Architecture studio Linehouse has wrapped a food market in a Shanghai laneway neighbourhood around a central atrium informed by Victorian greenhouses.
Named Foodie Social, the 2,000-square-metre food market is located within the Hong Shou Fang community – a residential area in Shanghai’s Putuo district known for its classic “longtang” laneway architecture.
The food market is in a two-storey grey brick building in Shanghai
The entrance to the two-storey market was framed by a double-height arrangement of stacked recycled red bricks, with a corten steel canopy added to provide shelter.
The same recycled red bricks sourced from demolished houses in China can also be found on the interior walls, stacked to create three dimensional patterns.
The glass pitched roof is lined with a gently curved metal truss
A large glass door can be pulled open on warm days, with patterned paving from the laneway outside extending to the interior of the market, fully connecting the interior and exterior.
The interior of the market was designed to resemble a greenhouse, with shops and cafe’s arrranged around a central, double-height atrium.
The glass pitched roof above the atrium was lined with gently curved metal truss, in reference to Victorian greenhouses, with three large fans hanging from the metal truss to improve the air circulation.
Some vendors are designed to be retractable to allow flexibility
A cafe in the atrium, which contains an olive tree planted into the ground, integrates a metal staircase that leads to the upper floor.
A area describes as a “stage” is located by the staircase with a series of undulating balconies wrapped around the atrium on the upper floor.
Various typologies of food vendors are arranged in the open atrium on the ground floor, some of which are designed to be retractable, allowing flexibility for different types of vendors as well as a large open event space to be formed at the centre.
“This new typology brings together the local with more curated food offerings in a contemporary yet humble and sustainable way,” explained Linehouse‘s Shanghai team who are responsible for the design.
Recycled red bricks can be found both on the facade and interior walls
Smaller snack shops were positioned on the ground floor, while larger restaurants occupy the upper floor.
Each stall was assembled from a kit of parts, so that the vendors are able to create their own signage and layout, but maintain a consistent material and lighting palette.
Larger restaurants are located on the upper floor
Linehouse is a Hong Kong and Shanghai-based architecture and interior design studio established in 2013 by Alex Mok and Briar Hickling. The duo won the emerging interior designer of the year category at the 2019 Dezeen Awards.
The studio has also recently designed the facade of a shopping centre in Bangkok and the interiors for a Hong Kong residence that respond to coastal views.
The photography is by Wen Studio.
Project credits:
Design principal: Alex Mok Associate-in-charge: Cherngyu Chen Design team: Yeling Guo, Fei Wang, Wang Jue, Norman Wang, Aiwen Shao, Mia Zhou, Yunbin Lou, Xiaoxi Chen, Tom Grannells
A bedroom incorporating a bathtub and a window bench is one of several versatile spaces architect Ulli Heckmann created when renovating this compact apartment in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Heckmann and his partner, the designer Nienke Bongers, bought the apartment in the Delfshaven neighbourhood in 2020 with the aim of refurbishing it to suit their personal tastes.
Multipurpose rooms were used to optimise space at Ulli Heckmann’s Rotterdam apartment
The 100-square-metre property is spread across the ground floor and basement of a brick apartment building dating from 1935 that stretches along a dike on the river Schie.
Previous renovations in the 1980s had stripped away all of the interior’s original features, so the couple decided to completely gut the spaces and rebuild them using a modern and affordable material palette.
The open-plan kitchen and living area receive daylight from the garden
The existing layout did not make the best use of the garden access, so Heckmann moved the bedrooms upstairs and created a large living space below with direct access to the outdoors.
“The original downstairs plan showed one room facing the garden and one towards the street, which was quite gloomy and dark,” the architect told Dezeen.
“Since the new downstairs is basically mono-orientated, an open layout with the kitchen cupboard as a room divider seemed the best solution in terms of space with an option for privacy.”
Heckmann completely rebuilt the interior spaces using affordable materials. Photo is by Yuta Sawamura
The largely open-plan configuration creates a space for cooking, eating and socialising that receives plenty of daylight from the large windows at one end.
Freestanding cupboards screen a small private space that Heckmann explained can be used for “reading a book, inviting friends to stay over or simply drying the laundry without putting it in the middle of the living room.”
