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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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  • Bermonds Locke hotel in London evokes sunny California deserts

    Mirage-like mirrored ceilings and cacti-filled planters are some of the features that interiors studio Holloway Li has incorporated in this hotel in London, which is meant to echo California deserts.Bermonds Locke is located at the heart of southeast London’s Bermondsey neighbourhood, just a few minutes walk from notable landmarks such as The Shard and Tower Bridge.

    Top image: a moon-like panel hovers over Bermonds Locke’s concierge desk. Above: mirrored panels line the ceiling of the reception
    Despite the hotel’s markedly urban setting, when it came to designing its communal areas and 143 guest rooms, Holloway Li took inspiration from sun-scorched places in California like the Mojave desert and Joshua Tree National Park.

    “We eschewed traditional London vernacular tropes and prevailing design trends, looking further afield for our inspirations, to create a new space that had an escapist identity,” the studio’s co-founder, Alex Holloway, told Dezeen.

    Furniture in the reception is made from reused construction materials
    The theme is subtly introduced in the hotel’s reception where mirrors have been used to line sections of the ceiling, mimicking the shiny quality of desert mirages, which are often mistaken for bodies of water.
    A white, mottled semi-circular panel has been fitted to the ceiling directly above the concierge counter, its reflection forming a huge moon-like image.

    The reception area of the hotel doubles-up as a co-working space
    Surrounding surfaces have been largely rendered with neutral materials like clay bricks and timber that the studio felt matched the desert landscape.
    This excludes a handful of walls and structural columns that are clad with passivated zinc, which boasts a rainbow-coloured surface finish.
    “Joshua Tree is known as a pilgrimage destination for the Californian hallucinogenic travellers,” said Holloway. “The iridescence effect on the metal is reminiscent of dizzying colour saturation of the psychedelic experience – the brilliant purples, yellows and pinks.”

    Surrounding walls are clad with passivated zinc
    A variety of seating areas have also been incorporated in Bermonds Locke’s reception so that it can serve as a co-working space.
    Where possible, the studio has tried to repurpose construction materials that otherwise would have been destined for landfill, influenced by the ad-hoc building methods used when creating cabins across Joshua Tree.
    For example, salvaged concrete test cubes have been used to form the base of a six-metre-long terrazzo desk. The cubes are covered with pre-used tiles, some of which are still marked with graffiti.

    Cacti-filled planters separate the hotel’s bar from the restaurant
    “Joshua Tree has been a recluse for fringe creatives escaping LA for the past 30 years,” explained Holloway. “We were particularly interested in the eccentric language of bricolage found in desert cabins dotted around Joshua Tree, composed of salvaged materials that happen to be available by chance.”
    “We were also inspired by the work of artists like Philip K Smith III and Noah Purifoy, whose ‘Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture’ is an incredible world made of the detritus of LA,” he continued.
    “This tied back with the studio’s recent research on the circular material economy…design in this context becomes almost like a curatorial practice, about how an existing set of materials can be rearranged in a very specific way to define new uses.”

    Guest rooms come with their own kitchenettes
    In another nod to hot, arid landscapes, huge planters filled with different cacti and succulents have been added throughout the hotel’s reception and used to separate its cocktail bar from the restaurant.

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    Bermonds Locke’s upper floors play host to the guest suites. Each one comes complete with its own kitchenette and laundry facilities, allowing guests to stay self-sufficiently in their rooms for longer periods of time.
    Fixtures and soft furnishings have been made in colours evocative of desert sunsets, ranging from pale blues to burnt oranges and vivid reds. The focal point of each room is the bed, which is enclosed by a bespoke black frame draped with sheets of linen.

    Colours throughout the rooms were taken from desert sunsets
    “Typical hotel room design is very codified by two functions; sleeping and washing – a Locke room adds eat, work, live into that mix, so there is a lot to fit into just one room,” added the studio’s co-founder, Na Li.
    “It was key for us to impart some separation between the areas, which we achieved by creating a sense of enclosure around the bed with the bedframes and drapes.”

