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    Note Design Studio creates “unexpected” restaurant in historic Stockholm food hall

    Off-kilter tiles set in thick blue grout clad the bar of the Tysta Mari restaurant in Stockholm, designed by local practice Note Design Studio.

    Tysta Mari is one of several restaurants set within the city’s recently renovated Östermalms Saluhall – a historic food hall housed in a brick building from 1888.
    Tysta Mari is a restaurant in the historic Östermalms SaluhallThe two-storey eatery serves up fresh seafood and Swedish dishes using ingredients sourced from the indoor marketplace that surrounds it.
    Local design firm Note Design Studio was invited to renovate the interior with the aim of creating a “welcoming environment that feels effortless, unexpected and full of charm”.
    Pale blue accents pop up in the eatery’s bistro tables and in the grouting of the barThe design team used a light, tactile material palette for the interior featuring mirrors, gauzy fabrics, textured walls, glazed ceramics and stainless steel.

    An eye-catching bar is located on the restaurant’s ground floor, visible both from the street and from inside the food hall. Designed to draw customers into the interior, this area is clad in glazed tiles surrounded by thick blue grouting and finished with detailing in polished stainless steel.
    A black metal staircase leads up to the second floorA black metal staircase leads up to a bistro and a private dining room with a large sharing table and balcony providing views of the entire food hall.
    Note Design Studio’s interior scheme was based on the four elements of earth, air, water and fire, according to the practice’s co-founder and design manager Cristiano Pigazzini.

    Note Design Studio creates warm-hued wine bar that doubles as an office

    This theme is picked up in the earth tone and texture of the restaurant’s walls, the smokey hue of the oak furnishings, the gauzy curtains and the ceramic tiles, which were designed to look almost wave-swept.
    “The light half-transparent textiles diffuse the incoming light to give an airy, soft accent to the other hard, heavy materials,” Pigazzini told Dezeen.
    This floor houses a private dining roomFounded in 2008 by Pigazzini and Johannes Carlström, Note Design Studio works across the fields of architecture, interiors, products, graphic design and design strategy.
    Other recent projects from the practice include a warm-hued wine bar that doubles as an office and a collection of pendant lights that recall cake sprinkles.
    All photography is courtesy of Note Design Studio.

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    Memola Estudio leaves concrete structure exposed for Gale Apartment in São Paulo

    Balancing natural and industrial materials was a key focus during Brazilian studio Memola Estudio’s renovation of this São Paulo apartment.

    The gut renovation of the Gale Apartment for a couple in the western area of the city involved creating connections between the various rooms and updating it to better match the owners’ “cosmopolitan” tastes.
    Memola Estudio stripped back walls in the apartment to reveal the concrete structureOther goals for the overhaul included highlighting their art collection, creating better connections with views of greenery outside and generally refreshing the atmosphere inside.
    To contrast the wooden floors Memola Estudio removed walls and parts of the ceiling, and stripped back finishes to expose the building’s concrete structure, piping and ductwork.
    A Portuguese mosaic stone wall was painted white in the double-height living areaAmong the partitions demolished was one between the entry hall and the main living space, so that a direct line of sight now connects the two.

    Coming off the elevator in the centre of the apartment, visitors are now offered a view straight through to floor-to-ceiling windows beyond the dining table, and out to the balcony accessed from the lounge.
    Walls were removed to allow views directly from the entryway to the windowsThe dining area was extended to fill in part of the balcony area, forming an extra indoor space for casual seating.
    “Now transformed into a mix of lounge and bar, a low wooden table at its centre and the comfortable armchairs around it invite long conversations,” said the studio of this space.
    Part of the balcony was converted into a bar and seating areaThe more formal seating area is double-height, with the end wall covered in a Portuguese stone mosaic that was repainted white, and another acting as a gallery wall that displays the clients’ contemporary artworks.
    Furniture in this room is mixed and matched in terms of both style and material, but all items carry earthy tones.
    In the kitchen, the ceiling was removed and pharmacy-style cabinets were added”Old and new share neutral hues and the furniture has been reupholstered to match the new color palette, inspired by the autumn and the sunset colors found in the horizon,” Memola Estudio said.
    Particular attention was paid to the usability of the kitchen, where the ceiling was again ripped out and new cabinets and counters were installed.
    Custom, freestanding metal units based on vintage pharmacy counters are placed along one wall, providing an open surface for appliances, as well as cabinet storage above and below.
    In reconfiguring the layout of this corner of the apartment, a wood-topped kitchen island and a pantry were built and a storeroom was formed in part of the old laundry room.
    Another balcony was turned into a TV and music room”The kitchen’s renovation promotes the sharing of experiences around meal preparation and its everyday enjoyment,” said Memola Estudio.
    The home has three bedrooms, all located at the back of the apartment and decorated in neutral shades.
    A neutral colour palette was used to refresh the bedroomsEach has an ensuite bathroom with walls tiled or wood-lined in a slightly different shade of green.
    There’s also a TV room, created within a space that previously functioned as a second balcony, featuring a deep, green sofa and a drum kit beside the window.
    Bathrooms were also updated in different shades of greenMemola Estudio is based in São Paulo, where apartment living is extremely common in the dense urban environment.
    Other renovations in the city that aim to add personality to the interiors include a home enlivened with green tiles, a residence for a fashion designer decorated in vivid hues, and an apartment where exposed pipes are painted in pastels tones.
    The photography is by Fran Parente.

