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References to Dutch culture and history are woven throughout the VIP centre of Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, which has undergone a maximalist revamp by designer Marcel Wanders.

The airport lounge comprises a sequence of rooms including a library, drinks bar and smoking room, all designed by Marcel Wanders and his studio to have a distinct theme.

“We wanted each room to be able to exist on its own,” explained Gabriele Chiave, the studio’s creative director.

“Of course, the main thread throughout is Dutch heritage and culture,” he continued. “But we decided on main themes like art and innovation that inspired generations of designers.”

“This travellers’ lounge offered an opportunity to share Dutch culture with the world,” Wanders added. “It introduces people to our history and our masterpieces.”

As travellers enter the VIP centre, they come into a relaxed lounge area designed to loosely resemble the national Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Displayed on the walls are replicas of paintings by different Dutch masters, set against backlit glass walls that were installed a decade ago during the last renovation of the lounge by local practice Concrete Architects.

Across the room are banks of coffee-coloured sofas, which like the rest of the furnishings throughout the centre were selected in collaboration with Dutch design brand Lensvelt.

More reproductions of significant Dutch artworks are found in the centre’s workroom, where travellers can sit down with their laptops or take private phone calls.

Here, a trompe l’oeil effect on the walls creates the impression that the room is finished with traditional boiserie, half-varnished in a rich yellow ochre hue.

Another lounge area showcases digital portraits of famous Dutch cultural figures – both real and fictional – including artist Vincent Van Gogh, violinist Andre Rieu and cartoon bunny Miffy.

Guests can also retreat to the VIP centre’s Delft Blue Salon, which takes its name from a style of Dutch tin-glazed pottery that’s typically adorned with intricate blue-and-white designs.

Living up to its name, the room was fitted with patterned blue wallpaper panels and dotted with a few Delft Blue vases.

Elsewhere in the VIP centre, there’s a smoking room that nods to the Netherlands’ historical ties to the tobacco trade and a seating area designed to reference Amsterdam’s canal houses, with a streetlamp-style light and fake stained-glass windows.

Other amenities include a library, drinks bar, games room and a serene sleeping room.

Wanders is known for his striking maximalist aesthetic, which can also be seen in his interior design for Doha’s Mandarin hotel with its mismatched patterns and oversized furnishings.

Stateside, the designer has previously created a diamond-patterned facade for the Louis Vuitton store in Miami, referencing the brand’s iconic monogram logo.

source: dezeen.com

A factory that once made Denmark’s classic Viking school pencils now contains a one-room hotel conceived by homeware brand Vipp.

The 90-square-metre hotel – which is aptly called Vipp Pencil Case – is situated on the factory’s ground floor and accessed via a sun-dappled courtyard.

This is one of six hospitality spaces that Vipp has established for design-conscious travellers – others include Vipp Shelter, a pre-fab cabin nestled along the shores of Lake Immeln in Sweden, and Vipp Farmhouse, an 18th-century dwelling located in a rural pocket of Denmark’s Lolland island.

The interiors of Vipp Pencil Case is the work of Danish designer Julie Cloos Mølsgaard, who spent a year curating a neutral yet warm space that she felt sat comfortably within the industrial setting.

At the heart of the hotel room is a light-filled living and dining area. To one side lies a powder-grey edition of Vipp’s V1 kitchen suite, where guests are invited to rustle up their own meals.

To the other side of the space is a large oak dining table with a Jura stone countertop, and a number of storage cabinets that hold extra crockery and cookware.

Woven baskets, ceramic vases and contemporary artworks have been dotted throughout as decoration.

“Vipp Pencil Case is not your average hotel room – more like a studio or atelier, it elicits an artistic ambience and holds a rare quietude in the heart of the Danish capital”, explained Mølsgaard.

A set of tall sliding doors can be pushed back to reveal the bedroom, which has been dressed with a couple of marble-topped side tables and a plump white seating pouf.

Light streaming through the building’s expansive crittal-style windows is dampened by floor-to-ceiling Kvadrat curtains.

The wooden floorboards that feature here and throughout the rest of the hotel room are meant to nod to the materiality of Viking pencils, and the fact that the building also once served as a showroom for wooden flooring brand Dinesen.

