Geneva-based architect Stef Claes looked to mid-century and local architecture to create the low-lying home in Belgium. The residence, named House in the Fields, features white-painted walls and black accents.
Readers discussed the project, with one commending the architects for achieving “such a clean result” and another agreeing, claiming that they “could quite happily live there”.
“Forty-one per cent of architects now using AI” says RIBA report
Other stories in this week’s newsletter that fired up the comments section included the findings of a report by the Royal Insitute of British Architects which found that close to half of UK architects are now using AI for their projects, the announcement that Foster + Partners is designing a two-kilometre-high skyscraper in Saudi Arabia and an opinion piece by Catherine Slessor about architects working into their older years.
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Dublin studio Kingston Lafferty Design has transformed the architecture and interiors of this family home in Cork, Ireland, which features 1970s-style shapes and colours informed by the work of designer Verner Panton.
Positioned on Lovers Walk hill overlooking the city of Cork, the townhouse – called Lovers Walk – was renovated by Kingston Lafferty Design.
Kingston Lafferty Design completed the renovation in Cork
The studio originally planned to just update the interiors, but decided that a more extensive architectural transformation was needed after discovering structural instabilities in the home.
Kingston Lafferty Design removed all of the floors, which lacked foundations and insulation in their concrete slab, and completely reconfigured the two-storey property’s layout.
Rooms on the ground floor were designed around an oak-lined hallway
“As the building was originally built in the 1970s, we wanted to return to its roots,” studio founder Róisín Lafferty told Dezeen.
“We thrived on inspiration from Verner Panton with his use of strong clashing colour, playful shapes and oversized elements,” she added.
One of these spaces is a “sensual” red kitchen
The ground floor was adapted to include an open-plan kitchen defined by a counter, island and splashback finished in veiny red quartzite.
Ruby-toned timber was used to create the geometric cabinets. When layered with the quartzite, “it sounds like a disaster, but it’s a delight,” said the designer.
The living room follows a similar design to the kitchen
The space, described by the studio as a “sensual red-toned jewel kitchen”, is one of several rooms on the ground floor of Lovers Walk that were designed around the central, oak-lined hallway.
“We used the hallway as the core of the house, which grounded the space with pops of colour stemming from it. Each room leading from the core appears like a framed view or window of colour,” explained Lafferty.
It includes a green feature wall that takes cues from Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Barcelona Pavilion
The living room includes blue velvet sofas and a green feature wall clad in swirly book-matched marble, which was fitted with an alcove reserved for a subtle fireplace.
When creating the polished stone wall, the studio took cues from the seminal Barcelona Pavilion, completed in 1929 by modernist architect Mies van der Rohe.
A floor-to-ceiling headboard takes centre stage in the main bedroom
“We used green as an overall thread throughout the house, inspired by the surrounding landscape,” added Lafferty.
“Although depending on the time of year, the colours tend to change and so we were able to add in other rich colours that anchor the green such as burgundies and bright oranges,” she added.
Stonework also defines the en-suite bathroom
“One would assume this mix of colours would clash, but we choose the tones and textures of each to ensure that all of them would blend harmoniously,” Lafferty said.
Upstairs, the main bedroom and en-suite bathroom were dressed in the same eclectic interiors as the communal spaces. A floor-to-ceiling headboard, finished in diamond-shaped green tiles originally designed by 20th-century architect Gio Ponti, frames the bed.
A playful bed was added to the bedroom created for the occupants’ child
Balloon-like coloured glass vases were positioned on two bedside tables, which were topped with the same slabs of Rosso Levanto marble as the geometric vanity desk.
The bedroom designed for the occupants’ child features an alternative bed – a playful green structure with two stacked levels and half-moon openings that reveal a cosy sleeping area on the bottom level.
Other accents featured throughout the home include burl wood, terrazzo, plaster and brass. The repetition of 1970s-style thick pile carpets emphasises the dwelling’s textured material palette.
Lovers Walk is the studio’s “closest nod” to the work of Panton, explained Lafferty – “down to the selection of every tile, light fitting and exquisite piece of designer furniture”.
Deep blues characterise the guest bedroom
“Although there is such an array of materiality, it is balanced by repeated colour, shape and form,” she said.
“Every space in this house is an assault on the senses, in the best way possible.”
