© Hiroyuki Oki Decon Photo Studio

© Hiroyuki Oki Decon Photo Studio

1st floor
First, I gave importance to a distance between guests and staffs. I thought, if guests can feel a sense of affinity, they would like the place. So the counter must make guests feel sharing one space together instead of making them feel separated from staffs. At the same time, the room seemed to be too large to be composed of a simple counter, so I had to seek an idea.

© Hiroyuki Oki Decon Photo Studio

© Hiroyuki Oki Decon Photo Studio

I tried to look for a shape of the counter to utilize the space and to make both guests and staff feel sharing the space, then finally I got to think of the S shape counter that makes guests and staffs circulate in the space and cross each other.  Though this shape looks a bit complicated, the elements that I put were quite simple, so I used the existing uneven floor levels as stairs reshaping on purpose to add a variety, rather than flattening it.

2nd floor
I placed tables on 2nd floor for group guests. I also wanted to reflect this dining-bar’s feature that make guests and staffs enjoy their conversations, for the table seats too. Therefore, I set the differences of the floor levels on purpose. I designed to make a floor level of the table area higher than the counter, so that staffs in the counter can look both of the guests in front of them and at table area behind the counter at same time.

Additionally, I made a floor level of the table seats higher than their aisles, so that the eye levels of a staff on the aisle and guests at seat would be same. The seats for the tables, I made round formed sofas, so that staffs are able to join easily and flexibly.

Following the previous experiences after 8 years from the Hotel inauguration and after a deep reflection about the impermanency, we decided to design this new bar with a system much closer to stage building ,by assembling prefabricated modules which allow an easier installation (just in time), as well as its own un-installation and reconfiguration.

We were asked to do an “english” bar, this is our contemporary interpretation of it.

© AS Design Service Limited

© AS Design Service Limited

© AS Design Service Limited

© AS Design Service Limited

Hong Kong AS design service ltd Creative Director Four Lau and Art Director Sam Sum are imagining fashion represent sea.

© AS Design Service Limited

© AS Design Service Limited

With the extensive experience in searching and collecting renowned luxury brands among the Sea of fashion, UM Collezioni Female Top Fashion Multi- brand Store always pick the most fashionable pieces, pack and bring them back in their “SUITCASE”. This makes UM Collezioni standing in the leading position as always.

© Luc Boegly

© Luc Boegly

As chocolate changes from solid to liquid and emits a powerful encompassingaroma, so the architecture materializes the sculptural tubes of confectionary delight.

© Luc Boegly

© Luc Boegly

© Luc Boegly

The workshop is characterized by an interior skin of metal tubes that seek to express the voluptuous taste of chocolate while abstracting the sinuous form of the stretched delicacy.

With this restyling project, the American designer of Egyptian roots has brought his lines and colours to Milan as well, creating a common thread with nhow Berlin, the facility which was inaugurated in 2010 for which he designed all the interiors.

© Giuseppe Creti

© Giuseppe Creti

“After spending many nights staying at nhow Milan, I thought it would be interesting to subtly change the bar where I have had countless meetings, cappuccinos, interviews and glasses of wine,” says Karim Rashid. “I wanted to create a sense of positive energy by furnishing the bar in my new designs from Spain, Portugal and Italy. I added new works that bring a sense of connectivity, like a conduit for meeting, deal making, engaging and flirting, with colours, forms and materials that speaks about the digital age, making the bar a microcosm, a human global intersection”.

© Giuseppe Creti

The project involves fo ur different design companies for whom Karim Rashid designed several objects which now decorate the new bar at nhow. “nhow Milan has a consistent theme of orange throughout their hotel branding,” explains Rashid. “I chose to highlight this theme throughout the bar by keeping a minimal colour scheme of white, orange, chrome, gold with an accent of lime. I’ve included the Axo Light ‘Nafir’ lamps in white/gold, Casamania ‘Kant’ stools in orange and the Redi ‘Kat’ chairs in lime. The ‘Tak’ tables by Redi have been customized with unique graphics printed with HP’s digital technology. To continue the graphics and colour scheme throughout the space, HP has created custom films I designed to apply to the bar mirrors.”

© Giuseppe Creti

© Giuseppe Creti

Nafir, the collection of lamps which Karim Rashid designed for Axo Light in 2012, stems from the idea that light, like music, is pure emotion. Its name is also a tribute to music: indeed, the term Nafir is used to indicate a small North African trumpet, without pistons, used to obtain especially acute sounds.