The room also includes a sleek shower room that’s been almost entirely clad with jet-black tiles.

Viking’s former factory is located across the water from central Copenhagen on Island Brygge. This is not Vipp’s first intervention on site – late last year, the brand transformed another part of the factory into a supper club where chefs from around the world can host intimate dining experiences.

Its interiors were also designed by Mølsgaard, who filled the space with wooden furnishings and tactile rugs and cushions.

The photography is by Rasmus Hjortshøj.

source: dezeen.com

Architecture studio RCKa has transformed a row of vacant shop units in west London into a community kitchen and learning space that hopes to reduce dependency on food banks.

Located on the Edward Wood Estate in Hammersmith, Nourish Hub provides the first permanent home for UKHarvest, a charity that uses food as a tool for social impact.

With Hammersmith & Fulham the London borough with the highest dependency on food banks, Nourish Hub’s ambition is not only to provide food for vulnerable local residents. It offer opportunities for people to practice cooking skills, learn about nutrition and access jobs in the food industry.

The space includes a commercial kitchen, a teaching kitchen and a flexible space that can be used as a dining room, workspace, classroom or event venue.

RCKa’s role was not only to plan the interior, but to find ways of empowering the local community to get involved in the facility and make it their own.

The design strategy focused on making the space – which previously housed a post office and a supermarket – feel as accessible as possible.

The facade can be opened up, thanks to sliding glass doors and a serving hatch, while bright colours and bold signage create a friendly feel throughout.

“Getting people through the door is the first challenge, so the Hub had to seem open and welcoming to the entire community,” said RCKa director Dieter Kleiner.

When developing the design, the architects decided against a traditional community engagement programme. Instead, they hosted a range of pop-up activities to attract the interest of local residents and learn about their experiences.

They started by painting a graphic mural over the old shutters. They also set up an outdoor kitchen, created playful questionnaire cards and hosted workshops with children.

“It wasn’t about co-designing the space with local people; that wasn’t what we needed,” explained project architect Anthony Staples during a press tour.

“We had three aims: to raise awareness of the project, to test ideas and to establish a local identity.”

In one children’s workshop, participants created graphic designs out of raw fruit, vegetables and grains.

One of these designs is now painted on the ceiling, while another has been turned into ceramic wall tiles.

For the interior layout, RCKa took cues from Victorian kitchens. The teaching kitchen takes the form of a large island, while open cabinets display tableware and cookbooks.

“We were really inspired by old-fashioned kitchens, which are very performative,” said Staples.

“Everything is on display, so when you go in, you feel like you want to touch and grab things.”

The space is furnished with wooden tables, and chairs in bold shades of red and yellow.

There are also various details added in to make the space accessible to a wide range of users. These include lowered surfaces that cater to wheelchair users and a curtain that supports those with specific privacy needs.

Yvonne Thomson, the CEO of UKHarvest, believes the concept can help to tackle issues of food poverty and insecurity, which impact an estimated 8.4 million people in the UK.

The project was realised with funding support from the Mayor of London’s Good Growth Fund, as well as the borough, but the target is for Nourish Hub to become financially self-sufficient within three years.

“Great care has been taken to create a versatile space that enables us to facilitate positive change and meet the needs of different community groups,” Thomson said.

RCKa compares the project with its previous work on The Granville, a community centre with the purpose of providing accessible workspace for local startups.

Staples believes these types of projects could easily be replicated across the UK, to bring change at a large scale.

“This project is totally replicable,” he said. “We could roll them out in a lot of London boroughs and beyond.”

Photography is by Francisco Ibáñez Hantke.

source: dezeen.com

Curved booths are suspended over a dining room at a Japanese restaurant in Mexico City designed by local firms Michan Architecture and Escala Arquitectos.

The sushi eatery is located in the upscale neighbourhood of Jardines del Pedregal, across from a famed church known as Parroquia de la Santa Cruz del Pedregal.

It is the second Oku restaurant designed by Michan Architecture. The other – which features a cave-like ceiling made of huge concrete lights – is found in the district of Lomas de Chapultepec.