The kitchen is divided by a wooden cupboard unit for privacy. Photo is by Yuta Sawamura
Throughout the property, built-in storage helps to optimise and organise space, allowing the interior to be used in different ways at different times. Examples include a hidden desk in the children’s bedroom and a window bench in the main bedroom.
“Most of the rooms are not limited to only one purpose throughout the day and night,” said Heckmann, “which helps tremendously for the use of the space – especially as a family.”
The layout of the upper floor is more compartmentalised than the basement level; however, a full-height mirrored door at the end of the hall can be left open to ensure the spaces feel connected.
The two bedrooms at either end of the plan are separated by a walk-in wardrobe and a shower room hidden behind cupboard-like doors.
The main bedroom integrates a bathtub that can be hidden behind a curtain
In addition to the bed and window bench, the main bedroom contains a bathtub set on wooden blocks that can be screened off using a curtain.
“The need to create multifunctional spaces is one of the reasons why we decided to have the bathtub in the bedroom,” Heckmann explained. “Also, we quite like that it becomes an object in our daily life instead of hiding it away.”
Most of the furniture was built by Heckmann and Bongers with stained or dyed plywood and MDF
The couple had wanted to use natural materials where possible to completely revamp the interior, but the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic caused prices to soar and subsequent lockdowns made commissioning specialist trades much more difficult.
Heckmann and Bongers therefore designed and built most of the furniture themselves, using plywood or MDF that they stained or dyed to give the materials a more unique finish.
The bedroom shelf and the hall cupboards are made from eucalyptus plywood tinted with an earl-grey mixture, while the bedhead is MDF with a hardwax finish.
The bedhead unit is made from MDF with a warm-toned hardwax finish
Lime plaster was used on the walls throughout the apartment. The downstairs spaces were left raw and natural, while the bedroom has green pigment added to give it a subtle hint of colour.
For the kitchen, Heckmann used MDF boards with oak veneer and a countertop with a dark Forbo linoleum surface. The cupboard under the stairs features an oak frame surrounding polycarbonate panels, while the staircase podium is made from painted MDF.
A hidden desk in the children’s bedroom helps to optimise space usage
Ulli Heckmann completed his Diploma studies at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, in 2006 and worked for several years for agencies in Germany and France, including Maison Edouard François.
He founded his architecture and design studio in Paris in 2013 and now works on projects across Europe, ranging from object and interior design to private housing and architectural competitions.
Other recent Rotterdam projects featured on Dezeen include a floating cross-laminated timber office and a multi-faceted auditorium designed using computer modelling.
The photography is by Ulli Heckmann unless otherwise stated.
New York-based studio Apparatus has redesigned its Hollywood showroom with multiple material schemas and a range of its lighting and furniture products to evoke a feeling of “discovery” for visitors.
The 5,000-square-foot (464 square metres) Hollywood showroom first opened in 2018 in a former warehouse. Apparatus redesigned the interiors – which previously consisted of bold geometric and neoclassical elements – opting for an experience featuring a progression of materials that create distinct experiences for each room.
Apparatus has redesigned the interiors of its LA showroom
Its three adjoining rooms were transformed with distinct finishes and reconfigured displays.
The first room’s walls and adjoining archways were covered in a coarse rock aggregate. Beds of similar stones fill small recessed gaps between the floor and the walls and a large circular mirror sits behind an installation of the Trapeze light configured as a mobile.
The entry program features wall with a rough texture
“Upon entering, you find yourself in our version of a modernist grotto,” said Apparatus.
“Here lights are relatively low, allowing you to experience our collections with slightly subterranean undertones.”
The “grotto”-like room features an installation of the Trapeze chandelier
The pre-existing archways were left intact and lead into the next space, which was finished in a silver-toned plaster custom produced by New York outift Kamp Studios. This surface treatment has a reflective quality meant to contrast the first space.
It has an installation featuring multiple of Appratatus’ iconic Cloud chandeliers that give the space an airiness when contrasted with the earthy textures of the first.
The second room has a smooth, silvery finish on the walls
“Silvered walls reflect without revealing, giving the impression of being inside a Renaissance coffer,” said the studio. “After the grounding of the first space, this functions as a release.”
