The founders of Spanish studio Masquespacio have transformed a traditional Valencian farmhouse into their self-designed home and studio, with maximalist interiors that nod to the Memphis movement.

Creative and life partners Ana Milena Hernández Palacios and Christophe Penasse renovated the 1920s villa, which was once a farmhouse on the outskirts of Valencia, to create a hybrid home and studio that reflects their maximalist approach to interiors.

"Everything revolves around the concept of play," explained Hernández Palacios, who co-founded Masquespacio with Penasse in 2010.

"We've been influenced by many styles over the last decade, from New Memphis to art deco and futurism," Penasse added. "We can say that our private home is a mix of it all."

The duo maintained the building's original timber front door and white facade decorated with light-blue window frames and ornate grilles.

Inside, the ground floor was reserved for their studio, spread across several interconnected meeting rooms in the former farmstead, known locally as an alquería.

Here, Masquespacio restored the building's decoratively patterned hydraulic floor tiles alongside its traditional doors and windows.

Painted in bright hues, they help to colour-code the different office spaces, filled with the studio's characteristic chunky, lumpy and latticed furniture.

"As always, the project includes a mix of colours, textures and forms – one of the main aspects of all our designs, no matter what aesthetic we're working with," Penasse told Dezeen.

At the centre of the home is a double-height interior courtyard illuminated by skylights, with exposed-brick walls painted in lilac surrounded by wiggly flowerbeds with lush statement cheese plants.

From the courtyard, visitors can see up to an interior balcony on the first floor, which is accessed via a purple concrete staircase and contains the living spaces.

The balcony reveals two sculptural objects – a giant green dome that conceals the couple's bed and a curved hot-pink screen that hides a seating booth.

This immersive furniture – Penasse's favourite part of the project – creates a focal point that connects both levels of the house but also provides more private quarters for the couple despite the open nature of the overall plan.

"There are no wall partitions to hide our home [from downstairs] but it's kept private by the bed's form and a semi-transparent green curtain that allows us to take advantage of the natural light almost everywhere on the upper floor," explained Penasse.

The sleeping area is connected to the main living space via a tunnel-like corridor, which includes an all-yellow bathroom with triangular cabinets and walls clad with a mosaic of handmade ceramic tiles.

Opposite the bathroom is a colourful open-air terrace featuring circular windows and similar built-in seating to Bun Turin – an Italian burger joint designed by Masquespacio with boxy blue-tiled tables created to look like swimming pools.

"Geometry can be found all over our house," explained Hernández Palacios. "Everything is a game of circles and triangles."

The light blue kitchen includes large, triangular alcoves and cupboards finished in natural stone and aluminium, designed to conceal utilities.

There is also an island made from veiny marble and petite glazed tiles. Bespoke Masquespacio bar stools were wrapped in matching pale blue fabric.

Next to the open-plan kitchen, the living and dining spaces include more brightly coloured furniture from the studio's Mas Creations collection, which features the same twisted and angular shapes and soft upholstery as the pieces downstairs.

Floor-to-ceiling curtains form a backdrop for a snaking lime green sofa, while dark green dining chairs with pyramidal backrests were positioned around a jewel-like glass table.

"Ninety-five per cent of the furniture and objects in our house are part of our Mas Creations collection, locally designed and produced by our studio," said Penasse.

Similarly bold projects from Masquespacio include a restaurant in Milan, Italy, with interiors that take cues from futuristic spaceships and the first Mango Teen store in Barcelona featuring vivid graphic shapes.

The photography is courtesy of Masquespacio. 

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Swiss studio Kosmos Architects has designed Dice, a multifaceted piece of oak furniture that can be used as a stool, a coffee table, a lamp or a footrest.

The five-pronged furniture piece weighs 10.5 kilograms and has a "warm" oak wood frame characterised by subtle chequerboard patterns.

"Throw the dice, and this project will take a new shape depending on how the user rotates it," said Kosmos Architects, which named Dice after the numbered cube often used in games of chance.

Two of the furniture's legs are wide enough to support it, while two others are slimmer and rounded. The fifth leg features a triangular lamp at its tip made of plastic and protected frosted glass, which can be removed via a small button and charged using a USB socket.

When tipped on its various sides, Dice can function as a stool, a coffee table or a footrest.

The furniture can be attached to a rope or similar hanging material and suspended from the ceiling to provide lighting or simply positioned as a floor lamp.

Kosmos Architects chose this asymmetric design to "unite the qualities of four different basic furniture typologies".

"We made the lamp removable so that there are no electrical cords and to make the object independent," architect Leonid Slonimskiy told Dezeen.

Dice was CNC-milled from a stack of solid oak pieces with a multi-axis milling machine.

"The robotic arm cut away pieces of wood with a rotating drill until the shape got smoother, and then we manually sanded and oiled the piece," he explained.

"Dice combines new technologies and handcraft."

"The furniture has a clear purpose but is supposed to be interpreted by the owner," continued Kosmos Architects.

"It is a sculpture and at the same time a pragmatic piece of furniture."

Kosmos Architects has also created a silver "carry-on bag" for Dice, which mimics the shape of the furniture and helps to make it portable.

Dice was unveiled during last month's Milan design week at Fake/Authentic Gallery. Dezeen has rounded up 10 other projects presented at the festival that explored the future of furniture design.

Previously, Japanese studio Torafu Architects created multifunctional furniture – also called Dice – for both children and adults.

The photography is by Maxim Cherepanov. 

Milan design week took place from 15 to 21 April 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Local studio Hemingway Design collaborated with designer James Shaw to transform a London store interior for charity retailer Traid, which features colourful furniture created from leftover second-hand clothes.

Hemingway Design renovated Traid's Shepherd's Bush branch as part of a wider rebrand for the retailer to mark its 25th anniversary, including its visual identity.

Traid sells donated clothing and accessories in 12 stores across London to fund global projects that tackle the issues caused by producing, consuming and wasting textiles.

As part of the Shepherd's Bush store refurbishment, Hemingway Design worked with Shaw to create furniture out of poor-quality clothes salvaged from the Traid sorting warehouse that the retailer deemed unsellable.

Shaw, whose practice centres on repurposing waste materials, created curved pendant lighting from the leftover clothes, which were shredded back to fibres and combined with a plant-based binder.

The designer applied this method to make the rest of the furniture. One piece is a low-slung bench for trying on shoes, upholstered with a yellow, green and blue patchwork of old denim jeans and corduroy trousers.

Shaw designed the bench's lumpy legs in his trademark extruded HDPE plastic, finished in the same colours as the patchwork seat.

Elsewhere in the store, boxy pinewood changing room doors feature multicoloured handles created from the leftover clothes, defined by a speckled appearance thanks to the combination of shredded fibres.

Silver scaffolding previously used for a different purpose in the original shop layout was used to create a "staff picks" clothes rail positioned at the front of the store.

"To align with Traid's manifesto of reducing waste and prolonging the lifespan of items, a fundamental objective of the refurb was to reuse and repurpose existing fixtures and fittings within the store where possible," explained Hemingway Design.

British designer Charlie Boyden created chunky pastel-hued plinths from other offcuts and materials salvaged from the strip-out. They display merchandise in the shop window illuminated by more of Shaw's clothing-based pendant lighting.

Swirly linseed-based oil-stained pine also characterises the geometric cash desk, fitted with an accessible counter and positioned in front of an existing timber stud wall painted in bold pink.

Next to the counter, bespoke bright green Unistrut shelving creates additional space for hanging clothes and displaying shoes.

According to Hemingway Design, Traid has put 228 million garments back into use to date, saving 622,059 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 105.3 million cubic metres of water.

"The charity retailer maximises the potential of the clothes you no longer wear, demanding change from a throwaway, fast fashion culture that continues to destroy this planet," said the studio.

Shaw recently applied his extruded plastic designs to another store renovation in central London for shoe brand Camper, which includes a jumbo foot sculpture.

Hemingway Design previously created a minimalist but colourful logo to celebrate 100 years of the Dreamland amusement park in Margate, Kent.

The photography is by French & Tye unless stated otherwise. 

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Fashion house Loewe unveiled lamps created by 24 international artists during Milan design week in an exhibition that featured materials ranging from birch twigs and horse hair to leather and Japanese washi paper.

The Loewe Lamps presentation took place within a single room at the historic Palazzo Citterio in Milan's Brera district.

Loewe, which was originally established as a leather-making craft collective in the 19th century, invited 24 artists from around the world to design a diverse offering of lamps for the exhibition.

"The artists push the properties of each material to create unexpected interactions with light," said the fashion house, headed by JW Anderson founder Jonathan Anderson.

South African ceramicist Andile Dyalvane used glass and clay to make bulbous lighting characterised by yellow- and amber-hued tentacles, which reference acacia trees.

"The two materials have so much in common, yet by exposing them to various temperature treatments and processes, they end up with quite different and interesting qualities that manifest in their final products," Dyalvane told Dezeen.

Contrasting with Dyalvane's amorphous piece, Scottish artist Jennifer Lee created a geometric lamp using salvaged washi paper Shoji screens from Lee's studio at the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art.

"When I thought about a lamp, Japan immediately came to mind," said Lee, who has taken part in artist residences in Japan for the last decade and took cues from a Japanese doll's cabinet when creating her piece.

The delicate paper lighting bears subtle pencil marks drawn by Lee, who used walnut to construct the boxy design.

"I liked the way the paper had aged," explained the artist. "The existing traces told a story."

Japanese design also influenced British artist Anthea Hamilton, who contributed a kimono-shaped, stained-glass lamp scaled to human proportions.

"I was curious to know if light could take the form of a garment," Hamilton told Dezeen.

Similarly, Italian artist Enrico David designed his piece made of resin and sliced Turkish onyx to resemble a curved human profile.

"The lamp was originally going to be a finger with a glowing nail," David told Dezeen. "Then the finger curved on itself and it assumed a different nature."

Elsewhere in the exhibition, visitors could find more unusual materials such as the birch twigs used by Irish basketmaker Joe Hogan for his bird's nest-style pendant and the horse hair that clads a towering floor lamp by South Korean artist Dahye Jeong, who won the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in 2022.

Other materials featured in the exhibition range from the folded leather and brass used to create spiky pendant lights by Kenyan artist Magdalene Odundo, to delicate clay pots by Japanese artist Kazunori Hamana that are illuminated by a central bulb.

At last year's Milan design week, Loewe worked with global artisans to turn classic stick chairs into "sculptural objects". The brand's annual craft prize, which is now in its seventh year, was awarded to Japanese ceramicist Eriko Inazaki in 2023.

This year's winner is yet to be announced.

The photography is courtesy of Loewe.

Milan design week took place from 15 to 21 April 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Kartell has collaborated with toymaker Mattel to transform five of its chairs into two hot-pink versions, one to fit real people and one for Barbies, which were shown at Milan design week.

Kartell and Mattel Creations – the collector arm of Mattel – worked together to recreate five chairs originally designed for Kartell by architect and designer Philippe Starck.

Each chair was made in its original proportions as well as in a version scaled to doll-size to mark 65 years of Barbie, the toy invented by Ruth Handler in 1959.

All of the furniture was coloured in Pantone 219 C, the recognisable Barbie Pink hue, and was made from recycled plastic, according to Kartell.

Among the line-up is Starck's AI model – the first of Kartell's chairs to be designed using artificial intelligence.

Louis Ghost also features in the collection. A stackable chair with a round backrest, the transparent furniture is characterised by a Barbie Dreamhouse-style design.

"Its sleek silhouette and pink finish evoke a sense of whimsy and nostalgia," said Kartell.

The Venice model, a dining chair with classic lines, was also recreated for the project. Masters, another dining seat with smooth and curved shapes, and Starck's egg-shaped Eros swivel chair are the fourth and fifth additions to the collection.

Slim, rectilinear recycled-paper packaging was designed for the Barbie-sized creations.

Kartell explained that the project straddles the intersection "where toys become art, and art becomes toys".

The collection was unveiled within a single room at the Salone del Mobile tradeshow during Milan design week as part of media group Condé Nast's Vogue Closet exhibition.

Last year, Barbie made global headlines following the live-action film about the toy doll. Before the film's release, rental website Airbnb listed a real-life version of Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse in California, making it available to book for a holiday.

Milan design week concluded on Sunday. The annual event featured other furniture projects ranging from IKEA's first inflatable gaming chair to pillowy lamps and daybeds by Faye Toogood.

The photography is courtesy of Kartell and Mattel. 

Barbie x Kartell was on display at Salone del Mobile from 16 to 21 April 2024. See our Milan design week 2024 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Kelly Wearstler is often hailed as contemporary interior design's most recognisable name. In this interview, she tells Dezeen about crafting her textured and eclectic style.

American interior designer Wearstler has been dressing rooms since her mid-twenties, rising to become one of the discipline's most significant names.

"I'm obsessed with nuance," she told Dezeen. "I view design as boundless and undefined, but if I had to choose a single word to describe my approach it would be 'mixology'."

High-end interior design has been dominated by minimalism and sleekness in recent years, but Wearstler's projects are known for their eclectic grandeur.

Her studio is responsible for the interiors at a slew of luxury hotels, including four locations across North America for the Proper Hotel Group.

For example, she created an Austin branch with a sculptural oak staircase that doubles as a ziggurat of plinths for individual ceramic pots. Meanwhile, The Downtown LA Proper features 136 unique types of vintage or custom-made tile.

"Luxury is more of a feeling than a specific quality"

"To me, luxury is more of a feeling than a specific, tangible quality," Wearstler said. "It's all about texture and sensation, but also storytelling and considered curation."

"The most luxurious spaces bring together unique objects that each have their own history, essence and character, and encourage an elegant conversation between them," she added.

"A technique I always like to use when pursuing a sense of luxury is mixing vintage and antique items with more contemporary pieces. The history and character that come with vintage furniture help to create a 'luxurious' experience."

This approach is also reflected in Wearstler's residential and retail projects, which she tends to fill with unlikely combinations of pieces – a habit she traces back to visiting antique shows and auctions with her mother, who was an antique dealer, as a young girl.

Among these projects is the designer's own 1950s beachfront cottage in Malibu, California, furnished with objects chosen to be "hand-crafted, rustic and raw".

Wearstler also replaced the home's existing shag carpet with seagrass as a nod to the surrounding coastal setting.

"My design philosophy is rooted in a firm commitment to juxtaposition and contrast, whether this be in relation to textures and colourways, materials or even eras in time," said Wearstler.

"For me, contrast is what brings a sense of soul to a space. It creates interest, lets the space take on a life of its own and imbues it with a feeling of genuine authenticity."

"AI has exponentially enriched our creative process"

Wearstler says her design philosophy was partly shaped by working in the film industry early on in her career.

Before forming her eponymous studio in California in 1995, she worked in various roles including set decoration and art direction – an experience she claims shaped her appreciation of the "emotion and atmosphere" of a space.

"My time working as a set designer definitely impacted my approach to interior design," Wearstler told Dezeen.

"Working on film sets taught me the importance of dramatic intent, and that's remained a key element of my work throughout my career."

Despite her penchant for vintage pieces, Wearstler stressed the importance of rising to contemporary challenges – not least artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on design.

Wearstler's studio has been using generative AI – which she calls an "ally" – since 2021, citing image-generating platforms including DALL-E and Midjourney as tools to generate ideas.

The same year, the designer created a virtual garage, playfully imagined as a home for basketball player LeBron James's electric Hummer, decked out with renderings of Wearstler-designed furniture including the studio's Echo bench and Monolith side table.

"Many people see the introduction of AI as a challenge, but I think of it as one of the greatest tools for growth," said Wearstler. "AI has exponentially enriched our creative process."

"As designers, it's our responsibility to push the boundaries of our craft and to create spaces that elegantly and artistically reflect the world around us," she added. "AI is a vital tool in allowing us to do this in new and extraordinary ways."

Wearstler has published six books and with 2.2 million Instagram followers, she is often considered interior design's most recognisable name.

"I think my work stands out because I follow my gut," she reflected. "Whether I'm designing a hotel, a private residence or a product, I give its emotional and physical attributes equal consideration."

"Most importantly, I strive to bring my clients and customers joy through my designs. I'm not sure if that's what makes me the 'most recognisable name', but if you design with the person who will be living in a space, or with a light fixture or chair, in mind, your work will resonate."

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Artist Patrick Carroll has used recycled yarn to create hand-knitted painting-style pieces for the Days textile exhibition at JW Anderson's Milan store during Milan design week.

Carroll presented translucent artworks that look "as if they are paintings", which were made using a 1970s flatbed domestic knitting machine and displayed on wooden stretcher bars – the skeleton of a traditional art canvas – in the store.

"My stuff is a little bit transparent – you can see the architecture of it all," Carroll told Dezeen at the JW Anderson flagship store in Milan, where the work is exhibited in a show called Days.

"I was making clothing initially," he explained, donning one of his own pink creations.

Carroll decided to apply his practice to artworks, designing pieces made from yarn salvaged from remainder shops that liquidate the fashion industry's leftover textiles rather than sourcing new materials.

Recycled wool, linen, mohair, silk and cashmere all feature in the rectilinear works, which are finished in colours ranging from coral to aqua to ochre.

Like Carroll's clothing, each piece was characterised by one or a handful of words lifted from sources including literature, existing artworks or the artist's own writing.

The smallest pieces in the collection were displayed on gridded shelving while larger pieces can be found on various walls throughout the store.

When viewed together, the works were positioned to create a "modular chorus", explained the artist, who encouraged viewers to form their own relationships with the words weaved into the textiles.

Days follows Carroll's first collaboration with JW Anderson in 2022 when the artist designed seven knitted outfits for the brand. The clothes were worn by models posing on chunky blue plinths positioned outside the venue of JW Anderson's Spring Summer 2023 menswear show in Milan.

"I think what makes the works a little bit unique is that they have legs in all these disciplines – fashion, design and art," added Carroll.

Founded by Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson, JW Anderson previously created hoodies and tailored shorts moulded from plasticine for its Spring Summer 2024 womenswear show at London Fashion Week.

Various other fashion brands have a presence at this year's Milan design week. Hermès has created an installation that uses reclaimed bricks, slate, marble and terracotta to draw attention to the brand's artisan roots while Marimekko has transformed a traditional Milanese bar into a flower-clad day-to-night cafe.

The photography is courtesy of Patrick Carroll and JW Anderson. 

Days is on display from 17 to 21 April 2024 at the JW Anderson store, Via Sant'Andrea 16, Milan. See our Milan design week 2024 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Jumbo poppies synonymous with Marimekko cover the floor of Bar Unikko, a pink-hued pop-up cafe created as a Milan design week pit stop to mark the print's 60th anniversary.

Named after Unikko, the recognisable poppy pattern designed by Maija Isola in 1964, the cafe is a pop-up project at Bar Stoppani in Milan.

Marimekko purposefully left the interior layout of the cafe, which is a collaboration with interior design magazine Apartamento, largely untouched to create a contrast between the Finnish brand's design language and traditional Italian eateries.