For the Pedregal location, the architects worked with another local firm, Escala Arquitectos. The team aimed to elongate the space’s proportions and take advantage of its height.

Rectangular in plan, the eatery has two levels. The lower level encompasses a sushi bar, indoor and outdoor seating, and a back-of-house zone.

Additional seating is found upstairs, where a series of “floating tables” are arrayed along a corridor.

“The mezzanine level features individual tables hung from the existing structure, giving guests a unique dining experience,” the studio said.

Two of the tables hover above the sushi bar, and two extend over the outdoor terrace. Each has wooden walls that enclose a single booth.

A similar enclosure was used for the stairs connecting the restaurant’s two levels.

The dining pods are supported by light steel members that are welded into the building’s existing steel structure.

Above the mezzanine is a drop ceiling with curved cutouts that expose the steel framing and add height to the space.

Moreover, the openings provide a “sensation of cutting and pasting the ceiling onto the tables”, the architects said.

Hung from the ceiling are cylindrical, black lighting fixtures, which merge electrical cables with structural elements.

Throughout the restaurant, the team used neutral colours and clad surfaces in pine, pigmented stucco and panels made of glass-fibre-reinforced concrete (GFRC).

The effect is a “light and open atmosphere that plays with polished and raw finishes”, the team said.

Other Japanese eateries in Mexico include Mexico City’s Tori Tori by Esrawe Studio, which features elements inspired by Samurai armour, and a restaurant by TAX Architects in the coastal town of Puerto Escondido that is topped with a thatched roof.

The photography is by Alexandra Bové.

source: dezeen.com

Local studio Masquespacio added undulating, earthy-toned walls to an intimate Valencia restaurant that takes cues from the “organic forms” of Middle Eastern architecture.

Living Bakkali is located in the Spanish coastal city of Valencia and features bespoke furniture designed entirely by Masquespacio, a design studio known for its use of colour in projects.

The restaurant is characterised by sloping, sandy-toned microcement walls that pay homage to the decorative motifs often found in Middle Eastern architecture, such as multifoil arches.

Designed in various hues of desert-like browns and pinks, Living Bakkali’s curved arches are arranged in intricate formations that create intimate seating areas within the restaurant.

“We used the recognisable brownish colour from the East, although we added slightly different colours to the palette – such as red – but always in a soft way and through earthy tones,” Masquespacio co-founder Christophe Penasse told Dezeen.

“Middle Eastern seating is also almost always lower and more loungy than in the western world,” he added, referring to the restaurant’s low-slung dark crimson sofas and chairs.

Guests enter the space at a central hall that is connected to the kitchen, which was designed to create the feeling of exploring a street filled with ancient houses.

“Interiors [in the Middle East] are almost never shown directly from the outside, although you can [often] find windows of arch forms that create a sense of double walls,” explained Penasse.

The restaurant’s thick walls are interrupted only by cut-out holes that create small windows between each table, some of which are tucked away in intimate booths. Among the various dining areas is a private room, which is reached through a corridor flanked by gauzy curtains.

Described by the restaurant itself as an “ode to adobe architecture,” Living Bakkali takes cues from this natural construction material, as Masquespacio said that the venue’s walls were designed to create an adobe effect, which means mud-brick in Spanish.

The studio also designed all of the floors and ceilings in microcement in order to immerse visitors in a wholly cavernous environment that is intended to be reminiscent of traditional Middle Eastern houses.

Penasse said that Masquespacio’s design process for Living Bakkali involved the exploration of many aspects of Middle Eastern culture – from architecture and materials to ways of eating through history.

“We got connected with the organic forms that have been used throughout Middle Eastern architecture, which was made mainly with clay materials by hand,” Penasse explained.

“We wanted to bring the [traditional] Arabic aesthetic to the future in a new and more modern way, but still sought to maintain its essence,” he said.

Masquespacio was founded by Penasse and Ana Milena Hernández Palacios in 2010. Similar projects by the studio include Pukkel, a restaurant in Aragon that features winding stucco walls that were informed by the curvature of the nearby Pyrenees mountains.

