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Dekton Ukiyo: Cosentino’s New Material Collection Celebrates the Aesthetic Wisdom of Japan

Most people who love design also love Japan. In fact, it is impossible to truly appreciate the modern history of Western art and design without recognizing Japan’s influence. From the woodblock prints of Hiroshige that inspired Van Gogh to the Zen tea rooms that laid the foundation for minimalist architecture, Japanese aesthetics paved the way for modernism.

It is not just that Japanese design is beautiful. The nation has a long tradition of thinking carefully about aesthetics, and how the contemplation of beauty contributes to human flourishing. Consider the concept of wabi-sabi, or the art of imperfection, that was recently explored in an Architzer op-ed. Centuries before American architects lamented the homogeneity of the clean and orderly suburbs, Japanese philosophers recognized the paradoxical truth about beauty: that it requires flaws.

Dekton Ukiyo NACRE. Image courtesy Cosentino

It is this aspect of Japanese aesthetics — the theoretical side — that most inspired world-renowned interior designer Claudia Afshar in the development of her new collaborative collection with Cosentino, Ukiyo. The tagline for the series is “The Inner Texture,” which speaks to the Japanese understanding of interior design as an art that evokes a mental atmosphere of inner serenity. In the Japanese tradition, beauty and well-being go hand in hand.

The collaboration consists of a series of new patterns and textures for Cosentino’s versatile Dekton surfaces, a product we love and have profiled many times in the past. Scratch resistant, stain resistant, and able to endure the elements, Dekton is the surface of choice for designers looking for a material that is both resilient and visually alluring. The introduction of Dekton into the marketplace in 2013 completely upended the old conventional wisdom that natural materials are more beautiful than composites.

With Ukiyo, Claudia Afshar showcases the extraordinary potential of Dekton. Most Westerners recognize the term ukiyo as referring to a genre of woodblock prints that flourished in the 19th century, epitomized by the work of artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige. But in the promotional materials for this new collection, Afshar and Cosentino have chosen to emphasize the literal meaning of this term, listing the dictionary definition on the top of the collaboration webpage: “[u-key-yo], Japanese, (n). Living in the moment, detached from the bothers of life. ‘The floating world.’” The idea is drawn from Zen. It means that paradise is always at hand; all it takes is a choice to live in the moment.

Dekton Ukiyo KRETA. Image courtesy Cosentino

In a recent webinar hosted by Architizer, Cosentino’s Lauren Dron quoted Coco Chanel’s statement that “An interior is the natural projection of the soul”, emphasizing the depth of the question architects and designers must ask every time they take on a project. “Meaningful design in the built environment continues to be rooted in our minds and in our emotions,” she declared. “Design is a reflection and enhancement of the human experience.”

This second part — enhancement — is key, and it is the place where architects can really have an impact on the world. In a social environment dominated by stress, conflict, and speed, architects can create environments of serenity and calm. They can remind people that “the floating world” is alway at hand if one is willing to adjust their perspective.

This, then, is the noble aim of Ukiyo, which features textures and colors that are simple, yet rich. As lush as any natural stone, and as meditative as a pool of still water, these surfaces bring serenity into all sorts of interiors, from domestic to commercial. Each Dekton color features the same delicate ribbed texture, which is reminiscent of the wood slats one often finds in Japanese homes. The texture also evokes the delicate patterns one finds raked into the sands of Zen gardens.

There are two different options when it comes to the size and spacing of the grooves. Ukiyo GV2 is wider, with 25 mm slats and grooves that are 5 mm wide and 3 mm deep. GV3 is finer, with 11 mm slats and grooves that are 4 mm wide and 4 mm deep.

Dekton Ukiyo BROMO. Image courtesy Cosentino

BROMO is the first color in the series. It is described as “a dark gray shade inspired by slate featuring subtle faded graphics and a carefully crafted texture with a natural aesthetic.” The graphics are really key here. The material is actually deeper and richer than slate, yet it has the same soothing matte finish, exuding sophistication.

