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    Spacon & X designs “hyper-eclectic” showroom for car dealer Lynk & Co

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    Danish design studio Spacon & X has carved a cave out of cardboard and installed a bare tree in the Lynk & Co car showroom in Düsseldorf, Germany.

    The studio aimed for the 400-square-metre space to have more of an impact than the cars on show.
    A mesh curtain separates the car from the rest of the showroom”The overall design is in intentional contrast to your average car dealership, with the spatial design as a louder experience than the actual product – the car,” Spacon & X founding partner Svend Jacob Pedersen told Dezeen.
    “The spatial design is hyper-eclectic, with a new immersive spatial experience waiting to ambush you around each corner.”
    A purple light floods the showroom from the outsideLynk & Co describes its showrooms as “clubs” from which members can buy, lease or borrow a car, and the Düsseldorf space was designed not to look like a traditional showroom from the exterior.

    Instead, purple lights, clothes on hangers and a corner with a colourful sofa makes the car dealership resemble a lifestyle store.
    The Lynk & Co showroom contains a variety of materialsOnce inside, customers are met by an unusual, cave-like space.
    “The cave space is made of multiple plys of laser-cut sheets of cardboard,” Pedersen said.
    Spacon & X created a cardboard cave for the storeOne car is always on display inside the dealership. This sits next to the cardboard cave, and is partly hidden behind a light chain curtain.
    Spacon & X worked with multiple different materials, including bare wood and aluminium, to create the Lynk & Co space.

    Spacon & X creates casual diner for Noma’s burger spinoff POPL

    “With the very eclectic direction of the space, a wide palette of materials have been brought into play,” Pedersen explained.
    “To highlight a few – cardboard has been used for the cave, to create an unexpected balance between the immersive and organic expression of the cave and a very familiar, inexpensive material like cardboard,” he added.
    “We have used aluminium chain curtains to create a light transparent frame around the car on display.”
    The meeting room has an all-pine interiorThe studio also created an organic feel for the Lynk & Co meeting room, which has an all-wood interior with a pale tree at its centre.
    “Another material to highlight is the all-raw pine meeting room with an actual tree stripped of the bark, underlining our appreciation of raw untreated materiality,” Pedersen said.
    A “melting” streetlight features in the showroomFor the main space, Spacon & X designed a “melting” corner, with a streetlight that has bent over and chairs that appear to float into a puddle on the floor.
    The showroom’s “disco” bathroom has a bright-red colour palette with an op-art style black-and-white patterned floor that resembles an interior in a David Lynch film, while a fitting room has been filled with large gold baubles that appear to sprout from a wall.
    The bathroom has an op-art design”Our spatial expression creates a tapestry of diverse scenarios within the Düsseldorf store, from serene conversations to otherworldly caves,” the studio said.
    “We seamlessly blend contrasting elements, from warm wooden meeting rooms to rough concrete displays, and from melting furniture lounges to dazzling champagne fitting rooms.”
    Spacon & X has previously designed the interior for restaurant Noma’s burger spinoff POPL and created a kiosk-like design library for its own Copenhagen HQ.
    The photography is courtesy of Lynk & Co.

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      Spacon & X adds kombucha brewery to 1930s functionalist building in Copenhagen

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      Danish studio Spacon & X preserved “different layers of unique history” when designing the Folk Kombucha brewery, which is set within a listed building in Copenhagen’s Meatpacking District.

      The factory belongs to fermented-tea brand Folk Kombucha and features a production area for kombucha brewing overlooked by a mezzanine level used for workshops and other social events.
      Spacon & X designed a brewery for Folk Kombucha in CopenhagenLocal firm Spacon & X aimed to balance the history of the 1930s functionalist building with its contemporary needs when designing the interior, which is led by cobalt blue, orange and pink accents.
      “The buildings in the Meatpacking District are from the 1930s and have a strong character,” said architect Malene Hvidt.
      “Our design team aimed to preserve different layers of unique history,” she told Dezeen.

