insnde the all-brick house okamura by christian kerez in prague
In Prague 6, within close proximity to Villa Müller by Adolf Loos, architect Christian Kerez completes House Okamura as a clear example of a very traditional, almost archaic method of constructing brick ‘circles’. The project, designed as an aggregate of column-like volumes, hosts three apartments with 39 rooms, combined. Kerez omitted dividing walls from the interior layout, making the outline of every single space visible from the outside. More so, thanks to their unique configuration, the apartments shift positions from floor to floor so that rooms in the vertical shafts belong to different owners. The rooms vary from 4 sqm to 18 sqm in size and 2.35 meters to 4.9 meters in height, with an additional 19 spaces in between the circular rooms, making it a total of 58 rooms.
circular rooms with varying sizes, openings, and layouts
All spaces within one apartment of House Okamura are open to each other, with areas varying between 90 sqm and 110 sqm. As Christian Kerez (see more here) explains, the different sizes of the overlapping circular rooms create unpredictable changes in the direction of these openings. The latter seem to be randomly positioned and create a labyrinth-like movement. ‘It is a space that opens in on itself, generating an impression of expansion within actually limited boundaries, as intended by the rigorous geometrical arrangement. The layout of the circular rooms changes from one level to another,’ continues the Czechian architect.
House Okamura in Prague 6
Meanwhile, the elevator, storage, and sanitary area are all tucked between the circular rooms of House Okamura. These intermediate spaces, which can be entirely closed off with doors, are minimal, fragmented, and convex, as opposed to the open, perfectly concave main zones. Concluding his thoughts, Christian Kerez highlights how the spatial concept of autonomous rooms aggregated to a sequence of spaces feels radical and new while the whole project resorts to traditional brick construction, which is easier to build on site than orthogonal spaces.
the project reveals a cluser of brick circles
the interiors host three apartments, with 39 rooms in total
circular living room with no dividing walls
the direction of openings constantly changes from room to room, and floor to floor
Fashion designer Christian Louboutin and architect Madalena Caiado’s 13-room boutique hotel in the village of Melides, south of Lisbon, celebrates craftsmanship and has been “designed at the scale of the hand”.
Named after the French designer’s signature colour, Vermelho, which is Portuguese for red, is Louboutin’s first hospitality project.
Each room is furnished from Louboutin’s collection
The hotel features 13 rooms – all of them filled with the work of local craftsmen and a selection of materials and furniture from Louboutin’s personal collection.
“This project has allowed me to empty my storage full of antiques and objects I have purchased over many years!” Louboutin told Dezeen.
Floor tiles are in Louboutin’s signature shade of red
At one point in the development of the project it looked like it might not be approved to operate as a hotel and so Louboutin decided “if it’s not going to be a hotel, I’m going to do it as my house”. As a result, each of the hotel’s rooms have been individually designed and have their own identity.
“If you build a house, you’re never going to design the same room,” the designer said. “I don’t know a house where you have the same room three times – it only exist in hotels.”
“Houses have feelings – they have different rules to hotels,” he continued. “You can’t have your house looking like a hotel”.
The hotel has been designed in the local architectural style
Vermelho was designed to be “well-integrated into the village” and it was important to Louboutin “that it really respects the area and environment”.
Working with Portuguese architect Caiado, the resulting hotel meets the street as a series of traditional buildings in the local architectural language: white render with blue plinth and window detailing, terracotta-tiled roofs and a scattering of chimneys punctuating the skyline.
There was nothing on the site before work began
“We have tried to imagine a building that could have existed in that place, and that was part of the landscape,” Caiado told Dezeen.
“To achieve that, we made a project adapted to the topography, relating to the surrounding buildings, and re-discovering traditional construction systems and materials.”
The hotel looks onto a private garden and pool
The site, which curves round a private garden and swimming pool that looks out to reed marshes, culminates in a tower, punctuated with playful window openings that hint at the internal character of the project.
Discreet from the street, the interior design and garden-facing facade is full of detail, colour and craftmanship.
The tower features unusual diamond punctuation
The hotel’s maximalist and eclectic style was intended as a reflection of Louboutin’s personal taste, while also celebrating Portuguese savoir-faire and the traditions of local craftspeople.
Having already worked with Caiado on his Lisbon house, Louboutin’s brief for Vermelho was to show Caiado an Indian bracelet from his collection, which from the outside looks like a simple gold bangle, but on its inside face was engraved with busy animal designs and set with diamonds.
The interiors are highly detailed
“I said to Madalena, the hotel should be like the bangle; from the outside, you don’t see anything,” Louboutin explained. “It’s to be a very simple, well-designed building that doesn’t give away much information about the inside,”
“But when you go inside, it should be this animal and diamond thing,” he continued.
Bedrooms feature murals by Konstantin Kakanias
To achieve the highly decorative and detailed interior Louboutin collaborated with designer Carolina Irving, who acted as an advisor on textile creation and decoration, and ceramic tile designer and interiors consultant Patricia Medina.