"The idea was to really acknowledge where we are and find a real Milanese institution," creative director Rebekka Bay told Dezeen at the cafe. "If that hadn't been our intent, then we could have just taken on an empty space."

Bar Unikko is positioned on a corner site with a large pink and orange awning emblazoned with oversized poppies, which also feature on table umbrellas that create a striking landmark when approaching the cafe.

"We've really taken the pattern out of its normal context and let it come to life in a whole new way," added Bay, who described the contrast between Marimekko motifs and the existing bar interior as "refreshing".

"In the Nordics, we're obsessed with cleanliness, systems and functionality," she continued. "Whereas here, it's dramatic and complex."

Spread across a single room, the interior kept its existing dark blue accents, burl wood panels, circular tables and a large bar positioned in front of mirrors.

A neon poppy was placed above one of the tables, which were topped with gold Verner Panton Flowerpot lamps.

The brand also added its signature pattern to the floor, characterised by poppies finished in two shades of pink, and a blue and yellow curtain at the back of the space.

Other than these bold features, Bay explained that the Marimekko touches are found in the "little things".

Floral crockery, coasters, napkins and matches appear throughout Bar Unniko, which also includes Oiva – a collection of petite patterned espresso cups designed specifically for the takeover.

"At first glance, you're walking into a Milanese bar, and it doesn't actually look like we've done much – but then the more you immerse yourself you start noticing these things," said Bay.

Framed black and white photographs of the late Marimekko founder Armi Ratia were mounted to the walls as a nod to the brand's history.

Throughout the day, the changing light alters the pink glow that illuminates the interior while a shifting soundtrack signals the transition from morning to afternoon to evening.

Bay explained that communal gathering is at the heart of Marimekko, which is why the brand chose to create a day-to-night cafe to celebrate 60 years of its well-known print.

"Our founder famously said, I think at the beginning of Marimekko, that the brand could've been anything," reflected the creative director. "Our mission is not only to bring joy to people's lives but to bring people together."

Other highlights from this year's edition of Milan design week include Faye Toogood's Rude Arts Club exhibition, furniture made from reused skyscraper formwork and an inflatable gaming chair from IKEA.

The photography is by Sean Davidson.

Bar Unikko is open from 15 to 21 April 2024 at Bar Stoppani, Via Antonio Stoppani 15, 20129, Milan. See our Milan design week 2024 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Swedish retailer IKEA is focussing on the experience of leaving home for the first time in its Milan design week exhibition called 1st, which was designed by architect Midori Hasuike and spatial designer Emerzon.

Milan's Padiglione Visconti venue has been "transformed into an IKEA playground" showcasing products and experiences that address leaving home for the first time.

"With the current social and economic climate it's maybe harder than ever to make that move," said the brand's creative director Marcus Engman.

"For 1st, we wanted to more deeply explore the challenges and emotions that come with this special time in life," he told Dezeen.

Visitors enter the exhibition through a large-scale illuminated maze designed by Hasuike to symbolise the disorientating feelings that can come with new experiences.

The architect chose rentable and recyclable materials for the installation, which were selected for their accessibility, she explained.

"The materials reflect the reality of having to adapt and adjust to what you have and can afford when moving into your first home," said Hasuike.

Deliberately disorientating paths make up the maze, decorated with objects such as photo frames and packing boxes.

"This represents the shared hope we all feel when facing new adventures – it's a reminder of the mixed emotions that come with first experiences," added Hasuike.

Visitors eventually make their way to a "welcoming" central space anchored by a large geometric stage featuring different furniture-filled "rooms" on each of its open levels. The stage's lighting was designed by Anders Heberling.

The rest of the exhibition is separated into individual spaces, showing old and new IKEA pieces.

Among the displays is the Brännboll collection of gaming furniture, which features the brand's first successful attempt at an inflatable chair.

Klippan – IKEA's first flat-packed sofa by the late product designer Noburu Nakamuru – has also been redesigned for the exhibition.

"It's one product that exemplifies 'first' more than anything else," said Engman.

"There's an excitement in testing the beds and sofas, imagining your life in one of our kitchens – and that's what we have tried to emulate in our space."

IKEA is also hosting a "hotdog extravaganza" as part of the exhibition. The food stall is serving playful takes on the brand's recognisable hot dog, including one made from ice cream.

At last year's Milan design week, IKEA marked its 80th anniversary with an exhibition charting the brand's history. IKEA recently launched a collaboration with Dutch studio Raw Color in which no item features less than two colours to explore how our perception of a hue can change based on its context.

The photography and video are courtesy of IKEA.

1st is on show from 15 to 21 April 2024 at Padiglione Visconti, Via Tortona 58, Milan. See our Milan design week 2024 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Designer Maria Vittoria Paggini has used colourful wallpaper and murals depicting nude bodies concealed behind peepholes to transform her home for Milan design week.

Located in the 5vie design district in the heart of the city, Casa Ornella is annually redesigned by Vittoria Paggini who presents the project during Milan design week.

This year, the property – which is also partly an art gallery, is themed "porno-chic".

"Casa Ornella is a maximalist house" said the designer, who is opening up her home to the public during the week.

"Porno-chic stems from a strong need for rediscovery and self-awareness. To achieve this, I felt the need to bare myself and decided to use the metaphor of the naked body, pushing it to the extreme to make it invisible to the eyes," she told Dezeen.

"Going beyond that, porno-chic aims to be a style of 'rebirth,' a recognition of oneself through the home or any place to inhabit."

The interiors feature a living space characterised by artist Tatiana Brodatch's striking wallpaper. Oversized spots and stripes in pink and purple hues form the backdrop for images of faceless, nude male sculptures touching themselves.

Finished in Brodatch's signature lumpy plasticine, the figures look like they are flying through space.

Two boothlike, art deco armchairs with burl wood casing were positioned next to this feature wall, as well as a translucent table designed by Vittoria Paggini and topped with twisting, marble and Murano glass candelabras by Aina Kari.

Visitors can see Brodatch's wallpaper through a circular peephole on one of the corridors, which adds to the "sensual" atmosphere of the home, according to the designer.

Elsewhere, brown curtains illustrated with naked female bodies and a small but suggestive figurative sculpture sitting on a silver tray are reflected in a swollen gold mirror.

One corridor is characterised by a large-scale floor mural of a nude woman, created as a set of abstract brown and pink shapes.

The only room not open to the public is the bedroom, which is decorated with a graphic, floor-to-ceiling mural of naked men surrounded by decadent architecture, influenced by 13th-century paintings.

Visitors can view the bedroom mural, created by Milanese illustrator Damiano Groppi, through another peephole.

Sugary pink walls, striped and chequerboard accents and multiple mirrored surfaces throughout the home add to its maximalist design.

Casa Ornella also includes two more Vittoria Paggini-designed products, which are being debuted for the design week and take cues from "the world of jewellery".

These are bulbous gold taps created for Milanese brand Manoli – positioned above veiny Gio Ponti basins in the bathroom – and slender light switches designed for Officine Morelli.

According to Vittoria Paggini, these pieces are "what is most characteristic of the porno-chic style".

"They serve two different functions but have the same language that aims to communicate sensuality and timeless elegance."

The annual Milan design week has kicked off in the Italian city, with projects on display ranging from a collection of everyday objects designed using algae and sculptural lights by Leo Maher that reference "a hot-pot of queer culture".

The photography is courtesy of Maria Vittoria Paggini.

Casa Ornella is on display at Via Conca di Naviglio 10, Milan, during Milan Design Week from 15 to 21 April 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

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Japanese design studio Sozai Center has created Adam Sheet, a washable and scratch-resistant biomaterial made of leftover apple pomace mixed with bioplastic.

Studio founder Shotaro Oshima and his team created the earthy-hued biotextile using apple pomace salvaged from Japan's Aomori Prefecture – one of the country's leading apple production areas.

Adam Sheet is a translucent speckled material made of "every part" of the pomace, including the flesh, skin, seeds and stem.

Sozai Center ground the pomace into a fine powder, which is first adjusted to the correct moisture and sugar content, according to Oshima.

After this, the pomace powder was combined with a small amount of bio-based polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to bind the finished sheet together.

"Almost 87 per cent of the sheet is made out of pure apple pomace," said Oshima, who told Dezeen that the material does not contain any fossil-derived plastic.

The designer likened the seasonal production process to making wine and explained how the colour of the material "varies from year to year, depending on the moisture and sugar content of the batch of apples".

"The colour of the sheets reflects these changes," he added.

Playfully named after Adam's apples, Adam Sheet was designed in response to the large volume of apple waste created in Aomori Prefecture each year – something that Oshima said has become a "big issue".

The waterproof material is machine-washable and scratch-resistant, according to Oshima.

However, being made from a mix of food waste and bioplastic will likely make Apple Sheet difficult – if not impossible – to recycle.

So far, Adam Sheet has been turned into bank and travel card cases as well as small crossbody pouches.

Oshima said that Sozai Center is currently testing the boundaries of the material and has plans to transform it into fashion, furniture and interior design.

"Adam Sheet can be sewn, easily cut and transmits light – characteristics applied to fashion," explained the designer.

Elsewhere, Australian studio Great Wrap has used potato waste to create a compostable bioplastic alternative to clingfilm while design studio Tomorrow Machine produced GoneShells, a biodegradable juice bottle made from potato starch that can be peeled away like fruit skin.

The photography is courtesy of Sozai Center.

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From guest rooms filled with fashion designer Christian Louboutin's personal antique collection to Ibiza's oldest hotel where handmade masks are mounted on the walls, our latest lookbook features eight eclectic hotel interiors.

Eclectic design brings together objects and styles from a range of sources – often mixing contemporary and vintage pieces.

While many hotels are characterised by uniform luxury, others celebrate unlikely combinations of furniture, colours and patterns.

Here are eight eclectic hotel interiors from around the world defined by contrasts and clashes.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring residential mezzanines, Mexican holiday homes and minimalist bathrooms.

Downtown LA Proper, USA, by Kelly Wearstler

American designer Kelly Wearstler has created the interiors for all four of the Proper Hotel Group's branches across North America.

The Downtown LA Proper is anchored by "bold and eclectic choices", including a chunky graphite reception desk and a hand-painted archway flanked by leaning column-like cacti in rustic pots.

Find out more about Downtown LA Proper ›

Montesol Experimental, Ibiza, by Dorothée Meilichzon

Dorothée Meilichzon of French interior design studio Chzon renovated Montesol – the oldest hotel in Ibiza, originally built in the 1930s.

Meilichzon transformed the renamed Montesol Experimental with "a bohemian overtone" that draws on the hotel's rich history. Among its interior elements are lumpy Playdough Stools by artist Diego Faivre, hand-crafted masks and an abundance of tassels.

Find out more about Montesol Experimental ›

Vermelho, Portugal, by Christian Louboutin and Madalena Caiado

Louboutin filled his first hospitality project with furniture and materials from his personal antique collection.

The fashion designer worked with architect Madalena Caiado to create the Vermelho boutique hotel in the Portuguese village of Melides. The guest rooms feature unexpected elements such as a rattan monkey-shaped side table and striking hand-painted frescoes.

Find out more about Vermelho ›

Palm Heights, Grand Cayman, by Gabriella Khalil

Collectible design pieces characterise Palm Heights in Grand Cayman, the island's first boutique hotel.

Creative director Gabriella Khalil sought to style the project like a 1970s Caribbean mansion, selecting sandy yellows and bold blue hues to complement the many original artworks that adorn the walls.

Find out more about Palm Heights ›

Austin Proper Hotel and Residences, USA, by Kelly Wearstler

Among the Proper Hotel Group's other locations is an Austin branch. Wearstler inserted a sculptural oak staircase into the lobby that doubles as a plinth for a varied collection of glazed earthenware pots and vases.

Locally sourced art and textiles characterise the hotel, which has cypress wood walls that were charred using the traditional Japanese technique of Shou Sugi Ban to create a tiger-striped effect.

Find out more about Austin Proper Hotel ›

Hôtel de la Boétie, France, by Beata Heuman

Swedish designer Beata Heuman created the Hôtel de la Boétie in Paris to be "a bit like a stage set".

Heuman chose contrasting elements for the colour-drenched interiors. Bedrooms feature a mixture of dark-hued woven headboards and pale pink sheets, while downstairs, the reception area's jumbo flower lamps balance the steely silver of the lounge walls.

Find out more about Hôtel de la Boétie ›

Château Royal, Germany, by Irina Kromayer

A series of eclectic spaces make up the Château Royal in Berlin, which references the heyday of the German capital at the turn of the 20th century.

Interior architect Irina Kromayer designed the hotel to be "authentic" rather than retro, choosing art noveau tiles and brass and nickel hardware in a nod to the finishes commonly found in Berlin's historic buildings.

Find out more about Château Royal ›

Esme Hotel, USA, by Jessica Schuster Design

Plush velvet flooring, textural tassels and plants in wicker pots come together at the Esme Hotel in Miami, renovated by New York studio Jessica Schuster Design.

The interiors draw on the "bohemian grandeur" of the hotel's 1920s history, with decadent alcoves clad with contrasting patterns.

Find out more about Esme Hotel ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring residential mezzanines, Mexican holiday homes and minimalist bathrooms.

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Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama collaborated with hundreds of craftspeople to create Purple Hibiscus, a handsewn installation of bespoke pink cloth covering the brutalist lakeside terrace of London's Barbican Centre.

Purple Hibiscus is Mahama's first bright-coloured installation, finished in pink to contrast with London's "grey weather".

"Why not pink?" he told Dezeen at the Barbican. "The building itself is grey and the Barbican is quite grey. And I have never made a work with this kind of colour before, so I thought why not use something quite strong."

"I've never had the courage to use colours like this in public on a large-scale work, but I've been collecting these materials for quite a long time," he added.

Purple Hibiscus, which opens today, is named after Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 2003 debut novel of the same name, set in postcolonial Nigeria.

The site-specific installation consists of around 2,000 square metres of bespoke woven cloth, which was hand-stitched together by hundreds of local craftspeople – including students – across the pitch of the Alui Mahama Sports Stadium in Tamale, Ghana.

Mahama and his team then transported the textiles to London, where they currently wrap the facade of the Barbican Centre's lakeside terrace.

"The basic idea was to see what happens when this soft material envelopes the Barbican," said the artist.

Embroidered into the cloth are around 130 colourful batakaris – traditional Northern Ghanaian robes worn by people ranging from royals to ordinary communities, passed down by families over generations.

The striking batakaris were sewn across the textiles like decorative polka dots, embellishing the work with "traditional materials that have histories," explained Mahama.

The artist acquired the robes over time from various people across Northern Ghana, through exchanges or bartering.

"Collecting the individual smocks from communities can be quite challenging, but also opens up a portal of new formal aesthetics," said Mahama.

Mahama's work is often compared to the late artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, known for their site-specific installations sheathed in industrially produced fabrics.

While the duo has been a significant influence on Mahama for "the quality and the courage that they brought to art forms," the artist's key focus is the historical memories embedded in textiles, he explained.

"I'm more interested in the material history – I'm not interested in industrial machines. Everything is done by hand," said Mahama.

The Purple Hibiscus installation forms part of the Barbican Art Gallery's current exhibition Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art.

Last month, a group of artists and collectors pulled their work from the show following the Barbican's decision not to host a lecture series that would have included a talk about the Israel-Hamas conflict by the Indian novelist Pankaj Mishra, criticising the Barbican for "censorship".

Explaining the decision to go ahead with Purple Hibiscus, Mahama said, "I wasn't making the work for myself. It was being produced for the building."

"A lot of labour went into it," he continued, referencing the many weavers and makers in Ghana and the UK who collaborated on the project. "The work was made by a lot of hands."

"I'm coming from a place where we have nothing, and I have always relied on the residual capital of my work to be able to exercise justice in the spaces that I come from," he continued.

Rather than excluding himself from the conversation, Mahama said his interest lies in the contradictions found within art.

"For me, it's not that simple. I'm very interested in the continuation of art and the contradictions that are embedded within it and what it produces," he said.

"I've never really thought to exclude myself from something in order to make a statement. I've always thought to bury myself within it, and then through the contradictions, we can make further statements," the artist added.

"But certainly, I think that freedom of all kinds should be guaranteed everywhere across the world, whether you're from Ghana in a rural area where you don't have access to clean drinking water, or you're in a war-torn zone, where acts of genocide are committed."

Mahama was one of 16 artists who contributed an installation to the Force Majeure exhibition at last year's Venice Architecture Biennale. He was also a part of the Waste Age show at London's Design Museum, which explored how design has contributed to the rise of throwaway culture.

The photography is courtesy of the Barbican.

Purple Hibiscus will be installed at the Barbican from 10 April to 18 August 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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An angular English home extension and a timber-clad Guatemalan retreat feature in our roundup of buildings with butterfly roofs.

Otherwise known as inverted-pitched roofs, the V-shaped structures take their name from the angled form of a butterfly's wings.

Architects and designers sometimes use butterfly roofs to help conceal a building within its setting, enhance interior light or collect rainwater. The characterful style is also used simply to add visual interest to an architectural project.

Here are eight buildings with butterfly roofs from the Dezeen archive.

Butterfly House, UK, by The DHaus Company

The inverted-pitched roof of this home extension mirrors the architecture of Butterfly House, the north London dwelling to which it is attached, which was updated by architecture studio The DHaus Company.

Angled bricks clad the facade, creating a repeated pattern that aims to emphasise the extension's V-shape.

Find out more about Butterfly House ›

Nanjing Wanjing Garden Chapel, China, by AZL Architects

Two corners that pitch sharply upwards and two that dip down characterise the roof of this chapel in Nanjing, China.

AZL Architects lined the angular church with vertical strips of timber that create a semi-transparent facade.

"The outer shell serves as a filter of the view outside, implying the start of a religious spatial experience," said the studio.

Find out more about Nanjing Wanjing Garden Chapel ›

Butterfly House, USA, by Feldman Architecture

US studio Feldman Architecture topped three pavilions with butterfly roofs to complete this expansive Californian house.

Surrounded by meadows, the home's design was informed by the owners' vision of butterflies fluttering around the landscape. As well as this "poetic gesture", the V-shaped roofs also open up views, shelter outdoor spaces and help with the harvesting of rainwater.

Find out more about Butterfly House ›

Home extension, UK, by Kenny Forrester

Architect Kenny Forrester chose an inverted-pitched roof for this north London home extension to offer an unusual alternative to more traditional flat or slanted profiles.

"It provides a dynamic roof inside as well as out," explained Forrester. "It also allows for a much larger volume internally and achieves a 3.6-metre ceiling height at its highest point."

Find out more about this home extension ›

Piaule, USA, by Garrison Architects

Piaule is a boutique hotel and spa in Upstate New York's Catskill Mountains, spread across prefabricated wooden cabins perched on stilts and a central lodge.

