A journey through space and materiality
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A journey through space and materiality: interior design as the lead character

Atelier Alter Architects | Teresa Sapey + Partners | Carbondale | Ippolito Fleitz Group

A journey through space and materiality
By Editorial Staff -

Space, furnishings, colors, materials – these are the main tools available to designers to express whatever concepts they have in mind. Like screenwriters, they need to choose the protagonist of their creation – the character entrusted with the job of conveying the project’s underlying idea. The user experience stems from this, making it comparable to a journey through space and materiality, which will be all the more engaging, the more effective the central element of the storyline is. And this is a story that unfolds in several chapters, that is, through each room of the home, hotel, store, office, or whatever.

When choosing the key element of their storyline, the architect or designer uses the language best suited to represent their research and experimentation. That might be a study of materials, spatial configuration, or even a single piece of furniture. The important thing is that it can properly express their poetics and communicate it to those who will be using the designed space. From this perspective, interior design offers numerous possibilities. And the situation becomes even richer with ideas when the design involves an existing space, due to the interaction between old and new.

 

High fashion meets Venetian history

Carbondale’s project for the new Dolce & Gabbana boutique in Venice shows what can happen when history meets luxury retail. Located a stone’s throw from Piazza San Marco, the boutique is set against the historic backdrop of Palazzo Torres. Past and present dialogue in a sequence of rooms, each one identified by a particular combination of colors and finishes. The leading actors in this project are traditional Venetian materials, combined with a contemporary design: marble, mosaics, inlaid wood, damask fabrics, and Murano glass. Inspired by the shape of a pincushion, and in different colors and sizes, the custom-designed armchairs in the various rooms are the designer’s hallmark.

Read the article for free and buy the special CONTRACT – VOL. 2: Dolce & Gabbana boutique

 

A restyling in pop-art colors and materials

Also inspired by its setting, Teresa Sapey’s project for the common areas of the Hotel nhow Marseille plays with color to create constantly recurring references to land and water, the city and the beach. The marine metaphor can be found in the furnishings and finishes of every room, with the floors reflecting the colors of the sea from blue to emerald green, while the scatter cushions on the sofas are colorful fish and the washbasins in the restrooms are shaped like cakes of Marseille soap. The fulcrum of the project, the place where the designer’s famous quote “Color is material” is fully expressed, is the Tunnel Bar, a sensorial pathway through light and shade, coolness and warmth, that winds its way down a corridor of illuminated arches in a blaze of hypnotic colors and geometries.

Read the article for free and buy the special CONTRACT – VOL. 2: Hotel nhow Marseille

 

Nudging and interior design: a tropical oasis to increase productivity

While boutiques and the common areas of a hotel can be designed to create spectacle, in the case of offices, it’s more appropriate to focus on creating a stimulating and relaxing environment that aids concentration. This was the path taken by the Ippolito Fleitz Group when it transformed Roman Klis Design’s headquarters in Herrenberg, Germany, into a green oasis of creativity. The idea that the environment and people’s habits play an important role in employee productivity derives from the principle of nudging, which is all about improving people’s wellbeing by nudging them towards a certain decision while still letting them retain freedom of choice. By following this approach, the designers created a workplace that resembles a tropical island, full of the lush vegetation that forms the leitmotif of the whole project. These thousands of plants improve the comfort of this environment created with a seaside-inspired color palette.

Read the article for free and buy the special CONTRACT – VOL. 2: Roman Klis Design Headquarters

 

Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum: a novel means of spatial division

Turning our attention from the freshness of flora to the cold allure of stone, the Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum is located in Xiamen, a port city on the southeastern coast of China. This exhibition center, which houses fossils and archaeological finds, is located inside the headquarters of a stone manufacturer. Designed by Atelier Alter Architects, the project breaks the mold of the cubic box to create a pyramid shape with faceted walls. The principle of stone dissection is thereby transformed into a means to divide space that, in conjunction with concrete surfaces, creates the appearance of a quarry. The wall is the only architectural element to which the job of maintaining the consistency and authenticity of the project are entrusted.

Read the article in English: Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum

These projects all highlight some fundamentals that designers can’t ignore when deciding on the lead character of their story: the needs of the client, intended use, and the historical and geographical contexts. While these elements have always been at the root of any project, another aspect that’s taken on enormous importance today is mutability. The contexts in which projects are situated are typically changing faster than ever today, meaning that the project itself also must change. A good example is how, in the space of just one year, the pandemic has revolutionized the spaces and rhythms of our lives. On top of that, with today’s focus on sustainable development, the number of new builds is on the decline against a growing number of renovations. Within a society in constant transformation that needs to both conserve heritage buildings and create flexible spaces for the future, how does a material, an architectural element, or a piece of furniture become the fulcrum of a project?

We’ll be examining this question during the panel discussion “A Journey through Space and Materiality,” to be held as a part of Perspective Virtual Northern Europe Forum, scheduled for May 18 and 19, 2021.

Discover more about all the scheduled panel discussions and keep up-to-date by following us on social media. We’ll soon be revealing the names of the speakers and much more.

 

All credits relating to photos refer to individual articles

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