The photography is by Sebastian Erras.

source: dezeen.com

Raw concrete walls serve as a backdrop to vintage furnishings in this rentable venue and guest suite that Studio Andrew Trotter, Gavalas Ioannidou Architecture and Eva Papadaki have created within a converted 1970s industrial building in Athens, Greece.

The six-storey warehouse, now named 10AM Lofts, features a multi-purpose event space spread over its basement and ground floor, which can host anything from exhibitions and dinners to photoshoots.

The penthouse, which spans the top two floors, can be used as part of these events or booked for private gatherings and longer-term residencies.

Both spaces were designed by Barcelona-based Studio Andrew Trotter with local studio Gavalas Ioannidou Architecture and Eva Papadaki, while a number of other designers have put their personal touch to the four lofts that are spread across the two remaining floors.

To make room for the event space, the two lowest floors were stripped back to their raw concrete shells.

To lighten up the ground floor, the studio inserted a couple of new windows, inlaid an entire wall with translucent glass bricks and painted surfaces white.

White paint was also used to finish the balustrade fronting the mezzanine-level workroom, which can be accessed via a set of spiralling concrete steps.

Guests must descend a twisted Corten-steel staircase to reach the basement, which has a markedly moodier ambience.

Apart from the illumination provided by a handful of pendant lamps, light can only trickle through to the space from the narrow openings left in the ceiling.

Vintage furnishings have been sparingly dotted throughout to soften the harsh industrial look of the space.

The penthouse, which is set over the building’s fifth and sixth floors, features surfaces rendered in lime plaster and paint rather than concrete to create what the studio describes as “a feeling of rough luxury”.

The fifth floor accommodates a cosy living room, furnished with a plump beige sofa and armchair as well as a weathered sideboard topped with a couple of antique vases and a marble bust.

Heavy sand-coloured linen curtains bring a sense of warmth to the natural light that filters in through the windows.

Close by lies the kitchen, centred on a wooden dining table and a set of Charlotte Perriand’s woven Dordogne chairs.

At this level of the penthouse, there is also a study and a bathroom with a huge blocky tub.

This sits beside expansive sliding glass doors that allow guests to enjoy unspoilt vistas of the Acropolis citadel while they soak.

Sweeping city views can also be enjoyed from the main bedroom up on the sixth floor, which is bookended by glass walls.

“[It’s] a haven of peace,” explained Studio Andrew Trotter. “In the heart of busy Athens, the space is cool and calm.”

The venue’s moody interiors stand in stark contrast to Villa Cardo, a bright white holiday home that Studio Andrew Trotter completed in 2019.

Nestled in an olive grove in Puglia, Italy, the four-bedroom residence is designed to resemble the region’s traditional cubic dwellings.

The photography is by Salva Lopez.

source: dezeen.com

Fresh white treatment rooms are contrasted with khaki-green communal areas inside the Dentista dental clinic in Amsterdam, which has been designed by local studio i29.

As the clinic is Dentista‘s first, i29 was tasked with creating an interior scheme and visual identity that could be easily rolled out to future locations.

“Our design strategy was to bring together a clean, fresh medical environment and a wellness experience,” the studio explained.

“Natural wood, abundant greenery and an open-plan layout make visitors feel at ease.”

Upon entering the clinic with its timber-clad facade, patients find themselves in a waiting area that houses a few chairs and a tall wooden box seat.

While the majority of the room is rendered in white, the immediate area around the help desk is finished completely in khaki green, from the furniture to the ceiling, walls and floors.

A strip of flooring that runs alongside the clinic’s front windows has also been painted green and decorated with an array of tall, leafy plants in khaki-coloured pots that help obscure the interior from passersby.

A white corridor leads to the rear of the clinic, where eight treatment rooms encircle a planted open-air courtyard.

Each room is fronted by timber-framed glass panels with semi-opaque stripes that help to maintain patients’ privacy while letting in light.

Apart from a khaki-green feature wall, the treatment areas have been painted completely white, which i29 says “intuitively refers to medical professionalism”.

Colour reappears in the staff breakout area in the form of a khaki-green kitchenette and a cushioned bench seat that backs onto a matching wall.