Garrison Architects designed the lodge with a swooping butterfly roof, as well as cedar cladding and floor-to-ceiling windows that offer panoramic views.

Find out more about Piaule ›

Butterfly House, UK, by Oliver Leech Architects

Oliver Leech Architects added an accessible home to the corner of a garden in Surrey.

A butterfly roof was chosen to ensure that the house was concealed when viewed at a distance but also to create volume and height on its interior. Blackened-wood cladding also helps it blend into the shadows of the nearby trees.

Find out more about Butterfly House ›

La Cabañita, Guatemala, by Paz Arquitectura

La Cabañita is a forest retreat on the outskirts of Guatemala City, expanded by local studio Paz Arquitectura.

Two additional volumes were added to the existing 1965 cabin. These structures feature V-shaped canopies that invert the form of the original building's gabled roof and provide the interior spaces with more light through high, operable clerestories positioned under the eaves.

Find out more about La Cabañita ›

Home extension, UK, by Pamphilon Architects

This larch-clad extension to a terraced east London house is defined by a butterfly roof, which follows the line of the existing dwelling.

Pamphilon Architects selected timber slats as cladding that will eventually weather grey over time and blend with the brick patio and window frames.

Find out more about this home extension ›

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Glossy walls, ruched curtains and oversized flower-shaped cushions characterise this eclectic 1970s-style Paris apartment, designed and owned by Uchronia founder Julien Sebban.

Called Univers Uchronia, the apartment is in the city's 18th arrondissement, close to the Uchronia office – a Parisian architecture and interiors studio known for its bold application of shape, colour and reflective surfaces.

Sebban designed the dwelling as his home, which he shares with his husband and Maison Royère artistic director Jonathan Wray.

The Uchronia founder created the apartment as an extension of his studio – "it's truly a manifesto of our universe," he told Dezeen.

Sebban worked with local studio Atelier Roma to create all the walls and ceilings, which are either lacquered and glossy or made of matte pigmented concrete, respectively reflecting or absorbing light throughout the day.

Finished in hues ranging from cloud-like pale blue to lemony yellow, the walls and ceilings complement the poured-in-place resin floor that spans the apartment and features a bold motif that "waves and moves in relation to the architecture".

The home is anchored by a predominantly pink living space, which includes Uchronia-designed pieces such as low-slung interlocking coffee tables made from walnut burl and orange resin.

Translucent and gathered pink curtains were paired with a geometric vintage bookshelf and a blocky but soft sofa finished in purple and orange.

"The apartment is very colourful with '60s and '70s inspirations and a mix of our contemporary pieces and vintage objects," said Sebban.

In the open-plan kitchen and dining room, a veiny Van Gogh onyx table was positioned next to a metallic kitchen island, illuminated by a blobby seaweed-shaped table lamp.

A portion of the otherwise orange wall was clad with tiny, mirrored tiles. Reflected in the gleaming ceiling, the tiles have the same effect as a shimmering disco ball.

Opposite the dining area is Sebban and Wray's home office, characterised by a bright orange, built-in day bed topped with silk flower-like cushions and a wave-shaped backrest.

Above the bed, ornamental jellyfish were suspended like planets against a constellation of gold stars, which decorate the ombre orange and yellow wall that nods to the colour-drenched interior of the city's Cafe Nuances – also designed by Uchronia.

The dwelling's bathrooms follow a similar design. Accents include dusty pink alcoves and ceramic tiles depicting underwater scenes, as well as a lily pad-shaped rug and a mirror resembling a cluster of clouds.

"The apartment defines the codes we have tried to develop at Uchronia over the last four years," concluded Sebban.

"It's a play on colours, textures and materials, and a love letter to French craft."

Uchronia was named emerging interior designer of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2023. The studio previously renovated a Haussmann-era apartment for a pair of jewellery designers with multifaceted furniture pieces created to mirror the appearance of precious stones.

Various architects have designed their own homes, such as John Pawson, who created this minimalist second home in the Cotswolds in the UK.

The photography is by Félix Dol Maillot. 

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Next in our Social Housing Revival series we examine Life Reusing Posidonia – a group of 14 dwellings on the Mediterranean island of Formentera designed by architects at the Balearic Social Housing Institute using locally sourced materials such as dried seagrass.

Completed in 2017, Life Reusing Posidonia is a multi-award winning project consisting of 14 publicly protected, low-cost homes in Sant Ferran de ses Roques, an inland town in central Formentera – one of the Balearic islands.

Civil-servant architects at the Balearic Social Housing Institute (IBAVI) created the social housing project as a prototype to demonstrate how using locally sourced, natural materials can reduce a building's energy consumption while also positively investing in the local economy.

According to the European Commission, which funded the project through its LIFE programme for environmental initiatives, the housing was "awarded to local people in vulnerable situations, either socially disadvantaged or on low incomes".

The IBAVI architects aimed to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions during construction by 50 per cent, as well as achieve a 75 per cent reduction in post-occupancy energy consumption and a 60 per cent water consumption reduction.

They mapped out the embodied carbon and the energy required to transport every material considered for the project, looking to the island's natural resources for sustainable building materials.

Formentera's juniper trees and shrubs are protected, while the island's sandstone stores are severely depleted. As a result, IBAVI focused on posidonia – a plentiful endemic seagrass that washes up on Mediterranean shores.

Combined with other carefully chosen materials, posidonia was applied as thermal insulation in each interconnected dwelling.

The seagrass did not require any artificial treatment thanks to its abundance of sea salt, which acts as both a preservative and biocide.

Local labourers hand-dried the posidonia during the summer of 2014, which meant spreading the grasses out in layers ranging between 5- and 10-millimetres in thickness and exposing them to the harsh Formentera sun for full days at a time.

Once dried, the posidonia was packed into recycled construction palettes fitted into the roof of each home to create insulation.

IBAVI was informed by both the appearance and energy performances of local vernacular architecture when designing the homes and analysed the performances of previous architecture projects to determine how to construct the Life Reuising Posidonia housing.

Each blocky, rectilinear building was organised with two street-facing facades, which creates cross-ventilation within each dwelling and passively cools the interiors during the summer months.

Homes on both the ground and first-floor levels of the buildings have individual outdoor spaces in the form of courtyards and roof terraces respectively.

South-facing, clerestory windows – which can be shuttered during hotter months – feature on the upper-level homes, providing them with passive solar heating during winter.

The houses were clad in bricks fired in a biomass mortar kiln. Every wooden door and window featured throughout the project was recycled from previous buildings.

Austrian glued-laminated timber rafters feature in the interiors – a less carbon-intensive material than concrete. Cork boards were also used as acoustic roof panels.

Developed as a pilot project, Life Reusing Posidonia was created to determine the cost of a multi-family housing complex that meets the requirements proposed by IBAVI's Guide to Environmental Measures for Building in the Balearic Islands.

The LIFE programme found that the project met its ambitions on post-occupancy energy use and water consumption and exceeded its target on embodied carbon, cutting construction-related emissions by 60 per cent. It also created 41 jobs for workers living in Formentera or the neighbouring island of Ibiza.

"The project had a significant social component from the very beginning," said the programme, which presented Life Reusing Posidonia with its Award for Environment in 2021.

"Through this paradigm, indebted to 'think global, act local', we propose a hyper-local architecture model, in which each project becomes a map of the territory's resources," stated the Life Reusing Posidonia website explaining the project's objectives.

"This approach allows us to relate the environmental issue with the cultural tradition of each region, achieving not only the prevention of global warming and an improvement in air quality, [but also the] recovery of the landscape quality of cities."

As well as the 2021 LIFE Award for Environment, the project won the 2018 FAD prize for architecture and was shortlisted for the 2019 EU Mies van der Rohe Award.

Since Life Reusing Posidonia, IBAVI has designed a large number of similar projects across the Balearic Islands that apply the same methodology, looking to local materials to create architecture.

For example, the institute has completed social housing in Mallorca built from locally quarried load-bearing stone.

The photography is by José Hevia unless otherwise stated.

Social Housing Revival

This article is part of Dezeen's Social Housing Revival series exploring the new wave of quality social housing being built around the world, and asking whether a return to social house-building at scale can help solve affordability issues and homelessness in our major cities.

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Architecture studio Spacemen has designed the Bar Kar restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to resemble the earth ovens historically used to cook and smoke food in the ground.

Based between Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur, Spacemen conceived the interiors for Bar Kar "around the concept of primordial community cooking".

Guests enter the eatery through a winding pathway lined with the same firewood used in the restaurant's kitchen.

This immersive hall was bookended with mirrored walls to give the illusion of an infinite space.

A bespoke yellow onyx welcome desk with a timber base was positioned at the end of the pathway, which leads to the main dining hall through a stucco-clad tunnel illuminated by a rounded skylight.

Cavernous, terracotta-hued walls were designed to evoke ancient cooking pits.

"It's as if patrons are actually stepping into a giant pot," Spacemen founder Edward Tan told Dezeen.

This geometry is echoed in curved tables and banquettes as well as a U-shaped central "chef's table" finished in veiny grey travertine.

Arranged around an open, terracotta tile-clad kitchen, the back-lit table provides a space for guests to sit and watch their meals take shape.

"All of the elements and finishes are inspired by primordial times," said Tan, noting the locally sourced brown slate flooring, which was chosen to resemble rocks.

Crumpled mesh sculptures reminiscent of flames were suspended from curved holes in the undulating ceiling.

Bar Kar also features a private dining room informed by "the organic contours of a cave". For this space, Spacemen chose cream-coloured stucco, stacked in ridged layers to mimic the inside of a cocoon.

Another gold mesh sculpture hangs over the room's central red travertine table.

"We deconstructed the elements of primordial living in ancient times and put them into an abstract composition," Tan said. "We wanted to make the restaurant familiar but with a fun and contemporary approach."

Known for its bold application of colour and texture, Spacemen previously inserted an "otherworldly" moss-covered installation in a luxury bag store in Putrajaya.

Other earthy interiors include Studio Wok's cavernous pizzeria in Sardinia, with sandy pink plaster walls designed to reflect the island's wind-swept granite rocks.

The photography is by Su Ping. 

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Architecture studio Fala Atelier decked out the angular spaces of the 087 house in Lisbon with oversized spots and stripes, which also feature on its bold marble facade.

Designed by Porto-based studio Fala Atelier, 087 is a three-storey home in the Portuguese capital with a rectilinear facade decorated with chunky marble shapes.

The studio, known for its playful use of geometry, created custom carpentry from locally sourced materials to accommodate the home's curved and staggered walls and the sloping ceilings within the building.

A garden-facing kitchen on the ground floor includes terrazzo flooring and stepped timber cabinetry decorated with bold black and white stripes and topped with marble slabs.

Unusual features such as a funnel-shaped, teal-hued extractor fan add an eclectic touch. This Fala Atelier-designed piece can also be found in a windowless garage in Lisbon that the studio converted for a couple.

"There are no elegant extractors on the market," Fala Atelier partner Filipe Magalhães told Dezeen.

"All of them look like nasty appliances. With the kitchen in the way of the window, we knew we would have to integrate the fan. Since we couldn't make it disappear, we celebrated the piece," he added.

The open-plan kitchen connects to the living area, which is characterised by pinewood flooring dotted with geometric walnut accents.

"The colours of the stripes and the dots on the floor really try to be noble," said Magalhães.

The space also features doors designed by the studio and caramel-coloured Ligne Roset Togo sofas – a quilted and low-slung design classic created by Michel Ducaroy in 1973.

This seating was positioned next to a boxy fireplace clad with gleaming white ceramic tiles and a squat display plinth finished in veiny black marble.

"We tried to diversify the material palette as much as possible while still making it quite banal," explained Magalhães.

"The choices are very Portuguese, but the mixture aims at being more than just that," added the architect.

Upstairs, the same bespoke cabinetry as in the kitchen was used to form larger cupboards across the curved and angular private spaces of the two upper floors.

Board-formed concrete ceilings, which also feature downstairs, were paired with oversized rounded mirrors in the bathrooms and a mixture of timber and marble flooring.

The garden-facing facade follows the same geometry as its street-facing component, also featuring circular and rectilinear decorative shapes.

"This house is a lot about the relationship with the garden," said Magalhães, noting the floor-to-ceiling glazing that connects the indoor and outdoor spaces.

Fala Atelier has designed several homes in a similar style, including six micro-houses in Porto with geometric forms and concrete finishes and another Porto property topped with a striped concrete roof.

The photography is by Francisco Ascensao and Giulietta Margot.

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From a brutalist dwelling nestled in a pine forest to a beachy weekend retreat with a rooftop swimming pool, our latest lookbook features 10 holiday homes across Mexico.

While known for their often vibrant colours, Mexican interiors also include many examples of more muted designs. These earthy hues are often created through the use of natural and local materials, such as wood and stone.

Holiday homes are located all over the country, which has a varied landscape and is famous for its escapist destinations. Here are 10 Mexican holiday homes that combine pared-back colour palettes with getaway-style luxury.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring metal furniture, breakfast nooks and living spaces with swings.

Casa Alférez, Alférez, by Ludwig Godefroy

This holiday home is a brutalist dwelling clad in board-formed concrete and located in a pine forest in the country's Alférez region.

French architect Ludwig Godefroy, who is Mexico City-based, added a conversation pit to the cathedral-like living area, which features a spindly double-height fireplace.

Find out more about Casa Alférez ›

Holiday home, San Simón El Alto, by Estudio Atemporal

Local architecture office Estudio Atemporal designed a weekend retreat in San Simón El Alto village with an oversized gabled roof.

Inside, the studio created a statement brick wall in the angular, open-plan living space defined by timber and concrete accents. Generous glass doors lead to a covered outdoor patio.

Find out more about this holiday home ›

Villa Cava, Tulum, by Espacio 18 Arquitectura

Neutral tones and textures define this house in Tulum that was informed by cenotes – ancient sunken water-filled limestone pits and caves found across Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.

Espacio 18 Arquitectura carved a circular window into one of the home's ceilings, which reveals a rooftop swimming pool. Blue-coloured light filters through the opening, emphasising the cavernous atmosphere.

Find out more about Villa Cava ›

La Extraviada, Mazunte, by Em-Estudio

Architecture firm Em-Estudio stepped a pair of concrete residential volumes down a rocky hillside overlooking the coastal town of Mazunte, Oaxaca.

Called La Extraviada, the holiday home includes an eclectic kitchen and dining space flanked by floor-to-ceiling timber shutters that open onto a terrace with a swimming pool.

Regional materials, including guapinol wood and local stone obtained from nearby quarries, feature throughout the earthy-hued project.

Find out more about La Extraviada ›

Casa Tres Árboles, Valle de Bravo, by Direccion

Architecture studio Direccion took cues from "monastic" sanctuaries when renovating this weekend retreat in Valle de Bravo.

The open-plan living space includes exposed warm-toned wooden ceiling beams, which contrast against dark-painted walls. A soft-red sofa adds a rare pop of colour to the otherwise muted interiors.

Find out more about Casa Tres Árboles ›

Los Terrenos, Monterrey, by Tatiana Bilbao

Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao added a multifunctional ceramic screen to the interior of Los Terrenos – a holiday home in Monterrey with mirrored glass facades that reflect the surrounding wooded site.

"[The screen] works as solid and permeable floor, a screen partition, a structural wall, and as a semi-open wall that allows ventilation and sunlight to bathe the interior spaces," explained Bilbao's eponymous studio.

Find out more about Los Terrenos ›

Tonalli House, Jalisco, by Moises Sánchez 

This stucco-clad holiday home was punctuated with strategic openings and takes cues from architecture commonly found in Mexican villages, according to its designer Moises Sánchez.

Sánchez created an understated interior palette referencing the nearby architecture surrounding Lake Chapa, where the home is located. For example, the blocky terrazzo staircase doubles as a stepped plinth for sandy-coloured ornaments.

Find out more about Tonalli House ›

Casa Areca, Tulum, by CO-LAB Design Office

Local studio CO-LAB Design Office created Casa Areca to merge with its lush Tulum setting.

The open-plan ground floor includes pivot doors and retractable glass walls, which enable the social area to flow into the jungle-like garden. Creamy walls and polished concrete floors were paired with local tzalam wood, jute accents and ceramic vases filled with hand-selected wild grasses.

Find out more about Casa Areca ›

El Aguacate, El Barrial, by Práctica Arquitectura

El Aguacate – or "The Avocado" – is a holiday home in El Barrial village made almost entirely out of concrete.

Práctica Arquitectura topped the main living area with a tall pyramidal roof featuring a boxy skylight. The studio added a built-in fireplace and alter-like dining table to the space – also made from smooth concrete.

Find out more about El Aguacate ›

Casa Cova, Puerto Escondidio, by Anonimous

When designing Casa Cova in Puerto Escondido, Mexican studio Anonimous took cues from pre-colonial architecture.

Inside, the central living space is kept cool by a traditional thatched roof made of dried palm leaves, called a "palapa." Tiny square openings were also cut into some of the walls, creating "a dynamic light pattern from dusk till dawn".

Find out more about Casa Cova ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring metal furniture, breakfast nooks and living spaces with swings.

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British designer James Shaw has renovated a shop for fashion brand Camper on London's Regent Street, which features a giant foot-shaped sculpture that functions as a till and a bench for trying on shoes.

Located in a ground-level room within a building on Regent Street in central London, the store reopened last week.

Shaw redesigned the interiors to reflect the Mallorcan heritage of Spanish footwear company Camper – a brand known for its bold and colourful creations.

The designer constructed a 3.5-metre-tall sculpture in the shape of an oversized foot, which was covered in terracotta-hued wool and positioned on the shop floor.

Visible from the street, the cartoon-like structure is multifunctional. It includes internal storage for products and a small booth that houses the till.

Shoppers are also encouraged to perch on the jumbo toes while trying on shoes, making the foot a bench as well as a display unit.

"The foot is the key feature of our proposal. Somewhat surreal and unexpected yet fully connected to Camper's sense of playfulness and whimsy," said Shaw.

"Reflected in the fully mirrored wall, it appears as a giant standing in the middle of the store."

The designer, who works predominantly with recycled plastic, also created lumpy yellow shelving made from extruded slabs of the material, which – like the large foot – is reflected in the floor-to-ceiling mirror that makes up one of the walls.

Shaw also combined his trademark gloopy plastic with walnut wood to create rounded stools, positioned underneath the yellow shelves.

On the opposite side of the room, the designer added smooth walnut display units mounted to the wall with twisted polished metal fixtures – also custom-made by Shaw.

At the back of the store, shoppers can rest on geometric seating topped with textured mohair and clad in mirrored metal. The recognisable red Camper logo, positioned above the seating, was also reimagined with a Shaw-style, lumpy backdrop.

Shaw created the store's flooring using orange resin to match the colour of the large foot as well as the painted walls and ceiling, which are all finished in similar hues.

