Interiors
Interviews with architects and interior designers on contemporary interiors.
Through Adaptive Reuse, Studio Alexander Fehre Turns Two Buildings into a New Facility in Germany
German corporations employ the highest number of engineers in all the European Union, which means they are constantly scouring the globe for qualified staff. So, how do they lure such specialized employees away from the competition? Perhaps by suggesting that, contrary to dour memes, the work life of an engineer in the Federal Republic is, quite possibly, fun.
“There’s a cliche of the German engineer toiling tirelessly away in a little chamber,” designer Alexander Fehre admits. Which is exactly the kind of work environment that the Studio Alexander Fehre principal and his team sought to avoid creating for Bosch Engineering GmbH, a developer of electronics systems for automotive and other applications, headquartered on a 108-acre campus in the southern German town of Abstatt. Photography by Philip Kottlorz. More in Interior Design magazine.
Show-Stopping Installations Seen at Milan Design Week 2022
There is a trick to quickly erecting a temporary destination that seduces the design community during Milan Design Week—and wow-factor is a must. At Alcova, the offsite exhibition which took place for the second time in an abandoned nunnery and military hospital, several installations shined, taking advantage of an abundance of space and the decayed elegance that only comes from derelict structures. In the Brera district, La Palota, a former sports venue beckoned with lofty ceilings. And why not add a famous villa to the mix? From a kitchen installation at a location of a recent crime drama to a portal of natural and semi-precious stone to a colorful sphere-filled sound studio, here are nine of our favorite installations from Milan Design Week 2022. Photography by Marco Cappelletti. More in Interior Design magazine.
Streetwear and High Fashion Merge at Off-White’s New Flagship in Paris by AMO
Sneakers define casual dress. Yet quintessential as they are to easy living, more and more they’ve become a luxury item. At Off-White’s new 8,100 square-foot, two-story flagship store in Paris by AMO—the think tank of OMA, the Dutch architectural firm founded by Rem Koolhaas—“the choice of materials reflects the evolution of the brand from streetwear to street luxe,” reveals Giulio Margheri, architect at OMA and one of the lead designers on the project. Photography: Benoit Florençon/courtesy OMA. More in Interior Design magazine.
JKMM Architects Prescribes Nature Themes for the Innovative Hospital Nova in Southern Finland
Why shuffle patients around, when moving is chore enough when one is sick? And with designs that generally leave bad tastes—like medicine. So thought a 2010 Aalto University academic research team determined to transform the hospital experience in Finland. While healthcare in the Nordic country is publicly funded and universal, the typical facility was a bloated agglomeration of buildings that had haphazardly sprung up over the years, with the country’s last ground-up general hospital built five decades ago. More in Interior Design magazine.
Sophie Hicks’s Strikingly Minimalistic ACNE Boutique in Seoul is Far from Gangnam Style
The Gangnam district of Seoul was single-handedly catapulted into the world’s consciousness by the horse-trot dance moves and universally catchy beat of Psy’s self-deprecating video for “Gangnam Style.” Four years later, this poke at the lavish lifestyle of the toniest district in the South Korean capital holds tight to its position as the most popular YouTube video of all time. Satire or no, style there certainly is in this luxury retail wonderland, home to boutiques for Chanel, Christian Dior, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and more. More in Interior Design magazine.
Lunar Phases Inspire Onion’s Atelier Archi@Mosphere Designs Uncommon Store in South Korea
A concept project for one of the biggest retail revolutions of pandemic life—socially distanced shopping—South Korea’s Uncommon Store was designed and completed in just three months by Atelier Archi@Mosphere. Inside the new Hyundai Seoul department store by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the unmanned boutique is part of convenience-store chain Nice Weather and geared toward the nation’s digitally savvy youth who intuitively use smartphone technology as both tool and expression. More in Interior Design magazine.
Munich’s Über-Stylish Pop-Up Hotel
The site came with a catch, but it wasn’t the location. When the owner of a four-storey concrete building from the ’70s approached Sascha Arnold, Niels Jäger and Steffen Werner about leasing the top two floors, they already understood the appeal of the Glockenbach district. This working-class neighbourhood south of Munich’s centre used to be known as party central, but decommissioned industrial buildings have given way to polished residential and commercial developments with hefty price tags, transforming it into the city’s trendiest area. More in Azure magazine.
Inside the New Noma
Chef René Redzepi’s interpretation of Nordic cuisine contains a few surprises—live ants being among the more startling ingredients on the legendary Noma’s tasting menu, which starts at around $350—but this has not deterred customers. Since he opened his experimental restaurant in a Copenhagen waterfront warehouse in 2003, it has been repeatedly lauded as one of the world’s best. More in Architecture Record.
Kvadrat Flagship Showroom by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
Eight years after the French brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec designed interiors for Kvadrat’s flagship showroom in Copenhagen, the high-end textile manufacturer’s 4,300-square-foot space in a 1950s redbrick warehouse was bursting at the seams. More in Architectural Record magazine.
Innovative Tatami Mats Transform a Rental Apartment in Japan
Browsing online property listings, architect Yuki Mitani came across a rare find: An unfinished room inside a rental apartment? Located in the Higashiyama district of the city of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, the apartment had three rooms—but only one, seductive in its raw beauty, had floors, walls, and ceilings stripped down to the 49-year-old building’s concrete shell. More in Interior Design magazine.