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It may seem like we’ve covered a lot of projects by PPAA (Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados) of late. That’s because we have. But whatcha gonna do when their work strikes the perfect balance between austere and warm, monumental and personal, and the latest project they’ve shared with us is no exception.

Octavia Casa arises as a translation of the Octavia clothing brand into a new kind of boutique hotel that feels a lot like home. Brand values such as “natural, simple, clear and honest” are decoded and manifested as an architectural space where visitors can enjoy a unique experience of temporarily living in Mexico City.

Located in the Condesa neighbourhood, one of the densest, pedestrian-friendly urban areas of the city, the project seeks to respond to the neighbourhood condition and join as another project with both urban and social character.

At the urban level, Octavia Casa is conceived as a building that opens up to the city and especially to the pedestrians, leaving the ground floor space free and replete with public character, promoting encounters between the city and the guests.

An important part of the project is the “empty space” that takes the form of a side patio, visually communicating with the outside. Equally, this built element provides textures in walls and floors, emphasizing the “architecture of emptiness”.

The rooms are located in two blocks, one of them in the back section that’s open to the patio and the other in the front part facing the street. A timber lattice filter provides privacy to the street while creating a play of light and shade while protecting the residents from the sunlight.

The roof was conceived as a public place away for direct contact with the city – a place with a more controlled relationship with its surroundings, meticulously planned views of the neighbourhood while being enveloped by nature.

Octavia Casa demonstrates special care for the details and for the specific needs of each user. PPAA have employed only the materials in their purest state or those that have been exquisitely made in order to deliver a project that feels as harmonious as it is timeless.

Read on for further insight from the PPAA project team on Octavia Casa.

| The article From a Clothing Brand to a Boutique Hotel: Octavia Casa in Condesa, Mexico by PPAA. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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Manhattan, seen at center, is the most densely populated borough in New York City and is home to roughly 1.6 million people. With an area of nearly 23 square miles, there are more than 72,000 people for every square mile. If the entire world lived with this population density, all of humanity could fit into the country of New Zealand.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3s4mwsZ

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Source imagery: Nearmap

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DOMANI has created a manmade landscape moulded out of concrete for Meunier Tech Beauty’s Concept Store in Shenzhen, China. The interior feels grounded by its robust industrial shell that’s been carefully overlayed with an ultra-sleek, contemporary fitout, representing a fresh new take on the world of wellness and beauty.

The design team at DOMANI explain they attempted to combine two contradictions in the space – extreme thickness and lightness, with extreme strength and softness. A series of sculptural curving furniture pieces embody this paradox, bringing a gentle quality to the exposed, rough concrete. Delicate metal framework sits alongside homogenous, dominating forms – a complex relationship that symbolises the diversity of women, and further, of beauty.

Chinese design brand A&V was called on to create the undulating copper bench and the seemingly weightless counter. It’s otherworldly shimmering form captures and reflects natural light cast from the adjacent glass-clad wall, bringing a sense of lightness to the scheme.

“The key to the interior of the guest rooms is the feel of water,” explains the design team. “When consumers open their eyes in a space with gentle and quiet light, the corrugated steel structure on the ceiling forms a water-like illusion through complex refraction and reflection. People are willing to stay in the middle of a certain blurred moment, spontaneously through the imagination of rippling water.”

A back-lit wide ledge runs along the walls, causing escaping shards of light to dance across the mirrored ceiling. The resulting spaces feel hugely expansive, bringing a sense of theatre to the beauty experience.

Related: Sky Club House by DOMANI is the Fanciest Gym Ever.

| The article Meunier Tech Beauty Concept Store in Shenzen by DOMANI. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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Ubalt Architects have transformed a former data centre set within a 1970s mixed-use building into an apartment with no outside view and very little natural light. Instead of fighting its obvious shortcomings, the project’s intention is to amplify the interior’s natural character while delivering a home that could easily transform into many different uses.