Lovers Walk was informed by the work of Verner Panton
Founded in 2010, Kingston Lafferty Design has completed projects ranging from a Dublin restaurant with oversized lollipop-like lamps and a co-working office in Belfast that includes a yoga studio.
Ho Chi Minh City-based studio Story Architecture unveils ‘House 3.5 x 17,’ a sun-drenched family home in the Vietnam city’s District 7. Designed for a couple and their two sons, the dwelling seeks to balance individual pursuits with shared family moments. Recognizing the client’s transition to a home-based career, the architects prioritized relaxation and connection beyond the home office. However, the limited plot size of 59.5 square meters presented a significant challenge. Story Architecture needed ingenuity to incorporate the desired elements: a swimming pool, elevator, car parking, three en-suite bedrooms, and inviting living areas.
Story Architecture strategically organizes the functions of the home to overcome the constraints of its compact site in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The ground floor prioritizes practicality with car and motorbike parking. The living area integrates with a worship space, with a skylight bathing the prayer area in natural light. The stairs and elevator are located at the rear of the house to maximize usable space on each floor. The kitchen and dining area is found along a mezzanine which overlooks the ground level and entrance. The second, third, and fourth floors each house a bedroom with a private bathroom with glass walls. Each bedroom opens onto a balcony, each featuring potted plants and unique cut-outs to disrupt the facade and allow for communication between family members on different levels.
Story Architecture unveils ‘House 3.5 x 17’ in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
the light-filtering facade
The back of the staircase features a screen of wind encaustic tiles, a unique design element common in Vietnam, which Story Architecture incorporates to ensure natural ventilation while offering protection from rain. Glass panels are thoughtfully integrated which allow sunlight to illuminate the space and create ‘windows’ looking up towards the sky. The facade’s atrium walls showcase a sustainable touch — reclaimed bricks salvaged from old houses. These bricks, carefully cut into thin slices, are re-tiled onto the new house. The remaining walls are finished with gray cement, while dark wood paneling infuses the interiors with a rustic and natural character. The warm, earthy tones extend to the flooring and interior elements, contributing to the house’s intimate and inviting atmosphere.
the house is designed as a relaxing retreat in the city for a family of four the living room integrates a worship space, with a skylight for natural light the kitchen and dining areas are located on the mezzanine, offering a view of the entrance
Developer HUB and investor Bridges Fund Management have revealed plans to convert a 1950s office building in London into Cornerstone, a co-living residential scheme designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.
Located on the edge of the Barbican estate, the Cornerstone project will draw from the iconic Barbican architecture to transform 45 Beech Street into 174 co-living residences along with street-level commercial spaces and amenities.
“Building on the success of our previous London projects with HUB, we are joining forces again to transform an underloved office building in the heart of the city,” Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) director Hazel Joseph said.
AHMM has revealed plans for a co-living retrofit next to London’s Barbican estate
AHMM’s proposal aims to re-use as much of the building’s existing structure and facade as possible, taking a “retrofit-first approach” to minimise the need for new building works.
The studio will also primarily work within the geometric parameters defined by the original envelope, while updating the rectilinear language to create uniform apertures for each co-living apartment.
Referencing the Barbican estate, a series of arched, double-height extrusions will be introduced across the crown of the building to house additional co-living apartments.
The design will adapt the existing building’s form and insert a series of arched spaces at the top
“The architectural approach has been carefully considered, responding sensitively to the much-loved Barbican context, completing the northern frontage of the estate,” Joseph said.
The arches will be partially set back from the building’s facade and lined with an asymmetric patchwork of glazed and tile panels underneath the curved overhangs.
At street level, warm red panel accents will contrast against the building’s neutral concrete finishes to highlight commercial and collective functions.
The scheme will integrate a public cafe, a co-working space and community-focused amenities at its lower levels to improve the public realm for those who live and work in the area.
“The existing structure of 45 Beech Street will be re-used and extended, creating a new residential community with shared amenities and breathing new life into the local streetscape,” Joseph explained.
At street level, new commercial and public amenities will seek to activate the ground plane
According to HUB and Bridges Fund Management, AHMM’s proposal was developed in collaboration with the community – including Barbican residents – who were consulted through a series of workshops and events.
A website was also established to solicit viewpoints about the redevelopment, reiterating the design vision to establish a “vibrant community” that will adapt the original building and holistically contribute to the neighbourhood.