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    Five “quirky” sleeping pods top Watchet's East Quay arts centre

    UK studios Pearce+ and Fægen have designed the interiors of five sleeping pods that stand on top of the Invisible Studio-designed arts centre on the dockside in Watchet, UK.

    The studios aimed to design the pods, which were created to provide interesting accommodation for people visiting East Quay and the town, to align with the ethos of the arts centre.
    The sleeping pods are located on top of Watchet’s East Quay arts centre”The whole of East Quay is about culture, purpose and imagination – it is a hub of creativity, opportunity, artistry and ideas,” explained Pearce+ founder Owen Pearce.
    “It is also most importantly about community – multiple hands and many eyes,” he told Dezeen.
    “We wanted this to be captured in the pods also, providing inspiring, exciting, different, unusual spaces and involving as many hands as possible in the design, from artists to makers to kids.”

    Two pods are raised on stiltsThe five pods are located in a series of metal-clad boxes on top of the East Quay arts centre, which was designed by Bath-based Invisible Studio with Ellis Williams Architects acting as executive architect for the local social enterprise Onion Collective.
    Two of the pods stand on stilts above the building.

    East Quay arts centre in Watchet takes cues from ad-hoc harbour buildings

    “All the pods are linked to their surroundings by fantastic views of the Bristol Channel, the Quantocks, the marina and the town,” said Pearce.
    “The form of the buildings feels rooted in the area as they jut and protrude as if continuously added to like some of the old houses in the town.”
    The walls of pod two were CNC etchedEach of the five pods is designed by Pearce+ and Fægen to have a different character and involve local artists and the community.
    The first sleeping pod, which was built with reclaimed furniture and materials, was designed as a “living museum” where guests are encouraged to leave an item and take one away.
    Etched illustrations cover the walls of pod two, which is designed by artist Isabelle Mole and aims to tell the story of the town.
    Pod 1 contains a “living museum””Our overarching aim was to provide a connection between guests and the local community,” explained Pearce.
    “This is done, for example, through direct object transfer in pod one as guests donate objects of meaning and take something in return or, in pod two, by visually exploring the stories and myths of the town in CNC etchings on the walls.”
    Pod four contains a cargo netThe third pod aims to evoke the feeling of a 1920s ocean liner, while pod four “is about play” and has semaphore signals painted on the walls. Here there is also a cargo net for sitting, which is reached by a staircase hung from the ceiling.
    Bristol graffiti artist Andy Council worked with local schoolchildren to create the interior of the fifth pod, which will be redecorated each year by an artist chosen by the Onion Collective.
    Bristol graffiti artist Andy Council decorated the fifth podIn line with the ethos of the project, Pearce+ and Fægen moved to Watchet for a year to act as contractor and fabricate the interiors of the pods with the help of a small team.
    Pearce hopes that the pods will provide fun places for visitors to stay and bring income into the community.
    “The brief for the competition was quirky places to stay,” he explained. “The client wanted to have fun with the pods and to provide an opportunity for inventiveness from architects.”
    “The building’s aim is to support a local artistic community and provide opportunities that weren’t available before. A key part of the economic strategy of the building is to attract guests from afar to bring in much-needed income, which in turn supports cultural and education work,” he continued. “The designs are then targeted to create a cool place to visit in order to do that.”
    Pearce+ previously collaborated with UK studio Hugh Broughton Architects and artists Ella Good and Nicki Kent to create the inflatable Martian House, which is currently installed in Bristol.
    The photography is by Joseph Horton.

