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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Swiss furniture brand Vitra will prioritise reducing the environmental impact of its existing lines through material innovation, CEO Nora Fehlbaum tells Dezeen in this interview.
One of the industry’s best known and most influential manufacturers, Vitra‘s collections include iconic pieces such as Eames plastic shell chairs and Panton chairs.
Like its peers, the brand is under increasing pressure to reduce the ecological footprint of its operations in the face of worsening climate change.
Nora Fehlbaum spoke to Dezeen at the Vitra Campus in Weil Am Rhein
Speaking to Dezeen at the Vitra Campus in Weil Am Rhein, Germany, Fehlbaum suggested that the company’s heritage as a high-end, design-focused furniture brand is inherently aligned with sustainability.
“Vitra’s greatest contribution to sustainability is its products with an above-average service life, which omit everything superfluous,” she told Dezeen.
“Our roots in modern design would allow nothing else.”
However, she claimed Vitra is “doing everything we can with all the means we have” to become more sustainable.
The Álvaro Siza-designed Factory at the Vitra Campus has been partially converted to accommodate a new Vitra Circle store (also top)
“Everybody at Vitra has understood our environmental mission,” she said. “We don’t have a sustainability officer – everybody has taken it as their own.”
Vitra’s stated goal is to be “a net-positive company based on all the indicators of its ecological footprint by 2030”.
It has a long way to go, with the company’s most recent sustainability report published in 2022 stating that its total emissions for the year were equivalent to nearly 141,000 tonnes of CO2.
Eames shell chairs now made from recycled plastic
The brand’s sustainability strategy is chiefly focused on its popular existing products, Fehlbaum said.
“We have the biggest impact if we change the products that we sell the most of already, rather than inventing one single sustainable product,” she argued.
“At Vitra, a product is never final, but continues to evolve.”
The Vitra Circle store refurbishes and sells second hand Vitra products
As of January this year, the shells of the Eames plastic chairs manufactured by Vitra are now made exclusively from recycled post-consumer plastic.
“[The Eames shell chair] is probably the most iconic, most copied chair out there – and it won’t be available in virgin material,” said Fehlbaum.
The switch means the shells have a speckled finish that differs from the originals, but Fehlbaum is satisfied with this “recycled aesthetic”.
“It’s a different aesthetic, and of course we hope the consumer gets used to – and maybe even comes to love – this new aesthetic,” she said.
“That’s a risk that we’re taking and that we’re willing to take.”
The RE plastic shells are noticeably more speckled (on the right) than the original plastic shell (on the left)
It follows earlier switches of products and parts from virgin to recycled plastic, starting with Barber Osgerby’s Tip Ton chair in 2020.
A number of accessories like Arik Levy’s Toolbox and Konstantin Grcic’s Locker Box have since followed. The entire HAL chair family, designed by Jasper Morrison, now also have their shells manufactured using recycled plastic.
The recycled plastic is taken from household recycling obtained through the German garbage collection programme Gelber Sack (Yellow Bag).
“Utilising this raw material instead of petroleum-based primary plastics generates fewer climate-damaging emissions and less primary energy consumption,” Fehlbaum claimed.
The role of recycling in solving the world’s plastic pollution crisis is contested among designers.
Some, including designer Richard Hutten and Belgian curator Jan Boelen, argue that big brands are using recycling to create an illusion of change while continuing to use virgin plastics.
Others, among them the CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Andrew Morlet, argue that durable, recyclable plastics can form part of a circular economy.
Many recycled plastic products involve the use of some virgin plastic or additive substances that then complicate or inhibit their own recyclability.
Vitra said its RE product, used for the Eames shells, does not contain any virgin plastic and can be fully recycled at the end of the product’s life thanks to the use of technical fillers, like glass fibres, rather than any additives that prevent onwards recycling.
Vitra products are available to purchase at discounted rates at the new Circle Store
Another sustainability initiative is Vitra’s Circle Stores, which sell used furniture and accessories by Vitra and Artek, such as sample products and exhibition pieces, with prices depending on the condition of the products.
All products are tested for functionality and repaired if necessary so that a renewed product warranty can be granted.
The first Circle Store opened in Amsterdam in 2017 in response to questions from customers about second-hand Vitra products, with a second in Brussels.