AHMM was established in 1989 by Simon Allford, Jonathan Hall, Paul Monaghan and Peter Morris in London. The studio has previously converted a 1930s block into New Scotland Yard’s headquarters in London and completed a mixed-use building in Southwark with interlocking flats.
Also adjacent to the Barbican estate, Diller Scofidio & Renfro’s proposal for a pyramidal music centre was recently scrapped when the City of London Corporation revealed its plans for a “major renewal” of the Barbican.
The images are courtesy of HUB and Bridges Fund Management.
Dubbed the first major design trend of 2024, our latest lookbook collects cosy, lived-in interiors that embody the “bookshelf wealth” aesthetic movement taking over social media.
While using books for interior decoration is not a new idea, it has been brought back into focus by a now-viral TikTok video posted in December by San Diego-based interior designer Kailee Blalock.
In the video, Blalock explains that “bookshelf wealth” is not just about creating perfect book displays, but instead about capturing the warmth and homeliness of book collections to curate “a whole home vibe”.
“Bookshelf wealth”, which the Financial Times called this year’s “first major design trend”, suggests pairing bookshelves with mismatched interior patterns, cosy seating areas and layered, loosely organised art pieces to create a tastefully eclectic space for reading.
Despite their contemporary qualities, the projects in this list capture the intimate atmosphere of “bookshelf wealth”, from colourful bookshelves that span an entire room to subtle reading nooks for deeply personal collections.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring spaces punctuated by structural columns, rooms embracing the “unexpected red theory” and playful homes integrating indoor slides.
Photo by Nicole Franzen
East Village Apartment, USA, by GRT Architects
A wooden bookcase with sienna-coloured backing panels complements this warm New York apartment renovation by GRT Architects.
The bookcase spans the length of the living room behind patterned, textural furniture pieces and is lined with multicoloured books stacked in different directions against small sculptural objects.
Aiming to preserve the home’s “turn-of-the-century disposition”, GRT Architects concealed a TV behind a light pink panel at the centre of bookcase.
Find out more about East Village Apartment ›
Photo by Felix Speller
Mayfair home, UK, by Child Studio
London-based Child Studio designed this entertainer’s home in Mayfair with mid-century modern furniture and deep-toned material finishes, aiming to enhance the art deco atmosphere by carving bookshelves into dark mahogany walls.
“We worked closely with the client to create a space that reflected his personality and interests, encompassing art, design, literature and travel,” Child Studio founders Che Huang and Alexy Kos told Dezeen.
“This approach made us think of Saint Laurent’s salon – an eclectic interior where design objects and art pieces from different eras and parts of the world are assembled together, forming a highly personal environment.”
Find out more about the Mayfair home ›
Photo by The Ingalls and Matthieu Salvaing
Santa Monica Proper Hotel, USA, by Kelly Wearstler
The Santa Monica Proper Hotel by American designer Kelly Wearstler includes reading niches with artwork and furniture by local artists and artisans.
A brimming bookcase flanks low-lying lounges and walls covered by misaligned artwork, with Wearstler explaining that the idea was to connect the original building’s Spanish colonial revival style with the new contemporary building.
“Everything’s connected to somebody that is local in the city,” Wearstler explained. “We’re so lucky to be in Los Angeles, the talent pool here is extraordinary.”
Find out more about Santa Monica Proper Hotel ›
Photo by Victor Stonem
AdH House, Mexico, by Francesc Rifé Studio
Spanish practice Francesc Rifé Studio conceived this moody house in Mexico City with a eucalyptus floor-to-ceiling bookcase to display antique atlases.
The bespoke unit was finished with brass bookstands and embedded LED lighting to complement the tactile and neutral interior palette, capturing the luxurious undertones of “bookshelf wealth”.
Find out more about AdH House ›
Photo by Rafael Soldi
Whidbey Dogtrot, USA, by SHED
A dedicated reading nook punctures this bedroom suite for a compact home in the Pacific Northwest by US studio SHED.
Wrapping the bright white walls, stacked books and mismatched objects line dark metal shelf extrusions that are interrupted by a square window looking out to the surrounding landscape.