The next color, KRETA, is inspired by concrete, a material that retains modernist cache despite its ubiquity. Some of the most lyrical architecture ever made with raw concrete was created by Japanese architects, including Tadao Ando. Cosentino notes that KRETA can “create lighter or darker spaces.” In this way, it plays off the light conditions in its environment, just like real concrete — a true neutral.

NACRE and REM are both shades of cream or beige. NACRE is the lighter of the two, and can even be considered an off-white. It is a great choice for designers looking for a minimalist finish but wary of stark brightness. This tone is both light and warm. REM has a similar impact but is marked by more dramatic veining patterns. There is a luxe quality here that is perfect for commercial interiors.

Dekton Ukiyo UMBER. Image courtesy Cosentino

Finally there is UMBER, the most adventurous and unique color in the series. It is hard to look at this delicately textured terracotta without imagining the rooms one could create with this tone. Unlike the other colors, which are notable for their versatility, UMBER is a showstopper. It is the kind of color you build a room around.

Ukiyo is a truly inspiring series of surfaces. It is also ethically manufactured. Dekton is the only “Cradle-to-Grave Carbon Neutral surface” as Cosentino offsets 100% of their CO2 emissions over the product’s life cycle. This too is very Zen. Dekton exists in harmony with its surroundings.

To learn more about Dekton Ukiyo and talk with Cosentino about how to integrate it into your next project, visit their website.

Reference

Architecture

“Emerging Ecologies” at MoMA Celebrates the Utopian Side of Environmental Design

By Zarkon Group,23/12/2023

Architizer’s 12th Annual A+Awards are officially underway! Sign up for key program updates and prepare your submission ahead of the Main Entry Deadline on December 15th.

In 2023, terms like environmentalism and sustainability have a decidedly bleak emotional valence. Although the worst consequences of climate change are expected to arrive in future decades, the looming specter of this slow leviathan is having an emotional impact on people today. According to the Yale Program on Climate Communication, 3% of Americans regularly experience anxiety about climate change. The number is higher if you look at individual demographics. For instance, 5% of Americans under 35 suffer from climate anxiety, as do a shocking 10% of Hispanic Americans.

Fear. Depression. These are the emotions that the phrase climate change evokes. Morally, the term coincides with a demand for austerity, an idea of living with less. It is no surprise, then, that many climate activists, like countless religious movements of old, have a decidedly iconoclastic rhetorical bent. The notorious Just Stop Oil organization made headlines by throwing soup on famous paintings like Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Like Girolamo Savonarola, who burned Renaissance masterpieces to protest sexual immorality, Just Stop Oil carries a grim and uncompromising sermon. They desecrate art, they say, to mirror the way industrial society desecrates nature.

Girolamo Savonarola leading a “Bonfire of the Vanities” in 15th century Florence, encouraging his followers to burn “immoral” painitngs. Painting by Ludwig von Langenmantel, 1879, via Wikimedia Commons.

But here is the problem with puritanical movements: they fizzle out. Some people are motivated by a call for austerity, but most are not. People want joy. They want beauty. They want to be told that there is a way for them to live well, today, in this life. They do not want to forsake the present for the world to come. Well intentioned or not, if the vision of a sustainable future is a vision of deprivation, it will not motivate people to change their behavior.

This has been my perspective for a while now. And it is why I enjoyed “Emerging Ecologies”, MoMA’s new exhibition on environmental design. Unlike another exhibition I recently visited on sustainability — “The Future is Present“ at the Design Museum in Denmark — “Emerging Ecologies” is not a dystopian lecture about the way our progeny will need to learn with less. To the contrary, the exhibition celebrates architects of the past who grappled with the question of how to design with the environment, taking their cues from the landscape. The show reveals how this approach is not only ethical, but has the potential to produce buildings that are beautiful, quirky, creative and stimulating. Drab this show is not.

“Emerging Ecologies” showcases a few contemporary projects, but the emphasis is on work from the 1960s and 70s, the period when the idea of ecology was still “emerging.” The first thing visitors to the exhibition see is a magnificent model of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, perhaps the only 20th century building that both modernists and traditionalists agree to be a masterpiece.