      Mustard-hued floor tiles were preserved in the renovationSpacon & X maintained the building’s “archetypal Meatpacking white-tile walls” as well as mustard-yellow and green marble floor tiles.
      Translucent iridescent panels were placed behind the various stainless steel fermentation tanks to delineate spaces within the brewery.
      The studio also maintained the building’s green marble flooringStainless steel was also used to form the extensive network of pipes connected to the tanks as well as custom tables and benches topped with bright blue rubber.
      This tangle of tubes was echoed with the addition of spaghetti-shaped wire lighting.
      “The buildings in the area are all known for their white facades with windows and panels painted in a strong cobalt blue colour,” explained Hvidt. “Cobalt blue was chosen to pay tribute to the area itself.”
      A mezzanine overlooks the main production areaSpacon & X created lounge tables by recycling plastic packaging salvaged from fish and other food waste, which was industrially produced at the site before it became the Folk Kombucha brewery.
      “Instead of throwing out this long-lasting hygienic material, we transformed it into unique custom-made tables,” Hvidt said.
      Hand-hammered steel lamps also feature on the interiorArtwork made of scoby — a culture of yeast and bacteria that kickstarts the kombucha fermentation process — was used to decorate the interior alongside bespoke hand-hammered steel lamps.
      Other spaces within the multipurpose building include offices, a separate lounge, a laboratory and various storage areas.

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      “The brewery’s spatial design was created in a way that resembled and preserved the listed building’s long history and strong character,” said Hvidt.
      “The design also incorporates subtle, organic and innovative spatial solutions with functionality and uses the building’s industrial nature as a guiding principle.”
      Cobalt blue, orange and pink accents define the breweryElsewhere in Copenhagen, Spacon & X previously created the interior for a burger restaurant filled with natural materials and plants.
      The studio has also completed an Ace & Tate glasses store in the city, taking cues from colourful artists’ studios.
      The photography is by Hedda Rysstad.

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      Designmuseum Denmark exhibition asks visitors to “think about what kind of future we want”

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      Designmuseum Denmark has looked at how design can shape the future through its The Future is Present exhibition, which features projects including a tubular chandelier made from cow intestines.

      Presented at Copenhagen’s recently renovated Designmuseum, the exhibition showcases a range of “speculative and suggestive” works that examine four themes titled Human, Society, Planet+ and Imagining the Future.
      The MYX Chair is a mycelium and hemp chair that has “grown” itself”Design is very much a forward-looking profession,” said exhibition curator Pernille Stockmarr. “It’s about changing the existing into something better – and what we do in the present creates the future.”
      “Living in a time with major global challenges, this exhibition wants to invite people to see and reflect on the different potentials of design in this transformation and encourage them to think about what kind of future we want,” she told Dezeen.
      100 metres of cow intestines were used to make the Inside Out chandelierAmong the pieces on show is Inside Out, a chandelier-style lamp made from 100 metres of knotted cow intestines extracted from eight cows. Designer Kathrine Barbro Bendixen aimed to explore how byproducts can be used to rethink patterns of material consumption.

      Faroe Islands-based fashion brand Guðrun & Guðrun created Vindur, a ruffled dress with exaggerated bell sleeves made of woven silk and machine-knitted milk yarn sourced from dairy production waste.
      The brand worked with textile designers Amalie Ege and Charlotte Christensen and Lifestyle & Design Clusters to create the garment, which was made using a “traditional technique used during the inter-war period when resources were in short supply and waste was transformed into value,” according to the Designmuseum.
      A group of designers created a dress made from dairy wasteMore conceptual works include Beyond Life, a collection of biodegradable paper foam urns by designer Pia Galschiødt Bentzen with detachable pendants containing seeds that can be grown.
      “Beyond Life unites death, loss, and remembrance with the awareness that we humans are part of nature’s endless circle of life,” said Stockmarr.
      Also on show is Library of Change, a “map” of dangling acrylic foil cards charting current trends and technologies, inscribed with questions for visitors such as “would you leave the city for better connection?”
      Beyond Life is a collection of biodegradable paper foam urnsStockmarr explained that the exhibition aims to communicate “the breadth of design” by including works that vary in scale, purpose and medium.
      “Their ability to inspire, start conversations and make visitors reflect was a priority,” she said.
      “I didn’t want the works to be too-defined solutions for the future, extreme sci-fi visions, utopias or dystopias, but exploratory works. Some are collaborative research projects and others provide foresight into design methods, handicrafts and creative experiments.”
      Library of Change is a project that encourages visitors to question the future of designAlongside the various projects in the exhibition, artefacts from the Designmuseum’s own archive that highlight past ideas for the future are also on display.
      One of these designs is the three-wheeled vehicle Ellert, Denmark’s first electric car developed in the 1980s by engineer Steen Volmer Jensen.
      Ellert was Denmark’s first electric carLocal studio Spacon & X created the exhibition design for The Future is Present with the aim of reflecting its themes.
      The studio delineated the show’s various zones using modular bioplastic dividers that snake through the exhibition space and worked with natural materials including eelgrass, which was used to create acoustic mats to manage noise in the museum.
      Objects are arranged on custom tables and plinths made in collaboration with sustainable material manufacturer Søuld, while Natural Material Studio created a mycelium daybed for the show.