Find out more about Whidbey Dogtrot ›
Photo by Trevor Mein and Sharyn Cairns
Kew Residence, Australia, by John Wardle Architects
Remodelled by John Wardle Architects for the founder’s own Melbourne home, Kew Residence leans into the informal and cocooning atmosphere of “bookshelf wealth” in its wood-clad first-floor study.
Built-in shelves made from Victorian Ash are the focal point of the room and have been densely filled with a collection of ceramic art and books. Next to the shelves, an inset window seat and a slim suspended desk were added, creating a practical and uniform interior.
Find out more about Kew Residence ›
Photo by Chris Mottalini
Silver Lake home, USA, by Lovers Unite
As part of renovation works for a 1950s Los Angeles home, California studio Lovers Unite converted an unused balcony into a long, teal-upholstered window seat below a floating bookshelf.
Paired with contrasting embroidered cushions and vintage decor pieces, the book display adds colour, depth and a feeling of occupation to enliven the timber-clad interiors.
Find out more about Silver Lake home ›
Photo by Derek Swalwell
St Vincents Place, Australia, by BE Architecture
Australian studio BE Architecture renovated this Victorian home to highlight the client’s vast art collection, while also rejecting “stark minimalism” and embracing the interior’s existing heritage features.
Large-format books form a centrepiece in the home’s lounge area under transparent coffee table cubes, adding to the home’s eclectic, richly textured and academic character.
Find out more about St Vincents Place ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes with indoor slides, colourful home renovations and built around ruins.
Spanish studio Fran Silvestre Arquitectos has created a minimalist white house in Alicante, which winds through the landscape to enhance its relationship with the outdoors.
Named Sabater House, the Spanish dwelling unfolds through a series of intersecting, elongated forms that ascend upwards over its 780-square-metre site.
Its slim volumes adapt to the site’s natural topography, navigating existing large trees and framing a series of terraces and courtyards.
Fran Silvestre Arquitectos has created a minimalist white house in Alicante
According to Fran Silvestre Arquitectos, the sprawling design takes cues from local pathways that are carved into the terrain and lead to a hermitage.
“We were struck by how these winding paths adapt to the terrain, generating a very interesting architecture,” Fran Silvestre Arquitectos told Dezeen.
“This was the starting point to develop a home on a plot with similar characteristics in terms of width and slope of the land.”
Sabater House winds through the landscape
Sabater House is designed for a client who wanted a home to accommodate his large family while ensuring “enough independence to guarantee the privacy of all family members”.
To accomplish this, each floor of the home features a distinct programme.
Each floor of the home features a distinct programme
The highest level, described as the “nighttime area” of the home, features five bedrooms and bathrooms oriented to look out to the sea above the tree line.
Meanwhile, the middle floors contain an open-plan kitchen, dining and living area with floor-to-ceiling windows framing views out to the garden and outdoor swimming pool.
The house winds around existing trees
The living spaces are stretched across the long and narrow floor plan in a bid to avoid compacting them and open them up to the outdoors.
“The project is drawn with a very clear geometry of straight elements that are joined by a soft radius of curvature,” said the studio. “Each piece has a relationship with the environment.”
Accommodated on the lower level are the pool basin, a wine cellar, storage facilities and additional sleeping quarters.
With each floor stacked at an angle to create a zigzagging floor plan, a series of courtyards, terraces and bridges are created, further opening the relationship with the outdoors.
The middle floor features open-plan living spaces
“Something unexpected about the house for us is the character of the interstitial spaces between the blocks and how they envelop you,” explained Fran Silvestre Arquitectos.
“The first acts as an access garden that directs you towards the entrance door, and the second as one of the main terraces. They are versatile spaces that allow you to make the most of the different orientations.”
The top level contains the bedrooms
Fran Silvestre Arquitectos was founded in 2005 by architect Fran Silvestre. The studio is known for its minimalist style, which is applied throughout Sabater House.
Its previous projects that feature its signature pared-back style include an overhanging Hollywood Home and a residence with a T-shaped roof in Valencia.
Local design studio Hauvette & Madani drew on the Haussmannian history of this Paris apartment to create a gallery-like interior for its occupant’s vast art collection.
Located in the city’s historic Triangle d’Or, the dwelling previously featured minimalist marble surfaces and gilding leftover from a recent renovation.