    Beds in the rooms sit under linen canopies
    Holloway Li was established in 2015 and has offices in north London.
    Its Bermonds Locke project joins several hotels that the Locke hospitality group has dotted across the UK. Others include the Whitworth Locke in Manchester, where rooms have been painted different shades of grey to reflect the city’s typically overcast skies.
    There’s also the Eden Locke in Edinburgh, which takes over an 18th-century Georgian terrace house.
    Photography is by Edmund Dabney.

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  • Lost House by David Adjaye features black interiors and bedroom with a pool

    Black walls, built-in raw concrete furniture and a fish pond in a lightwell define Lost House, a residential project designed by David Adjaye in London’s King’s Cross, which has recently come on the market.Royal Gold Medal-winner Adjaye, the founder of Adjaye Associates, designed Lost House in 2004.

    Top: the swimming pool. Above: a central lightwell holds a fish pond
    The house has come back on the market recently, granting an opportunity to see the interiors of one of the architect’s early residential works in detail.

    Original features have been preserved, including an all-green sunken cinema room and a water gardens in planted courtyards that double as lightwells.

    A courtyard garden in a lightwell
    Hidden behind an unassuming brick facade in an alleyway, Lost House was formerly a delivery yard complete with a loading platform.
    Adjaye Associates turned the concrete loading platform into a plinth for an upper-level swimming pool with black-painted sides next to the pink-walled main bedroom.

    The ground floor is an open plan living space
    On the ground floor, there is a large open plan living, dining and kitchen area with a double-height ceiling.
    The sunken conversation pit with a cinema room-style projector, complete with zesty lime walls, built-in bookshelves and wide sofas, is off to one side.

    Raw concrete countertops are part of the kitchen
    Three tall, glass-walled lightwells stretch up to the black-painted timber eaves of the roof, bringing natural daylight down into the room instead of windows.
    In the centre of the living area is a lightwell filled with a fishpond.

    A sunken conversation pit is entirely bright green
    The square courtyards in the lightwells are planted with tropical greenery. At the back, next to the kitchen, the courtyard features wooden decking around clusters of circular concrete benches inset with the same grey pebbles that surround them.
    The black chipboard walls, ceiling and exposed timber beams are reflected in the shiny black resin floor.

    Concrete benches in the courtyard garden
    Adding to the industrial look are the thick concrete elements of the built-in kitchen, which forms a continuous countertop and splashback.

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    A concrete element continues from the kitchen to the living area, were it forms a low bench upholstered in black leather cushions.

    Black walls and floors around the pool and bathroom
    Steps lead to the raised ground floor, where the old loading bay plinth supports the lap pool. Black stone tiles surround the pool, which is part of the master bathroom for the main bedroom.
    Two stone sinks sit on a concrete shelf below mirrored cabinets. A wet-room style shower allows the residents to wash before and after swimming.

    The master bedroom is entirely pink
    This bathroom connects directly to the back of the master suite, which has a separate toilet and a long corridor connecting to the stairs. The bedroom is decorated all pink to contrast with the ink-black interiors
    A second bedroom is located on this floor, with a third bedroom located up on the first floor that is currently being used as a home office.

    An upstairs room is a work from home office
    David Adjaye founded Adjaye Associates in 2000 and began his career designing high-end residential projects in north London such as Lost House. Other notable all-black houses by the studio include Dirty House and Sunken House.
    Photography is courtesy of United Kingdom Sotheby’s International Realty.

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  • Maison François brasserie in London takes cues from Ricardo Bofill's architecture

    Soaring arches reminiscent of those seen in Ricardo Bofill’s La Fabrica feature in this decadent restaurant in St James, London designed by creative director John Whelan.Whelan – who leads artist collective The Guild of Saint Luke – told Dezeen that, prior to his intervention, Maison François simply looked like “one giant concrete cube”.
    The materiality of the space immediately encouraged Whelan to base his interiors scheme around La Fabrica – an abandoned cement factory just outside of Barcelona that Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill transformed into offices for his practice in 1973.

    The interiors of the restaurant are inspired by Ricardo Bofill’s La Fabrica
    “I always try and find a creative route that respects the DNA of the building, and this felt appropriate,” said Whelan.