The mix of materials is "a nod to mid-century modernism with a warped twist," according to Camper.

"Mediterranean roots are present in the colour scheme, where warm earthy tones meet shades of yellow and blue," added the brand.

Elsewhere, designer Jorge Penadés dressed a Málaga Camper shop with materials chosen to match the brand's warehouse while architect Kengo Kuma created scalloped shelving out of concave ceramic tiles for a Barcelona branch.

Shaw showcased pieces of his extruded recycled plastic furniture at the 2022 edition of London Design Festival in an installation he created with his partner, Lou Stoppard, that playfully explored tensions between couples who move in together.

The photography is courtesy of Camper.

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Industrial design studio Draga & Aurel has created Flare, a collection of retrofuturistic furniture made entirely out of multicoloured Lucite.

The Flare capsule collection features seven coffee tables and a totem-style sculpture in a range of vibrant hues.

Each piece of furniture was created out of sheets of Lucite – a patented version of acrylic resin that was developed in 1937 and is processed by hand.

Lake Como-based Draga & Aurel collaborated with local artisans to construct the multicoloured tables and the sculpture.

The furniture is characterised by chunky shapes, which "explore[s] the power of refraction," thanks to their bold angles, according to the studio.

Draga & Aurel founders Draga Obradovic and Aurel K Basedow, who are known for using epoxy resin in their projects, made the furniture out of sheets of varying colours, shapes and thicknesses. These were placed on top of each other and glued together.

Ranging from green, pink, orange and blue, the tables and the totem-like sculpture cast a kaleidoscope of bright hues that were informed by the work of artists Jiyong Lee and Vasa Mihich.

"The result is multifaceted objects that change from every angle and thoroughly express the concept of a flare, representing intuition, revelation and discovery," said Obradovic and Basedow.

Flare was created for New York City's Todd Merrill Studio – an art gallery in Lower Manhattan.

The collection takes cues from "minimalism's simplified volumes, retro-futuristic experimentation of space-age design and the eye-bending patterns of optical art," explained the gallery.

In 2019, Draga & Aurel's Agatha tables project was longlisted for a Dezeen Award.

Other recent furniture designs on Dezeen range from an alternative chair by three University of Gothenburg students that was created with a seat and backrest that serves as a planting bed for chia seeds to Tesammans, an IKEA collection by Dutch studio Raw Colour that aims to explore how our perception of a hue can change based on its context.

The photography is courtesy of Draga & Aurel.

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Designed by architects including Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma, the Tokyo Toilet project forms the backdrop for the Oscar-nominated film Perfect Days. Here, Dezeen rounds up all 17 facilities.

The Tokyo Toilet project brings together 17 public toilets in the city's Shibuya district, created by architects and designers over the past six years.

Commissioned by The Nippon Foundation as "a symbol of Japan's world-renowned hospitality culture", the unique facilities are now the subject of Perfect Days, an Oscar-nominated film by German filmmaker Wim Wenders that follows the daily life of a local janitor who cleans the toilets – played by Kōji Yakusho.

Following the movie's release and in the run-up to the 2024 Oscars ceremony on 10 March, Dezeen has rounded up all 17 of the Tokyo Toilets, which their designers say were created with safety, cleanliness and inclusivity in mind.

Toilet, Higashi Sanchome, by Nao Tamura

Designer Nao Tamura took cues from Origata – the traditional Japanese gift-wrapping method and a nod to hospitality – when creating this red public toilet on a triangular plot in the city's Higashi Sanchome area.

The structure, which launched the Tokyo Toilet project, features a wheelchair-accessible bathroom and separate male and female toilets.

Tamura used bright red for the metal shell to make the block visible and project a "sense of urgency".

Find out more about this toilet ›

Toilet, Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park, by Shigeru Ban

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban designed a pair of coloured glass toilets with transparent walls to enable those approaching to check whether they are in use.

When occupied, the toilets' tinted facades become opaque for privacy. One of the rectilinear structures was clad in shades of orange, pink and purple and is located in the city's Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park.

Find out more about this toilet ›

Toilet, Haru-no-Ogawa Community Park, by Shigeru Ban

Ban's second toilet is located a short walk from the first in the Haru-no-Ogawa Community Park, but features blue and green walls to complement the surrounding trees.

Each facility includes three separate cubicles – a male, female and accessible toilet – which were divided by mirrored walls.

Find out more about this toilet ›

Squid Toilet, Ebisu East Park, by Fumihiko Maki

Dubbed "Squid Toilet", this public restroom was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki.

The four-volume structure was built to be used as a place for people to rest as well as a toilet and features a compact courtyard at its centre, which is shaded by a thin, curved white roof.

Located in Ebisu East Park – known as "Octopus Park" for its octopus-shaped red slide – the toilet was created to emphasise the area's existing playfulness.

Find out more about Squid Toilet ›

Modern Kawaya, Ebisu Park, by Wonderwall

Prehistoric Japanese huts served as the starting point for this public toilet in Ebisu Park, created by interior design studio Wonderwall.

A maze of 15 board-marked concrete walls encloses the facility, which references Japan's primitive kawaya huts that were historically used as toilets.

Male and female toilets, as well as a unisex cubicle with facilities for baby-changing and disabled users, were included in the design.

Find out more about Modern Kawaya ›

Amayadori, Jingu-Dori Park, by Tadao Ando

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Ando wrapped this circular public toilet in a wall made from vertical metal louvres, which allow for privacy but also air circulation.

An angled, overhanging roof shelters the multi-cubicled structure that is nestled among cherry trees in the city's Jingu-Dori Park.

"It was vital for me to make a space that was comfortable and safe," explained Ando, who called the toilet Amayadori – meaning rain shelter in Japanese.

Find out more about Amayadori ›

Andon, Nishihara Itchome Park, by Takenosuke Sakakura

Three unisex toilets that glow after dark were designed by architect Takenosuke Sakakura, who also imprinted tree patterns on the structures' frosted glass facades.

Named Andon after the Japanese word for lantern, the block was created to provide safe and inviting facilities for nighttime users and "improve the image of not only the restroom but the entire park," said Sakakura.

Find out more about Andon ›

A Walk in the Woods, Nabeshima Shoto Park, by Kengo Kuma

A Walk in the Woods is a cedar-clad public restroom designed by architect Kuma to blend with its park surroundings.

Connected by a stepped walkway, the toilet is split into five individual huts that were created to accommodate the needs of "a diverse range of people," according to Kuma.

Find out more about A Walk in the Woods ›

Toilet, Jingumae, by Nigo

Sandwiched between high-rise buildings, this public toilet was created by fashion designer Nigo to stand out.

The playful restroom was made in the shape of a small house with a red-pitched roof, blue-framed windows and three chimney-style elements.

Partly surrounded by a white picket fence, the toilet design takes cues from a former Tokyo housing development constructed by the United States Armed Forces after the second world war.

Find out more about this toilet ›

Toilet, Yoyogi-Hachiman, by Toyo Ito

A trio of mushroom-like toilets form Pritzker Prize-winning architect Toyo Ito's contribution to the city-wide project.

The facility, which replaced a former toilet block positioned at the bottom of a flight of steps leading up to the Shibuya district's Yoyogi Hachimangu shrine, references mushrooms that grow in the nearby forest.

Ito broke the toilets into three separate spaces to try and make the facility a safe place for all of its users.

Find out more about this toilet ›

Toilet, Ebusi Station, by Kashiwa Sato

Graphic designer Kashiwa Sato, who created the brand strategy for Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo, constructed this boxy toilet from white aluminium louvres.

Five toilet blocks, which were not delineated by gender, were inserted into the bright and clean-looking facility. The toilet was positioned outside Tokyo's bustling Ebusi Station as a "neighbourhood symbol," explained Sato.

Find out more about this toilet ›

Hi Toilet, Nanago Dori Park, by Kazoo Sato

Voice commands control functions including the door, toilet flush, taps and ambient music within designer Kazoo Sato's hemispherical white toilet in Nanago Dori Park.

Sato designed the Hi Toilet to challenge the stereotype of dark and unhygienic public restrooms. Featuring an accessible toilet and urinals, the facility features a hemispherical form that was chosen to enhance internal airflow.

Find out more about Hi Toilet ›

Toilet, Urasando, by Marc Newson

Industrial designer Marc Newson was informed by historic Japanese temples and tea rooms when creating this facility with a traditionally shaped copper roof.

Newson's "trustworthy and honest" concrete design features men's and women's toilets placed on either side of a central disabled toilet and is located under a raised highway to the north of Yoyogi Park.

Find out more about this toilet ›

Toilet, Hiroo East Park, by Tomohito Ushiro

A large light panel features on the facade of this toilet, which displays 7.9 billion different light patterns referencing the world's population at the point the project was conceived.

Created by graphic designer Tomohito Ushiro, the rectilinear restroom contains two square unisex toilet cubicles with baby chairs and changing stations. Ushiro envisaged the structure to be "a piece of public art".

Find out more about this toilet ›

Toilet, Hatagaya, by Miles Pennington and DLX Design Lab

Designer Miles Pennington and the University of Tokyo's DLX Design Lab collaborated to create a toilet that can be used as an exhibition space, cinema, pop-up kiosk, information centre or public meeting place.

A male toilet and unisex cubicles were arranged around a large covered area. Within the block, there are expansive white walls designed to hang artworks or have films projected onto them.

"This is a community space that happens to have toilets too," said Pennington, who is a professor of design-led innovation at the university.

Find out more about this toilet ›

Toilet, Sasazuka Greenway, by Junko Kobayashi

Weathering steel cylinders form specialist toilet designer Junko Kobayashi's contribution to the project, which was topped with a bright yellow disc.

Set underneath the Sasazuka metro station in the city centre, the structure features various cubicles for men, women and children with a series of round holes cut into them revealing graphics of bunnies.

Find out more about this toilet ›

Toilet, Nishisando, by Sou Fujimoto 

Architect Sou Fujimoto designed the final instalment of the Tokyo Toilet project in the city's downtown area.

Characterised by an elongated communal handwashing area with different height taps, the all-white facility's sinuous curves were created to resemble an oversized sink.

Fujimoto's structure contains toilets for men, women and children that are connected by an open-air corridor so that "everyone from children to older people can wash their hands within this vessel," said the architect.

Find out more about this toilet ›

The photography is by Satoshi Nagare, courtesy of The Nippon Foundation.

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Dublin studio Kingston Lafferty Design has transformed the architecture and interiors of this family home in Cork, Ireland, which features 1970s-style shapes and colours informed by the work of designer Verner Panton.

Positioned on Lovers Walk hill overlooking the city of Cork, the townhouse – called Lovers Walk – was renovated by Kingston Lafferty Design.

The studio originally planned to just update the interiors, but decided that a more extensive architectural transformation was needed after discovering structural instabilities in the home.

Kingston Lafferty Design removed all of the floors, which lacked foundations and insulation in their concrete slab, and completely reconfigured the two-storey property's layout.

"As the building was originally built in the 1970s, we wanted to return to its roots," studio founder Róisín Lafferty told Dezeen.

"We thrived on inspiration from Verner Panton with his use of strong clashing colour, playful shapes and oversized elements," she added.

The ground floor was adapted to include an open-plan kitchen defined by a counter, island and splashback finished in veiny red quartzite.

Ruby-toned timber was used to create the geometric cabinets. When layered with the quartzite, "it sounds like a disaster, but it's a delight," said the designer.

The space, described by the studio as a "sensual red-toned jewel kitchen", is one of several rooms on the ground floor of Lovers Walk that were designed around the central, oak-lined hallway.

"We used the hallway as the core of the house, which grounded the space with pops of colour stemming from it. Each room leading from the core appears like a framed view or window of colour," explained Lafferty.

The living room includes blue velvet sofas and a green feature wall clad in swirly book-matched marble, which was fitted with an alcove reserved for a subtle fireplace.

When creating the polished stone wall, the studio took cues from the seminal Barcelona Pavilion, completed in 1929 by modernist architect Mies van der Rohe.

"We used green as an overall thread throughout the house, inspired by the surrounding landscape," added Lafferty.

"Although depending on the time of year, the colours tend to change and so we were able to add in other rich colours that anchor the green such as burgundies and bright oranges," she added.

"One would assume this mix of colours would clash, but we choose the tones and textures of each to ensure that all of them would blend harmoniously," Lafferty said.

Upstairs, the main bedroom and en-suite bathroom were dressed in the same eclectic interiors as the communal spaces. A floor-to-ceiling headboard, finished in diamond-shaped green tiles originally designed by 20th-century architect Gio Ponti, frames the bed.

Balloon-like coloured glass vases were positioned on two bedside tables, which were topped with the same slabs of Rosso Levanto marble as the geometric vanity desk.

The bedroom designed for the occupants' child features an alternative bed – a playful green structure with two stacked levels and half-moon openings that reveal a cosy sleeping area on the bottom level.

Other accents featured throughout the home include burl wood, terrazzo, plaster and brass. The repetition of 1970s-style thick pile carpets emphasises the dwelling's textured material palette.

Lovers Walk is the studio's "closest nod" to the work of Panton, explained Lafferty – "down to the selection of every tile, light fitting and exquisite piece of designer furniture".

"Although there is such an array of materiality, it is balanced by repeated colour, shape and form," she said.

"Every space in this house is an assault on the senses, in the best way possible."

Founded in 2010, Kingston Lafferty Design has completed projects ranging from a Dublin restaurant with oversized lollipop-like lamps and a co-working office in Belfast that includes a yoga studio.

The photography is by Ruth Maria Murphy. 

Project credits:

Interior architecture and design: Kingston Lafferty Design
Woodwork: DFL
Stonework: Miller Brothers

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American interior designer, fashion influencer and "geriatric starlet" Iris Apfel has passed away at the age of 102.

The death of the multidisciplinary creative, who was recognised for her flamboyant personal style, was announced on her Instagram account with an image of Apfel in her trademark oversized glasses.

Apfel, who worked in the interiors and fashion industries throughout her career, shot to international fame in her 80s and 90s after New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited a show of her eclectic clothes and accessories in 2005.

Titled Rara Avis: Selections From the Iris Apfel Collection, it was the first time the museum had dedicated an exhibition to someone's wardrobe.

Born Iris Barrel in 1921 in Queens, Apfel studied art history at New York University and art at the University of Wisconsin.

After graduating, she worked for fashion magazine Women's Wear Daily before interning for interior designer Elinor Johnson.

Together with her late husband Carl Apfel, whom she married in 1948, she set up the brand Old World Weavers – a company that specialised in striking textiles informed by things found on the Apfels' travels.

Under Old World Weavers, the duo completed high-profile projects such as restoring the White House interiors for nine presidents including Harry Truman and Bill Clinton.

The designer became a visiting lecturer at the University of Texas in 2011, where she taught fashion students about textiles and crafts.

In later life, Apfel became a staple of the fashion industry.  In 2018, toy manufacturer Mattel created a Barbie doll in the designer's image, although it was not for sale. At the age of 97, she signed a modelling contract with IMG Models.

Apfel playfully called herself a "geriatric starlet" and described the prospect of retirement as "a fate worse than death" shortly after turning 100.

Following the news of her passing, designers around the world paid tribute to Apfel's legacy. "Iris Apfel has become a world-famous fashion icon because of her incredible talent not only as an artist but as an influencer," said fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger.

The photography is by Ron Adar courtesy of Shutterstock.

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A disaster-proof chandelier from Lebanon and a towering sand dune-style stone installation feature in Arab Design Now, the main exhibition at the inaugural Design Doha biennial.

Arab Design Now was curated by Rana Beiruti to capture the spirit of contemporary design across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the curator told Dezeen ahead of the opening of the first Design Doha.

Set within the Qatari capital's M7 building, the design biennial draws together a range of collectible design and installations.

Selected works from 74 participants paid homage to the MENA region's "extremely harsh and unique geography" and investigated the "use of materials as a guiding principle," explained Beiruti.

Here are 10 of Dezeen's highlights from Arab Design Now, which is on display in Doha until early August.

Sites – New Sites by Studio Anne Holtrop

Bahrain- and Amsterdam-based architect Anne Holtrop has designed a cluster of large-scale mobiles made from vast slabs of lumpy resin.

Holtrop took casts of a series of manmade and natural sites that he found across Qatar to create the textured pieces, which hang from bearing mechanisms and can be manually rotated by visitors to produce continuously moving formations.

Constellations 2.0: Object. Light. Consciousness by Abeer Seikaly

Over 5,000 pieces of Murano glass were woven together by Jordanian-Palestinian designer Abeer Seikaly to create this chandelier, which combines Bedouin weaving practices from Jordan with traditional Venetian glassmaking techniques.

Brass and stainless steel were also integrated into the lighting, made flexible by the glass mesh.

Once illuminated, the sculptural piece creates dramatic light patterns that nod to a starry night sky seen from the Badia desert, according to Seikaly.

House Between a Jujube Tree and a Palm Tree by Civil Architecture

Kuwait and Bahrain-based office Civil Architecture has designed a looming fibreglass roof proposal for a majlis – the traditional term for an Arabic gathering space.

"It's a 1:1 model of a roof of an actual house that we designed in Bahrain," studio co-founder Hamed Bukhamseen told Deezen.

Supported by steel and suspended from tension cables, the majlis features openings designed to accommodate tall trees and was created to explore the "symbiotic but blurred" relationship between indoor and outdoor settings.

Nubia, Hathor and Gros Guillaume Stool by Omar Chakil

French-Egyptian-Lebanese designer Omar Chakil was informed by his father's homeland of Egypt when he chose alabaster onyx to create this monolithic shelving, a bulbous coffee table and a stool that glides across the floor on wheels.

Taking cues from ancient practices, Chakil carved the rounded furniture from raw blocks of the material, which was sanded down over time using water rather than covered in varnish – something that the designer said had became common in Egypt, especially when making "cheap" souvenirs.

"The whole idea of the collection was to use Egyptian alabaster, which was a healing stone," Chakil told Dezeen.

"The pharaohs used [the material], then it transformed it over time. It lost its soul. So I tried to put it in the contemporary context by using the shapes that healing emotions would take – so they are round and soft, even though they are very heavy," he added.

"I see that people are afraid to, but I want them to touch the furniture."

Tiamat by AAU Anastas

Palestinian architecture office AAU Anastas is presenting Tiamat, a dune-shaped installation that forms part of the studio's ongoing project, Stone Matters, which explores the potential of combining historical stone building techniques with modern technologies to encourage the use of structural stone.

Positioned for visitors to walk through, the installation is a towering structure made of stone sourced from Bethlehem and informed by the Gothic-style architecture found across Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.

According to AAU Anastas, the light, sound reverberations and climate control within Tiamat's internal space is unique to stone construction.

Clay in Context by Sama El Saket

Jordan-born architect and ceramicist Sama El Saket took cues from her native landscape when creating this "taxonomy of Jordanian clays".