Hauvette & Madani “re-appropriated” the apartment, originally designed as part of Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s famed reconstruction of the French capital during the mid-19th century, to reflect its architectural past.
Hauvette & Madani added cornices and mouldings to the apartment to reflect the dwelling’s Haussmannian roots
“The challenge was to completely revamp the apartment, which had just been refurbished,” said studio co-founder Samantha Hauvette, who designed the dwelling with Lucas Madani.
“We carried out meticulous research to find the right motifs and decorations to restore the place to its former glory and Haussmannian charm,” she told Dezeen.
The living room features various artworks
The designers recreated delicate white cornices and mouldings – hallmarks of Haussmannian design – within the apartment, which had been previously stripped of these details.
This created a considered but neutral backdrop for the resident’s eclectic collection of artwork and a curated selection of furniture “mixing eras and styles,” according to Hauvette and Madani.
Sarah Crowner designed a bold fireplace for the dining space
Visitors enter at a small round vestibule clad in straw marquetry – a “common thread” that also features on a pair of curved sofas and a sleek coffee table as well as sliding doors, the main bedroom’s headboard and the dining table.
The light-filled living room is characterised by sculptural furniture and art pieces, including rounded vintage armchairs finished in a dark green hue and metallic base.
An amorphous ceiling work by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm was suspended above the sofas, while a deep blue painting by Swiss practitioner Miriam Cahn adds a bold hue to the room.
“It’s a real living space, where the homeowner shares a lot with her artist and designer friends,” said the designers. “All the pieces have a strong identity.”
The kitchen balances traditional elements with more alternative details
For the dining room, American artist Sarah Crowner created a striking turquoise fireplace, which was clad in a blocky mosaic of geometric tiles and positioned alongside a burnt orange vintage egg-shaped chair.
“We wanted to take the codes of classicism and break free from them,” explained Hauvette and Madani, who aimed to balance traditional interior details with more contemporary colourful touches.
A blocky drinks bar was finished in the same design as the kitchen table
Continuing this theme, the designers sandwiched a bright green stove between more subtle, light pink cabinets in the kitchen, which includes a patterned feature wall.
Blocks of light-coloured timber were stacked by French furniture maker Hervé van der Straeten to create a singular lumpy leg for the kitchen table as well as the base of a drinks bar elsewhere in the apartment.
Hauvette and Madani also constructed an in-house sauna for the home, finished in dark wooden slats and tucked behind a bespoke green-hued daybed, made by the designers themselves.
“We have a strong belief that everything that you love independently will work perfectly once put together,” said Madani, who highlighted the power of trusting your instincts when curating eclectic interiors.
Hauvette & Madani also added a home sauna
Summarising the overall look and feel of the apartment, the pair declared, “it’s Paris Haussmannian style, with a hint of craziness!”
Hauvette & Madani is not the first studio to renovate a traditional Parisian apartment with contemporary touches.
Local studio Uchronia recently filled a home for jewellery designers with multifaceted furniture pieces crafted to mirror the appearance of precious stones. The studio also previously added a wine-red kitchen to an otherwise neutral flat in the French capital.
Swedish furniture brand IKEA has released two images from a series of photographs taken by Annie Leibovitz, its first-ever artist-in-residence, showing people in their homes across the world.
The American photographer, who is best known for her portraits, travelled to twenty-five homes around the globe to take photos of people in their residences. She visited houses and apartments in Sweden, India, Italy, Japan, Germany, England and the US.
“The home has always been important in my work,” Leibovitz said when appointed artist-in-residence in 2023.
“I’ve been photographing people in their homes since I began,” she added. “It’s a way to understand who a person is. The advice I give to young photographers is to photograph their families. It’s one of the best ways to start.”
Annie Leibovitz photographed 25 homes for IKEA, including this one in Germany
Leibovitz’s photos for IKEA show a variety of different interiors in seven different countries.
“The result is a powerful photographic document that illuminates the nuances of life at home – across borders, ethnicities and professions,” the furniture brand said of the project.
The series, which comprises 25 photos in total, was commissioned by IKEA after its IKEA Life at Home Report showed that 48 per cent of people globally don’t feel the media represents their home.
The first two images released by IKEA, show the homes of Yusuke Onimaru in Japan and Maria Arrechea in Germany – specifically Onimaru’s ceramic workshop and Arrechea’s living space filled with friends.
