For the purveyor of high-quality, authentic New York City food, their expansion to the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City was an opportunity to create a new bakery and retail flagship. The project is located on two levels in a historic 19th century building on Columbus Avenue around the corner from the fabled Dakota Apartments and Central Park. The design emerged as a celebration of textures and color intended to complement the gastronomic delicacies on display. During the design process, probes revealed long-hidden, original historic architectural elements many which were restored for reuse in the space. These included an eye-catching decorative tin ceiling and beautiful interior cast iron columns. Brick walls were revealed. Outside, cast iron storefront trim and rustic brownstone exterior walls were all uncovered and restored. Modern additions of the design included surfaces and furnishings made of black handcrafted steel and white oak. Black subway tile form the back wall of the service area while the seating area is an oasis of minimalist, crafted lighting and furnishings. The flooring is a sturdy, neutral porcelain tile throughout. The interior includes a gold-leaf mural by the artist David Bender. Located in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District, the project received approval from the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Most importantly, since its opening, the locale has become a neighborhood destination.
LODOVNIA, a new mobile ice cream shop with a unique facade, found its place right in the heart of Poznań’s Stary Browar! Since the building took a central spot in the Courtyard of Art, mode:lina™ studio designers approached its façade as if it was a piece of art. Dark walls were extended with the use of almost one thousand white sport cones, referring to LODOVNIA’s fagship product – natural ice cream in a cone. Large glazed panels not only allow to peek in, but they also refect the surrounding Stary Browar’s architecture. The interior is a black and white composition as well, warmed by triangle-shaped elements made of natural plywood. Both the triangles and the shape of a sport cone further connect with the letter V in LODOVNIA’s logo, which makes the architectural result consistent with the ice cream shop’s visual identity system.
With high illiteracy rate in Indonesia and lack of reading facilities, SHAU -a multi-awarded rising architecture practice- started a mission: to rekindle interest in books by offering a designed place for reading paired with multiple community activities.
The optical shop C_29 / ’Optimist’, is an interwar listed building of a total surface 90m2 and is located in the centre of Chalkida. The space is airy and expands along the central market and the back courtyard / patio which is formed in the core of the building. The building itself is a composite construction with the ground floor being made of bearing masonry and the two floors of reinforced concrete bearer and filling brickwork. The main design aspect was the creation of a gradient technique in the texture of materiality in order to emphasize the reflection and the absorbance of light. This gradient tool continues to exist and plays a significant role even to the choice of materials, resulting in their sound existence or their theoretical absence in the formed space. Some utilitarian objects are transformed into prismatic sculptures. The courtyard space is defined by an imaginary cube. What is more is that the plan does not allow visual contact to the courtyard and the shop. Therefore, there is formed a wall at an angle of 45 degrees in the intermediate space fully covered by mirror , which results in visual continuity between the two spaces.
The flagship store of Road to Awe (RtA) is as streetwise as the clothes produced by this Los Angeles fashion brand. Los Angeles architect Dan Brunn, AIA, created a complex, dream-like space with geometric precision, meditative sensations, and positive/negative dualities. Graced with street exposure from two sides, the streamlined boutique proclaims its variably angled black façades to the public. Dan Brunn Architecture renovated a 1,200-square-foot, 1970s building to create the new retail space, maintaining its footprint, but completely reshaping its geometry to create a more cohesive, sculptural experience. Inside, the 10-foot-tall space features concrete floors, black mirrors, wood surfaces, and blackened steel beams, creating a minimalist backdrop to the edgy fashion. An interior garden contributes calm and brings a mannered sense of nature into the scene.
Foster + Partners has been appointed to design a new office tower as part of an urban precinct that is set to reinvigorate part of Sydney’s iconic Circular Quay. Located between George and Pitt streets – a stone’s throw away from the city’s famous harbour – the scheme is characterised by a network of pedestrian laneways that criss-cross the site at different levels. The laneways will be lined with shops, cafes and bars, celebrating Sydney as a unique destination.
“Only by planting the roots of design into the earth can we harvest its towering trees.”
— Yu Ping, Chinese designer
Marier in Japanese means intimacy or intimate connection between people. MarierWagashi locates its first heritage shop in Shangmeilin, Shenzhen, more precisely, the ground floor of an old building in an old community, with an air of detachment from the urban hustle.
Powerhouse Company, in collaboration with landscape architect ZUS and developer Amvest, won the invited competition for a 70,000 m2 mixed use building right next to the central station of Eindhoven. In Powerhouse Company’s winning design, three slender towers fan out to generous plinths. The complex combines a varied residential program with an array of (semi-)public amenities ranging from hotel to work/meeting spaces, a student study centre, shops, restaurants and exhibition spaces.
The Klang & Co. conceptual design pivots around a desire to combine the tactility of the experience of dining with the contextual quality of Malaysia Klang Depot, which is the provenance of the restaurant culture. The design draws inspiration from Heston’s dish ‘Sound of the sea’, the dish composes the sound of sea wave audible through magnifying the echoes within the sea shell and the olfactory experience of smelling the sea water, Heston aims to heighten the senses associated with dining in order to enhance the innate quality of the ingredients. Our design deploys elements which invoke sensual responses and contextual association, the crane structure overhead adds visual potency to the dining environment, it reflects the industrial oil processing which is essential to Klang’s economic boom, the artificial identity of the crane is counterpoised by the suspended tables, translucent screen wall which signify sea bubble and the sea; and level of bright glimpse effect throughout the spatial arrangement, embodied the illumination atmosphere of the Klang depot’s night life . Deliberately designed elements permeate the restaurant to embellish the overall setting just as sea lives dwell in the sea. The restaurant layout celebrates the coastal industrial process of on and offloading cargo containers, a parallel can be drawn with the on and offloading of pre-packaged food, just like modern craft no longer limits itself to handmade goods and is continuously expanding its possibilities through machine processing, the craftsmanship of takeaway food can inherit authenticity and quality without compromising the effectiveness of its distribution.
From The Wall Street Journal to Elle, and Architectural Digest to The Lonely Planet city guide; Groos has been named as a leading example for promoting contemporary goings-on in the world of design, art, food and culture in Rotterdam. The one-of-a-kind 300m2 concept store is also heading in a different direction focusing more on high-end design, art, and collaborations with a range of creatives, yet still staying true to its original concept: to promote local talent from Rotterdam to a wide audience. The store’s distinct bright pink wall displays original artworks, and its custom-made mint green candy counter is designed by Sabine Marcelis.
email
Facebook
Twitter
RSS Feed