In the evening, when less natural light filters through from the courtyard, the entire clinic is illuminated by a series of ring-shaped pendant lights.

i29 is based in the Dutch municipality of Ouder-Amstel and is led by Jeroen Dellensen and Jaspar Jansen.

The studio has completed a few other projects in Amsterdam this year, including an angular house that floats on a canal and an apartment for an avid art collector.

The photography is by Thomas van Schaik.

source: dezeen.com

Bryan O’Sullivan Studio has conceived the interior of The Red Room bar in Mayfair’s The Connaught hotel to feature artworks by female artists including Louise Bourgeois and Jenny Holzer among an eclectic mix of furnishings.

Tucked behind a velvet-curtained doorway, The Red Room is the first bar to open in The Connaught in more than a decade and serves a selection of wines from the hotel’s 30,000-bottle cellar.

The bar’s name is a nod to the artworks on its walls, all of which feature a touch of crimson.

Among them are two pieces from renowned French-American artist Louise Bourgeois: a word art piece called I Am Rouge and an untitled hologram that depicts a surreal scene of a miniature chair housed in a bell jar.

Also represented are Vietnamese artist Tia-Thuy Nguyen, photographer Trina McKille and conceptual artist Jenny Holzer. The only artwork in the bar that wasn’t created by a woman is a pair of arched stained-glass panels by British painter Brian Clarke.

These six artworks, selected by hotelier Paddy McKillen, set the tone for Bryan O’Sullivan Studio‘s interiors scheme for The Red Room.

“When designing the space, we envisioned an eclectic art collector’s home,” the Shoreditch-based studio explained. “It’s a space that feels elevated yet utterly relaxed.”

One end of the space is dominated by an Italian marble fireplace with red veining. Bourgeois’ I Am Rouge is mounted directly above, flanked by Brian Clarke’s glass panels.

Beyond lies a series of seating areas dressed with a medley of furnishings, from striped armchairs and bijou lamps to floral rugs and curvy sofas.

A partition wall with organically shaped openings is used to display a range of ceramics and objets d’art, which will be rotated on a regular basis.

Along with other surfaces throughout the bar, this wall has been rendered in a pale pinkish hue in order to let the red artworks come to the fore.

A walkway with a terrazzo finish leads up to the bar counter, where guests are able to sample the red wine menu as well as a roster of seasonal wine-based cocktails.

The counter’s top is crafted from rose-coloured onyx while mottled glass was used to make the decorative gantry that hangs overhead.

Bryan O’Sullivan established his eponymous studio in 2013.

Since then, he has designed a number of hotel bars including The Painters Room at Claridge’s and The Berkeley Bar & Terrace in Knightsbridge, which features a cosy, blush-pink snug where small groups of guests can retire with their drinks.

All the photography is by James McDonald except the top image by Justin De Souza.

source: dezeen.com

Architecture and design studio DDAA Inc has made minor tweaks to an 86-year-old house in Japan’s Nagasaki prefecture to turn it into an office for ceramics brand Maruhiro.

The converted home is situated in Hasami, a historic area that first began producing porcelain pottery more than 400 years ago during the Edo period.

As well as accommodating Maruhiro‘s office, the building now houses a showroom, an artists’ residence and a kitchen.

This will eventually be used to prepare food for visitors of Hiroppa – a public plaza that DDAA Inc is working on nearby.

“It can be said that one of the characteristics of Japanese housing is that it does not peak at the time of completion but can gradually change its appearance according to the situation,” the studio explained.

“This Japanese house was no exception.”

To conserve budged in light of the pandemic and retain the character of the original home, Tokyo-based DDAA Inc made only a handful of alterations on the interior while the exterior has gone completely untouched.

“When this project was just starting, the Covid-19 calamity was also spreading worldwide,” the studio explained. “But the client decided to continue the project.”

“As the future was unpredictable, DDAA proposed what we could do with half of the original budget.”

Near the building’s entryway, the studio removed the latticed wooden framework and translucent paper overlay from a traditional shoji screen and instead inserted a circular mirrored panel to divide the space.