Leibovitz’s photos will be shown as part of the IKEA+ exhibition in Paris, which will take place during Paris Fashion Week.
It will also feature a collaboration with online radio station Rinse and showcase the Tesammans collection made by IKEA together with Eindhoven-basd design duo Raw Color.
Six emerging designers from the Casa93 fashion education program are also taking part in the IKEA+ showcase. They worked with “home furnishing mentors” from IKEA to create designs that focus on upcycling and sustainable design.
The photography is by Annie Leibovitz for IKEA.
IKEA+ will take place on 28 Rue de Lappe, Paris, from 29 February to 3 March. For more worldwide events, exhibitions and talks in architecture and design, visit Dezeen Events Guide.
Seoul studio AOA Architects has created Hoji Gangneung, a series of uniquely shaped concrete dwellings linked by a raised, circular path in the South Korean countryside.
Located in Gangwon-do, Hoji Gangneung includes a family house for the owner and three guesthouses, along with a communal building.
Five buildings are arranged around a raised concrete ring
AOA Architects designed one of the four homes with an octagonal shape and central courtyard while another, named the Round House, has a semi-circular end.
The remaining two dwellings and the communal building have rectangular floor plans and differ from each other by their roof shape.
AOA Architects designed each structure with a different shape
The communal building has a mono-pitch roof and one rectangular house has a regular gable roof. The final house, named the Long House, features a gable roof with a raised central section topped with a skylight, creating an elongated light well.
“Every building has its own shape, size and character, allowing guests to enjoy each space distinctly through shadow play,” said AOA Architects principal Jaewon Suh.
Hoji Gangneung is located in the countryside in South Korea
AOA Architects took cues from countryside structures, such as warehouses and cabins, when designing Hoji Gangneung, aiming to create a project that references its surroundings while establishing itself as something new.
“The main concept and goal of the design is to build something familiar and also unfamiliar in a rural area,” Suh told Dezeen.
“For some, the Octagonal House looks like a nomadic tent and feels like an octagonal pavilion, the Long House looks like a milk carton or a grain warehouse, and the Round House looks like a slender piece of wood or a face with a hat, but these associations do not matter.”
A concrete ring elevated above the grassy landscape connects the five buildings, a decision the studio made to prevent the need for multiple paths.
“A circular shape was the best gesture to connect the five buildings at once,” Suh said. “As a result, while avoiding typical countryside alley shape and showing the main concept of the design, an artificial circular raised walkway was created.”
The buildings are made from textured concrete
According to the studio, the choice of concrete also deliberately juxtaposes the grassy landscape below.
“By raising a walkway slightly from the land, a tension between the gently floated concrete walkway and weak grasses of the land occurs,” said Suh.
AOA Architects covered the interiors of the homes in wood
The buildings are all built from textured concrete and topped by corrugated metal roofs.
In the communal building, the concrete structure is left exposed. Large glass doors spanning one wall open onto the concrete walkway and give views of the dwellings.
The concrete structure of the communal building is left exposed inside
The interiors of the houses are finished with wood to add a sense of warmth and “make one feel that they have entered a box of musical instruments”, according to Suh.
AOA Architects was founded in 2013 by Jaewon Suh and Euihaing Lee. The studio previously designed a Minecraft-themed apartment in Seoul with a stepped roof and red- and white-tiled exterior.
Elsewhere in South Korea, architecture studio Atelier Koma recently created a concrete chapel and YounghanChung Architects designed a two-storey study space for a retired university lecturer.
From monolithic concrete pillars to ornately decorated columns, this lookbook collates ten living room interiors that embrace existing structural columns.
It is not always cost-effective or practical for designers and architects to remove preexisting columns from interiors, especially if they are load-bearing and thus vital to the structural integrity of the building.
In the past, the structural components of buildings were often concealed within walls; however, this changed with the increase in popularity of open-plan spaces over the course of the 20th century.
Columns are sometimes placed at irregular intervals, especially in older buildings, and consequently the interior design scheme must be adapted to fit around them.
Pillars can provide a strong focal point that can be enhanced by both the choice of interior finishes and the placement of furniture around them.
Depending on their materiality and style, they can also serve as an immovable reminder of the building’s design style and the historical period in which it was built.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring interiors animated by textural burl wood, multicoloured interior design schemes and contemporary interiors that make a feature of historic ruins.