    “Furthermore, the client wanted to reference historic brasseries but create a contemporary version – also reflected in the food.”

    Arched recesses have been made in the restaurant’s terracotta walls
    The exterior of Bofill’s La Fabrica is notably punctuated with soaring arched windows. These have been reinterpreted inside Maison François, which boasts terracotta-coloured stucco walls inset with shallow arch-shaped recesses.
    “La Fabrica is probably the greatest home that I will probably never visit, and so the arches were a sort of ‘homage’ to that wonderful creation,” explained Whelan.

    Tubular chandeliers hang from the restaurant’s ceiling
    Walnut has been used to craft the restaurant’s seating banquettes – their latticed backs are inspired by the pews in Germany’s modernist Maria Heimsuchung church, which Whelan came across in a photography series by Robert Goetzfried.
    Chairs have been upholstered in creamy linen to match the colour of the lacquered-wood dining tables. Tubular chandeliers have also been suspended from the ceiling, which has been finished with a faux-cement patina.

    The seating banquettes are crafted from walnut wood
    Mahogany has been used to craft a latticed hood above the open kitchen, where dishes that draw upon traditional French cuisine will be prepared.
    Food will be served by both chefs and waiters, an attempt by the restaurant to diffuse the typical boundaries between front and back-of-house operations.
    “Maison François will be everything a brasserie should be – welcoming, fun and hospitable, with classic dishes made with the best seasonal produce we can get our hands on – whilst also ripping up the rulebook when it comes to service,” said the restaurant’s founder, François O’Neill.

    A huge clock sits above the restaurant’s open kitchen
    At the centre of the hood is a huge clock that Whelan had made bespoke from patinated nickel and bronze.
    Weighing half a ton, the grills on the side of the clock are meant to subtly mirror those that feature on the front of vintage Rolls Royce cars, often seen outside the restaurant on the affluent streets of St James.

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    “The clock is a classic of historic brasserie design, and can be found around the world from Bouillon Julien in Paris to Fischer’s in London,” added Whelan.
    “We wanted to have this iconic focal point but with our own style.”

    Underneath the restaurant is a wine bar called Frank’s
    Stairs lead down to Maison François’ adjoining wine bar, called Frank’s. This space is intended to have a slightly more industrial feel, so has been completed with exposed white-brick walls, polished concrete flooring and black-leather seating.
    Bofill’s La Fabrica is referenced again at this level but this time in the form of arched mirror wall panels.

    White-brick walls give the wine bar a more industrial look
    John Whelan established The Guild of Saint Luke in 2017, working with artists, artisans and architects to restore and revive historic French brasseries.
    Earlier this year Whelan overhauled Parisian eatery Nolinski, filling its interiors with art deco-inspired details like gold-leaf “sunburst” columns.
    Photography is by Oskar Proctor.

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  • Sella Concept brings retro feel to Sister Jane Townhouse in London

    Fringed furnishings and velvet walls feature inside the west London headquarters that design studio Sella Concept has created for fashion brand Sister Jane, which includes a showroom, restaurant and roof terrace.Sella Concept said it drew upon “untapped maximalist style” to design Sister Jane Townhouse, which takes over a prominent corner property on Golborne Road in the affluent neighbourhood of Notting Hill.
    Having outgrown their old studio on the nearby Portobello Road, the fashion brand had been keen to move into a larger space that could offer a more immersive retail experience.

    The ground floor of Sister Jane Townhouse has a restaurant called Cha Cha’s
    The three-storey townhouse incorporates a restaurant, a showroom and an office where employees can plan and design future clothing collections. On the roof there is also an outdoor terrace where visitors can gather for drinks.

    When it came to developing the interiors, Sella Concept sought to reflect the retro style of Sister Jane’s billowy blouses and dresses. The studio’s co-founder, Tatjana Von Stein, particularly found herself referencing the aesthetics of the 1970s.

    Furnishings in the restaurant feature fringed detailing
    “I must admit that I am always inspired by the ’70s forms, shapes and use of space,” Von Stein told Dezeen.
    “There is a movement and warmth in its design history that I love to employ with a contemporary twist.”

