Eight homes where wardrobes are used as a focal point
CategoriesInterior Design

Eight homes where wardrobes are used as a focal point

Statement wardrobes with red-leather doors and bright yellow shelving feature in this lookbook, which proves clothes storage does not have to be a blight on the interior.

It’s not unusual for wardrobes to be pared-back and concealed in residential interiors, often in an attempt to hide clutter and retain focus on other furnishings and finishes.

However, this lookbook spotlights the works of architects challenging this idea and using essential clothing storage as an opportunity to create a focal point in a home.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring pergolas, guesthouse interiors and bedrooms with bathtubs.


leather-lined wardrobes
Photo by Nick Worley

Leather Dressing, UK, by Simon Astridge

Rust-coloured leather lines the floor and sliding wardrobe doors of this dressing room, which architect Simon Astridge designed as an eye-catching centrepiece in a refurbished London house.

“The best part of the leather tunnel is the lovely fresh leather smell you get every time you get out of bed to get dressed,” said Astridge.

Find out more about Leather Dressing ›


yellow wardrobe
Photo by Studio Noju

Casa Triana, Spain, by Studio Noju

This vivid yellow wardrobe is among the brightly coloured spaces in Casa Triana, an open-plan apartment by Studio Noju in Seville.

Its bright shelves and surfaces pop against its white surroundings and form a striking backdrop to the owner’s clothes. While forming a feature of the home, it also helps to create the illusion of having separate spaces within its open plan.

Find out more about Casa Triana ›


Golden wardrobes in The Magic Box Apartment
Photo by José Hevia

The Magic Box Apartment, Spain, by Raúl Sánchez Architects

This shiny brass wardrobe at the centre of an apartment near Barcelona in Spain was intended to resemble a precious jewellery box. It also acts as a partition between two rooms, featuring a “secret passageway” in its middle.

“I love brass, and in this precise project it gave that magic look, that look of a precious object,” said architect Raúl Sánchez.

Find out more about The Magic Box Apartment ›


Yellow wardrobes by Pedro Varela & Renata Pinho
Photo by José Campos

Yellow Apartment Renovation, Portugal, by Pedro Varela & Renata Pinho

Yellow was also used by architects Pedro Varela & Renata Pinho to colour this wardrobe, which is located in an apartment in Portugal.

The wardrobe forms part of a wall of storage that divides the apartment. Finishing touches include different-sized circular openings for use as handles and a step that is pulled out of the wall with a smiley-face cut-out.

Find out more about Yellow Apartment Renovation ›


Wood Ribbon apartment by Toledano + Architects
Photo by Salem Mostefaoui

Wood Ribbon, Paris, by Toledano + Architects

This Parisian apartment is named Wood Ribbon after the sinuous plywood wall that snakes through its interior.

While dividing the residence into three zones, the structure also incorporates several doorways, a dressing room and storage areas for clothes, including one in the hallway.

Find out more about Wood Ribbon ›


Nagatachō Apartment by Adam Nathaniel Furman
Photo by Jan Vranovsky

Nagatachō Apartment, Tokyo, by Adam Nathaniel Furman

A sugar-sweet colour palette fills every corner of the Nagatachō Apartment, which designer Adam Nathaniel Furman created for a retired expat couple in Tokyo.

This includes the bedroom, where a built-in wardrobe is outlined by bright baby-blue doors and yellow semicircular motifs that stand out against the white and green walls on either side.

Find out more about Nagatachō Apartment ›


Blue wardrobe with built-in window seat
Photo by Filippo Poli

Galla House, Spain, by Cavaa

Though it sits seamlessly against the wall, the detailed design of this wardrobe ensures makes it a standout feature of the Galla House in Spain.

It features wooden drawers for shoes and taller blue-painted cupboards for hanging clothes, alongside a deep window seat that is enjoyed by the home’s feline occupants.

Find out more about Galla House ›


Diagonal wardrobe

Versailles Studio Apartment, Australia, by Catseye Bay Design

Catseye Bay Design designed the wooden wardrobe of Versailles Studio Apartment to double as a privacy screen for the bed.

Projecting diagonally from one of the bedroom walls, the two-metre-high structure incorporates clothes storage and shelving on the other side. Alongside the bed, it conceals an upholstered bench that looks out to a window.

Find out more about Versailles Studio Apartment ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring pergolas, guesthouse interiors and bedrooms with bathtubs.

Reference

Paper Architecture: What’s the Point?
CategoriesArchitecture

Paper Architecture: What’s the Point?