A third recently “moved” from Frankfurt and opened in an adapted space at the Álvaro Siza-designed Vitra Campus factory building, with a service and repair area where customers can bring their products to receive a new lease of life.
“With the Circle Store, we can offer our environmentally conscious clients an even more environmentally conscious choice: namely that of a second-hand product,” said Fehlbaum.
Absence in Milan “really wasn’t such a huge deal”
The brand has also taken steps to rewild parts of the Vitra Campus. The Piet Oudolf garden was completed in 2020 and Vitra is working with Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets on a masterplan plan for fewer roads and more native trees on the site.
Fehlbaum acknowledges that some may be sceptical about the sustainability work it is doing within the context of widespread greenwashing.
“It’s impossible to get through this jungle of messaging,” she said.
“How do we talk about it to make sure that it is clear how thoroughly and authentically we’re really tackling this?”
Some other furniture brands have also reduced their presence at design fairs amid concerns about the significant emissions associated with shipping products around the world for temporary showstands.
Vitra has historically had a significant presence in Milan during the Italian city’s annual design week in April, but was noticeably absent in 2023.
However, Fehlbaum said that although she was asked about this a lot “it really wasn’t such a huge deal”.
“For us, it makes a lot of sense to use what we already have,” she said.
“We have the Vitra Campus and it’s not so far from Milan. We prefer to use and invest in something that can be around for five or 10 years rather than spending a lot of energy and resources on something that after five days we’re going to have to break down.”
It is yet to be seen if the brand will return to Milan design week this year.
“The way we think about it [showing at design fairs like Milan] is never black or white,” Fehlbaum explained.
“There might be a moment where we say Milan is exactly the right place at the right moment to talk about something, and then maybe we’ll be there.”
The Eames Plastic Chair RE was photographed at the Eames house, Pacific Palisades, California. Photo by the Eames Foundation
Vitra was founded in 1950 by Nora Fehlbaum’s grandparents Willi and Erika Fehlbaum and has since grown to become one of the industry’s leading names.
Nora Fehlbaum succeeded her uncle, Rolf Fehlbaum, as CEO in 2016 and identifies improving the brand’s sustainability as her key mission.
“There is still a long way to go before reaching our environmental goals,” she acknowledged. “Things need to be tested, mistakes must be made, and in the process the company might sometimes overlook an important aspect or underestimate the impact of an activity.”
This is now a central part of the brand’s function as an industry leader, Fehlbaum suggests.
“The designer landscape has changed. In the past, it was a lot about iconic design and breaking the mould, building your own brand and your studio – new things – and now, the students that are graduating come with their own environmental mission,” she said.
“I see our role, together with these people and with the right suppliers and innovative companies, to find solutions that are, for lack of a better term, sustainable in the longer term.”
Other interviews recently published on Dezeen include the Kvadrat CEO saying sustainability is “not making our lives easier” and Iittala creative director Janni Vepsäläinen sharing her goal to help the brand “remain culturally relevant for another 100 years”.
The photography is courtesy of Vitra unless otherwise stated.
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A renovated 1970s bungalow with “kitsch character” and a greenhouse that doubles as a living room feature in Casamontesa – a weekend home designed by Spanish studio Lucas y Hernández Gil.
The project began when a couple asked the studio to overhaul a single-storey house that was once part of a hotel complex on the outskirts of Madrid.
The renovated bungalow and a multifunctional greenhouse (above) make up Casamontesa
The brief later expanded to include a multifunctional greenhouse that can be used as a workspace, a guest bedroom, a gym or simply as a garden room.
Lucas y Hernández Gil, led by architects Cristina Domínguez Lucas and Fernando Hernández-Gil Ruano, developed a distinct character for each building.
The main house is a bungalow built in the 1970s
Casamontesa’s renovated bungalow has a warm, playful style that draws on the 1970s aesthetic while the garden pavilion has a more utilitarian feel.
“The owners, a young urban couple who love design and live and work in the centre of Madrid, were looking for a functional and compact getaway within a fantastic garden,” Lucas told Dezeen.
“They wanted a very comfortable and flexible home that would be useful for both working and getting together with friends.”
The interior centres around a new kitchen island
The bungalow renovation involved simplifying the interior layout to create a combined kitchen, dining room and living room, with a bedroom and bathroom off to one side.
“The house, in addition to being small, was very compartmentalised,” explained Lucas.