In Maruhiro’s main workroom, the studio has lowered the floor, revealing the large, craggy rocks that were used to secure some of the house’s structural posts.

The original tatami-mat flooring was abandoned in favour of concrete due to concerns over wear and tear from office chairs.

A glass-topped communal desk has then been placed at the centre of the room, supported by thickset blocks of concrete.

Here, too, the latticing and paper have been stripped back from the room’s yukimi-shoji screen – a specific type of shoji with a bottom half made of glass, allowing people to look through to the outdoors.

In the room that now serves as the artists’ residence, existing tatami mats were pulled up and replaced with lauan plywood floorboards. The same wood has been used to partially line the room’s walls.

DDAA Inc was established by Daisuke Motogi in 2010. After competing against hundreds of other entries, the studio’s Maruhiro office was among five projects to be shortlisted in the small workspace interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.

The category was ultimately won by architecture practice Sher Maker’s self-designed studio in Thailand, which is decked out with locally sourced materials and faces onto an open-air courtyard.

Photography is by Kenta Hasegawa.

source: dezeen.com

Interior designer Sophie Goineau and Los Angeles studio Enclosures Architects have restored Cove Way House in Beverly Hills by Alfred T Wilkes with updated finishes, “preserving the integrity of original LA modernism”.

Located in LA’s upscale Beverly Hills neighbourhood, Cove Way House is a low-slung villa that was originally built in 1957. It is laid out on a single floor, and contains four bedrooms.

It features several design elements that were novel at the time, such as floor-to-ceiling glazing in the living spaces, a flat roof, and an open concept for the kitchen, living, and dining rooms.

The team’s intention was to highlight these elements within the renovation.

“The original Alfred T Wilkes house, built in 1957, was a true example of mid-century “post and beam” construction, allowing for the wide-open flow of space from room to room, and the feature of a curved glass exterior wall, rare for the style and era,” said the team.

“The original interior features were all enhanced in the restoration; flat roof lines, indoor to outdoor fluidity, open living plan and an abundance of natural light.”

Goineau and Enclosures Architects completely updated the finishes throughout the property, including all-new millwork in the entry hallway, kitchen and living room.

“From the entry and throughout, the millwork is produced in woods indigenous to the US wherever possible; the inlaid ceiling, wall partitions and stacked doors frames are teak, including the art wall tiles in the powder room, handmade from Mosarte in Brazil,” said the team.

“The wall paneling, fluted bar, doors, closets, vanities and kitchen are custom designed in walnut.”

Visitors enter the home into a semi-circular foyer, which provides access to the kitchen, living and dining room.

These are partially screened by slatted wooden walls that give each space a certain separation, while still feeling like they are part of a single living area.

The main living room is separated in two parts by a fireplace built with long slender bricks, delineating a more private seating area from the main entertaining space. Both of these are open to the kitchen, which embraces the curved outline of the foyer, and to the pool at the back of the home.

The floors were also updated to a more durable material.

“The home’s original carpet flooring was relaid in terrazzo, meticulously inlaid with brass inserts and cream Calacatta stone, inspired by architecture icon Alexander Girard’s textile prints designed for Charles and Ray Eames, replete with Minotti and Henge furnishings.

The home’s four bedrooms are laid out along a corridor in a separate wing, and were also refreshed as part of the renovation.

Other midcentury renovations in California include a 1960s home by Craig Ellwood that was refurbished with a light touch by Woods+Dangaran, and the home and offices of Working Holiday Studios, which underwent a more extensive overhaul to accommodate their young family.

The photography is by Michael Clifford.

source: dezeen.com

Japanese studio Keiji Ashizawa Design used bricks and a warm colour palette in its design for the Blue Bottle Coffee shop in the Shiroiya Hotel in Maebashi, Japan.

The studio designed the coffee shop, which opened last month, inside a space within the newly built Green Tower at the Shiroiya Hotel that it described as “cave-like.”

“The feeling of the original structure of the interior space was literally hard and forbidding before the construction,” studio founder Ashizawa told Dezeen.