The centrality of Fallingwater is, I think, the most inspired curatorial choice in the exhibition. But what does it have to do with sustainability? Quite a bit, it seems. Frank Lloyd Wright’s building is designed to complement the landscape rather than dominate it. While the building might not have been created with the purpose of lowering carbon emissions, it does represent the type of attitude architects might come to embrace if they are serious about the ideal of sustainability. Working with nature, rather than against it, could lead us to a future where people live and work in buildings like Fallingwater — an attractive prospect indeed.

Other projects featured early on in the show include Malcom Wells’s design for subterranean suburban dwellings, an approach playfully known today as “hobbitecture.” Wells was interested in these types of dwellings in the early 1960s, but they really caught on in the 1970s, when the oil crisis led individuals to consider ways to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels. Wells’s view was a bit more ambitious than this. He hoped that subterranean architecture would allow “wilderness” to reclaim the American suburbs, quipping that it has the advantage of “millions of years of trial and error” over human civilization. On the surface, this quote seems to echo the misanthropy of Just Stop Oil, but the designs themselves belie this reading. Wells’s houses are cozy habitats for human flourishing.

“Emerging Ecologies” is the inaugural presentation by the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment. Many of Ambasz’s works are among the 150 projects on display, and the curation, handled masterfully by Carson Chan, speaks to Ambasz’s commitment to an imaginative, even utopian vision of sustainable architecture. As Matt Shaw notes in his review for e-flux, the show “traces the twentieth century of American idealism, from crank scientists like Buckminster Fuller to later hippie fever dreams, such as Anna and Lawrence Halprin’s sixties-era nude summer workshops, in a surrealist collection of alternative US futures.” Within the exhibition, low-tech back to nature fantasies exist alongside futuristic visions such as that of the Cambridge Seven Associates, who proposed a lush and self-sustaining rainforest enclosed in a geodesic dome for the Tsuruhama Rainforest Pavilion in 1995.

“Emerging Ecologies” is refreshing in its lack of pedantry. It does not propose to know the way forward. Rather, it looks back to a history of environmental architecture in order to highlight a number of potential pathways. If you are in New York this holiday season, I strongly recommend skipping the Rockettes and seeing this instead. The exhibition runs until 20 January.

Cover Image: Vincent Van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Architizer’s 12th Annual A+Awards are officially underway! Sign up for key program updates and prepare your submission ahead of the Main Entry Deadline on December 15th.

Reference

Interior Design

Cox Architecture celebrates heritage features of its own Sydney studio

By Zarkon Group,23/11/2023

A brick, steel and timber structure is left exposed in this office interior in Sydney, which local firm Cox Architecture has revamped to house its own studio.

Cox Architecture removed previous alterations to the structure, which occupies five floors of the heritage-listed Metcalfe Bond Stores warehouse in Tallawoladah, to highlight its original features and complement them with pared-back, flexible workspaces.

Cox Architecture design studio office in Sydney — Cox Architecture has designed its own studio in a Sydney warehouse

“Our objective was to do more with less, balancing the poetic with the pragmatic,” explained the studio.

“Restrained interventions allow the heritage to be the hero and minimise the project’s embodied energy,” it continued. “Our starting point was a process of reduction, removing non-heritage elements to create clarity.”

Interior view of office space by Cox Architecture — The studio exposed its existing structure

The interior is defined by the original steel and timber structure’s columns and beams that have been painted white, and the brickwork of the outer walls that are left exposed.

New elements such as glass doors and walls, room dividers, curtains and furniture were chosen to touch the existing structure “as lightly as possible”, and feature alongside dark-wood carpentry and gallery-style lighting tracks.

View of office interior featuring a steel and timber structure — Dark-wood carpentry features throughout

The workspaces themselves are designed to be flexible and “hackable”, allowing areas to be reconfigured and subdivided easily by staff.

This includes a forum space on the fifth level of the building, which has a wall lined with magnetic whiteboards and can be used as anything from a collaborative workshop space to a presentation area for 200 people.

Alongside it is a kitchen with a backdrop of exposed brickwork and two long counters topped with unsealed brass that will patinate over time.