The materials palette includes pink marble and handmade tiles
To unify the newly open-plan living space, the designers installed an island that serves as a worktop, dining table and social gathering place.
This island features a countertop made from Portuguese pink marble while its sides are covered in the same handmade burgundy tiles that line an adjacent window recess.
An arched fireplace provides a focal point in the living room
“The rest of the surfaces – Campaspero stone floors and waxed tinted plaster walls – establish a dialogue by contrast with the colourful and shiny surface of the tiles,” added Lucas.
Key details in the living room include an arched fireplace and a tadelakt plaster coffee table, while the bedroom features semi-circular marble nightstands.
For Casamontesa’s garden room, the design team customised a prefabricated greenhouse.
A pergola extends the building volume outwards in a bid to blur the boundary between inside and out, and is topped with wooden blinds to provide shade.
A pergola extends the width of the greenhouse
A wooden box on wheels provides an additional bedroom, described as a “small Shigeru Ban-style mobile room”.
Other additions include thermal curtains and an automatic shading and ventilation system, which allow for versatile use of the space throughout the year.
A “Shigeru Ban-style mobile room” provides an additional sleeping space
“By complementing the programme of the original bungalow, a more complete and flexible program is achieved, overcoming the limitations of a weekend house,” added Lucas.
Other recent projects by Lucas y Hernández Gil include a bar featuring extreme colour blocking and an apartment with a hidden closet.
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.
Mexican architect María José Gutiérrez has placed a series of round, pine-clad cabins connected by suspended bridges onto a vineyard in Mexico to serve as vacation rentals.
Located in Valle de Guadalupe, Ensenada on the Baja Peninsula, Zeuhary Hospedaje Campestre includes a community lounge and four vacation rental cabins.
Top: photo by Martin Acevedo. Above: the cabins are located in Baja California, Mexico. Photo by Jonatan Ruvalcaba Maciel
“Beyond creating spaces we aim to create experiences, where nature and human beings integrate and recognize each other,” María José Gutiérrez, who leads Mexican studio Arqos Arquitectura Arte Y Diseño, told Dezeen.
“The architecture and interior design were focused on connecting with the environment and maintaining harmony with it.”
Central bedrooms feature in the round buildings
Completed in June 2022, the 250 square metres (2,690 square feet) of built area is divided into five 40-square metre (430-square foot) structures that look outward to the surrounding wine region.
The ground floor of each cabin is divided orthogonally, splitting off a portion for a partially covered exterior porch that leads into the sleeping space through a glass sliding door.
Their interiors are sectioned into bathrooms along one side
The interiors were sectioned into a bathroom along one side, a central bedroom and a kitchenette tucked behind the headboard wall.
“In the furniture and interior decoration, we used organic materials from the region and different areas of the country, earth tones and grey contrasts, crafts, natural fibers, textiles, local wood and stone, recognizing Mexican handicraft talent and tradition,” the studio said.
“The chukum finish on the interior walls gives an organic texture and helps keep the interiors cool in summer, while the exterior coating of recycled pine wood allows the cabins to be thermally insulated in both winter and summer for greater energy efficiency.”
Small private gardens feature round jacuzzis
The cabins are all rotated to face a particular northern or eastern view without compromising privacy for the occupants.
A small planted garden protected by a grey wall rings a quarter of each plan, terminated by a private in-ground jacuzzi, connected to the cabin by a wooden deck with planks that align with the vertical cladding boards as if the facade radiates down the wall and along the ground.
Rooftop terraces are included atop each cabin
Up a delicate metal spiral staircase with wooden treads, the round plan becomes a rooftop terrace complete with a rope net set into the roof of the porch like an integrated hammock.
A free-swinging wooden bridge with rope netting guard rails is suspended from the roof of each cabin and leads to the roof of the common area, allowing guests to congregate in a central location.
“The circular floor plan of the cabins, together with their transition spaces such as the hanging bridges, wooden paths and spiral staircases generate fluid and dynamic routes which allow us to reconnect with ourselves and awaken our inner child through play and movement,” the studio said.
In addition to the material selection that responds thermally to the environment, the design works to preserve what little water the agricultural region has, reusing grey water for the irrigation of the vineyards.
Zeuhary Hospedaje Campestre is positioned within a vineyard
Other cabins recently completed in Mexico include a house deconstructed and separated for glamping within a forest in Nuevo León by S-AR and a brutalist cube-shaped holiday home tucked into a pine forest in Alférez by Ludwig Godefroy.