A third room is lined with cork wall panels with intricate grain patterning and includes an unattributed bird-themed tapestry.
Natural light comes in from overhead windows casting shadows on the double-height room, and includes several products arranged sparsely across the room.
“It’s about feeling discovery and moving through layers,” said Apparatus founder Gabriel Hendifar.
Throughout, light fixtures are hung low to emphasize a dream-like characteristic of the reimagined space.
As in Apparatus’s other showrooms in New York and London, the gallery’s interior design resembles the composition of famous paintings and historical architectural styles. Italian artist Giorgio De Chirico’s Surrealist works were referenced for this room.
The third space features cork-lined walls and a double-height ceiling
According to the company, the space was also redesigned based on a creative narrative of a hypothetical person: a woman living in New York City during the 1960s.
The hypothetical person in this case experiences the cultural tensions of the time, between old world conventions and big changes in society, such as the moon landing, embodying the “tension between modernity and the arcane”.
“What would happen if this woman moved to Los Angeles a decade later to find herself? Our Los Angeles gallery is the answer,” said the studio.
The rooms were ordered to evoke a sense of discovery
Apparatus has displayed its full suite of products in this immersive setting. Collections on view include the Cloud pendant lamp and the Episode Settee sofa.
Other recent showroom designs include the London Camper store by James Shaw and Malbon Golf Coconut Grove store by 22RE.
New York interior designer Timothy Godbold has renovated an apartment in a historic Tribeca building, adding various relief treatments across its neutral walls including panels influenced by a 1970s sci-fi series.
The spacious loft is located in an 1881 cast-iron building on Franklin Street, which was formerly a textile factory and was overhauled by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Shigeru Ban in 2019.
The most dramatic space in the loft is a double-height living room surrounded by windows
“The homeowners, a young family with two children, set out with the objective of creating a great home for entertaining that simultaneously utilized space efficiently to create a comfortable family living space,” said Godbold‘s team.
The designer helped to organise the layout so that it functioned optimally for the family, and despite opting for a neutral colour palette, Godbold upped the drama through the scale of the furniture and artwork.
Rather than disguise a structural column, Timothy Godbold used it as an anchor for the dining table
A double-height living room occupies a corner flooded with light from windows on two sides, which can be diffused by drawing the sheer curtains.
To work around a large structural column disrupting the view to the living room, Godbold used the column to anchor a stone dining table to turn it into a focal feature.
The kitchen is intentionally minimal, benefitting from the absence of cabinet and drawer pulls
The table references a 1930s design by Hans and Wassili Luckhardt and Alfons Anker, in keeping with the industrial style of the building.
The kitchen is very minimal, thanks to the omission of cabinet and drawer pulls, and includes an island with a waterfall stone top that creates space for a breakfast bar.
An area behind the kitchen was converted into a flexible office and bar space
Hidden behind the kitchen is a former TV room converted into a bar room and an office “to maximise the versatility of the space and meet multiple needs”.
The walls in this flexible room are covered in geometric plaster-relief panels, which add shadows and texture, while the furniture is darker and more masculine.
Plaster relief panels based on a 1970s sci-fi series cover the walls
A Reprise pendant light from New York design studio Apparatus hangs in a corner that has been curved to accentuate the modernist-style wall panelling.
“The wall details in this Tribeca space are inspired by a classic 1970s sci-fi series that showcases an all-Italian modern aesthetic within a futuristic environment,” said the team.
A feature wall behind the bed in the primary bedroom is fluted across its full width
A row of plastered arched niches separates the formal entertaining areas from a more casual seating area, where a large pale grey sofa shifts the tone from the warm whites found elsewhere.
In the primary bedroom, the built-in bed and nightstands are installed below a tufted upholstered headboard that runs the full width of the room, and a fluted wall feature that extends to the ceiling.
The bedroom also features a sculptural sofa, large planters and a huge artwork by Etienne Moyat
Opposite the bed is a sculptural sofa surrounded by oversized planters and a large, carved relief artwork by French sculptor Etienne Moyat on the wall.
Godbold custom-designed many of the pieces throughout the home, including most of the furniture and decorative elements.