Architizer’s Vision Awards is a global awards program for architectural media and representation, recognizing the world’s best architectural photographs, videos, visualizations, drawings and models, and the creators behind them. Enter for a chance to see your work published in print: Start Entry > 

At first glance, one might assume the question posed in the title of this article is a rhetorical one. With a growing number of industry leaders advocating — with good reason — for students and young architects to receive more real-world construction experience, you could be forgiven for thinking that conceptual projects are a distraction, getting in the way of the invaluable education awaiting designers on the building site.

Make no mistake, though — anyone who tells you paper architecture is pointless needs reminding:

Ideas are the lifeblood of architecture.

Behind each award-winning project we see come to fruition each year, there lie countless sketches, models, and renderings created during the design process, as well as unrealized, theoretical concepts, commonly known as paper architecture. At their best, unbuilt architectural projects — just like their constructed counterparts —  hold the potential to tell a powerful story, communicate fresh concepts and advance our profession through ideation.

Left: “Mind Palace” by Mylan Thuroczy, Manchester School of Architecture; right: “Break and Float” by Michael Turner; finalists in Architizer’s One Drawing Challenge competition.

These architectural images, and the ideas they embody, are worth their weight in proverbial gold to the next generation of architects. From the outlandish drawings of Archigram to the abstract paintings of Zaha Hadid, conceptual works form a vibrant exhibition of ideas and inspiration, each contributing to the global discourse over the advancement of the profession and our built environment as a whole.

For this reason, it’s vital that we provide a platform to recognize architectural ideas and visual creations, no matter whether they are built or not.

Enter the Architizer Vision Awards. This brand new awards program is designed to celebrate every form of paper architecture — from napkin sketches and lost competition entries to thesis projects and early models — and give them the global spotlight, now and long into the future.

Enter the Vision Awards

Vision Awards Winners will be published in the inaugural ‘Visions of Architecture’ Anthology, as well as being celebrated year-round through innovative storytelling by Architizer’s team of architectural writers. Film Winners will be premiered in Architizer’s first ever Architectural Film Festival, a unique digital event to air later this year. Every Winner and Finalist will be exhibited on Architizer’s iconic Winners’ Gallery, the definitive directory of world-class architecture and design and an evergreen source of inspiration for the profession.

“Concrete Atla(nti)s” by Hannah Christy and Craig Findlay, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Winner in Architizer’s One Drawing Challenge

Showcasing the Unending Value of Paper Architecture

Whether it is ultimately realized or not, paper architecture is a critical creative outlet for the profession. Drawings, renderings and models provide a perpetual record of the ideation process that architects go through when developing concepts, offering insights into how they approached design problems in the past. To honor the many mediums of architectural ideation, Vision Awards categories include:

  • Best Architectural Drawing
    (2 categories: Hand-drawn, Computer-aided)
  • Best Architecture Model
    (Special category for physical models)
  • Best Architectural Visualization
    (3 categories: Photorealistic, Illustrative/Artistic, AI-Generated)
  • Architectural Visualizer of the Year
    (Portfolio award for studios and professionals)
  • Architect Creator of the Year
    (Mixed media portfolio award for professionals)
  • Student Creator of the Year
    (Mixed media portfolio award for students)

Together with categories for architectural photography and video, these awards will honor the best in architectural representation today, including the most compelling examples of paper architecture. By entering their work, architects can help to build a rich archive of ideas and designs that will motivate future generations of architects and push the boundaries of what is possible in the built environment.

Left: “The Built Pension” by Yehan Zheng; right: HIGH- RISE TOPOLOGY. Infrastructure for energy creation” by Daniel Garzon; Finalists in Architizer’s One Drawing Challenge competition.

A Second Life for ‘Lost Projects’

The Vision Awards presents a golden opportunity for architects to showcase their unbuilt works, including former competition entries, speculative creations, and drawings or models for projects that stalled due to forces outside of their control. There are countless reasons why many brilliant architectural projects are ultimately left on the drawing board: budget cuts, site complications, changes in a client’s strategy or direction, or even some larger and impossible to foresee — like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sometimes, an initial design might contain ideas that are ahead of their time, or deemed too ambitious to be realized when first conceived. Revisiting these ideas in the context of the Vision Awards may inspire new approaches to architecture in future, as new technologies emerge and changing social conditions give rise to new creative possibilities.

By bringing the best unrealized projects and conceptual designs together through the Vision Awards, Architizer is aiming to create a powerful repository of ideas, one that can be a touchstone for emerging architects long into the future. By entering their work for the program, architects can help to build on the legacy of the great ‘paper architects’, contributing to the ongoing creative conversation that fuels the wider profession.

If you are an advocate for the power of paper architecture and its potential to advance the profession, the Vision Awards needs you. Submit your most innovative work before the Main Entry Deadline on June 16th, and let your ideas and those of your firm inspire the next generation of architects!

Start Entry

Reference