    A collage wall in the restaurant displays campaign photos by Sister Jane
    On the ground floor of Sister Jane Townhouse is the restaurant, called Cha Cha’s, which serves up a roster of Latin-fusion brunch dishes.
    The space has peach-coloured walls and is dominated by a huge hexagonal, brass-edged bar counter. It’s surrounded by a series of Deja Vu stools by Masquespacio that boast tiers of mauve, cream and beige fringing.

    Sister Jane’s clothing showroom is on the townhouse’s first floor
    Fringing also skirts the burnt-orange seating banquette that winds around a corner of the room, and runs along the edge of the six-sided dining tables. Mustard-yellow lamps with fringed shades have additionally been dotted throughout as decor.
    Cha Cha’s includes a collage wall which will be plastered with different striking images from Sister Jane’s fashion campaigns.
    The wall runs directly beside a brass-tread staircase – the steps had previously been closed in by a partition wall, but Von Stein knocked this down to encourage diners to explore the showroom on the first floor.

    Garments hang from bespoke walnut rails in the showroom
    Upstairs in the showroom, surfaces take on a pinkish hue.
    Some clothes are displayed within a veiled pod that sits at the centre of the room, enclosed by sheer white curtains. Other garments hang from custom-made walnut rails or are presented on mannequins which perch on a curvaceous platform covered in teal-blue carpet.

    An adjacent showroom will display Sister Jane’s Ghospell clothing line
    A short walkway leads through to a room that showcases Sister Jane’s Ghospell line, which offers pared-back clothes with sculptural silhouettes.
    This space has aptly been given a slightly more minimal finish – walls here are either clad in steel or upholstered with buttery yellow velvet, while the changing room is entirely lined with mirrored panels.
    Wooden flooring that runs throughout the rest of the townhouse has also been replaced here by micro cement.

    Walls in this showroom are clad in steel and yellow velvet
    Above the showrooms are the offices for Sister Jane staff, followed by the roof terrace dressed with comfy cushioned benches and green wire-frame chairs.
    Guests can alternatively relax in the secret ground-floor garden room, which is accessed via a door disguised as an antique armoire.

    The customer changing room is entirely lined with mirrored panels
    “We have a true inclination for concept spaces which indulge in all the senses and offer the design challenge to seam together a variety of experiences and brands,” explained Von Stein.
    “But it was tricky – in essence, we had 2-3 clients on one building.”

    An antique armoire hides a door leading to Sister Jane Townhouse’s secret garden room
    Sella Concept was established by Tatjana Von Stein and Gayle Noonan. Previous projects by the studio include Public Hall, a plush co-working space that occupies the former office of the UK secret intelligence service, and Night Tales, a pink-tinged cocktail bar.
    At the end of last year the studio also debuted its first furniture collection, which comprises a series of curvaceous stool seats.
    Photography is by Genevieve Lutkin.

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  • Bureau de Change inserts bronze lift into 1920s art deco office block

    Bronze laser-cut sheets wrap around the lift shaft that extends up through this building in central London, which has been updated by architecture studio Bureau de Change.The elevator links together all four floors of The Gaslight, a mixed-use development that’s been created within an art deco building in central London’s Fitzrovia neighbourhood.

    Originally constructed in 1929 as offices for the now-defunct Gas, Coke and Light Company, the building has recently been completely renovated by dMFK Architects to include a series of bright, airy rooms.

    Bureau de Change was tasked with developing the interiors, which are meant to have a contemporary feel while still showing hints of the building’s art deco heritage.

    “We enjoy working with existing buildings, transforming them for a new purpose but doing it with a kind of nostalgia at the heart of the designs,” said Bureau de Change’s co-director, Katerina Dionysopoulou.
    “It was a pleasure to explore these ideas for The Gaslight and ultimately enrich a building so that it can take on a new meaning.”

    The Gaslight building is accessed via a lobby that’s illuminated by a trio of large spherical pendant lamps.
    At its centre is a striking lift. The shaft of the lift is made from concrete which Bureau de Change has wrapped in two layers of bespoke bronze sheeting.