© Giuseppe Creti

© Giuseppe Creti

Available stand-alone or in groups of threes and illuminated by LED technology, Nafir touches upon the sculptural theme and is just as enchanting with the lights off.

Nafir is made of white injection moulded plastic and is available in three different colours: chrome exterior/white interior, white exterior/gold interior and white exterior/white interior. The canopies are made of the same material as the lamp and with the same colours and finishes.

© Sharrin Rees

The challenge of the restaurant was the undulating timber ceiling. It represents the ‘gust of wind’, the literal Japanese meaning of Ippudo. It tells the story; a narrative of Ippudo’s history, and allows an insight into the traditions of Japanese dining. Ippudo allows you to escape – the atmosphere is inviting. The light, finishes and timber screens create texture and depth.

© Sharrin Rees

Ippudo is known for the ‘crafted’ dishes. The noodle making process is part of the experience, with photos and books about the routine and recipe. This meticulous attention to detail carries from the food to the interior, where great detail is seen in the application of natural finishes. The interior is exciting and natural – the gentle timber curves are welcoming, the overall experience is a unique and modern interpretation of dining in Japan.

© Sharrin Rees

The driving factor of the interior design was to encompass the passion and integrity of the Ippudo ‘family’, while creating an exciting and timeless design. As the first Ippudo restaurant in Australia, the design seeks to create a warm and inviting interior that not only enhances the dining experience but also displays a modern interpretation of the traditional Japanese dining settings.

© Sharrin Rees

The curved timber ceiling was a design challenge with high reward. As the feature of the restaurant interior, the geometry and quality of the finished product was paramount. The timber screen profiles were designed as a modulated system, enabling them to be prefabricated. Each panel incorporates a ‘flexible’ aluminium frame, which could be bent in-situ. Plywood ribs, cut using CNC technology, allowed a smooth geometry, to which each panel was curved around and fixed, achieving an efficient installation process, and also allowing minimal wastage.

© Sharrin Rees

The construction system ensured that each piece fit near perfectly within the building and to each other. With the help of bronze facing mirror, the effect is of a continual and dramatic ceiling space, creating a high impact interior. The continued success since the restaurants opening is proof of successful design and social sustainability.

Koichi Takada Architects profile

Koichi Takada Architects is a Sydney-based firm, currently designing a range of luxury residential projects and creative mixed use and retail venues in Sydney. Founded in 2008, Koichi Takada Architects is a young and innovative practice, which has already delivered a wide range of architectural and interior projects within the Sydney area in hospitality, residential, and cultural venues. Koichi Takada has brought a Japanese sensibility to Australian architecture. His work is innovative and refined. He melds the traditions of his homeland with today’s stunning flowering forms – an approach he developed in New York, London and Tokyo.

© Sharrin Rees

© Sharrin Rees

Projects by Koichi Takada Architects have won several key awards including the international Restaurant and Bar Design Awards in the UK and an International Property Council award; as well as having two projects shortlisted at the Australian Interior Design Awards. The firm’s projects are well recognised and have been extensively featured in Australian and International design magazines including Vogue Living, Belle and [Inside].

© Sófocles Hernández

© Sófocles Hernández

© Sófocles Hernández

Through it we access the main room, a big window lights up from the North, stoned walls illuminated indirectly by a mirror lamp allow the diners to really appreciate the space. The furniture, specifically designed for this place, defines it as timeless and elegant, the bone coloured leather in the chairs helps to keep the visual calm.

© Sófocles Hernández

Soffits, walls, and wooden floors, black metal columns and beams everything accentuated by the light coming out from the sculptured lamps creates a warm environment. The bar, in the middle of this space presents an impressive image of the San Sebastian coast.

© Sófocles Hernández

© Sófocles Hernández

© Sófocles Hernández

It also has a private room and a smoking room, which simulates a library with two fireplaces, above them there are TV screens showing images of the Basque Country. Old books and hanging red lamps accentuate the drama in this room.

© Benfenati Allestimenti SpA

© Benfenati Allestimenti SpA

© Benfenati Allestimenti SpA

Essential hangers are made from rough iron. The custom-designed standard lamps with cotton lampshades coordinate with the colours of the walls. Concept: classical elegance. Mood: impact and simplicity. “”

The hall of the board of directors can in fact be used in two modes: for organizing panel sessions and for organizing conferences. In the former case the large rectangular table, with a capacity of 22 persons and equipped with all the necessary means of audio and video support, is used in the normal operation mode, while in the latter case, when the larger part of the hall, the one that adjoins the glass facade, is turned into an auditorium, it transforms. Half of the tabletop folds vertically downward, while the table itself turns into the presidium stand turned to the audience. In order to accent the table area in either of the two using modes, the walls and the ceiling around it are coated with wooden panels that form a peculiar shell or a capsule with rounded corners, a shell that looks as if it was installed inside the hall.