His references included mid-century Italian designers like Joe Colombo, whose space-age shapes are echoed in the dining chairs, sofas, and smaller lighting and decor items.
Godbold also played with proportion to add drama, as seen in the living room’s custom stone sofas that are upholstered in a “brutalist” fabric made in England, and the coffee table with an integrated planter.
A variety of space-age shapes and materials can be found throughout the loft
The rugs also feature custom designs that outline the furniture in the same space.
Overall, the goal was to “marry the industrial, the art deco and the more surreal aspects of 1970s noir cult cinema for a glamorous and intriguing end product.”
The home’s neutral colour palette continues through to the nursery
Originally from Australia, Godbold is currently based in the Hamptons, where he renovated his mid-century home to resemble a “villain’s hideout”.
He also aims to preserve other modernist dwellings built across the area through the nonprofit organisation Hamptons 20th Century Modern.
New York-based Crosby Studios has piled office equipment around a long metallic table as part of a pop-up installation for fashion brand The Frankie Shop in Los Angeles.
The month-long installation titled The Office was launched to coincide with LA Art Week and the Sag-Aftra film festival and marked the New York label The Frankie Shop‘s first presence in the Californian city.
A long, metallic conference table formed part of The Office installation created by Crosby Studios
The brand’s founder Gaëlle Drevet and Crosby Studios creative director Harry Nuriev met at his studio, talked for 2.5 hours and decided to work together.
The resulting installation occupies a trapezoidal building on Sunset Boulevard wrapped in metallic film on all sides.
Equipment like printers, office chairs and water coolers were arranged around the perimeter of the space
Inside, the warehouse-like space features a long table also covered in a reflective material, with matching cube-shaped stools set along either side.
Articulated desk lamps, microphones and bottles of water were arranged on the table as if set up for delegates at a convention.
The central table featured microphones and water bottles as if set up for a meeting
Around the perimeter, Nuriev placed recycled office equipment, such as a large printer, a stack of binders and a pile of plastic-wrapped office chairs.
A row of water coolers was lined up along one end of the room, encircled with glowing light boxes to create sharp silhouettes of the equipment in front.
Light boxes that encircle the space create sharp silhouettes of the office furniture placed in front
“It’s not really about the office, it’s more about what happens after the office,” Nuriev told Dezeen. “I was thinking it’s time to officially move on from the office and consider the future. However, in this project, we’re uncertain about what the future holds exactly.”
A selection of apparel by The Frankie Shop is interspersed among the vignettes, while a “storage” area in the back serves as a fitting room.
Some of the furniture is plastic-wrapped, appearing as though just installed or ready to be shipped away
Together, the industrial style of the building, the silvery materials, the lighting and the equipment served to highlight the brand’s reinterpretation of businesswear.
“The pop-up design blends a dynamic combination of fashion and nostalgia, where the power suits of the past seamlessly align with the modern attitude of The Frankie Shop,” said the team.
Metallics are commonplace in Nuriev’s interior projects, appearing prominently in a Berlin jewellery store, a Moscow restaurant and his own New York apartment amongst others.
However, he is vague about the reasons or intentionality behind this recurring theme.
The exterior of the building on Sunset Boulevard is also covered in reflective film
“I don’t really think about ‘why’; it’s just my instincts, and I prefer to follow my feelings,” said Nuriev. “For this project, I had a vision of silver, and I think it works perfectly.”
Originally from Russia, the designer founded Crosby Studios in 2014 and is now based between New York and Paris.
The month-long installation marks The Frankie Shop’s first presence in LA and was timed to coincide with the city’s art week
He recently completed the interiors for New York nightclub Silencio, based on the original location in Paris designed by film director David Lynch.
Nuriev frequently collaborates with fashion brands, on projects ranging from a virtual sofa upholstered with green Nike jackets to a transparent vinyl couch filled with old Balenciaga clothing.
The Office is on show in Los Angeles from 23 February to 24 March. For more events, talks and exhibitions in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.
Architecture studio Fala Atelier decked out the angular spaces of the 087 house in Lisbon with oversized spots and stripes, which also feature on its bold marble facade.
Designed by Porto-based studio Fala Atelier, 087 is a three-storey home in the Portuguese capital with a rectilinear facade decorated with chunky marble shapes.