The photography is by Jonatan Ruvalcaba Maciel unless otherwise stated.
Project credits:
Architect: María José Gutiérrez Engineering and construction: Specialized Urban Services
American interior designer, fashion influencer and “geriatric starlet” Iris Apfel has passed away at the age of 102.
The death of the multidisciplinary creative, who was recognised for her flamboyant personal style, was announced on her Instagram account with an image of Apfel in her trademark oversized glasses.
Apfel, who worked in the interiors and fashion industries throughout her career, shot to international fame in her 80s and 90s after New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited a show of her eclectic clothes and accessories in 2005.
Born Iris Barrel in 1921 in Queens, Apfel studied art history at New York University and art at the University of Wisconsin.
After graduating, she worked for fashion magazine Women’s Wear Daily before interning for interior designer Elinor Johnson.
Together with her late husband Carl Apfel, whom she married in 1948, she set up the brand Old World Weavers – a company that specialised in striking textiles informed by things found on the Apfels’ travels.
Under Old World Weavers, the duo completed high-profile projects such as restoring the White House interiors for nine presidents including Harry Truman and Bill Clinton.
The designer became a visiting lecturer at the University of Texas in 2011, where she taught fashion students about textiles and crafts.
In later life, Apfel became a staple of the fashion industry. In 2018, toy manufacturer Mattel created a Barbie doll in the designer’s image, although it was not for sale. At the age of 97, she signed a modelling contract with IMG Models.
Apfel playfully called herself a “geriatric starlet” and described the prospect of retirement as “a fate worse than death” shortly after turning 100.
Following the news of her passing, designers around the world paid tribute to Apfel’s legacy. “Iris Apfel has become a world-famous fashion icon because of her incredible talent not only as an artist but as an influencer,” said fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger.
The photography is by Ron Adar courtesy of Shutterstock.
Collectible design gallery StudioTwentySeven has taken over a huge space in a Tribeca textile building, creating a warm and serene environment to present museum-sized, limited-edition pieces.
The gallery’s New York City flagship at the corner of Church and Leonard Streets covers 7,000 square feet (650 square metres) across the ground floor of a 1901 neoclassical building by architect Henry J Hardenbergh.
StudioTwentySeven founders Nacho Polo and Robert Onsuka introduced curved walls and archways to the interior of their flagship gallery
Formerly Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Restaurant 66, the grand space benefits from double-height ceilings and eight 16-foot-tall windows on two sides, overlooking the mirrored Anish Kapoor sculpture squashed beneath Herzog & de Meuron’s “Jenga Tower”.
StudioTwentySeven founders Nacho Polo and Robert Onsuka, who started their venture in Miami in 2018, chose this location for the New York flagship for its “monumental scale” and ability to showcase huge sculptural works.
The double-height ceilings allow large-scale pieces to be displayed, like a hanging bear sculpture by Paola Pivi
“The building’s elaborately carved facade, and its stone entry staircase leading to beautifully restored original triple doors, set the tone for what clients of StudioTwentySeven will experience inside – a space that is sophisticated yet genuinely welcoming,” said the duo.
Led by Polo, the renovation of interiors involved the introduction of curved walls and a rotunda, along with an archway fitted with a 12-foot-tall, hand-carved chestnut door.
A giant bronze and glass chandelier hangs above an organic-shaped dining table
The team worked with lighting specialists L’Observatorie to design a custom system that imbues the space with a warm atmospheric quality, complementing the pieces on display.
A massive bronze and glass chandelier comprising hundreds of individual petals is suspended above an organically shaped French oak and waxed bronze dining table.
Pale oak floors run throughout the gallery, in places separated from the walls by glowing bands of light, and sheer curtains diffuse the abundance of natural light that enters during the day.
Other architectural details include a tall fireplace shaped into the hand-plastered walls and a chestnut-lined library hidden behind a pair of discreet doors, designed to “create moments of surprise”.
The founders also created a rotunda space for displaying specific pieces
For the gallery’s opening in February 2023, several museum-sized works from Polo and Onsuka’s private collection were installed in the space.
These include a hanging bear by Italian artist Paola Pivi, which had to be transported from the Aspen Art Museum in a special truck, and a bronze sculpture titled Owl and Boy by Japan-based Otani Workshop.