A special effect is also created by the lights that dissect the wooden shell of the capsule like parallel stripes. The finishing touch is made by the glass panel painting that decorates the rear wall of the hall and depicts a deep blue sky, white clouds, and the logo of VTB. It is in fact made up of four flare-free glass panels that cover up the monitors that are only visible when they are on.

The room that is adjacent to the board of directors’ hall can also be used in several ways: as the before-the-session waiting room and as the dining room for the members of the board, to name but two. Its main decoration consists of two art objects vying for the right to be considered the centerpiece of this interior: the sculptural volume that resembles an arrested pillar of liquid metal (it disguises a most trivial column), and the impressive-looking chandelier with a hundred of little glass balls that look like water drops that are never to reach the tabletop. For the production of the metallic shell of the column, a unique alloy of white bronze was used, the kind that only one Italian company works with. The two halves of the shell were cast by the original plaster model, and then welded and polished only on the spot. This art object makes the interior of the dining room more dramatic and at the same makes the atmosphere in the dining room more relaxed because it also works as a funhouse mirror.

The chandelier in the shape of the glass rain was designed in conjunction with the table and together they present a single composition for the creation of which the architects even had to make changes to the structure of the lowered ceiling. Out of the narrow opening with curved edges (the plaster shapes are installed into the ceiling), there hang little glass balls, suspended on thin metallic rods that form a “wave” that falls the lowest towards the center of he table and “picks up” at its edges. The function of the source of light is performed here by a fiber-optic technology that provides the floodlight effect producing the impression of the entire structure hovering in the air.

The remaining part of the floor, including the corridors and the offices, is designed just as imposing, even if a bit more pragmatic. The functional and the typological differences of the new floor left their mark on its deigning solution. The basic principle – the contrastive combination of wooden and glass walls – is kept here as well but it is treated here in an entirely different way. Most of the walls here are coated with panels of bleached oak (it is only the reception areas that are separated from the corridors with glass partitions that have the dark wooden portals cut into them), whose color and texture are accentuated by the dramatic light design and more radical color design of the ceiling (black perforated open-grid type). In spite of the fact that the materials are so respectable and traditional, in the best sense of the word, the office looks a little like it had been taken out of some sci-fi movie – first of all, because of the lights that are installed into the walls and the ceiling.

The position and the width of each of the dome lights is defined by a grid of parallel lines superimposed on the plan of the floor: it traverses at different angles the ceiling structures and the walls of the corridors that skirt the central stair and elevator unit, thanks to which the surfaces of the walls and the accent elements (the lines on the carpet, the ceiling panels, and he dome lights) look as if the belong to different space systems. This creates a peculiar optical effect of a “transformable space” that is multiplied manifold at the expense of the reflections in the glass partitions.

The lights inserted into the wooden panels became a constituent part of the original wall covering. The considerable length of the corridors required a solution that was to be simultaneously aesthetic, technological, and inexpensive. So, instead of mounting the bleached oak panels horizontally (which would require particular precision at the joints; this solution was in fact used on the lower floors), it was decided to mount the panels vertically, from the floor up to the level of the lowered ceiling. The architects developed a special bracing that could easily hold the panels under their own weight: each of the panels has rounded edges and is mounted overlapping its neighbor, which, coupled with the illuminant inserts, creates an interesting play of light all along the length of the corridor.

A most important role in the interior decoration is played by the unconventional design of the ceilings. Here the architects used the open-grid ceilings with cells that are filled with black cassettes. Usually such “brutal” structures are used in public spaces of a lower profile but in this case their use is not due to the economy reasons. The Hunter Douglas panels that are installed here have small-scaled cells and extra perforation of the laths – which creates a monolith structural surface. They, in turn, conceal the vents (also painted black), the electrical wiring, and other technical units necessary for supporting a comfortable microclimate in the office. Behind the ceiling panels they are practically invisible, but the “permeable” surface creates an interesting visual effect – the ceiling looks much higher that it actually is.

Text by: Elena Petukhova