The 087 house features a facade decorated with chunky marble shapes
The studio, known for its playful use of geometry, created custom carpentry from locally sourced materials to accommodate the home’s curved and staggered walls and the sloping ceilings within the building.
A garden-facing kitchen on the ground floor includes terrazzo flooring and stepped timber cabinetry decorated with bold black and white stripes and topped with marble slabs.
A funnel-shaped extractor fan adds an eclectic touch
Unusual features such as a funnel-shaped, teal-hued extractor fan add an eclectic touch. This Fala Atelier-designed piece can also be found in a windowless garage in Lisbon that the studio converted for a couple.
“There are no elegant extractors on the market,” Fala Atelier partner Filipe Magalhães told Dezeen.
“All of them look like nasty appliances. With the kitchen in the way of the window, we knew we would have to integrate the fan. Since we couldn’t make it disappear, we celebrated the piece,” he added.
The open-plan kitchen is connected to the living space
The open-plan kitchen connects to the living area, which is characterised by pinewood flooring dotted with geometric walnut accents.
“The colours of the stripes and the dots on the floor really try to be noble,” said Magalhães.
Bespoke Fala Atelier-designed doors and window frames match the kitchen cabinets
The space also features doors designed by the studio and caramel-coloured Ligne Roset Togo sofas – a quilted and low-slung design classic created by Michel Ducaroy in 1973.
This seating was positioned next to a boxy fireplace clad with gleaming white ceramic tiles and a squat display plinth finished in veiny black marble.
Custom cabinetry also features on the upper floors
“We tried to diversify the material palette as much as possible while still making it quite banal,” explained Magalhães.
“The choices are very Portuguese, but the mixture aims at being more than just that,” added the architect.
Board-formed concrete ceilings were included throughout
Upstairs, the same bespoke cabinetry as in the kitchen was used to form larger cupboards across the curved and angular private spaces of the two upper floors.
Board-formed concrete ceilings, which also feature downstairs, were paired with oversized rounded mirrors in the bathrooms and a mixture of timber and marble flooring.
The garden-facing facade follows the same geometry as its street-facing component, also featuring circular and rectilinear decorative shapes.
“This house is a lot about the relationship with the garden,” said Magalhães, noting the floor-to-ceiling glazing that connects the indoor and outdoor spaces.
087 focuses on “the relationship with the garden”
Fala Atelier has designed several homes in a similar style, including six micro-houses in Porto with geometric forms and concrete finishes and another Porto property topped with a striped concrete roof.
Increasing numbers of people in social housing are living in inhospitable conditions because they are unable to afford even basic furniture and flooring, Dezeen reports as part of our Social Housing Revival series.
In the UK, social-rented homes are usually handed over to new residents in a sparse state – lacking basic elements of decoration and furnishings, as well as essential appliances.
As the cost of living continues to rise and the availability of crisis-support services diminishes, a growing number of people are unable to afford to furnish these homes, meaning they are sometimes forced to live in a harsh environment for months at a time.
Top: before – many UK social-housing residents live with furniture poverty. Above: after – London charity Furnishing Futures makes new interiors for women who have fled domestic abuse
“For the families who we work with, the point that is most distressing is the void condition – the homes are given and [social landlords] don’t bother painting the walls, and there’s absolutely no flooring down,” said Emily Wheeler, founder and CEO of Furnishing Futures.
“Most people over time can manage to get some furniture together that’s gifted to them from the local church or friends or family or whatever, but it costs thousands and thousands of pounds to put flooring down, even in a one-bedroom flat.”
London charity Furnishing Futures was recently established to address the issue among women fleeing domestic abuse, creating interiors to a high standard using furniture donated from brands.
Emily Wheeler founded Furnishing Futures after realising that the poor condition of social housing was driving women back to abusive partners. Photo by Penny Wincer
Domestic-abuse survivors and people leaving care or who were previously homeless are particularly at risk of furniture poverty since they are less likely to have items to bring with them.
Wheeler said Furnishing Futures is seeing increasing demand for its services as more people come under financial pressure.
“Initially we were only working with women who were in receipt of benefits or experiencing severe poverty or destitution,” explained Wheeler.