    The first bronze sheet is flat and has been laser-cut to feature an intricate art deco-inspired pattern. Laser cutting has also been done to the second bronze sheet, but this has been folded to feature concertina-style pleats.
    Layered over each other, the sheets create a moiré effect that obscures the concrete underneath.

    The second pleated bronze sheet turns at a 90-degree angle to clad the underside of the lobby’s stairs. This eventually “peels off”, leaving just the flat bronze sheet to cover the lift shaft on the building’s upper levels.

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    “Industrial materials and fabrication techniques were therefore explored in a more artisan-like manner, with laser-cut bronze panels folded to create an intricate framework,” added the studio’s co-director, Billy Mavropoulos.

    The white terrazzo that covers the floor and stairs of the lobby has also been used to line the lower half of the building’s bathrooms and hallways, a modern interpretation of the wooden panelling that the studio thinks would have appeared in the original building.
    Surfaces have otherwise been painted in cool grey or sage-green tones.

    Some of the glazed partitions in the building have been overlaid with shapely patterns that match the cut-outs on the lift shaft.
    Other unique details include the building’s entrance door handles, which have been hand-carved with a series of grooves. The Gaslight’s address number has also been shaped into the metal spokes that run along the top of its restored front gate.

    Bureau de Change is based in Clerkenwell. The studio has previously created a barn-style home in the Cotswolds with an ombre-effect timber facade and added a texture brick building into a century-old London terrace.
    Photography is by Gilbert McCarragher.
    Project credits:
    Architects: dMFKInterior architects: Bureau de ChangeStructural engineer: Michael Hadi AssociatesM&E engineers: WB ShielsProject manager: Alford PorterQuantity surveyor: Alford PorterMetal fabricator: John Desmond

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  • ARC Club is a London co-working space for people wanting to escape working from home

    Architect Caro Lundin took a less-is-more approach for the creation of ARC Club, a fuss-free co-working space in east London for those struggling to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic.It took just six weeks for Lundin and her self-titled studio to complete ARC Club, which takes over a formerly characterless retail unit in the neighbourhood of Homerton.
    The co-working space is meant to cater to the growing number of individuals who, according to surveys observed by Lundin, are finding it tricky to efficiently do their job from home during the pandemic due to lack of proper workspaces.

    Its “starkly beautiful” interiors have been decked out with a selection of low-cost and durable materials that Lundin felt reflected a climate where co-working is “a necessity and not a nice-to-have”.

    Designing a more modest space also meant that membership would be cheaper for those interested in working at ARC Club according to the architect.
    “Intricate details and indoor gardens are fun, but they come with a big price tag – and they’re a lot harder to keep clean,” said Lundin, who founded ARC Club alongside Hannah Philp.

    “When designing ARC Club, I asked myself ‘what do people need to work?’ A comfortable seat, natural light, thoughtful acoustics; the physical and emotional space in which to think,” she told Dezeen.
    “Functional doesn’t have to be boring, it’s a neutral space that enables the people who visit it to be their best professional selves.”

    At the centre of ARC Club, which measures just over 232 square metres, are a pair of boxy, sound-proofed pods crafted from birch plywood.
    Inside, they accommodate a handful of private meeting rooms, storage cupboards, printers and a kitchenette complete with silver-metal cabinetry.
    Lundin chose to house these services inside a pod-style system so that it can be scaled up or down to suit different-sized branches of ARC Club that open in the future.

    The pods are surrounded by various work areas. A few of the furnishings, like the birch-ply tables with the arched legs, were made by Lundin’s studio while some of the chairs were sourced second hand.

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    Pops of colour have been introduced to brighten up the space. Heavy orange curtains are used as room dividers, blue cone-shaped pendant lights have been suspended from the ceiling and bands of yellow paint have been made on the concrete structural columns.
    Yellow tiles also clad surfaces in the bathrooms.

    Further branches of ARC Club co-working spaces are planned to open in 2021.
    Like the Homerton location, they will occupy vacant high-street commercial units in popular residential areas so that members can do what Lundin has monikered “WNH” – work near home.

