Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Union Restaurant by Aurélie Blanchard
Swiss architect Aurélie Blanchard has lined every wall and surface in the bar of this Basel restaurant with copper, while a dark green dining room looms just behind.
The green walls of this room were inspired by the colours of painted doors throughout the city and are subtly highlighted by a series of wall-mounted light bulbs.
Spherical copper pendant lamps are suspended above a row of long oak tables, where diners sit in large groups.
In the bar, slightly flatter lamps illuminate a table and bar at standing height, both of which have chamfered edges.
Other dark restaurants worth a look include one with a chandelier made from jam jars and another with a fanning timber canopy.
Photography is by Mark Niedermann.
Here’s some more information from Aurélie Blanchard:
Situated in the heart of Kleinbasel, UNION restaurant is a new hotspot of this multicultural neighbourhood where immigrants, expats, students and creative industries coexist. Jérome Beurret and Stefan Grieder, owners of the well-known Rhyschaenzli in Basel, along with their new partner Pascal Salathe, appointed the architect Aurélie Blanchard to design their new restaurant.
The architecture aims to capture the spirit of a traditional American kitchen with fine Eastern influences. At UNION rustic meals such as burgers and ribs are revisited with contemporary touches. The design intends to create a warm dining environment with a vibrant metropolitan bar for both evening and daytime.
The dark green dining room with its oversized oak tables engages with the street whilst the dark envelope creates an intimate environment despite the room’s size. Basel’s traditional painted wooden doors inspired the room’s colour. Copper globes suspended above the tables cast warm islands of light between the diners who sit in clusters around these large communal dining tables. Domestic bliss of home-cooked meals and candle-lit dining atmosphere finally tie the room together.
The bar in contrast is a precious copper niche that opens onto the dark green dining room at the back. Shelves and standing tables emerge from the copper walls; masking the room surfaces with a seamless copper coat. The oversized standing table and new bar are an extension of the wooden floor, finished with a thick copper plate. Rounded corners, solid copper elements and cast glass lamps evoke metropolitan industrial times.
Throughout the space, a dark wooden floor unifies the restaurant and bar. Touches of copper jump into the green room through the folded bar, globe lamps and vintage copper vases.
Next to the bar, the existing courtyard is a lush and fresh space where the green of the plants echoes the Basel green of the restaurant.
Address: UNION restaurant – 95 Klybeckstrasse 4057 Basel
Clients: Jérome Beurret, Stefan Grieder, Pascal Salathe
Architect: Aurélie Blanchard
Graphic design: Ludovic Balland
Completion: March 2012
Area: 200 sqm
Cost: 150’000 SFr
deesawat thai outdoor collection 2012
'bottle' outdoor collection by zero first design, 2012
image © designboom
thai design firm deesawat has displayed their latest outdoor lounge furniture collection at IFFS, the international furniture fair singapore and
TIFF, thailand's international furniture fair held in bangkok from march 14th - 18th of 2012. the three pieces of by zero first design each possess
a wide base paired with an elongated and tapered backrest. the unique silhouette of the series ultimately informs collection's name - 'the bottle'.
the light wood lounge furniture ensemble evokes the shape of a bottle partially obscured from view, as if resting in the sand of the beaches familiar to
the designers. the inviting patio pieces are comprised of a large lounge seat and two relaxed chairs handcrafted from sustainable, plantation-grown or
reclaimed teak. the wood-formed backrest of the largest unit encompasses more than half of the thick circular seat, realizing a sheltering space from
arched timber beams which seem to grow from the base of the unit until joined in a small circle several feet above the center of the lounge chair.
the two smaller components of the eco-friendly series are encircled by struts which decrease in size at various lengths from the highest point on
the right until the lowest point on the left side.
exhibition at IFFS/AFS international singapore furniture fair 2012
image © designboom
'bottle' lounge chairs and lamps
'pumpkin' chair by toshiyuki kita, 2012
the 'pumkin' chair by toshiyuki kita was designed as a new character piece for the outdoor furniture. in general, outdoor pieces
are all formed more in a straight line. but the pumkin chair has been designed to match with the curve of the arm so that the user
may rest comfortably on this outdoor piece.