The result is a set of spindle bottle-style vessels, each made of a different natural clay found across Jordan. This gives the pieces their distinctive colours, textures and character.

"These are all natural clays with no pigments added," El Saket told Dezeen. "The colours are attributed to the different minerals that are found within the region. Some are sandier, some are rockier."

The designer noted that while Jordan features an abundance of clay deposits and a rich history of ceramic production, today most Jordanian clay is imported.

Light Impact by Fabraca Studios

Lebanese industrial design brand Fabraca Studios has created Light Impact, a solid aluminium lighting fixture that was designed as an alternative chandelier, resembling durable ropes.

The piece was made to replace a glass chandelier that shattered in the aftermath of the 2020 Beiruit explosion, which destroyed a large part of Lebanon's capital city.

Light Impact is defined by "flexible characteristics designed to withstand another disaster," studio founder Samer Saadeh told Dezeen. He added that the piece, which includes internal brass components, was designed as an ode to Beirut's adaptability and resilience.

Eleven by Sahel Alhiyari

Eleven is a cluster of tall fluted terracotta columns by Jordanian architect Sahel Alhiyari that were made through moulding and forming rather than traditional cutting and carving.

The architect handcrafted the segments, which are vertically stacked, using a similar technique to pottery-making,

"As you twist and turn the material, it creates all of this stuff," Alhiyari told Dezeen. The designer explained that the columns were deliberately created to celebrate imperfections, despite referencing classical architecture.

Sediments by Talin Hazbar

UAE-based Syrian designer Talin Hazbar is featuring her Sediments project, which previously gained recognition at Dubai Design Week.

The work consists of blocky seating made from fishing ropes and fishing cage ropes extracted from the Persian Gulf with the assistance of the Dubai Voluntary Diving Team.

Also made up of recycled rubber grains, the heavily textured seating was created to serve as a reminder of how we might attempt to clean up damaged coastlines, according to Hazbar.

Whispers from the Deep by T Sakhi

Lebanese-Polish sisters Tessa and Tara El Sakhi of the studio T Sakhi combined discarded metal salvaged from factories in Veneto, Italy, with Murano glass to create amorphous glassware that takes cues from underwater sea creatures.

These pieces were arranged atop dramatic shelving inside the elevator connecting the first and second floors of the Arab Design Now exhibition.

The result is a playful installation that draws together the Venetian lagoon and Lebanese glassblowing traditions.

The main photo is by Julián Velásquez and the rest of the photography is by Edmund Sumner unless stated otherwise.

Arab Design Now takes place at Design Doha from 24 February to 5 August 2024 at M7 in Doha, Qatar. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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With 100 designers from the Middle East and North Africa, Design Doha is showcasing emerging regional designers, says Rana Beiruti, who is curator of the biennial's Arab Design Now exhibition.

Launched by art and culture institution Qatar Museums, the first edition of Design Doha will open in the Qatari capital this Saturday.

Central to the biennial is its main exhibition, Arab Design Now, which was curated by Jordan-based Beiruti, who previously co-founded and directed Amman Design Week.

The contemporary exhibition will feature a diverse offering of work from 74 participants – individual designers and collectives – including collectible design and installations that reflect on the current design scene in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.

Qatar is having a "big boom"

Beiruti said that following the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, the country has been experiencing a "big boom".

"I think it's [Qatar's] moment now to create the infrastructure and the spaces for younger designers, particularly emerging designers, to learn, grow and start producing work," said Beiruti.

"The biennial serves that purpose as a learning experience. Biennials are an important platform where designers and artists can create outside of certain constraints or certain financial constraints," she continued.

"I think Doha is hoping to position itself as a regional home for design – not just for local designers."

While this will be the first edition of Design Doha, Qatar and the surrounding MENA region has a long and rich history of design and architecture, emphasised the curator.

"There's this big question all the time about what is the identity of Arab design and I think that it's not disconnected from the global condition of design, the global design world," said Beiruti.

"It's not something separate from it or different from it. It's very much connected to what's happening on the global stage."

Beiruti described Arab Design Now as a "museum-grade" selection of design, which explores what it means to create in the MENA region today – the guiding force behind the exhibition.

"I don't know how you make a divide between design and craft"

The curator said that the show will look at the different aesthetic approaches and ways that people think about design from across the region, but also "map the commonalities" that exist between countries.

In particular, Beiruti explained that the exhibition will feature a series of overarching themes – specifically craftsmanship.

"Personally, I don't know how you make a divide between design and craft," she said. "I find they're so intertwined."

"I feel like there's little design I'm interested in that isn't basically contemporary craft," added the curator.

Beiruti also cited "a love for the land and respect for materials" as a focus of the exhibition participants.

Among the vast array of work, the curator said to expect pieces from Samer Selbak, a Palestinian artist who works with sponge as a material, as well as Jordanian-Palestinian architect Abeer Seikaly, who has designed a chandelier using weaving techniques that she learned from working with Bedouin tribes in Jordan.

"What's interesting is that even if practices and technologies have evolved, there's a certain set of values that I feel like people still carry and they're values that are common in our culture," said Beiruti, reflecting on the work that will be on display.

"Values of the collective, of collaboration, of co-creation."

"And so a lot of the works are done in collaboration with craftspeople. And those people are equally recognised in the production of the piece," she continued.

"So I would definitely say that craft is very central in this exhibition. There's a lot of upcycling as well – people who are using old discarded marble slabs and stone [to create work]."

"The designers have gone all out"

After the official Design Doha event draws to a close on 28 February, various exhibitions will be on display in the city until early August, including Arab Design Now.

"The designers have really gone all out, and there are pieces that are really monumental, so I think having them on display for only four or five days is possibly not enough to create the right level of engagement," acknowledged Beiruti.

Considering the potential outcome of Design Doha, the curator said that she hopes it will positively influence designers – especially a younger generation – and visitors alike.

"If it inspires other designers in a specific way, or gets people to think about how they are producing and how they are consuming differently, then I feel like it will be very successful."

The photography is courtesy of Design Doha.

Design Doha takes place from 24 to 5 August 2024 in Doha, Qatar. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Local design studio Hauvette & Madani drew on the Haussmannian history of this Paris apartment to create a gallery-like interior for its occupant's vast art collection.

Located in the city's historic Triangle d'Or, the dwelling previously featured minimalist marble surfaces and gilding leftover from a recent renovation.

Hauvette & Madani "re-appropriated" the apartment, originally designed as part of Georges-Eugène Haussmann's famed reconstruction of the French capital during the mid-19th century, to reflect its architectural past.

"The challenge was to completely revamp the apartment, which had just been refurbished," said studio co-founder Samantha Hauvette, who designed the dwelling with Lucas Madani.

"We carried out meticulous research to find the right motifs and decorations to restore the place to its former glory and Haussmannian charm," she told Dezeen.

The designers recreated delicate white cornices and mouldings – hallmarks of Haussmannian design – within the apartment, which had been previously stripped of these details.

This created a considered but neutral backdrop for the resident's eclectic collection of artwork and a curated selection of furniture "mixing eras and styles," according to Hauvette and Madani.

Visitors enter at a small round vestibule clad in straw marquetry – a "common thread" that also features on a pair of curved sofas and a sleek coffee table as well as sliding doors, the main bedroom's headboard and the dining table.

The light-filled living room is characterised by sculptural furniture and art pieces, including rounded vintage armchairs finished in a dark green hue and metallic base.

An amorphous ceiling work by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm was suspended above the sofas, while a deep blue painting by Swiss practitioner Miriam Cahn adds a bold hue to the room.

"It's a real living space, where the homeowner shares a lot with her artist and designer friends," said the designers. "All the pieces have a strong identity."

For the dining room, American artist Sarah Crowner created a striking turquoise fireplace, which was clad in a blocky mosaic of geometric tiles and positioned alongside a burnt orange vintage egg-shaped chair.

"We wanted to take the codes of classicism and break free from them," explained Hauvette and Madani, who aimed to balance traditional interior details with more contemporary colourful touches.

Continuing this theme, the designers sandwiched a bright green stove between more subtle, light pink cabinets in the kitchen, which includes a patterned feature wall.

Blocks of light-coloured timber were stacked by French furniture maker Hervé van der Straeten to create a singular lumpy leg for the kitchen table as well as the base of a drinks bar elsewhere in the apartment.

Hauvette and Madani also constructed an in-house sauna for the home, finished in dark wooden slats and tucked behind a bespoke green-hued daybed, made by the designers themselves.

"We have a strong belief that everything that you love independently will work perfectly once put together," said Madani, who highlighted the power of trusting your instincts when curating eclectic interiors.

Summarising the overall look and feel of the apartment, the pair declared, "it's Paris Haussmannian style, with a hint of craziness!"

Hauvette & Madani is not the first studio to renovate a traditional Parisian apartment with contemporary touches.

Local studio Uchronia recently filled a home for jewellery designers with multifaceted furniture pieces crafted to mirror the appearance of precious stones. The studio also previously added a wine-red kitchen to an otherwise neutral flat in the French capital.

The photography is by François Coquerel. 

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Stockholm Design Week guest of honour Formafantasma has created Reading Room, an interactive installation at the Swedish furniture fair that uses "minimal resources".

On display at last week's Stockholm Furniture Fair, the site-specific temporary installation was created by Italian design studio Formafantasma – the design week's guest of honour.

Positioned near the entrance of the fairground, Reading Room featured uniform rows of Artek timber tables and stools surrounded by a thick floor-to-ceiling curtain by textile brand Maharam, which was attached to a curved rail and finished in a dusty shade of pink.

Various books focussed on sustainability, ecology and ecosystems were placed on the rectilinear tables for visitors to sit and consider.

Thin strip lighting by Italian brand Flos illuminated the installation while a large screen at one end of the space showed a selection of films by Formafantasma, including work from Cambio – the studio's ongoing investigation into the impact of the timber industry.

According to studio co-founder Andrea Trimarchi, the project was created as "somewhere to sit down" and reflect.

At a design fair, he told Dezeen, "you need it!"

The tables and seating were sourced from Finnish brand Artek's Forest Collection – developed by the brand in collaboration with Formafantasma – which includes recognisable Artek designs reworked in wild birch wood, such as Alvar Aalto's iconic 1933 Stool 60.

Celebrated for its knottier appearance, the wild birch was introduced to embrace "the honest beauty and variety of the forest" in Artek furniture after Formafantasma conducted a reassessment of the brand's selection criteria for wood in 2020.

Considering the relevance of Reading Room, Trimarchi said, "a fair is a place where people gather to see new products. But it is also a platform for exchanging ideas and for cultures to meet."

The designer explained that rather than create new work for the event, the studio wanted to engage visitors in its fundamental ideas. In line with this, the books will be donated to design schools and the seating and tables will be re-sold at local gallery Nordiska Galleriet after the fair.

"We wanted to do something that wasn't just about displaying our own previous work, but rather offer something in line with our way of thinking and working that is also relevant for others," added Trimarchi.

"The installation is a great example of how you can create a beautiful, temporary construction and experience, using minimal resources," said Stockholm Furniture Fair director Hanna Nova Beatrice.

Two books on display that the designer suggested everyone should read were Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene by Donna Haraway and The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mexture by Emanuele Coccia.

Formafantasma and Artek previously presented an exhibition at Helsinki Design Museum that delved into their mutual interest in Finnish forestry. Elsewhere at the furniture fair, Swedish design studio Folkform exhibited furniture pieces made using Masonite hardboard sourced from a factory that closed down over a decade ago.

The images are courtesy of Formafantasma. 

Stockholm Design Week took place in Stockholm from 5-11 February. See Dezeen Events Guide's Stockholm Design Week 2024 guide for information about exhibitions and events that took place throughout the week.

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A chunky rough-hewn coffee table made from discarded quarry sandstone is among a selection of furniture pieces by designer Carsten in der Elst, currently on display at Stockholm Design Week.

Called Greywacke Offcut Collection, the furniture by In der Elst is on show at the Stockholm Furniture Fair as part of the city's design week.

In der Elst sources materials that are industrial byproducts, which he handcrafts into amorphous furniture.

For his most recent collection, the Cologne-based designer visited a quarry in Lindlar in western Germany, where he salvaged large slabs of Lindlar Greywacke – a variety of hard and dark sandstone – that would've otherwise been waste material.

"It's a very hands-on approach, so I went to the quarries myself and selected these things," he told Dezeen at the fair.

One piece is a modular coffee table made up of three jagged hunks of dark-hued stone. These were left largely untouched except for a flat tabletop, which was sanded down.

"You can see that the elements of the objects are completely unchanged in their dimensions," said In der Elst, who explained that the furniture was created to evoke the texture and materiality of large rocks.

"The key is to patiently search for the right one among the accumulated offcuts," continued the designer. "Nothing is processed after finding it – so it's a bit like [building with] Lego!"

Among the other pieces in the collection is a chunky floor lamp crafted from the discarded sandstone, which was fitted with a large, orb-like bulb.

In der Elst also created another coarse coffee table and a bench, as well as a squat vase and an angular chair that was made to playfully resemble a dark-coloured tombstone.

The designer is showcasing reworked versions of older products from his Soft Works collection alongside his stone-based creations.

His 2022 "pasta chair" – geometric seating with protruding latex tubes that look like jumbo tubes of bucatini – was recreated in black, rather than its original blue.

In der Elst's Aluskin Sofa was also present at the fair – a revised version of a previous foam armchair. The sofa was created from polyurethane foam, an industrial byproduct salvaged from a mattress factory.

The work is part of the design week's annual group exhibition Älvsjö Gård, a platform created to showcase experimental pieces that straddle one-off pieces and industrial design.

Elsewhere in Stockholm, Dezeen's deputy editor Cajsa Carlson spoke to Iittala's creative director Janni Vepsäläinen about her vision for the renowned Finnish brand, while design studio Form Us With Love invited architects and interior designers to test out an experimental pop-up workspace called Testing Grounds.

Stockholm Design Week takes place in Stockholm from 5-11 February. See Dezeen Events Guide's Stockholm Design Week 2024 guide for information about exhibitions and events taking place throughout the week.

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A slide that doubles as a bookshelf in a South Korean house and a swooping mirrored tunnel that descends the four levels of a New York apartment feature in our latest lookbook of homes with interior slides.

Typically designed for children, slides are smooth, sloped structures commonly found in playgrounds.

Architects and interior designers have borrowed the concept and placed the structures in homes to either replace or complement traditional staircases and incorporate a sense of fun for children and adults alike.

Here, we have collected eight projects on Dezeen that demonstrate ways in which slides can transform a living space.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring chequerboard flooring, immersive saunas and contemporary homes where ruins reveal layers of the past.

Walker, Canada, by Reflect Architecture

Local studio Reflect Architecture renovated this Toronto family house, called Walker, by twisting a sky-blue tunnelled slide through its centre.

Connecting the basement level to the ground floor, the slide was inserted to incorporate natural light and add a sense of playfulness to the lower level.

Find out more about Walker ›

Serra Residence, Brazil, by Marcelo Couto and Rodrigo Oliveira

This cantilevered Brazilian house in Fazenda da Grama, São Paulo, features two staircases with smooth wooden slides built adjacent to their steps.

The back-lit slides drop down to the home's underground level.

Find out more about Serra Residence ›

Kyiv apartment, Ukraine, by KI Design Studio

KI Design Studio added an undulating silver slide to this Kyiv apartment, designed to encourage fun in an otherwise conventional home.

Functioning as a replacement staircase, the slide descends from the top storey and winds through the neutral-hued kitchen, finishing in the living room.

Find out more about this Kyiv apartment ›

House in Nakameguro, Japan, by Level Architects

House in Nakameguro is a three-storey dwelling in Tokyo with a staircase that wraps it on one side and a slide that encircles the other.

The occupants can decide which way to descend the home, designed by Level Architects to include bright and smooth interiors that create intimate nooks.

Find out more about House in Nakameguro ›

Skyhouse by David Hotson and Ghislaine Viñas

Architect David Hotson and interior designer Ghislaine Viñas collaborated to design Skyhouse – a New York apartment through which a stainless steel slide snakes and plummets four storeys.

The structure is characterised by a striking mirrored surface, which creates a distinctive tubular sculpture as well as a mode of travelling downstairs.

Find out more about Skyhouse ›

Townhouse B14, Germany, by XTH-Berlin

Sloping pinewood floors act as slides in this angular Berlin townhouse designed by architecture studio XTH-Berlin.

Positioned next to chunky steps, the slides connect staggered floors throughout the building, which contains bedrooms housed in slanted concrete volumes on the first and third levels.

Find out more about Townhouse B14 ›

Panorama House, South Korea, by Moon Hoon

Seoul studio Moon Hoon slotted a timber slide into a combined staircase and bookshelf in this South Korean home.

Designed for a family in North Chungcheong Province, the different levels of Panorama House are dedicated to different residents. The ground floor belongs to the children and includes the playful wooden structure.

Find out more about Panorama House ›

MaHouse, France, by The Very Many

This narrow house in Strasbourg, France, is made up of stacked, slightly rotated irregular volumes.

Inside, New York studio The Very Many inserted a subtle, slim slide along the edge of the staircase between the ground and middle level to offer children an alternative way of moving around the property, which is characterised by a series of translucent glass walls.

Find out more about MaHouse ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring chequerboard flooring, immersive saunas and contemporary homes where ruins reveal layers of the past.

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London studio Oskar Kohnen has outfitted a Mayfair office with mid-century modern furniture and contemporary pieces, which "are so well curated that no one would ever dare to throw them away".

Spread across three floors, the office is housed within a rectilinear building in London's Mayfair neighbourhood with a gridded facade.

"It has a townhouse feeling," studio founder Oskar Kohnen told Dezeen of the office, which he designed for developer Crosstree Real Estate.

At its ground level, Kohnen clad the entrance hall with dark-stained wooden panels and added sconce lights to subtly illuminate the space.

An amorphous Djinn sofa, created by industrial designer Olivier Mourge in 1965, was placed in one corner.

"We worked a lot with vintage furniture, and as for the new pieces we sourced, we hope they are so well curated that no one would ever dare to throw them away," said Kohnen.

"Warm and inviting" interiors characterise a living room-style space on the first floor, which was created in direct contrast to the industrial appearance of the exterior.

An L-shaped velvet and stainless-steel sofa finished in a burnt orange hue was positioned next to white-stained brise soleil screens and a bright resin coffee table.

"The social spaces have an earthy and calm colour palette – yet they are lush and dramatic," explained Kohnen.

A pair of low-slung 1955 Lina armchairs by architect Gianfranco Frattini also features in this space, while floor-to-ceiling glazing opens onto a residential-style terrace punctuated by potted plants.

Similar tones and textures were used to dress the rest of the rooms on this level.

These spaces include a kitchen with contemporary terrazzo worktops and a meeting room with a red gridded ceiling that was set against cream-coloured panels and modernist black chairs.

The second floor holds the main office, complete with rows of timber desks and an additional meeting room-library space characterised by the same reddish hues as the low-lit entrance hall.

