To live in a residence designed by a renowned architect is a dream for many, however, a dream that will most likely never come true. But, there is an alternative. Many architecture enthusiasts have rented or even bought apartments in iconic buildings designed by their favorite architects.
In regards to the work of Oscar Niemeyer, fluidity and flexibility may best express his plans and typologies.
Below, we've selected four apartments in buildings designed by Neimeyer that reinterpret his original plans.
The use of light and shadow in architecture can have several nuances. The traditional Japanese culture stands out for working with spaces of dim light, kind of dull. On the other hand, modern architecture and minimalism work along with illuminating spaces through the use of white spaces and reflection of light as a recurring resource.
Even so, black, dark spaces and minimalism also converse in the same language that provides new possibilities for lighting design and use of new materials. We now present you a selection of the best contemporary interior spaces that use black as the protagonist element, generating introspective but dramatic environments at the same time.
The Los Angeles-based firm, Rios Clementi Hale Studios, a transdisciplinary practice engaging in design from urban planning to product design, opened their new offices in the city's Crenshaw neighborhood. A recent article by Metropolis Magazine outlines the firm's design process in creating their new office layout to emphasize their aspirations as an established practice.
Plants are excellent elements to add in architecture and built spaces. However, when it comes to indoor environments, which usually receive less natural light and ventilation, certain species are resistant to adaptation.
Therefore, when thinking about species for indoors – be it a home, apartment or commercial space – some species are better than others. We have selected the best 13 indoor plants for your home.
This article was originally published on Metropolis Magazine as "Will the Culture of Good Taste Devour McDonald's?"
At a new corporate headquarters in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, there’s a double-height lobby filled with green walls and massive art installations. Travel to its top floor roof deck and you’ll find a cozy fire pit next to a fitness center and bar (happy hours are on Thursday). Elsewhere, stair-seating terraces face floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the Chicago skyline. This vertical campus settles in peaceably among its tony Randolph Street neighbors—Michelin stars, tech giants, and boutique hotels. At first glance, it’s refined and tasteful enough to be any one of these.
Architect Philipp Mohr has led the renovation of an apartment at Le Corbusier’s iconic Unite d’Habitation in Berlin, carried out to the architect’s original design. Over the course of two years, Mohr’s team engaged with archival research, antique shopping, and the surveying of the Unite d’Habitation Marseille in France.
Mohr purchased the apartment in 2016 and embarked on a journey of demolition, measurement, and extensive renovation including lowering ceilings and moving walls in order to recreate the interior likely envisioned by Le Corbusier.
New renderings have been revealed of Tadao Ando’s first project in New York City, a luxury residential building known as 152 Elizabeth Street, that show the interiors of its exclusive multi-story penthouse for the first time.
Adding a plant makes any space instantly cozier. No need to have a large balcony to grow them, there are many species that develop well in living rooms, kitchens, and even bathrooms, with little maintenance as well as space efficient. The vases used also add to the composition of well-decorated environments. Flowers add color and diversity to all environments, but it is worth mentioning that species that do not produce flowers do less photosynthesis and therefore require smaller amounts of sunshine and are therefore more suitable for indoor cultivation. It is also important to note that popular names can be quite different, so you should always pay attention to its scientific names when choosing your species.
Below, we selected 12 ornamental plants ideal for indoor cultivation.
Neolith has unveiled their most ambitious project to date: the ENIGMA restaurant design in collaboration with RCR Arquitectes and P.Llimona. The conceptual restaurant space began with the vision of celebrated Catalan chef Albert Adrià, who wanted to create an "enigmatic” restaurant project reflecting his gastronomy and his career. Albert, together with his sibling Ferran Adrià have transformed the iconic El Bulli restaurant into a culinary research foundation and embarked on more projects since, including tapas bar Tickets and Bar 41 in Barcelona. ENIGMA, described as a “culinary amusement park” represents the new brainchild of the brothers’ dialogue exploring the intersection of food and design.
“This place is really Instagrammable, you’ll see what I mean.”
Walking into a tiled entryway and catching a glimpse of the cocoon-shaped swings, I saw fast. Planta, located on a busy street in Downtown Toronto is an Instagram magnet. And they know it. Opened last fall, Planta’s geotagged posts grow daily, with several of the restaurants’ key spaces photographed again and again. With jungle-inspired wallpaper, graphic tiling and a solid 14k following on their own account, the plant-based eatery means business.
Instagram’s parent-company Facebook announced it made $9.1 billion in earnings this quarter on advertising, retaining its longstanding rule over digital advertising alongside with Google’s Alphabet ($26 billion). With Instagram absorbing competitor Snapchat’s story features and increasing the number of sponsored posts it shows this year (yeah, we noticed), it’s not a stretch to say that the social media giant sits at the center of food and beverage trends. But what happens to interior spaces when restaurants set out to be “Instagrammable”?
In this article, which originally appeared on BD, Nicholas de Klerk (a London-based Associate Architect at Aukett Swanke) reviews The Public Interior as Idea and Project – a new publication by the Netherlands-based Canadian artist, architectural historian and educator Mark Pimlott.
Mark Pimlott's new book, The Public Interior as Idea and Project (2016), expands on prior publications, notably Without and Within (2007). In this earlier book, Pimlott explored the concept of a ‘continuous interior’—examining repetitive spaces which share characteristics—for example, shopping malls and airports, and which, collectively, set about the urbanisation of the American territory.
Fine arts and commercial photographer Balint Alovits has released Time Machine, his latest photo series documenting Art Deco and Bauhaus staircases throughout Budapest, Hungary.
Shown from the same central perspective, the photographs “create a new dimension by splitting space and time, staying within the visual limits of the project’s concept, while the perception of the architectural details evokes the idea of infinity.”
“I have always liked Art Deco and Bauhaus buildings,” said Alovits. “Whenever I step into one of these caracoles, I feel a certain pulling energy looking up from the bottom or down from the top. I wanted to collect and showcase all the different shapes and colors that these stairways feature.”
From Oscar Niemeyer's iconic Edifício Copan to Lina Bo Bardi's influential glass house, Brazil has long been notable for its residential architecture. Part of that success has been driven by the strength of Brazilian interiors, as many of the country's designers have an astute understanding of and appreciation for materials. Many designs sensitively fuse both rough, raw elements with luxurious details—an approach that is can be cleverly adjusted to suit a wide variety of clients and budgets. Here we showcase ten projects, published on both ArchDaily and ArchDaily Brasil, that respond to the needs of different clients and different ways of living to provide a cross-section of interior architecture in Brazil.
Below are the 10 selected projects.
Located close to the French border, one Belgian city has become a biannual fixture on the calendar for those who work with interior space. Since its foundation in 1968, Kortrijk's (Courtrai in French) Biennale Interieur has been at the beating heart of interior-innovation, curated by leading figures such as Philippe Starck, Gio Ponti, and Verner Panton.
This year, for the Biennale's 25th anniversary, Kersten Geers and David Van Severen (Office KGDVS)—a practice with strong roots in the city itself—have been invited to make their mark on the exhibition's architectural and artistic programme. Their take on the show, entitled Silver Linings, marks a shift from the presentation of objects to the creation of full scale, complete interiors.