Le Grand Marais occupies a building belonging to the largest co-ownership in Paris and includes a mixed programme of offices, housing, amphitheatre, a swimming pool and so on. According to Ubalt, the first challenge was to evoke the 1970s vibes inside the new interior. This was notably achieved through the choice of materials: the omnipresent plexiglass, coloured metal joinery, iridescent curtains, concrete and terrazzo.

“Moreover, this loft is located on the ground floor and overlooks the enclosed circulation corridor of the building,” explain the architects. “This is the great particularity of this space, which is almost ‘blind’, with no view of the outside and very little natural light. With this observation in mind, the project’s intention was to intensify this phenomenon rather than to come up against it.”

Related: Moulin Loft in Paris by Ubalt Architects.

The layout and distribution of the spaces have been designed to maximise the feelings of concentration and focus. A buffer entrance space serves three bedrooms, the bathroom and the living room while evoking an idea of the interior patio. The spaces are linked together, the material slides from one room to another – on the floor, on the wall or even as furniture. The materials echo each other to offer identity and staging to the spaces and in particular to the “blind rooms” of the apartment.

In addition to the desire to make rigid spaces exuberant, the amplification of the project involves the possibility for the interior to be transformed into a showroom, a workplace or “a place of awakening” thanks to its double kitchen, laundry, storage spaces, projection room/ gymnasium. In addition, the bedrooms can easily be transformed into meeting rooms.

Finally, the only substantial light entrance is located at the end of the apartment where four skydomes are deployed. Here again, it is the amplification that is sought as a design strategy – the terrace garden located above the premises enters through the zenithal bays to become a planted jardinière before it drips into the apartment.

| The article No Natural Light, No Worries: Le Grand Marais by Ubalt Architects. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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Set in the secluded land of Hullehällar, the southern part of Sweden’s Gotland Island is Collectif Encore’s breathtaking Hamra Studio Residence. Stockholm-based artist, Birgitta Burling, commissioned her friend and Collectif Encore’s co-founder, Anna Chavepayre, to design a house for her and her partner Staffan Burling. Together with the builder, Allan Wahlby, and through several ambitious ideas, experiments and sketches, Hamra is realised with an evolving narrative that merges with the serene landscape and seasonal changes.

This remarkable home is not to be overlooked by its unassuming appearance – instead, it beckons for us to marvel at the simple gestures that call for evocative details that make the unique form so mesmerising.

The brief was designed on a simple requirement – to ensure the house is protected from mice. In addition to the brief were also restrictions and regulations enforced on the site – all houses built within the area were to adhere to a certain height and volume, mimicking the forms of existing ‘small farmhouses scattered across the countryside’. It’s a niche requirement, but it served as a delightful opportunity for Hamra’s design potential.

Related: Hourré House in Labastide Villefranche, France by Collectif Encore.

Against the grassy plains, the building presents as an interactive art sculpture made of rough and robust cuts. The house is laid with an angular and solid impermeable concrete floor and foundation, with walls made of expanded clay blocks that functions as insulation plastered in lime (as required by the building regulations). An external ladder is attached beside the main entrance, inviting observations of nature from above.

The neutrality of the external palette is carried internally. However, Chavepayre divided the studio’s public and private programs with a habitable timber wall concealing a mezzanine – a cheeky solution to adding additional space due to size restrictions. The ground floor presents an open living area with kitchen bordering the walls. The timber partition hides guest area with a sleeping nook nestled into the thick wall, along with studio space, a toilet and a shower. The separation also disguises a staircase with an elongated landing and a throne-like bathtub (which peeks towards the landscape or into the living space) with bookshelves tucked on the surfaces. Upstairs lies the couple’s private quarters – a bedroom, balcony for birds, and an aqua-blue tiled bathroom with ocean views. Throughout, sightlines of each space are oriented to allow the landscape to consume the house. No partition becomes a missed opportunity.