"The idea was to create an office space that had soul to it and would offer a more personal take on a work environment, rather than the usual corporate spaces we are so familiar with in London," Kohen concluded.

Founded in 2011, Kohnen's eponymous studio has completed a range of interior projects, including a mint-green eyewear store in Berlin and a pink-tinged paint shop in southwest London.

The photography is by Salva Lopez.

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The Sims has been allowing players to act out their architecture and interior design fantasies for more than two decades. Jane Englefield finds out how the makers of the iconic life-simulation video game keep up with shifting trends.

"People laugh when I mention playing The Sims, but it was hugely significant in terms of spatial planning and was a key part of how and why I have ended up in the line of interior design work that I have," interiors stylist and editor Rory Robertson told Dezeen.

"The Sims offered people the opportunity to get a feel for design," he reflected. "You could be as extravagant and outrageous, or as briefed and restricted as you liked."

Created in 2000 by American game designer Will Wright, The Sims is a video game where players make human characters – or "sims" – and build their virtual houses and lives from scratch, catering to their needs and desires.

With four iterations of the main game and dozens of themed expansion packs focussing on topics such as university, parenthood and cottage living, The Sims is one of the best-selling video-game franchises of all time.

"It's really accessible"

Architecture and interior design has been a major part of The Sims experience from the very beginning.

Having previously created the city-building game SimCity in 1989 – which itself has been credited with inspiring a generation of urban planners – Wright was originally motivated to develop The Sims after losing his home in the Oakland firestorm of 1991 in California.

In fact, early designs were for an architecture game, with the shift to focus on people a relatively late addition to the concept, according to one of the game's first art directors, Charles London.

Design remained a core part of the offering, however, and the interface features tools that allow players to instantly build structures and decorate and furnish them from an extensive inventory of items.

"It's really accessible, so I think a lot of people get into it without even realising that they're playing with architecture and playing with space," said video-games expert and historian Holly Nielsen.

"While it was like catnip for design budding minds, it was also just a wonderful opportunity for procrastination and frivolity for people who aren't particularly confident or tuned in to interiors or architecture," echoed Robertson.

Since the original The Sims, a broad set of options has been available for players to suit their tastes and imaginations.

Possibilities have ranged from minimalist bungalows filled with neutral furniture to more outlandish dwellings, such as castles defined by Dalmatian-print wallpaper or hot tubs parked in the middle of multiple living rooms.

"We'll take any source"

The team behind these possibilities described how they ensure that the architecture and interior design options stay feeling fresh and contemporary with each new game in the series.

"Since we're a game about real life, anytime we step outside our door we have inspiration by just looking at what's in our immediate environment," game designer Jessica Croft told Dezeen.

Art director Mike O'Connor added that he and his team scour the real world and the web for up-to-date references.

"We'll take any source," he said. "We're looking for patterns. If we start to see round furniture, or bouclé, or whatever the trend is, [we ask] has it already gone?"

"The internet doesn't scrub old ideas. So you know, it's seeing if there's a trend, is it sticking, does it apply to what we're doing now?"

Furniture and appliances within the game are regularly revised over time to reflect cultural and technological progression in the real world, Croft explained.

"In Sims 2 [released in 2004] I would not be surprised if there was a landline phone – and there definitely isn't a landline phone in my own house, or Sims 4," she said.

"Even things like VR [virtual reality] didn't really exist back in The Sims 2 days, so things like VR consoles, computers – we just added dual-monitor computers, and LEDs are now in most households," she continued.

That in turn sees the team take a surprisingly deep dive into how interiors are changing, O'Connor acknowledged.

"Over the life of this game, you see an evolution," he said. "Electronics are probably the biggest category [of change]. Even just how people use TVs, how they place them, has changed."

The idea, says Croft, is to ensure that The Sims players feel a close connection to the world they are building for their sims.

"The most fun thing for me is being able to allow players to craft stories that are relatable to them," she said. "So, looking for opportunities to make players feel seen."

"An element of freedom and fantasy-building"

But, as Nielsen points out, there is an additional aspect to the game's architecture and design possibilities that is central to its appeal.

"In one sense, it's reflective of society, but in another way, it's aspirational," she said.

"There's an element of freedom and fantasy-building to playing The Sims," she continued. "Homeownership is a thing that a lot of us will not get to do."

As in real life, everything you build or buy in The Sims has a cost.

However, unlike in real life, punching "motherlode" into The Sims cheat-code bar will immediately add a healthy 50,000 simoleons to your sim's bank account, putting that luxury sofa easily within reach.

That possibility remains central to Robertson's nostalgia for playing The Sims as a young would-be interior designer.

"Once you double-clicked The Sims graphic on your Microsoft desktop, a multi-roomed mansion cost nothing to design," he said.

This aspirational element has become an increasingly large part of The Sims' commercial model over the years.

The Sims 4, as an example, is accompanied by 19 purchasable "Stuff Packs" that expand the options of items available to buy, including "Perfect Patio", "Cool Kitchen" and one based on the products of Milan fashion label Moschino.

And the latest of the more extensive expansion packs is For Rent, which allows players to build rental houses where some sims are landlords and others are tenants.

Within the game, landlords encounter various true-to-life issues, including the potential for toxic mould build-up in their properties – although, unlike in the real world, the mould feature can be toggled on and off.

Inclusivity has also become an increasing focus of The Sims, with integral features now including options to choose sims' sexual orientation, for instance.

For Nielsen, that traces back to a significant foundational element of the game's widespread appeal – as well as being one of the reasons it has had such strong interior-design influence.

"It didn't feel like it was aiming for anyone," she explained. "One of the things that people bring up a lot is that it has a very female player base."

"For me, it was a big turning point – it was getting to create the spaces but also play around with the people inside them. It felt like a socially acceptable way to play dollhouses."

The images are courtesy of Electronic Arts.

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Dutch studio AMO emphasised the "paradoxical dichotomy" between office interiors and the natural world for the Prada Autumn Winter 2024 menswear show, which featured a plexiglass runway above grass and streams.

AMO, the research and creative studio of architecture office OMA, created the scenography for the 14 January show at the Rem Koolhaas-designed Fondazione Prada during Milan Fashion Week.

The arts centre's Deposito space was covered with forest-like swathes of real grass interspersed with rocks, pebbles, leaves and running water to emulate natural streams.

In stark contrast, AMO constructed a clear plexiglass runway mounted onto a gridded structure that was positioned above the unmanicured grass.

"The studio created a set design juxtaposing an office interior with a natural landscape," said Prada, which is headquartered in Milan.

Uniform rows of familiar black swivel chairs snaked across the geometric runway, providing seating for the guests and creating pathways for the models.

Embedded in the ceiling, office-style strip lighting was reflected across the plexiglass in rigid patterns, while mist was released into the space for an atmospheric effect.

On the edges of the set, AMO installed walls formed from recognisably corporate blue panels, often found in office environments.

One section, where guests entered the runway, featured whole booths created with the panels, complete with large desks, swivel chairs and desktop computers emblazoned with the Prada logo on their otherwise blank screens.

Presented by the fashion house's co-creative directors, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, the show's looks echoed the contrasting scenography.

Classic suit-and-tie pairings finished in neutral textiles were combined with more vibrant pieces such as swimming caps and goggle-like sunglasses crafted as a nod to the outdoors.

"This collection is about something basic – the emotional instinct to remain attached to something we know, the cycles of nature," said Prada.

"There is a simple assertion, of a deep and essential human need to connect with the world around us," continued the brand.

"Demonstrating the paradoxical dichotomy between two coexisting worlds [offices and nature], this show explores fundamental truths of humanity, our natural instincts and our emotional needs."

Longtime-collaborators AMO and Prada have been creating catwalks together at Fondazione Prada since 2004, including the brand's previous Autumn Winter menswear show, which took place below a retractable ceiling that moved to reveal a series of art deco chandeliers.

More recently, the studio also designed the scenography for Prada's Spring Summer 2024 menswear show – an aluminium-clad space with slime falling from the ceiling to form liquid walls.

The photography and video are courtesy of Prada.

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Local architecture studio RA! took cues from Latin American art deco design when creating the tiny interior of Los Alexis, a small taqueria in Mexico City's Roma Norte neighbourhood.

Los Alexis is a taco eatery – or taqueria – in Roma, a famed district in Mexico City, which features examples of art deco architecture.

RA! drew on the "vibrant personality" of the area when designing the single 15-square-metre room restaurant, housed within a former beer depository.

"One of the most important requests of our client was for this tiny space to shine among the rest of the retail premises on the street," said studio co-founder and designer Pedro Ramírez de Aguilar.

RA! clad the walls and floors in a distinctive mosaic of broken ceramic tiles with green joints as an ode to Barcelona, where chef Alexis Ayala spent time training, the designer told Dezeen.

A curved bar finished in slabs of ribbed green material fronts the open kitchen, which is positioned on the right of the small open space.

Utilitarian materials, including the tiles, were chosen throughout the restaurant for their "endurance and fast cleaning processes".

White-painted steel breakfast-style stools line the bar, which has a top made of steel – selected for its resistance to grease, according to Ramírez de Aguilar.

The studio decided to preserve the space's original, peeling ceiling "to create a wider contrast [within the eatery] and to remember the old premises".

Informal seating lines the pavement just outside of the taqueria where customers can eat and socialise.

Other than a small bathroom at the back of Los Alexis, the one-room restaurant is purposefully defined by its bar and open kitchen.

"Typical 'changarros' [small shops] in Mexico City are all about the conversation with the cookers, so we tried to have this interaction between people as a main objective," explained Ramírez de Aguilar.

Founded in 2017, RA! previously created the interiors for a restaurant in the city's Polanco neighbourhood with a bar counter shaped like an inverted ziggurat.

DOT Coffee Station is another hole-in-the-wall cafe in Kyiv, Ukraine, which YOD Group designed with a similar floor-to-ceiling mosaic of tiles.

The photography is courtesy of RA!

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As Zaha Hadid Architects' The Henderson skyscraper nears completion on the world's most expensive site in Hong Kong, we take a look at 10 other skyscrapers in the works by the studio.

Founded by the late Zaha Hadid in 1980, the studio has designed many well-known buildings ranging from the MAXXI in Rome to London's Aquatic Centre.

Zaha Hadid Architects' portfolio already includes several distinctive skyscrapers around the world, such as One Thousand Museum in Miami and Morpheus hotel in Macau, with many more on the way.

Read on for 10 upcoming skyscrapers by the studio.

The Henderson office, Hong Kong

Zaha Hadid Architects' 36-storey The Henderson in Hong Kong, which has a curved glass facade informed by the buds of an orchid, was recently photographed nearing completion.

The site at 2 Murray Road was widely reported as the world's most expensive plot when it was purchased for the project in 2017.

Find out more about The Henderson office ›

OPPO headquarters, Shenzhen, China

Slated to be completed by 2025, the OPPO Shenzhen headquarters will consist of four interconnected towers designed to house open-plan offices for the Chinese smartphone manufacturer.

Each tower will be characterised by sinuous glass forms that taper inwards toward ground level, despite their varying heights.

Find out more about OPPO headquarters ›

Tower C, Shenzhen, China

Tower C is another skyscraper planned for Shenzhen, which Zaha Hadid Architects designed as a pair of supertalls linked by a multi-storey podium of curved green terraces and aquaponic gardens.

Expected to be finished by 2027, the mixed-use development will reach nearly 400 metres in height and become one of the city's tallest buildings.

Find out more about Tower C ›

Mercury Tower, Paceville, Malta

Currently under construction, Mercury Tower has been the tallest building in Malta since it topped out in 2020.

Reaching 122 metres in height, the skyscraper features a distinctive twist in its structure, which divides the building's residential apartments and hotel rooms.

Find out more about Mercury Tower ›

Discovery Tower, Sarawat Mountains, Saudi Arabia

Discovery Tower is a shard-shaped crystalline skyscraper, which is planned for the Trojena ski resort as part of Neom in Saudi Arabia.

Visuals recently released by Neom show a supertall structure defined by numerous columns that taper toward the peak and will house observation decks and restaurants.

Find out more about Discovery Tower ›

Vauxhall Cross Island towers, London, UK

Construction has reportedly begun on Vauxhall Cross Island towers – a duo of buildings in south London that will be connected by a shared podium and feature 53 and 42 storeys respectively.

Plans for the mixed-use development previously caused a stir when opponents of the scheme were angered by the heights originally proposed for the towers.

Find out more about Vauxhall Cross Island towers ›

Bora Residential Tower, Mexico City, Mexico

Located in the Santa Fe business district in Mexico City, the Bora Residential Tower is currently being constructed with a completion date yet to be confirmed.

When complete, the six-tower building will be over 50-storeys tall, making it the "highest residential tower" in the city, according to Zaha Hadid Architects.

Find out more about The Bora Residential Tower ›

Daxia Tower, Xi'an, China

Planned for China's Xi'an business district, Daxia Tower will reach 210 metres tall when complete.

The mixed-use building will feature a curved form and planted interior terraces that "echo mountainside waterfalls", according to the tower's architects.

Find out more about Daxia Tower ›

The Mayfair, Melbourne, Australia

The Mayfair is an upcoming tower in Melbourne with a completion date yet to be confirmed.

The 64-metre-high apartment block will be defined by facades covered in angular balconies and a roof crowned by a pair of swimming pools.

Find out more about The Mayfair ›

CECEP Shanghai Campus, Shanghai, China

Developed for Chinese renewable energy company CECEP, this mixed-use building will utilise renewable energy technologies and recycled materials when constructed, according to its architects.

Planned for north-east Shanghai beside the Huangpu River, the campus will consist of three interlinked towers when complete.

Find out more about CECEP Shanghai Campus ›

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Electronics brand LG has unveiled the Signature OLED T, a television with a transparent screen that was on display at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

LG has described the Signature OLED T as "the world's first wireless transparent OLED TV".

The television features a 77-inch OLED screen, which stands for organic light-emitting diode and is a technology used in lighting. It facilitates digital displays on products including televisions and smartphones.

Thanks to its transparency, the TV does not need to be placed against the wall like a traditional screen.

Rather, the Signature OLED T can be used as a subtle room divider while switched off, or positioned against a window without compromising its view.

"Practically invisible when turned off, the TV blends into the environment and frees users from the long-standing problem of what to do with the 'big black screen'," said the brand.

The model uses wireless video and audio transmission technology, which is facilitated by LG's Zero Connect Box.

This box sends 4K images and sounds to the TV, allowing users more freedom to place the model anywhere without having to depend on electrical outlets, according to LG.

An artificial intelligence (AI) processor powers the screen's picture quality. Users can pivot between two settings – transparent and opaque – depending on how they would like content to appear on the screen.

"Content displayed on the transparent screen appears to float in the air, yet simultaneously fuses with the surrounding space to create a compelling and atmospheric visual effect," said LG.

Custom widgets were also integrated into the design, including an "info-ticker" on the lower part of the screen that displays information such as weather updates and news alerts, as well as the option to transform the entire screen into an animated fish tank.

The Signature OLED T will be available as a standalone TV or in against-the-wall and wall-mounted options.

Held in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics Show is an annual trade show of the latest technology.

This year, LG is also showcasing a two-legged house robot on wheels that uses AI to operate. Previous editions of the event have seen brands present products ranging from a voice-absorbing facemask by PriestmanGoode to a Hyundai concept for a flying car.

The images are courtesy of LG.

CES 2024 takes place at various locations in Las Vegas from 9 to 12 January 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Industrial designer Mary Lempres has created a bio-cement structure developed to mimic naturally occurring oyster reefs that tackle coastal flooding, filter seawater and promote biodiversity.

Called Reef Rocket, the structure comprises a duo of bio-cement modules with ridged surfaces that can be stacked in two directions and create a rocket-like shape when assembled.

Norwegian-American designer Lempres drew on biomimicry for the project, a practice that looks to nature to solve human design challenges.

The ridged modules were created to be placed underwater and emulate coastal oyster reefs, which naturally filter algae from seawater as well as attract and provide shelter for other aquatic organisms.

Oyster reefs also dissipate wave energy, mitigate storm surges and manage eroding coastlines, explained the designer.

Lempres collaborated with bio-geotechnical specialist Ahmed Miftah to develop a method for growing plant-derived cement that makes up the modules, which she described as "similar to the irrigation systems required for growing a plant".

The pair poured a bio-based, non-toxic solution containing a crude extract from globally grown plants over crushed aggregate.

Sourced in New York City, the aggregate was created from crushed glass and oyster shells salvaged from local restaurants and New York Harbour.

"The packed substrate grows similarly to a plant," Lempres told Dezeen.

Saturated for three to nine days, the substance becomes natural concrete after the extracted biocatalyst causes minerals to form "mineral bridges" between the glass and shell waste.

"The resulting product is water-resistant, durable and comparable with standard concrete containing the same amount of aggregate," explained the designer.

"It can be grown in any environment without heat or otherwise burning fossil fuels and is derived from waste products, making it an affordable and scalable alternative to cement," she continued.

"Bio-concrete is chemically identical to the material oysters produce to grow their reefs. The key difference is the bio-concrete we've developed grows in just several days, while oyster reefs take millennia to grow."

This process closely mimics the natural processes that occur when oyster shells and coral reefs are grown, according to the designer.

"I was inspired by the ability of this reef-growing material to withstand extreme wave energy and corrosive saltwater," she said.

When creating the modules, Lempres and her team made "hundreds" of prototypes.

Eventually, they settled on prefabricated moulds, which the bio-cement can be packed into and set – "like sand" – without the need for heat or chemicals.

Reef Rocket was deliberately developed to be small in size, lightweight and easy to assemble, making the design accessible to as many people as possible, according to the designer.

"Nature has the incredible ability to grow intricate and durable material, like shells and coral, without polluting its surrounding environment," said Lempres.

"Reef Rocket harnesses the natural process of growing durable minerals to re-grow vital reef structures, benefiting humans and our ecology from the worsening effects of climate change," she added.

"This paves the way for a future where hard and durable material can be grown like a crop, regenerating waste rather than polluting our environment."

Previously, US design workshop Objects and Ideograms conducted a research project that involves 3D printing with calcium carbonate to create sustainable underwater "houses" for coral reefs and marine life to grow. Chinese materials company Yi Design developed a porous brick made from recycled ceramic waste that could be used to prevent flooding in urban areas.

The photography is courtesy of Mary Lempres. 

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Electronics brand LG has unveiled a two-legged artificial intelligence robot on wheels to help around the house, which will be presented at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show.

Designed as "an all-round home manager and companion rolled into one", the AI-powered robot will do household tasks and verbally interact with users, according to LG.

"The smart home AI agent boasts robotic, AI and multi-modal technologies that enable it to move, learn, comprehend and engage in complex conversations," said the brand.

The white robot has a rounded body displaying simple animated eyes on a built-in screen and two legs with articulated joints, which are attached to wheels.