Hand-painted frescoes by Greek artist Konstantin Kakanias cover the walls, while bedrooms features wardrobes with Maison Gatti French latticework.
Playful murals adorn walls throughout the hotel
Bespoke woodwork and carpentry was completed by Spanish master craftsmen company Los Tres Juanes. Throughout the project Louboutin used Alentjo tiles, as well as giving the Italian artist Giuseppe Ducrot a blank slate to design sculptural ceramic details for the facade.
The hotel restaurant, called Xtian, features a Klove Studio mural chandelier and a bespoke bar covered in hammered silver leaf, which was made by Seville-based liturgical goldsmiths Orfebrería Villarreal.
The bar is made from silver by Spanish goldsmiths
Speaking to Dezeen, Caiado described the project as “at the same time, the most extravagant and most traditional project I’ve ever done”.
“The biggest challenge was balancing the different constellations of ideas for each space, so that it results in a harmonious way,” she explained.
“Especially during construction, Christian was present and brought his own creative universe, but also a more tactile way of thinking and with an artistic component of searching for novelty, even when it came to traditional materials and techniques – almost as if the hotel was designed at the scale of the hand of those who built it.”
Local Atlentjo tiles are used throughout the project
Other recent boutique hotels featured on Dezeen include Dorothée Meilichzon’s revamp of Cowley Manor Experimental and Beata Heuman’s interiors for Hôtel de la Boétie in Paris.
Danish design studio Christian + Jade has created an exhibition in collaboration with wood flooring manufacturer Dinesen that explores the density of wood and its significance and history as a commodity.
The Weight of Wood exhibition, which takes place at the Dinesen showroom as part of Copenhagen festival 3 Days of Design, was the result of a year-long research project commissioned by the brand’s recently founded Dinesen Lab.
Weight of Wood is an exhibition by Christian + Jade
Dinesen Lab invited Christian Hammer Juhl and Jade Chan, founders of Christian + Jade, to take part in a residency in which local artists were asked to work with wood harvested by the company to produce a research project and explore the weight of wood.
The Weight of Wood installation is located within a large exhibition space at the brand’s showroom in Copenhagen. This was divided into a series of smaller rooms via sheets of textured paper hung vertically from a wooden pavilion.
It takes place at the Dinesen showroom
Each of the smaller rooms separates the exhibition into three different parts titled Forest and Wood, Wood and Wood, and Human and Wood.
Throughout the exhibition space, wooden tables hold a number of experiments and interventions completed by Christian + Jade using different types of wood that were harvested by Dinesen.
“We were fascinated by the idea that no two pieces of wood weigh the same, not even if it comes from the same tree trunk,” the studio explained at a preview of the exhibition. “This was really what sparked our interest in this project.”
The exhibition explores the ways in which wood has been commodified
“Through this exhibition, we have tried to work with this idea in various scales,” the studio founders added. “It sort of presents a design methodology, combining different pieces of wood with different densities.”
“What we have created is not only a series of furniture but also a rocking horse, a rocking chair and lots of small experiments that visualise this intangible quality of wood, which is the weight of wood.”
A collection of different-sized cubic wooden volumes were presented in the exhibition, made from 11 different species of wood including beech, cherry, Douglas fir and elm. Each of the pieces of wood weighs 250 grams and conveys the different densities of wood through volume and size.
A seesaw placed at the rear of the exhibition space featured a base made from Douglas fir and topped by a seat constructed from equal parts Douglas fir and oak. As a result of oak having a higher density than Douglas fir, the seesaw will always lean towards its oak-constructed side.
The designers used Dinesen’s wood for their experiments
“We chose three different furniture archetypes that require weight and balance in their function – the seesaw, the rocking chair and the rocking horse,” Chan said.
“So in designing or reimagining the furniture, we’ve worked with four of Dinesen’s main wood species; that is Douglas fir, oak, pine and ash.”
The exhibition was divided into three parts
“The seesaw is an example of one of the simple principles that we apply – the pivot point is made using Douglas and the seat is made using oak and Douglas,” Chan added.
The rocking horse was constructed from 87 per cent Douglas fir and 13 per cent ash. Because of its Douglas fir-heavy construction, the horse always tilts towards one side, which provides it with a unique movement.
The exhibition included a rocking horse, seesaw and rocking chair
Chan concluded the preview of the Weight of Wood exhibition with a poem by H P Dinesen, a relative of the company founders:
“To those who love the tree, those who may be fighting the tree, the one who plants the tree, the one who fells the tree, the poet who praises the tree, and the one who simply settles with enjoying the tree.”
Also at this year’s 3 Days of Design, Nemo Lighting unveiled a light designed by architect Le Corbusier and a lamp by architect Charlotte Perriand and Takt launched a fully disassemblable sofa that can be replaced and recycled.
Weight of Wood is on show as part of 3 Days of Design 2023, from 7 June to 9 June 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the event, plus a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