A black-steel stair leads up to a mezzanine level above containing further desk spaces. This sits at the top of the building, lit by skylights in the apex of the pitched roof.

View of workspace by Cox Architecture in Sydney — The workspaces are designed to be flexible

“Anchored by a generous kitchen, a flexible forum space is a magnet for serendipitous exchange between Cox’s own people and the wider design community,” said the studio.

“The majority of elements within the space are movable, creating an experimental, nimble workspace allowing teams the autonomy to control their space and future-proofing the studio as the workplace evolves,” it continued.

Cox Architecture design workspace interior in Sydney — The presentation space is lined with magnetic whiteboards

Facing the street, Cox Architecture created a “shopfront window”, giving staff the opportunity to populate vitrines with the studio’s work.

Cox Sydney Studio has recently been shortlisted in the large workplace interior category of Dezeen Awards 2023. Another office interior completed by the studio is the Midtown Workplace in Brisbane, which features a large, plant-filled atrium with by a weathered-steel staircase.

The photography is by Nicole England and Cameron Hallam.

Reference

Interior Design

Mestiz celebrates artisan collaborations in colourful Mexico studio

By Zarkon Group,22/09/2023

Mexican design studio Mestiz has opened a showroom and workshop within a historic building in San Miguel de Allende, where its brightly hued collaborations with local craftspeople take pride of place.

The studio space is located on Pasaje Allende in the heart of the central Mexican city, renowned for its colonial-era architecture and arts scene.

Showroom filled with colourful furniture and homeware — Mestiz opened its new studio as a space to present its colourful furniture and homeware

Mestiz founder Daniel Valero collaborates with a variety of skilled local artisans to create furniture and homeware using ancestral crafts.

“In our studio, partnerships aren’t short-lived; they’re built to last,” he said. “We’ve nurtured long-term relationships with artisans, where learning and creating are an ongoing process.”

Plaster walls with red, orange and brown designs in front — Rough plaster walls of the remodelled space provide a neutral backdrop for the brightly hued designs

Pieces from Mestiz’s collection fill the interior of the studio, which occupies a remodelled stone building designed as a “wild habitat” brimming with personality.

“It was once a kitchen,” Valero explained, “and now it’s a space that respects the idea of Mexican cuisine, infusing it into our creative sanctuary.”

Items displayed on tiled ledges — Ledges covered in glossy tiles provide places to display smaller items the in the showroom

The studio comprises three principal spaces. In the showroom, the original wooden beams and the brick ceiling are exposed, and rough buttery plaster covers the walls.

Ledges and podiums clad in glossy tiles provide places for small items like spiky vessels and framed pictures to be displayed.

Workshop with red bench and shelf — In the workshop, red benches are used for assembling the designs

Larger furniture pieces like a triangular table and chairs with tufty backrests are arranged across the floor.

Meanwhile, textile artworks decorate the walls and huge, fibrous pink light fixtures hang overhead.

“Our creations aren’t just pieces; they’re stories,” said Valero.

“We believe in crafting designs that engage in profound dialogues with the context and history of each community we work with.”

Pink room filled with wicker lighting and furniture — A pink-toned storage room is also filled with products, which are all made from natural materials

The workshop is situated in a lean-to at the side of the building, where the rough stone walls are visible on two sides and other surfaces are left untreated.

Red-painted benches for assembling items and storing natural materials – palm, wood, wool, wicker and ceramic – are surrounded by partially completed designs.

Wicker lights suspended above chairs with tufted sides — Mestiz partners with artisans across Mexico to preserve and celebrate craft traditions

A pink-hued storage room is also packed with products, from wicker lights suspended from the ceiling to tall totems in blue, pink and purple stood in the corners.

“Our practice is a living testament to the merging of traditions,” Valero said. “Our pieces are the embodiment of cultural syncretism, where diverse influences converge to create something entirely new.”

Stone building exterior with view into showroom — The studio is located in a historic stone building in San Miguel de Allende

The rich creative spirit of San Miguel de Allende is also presented at the city’s Casa Hoyos hotel, where colourful tiles and local craft fill a former Spanish colonial manor.