“Moments of surprise” include a hidden library lined in chestnut
Polo and Onsuka, who were judges for Dezeen Awards 2023, also have gallery spaces in Miami’s Little River and London’s Mayfair – open by appointment only.
Their new flagship in Tribeca joins a multitude of collectible design galleries in the Downtown NYC neighbourhood, like R & Company and Egg Collective, where expansive former industrial lofts provide ideal settings for presenting furniture, lighting and art.
The team at global architecture firm Gensler’s Los Angeles office has redesigned a floor of its workspace with a hospitality approach, as a pilot for the remaining spaces.
The Gensler LA team’s renovated its space to give it more of the “warmth and comfort” that its staff became used to during its time working from home.
The team at Gensler LA redesigned the third floor of their offices to better suit their current workplace needs
The studio’s return to the office post-pandemic came seven years into a 15-year lease of its spaces in Downtown Los Angeles, the firm had converted from an empty bank building in 2011 then expanded to two floors in an adjacent, connected structure.
With a growing workforce and a desire to rethink the layout, functionality and appearance of the office, a group of the studio’s “next generation” of designers and strategists led an effort to redesign the interiors of the third floor.
The pilot project incorporates several products from Gensler collaborations, including open shelving and communal tables
“The look and feel of our space, though contemporary, lacked the warmth and comfort of the hospitality touches we integrate for our clients’ workspaces and that we had become accustomed to while working from home,” Gensler senior strategist Sarah Koos told Dezeen.
“Coupled with the changing nature of hybrid work, the space necessitated a transformation that would support a renewed sense of a work-lifestyle.”
A warm aesthetic that captures the essence of Los Angeles was chosen for the interiors
The group spent a year listening and learning from surveys, workshops and feedback sessions in which each of the 500-plus employees was able to have a say about their future work environment.
Many team members had been highly mobile even before hybrid working became popular, so the previous dedicated desk system seemed redundant.
“Working from home for two years effectively rewired peoples’ expectations of their work environments, a sterile, single-use corporate office no longer spoke to the warmth, variety, and comfort they were afforded in their own homes,” said Koos.
Plenty of lounge areas with comfy seating were created for employees to use
They therefore set about redesigning the offices with a focus on flexibility, communal work areas and presentation spaces.
“Rather than confine our designers to a desk or a conference room, we developed a kit-of-parts inclusive of typical sit-stand workstations, communal tables, focus pods, booths, material layout islands, and more,” said Gensler senior designer Kirk Bairian.
“Gensler is built on a studio system which is critical to our design culture, and each studio was able to use this kit-of-parts to customise their space to reflect the specific ways in which they work.”
The team devised a “kit of parts” for the different studios to customise their own workspaces
A warm, hospitality-forward aesthetic that mirrors the “informal but elevated, casual but curated” essence of Los Angeles was chosen.
Materials including maple plywood, blackened metal and subtle textiles provide a backdrop for more colourful additions in the form of ever-changing pin-up display boards, styled shelving, artwork by local students and books from local creative businesses.
Lounge-style furniture and jewel-toned textiles are placed in the co-working areas to evoke a hotel lobby or coffee shop vibe.
Several of Gensler’s furniture and fixture collaborations were also introduced, among them the communal tables and open shelcves from a product line created with Fantoni and custom focus pods from a partnership with Tangram’s Studio Other.
Traditional conference rooms are available alongside more flexible spaces for group work
Since the project completed in 2023, the data from badges suggest that employee office attendance has increased by 35 per cent for the studios located in the renovated pilot space, according to the firm.
“Studios in the new space shared that they felt that working in the renovated space made them more productive, enabled more effective collaboration, and overall, greatly improved their in-office experience,” the team added.
Maple plywood and blackened metal were among the materials chosen to give the space more of a hospitality feel
Gensler is the world’s largest architecture firm and has locations 53 locations globally. Its European head offices in Wapping, London, was longlisted in the business building category of Dezeen Awards 2020.
In 2022, co-CEO Andy Cohen told Dezeen in an exclusive interview that architecture should abandon “top-down” management to improve working conditions.
Interior design studio Hollie Bowden Interiors has created fine jeweller Rachel Boston’s flagship store and showroom in London.
Located in Shoreditch’s Redchurch Street, the store is split into four main areas – the retail space, private appointment area, workshop and office space for the jeweller’s team of 12.