'nest tree' collection by nakarin kamsera , 2010
'nest tree' by tae suzuki from zero first design and nakarin kamsera is architecturally contemporary and unique in rousing the surroundings.
the piece will not sit idle in the garden as humans and birds alike may enjoy resting upon 'nest tree'. the unit was also conceived as a structure
from which hanging plants may grow from. as part of the 'green factory', this collection utilizes small cuts of wood in order to create a unique
design and pattern.
'nest tree' table
'star' side table
'star' side tables
deesawat exhibition at TIFF thailand international furniture fair 2012
image © designboom
'up' lamps, 'bottle' lounges and 'nest tree' coat hanger
image © designboom
'nest tree' tables
image © designboom
anagram architects: SAHRDC
SAHRDC' by anagram architects, new dehli, india
all images courtesy of anagram architects
new dehli-based firm anagram architects have designed the office building for the 'south asian human right documentation centre',
or SAHRDC, a non-governmental rights organization in new dehli, india. the group desired an interior with efficient space planning
and overall cost-effective construction to run their day-to-day activities, which includes an internship program. positioned upon a
busy street corner with pedestrian hustle and bustle, the small 50 square meter plot required a way to block the intrusive acoustical
and visual problems along with direct solar gain also occurs along the 10 meter side of the plot.
these considerations led to a fortification from the street with a masonry wall which lightens its overall mass by integrating
a pattern of penetrations. the screen features a cubic module of rotated bricks which has been repeated, allowing ventilation and daylight
to pass through while producing the imagery of south asian brise-soleils. the arrangement is comprised of 6 brick components with
the standard dimensions used in india: 230mm x 115mm x 75mm. horizontal interlocking from the stacked overlapping reinforces
the structure along with a thin concrete beam within the cavity from the absence of a brick.
facade viewing the street
brick detail
brick detail
brick detail
paul coudamy: fantastique canopée for comme des garçons (wood instalaton)
'fantastique canopée' by paul coudamy, 2012
all images courtesy billy poh + paul coudamy
paris-based architect paul coudamy has completed the installation of his new sculptural fixture, 'fantastique canopée' for comme des garçons in their
new department store dover street market (DSM) located in tokyo, japan. the piece is comprised of 9,715 planks of wood which seem to grow from
the ground of the shop's interior into two massive sheltering structures which span a portion of the space's ceiling. the fashion brand asked
coudamy designs to imagine a modernist version of a wooden cave in order to develop the sculpture. the neutral design of the store's interior
enables an easy contrast between the vast whiteness of the shop's walls and ceiling with the voluminous and textured artwork installed
in the center of the space, beneath which new clothing displays rest.
paul coudamy tells designboom, 'the watery energy of this wooden sea, composed of thousands of wooden planks fit together to form a harmonious
and imperfect scaly skin, whose jagged curves spread and grow on the ceiling in an uncertain explosion. the 9,715 planks, laid one by one from the
two vertical pillars' basis were fixed one by one randomly. without knowing where it would go and eventually end, the sculpture forms a structure
which becomes wider to spread horizontally and overhang space in every direction. united, the two entities are striving to meet, through the glass
panels of the escalator in the middle of the building, to form a one and only body. smooth circulation are formed around the two spaces, the wooden masses
break the corners' limits whose implantation is unknown. the pieces of wood create irregular curves which are modified depending on the point of view,
looking thin here and massive there. as they were built randomly on the spot, wonderful canopy's vague and free curves make the sculpture look like
an object verging on chaos and plant world in accordance with the brand comme des garçons' spirit'.
bright racks displaying hanging clothes rest beneath one of the canopy structures
the wooden sculpture has been designed in such a way that the lighting for the shop's interior peaks through the plank-formed leaves across the ceiling
an alternate perspective of the shop's interior picturing the second of the two plank-built trees
detailed perspective of its wooden plank trunk
construction of 'fantastiqe canopeé'
alternate view of construction
design plans for the installation
project info:
'in-situ wood sculpture'
client: comme des garçons / DSMG
place: ginza / tokyo
date: 14/02/2012
surface: 125m²
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