“But now we’re working with families who are using the food bank but the woman is a midwife, or she’s a teaching assistant, or she is a teacher, and that is new.”
The charity increasingly encounters families living in destitute conditions
Sometimes the conditions the charity witnesses are shocking, Wheeler told Dezeen.
“People are experiencing real hardship,” she said. “We’ve frequently come across people who have no food, no clothes, no shoes for their children.”
“The kids are sleeping on a blanket on a concrete floor – there’s nothing in the flat whatsoever,” she continued. “And those people might even be working as care assistants, or teaching assistants. So it’s really, really difficult at the moment for people.”
Furnishing Futures seeks to deliver interiors that “look like show homes”. Photo by Michael Branthwaite
Wheeler is a trained interior designer who formerly worked in child safeguarding.
The charity decorated and furnished 36 homes in 2023. Photo by Michael Branthwaite
She was prompted to set up Furnishing Futures after discovering that many women in social housing who had left dangerous homes were driven back to their abuser by poor living conditions.
“When women were placed in new housing after having escaped really high-risk situations, they sometimes felt that they had no choice but to return because they couldn’t look after their children in those conditions – there’d be no fridge, no cooker, no washing machine, no bed, no curtains on the windows,” she explained.
“People are expected to go to those places at a time of great trauma and distress, and recover, but those places are often not conducive to that because of the design and the environment.”
Wheeler said the interiors industry could be doing more to have a bigger social impact. Penny Wincer
The charity overhauled 36 homes in 2023, helping 99 women and children. It takes a design-led approach with an emphasis on finishing interiors to a high standard.
“We professionally design them and they look like beautiful homes – they look like show homes when they’re finished,” Wheeler said.
“And the reason we do that is because it’s really important that the women feel that they have a beautiful home and they feel safe there, that they feel for the first time that someone really cares about them,” she added.
“It also supports the healing and the recovery journey for those women.”
To help ensure quality, the charity only works with new or as-new furniture. It works with brands to source items that would otherwise be sent to landfill – usually press samples or items used at trade shows, in showrooms or on shoots.
Wheeler is keen for Furnishing Futures to expand beyond London but the charity is currently held back by limited warehouse capacity and funding.
“If we had more money and more space we could help more people, it’s as simple as that, really,” she said.
The charity relies on donations from furniture brands
The charity continues to seek donations from brands, particularly for bedroom furniture and pieces for children.
As well as calling for social-housing providers to let their properties in a better state, Wheeler believes the design industry could be doing more to help people facing furniture poverty.
“I do think that where the industry could catch up a little bit is working with organisations like ours,” she said.
For example, charities are unable to take furniture lacking a fire tag – which tend to be removed – so imprinting this information onto the items themselves would make more usable.
The charity is often in need of items for children’s bedrooms. Photo by Michael Branthwaite
In addition, donating excess items as an alternative to sample sales could be a way to reduce waste with much greater social impact, she suggests.
“There’s probably millions of people across the country living without basic items and yet there’s massive overproduction, but the waste isn’t necessarily coming to people who actually need it,” Wheeler said.
“There are things that the industry could be doing that will create a huge social impact very easily.”
The photography is courtesy of Furnishing Futures unless otherwise stated.
This article is part of Dezeen’s Social Housing Revival series exploring the new wave of quality social housing being built around the world, and asking whether a return to social house-building at scale can help solve affordability issues and homelessness in our major cities.
Musician Bruno Mars and design studio Yabu Pushelberg have teamed up to create the interiors of a cocktail lounge and live music venue at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas.
Named The Pinky Ring, the 5,000-square-foot (465-square-metre) lounge is accessible directly from the casino floor, but designed as an entirely separate experience away from the bright lights, bustle and noise.
The stone bar at The Pinky Ring is surrounded by golden drapes that are reflected in the mirrored ceiling
The bar serves a curated collection of cocktails and hosts live entertainment by top musicians and DJs – though no phones are allowed inside.
A huge crystal chandelier hangs in the centre of the lounge and is visible from all corners
The entry sequence begins with a dimly lit mirrored passageway, where Mars’ collection of Grammy trophies is displayed.
