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      Architensions creates colourful Children's Playspace with plywood climbing frame and tunnel

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      New York studio Architensions has designed structures modeled on clouds, treehouses, tunnels and igloos for an indoor playground for children in Brooklyn.Called Children’s Playspace, the space was designed for a wellness professional who wanted an intimate play area for children.
      Architensions’ response was to create structures in different colours and shapes that could offer different sensory experiences based on natural landscapes.

      Among these is an eight-foot-tall (2.4-metre-tall) green cylinder, known as the Treehouse, which is composed of a stepped bottom and gridded top wrapped in mesh.

      The Tunnel meanwhile has a slanted, gridded exterior and arched opening carved through it that leads up steps and down a ramp. Geometric windows with colourful frames protrude from the exterior to offer views out and inside to the brightly coloured orange walls.

      “As designers, we had to challenge ourselves and ask a number of questions,” said Architensions co-principal Alessandro Orsini.
      “How can the built environment relate to children’s imagination, cognitive development, and aesthetic appeal? Is it possible to merge aesthetics and function for a space that appeals to children?”

      Another structure, called Igloo, has a circular white base and a suspended triangular top covered with semi-translucent washi paper.
      Architensions said the project took cues from other architect-designed playgrounds such as the structures architect Aldo van Eyck’s built in his series of of Amsterdam playscapes and the never-built Contoured Playground Japanese American artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi designed to encourage freeform play.

      “The goal is to iconise the forms to make them recognisable and welcoming for the children,” Orsini added. “And, at the same time, to create inspiring spaces where they will always feel in control of their environments.”
      ‘This environment allows them to assume different body postures, to create boundaries, and to manipulate and re-invent their surroundings,” added co-principal Nick Roseboro.

      Other playgrounds recently completed by architects and designs with bold forms include a colourful playground in Madrid designed by Aberrant Architecture and an open-air space made of geometric structures by French designer Olivier Vadrot.

      Olivier Vadrot designs sculptural outdoor playground for children

      In Children’s Playspace, all the plywood is sanded and clear stained, ​and covered in non-VOC (volatile organic compounds) natural stain paint, in order to make it safe for the children.

      Three cloud-like structures made from slats of white-painted foam also hang from in the 875-square-foot (81-square-metre) playground, while a soft tan-coloured rubber floor was chosen to reference a forest floor covered in pine needles.
      Some of the walls are draped with with a silky textile to look like water or sky, while another is covered in a mural of woodland.

      Children’s Playspace joins a number of projects Architensions, which has offices in New York and Rome, has completed in New York borough Brooklyn. They include the renovation and extension of a Brooklyn townhouse and a tiny writer’s studio.
      Photography is by Cameron Blaylock.

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      Ravi Raj and Evan Watts expose chunky timber in Spears Building Loft renovation

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      Architects Ravi Raj and Evan Watts have created a monolithic, concrete-like chimney in the overhaul of a loft apartment inside a former cigarette packing factory in New York City’s Chelsea neighbourhood. Raj, who runs RARARA, worked with Watts of D&A Companies to overhaul the residence in the former factory, which was completed by the Kinney Brothers in 1880. It also served as a furniture warehouse before it was converted into a condo building in 1996.

      Previously featuring “dark dwelling spaces”, as described by the team, the residence was renovated to create a bright and open living space for a couple.

      This included stripping out walls and dropped ceilings to create larger spaces and revealing existing brickwork and timber columns and beams.

      At the rear of the residence, the team reconfigured the layout of the bedrooms and bathrooms, creating a third bedroom and making a new hallway.

      “Extraneous millwork and partitions blocking daylight to the interior were thoughtfully removed to help open each room and improve the flow between them,” said Ravi Raj Architect.
      “The great room presented an unexpected discovery after the team removed the dropped ceilings and unnecessary wall enclosures, revealing the original heavy timber structure – in surprisingly great condition. This move both simplified the layout while also paying homage to the building’s historical fabric.”

      Throughout Spears Building Loft, the designers chose a soft and pale material palette that complements the existing details and also brightens the interiors.
      Bleached walnut planks covers the floor in the living area, while the walls and built-in storage are painted bright-white or yellow.

      Gold paint drips down green mural at Chelsea Pied-à-Terre by Stadt Architecture

      A wood-burning stove is updated with a hearth covered in a plaster that looks like concrete and extends into a bench either side. The team chose the render because it is meant to reference the warehouse’s poured concrete floors.

      Pale wood also forms the base of the white-marble island in the kitchen topped and old corner cabinets are ebonized black. They form a series of dark detail throughout, like the dark wooden dining chairs and artwork.
      “The owners took care in selecting minimal yet soft and textured furnishings paired with colourful art that highlight the industrial-like quality of the space,” the team added.

