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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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    Peter Besley uses pale bricks and thick mortar to create monolithic facade of Brisbane's Couldrey House

    Mortar oozes between the off-white bricks that clad this house in Brisbane, which architect Peter Besley has designed to look “immensely heavy”. Couldrey House measures 320 square metres and is situated west of central Brisbane, nestled in the foothills of Mount Coot-tha. Besley wanted the house’s heavy materiality to contrast vernacular residential architecture in Australia, […] More

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    Dezeen becomes one of the top 3,500 most popular websites in the world

    Dezeen hit a major milestone this week, becoming one of the 3,500 most-visited websites in the world, according to ranking service Alexa. Dezeen has risen over 1,100 places in Alexa’s global internet engagement ranking since the start of the year, with our Virtual Design Festival propelling us further up the chart in the last few days. […] More

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    Lavandaria Morinha laundrette in Portugal takes subtle cues from old washhouses

    Design studio Stu.dere looked into traditional washing methods to create the interior of this laundrette in northern Portugal, which features marble and green-tile surfaces. Located in the municipality of Amarante, Lavandaria Morinha is a laundrette that includes a service area for garment alterations, repairs, dry cleaning and ironing. Although the space has a contemporary, pared-back […] More

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    Original beams and brickwork add warmth to pared-back Madrid apartment

    Architect Leticia Saá has woven historical features such as exposed brickwork and wooden pillars into the minimal interior of this open-plan apartment in Madrid. Located in Madrid’s Lavapiés neighbourhood, the two-bedroom apartment is spread across the top floor of a three-storey residential building that dates back to 1900. The apartment had been unoccupied for 35 […] More