At Birgitta’s insistence, the house is orientated closely towards a near-forgotten road, becoming a gatehouse between the public and private garden. In the warmer months, the house’s transparent facades punctured along the external walls dissolves to expanding the garden into a gathering space. In colder seasons, the couple retreats inside and operate within the timber vessel.

It’s no surprise Collectif Encore was awarded the Kasper Salin award for the simplicity in Hamra’s design, ensuring that the most minute details are functional and immaculate. A simple kiss between the timber and stone in the stair details; being precise with the alignment of views towards the horizon; and the lime canvas façade capturing the sunset orange speckling through the tree’s silhouette – Hamra is methodically playful and poetic at each turn.

| The article Hamra Studio Residence on Gotland Island, Sweden by Collectif Encore. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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Bondi Beach is located in Sydney, Australia. One of the city’s most stunning and popular destinations, the beach gets its name from the Aboriginal word ‘Boondi’, meaning ‘waves breaking over rocks’. The beach’s surrounding neighborhood, which shares its name, is home to about 11,600 people.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3diWyOr

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Source imagery: Maxar

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This shot of 432 Park Avenue in New York City was captured from a helicopter by our founder Benjamin Grant. At a height of 1,396 feet (426 m), the building contains 104 condominium apartments and is one of the tallest and wealthiest residential buildings in the world. Recent reports of plumbing, mechanical, and noise issues at the luxury condo tower — likely related to its excessive height — highlight a broader issue with super-tall residential towers, which have been sprouting up worldwide in recent years.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3qpJjPF

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Source imagery: Benjamin Grant

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Note Design Studio and TOG (The Office Group) have unveiled their vision for the office space of the future – expressed through their collaboration in reinventing Douglas House, a six-floor office building on London’s Great Titchfield Street. Setting out to create a workplace where people can feel stimulated by their environment and thus be truly productive, Note and TOG strived to fill every inch of Douglas House with personality.

The connection between our environments, our emotions and our productivity has become increasingly clear in recent years, and the awareness of this relationship has informed Note’s design concept for the project. In Douglas House, they aimed to deliver an element of surprise from the moment of entry, engaging the brain with touches of the unexpected, administering what Note refers to as a ‘gentle punch’ to all who step in off the street.

When TOG acquired the lease on the 4,400 sqm Douglas House, the 1930s block was devoted to functional but uninspiring office space. TOG had previously called on Note to design the interiors of its office space Summit House in Holborn which saw them translate the art deco exterior into a high-level contemporary design that complemented and enhanced the Grade II-listed building. Douglas House’s post-war architecture offered less for both design teams to respond to creatively, so the challenge was to give it a strong identity that would enable it to hold its own against its more dramatic neighbours in Fitzrovia.

Related: Summit House Co-Working Space in London by Note Design Studio.

The most striking feature of the design is a curvilinear wall of glass blocks that runs the entire length of the ground floor. Based on the idea of a hand-drawn line, the wall creates a sense of light, transparency and openness throughout the space, which is split into three ‘rooms’ by the building’s two stair cores. As well as creating a passage between the rooms at the rear, the wall creates a visual connection between them with material intensity and unexpectedly fluid wavy forms, echoed in the custom-made lighting rafts. On the other side is a bank of courtyard-style meeting rooms, each with a unique layout created by the irregularity of the wall’s shape.

“This was a way for us to be disruptive and to challenge the standards of an average refurbishment – to create a space within a space, a world of its own within the old building,” says Johannes Carlström, co-founder of Note Design Studio.

The wall also marks a shift in the interior colour palette – warm woody neutrals and desert shades define the communal spaces and break-out areas while cooler, softer blues are used in the meeting rooms and working areas where concentration and focus are required. Pops of primary colour come in the form of vivid ultramarine Marenco armchairs and sofas by Arflex, Muller van Severen hanging lamps and powder-coated stools in bold red and blue.

