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

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    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.

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    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. 

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      Trahan Architects creates curving wooden balconies for Atlanta theatre

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      US firm Trahan Architects has renovated the Coca-Cola Stage at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, Georgia, using steam-bent timber to form an undulating auditorium.Constructed in 1968, the 650-seat Alliance Theater is part of the Woodruff Arts Center campus in the state capital of Georgia.

      The 1960s theatre was gutted and refurbished
      For the renovation, Trahan Architects stripped the interiors of the lobby, theatre and backstage areas back to the original concrete walls.
      New York-based, steam-bent furniture designer Matthias Pliessnig collaborated on the design of the wooden elements, which were made by fabrication specialists CW Keller Associates.

      Steam-bent timber curves around the seating. Photo by Trahan Architecture

      Pliessnig created a 1:1 scale mock-up of the Coca-Cola Stage at the Alliance Theater and shared his expertise in steam bending wood, a process that involves heating wood to make it pliable and bending it by hand.

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      “The result is a series of beautiful steam-bent millwork guardrails and balconies that merge handcraft with mass production,” said Trahan Architects.
      “The synthesis of acoustic performance, hand-driven artistry, and sophisticated laser positioning are all carefully choreographed to execute the complex steam-bent millwork without the need for wasteful CNC moulds.”

      All of the seating zones are connected in the theatre
      The seating is now 10 feet (three metres) closer to the stage than before, and the seating of the stalls abuts the orchestra pit.
      Seating stacked around and above the stalls in the balconies are defined by curving wooden elements but are not separated.
      The architects said this design decision was a symbolic one to draw on Atlanta’s history. The city was America’s most racially segregated after 1865 when slaved were freed in the US, right up until the 1960s.
      During this period, black people were barred from eating at certain restaurants or attending certain cinemas reserved for white patrons or were forced to sit in separate seating.

      Trahan Architects worked with a sculptor on the wooden design
      “The design team felt a responsibility to remove the separation between balcony and orchestra – challenging historic notions of segregation and discrimination,” said Trahan Architects.
      “All seating zones can be accessed from every entrance within the chamber.”

      Steam-bending timber created less waste than CNC cutting the wood
      Based in New Orleans and New York, Trahan Architects was founded in 1992 by Trey Trahan. Previous work by the practice includes a visitor centre for an 18th-century plantation in Louisiana.
      The Coca-Cola Stage at the Alliance Theater is shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the civic and cultural interior category, along with a museum in Pittsburgh built in a ligtening-struck library and a museum of architecture models in China.
      Photography is by Leonid Furmansky unless otherwise stated.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Trahan ArchitectsDesign team: Trey Trahan, Leigh Breslau, Brad McWhirter, Robbie Eleazer, James Babin, Scott Melançon, Conway Pedron, Ayesha Husain, Sarah Hussaini, Wenyun Qian, Andrew FuArtist collaboration: Matthias PliessnigMillwork fabrication: CW Keller AssociatesTheatre consultants: Theatre Projects ConsultantsAcoustics: Talaske GroupStructural engineer: Uzun + CaseMEP: DLB Associates Consulting EngineersLighting designer: Fisher Marantz StoneGraphic design: ThirstLife safety: Jensen HughesProject and cost management: Cost+ Plus VerticalTransportation: Lerch Bates

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      Oft Interiors “bring a new zest to the Hong Kong design industry”

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      VDF studio profile: Oft Interiors is a Hong Kong-based design studio that specialises in cultural spaces and has overhauled the interiors of more than 50 different cinemas.It was founded in 2013 by CM Jao and Ken Cheung, two graduates from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
      Jao, who has previously designed interiors for a global architecture firm, brings his experience in leisure spaces to the table, while Cheung contributes his knowledge of architectural design and environmental planning.

      K11 ArtHouse is another one of Oft Interiors’ cinema projects
      “Our team devotes its full efforts and passions to developing innovative work,” explained Cheung. “We aim to bring a new zest to the Hong Kong design industry.”

      In particular, the studio has made a name for itself by creating the interior design and brand positioning for cinemas and theatres across both Hong Kong and mainland China, often based on conceptual themes such as “water” or “deconstruction”.

      Palace Cinema in LCMall features undulating walls and ceilings
      One example of this is the Palace Cinema in Shanghai’s LCMall, which features a bright white lobby with undulating walls and ceilings, to represent the ripple effect that movies can have on their audiences.
      The ticket counters are fitted subtly into these curves while reflective glass panelling on the walls creates the appearance of looking at the still, mirrored surface of a lake.

      Hong Kong’s Emperor cinema uses an inky palette of materials to suggest pencil marks
      Another project, Hong Kong’s Emperor cinema, is located in a building that had undergone three major renovations.
      In order to bring this history to life, the studio decided to visualise the iterative process of drafting and redrafting by using materials of different textures such as inky black wallpaper, wood veneer, and nickel-plated countertops to evoke pencil marks of different strengths.
      The approach for another Shanghai movie theatre, the UA Cinema in West Gate Mall, was based on the idea of deconstructing the interior using irregular lines and patterns.
      In the lobby, the ceiling lacks a stable plane and instead features an asymmetrical beam that juts out at visitors from above to create a sense of surrealism.

      The studio has received various international awards for its interiors, including two German Design Awards in 2017, two International Property Awards and various A’ Design Awards throughout the years.
      Studio: Oft InteriorsWebsite: oftinteriors.comContact address: admin@oftinteriors.com
      About Virtual Design Festival
      Virtual Design Festival is the world’s first online design festival, taking place from 15 April to 30 June. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us at vdf@dezeen.com.
      A studio profile on Virtual Design Festival could expose your work to Dezeen’s three million monthly website visitors. Each studio profile will be featured on the VDF homepage and included in Dezeen’s daily newsletter, which has 170,000 subscribers

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