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      Stockmarr explained that the show is meant to be a call to action and empower people to reflect on their individual roles in determining the future of design.
      “By asking more questions than giving answers the exhibition wants to inspire visitors,” reflected the curator.
      “The show acknowledges that it is not only designers, architects, craftspeople and experts, but all of us who are participating in shaping and designing the future by the questions we ask and the choices and actions we take today.”
      The Future is Present was designed by Spacon & X to be an immersive experienceSimilar recent exhibitions that explored the climate impact of materials include a show at Stockholm Furniture Fair that visualised the carbon emissions of common materials such as concrete and The Waste Age – a London exhibition that addressed how design has contributed to the rise of throwaway culture.
      The Future is Present is on display at Designmuseum Denmark from 19 June 2022 to 1 June 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Space10 invites public into its Copenhagen HQ with kiosk-like design library

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      IKEA’s innovation lab Space10 has worked with interior designers Spacon & X to transform the ground floor of its headquarters into a library and community space, with a look that is meant to recall a simple kiosk.

      Located in a former fish factory in the city’s Meatpacking District, Space10’s offices now include a library of 100 future-focused books, a snack bar and a design shop, alongside an existing gallery and event space.
      While the ground floor was already used for community-facing events, Space10 set out to expand the offering beyond “temporary” interactions and create a space that people could access at their leisure all day.
      A library, snack bar and design shop have been added to the ground floor of Space10’s Copenhagen headquarters”We wanted the ground floor to play a much stronger role in our mission to involve the many and diversify our perspectives,” Space10 designer Kevin Curran told Dezeen.
      “By opening a new library for the public, we suddenly have a space that feels alive, warm and welcoming, and it lets visitors spend as much time here as they like and explore Space10 on a daily basis.”

      The studio worked with its long-time collaborators Spacon & X on the interior design, which references kiosks and particularly the newsstands of New York to create an accessible setting.
      The design of the space was informed by newsstands with their racks of magazinesAccording to Spacon & X co-founder Svend Jacob Pedersen, the aim was to create a welcoming space where “nothing should be too curated or feel precious”.
      “It was important for us to work with understated but recognisable cultural symbols through materials and form so that the project itself encourages interaction and is perceived as public,” Pedersen said.
      The space is intended to be open to the public all day”From the beginning, the classic New York newsstand was a big inspiration as its layered setup with only the magazine’s headline and title visible piques curiosity and almost demands visitors to pick them up and browse,” Pedersen continued.
      “Furthermore, you can pick up a soft drink from the fridge, a souvenir cup from the shelves or some gum at the counter – an informal invitation to stay and browse.”
      This approach extended to the furniture choices, which blend custom pieces with more everyday designs, along with playful accessories such as metal pencil trays that recall hot dog holders.
      Accessories shaped like hot dog holders help to recall the kiosk environment”We shopped generic, almost iconic, cafe aluminum chairs and tables that many will recognise from their preferred kebab joint or touristy cafe, almost as an universal welcome sign,” said Pedersen.
      Among the custom pieces are shelves and seating with wooden cylindrical frames held together by looped steel joinery. The joinery is typically used to partition cattle farms and was partly chosen to reference the building’s location in the Meatpacking District, where meat businesses were formerly based.
      The steel joinery was fabricated for the cattle industry, where it is used for partitioningThe modular shelving for the library is finished with bright fabric pockets made of Hallingdal 65, a blend from Danish company Kvadrat with wool for durability and viscose for brilliance.
      At the centre of the kiosk space is Spacon & X’s industrial-looking Super Super table, made of sheets of bolted aluminium, and suspended above it is a custom lighting design made of upcycled office ceiling lights set in a wooden frame.