Other Mexican designers continuing local traditions through their work include Fernando Laposse, who uses corn waste to create a marquetry material, and Christian Vivanco, who launched a rattan furniture collection with Balsa.

The photography is by Pepe Molina.

Reference

Sustainable News

Hydro celebrates sustainable partnerships at London Design Festival

By Zarkon Group,19/09/2023

Promotion: aluminium and renewable energy company Hydro is exhibiting its collaboration with designer Lars Beller Fjetland at the London Design Festival, exploring how partnerships can help make the metals industry more sustainable.

Earlier this year Hydro and Fjetland partnered to launch Bello! bench, a piece of outdoor seating made from extruded aluminium with 90 per cent recycled content.

Hydro is now exhibiting the bench at Material Matters at Oxo Tower, in a display that aims to communicate how the project advances the company’s ambition to decarbonise society.

Photo of a green Bello! bench by Hydro and Lars Beller Fjetland camouflaged within a dense field of clover — The Bello! bench is the latest designer collaboration from Hydro

“Material and manufacturing literacy are key to creating truly sustainable products”, says Hydro’s marketing director, Asle Forsbak, noting an estimate that 80 per cent of a product’s environmental footprint is determined in the design phase.

The company aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and push the whole industry towards those goals as well.

This approach has guided the company into partnerships with designers and producers including Tom Dixon, Polestar, Porsche and Cake as it seeks to share knowledge about how to design with aluminium.

Bello! bench by Hydro and Lars Beller Fjetland — The collaboration explores how partnerships can help make the metals industry more sustainable

“As a designer the choices you make at the drawing board decide if the product can be taken apart and recycled again and again, which is why understanding material properties and manufacturing processes is key,” said Forsbak.

According to Forsbak, a deep understanding of engineering, material science and the realities of production all shaped the Bello! bench.

It is made from 90 per cent recycled aluminium, most of which is end-consumer scrap and can be recycled in its entirety.

Photo of a green extruded metal bench sitting within a forest of dence foliage — The bench is made from extruded aluminium with 90 per cent recycled content

Fjetland based his design on penne rigate pasta, luxuriating in the ridged surface texture that could be created through extrusion.

As part of the exhibition, Fjetland is releasing Bello! in a new colour, a “striking, naturalesque green”, and says the design is “a practical example of how we are stronger when we work together”.

“At face value, Hydro might seem like an unlikely exhibitor at the London Design Festival,” said Forsbak. “But with the Bello! bench, we want to demonstrate how the industry and designers can work together to produce a practical and pretty product that can be mass produced, and also meet the society’s growing sustainability demands.”

The collaboration advances Hydro’s sustainability goals, according to the company

“At one hand, industrial mass production comes with a slew of challenges regarding environmental sustainability,” said Forsbak. “On the other hand, there needs to be a market pull for companies to produce sustainably.”

Forsbak explains that for “real, impactful change” it is necessary to have an amalgamation of perspectives, expertise and industries when designing products.

“The sustainability challenge of mass production isn’t solved in a vacuum; We need to work closely with our partners to help decarbonise society,” he said. “That is why collaboration is key.”

The Bello! bench can be seen at Hydro’s display at the Material Matters exhibition. The company’s stand will be made from reused structural components from past exhibitions.

To learn more about aluminium and design, visit Hydro’s aluminium knowledge hub, Shapes.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Hydro as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

Reference

Interior Design

Studio Varey Architects celebrates natural light in Notting Hill house

By Zarkon Group,28/08/2023

London firm Studio Varey Architects has simplified this Victorian terraced house to create a light-filled home in Notting Hill, with timber-framed skylights designed to catch the sun.

Set in the Westbourne Conservation Area, Huron House has belonged to its current owners for the last 25 years.

Exterior of house in London by Studio Varey Architects — Huron House is a renovated Victorian terrace in west London

The overhaul of the 19th-century building started as a simple ground-floor renovation to replace the kitchen and improve the connection between the house and its garden.