“Inspired by contemporary museum design, the corridor was designed as a soothing and discreet exhibition space where guests can cleanse their visual palette from the outside world and begin to submerge into The Pinky Ring,” said the design team.
A VIP area is lined with faceted mirrored panels that create infinite reflections
Guests arrive at the main bar and lounge in front of a sunken conversation pit, wrapped with a wavy banquette and furnished with soft armchairs gathered around a series of small tables.
The carpet, the leather and the velvet chair upholstery are shades of green – colours also found in the richly veined stone tabletops.
Other niches with additional seating feature dark wood-veneer panels
A giant halo-like chandelier with tiers of glowing crystal hangs from the ceiling above, providing a central focal point that can be seen from every corner.
At the rear of the space is a gently curved, dramatically patterned stone bar, topped with a row of metallic Flowerpot lamps by Verner Panton.
In the central conversation pit, various shades of green were chosen for the carpet, chairs and banquettes
The back bar is housed within an elongated pill-shaped, mirrored recess, which displays a wide range of liquor bottles and is ringed with stepped cove lights.
Golden drapes run floor to ceiling across the back wall and are reflected in more mirrors on the ceiling.
The green hues of the seating are echoed in the richly veined stone tabletops
Off the main lounge are various niches and VIP areas that offer additional seating, some lined with dark wood-veneer panels.
“See or be seen, each area is composed of its own suave and purpose that echoes into the next,” said the team.
One organically shaped space is lined with faceted, smokey mirrored panels that create infinite reflections, and features a banquette that wraps around a large table fitted with a giant ice bucket for chilling drinks.
An important factor in the design was the lighting, which comprises under-seat and ceiling coves, along with wall lights with five globe-shaped diffusers attached to vertical brass rods.
Patterned crushed velvet covers the curved banquette back, while the seat is wrapped in leather
“In the pursuit of perpetual allure, where lighting not only transforms spaces, but perceptions, The Pinky Ring unveils a strategic lighting innovation, schemed to make people look and feel their best,” the team said.
“Through a strategic interplay of low-level, contrast, and accent lighting, The Pinky Ring lighting design unveils the unseen.”
Mars joins a long line of famous musicians to open entertainment venues. Among others is singer Justin Timberlake, who put his name behind an AvroKO-designed Nashville dining and drinking destination in 2021.
Pink-red stone tiles across the bathroom walls nod to the lounge’s name
Yabu Pushelberg was founded by George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg in 1980, and the studio has designed some of the most recognisable hospitality interiors over the past four decades.
Shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2021 design studio of the year and judges for the program in 2023, Yabu Pushelberg’s recent projects include the Moxy and AC Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles – of several they’ve completed for the Moxy brand – and The Londoner hotel on Leicester Square in the UK capital.
Interior design studio Cúpla has completed a boutique for fashion brand Rixo in central London that features hand-painted illustrations and colourful zellige tiles.
The clothing store on Marylebone High Street was revamped by Cúpla, whose creative director Gemma McCloskey is the twin sister of Rixo co-founder Orlagh McCloskey.
The interior designer had previously designed the brand’s flagship store on the King’s Road and wanted the refurbished Marylebone location to have a similar feel.
Rixo’s Marylebone store is covered in hand-painted murals
“We wanted the store to embody everything we had previously created for Rixo’s flagship store but within its own right,” Gemma McCloskey told Dezeen.
“A sense of escapism paired with a welcoming warmth within a boutique setting were the key emotions we wanted the customer to feel.”
As the brand sells hand-painted prints, the designer wanted the store’s interior to feature illustrations to reflect the style of the clothes.
It features modified vintage furniture
“Understanding Rixo’s roots and the fact their USP is hand-painted prints, it felt tangible to represent the brand’s values and beginnings with the illustrations,” Gemma McCloskey said.
“Given the space is quite small, we treated it almost like a living room space within a home and felt we could make it all-encompassing and personal.”
Artist Sam Wood created colourful illustrations for the store
Artist Sam Wood hand-painted murals and illustrations throughout the store, which has a bright and playful colour palette and also features traditional glazed Moroccan zellige tiles.
“We wanted the colour palette to feel really fresh and bright,” the designer explained.