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    Caged wooden galleries feature in Puzzle Link apartment by Gheorghe

    Architecture and research studio Gheorghe has inserted two triangular cross-laminated timber structures into a loft in Vienna as part of its renovation of the apartment.

    Set within a historic building in Vienna’s 13th district, the top level of the apartment was designed to encourage interaction between a couple and their children.
    Two cross-laminated timber (CLT) structures, which dominate each end of the space, were designed to provide the occupants with places to work, play and look down onto the open-plan living and dining area below.
    Made up of 698 planks the structures incorporate shelves, storage space, seating areas and tables. They are both be accessed by a set of timber stairs.
    Puzzle Link is a loft apartment in a historic building in Vienna”Through the wooden structure the built-in attic becomes a place of approach by enabling visual relationships, warmth through used materials and a hybrid zone between different spatial functions,” said Gheorghe co-founder Andrei Gheorghe.

    “We wanted to create an aesthetic and practical connection, to gain additional spatial functions and to make the spacious intermediate space multifunctional and to make it a meeting place,” Gheorghe told Dezeen.
    Two wooden galleries dominate each end of the spaceThe Vienna-based studio redesigned the attic floor for the family who required a “sustainable, unique and functional” space to live. According to Gheorghe, the warm-toned timber was used for its ability to be reused if needed.
    “The inspiration for the design was marked by the fact that it needed to be sustainable, unique and functional,” Gheorghe explained.
    “This is the perfect material for us, on one hand offering the necessary structural strength and dimensions but also the possibility of being reused,” he added.
    “This is a sustainable material because all the leftovers after the milling process could be further processed towards wood pellets.”
    They are made from 698 planks of cross-laminated timberEach two-by-five plank was CNC-milled by a local carpentry company. The planks were then constructed using 3D-modelling techniques and scripting technology to give the structures their unusual, jigsaw-like shape.
    This is also what led the studio to name the project Puzzle Link.

    IFUB installs bespoke black steel fittings in 1930s Art Deco apartment renovation

    While transforming the space, the studio also looked to maintain its original historical features.
    The Viennese tiles that lined the building’s original staircase, which had been saved and stored by the client, were cleaned and reused for the floor of the raised platform that runs inside alongside the terrace.
    Although the apartment has been sparsely decorated, a few key pieces of furniture that the family collected while travelling abroad are placed around the space.
    The apartment is sparsely furnishedA minimalist Shaker hearth by German fireplace manufacturer Skantherm sits underneath the timber stairs while a floor-to-ceiling bookcase can be found inside one of the timber structures.
    A black storage unit made from coated MDF, paper and acrylic resin in the open plan area provides contrast to the otherwise whitewashed wooden furnishings.
    Elsewhere, a skylight punctuates the slanted roof and along with several smaller windows, floods the space with natural light.
    Other Viennese apartments include Beletage Apartment by British architect Alex Graef, an apartment with restored oak flooring and clean white walls.
    Meanwhile, Slovenian architecture studio Kombinat renovated an apartment in the Austrian capital into a hybrid living space with room for both cooking and working.
    The photography is by Frame9.

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    Dezeen Agenda newsletter features Brad Pitt's foundation defective homes settlement

    The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Agenda newsletter features the $20.5 million settlement that Brad Pitt’s foundation has agreed with the owners of defective New Orleans homes. Subscribe to Dezeen Agenda now!

    This week, actor Pitt reportedly agreed to a settlement of $20.5 million for the owners of homes built by his Make It Right Foundation housing charity.
    Homeowners brought legal action after numerous defects to their homes – such as water leaks, black mould and foundation issues – were discovered, according to a report by NOLA.com.
    “Hopefully this agreement will allow everyone to look ahead to other opportunities to continue to strengthen this proud community in the future,” Pitt said in a statement.
    Aerial render of planned Angels Landing skyscraper in Los Angeles by Handel ArchitectsOther stories in the latest newsletter include the Architectural Workers United organizer Andrew Daley writing about how “Architects must reject the ‘follow your passion’ narrative and see themselves as workers”, news broke that Adam Neumann is launching his “first venture since WeWork”, a housing startup called Flow and US studio Handel Architects revealed designs for the Angels Landing skyscraper in Los Angeles.