    “A neighbourhood workplace like ARC Club allows people to retain the best of what the office has to offer – full functionality, work-life separation and human interaction – without having to get on a bus or a train,” Lundin explained.
    “In essence, it’s an accessible flexible option for a new breed of remote worker who has grown used to scheduling their work around their day, instead of the other way.”

    The global coronavirus crisis has forced many to re-think offices and the way in which we work.
    Interior designer Sevil Peach predicts that, post-pandemic, companies will scrap working in corporate towers and instead opt to have central “hubs” where just a small per cent of staff will gather.
    Architecture practice Weston Williamson + Partners also released a series of graphics that illustrated how businesses could create socially-distanced offices. Tips included wrapping screens around desks, having touch-free doors and employing a cook so that employees don’t have to use a shared kitchen.
    Photography is by Andrew Meredith.

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  • Tsubo House in Hackney features tiny Japanese-style courtyard

    Architecture practice Fraher & Findlay has renovated and extended a home in east London, adding a small courtyard that offers glimpses of old and new parts of the property.Tsubo House was originally built in Hackney during the Victorian era and over the years had come to look shabby and unloved.
    The house’s current owners – the founders of Studio XAG – brought architecture practice Fraher & Findlay on board to carry out a complete overhaul.

    As part of the works, the Brockley-based practice constructed a spacious back-garden extension.

    It was key for this new living space to feel closely connected to existing rooms in the home and not too distanced from the basement level, which is often utilised by visiting friends and family.

    Fraher & Findlay decided to insert a small courtyard at ground level that would visually link together the new and existing parts of the home.

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    It draws upon tsubo-niwas – tiny interior courtyards that are incorporated into Japanese buildings to provide natural views and bring in additional sunlight.
    The courtyards are traditionally the same size as a tsubo, a Japanese measuring unit of 3.3 square metres that’s roughly equivalent to the area of two tatami mats.

    “We wanted an external environment to act as a pivot point between the spaces, whilst acting as an environmental tool to bring in lots of natural light and to aid natural ventilation,” said the practice.
    “It feels like a quiet force, providing life energy to the house.  it is visible from all the rooms in the house with the exception of two bedrooms and one bathroom.”

    The pebbled courtyard is centred by a tree and has an array of potted plants running around its periphery. Leafy climbing plants also wind up its rear wall.
    One window of the courtyard looks through to the older front section of Tsubo House, while the another has views of the new rear extension that accommodates a kitchen and dining area.

    Designed to feel “textured, calm and lived in”, the kitchen has been finished with pink raw-plaster walls and timber joinery. Some of the brass light fixtures were also sourced second-hand from eBay, complementing the curved brass handles on the cupboards.
    The extension has a slatted black-timber facade and a green roof, which the studio introduced so that, when viewed from the baby’s nursery upstairs, this part of the home would look as if it’s wearing a “hairy hat”.
    Flooring of the extension was also made lower than the rest of the home, as a mid-way between the ground and basement levels.

    Plaster surfaces continue through into the home’s living room, which the practice has updated to match the owners’ creative personalities. It’s dressed with velvet furnishings, shaggy rugs and a bubblegum-pink edition of Faye Toogood’s Roly-Poly chair.
    Decades-old paintwork has also been stripped back from the ornate cornices, ceiling roses and skirting boards.

    More quirky features appear upstairs – the nursery, for example, has a midnight blue ceiling speckled with stars, and all of the bathrooms feature graphic monochromatic tiled floors. One even includes its own fireplace and a freestanding jet-black tub.
    The project also saw Fraher & Findlay create a loft extension for Tsubo House that accommodates an additional bedroom and wash facilities.

    Fraher & Finlay was established in 2009. The practice has previously created a wildflower-topped extension and renovated a home to feature traces of its original architecture.
    Photography is by Adam Scott.
    Project credits:
    Architect: Fraher & FindlayInterior design: Studio XAGEngineer: PD DesignContractor: Steflay DevelopmentsGarden and planting design: Miria Harris

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