Its multi-modal technology combines voice and image recognition as well as natural language processing, while the robot can also connect with and control smart home appliances and household IoT devices.

Thanks to its integrated camera, speaker and various sensors, the robot can gather and relay real-time environmental data such as indoor air quality, temperature and humidity.

Continuously learning through AI, the robot analyses this data to provide its users with up-to-date information about their homes, according to the brand.

Among the robot's features is the ability to monitor pets or unattended children, act as a home security guard and conserve energy by connecting with a smart outlet and turning off unnecessary devices around the house.

The robot can also detect its users' emotions by analysing their voice and facial expressions after greeting them by the front door.

Selecting music to suit users' moods, assisting with transport and weather updates as well as setting personal reminders are all part of the robot's interpersonal skills, explained LG.

"LG's smart life solution enhances users' daily lives and showcases the company's commitment to realising its 'zero labour home' vision," said the brand.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is an annual technology trade show held in January in Las Vegas, where brands showcase new products.

Last year's CES featured a range of technologies – from a pram that uses AI to push and rock itself to an electric car by Hyundai with wheels that can rotate up to 90 degrees so that it can "crab" drive sideways.

The images are courtesy of LG.

CES 2024 takes place at various locations in Las Vegas from 9 to 12 January 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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A curvilinear thatched hut has been paired with terracotta-hued tiles at the Amsterdam store for homeware brand Polspotten, which was designed by local studio Space Projects.

The studio created the store to straddle a shop and an office for Polspotten, a furniture and home accessories brand headquartered in the Dutch capital.

Characterised by bold angles and arches, the outlet features distinctive terracotta-coloured walls and flooring that nod to traditional pots, Space Projects founder Pepijn Smit told Dezeen.

"The terracotta-inspired colours and materials refer to the brand's first product, 'potten' – or pots," said Smit, alluding to the first Spanish pots imported by Erik Pol when he founded Polspotten in the Netherlands in 1986.

Located in Amsterdam's Jordaan neighbourhood, the store was arranged across a series of open-plan rooms, interconnected by individual geometric entryways.

Visitors enter at a triangular opening, which was cut away from gridded timber shelving lined with multicoloured pots that mimic totemic artefacts in a gallery.

The next space features a similar layout, as well as a plump cream sofa with rounded modules and sculptural pots stacked in a striking tower formation.

Travelling further through the store, molten-style candle holders and Polspotten furniture pieces were positioned next to chunky illuminated plinths, which exhibit amorphously shaped vases finished in various coral-like hues.

Accessed through a rectilinear, terracotta-tiled opening, the final space features a bulbous indoor hut covered in thatch and fitted with a light pink opening.

The hut provides a meeting space for colleagues, according to the studio founder.

"The thatch, as a natural material, absorbs sound as well," explained Smit.

Next to the hut, Space Projects created an acoustic wall illustrated with "hieroglyphics" of Polspotten products, which references the gallery-like theme that runs throughout the outlet.

"The store was inspired by Polspotten's use of traditional techniques combined with a collage of their reinterpreted archetypes," said Smit.

Elsewhere in Amsterdam, Dutch practice Studio RAP used 3D printing and algorithmic design to create a "wave-like" facade for a boutique store while interior designer Linda Bergroth created the interiors for the city's Cover Story paint shop to streamline the redecorating process for customers.

The photography is by Kasia Gatkowska.

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Schiaparelli gowns with faux taxidermied animal heads and a microscopic Louis Vuitton handbag feature in this year's top 10 fashion moments, which continues our 2023 review.

In an era that rewards viral trends and prominent brand collaborations, designers have continued to push the boundaries of fashion this year.

From striking clothing and footwear to memorable bags and store installations, here are Dezeen's top 10 fashion moments of 2023:

Plasticine clothes by JW Anderson

British fashion house JW Anderson presented hoodies and tailored shorts crafted entirely out of plasticine as part of its Spring Summer 2024 womenswear show during London Fashion Week.

Sculpted and hardened into rigid but wearable forms, the clay clothes were designed to put "playfulness in pragmatism and pragmatism in playfulness", according to the brand.

Find out more about these clothes ›

Microscopic Louis Vuitton handbag by MSCHF

Art collective MSCHF caused a stir by unveiling a 3D-printed Louis Vuitton bag that it called "smaller than a grain of salt", created to critique luxury fashion.

Made of neon-green photopolymer resin, the miniature bag was designed to question the functionality of increasingly small handbags produced by the fashion industry.

Find out more about this bag ›

Faux taxidermied gowns by Schiaparelli 

French fashion house Schiaparelli kicked off Paris Couture Week with a collection defined by three gowns, which looked as if they had been taxidermied from the bodies of a lion, a snow leopard and a black wolf.

Despite their hyper-realistic appearance, the brand used hand-sculpted foam, silk faux fur, resin and wool to create the much-discussed hand-painted dresses.

Find out more about these gowns ›

Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton

To mark a capsule collection created in collaboration with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, Louis Vuitton positioned an oversized inflatable sculpture of Kusama atop its Champs-Élysées store in Paris.

Select Louis Vuitton outlets across the world featured similar installations including life-like and human-scale animatronics of the artist, which were placed in window displays with the robotic replica of Kusama repeatedly painting her trademark polka-dots onto the surface of the glass.

Find out more about these installations ›

BioSequin jumpsuit by Stella McCartney

This skin-tight all-in-one by Stella McCartney was embellished with hundreds of shimmering discs called BioSequins, an alternative to the petroleum-based plastic options on the market.

Developed by biomaterials company Radiant Matter, the iridescent sequins were created from renewable polymer cellulose extracted from trees, which naturally reflects light and makes the sequins sparkle.

Find out more about this jumpsuit ›

Big Red Boots (Yellow) by MSCHF and Crocs

MSCHF teamed up with footwear brand Crocs to design a pair of jumbo yellow boots punctuated by the recognisable holes that define Crocs' Classic Clogs.

Called Big Red Boots (Yellow), the shoes are the latest iteration of oversized boots by the art collective, which previously created a similar pair of red boots modelled on those worn by the manga character Astro Boy.

Find out more about Big Red Boots (Yellow) ›

Rotated gowns by Viktor & Rolf

Tulle ballgowns characterised by "surreal" sideways and upside-down silhouettes were presented by Dutch fashion house Viktor & Rolf as part of its Haute Couture Spring Summer 2023 show during Paris Couture Week.

Called Late Stage Capitalism Waltz, the 18 ballgowns were 3D-printed and designed to invert "a singular and narrowly defined 'fashion ideal'," according to the fashion house.

Find out more about these gowns ›

Rewild the Run by Kiki Grammatopoulos

Rewild the Run is a project by Central Saint Martins graduate Kiki Grammatopoulous, who created chunky, bristly outsoles for trainers that help to spread plants and seeds in cities.

Densely covered in tiny hooks that grip onto dirt and plant matter as the wearer treads, the shoes mimic the natural phenomenon of epizoochory, where seeds are transported by becoming attached to an animal's fur.

Find out more about Rewild the Run ›

Architecture-informed handbags by Frank Gehry for Louis Vuitton

Last week's design fair Art Basel Miami Beach saw Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry release 11 limited-edition handbags for Louis Vuitton.

Gehry designed a trio of sculptural bags, which he designed based on the form and finish of three of his best-known buildings – the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Find out more about these handbags ›

Uno bra by Katy Marks

Breast-cancer survivor and architect Katy Marks of Citizens Design Bureau created a collection of one-cup bras and bikinis after her own single mastectomy.

Designed for women to feel "confidently asymmetric", Uno fills a distinct gap in the market for one-cup bras that do not compromise on comfort or style, according to Marks.

Find out more about Uno bra ›

2023 review

This article is part of Dezeen's roundup of the biggest and best news and projects in architecture, design, interior design and technology from 2023.

The post Dezeen's top 10 fashion design moments of 2023 appeared first on Dezeen.

Scandinavian and Japanese influences come together at Studio Frantzén, a restaurant in London's Harrods department store designed by Joyn Studio.

Stockholm-based Joyn Studio created the sleek interiors for Studio Frantzén – the latest restaurant opened by chef Björn Frantzén.

The two-storey eatery is arranged across a main restaurant and bar on the fifth floor, as well as on an additional mezzanine and rooftop terrace on the sixth floor of Harrods.

In stark contrast to the department store's famed Edwardian baroque terracotta facade, Studio Frantzén features a contemporary palette that takes cues from both Scandinavian and Japanese design – a trend known as Japandi.

Visitors enter the restaurant at a domed reception area, which references Scandinavian churches and forest chapels, according to the studio.

The curved walls were clad with blocky cherry wood while illustrations of Nordic animals by Ragnar Persson decorate the ceiling and a Swedish wooden Dala horse was perched on the welcome desk.

"Undoubtedly, wood takes centre stage in this restaurant," Joyn Studio founding partner Ida Wanler told Dezeen.

The reception area gives way to a "glowing" bar composed of stacks of glass bricks bathed in amber light, which is mirrored by a ceiling of gridded copper.

Informed by traditional Japanese izakaya – a type of casual watering hole serving snacks – the large main restaurant is composed of two dining halls with bespoke geometric terrazzo and marble flooring.

One hall features an open kitchen and Joyn Studio-designed chunky seating booths and sofas carved out of end-grain wood. This was sourced from a large Hungarian pine tree, cut into cubes and then glued together piece by piece.

This double-height space is illuminated by a spindly oversized chandelier by Swedish studio Front.

The other dining hall, tucked around the corner and connected to a wine cellar, follows the same geometry as the bar.

Sliding timber doors and a gridded wooden ceiling are interrupted by ultramarine benches in booths and delicate, ribbed paper lampshades.

"To create a distinctive Nordic dining experience with Asian influences within a historic London building, we delved into the architectural and design legacy of the early 20th century," explained Wanler.

"Inspired by the journeys of our predecessors to the far east, where they assimilated influences and pioneered a style known as Swedish Grace, we embraced the resonances between traditional Japanese and Nordic architecture and craftsmanship," she continued.

On the upper floor, the mezzanine includes three intimate dining booths accentuated by a burnt orange carpet and a wall-mounted Psychedelic Mirror by designer Caia Leifsdotter.

Characterised by marble, rattan and wooden accents, the rooftop terrace offers expansive city views.

"Aiming to infuse creativity into the traditional luxury context of Harrods, we envisioned a relaxed and comfortable ambiance with sparks of richness created in unexpected ways," said Wanler.

In 2022, Joyn Studio was longlisted for the title of emerging interior design studio of the year at the Dezeen Awards.

Elsewhere at Harrods, fashion house Prada recently opened a green-hued pop-up cafe that referenced one of Milan's oldest patisseries.

The photography is by Åsa Liffner.

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Interior designer Tara Bernerd worked with local artisans when dressing the cavernous rooms at the Maroma hotel in Riviera Maya, Mexico, which were renovated to reflect hacienda-style living.

Housed within white stucco volumes arranged on a coastal plot between lush jungle and the Caribbean sea, the longstanding Maroma, A Belmond Hotel was renovated earlier this year but retained much of its traditional-style architecture.

Bernerd and a team of local artisans conceived the eclectic interiors to reflect the palapa-topped structures, creating a range of bespoke curved furniture and ornaments.

"The buildings themselves are organic in shape and form and were originally positioned in response to the sacred Mayan geometry," she told Dezeen.

"We sought to retain and enhance the beauty of the hotel's original character."

Among the custom pieces are over 700,000 tiles hand-painted and crafted by ceramicist José Noé Suro using clay from Mexico's Jalisco region.

The tiles cover the floors in all of the 72 guest rooms, which are characterised by rattan wardrobes and amorphous timber furniture pieces – 80 per cent of which were hand-carved.

Artisan Max Kublailan blew bulbous glass sconce lights, which feature throughout the rooms and are reminiscent of glowing gemstones.

"It was a joy working with the local artisans who brought our designs to life and the process was more like a conversation between artisan and designer, with each inspiring and on occasion challenging the other," reflected Bernerd.

The entrance to each guest room also features individual ceramic, painted signs informed by traditional Lotería cards, which are used to play a similar game to bingo in Mexico.

"We built up the layers of design within the spaces, with rich pops of colour being brought in through the tiled or mosaic floors, the use of decorative tiles in the walls and dado rail as well as cushions and fabrics," explained Bernerd.

Maroma's two restaurants follow a similar design, with accents such as rattan pendant lights and tables featuring textured legs that give the appearance of tree trunks.

An open kitchen clad entirely in caramel-hued glazed ceramic tiles was tucked into a corner of the Woodend eatery while Casa Mayor includes clusters of hand-painted plant pots.

Throughout the hotel, cavernous alcoves were also dressed with custom interiors made up of stone, clay, wood and natural fibres.

"Location and layout were key and I am especially proud of how we have managed to reimagine previously under-utilised areas and have created a balance between unique, dramatic spaces and cosier, slightly hidden areas," said Bernerd.

Traditional Yucatán doors with dense timber frames and chandeliers made from clusters of seashells were chosen to respond to Maroma's setting.

The hotel's central swimming pool was renovated with Sukabumi turquoise tiles handmade from volcanic stone to emulate the cenotes – water-filled sinkholes formed by the collapse of limestone – found in the Yucatán Peninsula.

"In essence, we wanted to create something that was effortlessly serene and had the feeling of a chic home," said the designer.

"So we also drew inspiration from traditional hacienda-style living to create a relaxed, almost residential vibe throughout the resort and evoke a sense of connection, unity and flow between all of the public area buildings," she concluded.

The British designer is the founder of the London-based architecture and interiors office Tara Bernerd & Partners.

Elsewhere in Mexico, local firms Productora and Esrawe Studio designed a San Miguel de Allende hotel with planes of green tile. Architect Alberto Kalach added a series of vaulted, brick arches to a resort in Oaxaca.

The photography is courtesy of Belmond. 

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Cake Architecture has renovated A Bar with Shapes for a Name, an east London cocktail bar featuring "utilitarian" interiors.

A Bar with Shapes for a Name owes its title to the yellow triangle, red square and blue circle that are emblazoned on its facade in a nod to the primary colours and understated geometry commonly associated with the Bauhaus.

When creating the bar's minimalist interiors, Dalston-based Cake Architecture took cues from the influential German art and design school that was established in 1919 and advocated for an emphasis on functionality, among other similar principles.

Located at 232 Kingsland Road in Hoxton, the cocktail bar was renovated by the studio to serve as a multipurpose venue.

Cake Architecture doubled the bar's capacity by adding a basement, which acts as a "kitchen-bar" room, and refurbished the ground floor's existing seating area as well as a classroom-style space that offers a location for rotating events or workshops.

"These spaces have specific functional requirements and we selected colours and materials to suit," studio director Hugh Scott Moncrieff told Dezeen.

Upon entering the bar, visitors are greeted by the main seating area or "showroom", which was designed to be warm and inviting.

Tall tubular chairs finished with neutral rattan were positioned around chunky geometric tables made from birch ply stained to a rich, reddish-brown hue.

The team also used the same timber to create the space's curving bar, which is illuminated by a squat, cordless table lamp by lighting brand Flos.

Opposite the bar, a glowing rectilinear light installation by photographer Steve Braiden was fitted to the wall underneath bench-style seating reminiscent of early Bauhaus furniture designs.

"We looked in particular at projects by the Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius," reflected Scott Moncrieff.

"Gropius is a master of this elegant zoning through the application of colour and form," he added.

Downstairs, the low-lit basement was created to house additional seating as well as "all of the crazy machinery they use to prepare the drinks," the designer said.

The basement is characterised by a bespoke central table by Cake Architecture and furniture designer Eddie Olin.

Consisting of a steel frame that "floats" over a central leg, the table was topped with a glass surface and its base was clad in phenolic-coated plywood to match the floor and walls.

"This new basement is predominantly a production space – so the palette reflects this with hardwearing, utilitarian and industrial materials," said Scott Moncrieff.

A thick, felt curtain in ultramarine adds a pop of colour to the otherwise pared-back space.

With its pale blue walls and Valchromat-topped, steel-framed tables, the ground-floor "classroom" pays homage to the Bauhaus as an educational institution.

Brighter blue vinyl covers the floors while a sculptural lamp featuring red, yellow and blue circles echoes the bar's logo.

A tall blackboard and overhead strip lighting add to the classroom feel of the space, which is used for various group events.

Cake Architecture worked closely with the bar's founders Remy Savage and Paul Lougrat when creating the interiors, which were primarily informed by the duo's way of working.

"The team has a conceptually driven ethos drawn from the theory and practice of Bauhaus embedded in everything they are doing. We found that incredibly exciting," explained Scott Moncrieff.

"The Bauhaus phrase 'party, work, play' was pertinent to some early ideas and this carried through all our design discussions," noted the designer.

"The space enables these three things. Separately as individual functions and simultaneously as a representation of the overall atmosphere of a bar!"

Cake Architecture previously worked with interior designer Max Radford to create a curtain-wrapped speakeasy in London's Soho. The studio also designed a workspace for London agency Ask Us For Ideas in the same part of the city.

The photography is by Felix Speller. 

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Colour specialist Pantone has announced Peach Fuzz as its 2024 colour of the year, a subtle orangey hue that was chosen to express a yearning for community and cosiness during uncertain times.

Pantone 13-1023 Peach Fuzz was described by the Pantone Colour Institute as "softly nestled between pink and orange".

"Peach Fuzz is a compassionate and nurturing soft peach shade whose heartfelt kindness and all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body and soul," said the institute's vice president Laurie Pressman.

"At a time of turmoil in many aspects of our lives, the Pantone Colour of the Year 2024 expresses our need for nurturing, empathy and compassion as well as our imaginings and desire for a more peaceful future," she told Dezeen.

The warm and subtle shade was also chosen for its ability to "bring beauty to the digital world".

The Pantone Colour Institute is the trend-forecasting arm of the Pantone company. Since 1999, the institute has chosen an annual colour that it feels best represents both the current mood and looks towards the year ahead.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the programme, the gentle Peach Fuzz was based on a culmination of research conducted throughout 2023.

As well as "all areas of design", the institute team monitored the entertainment industry and films currently in production, as well as travelling art collections, emerging artists and the fashion world, Pressman said.

"Aspirational travel destinations, new lifestyles, playstyles, or enjoyable escapes and socio-economic conditions," are all considered, according to the vice president.

"Influences may also stem from new technologies, materials, textures and effects that impact colour, and also relevant social media platforms and even upcoming sporting events that capture worldwide attention," she added.

"Most of all, we keep our eyes and ears open to the hopes and aspirations that many people share with us and which help us to provide the symbolic colour that best represents those feelings," noted Pressman.

Pantone Viva Magenta 18-1750 was named colour of the year for 2023. According to the company, Peach Fuzz is a natural progression from last year's vibrant reddish-pink shade, which was described as "brave and fearless".

