaniel Furman
    Forming part of the brightly coloured Nagatachō Apartment, which Adam Nathaniel Furman designed to be a “visual feast”, this bathroom combines a blue-tiled with milky-orange-tiled walls. A sky blue vanity unit, lemon-yellow towel rail and taps, and pink toilet complete the colourful composition.

    Kyle House by GRAS
    This holiday home in Scotland was designed by Architecture studio GRAS to have a “monastically simple” interior. This is extended into the bathroom, which has grey walls and a shower space clad with large black tiles.

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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.

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  • A-nrd looks to Mexico to craft interiors of Kol restaurant in London

    Yucatán, Oaxaca and Mexico City are some of the places that the founder of studio A-nrd visited in preparation of designing the interiors of Kol, a restaurant in central London. Kol is situated in the capital’s Marylebone neighbourhood. It’s headed up by notable chef Santiago Lastra, who has designed the menu of the two-storey restaurant
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  • Rammed-earth counter anchors Flamingo Estate pop-up in Los Angeles

    Vibrant green walls surround a chunky rammed-earth counter in this garden-themed pop-up shop in LA that creatives Alex Reed and Dutra Brown have designed for lifestyle brand Flamingo Estate.Flamingo Estate’s Harvest Shop pop-up takes over a retail unit in Platform, a high-end shopping centre in LA’s Culver City area.
    The shop offers an array of the brand’s holistic products for the body and home, along with its range of pantry foods, which includes items such as extra-virgin olive oil, honey and dark chocolate.
    Many products are made with ingredients grown on the grounds of Flamingo Estate, which is tucked away in the hills of the nearby Eagle Rock neighbourhood. Its sprawling garden is host to 150 different species of flowering plants and shrubs, as well as a fruit orchard, vegetable beds and a hive of bees.

    A rammed-earth counter sits at the centre of Harvest Shop

    This lush landscape became a key point of reference for the pop-up’s designers, locally-based creatives Alex Reed and Dutra Brown.
    Together they sought to fashion a space that resembled “a small, secret corner of the estate itself…as if it was lifted from the earth and brought to the store”.

    An abstract sculpture perches on one end of the counter
    At the centre of the shop is a monolithic counter crafted from rammed earth. The bottom of the counter is inset with different-coloured fragments of stone, while the top features a cluster of white-tile blocks and platforms on which products are presented.
    To ensure the tiles could be used again post pop-up, a simple mixture of mud and earth was used as grout.
    A corner of the counter is dominated by an amorphous sculpture that Reed and Brown created using scagliola – a type of plaster typically made from gypsum, glue and pigments.

    A mural depicting trees and rolling hills acts as a backdrop to the counter
    “For Flamingo Estate’s first physical location, we looked to the company’s ‘hands-in-the dirt’ ideals of what is luxurious and covetable today,” the pair said.
    “We’ve utilized our respective expertise to design and build a project centred around materiality – this collage of organic material and sculptural form, together with provenance and fantasy, celebrates what we love about Flamingo Estate.”

    Frida Escobedo segments Aesop Park Slope with rammed-earth brickwork

    The garden theme continues onto Harvest Shop’s walls, where LA-based artist Abel Macias has painted a rich, green mural.
    “Richard [Christiansen, owner of Flamingo Estate] and I talked about a concept based around Snow White, the enchanted little forest that she lives in that’s sort of dark but very magical and green in a way,” explained Macias.
    “We came up with this landscape that’s rolling hills and swirly trees, keeping everything in the tonal green world so that it feels verdant and very lush [in the store].”
    Emerald-coloured paint covers a wall on the opposite side of the shop, which is mounted with rows of glass jars filled with various natural ingredients.

    Another wall is mounted with rows of glass jars
    Flamingo Estate is overseen by creative director Richard Christiansen. Beyond the estate’s garden lies a Spanish colonial-style house that, since the beginning of 2020, has operated as a chic retreat for creative people in Los Angeles.
    Its Harvest Shop pop-up isn’t the only retail project to have made use of rammed earth. Last year, Mexican architect Frida Escobedo applied rammed-earth bricks to the walls of an Aesop store in Brooklyn, New York, to emulate the facade of the brownstone townhouses seen around the area.
    Photography is by Adrian Gaut.

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  • Green-painted sunroom with cathedral views features in renovated Toronto apartment

    Canadian studio Odami has redesigned a 1980s apartment in Toronto with bold and rich features like dark quartzite, walnut and green walls. The project, called St Lawrence, involved renovating an apartment that was previously transformed from a parking garage in the 1980s, with finishes that Odami said had now become dull and outdated.

    Odami removed walls to open the kitchen to the skylight-topped dining room
    “[The apartment] came to us completely in its original state: popcorn ceiling; an enclosed and very dated kitchen; mirrored walls; and beige carpeted floors,” the local studio said. “With a new owner, the entire unit was in need of an extensive update.”
    Odami redesigned the 1400-square-foot (130-square-metre) apartment to make the most of two “very theatrical” elements: views of the Cathedral of St James and five level changes that are created by steps between the rooms.

    Dark walnut contrasts with quartzite in the kitchen

    “In general we were really looking for materials that were rich and had a lot of depth to them, which would create a sharp contrast with the white walls throughout,” studio co-founder Michael Norman Fohring told Dezeen.
    “The change of levels and the views make the space naturally very theatrical, and using dramatic material and colour juxtapositions sort of amplified this.”

    A ribbed, black quartzite fireplace features in the living room
    A green sunroom, whose decoration references the Cathedral of St James viewed through the window, is one of the standout spaces.
    “Pulling in the colours and shapes of the nearby Cathedral of St James, the room is painted completely in green, and fitted with a dramatic pendant,” said Odami.

    A black wooden table and chair furnish the space
    “With its warmth and depth this space marks a moment of calm and stillness, perched amidst the steady flow of the condo and the hectic city below,” it added.
    Walnut engineered hardwood flooring runs throughout the apartment and, aside from the sunroom, all the walls in the condo are painted bright white.

    A big window in the sunroom offers views of the Cathedral of St James
    In the kitchen, the studio removed a partial wall and existing cabinets so it could be entirely open to the adjoining, skylight-topped dining room. Particle board cabinets in the kitchen are covered with a dark walnut veneer with solid walnut handles, contrasting the Super White natural quartzite.

    Odami celebrates “earthly minimalism” at Sara restaurant in Toronto

    Walnut steps lead from the kitchen down into the living room. Rich, dark materials continue in the form of a ribbed fireplace made of a dark quartzite, called Diamante Nero, with a matching black wooden table and chair. Wooden logs are stacked in an inlet to the side of the fire.

    Steps lead from the living room down to two bedrooms
    Two bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms flank either side of the living room.
    The main bedroom suite was rearranged to include a walk-in wardrobe featuring white wardrobes with black handles. A skylight in the wardrobe floods natural light through a frosted glass wall into the bathroom.

    A translucent glass wall brings natural light into an en-suite bathroom
    Odami is an architectural, interior, and furniture design studio that Canadian designer Fohring founded in 2017 with Spanish architect Aránzazu González Bernardo.
    It has previously completed a restaurant in the city called Sara with curving plaster walls and designed a wood furniture collection made from one dying tree.
    Photography is by Kurtis Chen.

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