      The red brick is painted white in the bedrooms to make them all them light and bright, while the bathrooms display a mix of black, white and grey marbles.
      Spears Building Loft is located in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood next to the city’s elevated park, the High Line.
      Other renovation projects in the area include a residence that architecture duo BoND turned into a light-filled home with a stainless steel fireplace surround and an apartment with a green mural dripping in gold paint.
      Photography is by Nick Glimenakis.

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      New York hair salon Hawthorne Studio is designed for social distancing

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      Wooden frames, moveable styling stations and plants are used to encourage social distancing in this New York hair salon, which local studio BoND designed during the coronavirus pandemic. BoND, led by architecture duo Noam Dvir and Daniel Rauchwerger, began working on the design of Hawthorne Studio in January this year, just a few months before
      The post New York hair salon Hawthorne Studio is designed for social distancing appeared first on Dezeen. More

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      Pale woodwork updates 1920s Riverside Apartment in New York’s Upper West Side

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      New York practice Format Architecture Office has reorganised a 1920s apartment with custom millwork in the city’s Upper West Side.The renovated apartment by Format Architecture Office is in a Gothic Revival building on Riverside Drive, giving the project its name, Riverside Apartment.

      Completed before the second world war, the original apartment building had large residences that were later converted into smaller homes, which the studio said formed “a series of unconventional layouts”.

      “The building was originally constructed in 1926 and arranged around opulently scaled residences with multiple bedrooms and gallery spaces,” Format Architecture Office added.

      “It was converted to cooperative ownership in 1968, which created a large variety of accessible unit types, but also a series of unconventional layouts, as formerly single apartments were subdivided into two or even three different units,” it said.
      The renovation reorganised the existing one-bedroom unit to include another bedroom that doubles as an office, as well as a powder room and a reorganised galley-style kitchen. The decor was updated with custom cabinets and enlarged wood-clad corridors across the 1,000-square-foot (92-square-metre) space.

      “The primary goals for the project were to create flexible connections between spaces, enhance access to natural light and maximise storage,” the studio continued.
      Upon entering is a foyer with a coat closet, and a cabinet with a glass portion above that pulls natural light in from windows in a home office. A bedroom adjacent is complete with an ensuite and walk-in closet.

      A sliding wood door separates the office from a living and dining room. The pocket door is in one of the home’s corridors, which are intended to mark different areas.
      “Large thresholds between public spaces celebrate transitions and become extensions of different wood-clad storage solutions that complement the myriad needs of a small domestic space,” said the studio.

      All of the millwork at Riverside Apartment, including the corridors and custom cabinets, are made from Anigre wood – an African hardwood commonly used for furniture and cabinetry.
      Other corridors are in the entry and kitchen, while built-in bookshelves are prominent in the living room and office.

      Format Architecture Office imbues Manhattan office with “boutique sensibility” and cafe seating

      Contemporary details are accompanied by the apartment’s existing elements, like original wood-panelled doors with the glass transoms.
      Format Architecture Office aimed to emulate the early 20th-century style through other details to create “a mixture of clean lines and pre-war inspired details to celebrate the eclectic tastes of its owner”.

      The glass wall in the entry is a reinterpretation of existing glazing, which bring light through the home. Another ribbed glass detail partially conceals the dining room from the kitchen.
      A wood table, 1950s Eames Wire Chairs and a minimal white light fixture furnish the dining room, while the living room has a blue sofa and an Eames moulded plywood lounge chair from the second world war.
      Off-white walls are paired with white moulding and new oak flooring for a pared-down aesthetic, while an orange-painted front door adds another pop of colour that complements teal accents.

      Format Architecture Office founded in 2017 by architects Andrew McGee and Matthew Hettler, who met as undergraduates at the University of Michigan. The studio is based in Brooklyn and has also designed an office for a tech company in New York’s Midtown area with cafe-style seating and muted interiors.
      Other renovated homes in the Upper West Side are an apartment with a built-in bed by Stadt Architecture and a townhouse by Space4Architecture with a white spiral staircase.
      Photography is by Nick Glimenakis.

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      Arnold Studio designs Brooklyn sensory deprivation spa Vessel Floats

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      New York architecture firm Arnold Studio has covered the walls of this sensory deprivation spa in Brooklyn neighbourhood Greenpoint with rigid felt and bold colours. Vessel Floats is a spa designed for the practice of sensory deprivation, a process that involves cutting off all external stimuli including sounds and light. Arnold Studio has outfitted the meditative […] More