    Dezeen Agenda
    Dezeen Agenda is a curated newsletter sent every Tuesday containing the most important news highlights from Dezeen. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Agenda or subscribe here.
    You can also subscribe to Dezeen Debate, which is sent every Thursday and contains a curated selection of highlights from the week, as well as Dezeen Daily, our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours on Dezeen.

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    Get your event listed in Dezeen's London guide for London Design Festival 2022

    If you’re exhibiting during London Design Festival, there’s still time to get your event listed in our digital guide to the festival on Dezeen Events Guide.

    Our London guide will list the key events taking place during the week-long festival, which runs from 17 to 25 September 2022.
    London Design Festival hosts hundreds of events across its 12 districts, including the trade fair Design London and exhibitions, installations, talks and open studios.
    Dezeen will publish its London guide one week before the festival, which will include listings for all the key events.
    The digital guide will benefit from Dezeen’s high-ranking SEO and will sit on Dezeen Events Guide, which has received over 700,000 views since it launched in 2020.

    The London guide follows the success of our Milan design week 2022 guide, which received over 40,000 page views.
    If you want to be considered for the guide, please contact [email protected]. The Dezeen team will review the events to ensure the best are featured.
    Get listed in Dezeen’s digital London guide
    For only £100, you can feature your event in the guide, which includes up to 75 words of text, the date, location, a link to your website and an image.
    For more information about partnering with us to help amplify your event, contact the team at [email protected].
    About Dezeen Events Guide
    Dezeen Events Guide lists events across the globe, which can be filtered by location and type.
    Events taking place later in the year include Helsinki Design Week 2022, France Design Week 2022 and Copenhagen Architecture Festival 2022.
    The illustration is by Rima Sabina Aouf.

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    Hotel Rosalie encourages nature to “reclaim its rightful place in the urban landscape”

    French interior designer Marion Mailaender has worked with hotelier Joris Bruneel to create a hotel in Paris informed by overgrown and abandoned buildings.

    Conceived as a hidden oasis in the city, Hotel Rosalie is set in a courtyard behind a tall iron gate on a tree-lined street in the 13th arrondissement.
    Marion Mailaender has designed nature-informed interiors for Hotel RosalieGreenery is incorporated into every aspect of Mailaender’s design for the 60-room hotel, including a plant-filled terrace and a hidden roof garden.
    Parisian urban gardening collective Merci Raymond was brought on board by Bruneel to make the hotel’s outdoor spaces seem “overgrown” and help nature “reclaim its rightful place in the urban landscape”.
    The hotel’s terrace features outdoor furniture by the Bouroullec brothersBruneel was particularly influenced by Urbex, a series of images by French photographer Romain Chancel that is displayed in the hotel’s guest rooms and depicts abandoned urban buildings that have slowly been reclaimed by plants.

    In a nod to this work, Merci Raymond encouraged lichen and moss to grow and seeds to germinate in the hotel’s nooks and crannies. Meanwhile, Mailaender incorporated urban design elements into the scheme ranging from “Roman-style statues” to an old Peugeot 205 car that is seemingly left abandoned on the rooftop.
    Mirrored yellow columns traverse the lobbyOn the ground floor, the hotel’s Open Garden is accessible to the local community and features steel outdoor furniture by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec set across a two-level terrace linked by a little staircase.
    A towering six-metre hop plant provides shade while its flowers will be used by a microbrewery in the 11th arrondissement to make beer.
    A Gae Aulenti sofa in the lobby is upholstered in clover-patterned fabricThe hotel’s Secret Garden lies behind a hidden door on the third floor. This is furnished with deck chairs, wooden benches and planters, offering a space where guests can read, relax in the sun, do yoga classes or participate in workshops organised by the hotel.
    Inside, Mailaender has included plenty of nature-inspired elements. In the lobby, a giant coconut-fibre rug leads guests inside while armchairs and couches by Italian architect Gae Aulenti are upholstered in clover-patterned pop art fabric.

