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Architecture studio Lanza Atelier has lined an art exhibition in New York with plywood tables and stools in varying sizes, which can be disassembled, flat-packed and distributed among visitors at the end of the show. More
For our latest lookbook, we’ve collected ten projects from the Dezeen archive that make innovative use of plywood, turning the humble material into a stylish interior design feature. More
Inexpensive materials such as salvaged plywood feature in a compact apartment in Madrid that has been overhauled by Spanish studio CumuloLimbo. More
Plywood furniture and vibrant colours feature in the headquarters for one of Brazil’s major publishers, which has been overhauled by architecture office Studio Dlux. More
Architecture studio Andrea Caputo has filled the Vans flagship store in Seoul with plywood modules for display and seating that reference the work of American artists Carl Andre and Donald Judd. More
Plywood covers almost every surface in this store that creative studio Mythology has designed for beauty retailer Shen in Brooklyn, New York.Shen’s new retail space is nestled in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighbourhood and measures 1,550 square metres.
The former store of the beauty retailer – which is known for selling a roster of independent makeup and skincare brands – had been located in the nearby area of Carroll Gardens and featured a mix of white and lavender-pink walls.
The interior of Shen’s store is lined with plywood
Manhattan-based Mythology has fashioned a warmer fit-out for this location, opting to line every surface in Baltic birch plywood.
“We challenged ourselves to use a singular material because we wanted to juxtapose a humble utilitarian material like plywood with the high-end products featured in Shen’s product offering,” Ted Galperin, a partner and director of retail at Mythology, told Dezeen.
“Using both the face and end-grain of the plywood allowed us to create a multitude of custom applications, and add visual variety to the space.”
Colour is provided by hand-drawn wall murals
Inside, Shen has been loosely divided into three sections. The first section is dedicated to customer browsing and lies towards the left of the store.
Plywood has been used here to make a sequence of storage units that fan outwards from the wall, each one complete with vanity mirror and shelving where products are openly displayed. Names of different brands that are on offer have been carved into plywood panels set directly above the units.
Plywood counters displaying products slope out from the walls
The second section comprises a couple of triangular plywood islands in the middle of the store, where Shen staff can spotlight certain products and talk through them in detail with customers or demonstrate how they’re used.
On the right-hand side of the store is the third section, which is used for services like makeup tutorials. There’s also an angled plywood counter here that showcases candles and scents for the home, running beneath a three-dimensional plywood sign of Shen’s company logo.
The store includes an area for makeup tutorials
Excluding a handful of restored 1950s stools from Thonet, furnishings and decorative elements in the store have been kept to a minimum.
A splash of colour is added by a bespoke mural created by New York artist Petra Börner, which features a black-line illustration of a person’s face surrounded by wobbly blotches of green and turquoise paint.
Beauty treatment rooms lie towards the rear of the store
Another mural by Börner using pink and orange tones appears in the treatment area at the rear of the store, where customers can come for treatments like facials, waxing, and microblading.
Walls here have also been painted a pinkish hue, but exposed plywood can still be seen on the floor, built-in sofas and beauticians’ cupboards.
Walls in the treatment rooms have been painted pink
Mythology isn’t the only design studio that has created a striking retail interior using just one material.
Brooks + Scarpa lined the walls of an Aesop shop in downtown Los Angeles with cardboard fabric rolls salvaged from local fashion houses and costume shops, while Valerio Olgiati blanketed a Celine store in Miami in blue-tinged marble.
An Ace & Tate store in Antwerp is also lined exclusively in white terrazzo tiles inlaid with red and blue aggregate.
Photography is by Brooke Holm.
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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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US architecture firm GoCstudio has inserted a dark plywood box into an apartment in Seattle that doubles as a studio space for an amateur photographer. Western Studio is a home and studio designed for a client who enjoys photography and hosting guests. The 1,000-square-foot (92.9-square-metre) open-plan unit is located inside a commercial building in Seattle’s […] More