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      The studios chose materials and furnishings with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint of transportation and supporting the local economy, selecting metal for its durability and aluminium in particular for its recyclability.
      They also sought to cultivate an aesthetic that could be replicated at Space10 projects around the world with local and preferably upcycled materials.
      Upcycled materials have been used to make elements such as a wooden suspended lighting featureThe library at the space features 100 books curated by Space10 on the subject of how to build a better future for people and the planet. These will be supplemented with titles put forward by guest curators and the community.
      The building also includes two private floors for the Space10 team — an upper office area and a basement fabrication laboratory and tech studio.
      Space10 will open the doors of the ground floor to the public on January 26. It plans to host two exhibitions each year and keep all its events free to attend.
      The library features 100 titles chosen by Space10 for their ideas about designing for the futureSpace10 and Spacon & X have worked together since 2015, when Spacon & X designed the first version of Space10’s office. They later updated those offices together in 2019 to move away from an open-plan design.
      Space10 works “with and for IKEA”, functioning as an independent innovation lab whose research feeds into the brand’s future planning.
      Its recent projects have included the Carbon Banks NFT concept designed to inspire better care for furniture and the Updatables concept for upcycling furniture using artificial intelligence.
      Photography is by Seth Nicholas.

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      Spacon & X creates casual diner for Noma's burger spinoff POPL

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      Prolific Copenhagen restaurant Noma has opened a burger joint featuring an interior filled with natural materials and plants designed by Spacon & X.Born out of a summer pop-up, POPL is a diner in Copenhagen’s pretty Christianshavn neighbourhood, serving a simple menu of burgers, fries and light bites.
      POPL is designed by Danish studio Spacon & X, the Emerging Interior Designer of the Year from the inaugural Dezeen Awards in 2018.

      POPL is a burger joint in Christianshavn, Copenhagen

      The interior design takes cues from Izakaya, informal drinking venues that can be found in Japan. The aim was to create a raw simplicity but to also create a feeling of warmth and comfort.
      The designers did this with the use of warm colours and materials, which contrast the starkness of the building’s concrete structure. They also added a wooden “plant bridge” above the tables, so that greenery is visible everywhere.

      A plant bridge is suspended above the tables
      “We found it a natural decision that the design concept follows Noma’s approach to the burger: simple, welcoming, and with the best quality ingredients,” explained Malene Hvidt, architect and partner at Spacon & X.
      “The design is welcoming to the extent that guests are not afraid to use the space as a hangout,” she told Dezeen. “The surface materials and careful detailing communicate this through their expressive robustness and honesty.”

      Natural materials feature throughout the interior
      The design centres around the use of natural materials. Acoustic ceiling panels are lined with dried and compressed meadow flowers, which offer a delicate fragrance, while paper lights and artworks are dotted around.
      All of the furniture is made from brown core ash wood. These pieces were all designed bespoke for POPL through a collaboration with furniture brand e15, to help give the restaurant its own identity.

      Spacon & X worked with e15 to create bespoke furniture
      Bespoke tables, chairs, stools, benches and coat hangers are all characterised by simple forms that celebrate the construction joints, fusing Nordic, Japanese and American furniture-making traditions.
      Tables are topped with Richlite, a composite material made from recycled paper and bio-resin. Meanwhile, benches are upholstered in a distinctive yellow leather, which is complemented a tactile red artwork that covers the rear wall.

      Warm tones help to create a cosy atmosphere
      “The focus of this project is on the use of natural materials and craftsmanship,” said e15 founder Philipp Mainzer. “This is very much in line with the approach to our work at e15.”

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      “Every surface tells a story,” added Hvidt, “like the compressed flower acoustic board solutions, which from a distance are a dappled colour but up-close reveal their texture and scent. Or the red artwork, celebrating the handcraft skill of applying tile mortar.”

      Benches are upholstered in yellow leather
      This is the first time that Spacon & X and e15 have collaborated with Noma, which is regularly named as one of the best restaurants in the world. For Noma’s main venue, it worked with architects BIG, interior designer David Thulstrup and furniture brand Brdr Krüger.
      By allowing a new creative team to put their stamp on the Noma aesthetic, POPL hopes to reach a wider audience.

      The design takes its cues from Japan’s Izakaya drinking venues
      Hvidt hopes visitors will liken the experience to the casual atmosphere of an American diner, even though the space looks very different.
      “We have definitely brought a new dialect to the Noma language,” she added.
      “The nuanced American diner feel is created through elements such as the heavy diner booth typology, but the association is then offset through the care put into the material sourcing, detailing and craftsmanship. The striking yet natural colours again play with the American diner tradition in a Scandinavian context.”
      Photography is by Bjørn Bertheussen.

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