    Luke Edward Hall stirs print and colour inside Hotel Les Deux Gares in Paris

    Meanwhile, guest rooms feature galvanised steel furniture, which is typically used outdoors, and floral William Morris carpet that extends up from the floor and across the headboards.
    The interior blends new and reclaimed pieces in an approach that Mailaender describes as “intentional ambivalence”.
    In the bathrooms, for instance, traditional baths are paired with counters made from terrazzo-style recycled plastic.
    Floral William Morris carpet covers floors and headboards in the guest roomsAll materials were chosen for their aesthetic as well as their environmental impact, according to Mailaender.
    For example, the carpet in the guest rooms is made from recycled fishing nets and wood offcuts were used to make a marquetry tabletop in the lobby.
    Bathrooms feature counters made from recycled plasticCork clads the restaurant’s floor and the walls of the elevator, and many of the chairs are pre-owned pieces that were carefully restored.
    “I believe that we can mix furniture designed by the Bouroullec brothers with random pieces from a gardening catalogue,” explained Mailaender. “Embracing current concerns means selecting sustainable materials alongside aesthetically pleasing design pieces.”
    Planting surrounds an old Peugeot 205 in the hotel’s rooftop gardenThe hotel has its own coffee shop The Common, finished in a distinctive blue hue that nods to 90s air hostess uniforms.
    This colour is echoed on a glossy pillar in the bar, a trellis in the secret garden and on the guest room doors, where it offsets the grass-green carpet that winds through the hotel corridors.
    Dezeen recently rounded up ten verdant hotel interiors from our archive that show how adding greenery to public spaces can help give them a friendlier, more organic feel.
    The photography is by Christophe Coenon unless stated otherwise.

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    Charlie Luxton Design reworks Oxfordshire farmhouse to create Studio Richter Mahr

    Composer Max Richter and visual artist Yulia Mahr have set up a multimedia production studio inside a former farmhouse in Oxfordshire, which Charlie Luxton Design has updated with more sustainable features.

    Bordered by 31 acres of forested woodland, Studio Richter Mahr will serve as a space where both emerging and established creatives can come to develop their work.
    Studio Richter Mahr is a multimedia production studio in a former farmhouseRichter and Mahr – who are collaborators as well as a couple – first had the idea for the site some 20 years ago.
    “Studio Richter Mahr is about dreaming the future into existence, a better way to live and work,” said Mahr. “It’s about forward motion and borderless creativity. It’s about offering time and opportunities for people to really experiment.”
    The studio occupies a farm building that had already been modernised to a decent standard but needed adjusting to reduce the operational carbon footprint of the new amenities on site. Local practice Charlie Luxton Design was assigned to the task.

    New skylights allow natural light to flood the facility’s interiorThe building’s roof now accommodates solar panels that provide electricity to the site and several skylights to reduce the need for artificial lighting.
    To keep the building warm, air-source heat pumps were installed alongside a ventilation system powered using recovered heat.
    A large picture window features in the orchestral recording studioCharlie Luxton Design preserved the building’s original steel framework to conserve its embodied carbon and celebrate the site’s agricultural past.
    The existing concrete floor slab was also retained and strengthened in some areas.
    Inside, the studio houses a series of state-of-the-art creative spaces devised with the help of sound specialists Level Acoustics and Studio Creations. This includes a video editing suite, programming room, art studios and a Dolby Atmos sound mixing room alongside an exhibition area and a cafe that creates dishes from produce grown on-site.

    Studio Bua transforms derelict Icelandic farm building into artist’s studio

    The plan culminates in a spacious orchestral recording room fronted by a huge picture window that offers uninterrupted views across the rural landscape.
    Charlie Luxton Design applied a restrained material palette throughout the interior.
    Most of the walls were washed with textured lime plaster or overlaid with Dinesen oak boards while the building’s exterior was clad with simple black metal to contrast the surrounding greenery.
    “The brief was always to be very simple, using quality materials,” founder Charlie Luxton told Dezeen.
    Many of the studio’s rooms are clad with timberGoing forward, Richter and Mahr plan to add more amenities including an on-site creche with the aim of hosting artist residencies and composer labs.
    This isn’t the first time a farm building has been repurposed for creative pursuits. Last year, Studio Bua converted a derelict Icelandic barn into an artist’s studio and holiday home.
    The workspace sits inside a double-height gabled volume that was erected within the site’s existing time-worn walls.
    The photography is by Lorenzo Zandri.

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