“Although there is an abundance of colours used, every line of the mural or the ‘random’ coloured zellige tile layout was methodically composed to ensure a right balance between the colours was struck.”
The studio added decorative arches and classical mouldings to the store in a nod to the architecture and heritage of its Marylebone neighbourhood.
The store also features bespoke fitting room curtains with pickle-green and flora-pink stripes by fabric brand Colours of Arley.
Moroccan zellige tiles add to the playful interior
Cúpla used vintage furniture pieces throughout the store, which sells Rixo’s full collection including ready-to-wear and bridalwear.
“We actually modified existing pieces of vintage furniture, which had been previously sourced by [Rixo founders] Orlagh and Henrietta years ago in the early days of Rixo,” Gemma McCloskey said.
“They were the perfect fit for the space but didn’t have the functionality we required, so we decided to alter these instead or replace them.”
The store is located on Marylebone High Street
“It was much more sustainable and because the pieces were from the early years of Rixo, they had sentimental value so we didn’t want to replace them,” she added.
Other recent London stores featured on Dezeen include a Camper store with a giant foot sculpture and a stationery store with a demountable interior.
Local studio Lissoni Architecture has expanded the Design Holding flagship in New York City, creating an entirely new floor outfitted with light displays and curving metallic installations.
Lissoni Architecture, the US branch of Italian studio Lissoni & Partners, created an entirely new second floor and redesigned a portion of the first floor for the Design Holding showroom, which displays furniture and lighting brands including B&B Italia, Flos, Louis Poulsen, Maxalto, Arclinea and Azucena.
Lissoni Architecture has created an expansion for the Design Holding showroom in New York
Lighting and design elements from the brands were distributed across the second-floor space, spread out amongst vertical stone-clad panels, transparent, metal showcases, and curving chrome benches and walls.
Each area of the floor was dedicated to a specific brand and the interior architecture was tailored to each brand’s identity, according to the studio.
The project encompasses a new second floor and an expansion and redesign of the first
“We wanted to share the melting pot attitude of New York City where everyone and everything can blend together holistically so we went to the essence of the iconic brands,” said Lissoni Architecture founder Piero Lissoni.
“[We highlighted] their DNA and proposed a common ground that could host and enhance the design codes of each identity.”
The studio created dedicated areas for brands including Flos and B&B Italia
For lighting brand Flos, the studio created a series of display cases backed by a transparent mesh. A magnetized, geometric Bilboquet light by designer Philippe Malouin is on display, as well as the Almendra chandelier affixed with almond-shaped flakes by Patricia Urquiola.
A testing room for clients was also created for the brand, which consists of a curved, metal wall that meets a series of angled panels that act as an entrance for the room.
The various displays were informed by the “melting pot” attitude of New York City
Another corner of the floor was dedicated to the display of the Skynest chandelier by Marcel Wanders, which resembles an inverted basket interlaced with cords of light.
Displays for Flos and Louis Poulsen consist of inserted panels and curving planting beds that are populated with a number of lighting fixtures from both brands.
Metallic panels, warm wood, and dark cladding were used throughout the second-floor space
Dark, metal cladding used in the Flos displays contrasts the off-white and beiges used throughout the Louis Poulsen space, but both flank a B&B Italia lounge that sits at the centre of the floor, which features a bright-red chair from the Up series by Gaetano Pesce.
A B&B Italia wardrobe was also created for the showroom, which sits next to an Arclinea kitchen display.
A black ash finish was used to clad a large cabinet unit, which sits behind a Thea island topped with a quartz waterfall countertop.
Lighting by Louis Poulsen, including the Patera Oval pendant by designer Øivind Slaatt, was tucked into the furthest corner of the space, with pieces distributed amongst wooden tables and a low-lying display unit.
A separate entrance leads to a Maxalto space on the first floor
On the first floor, a new space dedicated to Maxalto is accessible through a separate entrance, with pieces such as the brand’s Arbiter sofa system positioned against walls clad in black.
Design Holding, a global retailer founded in 2018, recently added furniture brands Menu, By Lassen and Brdr Petersen to its portfolio after an agreement with Denmark-based company Designers Company.
Piero Lissoni announced the founding of the US branch of his studio last year, saying that the US has become more “open-minded” in terms of architecture.
