Music

Subterms

    Latest story

    138 Shares199 Views

    Klein Dytham Architecture gives Fender’s first flagship store a welcoming feel

    by

    Klein Dytham Architecture has aimed to counter rock music snobbery with its design for guitar brand Fender’s Tokyo flagship store, which is meant to feel welcoming to people who might feel judged in other guitar stores.

    The Fender store sits across the bottom four floors of the glass-walled Ice Cubes building, a 12,000-square-metre space in the neighbourhood of Harajuku that was formerly home to an H&M store.
    It is the world’s first flagship store for the 77-year-old American brand, which is one of the most recognisable names in guitars and is particularly known for electric models like the Stratocaster.
    The Fender flagship store is located in Harajuku, TokyoFor the project, Fender asked Klein Dytham Architecture to create a space that would counter the perception of guitar stores as being intimidating, particularly for women and newer players.
    It hoped the store would offer a sophisticated and immersive retail experience that would encourage leisurely browsing and communicate the brand’s heritage.

    Klein Dytham Architecture answered the brief with a store design it sees as creating “a destination of discovery”, with gallery exhibits, an event space, a cafe and a “care bar” for repairs.
    The main browsing area on the first floor features display stands made of curved woodThe first floor houses the main browsing area, which features undulating wood benches and display units that are meant to echo the curves and materials of a Fender guitar. These contours are further mimicked in the lighting above.
    The area also has custom plectrum-shaped tables where staff can place guitars they have removed from the display to show customers. Clothing racks holding the F is for Fender streetwear collection sit among the guitars.
    The second floor, which was realised in a soft grey palette, is primarily an exhibition space called the Artists Gallery.
    The second floor is the main gallery spaceHere, large-scale photos and video shows famous musicians in action, each one alongside a transparent display case housing their Fender of choice.
    There are also displays dedicated to Japanese- and American-designed Fenders respectively, and a sound-proofed Amp Room where customers can test run guitars and amps.

    Jony Ive redesigns 50-year-old Linn Sondek LP12 turntable

    On the darker and moodier third floor, another exhibition space — the Master Builders Gallery — focuses on the work of specific craftspeople, while two VIP rooms and a custom shop are furnished with comfortable couches and provide a setting for discussing bespoke builds.
    Also on this floor is a colourful display of 400 guitar finish samples that fills the length of one wall.
    The third floor includes the Fender custom shopThe final floor is the basement, which houses an event space, cafe and the Fender care bar, and where Klein Dytham Architecture endeavoured to create a cosier feel with a plectrum-shaped rug and benches.
    Tying the floors together is a spiral staircase with a hall-of-fame-style photo gallery on the interior, as well as a three-storey-high vertical LED display on the glass facade outside that will be used for Fender-related content.
    The basement includes an event space and a care bar”Conceived as a hub and clubhouse for all things Fender, this project takes the notion of a flagship store and experiential retail to beyond the next level,” Klein Dytham Architecture co-founder Mark Dytham told Dezeen.
    Dytham started the practice with fellow Royal College of Art graduate Astrid Klein in Tokyo in 1991. Some of their recent work includes the PokoPoko clubhouse for the Risonare Nasu hotel in rural Japan and a Cartier store with an intricate wooden facade in Osaka.
    Photography by Nacása & Partners.

    Read more: More

    More stories

    • 175 Shares189 Views

      in Rooms

      Pirajean Lees and Olly Bengough design “timeless” interiors for House of Koko members' club

      by

      Low-lit bathrooms informed by dressing rooms and a stage-kitchen-like restaurant feature in a members’ club at iconic music venue Koko, which pays homage to its theatrical past. 

      Local studio Pirajean Lees and owner and creative director of Koko Olly Bengough collaborated to create a members’ club within the London venue, which has been renovated over the past three years.
      Top: soft furnishings in Ellen’s bar control its acoustics. Above: Modular furniture that is easy to move features throughout the clubNamed The House of Koko, the members’ club consists of numerous bars, dining areas, lounges and a speakeasy arranged over several floors in a space alongside the public areas of the venue.
      The members’ club is directly connected to the refurbished 122-year-old, Grade II-listed theatre, which was renovated by architecture firm Archer Humphryes Architects.
      “The heart of the whole project is the theatre,” Bengough told Dezeen.

      A 1970s-style private dining room sits close to the main theatrePirajean Lees and Bengough took cues from Koko’s history as a music venue when designing the members’ club interiors, which intend to playfully reflect how traditional theatres used to run.
      On the first floor, The Battens Bar is a cocktail lounge that features a central banquette with punk-era red leather trim and a ceiling canopy crafted from cloth by Richmond Design Inc that has previously only been used to make speakers.
      Next to this space, there is a minimalist restaurant featuring Japandi interiors and an open-plan kitchen and dining area that was informed by the simplicity and community of old stage kitchens.
      Vinyl-listening, train-like booths create a sense of intimacyAnother bar is Ellen’s – an intimate 1940s-style speakeasy named after actor Ellen Terry, who opened Koko when it officially started as The Camden Theatre in 1900.
      The space is defined by soft furnishings that control its acoustics and a one-of-a-kind carpet with quirky illustrations of cigarettes.
      A bespoke bar in the penthouse by Pirajean LeesA private dining room with a geometric glass chandelier has panelled walls that hint at the main theatre located next to it, while dedicated vinyl-listening rooms with under-seat record storage give occupants the feeling of being in a vintage train carriage.
      “Because we inherited such a rich history of Koko, I don’t think anything contemporary or very modern would’ve allowed everything to carry on as if it had never closed and as if we had always been here,” explained Pirajean Lees co-founder Clémence Pirajean.
      The rooftop restaurant includes a funnel-like fireplaceAlso included in the members’ club is a piano room and library that are designed in the same eclectic material palette as the rest of its spaces.
      There is also a penthouse with a recording studio and a lounge with numerous hidden microphones to allow artists to record music all over the room.
      An airy roof terrace and restaurant lead to The House of Koko’s final space, an attic-like bar hidden in the venue’s famous dome, which was restored after a fire in 2020 destroyed it and extended Koko’s closure.