The inventive material palette draws strongly on natural finishes, incorporating ash stained in various shades, walnut and terrazzo. Designing around a building with extensive wear and tear, Note and TOG agreed to retain the existing materials from the original design. When this was not possible, materials that would be reusable in future (including steel, glass and ceramics) were selected.

Where plastics were required, the team employed the 100% recyclable Tarkett IQ range of wall and floor coverings. Remarkably, they were able to salvage the building’s existing parquet floors in their entirety, lifting, renovating and replacing every last block. Other sustainability-led initiatives include the addition of a bank of solar panels and a green biodiverse roof.

In keeping with its ‘gentle punch’ and ‘breaking the grid’ concepts, Note has ensured there is a striking contrast between the exterior and interior. Outside, the building’s facade is repetitive and grid-like; inside is an altogether richer, more fluid and less predictable experience – beginning at the moment of entry, when visitors are greeted with a wide reception desk in a head-turning blue ALPI Sottsass veneer.

A number of newly commissioned artworks continue the artistic streak, including pieces from Jenny Nordberg, Jochen Holz, Wang & Söderström, Philipp Schenk-Mischke, James Shaw, Mijo Studio and Studio Furthermore.

Alongside the expected features of a modern workplace – gym, roof terrace and 20 meeting rooms (including 10 informal, collaborative spaces and a traditional boardroom) – Douglas House also includes a number of more innovative additions, including a ‘recharge room’ for breakout moments during the working day, a plant-filled ‘oxygen room’ on the top floor in which to recharge and reconnect with nature, a flexible workspace with a café, and a dedicated room for nursing mothers.

Related: Tintagel House Shared Work Space in London by Universal Design Studio & Stanton Williams.

| The article Note Design Studio’s Convention-busting Interior for Flexible London Workspace. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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Happy Valentine’s Day! Check out this Overview of Galešnjak Island, Croatia, we created using the Airbus Space OneAtlas platform. Located in the Pašman Canal on the Adriatic Sea, this heart-shaped island is known around the world and is often called “Lover’s Island.” There are currently no human habitants on the island, but it is a popular attraction for daily private tours and has facilities for engagements and small weddings.

You can use OneAtlas from Airbus Space to create custom high-resolution prints on our website! Visit over-view.com/custom to check out our Custom Print Creator.

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Source imagery: Airbus Space
© CNES 2020, Distribution Airbus DS

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Tom Mark Henry (TMH) have unveiled a layered, textural and punchy scheme for their latest residential project – 188 square metre interior of a free-standing home in Wahroonga, a leafy suburb in Sydney’s Upper North Shore.

Drawing upon the site’s architectural period and surrounding bushland, Wahroonga House is the studio’s contemporary interpretation of mid-century modern design. The scheme further references the warmth and playfulness of Palm Springs balanced with a laid-back sense of elegance and sophistication.

Evoking a connection to Rose Seidler Hose – Harry Seidler’s famed 1950s home designed by the architect for his mother, the sinuous connection from the exterior to interior induces an earthy feel balanced by the site’s laidback Australian modernist architecture. Extensive use of curves and soft edges further promotes a sense of visual flow and ease.

The surrounding bushland governed the selection of interior materials and finishes. TMH employ rich, golden brown mosaic hues and deep forest green for the kitchen cabinetry – the rich palette complements the site’s natural bushland setting abundant in flora and fauna, delivering a unified space from the inside out.

The terracotta flooring experienced in the main living quarters is carried into the private spaces of the home, providing a continuous experience underfoot. Rattan joinery accents further connect public and private areas of the home.

Tiled surfaces throughout, terrazzo floors and countertops in the bathrooms, spherical wall lights and an arched amber rippled glass door bring moments of joy and playfulness to the design. It is the use of colour and texture which provides a cohesive connection throughout the Wahroonga House, delivering a laidback and sophisticated refuge.

| The article Playfully Sophisticated: Wahroonga House by Tom Mark Henry. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |