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Chongqing is a sprawling municipality at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers in southwestern China. The metropolis covers an area the size of Austria – 31,816 square miles (82,403 square km) – and is crisscrossed by folds of mountain ranges, valleys, gorges and caves. Chongqing is China’s most populous municipality, with about 32 million people living across its 26 districts, eight counties and four autonomous counties.

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29.563700°, 106.550400°

Source imagery: Maxar

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The idea of living in a spacious loft in the city is something most of us would’ve dreamed of. I, for one, have definitely lusted over the idea of residing somewhere centrally located while enjoying an abundance of open living space with an edge. Yet, urban warehouse apartments, as appealing as they sound, come with an unavoidable set of challenges – from navigating heritage regulations, interior shells often left with dodgy smears of time and bad “design” decisions, a slew of issues related to structural integrity, acoustics and so forth. It takes a special kind of client to fall in love with a space riddled with problems, and see nothing but its potential, rather than focusing on the many obstacles to overcome.

This was certainly the case with this special Melbourne laneway home that occupies an entire ground floor of a 1907 warehouse built by Sir John Monash — an advocate of reinforced concrete, whose now heritage-listed building is considered a pioneering exploration of off-form concrete.

The owners, a professional couple – with backgrounds in fashion and property development — originally rented an apartment in the same building where they could “have a bit of fun” while waiting for their family home renovation in Windsor. However, they immediately realised this was their dream project, and immediately neglected the inner-city suburban home to focus their efforts on securing a whole floor in the CBD building.

Related: SCH52 Loft in Berlin by Batek Architekten.

Working in close collaboration with the local architecture, interiors and landscape design practice, O’Connor and Houle, whom the couple worked with previously on several projects, give rise to a special city abode that celebrates the building history while accommodating more than meets the eye.

The original concrete structure was completely concealed by plasterboard with partitions extended to the ceilings. Spaces were generic, enclosed and devoid of natural light, and the bedrooms were noisy, particularly at night during waste collection times. The artificial light from nearby bars and restaurants also made restful sleep impossible. The owners were seeking a combination of spaces that felt open, light, quiet and refreshing, and very much an antithesis of the inner-city context and the pace, noise and bustle of the city.

O’Connor and Houle’s conceptual aim was to expose and preserve the heritage concrete structure. They set a datum above which partitions are glazed, revealing the historic expanse of beams, columns and slabs of the warehouse. Principally, two ‘new’ materials were introduced in the palette – Canadian Rock Maple and steel glazing bar – chosen for their contrast to the rough and robust nature of the concrete.

Related: Ketelhuis Residence, Gallery Space & Artist Studio in Zaandam by Studio Modijefsky.

The new interior distinctly contrasts the robust structural shell, so the beauty of the early off-form concrete form plays an important role in the daily aesthetic experience. The fitout also deals with all the unpleasant aspects of the urban context — excessive noise, lack of natural light, bad odours and stale air.

To combat the intrusion of nighttime noise, a garden atrium wraps around the interior, with three layers of glass in various thicknesses filtering and counteracting various sound frequencies. The internal space is now silent at 4 am while a rubbish truck upturns industrial bins full of glass outside.

A fresh and serene interior palette creates an atmosphere of calm, further illuminated with light fittings that up-light the concrete, featuring adjustable colour-temperature LED lights that cunningly mimic external light conditions.

Related: Tommaso Spinzi’s Epic Loft Apartment in Milan.

Spatially, in accordance with client brief, this home accommodates three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, two study spaces, a media space, a yoga space, a child’s play area, two dining and two livings spaces, a commercial kitchen, an outdoor living area and a separate office suite with a dedicated kitchen, bathroom and entry.

Having completely changed the way the clients live, this Melbourne warehouse is not only undeniably beautiful, all spaces within are well lit, calm and quiet, with purified and odourless fresh air replenished constantly. A tranquil urban oasis that still very much feels intimately connected to the city.

Related: Converted Loft in the Heart of Shoreditch, East London by Chan & Eayrs.

| The article An Urban Oasis Intimately Connected to the City: Melbourne Laneway Home by O’Connor and Houle. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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The Great Bahama Bank is a carbonate platform submerged in the shallow waters around Andros Island in the Bahamas. The limestone that makes up the Bank has been accumulating for at least 140 million years and today is more than 2.8 miles (4.5 km) thick. During the last ice ages, when sea level was roughly 390 feet (120 m) lower, the Great Bahama Bank was dry land.

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23.568444°, -76.440111°

Source imagery: Maxar

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Various Associates have designed the new boutique for (SO)What fashion brand in Chengdu. The design team focused on truthfully expressing and reinterpreting the unique local cultural context through their design response. After thorough consideration, the designers turned to the profound opera culture in Chengdu, as locally, the Shu Opera is considered the best in the world.

With (SO)What’s core values being “Don’t know, Don’t care”, the interior sought to represent the unrestrained and independent energy of the brand’s contemporary clients. Inspiration was drawn from the rich cultural interest in plays, as Various Associates chose the “stage” as the overarching design concept.

The store faces the northwest of Taikoo Li square across the street, with a steady stream of people passing the door. Without barriers at the front, the square double-height facade offers pedestrians a direct view into the interior from a distance.

Related: Breaking Away from Display-orientated Retail: J1M5 Boutique by Various Associates.

The focus of the facade design was to capture the attention of all passers-by at a glance. For this purpose, Various Associates removed the original enclosed facade to maximize the display surface. The team adopted pure, direct and dramatic design strategies, and brought in giant suspended rotating screens as the core of the design.

The suspended illuminated rotating panel weighing over 7,000 kilograms presented a great design challenge. In addition to suspending the structure in the lightest way under limited conditions, the designers worked to achieve the ultimate flexibility and seamless rotation of these giant screens.

The screens can rotate 180 degrees horizontally and move vertically with electric control. Placed at different angles, they produce a boundless feeling in the limited interior space.

Like the stage background of a play, the rotating screen can change freely. Randomly switched dynamic elements and multiple angles of inclination are combined to create a distinctive, intuitive experience in the space.

Related: The Mirror of Our Nature: Immersive Multimedia Installation at the 70th Cannes Film Festival.

Below the illuminated panel, suspended stainless-steel clothes rails are equipped with ethereal light sources. With agility in mind, the height of the rails can be adjusted freely based on the height of the screen panel.

Suspended in the air, the giant variable screen, just like a stage background, can directly shift the scenes according to different spatial atmospheres and brand elements, as they convey changeable and magical dramatic effects in a modern manner.

Creating a surreal, visually arresting world for (SO)What, Various Associates have maximized the site’s unique advantages to build a dynamic stage, integrating modern technology and dramatic tension in the hopes of bringing customers a multi-sensory immersive spatial experience.

Related: Retro-futuristic Audrey Boutique by Liang Architecture Studio.

| The article Fusing Fashion & Technology: (SO)What Chengdu by Various Associates. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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The post “Digital Body Language” Is Everything: Interview with Erica Dhawan appeared first on Nir and Far.

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Delhi, India, contains approximately 16 million residents. The neighborhoods of Santosh Park and Uttam Nagar, both pictured here, are home to some of the city’s poorest people and contain its most built-up and densely populated land. Numerous studies have shown a correlation between the wealth of a residential area and its total number of trees and the amount of green space. This Overview is a particularly striking example of that trend.

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28.614656°, 77.057758°

Source imagery: Maxar

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Fort Greene Townhouse by Home Studios is the design firm’s second New York residential project following Bond Street Apartment, a stylish and contemporary family home completed in 2020. Located in a 176.5 sqm, three-story brownstone in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighbourhood, the vibrant and inviting home for four was gut and renovated to reinterpret the interior aesthetic of the family’s former West Village apartment but in a new, much grander space. The newly completed residence serves as an extension of Home Studios’ larger exploration of illuminating a client’s narrative through the use of thoughtful and attentive design details and expressions.

The renovation strategy was a reworking of the floorplan with the aim of allowing an airy and light-filled interior flow that gracefully knits together each of the residences’ rooms, including an open-plan parlour, kitchen, and powder room on the ground floor and a modern playroom, principal bedroom and bathroom on the upper floors.

The client — a celebrated restauranteur — is an avid cook and entertainer, so the design principles of “hospitality” ultimately informed the architectural and material decisions throughout the project.

The spacious kitchen, featuring two wine fridges and a classic Lacanche range, serves as the family’s gathering place and is anchored by an impressive centre island made out of Paonazzo marble and handmade ceramic tiling. The oak and brass hardware and cabinetry was custom designed by Home Studios.

Related: Form-Meets-Function: 20 Bond New York City Apartment by Home Studios.

In addition to the theme of “hospitality,” the goal of the project was to embrace the underlying tenets of “history” and “materiality” in an effort to create an updated environment that defies the conformity of a typical residence.

One major directive was to pay respect to the building’s original Italianate architecture, and Home Studios preserved historic details — including the charming entrance doors, the stair handrail, and the fireplace mantels — whenever possible. With this, the firm was able to achieve stylistic cohesion from room to room that feels congruous with and complementary to the home’s modern functionality.

Fort Greene Townhouse utilizes a wide range of materials, while simultaneously remaining unified as an entity. Material choices were achieved thanks to a creative alignment between the client and Home Studios, whose preference for natural expressions led to the inclusion of travertine, terracotta, brass, bronze, steel, glass, and walnut detailing; further use of oak can be found in the custom bed in the principal bedroom and the reclaimed oak floors that surface the 185 sqm space.

Thoughtful finishes and accents set apart the interior and are prominently on display in the townhouse’s unique bathrooms: Giallo Siena stone and Clé Slant tile decorate the parlour bathroom, while Travertine details make up the principal bathroom. Each bathroom also includes a bespoke Picasso-inspired mural by artist Kimmy Quillin, adding a spirited characteristic while creating a satisfying interplay between old and new.

Related: Blue Building in Brooklyn by Lot Office for Architecture.

Selected artwork is also integral to the atmosphere. Notable pieces include two Tyler Hays of BDDW’s puzzle piece paintings, which hang in the parlour dining room and principal bathroom, as well as a Hiroko Takeda textile that decorate the parlour living room. A Claire Oswalt acrylic painting hangs above the principal bed.

These unique details pop thanks to the home’s neutral colour palette. With all Home Studios’ projects, the deliberate use of muted and subtle colour remains a priority. Farrow and Ball’s soft Pointing shade covers the townhouse’s ceilings and walls, while the paint brand’s silvery Ball Green accentuates the parlour stair millwork.

Fort Greene Townhouse also includes a blend of vintage, custom and contemporary furniture, lighting and decor. Highlights found throughout the home include the 4 Bowl Pendant With Arch chandelier by Anna Charlesworth; custom pulls and vases by Eny Lee Parker; Palomino Stool by Chris Wolston; Poly Chair by Max Lamb; vintage Turkish flat weave rug by Rug & Kilim; and Pretty Please mirror by Home Studios’ furniture and lighting collection, Homework.

While the project presented a new typology for Home Studios, the fundamentals of the firm’s process remained the same. At large, Fort Greene Townhouse is a direct extension of the studios’ values — with a keen focus on the diversity of expression and playful curiosity; an edit of what is only essential; and an impeccable devotion to detail.

Related: Alsace LA Boutique Hotel by Home Studios.

| The article Fort Greene Townhouse by Home Studios. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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Mount Taranaki is an active stratovolcano on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island. A change in vegetation is sharply delineated between the protected national forest that encircles the volcano and the surrounding land comprised of intensively-farmed dairy pastures. Taranaki is 8,260 feet (2,518 meters) in elevation.

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-39.297166°, 174.063228°

Source imagery: Maxar

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The Red River Showdown is an annual college football rivalry game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and University of Texas Longhorns. The two teams first played each other in 1900 and have competed every year, uninterrupted, since 1929. These Overviews show this year’s game on October 9th that was attended by more than 93,000 fans (including the halftime show!). Oklahoma won this year, beating Texas 55-48.

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32.779712°, -96.759603°

Source imagery: Nearmap

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Cologne is the fourth most populous city in Germany, with just over a million inhabitants. Situated on the Rhine River, the city is known for its Cologne Cathedral and numerous institutions of higher education, including the University of Cologne — one of Europe’s oldest and largest universities. Green areas cover more than a quarter of Cologne, which equates to roughly 800 square feet (75 square meters) of public green space per inhabitant.

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50.936389°, 6.952778°

Source imagery: Maxar