However, exploratory works showed the four-storey property to be in bad structural condition, which demanded major improvement works but also gave the owners an opportunity to reimagine their period home.

Dining area of Huron House — Decorative oak beams frame the skylight in the extension

The new brief to Studio Varey Architects included a full house renovation and interior design, with special emphasis on the bathrooms as well as custom joinery and the rebuilding of the 1990s rear extension to create a new open-plan kitchen and dining room.

“Our goal was to create an open-plan living space and bring lots of natural light into the ground floor, helping it to feel more inviting and better suited to entertaining friends and family,” the studio told Dezeen.

Stairwell of house in London by Studio Varey Architects — A simple white staircase leads upstairs

The property sits on a rough east-west axis, giving it the potential to achieve great light levels throughout the day, with the sun moving from the back of the house in the morning to the front in the afternoon.

“We wanted to ensure this natural light was captured through the architecture and design of the spaces,” the studio said.

On the ground floor, Studio Varey Architects removed a structural post that supported the building but divided the back wall.

Bathroom with light well in Huron House — A skylight illuminates the top-floor bathroom

This has been replaced with a steel frame, which allowed the studio to introduce slimline aluminium sliding doors that now run along the whole back of the property.

An existing skylight in the flat roof here was enlarged and framed with oak beams, pulling more light into the centre of the hybrid kitchen-dining space.

“Natural light cascades into the back of the house, while the introduction of oak beams created a feature that plays with the light as it travels through the property,” the studio said.

The whole staircase was replaced and positioned further away from the home’s large rear windows, creating a lightwell funnels sun into the lower floors.

On the top floor, an existing bathroom was fully renovated. Situated in the middle of the top floor it featured no windows save for a small skylight, meaning that light levels were totally inadequate.

Here, Studio Varey Architects cut back the ceiling to create a multifaceted surface clad in birch plywood – its colour knocked back with a wash of soft white – to bounce light around the space.

Timber-clad light well in Huron House — The ceiling was cut back to allow more light into the interior

“We created a splayed ceiling that increased the height of the space, allowing for the playful integration of materials to emphasise the new angles,” the studio said.

“Naturally finished birch ply, leading from the skylight down into Tadelakt walls, beautifully captures sunlight creating a special warmth in the space.”

Living room of house in London by Studio Varey Architects — Oak forms bookcases in the sitting rom

White oak can be found throughout the house in the form of built-in joinery from bookcases and wardrobes, as well as in the feature beams of the extension.

“We wanted to simplify the material palette and keep it light, both in appearance and number of elements we used,” the studio said.

“This was done to emphasise the quality of the materials themselves, highlight the craftsmanship of the work and establish a visual link between the interior spaces throughout the home.”

Bedroom of house in London by Studio Varey Architects — Oak joinery features in the primary bedroom

Polished concrete, used for the floor at ground level, is underlaid with underfloor heating and provides a durable surface that is easy to clean for the owners after walking their dog.

Other recently renovated houses in London include Sunderland Road House by 2LG, which features pastel-painted corniced ceilings, and Graphic House by Office S&M, which is defined by graphic shapes and bold hues.

The photography is by Taran Wilkhu.

Reference

Interior Design

Otherworlds transforms Goan villa into restaurant that “celebrates chance encounters”

By Zarkon Group,22/08/2023

Local design studio Otherworlds drew on the traditional Goan balcão when converting a 1980s villa in Panjim, India, into the Terttulia restaurant and bar.

Housed in a Portuguese-style villa, Terttulia Goa is defined by a central island bar informed by the balcão – an outdoor porch with built-in seats that serves as the entrance to a typical Goan home.

The restaurant takes its name from the Spanish word tertulia, meaning a social gathering with literary or artistic associations.

Local design studio Otherworlds drew on the traditional Goan balcão when converting a 1980s villa in Panjim, India, into a restaurant and bar for Indian chain Terttulia. — Intimate two-seater booths flank the bar

“The balcão is a crucial part of a Goan home as this is where one spends most of their time,” Otherworlds founder Arko told Dezeen.