      Soho House Nashville opens in Music City hosiery factory

      Deep olive doors informed by those that were located backstage throughout Koko in the 1920s run through the entire building and feature bespoke handles designed by Pirajean Lees.
      Bathrooms with illuminated, angular mirrors intend to give visitors the feeling of getting ready for a performance backstage in a hair and make-up room.
      Wooden joinery in various rooms also intends to reference the main theatre’s fly tower, which is a 360-degree stage and shaft formerly used to store props and scenery that was discovered during Koko’s renovation.
      A curved staircase leads to the dome bar”The thinking was let’s really go back to the past and get the past right, which sets you up to do the future in quite an interesting way,” said Bengough, describing the designers’ process.
      “Because if you make it beautiful, and timeless, and classic and all connected, then you’re like, wow, part two is as interesting and as beautiful as part one,” added Pirajean Lees co-founder James Michael Lees.
      The dome features an attic-like bar with views of the rooftop restaurantAs well as the members’ club, Pirajean Lees and Bengough also designed the interiors for two public spaces at the music venue.
      These are Cafe Koko, a pizzeria featuring a bar that doubles as a small stage for live performances and a shop selling Koko merchandise.
      Koko will officially reopen to the public on 30 April, with live streaming capabilities installed throughout the venue so that artists can reach audiences all over the world.
      Previously, Pirajean Lees also created the interiors for a jazz-age-style restaurant in a converted Dubai nightclub.
      The images are courtesy of Pirajean Lees and Olly Bengough. 

      Read more: More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Rooms

      Enrique Jerez and Blanca Leal transform mid-century garage into music school

      by

      Located in a former garage space at the base of a residential block, this school for music in the Spanish city of Burgos makes a feature of the building’s existing concrete structure.Local architect Enrique Jerez and interior designer Blanca Leal were commissioned to create the Yoglar school by a client, who wanted to create a “home” for early music and piano education.

      Classrooms in the open-plan extension are demarcated through orange vinyl flooring
      The original trapezoidal plot in which the school is located was built in 1947 along with the adjacent residential building.
      The garage faces the street while an extension with a mezzanine, which was added in 1952 to increase storage space, is located at the back. Supported by pillars, this features a barrel-vaulted concrete ceiling and covers the building’s original courtyard.

      The reception features built-in birch furniture

      Instead of dismantling this “disorganised” structure, the architects decided to leave the irregular, concrete shell almost untouched.
      As such, the 205-square-metre school is divided into two areas. The original, trapezoidal garage space is home to an entrance hall, reception desk and toilets alongside a manager’s office and the school’s largest classroom.

      The extension is nicknamed “the forest” and houses a menagerie of plants
      The former courtyard area is now nicknamed “the forest” and houses two irregularly-shaped classrooms. One of these is enclosed within a house-shaped volume, which was sound-proofed with the help of three-centimetre-thick cork panels.
      The second classroom is located within the larger open-plan space and is delineated by its orange vinyl flooring.
      A spiral staircase made from blackened steel leads up to the mezzanine level, which has retained its original function as a storage space.

      The spiral staircase is made from blackened steel
      Natural light is funnelled into the school through two sets of glass doors at the back of the space that open onto a small patio.
      The floors, walls and ceilings throughout are finished in polished concrete to bring a cohesive feel to the different spaces while enhancing the acoustics.
      The designers also added built-in birch furniture to bring some warmth to the otherwise cool concrete space.

      Primary school children create Mega Maker Lab in former London fire station

      “Our aim was to design a place both unique and functional, which could foster children’s creativity while achieving clear results in their music development from zero to 12 years,” said Jerez and Leal.

      The floors and walls are finished in polished concrete
      In the Czech Republic, architecture studios FUUZE and Public Atelier recently converted a series of old church buildings into a modern primary school with the help of brightly coloured interventions.
      The project involved building new classrooms and restoring the decaying roof trusses of the original church complex back to its former glory.
      Images are courtesy of Javier Bravo.

      Read more: More

    • 125 Shares189 Views

      in Rooms

      Goko converts 1920s house in Mexico City into recording studio

      by

      Mexico City studio Goko has topped this music studio with a large “skyspace” to flood it with natural light. Goko renovated a house built in the 1920s to create Chapel Studio with space for recording, meetings, hosting parties and accommodating overnight guests. The studio, founded by Mexican architect Christopher Koehn, wanted the music studio to […] More