“I decided to have a fun characteristic where the homely atmosphere in the interior space would coexist with the distinct stony feeling of the cave entrance, by applying a warmer tone throughout the floor, counter top, sofa, and furniture, yet still utilizing the original concrete structure including pillars and beams in the space.”

A type of brick commonly found in historic buildings in Maebashi was used for the floors, with the bar counter plastered to complement its colouring.

Furniture for the cafe was specially designed in collaboration with Karimoku Furniture, which also partnered with Keiji Ashizawa Design on a Blue Bottle Coffee shop in the Shibuya district of Tokyo.

The lighting fixtures in the cafe, as well as detailing on the furniture, are made from copper.

“Responding to the textures of the bricks and the counters, we chose copper with a slight shimmer for the lighting fixtures and furniture, paper cords for the entrance handles, and upholstery for the sofas which are a collection of materials that are tactile and felt by touch,” the studio said.

Like in other Blue Bottle Coffee shops, the bar counter is situated so it can be seen from outside.

“Although it is a relatively small space, we tried to create a park-like environment where one can casually sit by providing sofa benches as the main type of seating,” Ashizawa added.

“In particular, we ensured that the large sofa located in the middle would be comfortable for customers of all ages, from small children, parents to elderly, so that the space would feel welcoming to everyone.”

A new art piece by local artist Yoshio Shirakawa, a study on the history of Maebashi titled ‘Akagiyama Dragon Body’, was chosen for the wall.

The Shiroiya’s own history dates back over 300 years, with the existing 1970s hotel closing in 2008.

It was reopened in December 2020 following a drastic revamp designed by architect Sou Fujimoto, which saw the old building’s internal floors removed and the construction of the Green Tower – a grassy hill containing cabins – where the coffee shop is located.

Blue Bottle Coffee was founded as a small roastery in Oakland, California by James Freeman in 2002, and has since grown into a chain of cafes across the USA and Asia, with several in Japan.

Photography is by Ben Richards.

Source: dezeen.com

Danish brand Fritz Hansen has opened a showroom in Shanghai’s Jing’an district, which is the brand’s latest outpost in China.

Located in the ShanKang Li lifestyle and dining hub, the 220-square-metre showroom is decorated in a palette of beige, white and rose.

The directly owned showroom marks the latest step in Fritz Hansen‘s expansion into China following its first Chinese store in Xi’an in 2019, which was opened in collaboration with a local partner.

The Shanghai showroom forms part of Fritz Hansen’s strategy to become the “biggest Danish brand in China”.

“Our Shanghai showroom represents a physical manifestation of our brand as we take our steps into the Chinese market,” said Fritz Hansen’s CEO of Asia Dario Reicherl.

“It reflects the evolving vision of a luxury lifestyle brand, first established 150 years ago.”

The showroom is divided into four main areas, with spaces dedicated to furniture for dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and home offices.

It features a curated selection of Fritz Hansen’s most iconic pieces, including China chair designed by Hans J Wegner, and PK80 daybed, PK54 dining table designed by Poul Kjærholm.

Walls are adorned in oak, marble and plasterboard, while playful floral arrangements add a pop of colour to the space.

Spanish designer Jaime Hayon’s Ro and Fri chairs are intended to give the space an adventurous and imaginative modern touch.

“We want to create a dialogue between the classic design and modern young design,” according to Fritz Hansen’s head of China Jenny Pu.

Founded in Denmark in 1872, Fritz Hansen produces classic items by pioneering twentieth-century Danish designers including Arne Jacobsen, as well as contemporary figures including Cecilie Manz, Benjamin Hubert and Nendo.

Fritz Hansen opened its first store in Asia in Tokyo, Japan nearly 20 years ago. The brand then entered other Asian countries including South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.

“Fritz Hansen’s success in Japan and South Korea give me more confidence in its future in China,” said Reicherl.

“In the past few years, I’ve seen more and more young Chinese are searching for higher quality lifestyle, with increasing stress from outside world, they tend to look inward and spend more time at home with family and friends.”

Fritz Hansen recently revamped its headquarters in eastern Denmark to create a homely space to cater for its employees many diverse working needs.

Images courtesy of Fritz Hansen.

Source: dezeen.com