Photo by Pier Carthew
Kerr, Australia, by SSdH
The industrial past of this mezzanine apartment in Melbourne is apparent thanks to the I-beams that crisscross the space and the pair of thick plastered columns in two corners of its living room.
The functional aesthetic of the pillars is complimented by the presence of streamlined metal furnishings and offset by floor-to-ceiling wooden panelling.
Find out more about Kerr ›
Photo by Jose Hevia
JJ16, Spain, by Lucas y Hernández-Gil
Situated in the Salamanca district of Madrid, local studio Lucas y Hernández-Gil created a playful interior for a high-ceilinged 19th-century apartment that combines pops of colour with original features.
A pair of elegant columns made from cast iron frame the entrance to the walk-through kitchen, contrasting the contemporary units with their fluted shafts and ornamented capitals.
Find out more about JJ16 ›
Photo by Fran Parente
Curitiba apartment, Brazil, by Leandro Garcia and Amanda Dalla-Bona
Eclectic furniture and glossy herringbone flooring contrast the weathered concrete pillar that sits on the boundary between the living and dining spaces of this apartment in the Brazilian city of Curitiba.
It has a rectangular footprint and a characterfully rough surface, which are both echoed in a gnarled wooden stool sitting at its base.
Find out more about Curitiba apartment›
Photo by Sarah Elliott
Tribeca Loft, USA, by Andrea Leung
Public and private zones have been delineated by a partially mirrored wall tucked behind a sequence of three original, intricately formed columns in this loft apartment in New York’s Tribeca area.
The Corinthian-style iron pillars are characterised by gracefully fluted shafts topped by opulent capitals that feature acanthus leaves. The style was popular in ancient Greek and Roman architecture.
Find out more about Tribeca Loft ›
Photo by Felix Speller and Child Studio
Mews house, UK, by Child Studio
A quartet of smooth, statuesque pillars blend in seamlessly against a backdrop of art deco and mid-century modern furnishings in the living area of this mews house in London’s Mayfair area.
The thick, pale pillars bring a dramatic air to the space, which was designed for lounging as well as hosting, entertaining and dining.
Find out more about the mews house ›
Photo by Seth Caplan
Dumbo Loft, USA, by Crystal Sinclair Designs
Walls made from floor-to-ceiling glass panels and an opulent crystal chandelier create a sense of luxury in this Brooklyn apartment.
The living room is grounded by a double-height structural pillar, which has a bottom half clad in pale pink vertical, subway-style tiles.
Find out more about Dumbo Loft ›
Photo by José Hevia
Can Santacilia, Spain, by OHLAB
A pillar with a faceted stone shaft and an ornately carved and painted wooden capital is the focal point of this living area inside an apartment in Palma de Mallorca by local studio OHLAB.
The stately pillar and dramatic coffered ceiling are contrasted by the sleek modern kitchen, but united by the use of stone in both the column and kitchen island.
Find out more about Can Santacilia ›
Photo by Nao Takahashi
Casa Nano, Japan, by Bosco Sodi
This modest home in Tokyo features slender struts made from wood that form part of the building’s exposed structure.
Wooden seating, tables, cabinets and shelving create a harmonious interior scheme, which is dominated by both the skeletal wooden frame of the building and an open-tread staircase.
Find out more about Casa Nano ›
Photo by Salva López
Casa Vasto, Spain, by Mesura
This apartment in Barcelona (above and main image) is studded with white-rendered columns dating from the 18th century, which anchor the unique vaulted ceiling to the expansive floor.
Low-slung furnishings provide a horizontal emphasis in the interior while the columns create a rhythm of upright pillars, which nod to the building’s industrial heritage.
Find out more about Casa Vasto ›
Photo by Johan Dehlin
Brutalist Chelsea townhouse, UK, by Pricegore
London-based architecture studio Pricegore refurbished the interior of this brutalist townhouse to celebrate its concrete materiality.
In the lofty, double-height living space, a cylindrical pillar stretches from floor to ceiling in front of the backdrop provided by the house’s verdant garden.
Find out more about Brutalist Chelsea townhouse ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring interiors with textural burl wood, colourful interior design schemes and contemporary interiors that make a feature of existing historic ruins.
images © Lonton Studio