“At a time of rampant urbanisation, all houses tend to become very self-contained, private and detached, separated away from the city or the neighbourhood,” he continued.

“The balcão becomes all the more important at such a time as it is built with the idea of reinforcing the kinship between the house and the neighbourhood.”

Multidisciplinary studio Otherworlds overhauled the villa, which it describes as a “formerly enclosed shell”, by removing some of the external walls and extending the dining area into an outdoor porch.

This area is sheltered by a large bamboo canopy with elliptical openings that diffuse the natural light, transforming the space throughout the day.

The canopy is intended to mitigate the region’s extreme weather conditions; sheltering customers from the rain during monsoon season and providing a semi-open space with plenty of air circulation during the hot summer months.

Otherworlds designed the bar so that customers face each other, rather than facing the wall, in a bid to “encourage chance encounters”.

“The intention was to create an immersive atmospheric experience that inspires a feeling of being in a tropical, lush outdoor space under an overgrown natural canopy,” said Arko.

A metal and fluted glass structure hung from the building’s external walls floats above the white marble bartop and holds the arc-shaped lamps that light the intimate two-seater booths flanking the bar.

At night, the restaurant is lit by low-hung sinuous lamps informed by sweeping stems that are intended to add a sense of “whimsy” to the interior.

Adhering to Terttulia’s signature green and white colour scheme, the studio opted for a palette of locally sourced materials, including the green-pigmented hand-cast concrete that it used to create the restaurant’s flooring.

“The green pigmented hand-cast concrete floor, largely termed as IPS [Indian Patent stone], is found in most places in the country and is also used to finish the balcão in all Goan homes,” Arko explained.

Otherworlds worked with local workshop Jyamiti & Sea to create ovoid terrazzo accents that are scattered in various places across the floor and walls.

The studio achieved what it terms “the perfect green” using a mixture of white and grey cement and green oxide pigment.

“The tricky bit with coloured concrete is achieving the exact shade [because] once the cement sets and is polished, the result is quite different from the initial wet mix,” said Arko.

“The process required numerous iterations and experiments to get the right mixture of materials that would yield the correct shade.”

The green cement is offset by dark wood derived from the matti, Goa’s state tree.

“We imagined the restaurant to be an extension of the house and while being part of it, [we also wanted it to] feel like a part of the city.”

Other projects that take a contemporary approach to Indian design traditions include a rammed-earth family home in Rajasthan designed by Sketch Design Studio and a Rain Studio-designed “native yet contemporary” home in Chennai.

The photography is by Suryan and Dang.

Reference

Interior Design

Emma Martí celebrates Menorca’s architecture in Hevresac Hotel

By Zarkon Group,13/04/2023

Spanish architect Emma Martí has converted an 18th-century townhouse on the Balearic island of Menorca into the intimate eight-bedroom Hevresac Hotel, taking over all of its five floors from basement to attic.

The building, which originally belonged to a local merchant and privateer, is set in the historic centre of Mahón – a former trade hub that still bears traces of French and English culture after spending many years under colonial rule.

Staircase of Hevresac Hotel — Emma Martí has converted a five-storey townhouse into the Hevresac Hotel

Hevresac owners Ignasi Truyol and Stephanie Mahé brought Martí on board for the renovation in part because she was an old friend, who they thought could be trusted to conserve and enhance the spirit and character of the building.

Martí’s aim for the project was to fill the building with light and life while preserving its wealth of existing architectural elements, from wooden beams and mosaic flooring to stucco walls and staircases.

“The aim of the project was to create a fresh and inspiring hotel that values the beauty of the existing architecture,” said the hotel’s owners.

Lounge of hotel in Menorca by Emma Martí Arquitectura — Original details such as parquet floors were retained throughout

Hevresac’s original floors, covered variously in wooden parquet and encaustic cement tiles, were carefully preserved.

In areas where it was not possible to retain the original elements, Martí chose a new design language using modern equivalents of these original materials, including micro-cement.

Guest room of Hevresac Hotel — Hevresac Hotel has only eight guest rooms

The renovation process revealed both the stucco on the walls and the original paintwork on the beams, uncovering part of the building’s hidden history.