The space blends a neutral palette of glass, steel and sycamore wood veneer
The store aims to blend a neutral material palette of glass and steel with sycamore wood veneer and velvet mohair upholstery.
“Jewellery stores can be read as quite uninviting and exclusive,” Hollie Bowden Interiors founder Bowden told Dezeen. “I wanted to create the opposite experience to that, something that felt open and un-intimidating, yet special and elevated.”
Bowden and designer EJR Barnes have created bespoke displays from mirror polished steel
Placing the jewellery centre stage was a key objective for Rachel Boston when briefing Bowden’s team.
“Even though our pieces are striking, they are ultimately small objects by nature, so I didn’t want a huge amount of fussy furniture or bold colours to detract from the experience of customers viewing our pieces,” Rachel Boston told Dezeen.
In response to the brief, Hollie Bowden created a compact 19-square-metre front retail space “inspired by the concept of a jewellery box that draws your attention into the small, intricate objects within”.
The store on Redchurch street is split into four main areas
Sycamore veneer wall-cladding, limestone flooring and lining the display cases with ivory silk combine to create the jewellery-box effect, “emphasising this feeling of being cocooned in the space” Bowden told Dezeen.
“I wanted to focus on materials that have a quiet beauty about them, that you have to get up close to really appreciate,” she continued.
Bowden employs a refined approach to materials for this retail project in London
This process of refinement has been a hallmark of Bowden’s style since establishing her London-based studio in 2013.
“Not over-designing projects with too many materials is very important – to give objects the space to sing,” she explained. “I’m always trying to reduce and simplify.”
Jewellery is displayed in floating window vitrines and a cantilever display desk, designed in collaboration with London-based artist and designer, EJR Barnes.
Made from mirror polished steel, these bespoke displays introduce a “vertiginous moment that makes the space feel unique,” according to Bowden.
For these cabinets, Bowden and Barnes drew on the utilitarian design language of archives which “display, protect, and organise what they contain in quite a neutral way”.
Hollie Bowden’s retail space in Shoreditch has been designed in reference to jewellery boxes
Rather than using big ornamental gestures more common in jewellery retail, Bowden says this approach “represents a unique and original way of presenting jewellery”.
“The idea of ‘subtle luxury’ feels like a great counterpoint to retail design at the moment that can feel like you’re in a casino,” she added.
The frames of the cases are simple and uninterrupted, maximising the display of the jewellery and encouraging guests to roam freely around any area.
The red cab chair placed at the front of the store is by Mario Bellini
A Mario Bellini Cab Chair in a deep wine red, placed at the front of the store, works along the lines of the unexpected-red-theory interior trend, featured in our recent lookbook.
Through a stainless steel-lined open doorway, the rear space is curtained off for private appointments. This larger 42-square-metre showroom in the back has a more relaxed and intimate feel that mirrors the art-deco style of Boston’s jewellery.
The rear of the store is reserved for private appointments
Upon entering the rear space, a brown short-pile carpet and bespoke sofa upholstered in Claremont mohair signals the transition from the storefront.
“We wanted to create two distinct spaces, independent of each other yet with a subtle link that reflects Rachel’s jewellery,” Bowden said.
“While the spaces contrast, the continuations of steel and limestone allow for a striking continuity throughout.”
The rear showroom features a bespoke sofa upholstered in Claremont mohair
Other projects by Hollie Bowden Interiors featured on Dezeen include a pared-back jewellery showroom and a London office space inspired by the sultry lighting of gentlemen’s clubs.
The Beijing City Library in China, designed by Norwegian studio Snøhetta, features a glass-lined structure punctuated by towering tree-like columns and rooms disguised as hills.
Commenters analysed the structure closely, with one characterising it as having a “feeling of extravagance” while also criticising it by suggesting: “It can only mean massive expenditure.”
Another observer perceived it as “borrowing heavily” from Frank Lloyd Wright’s SC Johnson Wax HQ.
Space Perspective completes capsule for balloon-powered “journey to the edge of space”
Other stories in this week’s newsletter that fired up the comments section included space tourism company Space Perspective’s test capsule for its Neptune spacecraft, a high-protein food by scientists from South Korea’s Yonsei University and Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza’s extension of his 1999 Serralves Museum project in Porto.
Dezeen Debate
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