The original wrought iron columns in the living room are now a celebrated feature. Less noticeable but equally interesting is the Masonic symbolism on the wrought-iron railing of the marble staircase at the entrance.

Bathroom of hotel in Menorca by Emma Martí Arquitectura — Solid timber was used to frame private bathrooms in each of the bedrooms

Martí also wanted to preserve the original room structure of the townhouse.

To allow for this, she added private bathrooms within each of the existing bedrooms using a lightweight timber framing system made of solid Flanders pine, while three-ply spruce boards form partitions, headboards and wardrobes in each bedroom.

“Martí’s intention is for the new materials to coexist and harmonise with the originals, providing a new language, lightness and contemporaneity,” the owners said.

A new staircase – also utilising spruce ply – now coexists with the original staircase, providing an alternative route through the Hevresac Hotel.

The material is key to the contemporary language of the new insertions, which sit clearly differentiated alongside layers of the building’s past.

“I like to work with an honest and frank attitude towards the island’s architectural heritage,” Martí told Dezeen. “I wanted it to be clear what our intervention was, not to highlight it but to highlight the value of what existed in the building.”

Hallway of Hevresac Hotel — Three-ply spruce boards form partitions and wardrobes in each of the bedrooms

To fill the spaces with natural light, several skylights were added on the upper floor, with one above the main stairwell as well as three new openings in the facade.

In the basement, the vaulted ceiling made of local marés stone required an intervention to lighten the space.

Martí’s response was to remove a bay of the existing vault and install a new, more comfortable staircase to link the ground floor with the basement and flood the space with light.

Wooden staircase in hotel in Menorca by Emma Martí Arquitectura — Martí also added a new spruce ply staircase

Hevresac’s choice of furnishings reflects Mahón’s cosmopolitan history, including an eclectic assembly of antique, vintage and contemporary pieces from all over Europe.

Among them are Nanimarquina rugs, Achille Castiglioni lights and some of Marcel Breuer’s Cesca chairs, as well as items from Menorcan antique dealers including Alcolea & Kraus and Antics Antigüedades.

“It’s a kind of synergy,” the owners said. “Together, the components project a warm, creative and personal composition, which is more than the algebraical sum of those individual pieces.”

Terrace of Hevresac Hotel — The hotel has a small terrace

Martí, who founded her self-titled studio Emma Martí Arquitectura in Menorca in 2013, has since completed a number of projects on the island.

Among them is a work retreat inside an abandoned girls’ school, with design-driven spaces where businesses can host meetings or team-building sessions.

The photography is by Pol Viladoms

Reference

Sustainable News

Ethical accessory brand celebrates heritage crafts

By Zarkon Group,13/03/2022

Spotted: Social enterprises are a type of business that earns profits for the benefit of a local community. One such organisation in Malaysia, the Earth Heir accessory brand, works with weavers and jewellers to produce handmade bags, baskets, jewellery, stationery, and more. The company spent more than a year earning its Fair Trade certification by the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), and works with refugees as well as local artisans.

Earth Heir helps individuals and groups of artisans design a product to sell. The company then provides additional support in the form of education and training for sustainable business longevity. As well as selling directly from its website, the company also accepts commercial commissions for events and individual products and matches artisans with requests.

The Made51 jewellery line is the result of the brand’s partnership with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Making the jewellery helps people in some of the most insecure situations improve their finances – something that is particularly powerful in locations where the host country does not allow refugees to work.

With ethical consumption becoming a more common goal for many people, artists around the world are providing the means to shop sustainably. Springwise has spotted a South African social enterprise working with young people with disabilities and special needs to help them earn a living from their craftwork. And an e-commerce platform centred on Mexican handicrafts provides a transparent supply chain that supports some of the country’s most vulnerable artists.

Written by: Keely Khoury

11th March 2022

Email: team@earthheir.com

Website: earthheir.com

Reference

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Emma Martí celebrates Menorca’s architecture in Hevresac Hotel

Ethical accessory brand celebrates heritage crafts

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