"Our colour of the year for 2024 reflects an evolution from last year's colour, rather than a sharp break," explained Pressman.

The vice president said that during a moment in time when a focus on our collective physical and mental wellbeing is paramount, Peach Fuzz encapsulates a need for a strong sense of community.

"It is a colour whose nurturing and cosy sensibility brings people together and elicits a feeling of tactility," she said.

"The Pantone Colour of the Year is a colour we see crossing all areas of design – a colour that serves as an expression of a mood and an attitude on the part of the consumers, a colour that will resonate around the world, a colour that reflects what people are looking for and what they feel they need that colour can hope to answer," concluded Pressman.

The colour Veri Peri won the title for 2022 – a Pantone hue that was informed by the rise of the metaverse as well as the impact of coronavirus lockdowns.

Shortly afterwards, interiors expert Michelle Ogundehin criticised the choice, claiming in a Dezeen opinion piece that "it's time to reconsider the whole colour of the year carnival".

The images are courtesy of Pantone unless otherwise stated.

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Continuing our 2023 review, we have selected 10 striking staircases published on Dezeen this year, from prefabricated plywood steps at a Cornish home to a colourful set for an opera in a Swiss theatre.

Architects and designers have continued to find clever solutions to travelling on foot from one storey to another in 2023 by creating staircases that are both beautiful and functional.

Ranging from the spectacular to the space-saving, here are Dezeen's top 10 staircases of 2023:

Ribbon House, India, by Studio Ardete

An angular balustrade with tilting black rails twists around sweeping concrete steps to form the staircase at Ribbon House, a home in Punjab with an equally sculptural exterior.

Architecture office Studio Ardete placed open living spaces next to the staircase on each floor to create lobby-like communal areas on the house's different levels.

Find out more about Ribbon House ›

House by the Sea, UK, by Of Architecture

House by the Sea is the home of a surfer-and-artist couple in Newquay, Cornwall, that was designed to be "simple, robust and utilitarian".

For the interior, London studio Of Architecture inserted prefabricated plywood steps leading to a cosy mezzanine level tucked beneath the dwelling's sloping roof.

Find out more about House by the Sea ›

Haus 1, Germany, by MVRDV and Hirschmüller Schindele Architekten

A bright yellow, zigzagging staircase juts out from the facade of the Haus 1 building in Berlin, creating the appearance of a striking crane and providing a beacon for approaching visitors.

Dutch studio MVRDV worked with local studio Hirschmüller Schindele Architekten to design Haus 1, which forms part of the city's Atelier Gardens redevelopment.

Find out more about Haus 1 ›

Luna House, Chile, by Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen

Brutalist-style spiral staircases connect the storeys of Luna House, an expansive geometric complex in Chile comprised of 12 individual buildings.

Chilean studio Pezo von Ellrichshausen designed the stairs and the majority of the structure in reinforced concrete, which is highly textured thanks to imprints left behind by wooden formwork.

Find out more about Luna House ›

Rigoletto set design, Switzerland, by Pierre Yovanovitch

French interior designer Pierre Yovanovitch embedded moving, curved walls within an undulating staircase that stretched the full width of the stage for a production of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto at Theatre Basel.

Bathed in coloured light, the flexible walls created a neutral set for the performers to balance the play's complex plot, according to the designer.

Find out more about this staircase ›

Hairpin House, USA, by Studio J Jih and Figure

This Boston house was renovated to revolve around a sculptural "hairpin" staircase informed by the twists and turns of mountain roads.

Designed by American firms Studio J Jih and Figure, the white oak stairs were created to increase the home's useable floor area by 20 per cent.

Find out more about Hairpin House ›

House in Pernek, Slovakia, by Ksa Studený

This home in the village of Pernek, Slovakia, was designed in the shape of an isosceles trapezoid, mirroring its longitudinal profile.

Architecture studio Ksa Studený positioned a chunky white staircase over a slanted slab of concrete to divide the interior space.

Find out more about this house ›

The Arbor House, Scotland, by Brown & Brown

A spiral staircase made from birch plywood winds into the dining area at The Arbor House by Brown & Brown, located in a conservation area in Aberdeen.

The studio assembled the stairs over three weeks, with timber treads individually cut and hand-layered to form a smooth curve.

Find out more about The Arbor House ›

SNN Clermont residential tower, India, by FADD Studio

Indian practice FADD Studio renovated two apartments within the SNN Clermont residential tower in Bangalore to create a fused multi-generational home.

The studio took cues from the curves of caterpillars when creating a swooping staircase, which connects the two flats and features deep red marble risers.

Find out more about these apartments ›

The Conran Shop, Japan, by Keiji Ashizawa 

Japanese designer Keiji Ashizawa created interiors for The Conran Shop in Tokyo to reflect the inside of someone's home.

The store's mezzanine floor is accessible by a minimalist geometric staircase featuring a handrail made from black paper cords.

Find out more about The Conran Shop ›

2023 review

This article is part of Dezeen's roundup of the biggest and best news and projects in architecture, design, interior design and technology from 2023.

The post Dezeen's top 10 staircases of 2023 appeared first on Dezeen.

Copenhagen-based Natural Material Studio has handcrafted swirly panels made of spent grain salvaged from beer production for a restaurant opened by the local ÅBEN brewery.

Led by designer Bonnie Hvillum, Natural Material Studio created the thick, semi-translucent and semi-rigid rectilinear panels out of surplus beer sourced from the ÅBEN brewery in Copenhagen.

The first step involved processing the 'mask' – the Danish term for small grains leftover from the beer production process.

Initially extracted as a wet pulp, the mask then needed to be dried.

"From the very start of the process, it was important for us not to force the waste material, so we let it dry naturally," explained Hvillum.

"It takes a few days, during which time the grains become lighter in colour – beige, or even a bit golden," she told Dezeen.

Once the grains had dried, the studio ground them into various particle sizes, which was crucial not only for the technical qualities of the final material but also its swirly appearance, according to Hvillum.

"The smaller particles, in powder form, colour the material. The coarser ones create the pattern and give a visual indication of what the material is made with," explained the designer, referring to the neutral-hued, beer bubble-style streaks that characterise the panels.

After treating the dried grains in this way, the team combined them with Procel – a home-compostable, protein-based bioplastic of natural softener and chalk developed by Natural Material Studio.

Hvillum and her team hand-cast the mask and Procel mixture into straight sheets of up to three metres in length, forming the final panels.

"This hand-crafted technique allows you to apply the mask almost like paint, while leaving space for the organic material motions that happen during the casting," acknowledged the designer.

"The balance between our human gestures and the material's own way of flowing is visible in the final sheets," she added.

Hvillum explained that the team had to take great care to ensure that the mask did not ferment during the natural drying process.

"We were dealing with something that had already been processed once in the beer production. We needed to be very careful around the reheating of the mask grains," said the designer. "If the mask fermented again, the panels would have never dried out."

The team also had to slim down the panels, which were originally meant to be five millimetres thick, to ensure that enough excess water could escape the mask while it was being cast.

"For us, it was a game of getting the panels to set as fast as possible without the mask starting to ferment," explained Hvillum.

"By casting thinner sheets we were able to contour the process more and extract the water from the material faster," added the designer.

The beer-based panels have been installed as decorative space dividers at Copenhagen Airport's ÅBEN restaurant and bar, which features interiors designed by local studio Spacon & X.

"We think the panels work well in the space because of their strength and expression, and really materialise the brewery's beers," said Hvillum.

The designer was named as winner of the inaugural Bentley Lighthouse Award at last week's Dezeen Awards for her studio's "uncompromising" work in bio-based material development.

Natural Material Studio's previous projects include reusable biomaterial gift wrap designed for fashion brand Calvin Klein last Christmas and crockery created out of powdered seafood seashells for Danish restaurant Noma.

The photography is by Jonas Pryner and Natural Material Studio. 

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Qatari art and culture institution Qatar Museums has announced the first edition of Design Doha, a biennial event that will feature over 100 designers from the Middle East and North African region.

The inaugural Design Doha will take place from 24 – 28 February 2024 across the existing Doha Design District in the Qatari capital's Msheireb neighbourhood.

Launched by Qatar Museum's chairperson Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the first edition of the biennial will showcase work from more than 100 designers from the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.

The participating designers' practices range from architecture, urbanism and landscape design to graphic design, textiles, woodwork, glass and ceramics.

The biennial will also feature work by international designers. Among these projects will be a site-specific commission by South Korea-based designer Choi Byung Hoon, which will be permanently exhibited at the National Museum of Qatar.

Dutch designer Joris Laarman will also create a piece called Doha Dragon, which will be installed in the Doha Design District.

According to the biennial organisers, the programme will be anchored by Arab Design Now, a "regional survey" of over 70 Arab designers that will be held at the design district's M7 centre.

The exhibition will be curated by Amman Design Week co-founder Rana Beiruti and will examine "how local and regional designers balance contemporary design with traditional methods derived from the region's heritage," according to Design Doha.

Various other exhibitions will take place at M7 during the biennial, including a display of 100 Arabic posters and another show focusing on a century of architecture in Doha.

As well as these exhibitions, Design Doha will bring together a series of talks and other events including the Design Doha Forum – a discussion platform created to "position Doha's design sector within a global context, with a particular emphasis on the design of inclusive and equitable cities".

The biennial will also publish two open calls for submissions for the event, "celebrating Arab creatives across disciplines," said its organisers.

One competition will invite emerging creatives from the MENA region to showcase their work, while the other will consider graphic design students, recent graduates and established graphic designers based in Qatar for the opportunity to work with UNESCO's Creative Cities Network to create the official logo for Doha Design City.

"Recognising that there are far too few platforms in our region for designers to present their work, the inauguration of Design Doha is a testament to the excellence and innovation of our region's design community," said Sheikha Al Mayassa.

During this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, Dutch architecture office UNStudio revealed its designs for the Dadu, Children's Museum of Qatar. French designer Philippe Starck unveiled plans for the Qatar Preparatory School, also commissioned by Qatar Museums, at the same event.

While the official event will run from 24 to 28 February, various exhibitions will be on display in Doha until 5 August.

The photography is courtesy of Design Doha.

Design Doha takes place from 24 to 28 February 2024 in Doha, Qatar. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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American interior designer Kelly Wearstler has paired a towering tree with speckled wood panelling and vintage furniture by Carlo Scarpa at the Ulla Johnson flagship store in West Hollywood.

Wearstler created the light-filled, two-storey shop as the flagship Los Angeles location for Johnson's eponymous clothing brand.

The duo worked together to envisage the sandy-hued interiors, which Wearstler described as "something that really speaks to LA".

"A priority for me and Ulla was to ensure that the showroom encapsulated the quintessence of the West Coast, firmly grounded in both the surrounding environment and local community," the designer told Dezeen.

Visitors enter the store via a "secret" patio garden lined with desert trees and shrubs rather than on Beverly Boulevard, where the original entrance was.

"This Californian idea of merging indoor and outdoor is evident from the moment you approach the store," said Wearstler, who explained that her designs tend to nod to the "natural world".

Inside, three interconnected, open-plan spaces on the ground floor were dressed with textured interiors that mirror Johnson's similarly rich collections, which hang from delicate clothing rails throughout the store.

Standalone jewellery display cases by Canadian artist Jeff Martin feature in the cavernous accessories space. Clad with peeling ribbons of grooved, caramel-coloured tiles, the cases echo floor-to-ceiling speckled burl wood panels.

The other living room-style area was designed as a sunroom with a pair of boxy 1970s Cornaro armchairs by modernist Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, as well as parquet flooring with Rosa Corallo stone inlay.

"Vintage pieces are infused into all of my projects and I enjoy experimenting with the dialogues created by placing these alongside contemporary commissions," explained Wearstler.

The largest of the three spaces, the mezzanine is illuminated by skylights and houses a double-height Brachychiton – a tree that also features in the designer's own Malibu home.

A chunky timber staircase leads to the upper level, where another lounge was finished in burnt orange and cream-coloured accents including a lumpy marbelised resin coffee table by LA-based designer Ross Hansen.

"We collaborated with a variety of local artisans to imbue the spirit of southern California into every facet of the project," said Wearstler.

Ribbed plaster walls and textured flooring line a fitting room close by, which was created to evoke a residential feeling, according to the designer.

"We wanted people to feel at home in the store so we prioritised warm and inviting elements," she said.

Another striking display cabinet made from "wavy" plywood, which was CNC-machined, evokes "a touch of 1970s California nostalgia".

The Ulla Johnson store is also used as a community space, which hosts rotating art installations, talks with guest speakers and other events.

Wearstler recently designed an eclectic cocktail bar at the Downtown LA Proper hotel, which she previously created the wider interiors for. Her portfolio also features a 1950s beachfront cottage renovation in Malibu.

The photography is by Adrian Gaut. 

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Architect Katy Marks of Citizens Design Bureau has created Uno, a one-cup bra for women who have undergone mastectomies, to empower and celebrate post-surgery bodies.

Breast cancer survivor Marks designed the Uno collection after her own single mastectomy when she found herself struggling to find bras that offered support to one breast without requiring prosthetics.

"When you have a mastectomy, you come home and suddenly your whole underwear drawer is obsolete – which is pretty depressing," said the architect, who is the founder of London-based office Citizens Design Bureau.

"I cut a lot of bras in half and started adding flat straps on the side, but then, as an architect, I felt compelled to start sketching," she told Dezeen.

Made to order in small batches to eliminate unnecessary waste, the Uno collection features asymmetrical bras and swimwear in a variety of colours that were designed not to compromise comfort or appearance.

Each piece features a single contoured cup and strap for either left or right breasts, supported by a wide band of fabric that is flat on one side and wraps around the chest.

The bras' thinner straps are adjustable while the bikini top can be tied into a decorative bow at the back.

When designing the collection, Marks explained that one of the main challenges was preventing the asymmetry from causing the bra to twist or sag on the body while avoiding tight elastic on the band that could irritate scar tissue and tender skin following radiotherapy.

Marks and her team trialled prototypes on a range of women "of different shapes and sizes" – many of whom are in active treatment – to find the best solution.

"The fact that there are no asymmetric mannequins was also an obstacle," acknowledged the architect.

The underwear is made from a combination of stretch satin and Lenzing modal – a material created from sawdust as a by-product of the European timber industry.

For the swimwear, the team chose Econyl, which is a fabric made of reconstituted ocean plastics.

"I was determined that Uno should not become part of a fast fashion, disposable, high-waste culture that is really destructive," said Marks.

"Lenzing modal is also sumptuously soft on the skin," she added.

Accessibility and affordability were also important priorities for Marks, who plans to publish open-source, simplified versions of some of the garment patterns.

"There is a growing movement of women wanting [asymmetrical bras] and doing it themselves in frustration at not being able to find anything," said the architect.

While Marks highlighted that women with cancer have countless different experiences and might understandably choose to undergo post-surgery breast reconstruction, 69 per cent of women who have mastectomies decide to remain flat after breast removal and deserve appropriate underwear, according to the architect.

"After my surgery, I felt real anxiety and hated that I felt compelled to wear these prosthetics, which felt to me like a kind of cartoonish costume I had to put on in order to feel like a real woman," she said.

"I have two young sons, and I felt really strongly that I didn't want them to see me feeling inhibited by my body and my scars. I wanted to show my kids that it's okay to look a bit different and that it doesn't change who I am."

Marks designed the Uno logo with a hyphen in front of the letter U, which is crowned with an illustrative dot to symbolise a breast.

"I saw the graphic opportunities of using the U and a hyphen in front of the word, to suggest a breast and a scar as a motif," she explained.

"So, it was a little bit of graphic fun, with a logo that I've painted many times, again playfully reflecting all the different shapes and sizes of breasts."

"Uno was about being confidently asymmetric, designing something that looks like a really beautiful thing to wear in its own right – which just happens to be asymmetric and have only one cup," reflected Marks.

"It is up to women themselves to decide what makes them feel feminine or not – nobody else. If you have confidence in who you are, you can find a way for it to shine through."

"Of course, it's easy to say and it took me a while to get there – but I stared at myself in the mirror and really felt that I had to learn to like myself," continued the architect.

"My experience is that many people don't even notice, but when they do, they accept it, and why shouldn't they? Why should we feel ashamed or try to hide our bodies after we have had cancer, as though the only way to be feminine is to be a 'normal woman'?

"We need to shift into the 21st century and recognise that the diversity of our bodies is the norm. The more we see it, the more we can be it."

Designer Lisa Marks previously made Algorithmic Lace, a bra for people who have had mastectomies, which features no underwire and can create the illusion of symmetry and curves. Sportswear brand Adidas recently collaborated with designer Stella McCartney to create a sports bra that allows its wearers to breastfeed more easily.

The photography is by Tara Darby.

Project credits:

Designer: Katy Marks
Models: Anna Versteeg, Claudia Manchanda, Gemma Fish and Jenny Skinner

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Bespoke scalloped edges and a Verner Panton S-Chair feature at the Pops holiday apartment in Kraków, which Furora Studio designed to be more playful than a permanent home.

Named Pops after lollipops, the dwelling was conceived by Diana Żurek and Gutek Girek of Polish firm Furora Studio.

"The project is a temporary apartment for anyone who wants to spend time in an attractive and very sugary interior," said the designers.

Spread across one level of a multi-storey building in central Kraków, the rental home includes an open-plan kitchen and living room.

This space was dressed with a velvety salmon-pink curtain, which stretches the length of one of two of the walls, and a central display cabinet finished in pistachio green and "crowned with frills".

Much of the furniture and other design elements were custom-made by Furora Studio and follow the same toy-like geometry as the cabinet – a combination of round and wavy motifs created in pastel pinks, greens and creams.

For example, a white and turquoise pendant light with scalloped edges was suspended above a circular dining table, while a ribbed half-moon alcove was created as a backdrop for the wall-mounted television.

"First and foremost, we aimed to find suitable forms," said Żurek, describing the studio's starting point for the project.

"Most of the elements were custom-made because we wanted to maintain the coherence of the interior while ensuring proper functional arrangement," she told Dezeen.

"Essentially, each element was its own small project. The selection of shapes, milling, small details, and perfecting the form – all of these were important considerations."

An olive-hued, L-shaped sofa was tucked into one corner of the living space and echoed by the kitchen splashback, finished in the same green colour.

Żurek described the apartment's double bedroom as "a pink box with a whimsical headboard and an abundance of pillows".

In one corner, a light green built-in desk was positioned in front of a sculptural Verner Panton chair.

The iconic S-shaped seating was originally designed by Panton in the early 1960s and recently influenced the furniture created for the Dreamhouse at the centre of the set design in this year's Barbie film.

"We rarely have the opportunity to be in interiors that evoke memories of earlier years, when as children, we had few responsibilities and sought joy and playfulness," noted Żurek.

"But this is not about returning to preschool or infantilising the space," stressed the designer.

"It's about positive energy. We sought solutions that would more literally create a colorful space, full of rounded patterns, light colours and a sense of relief," she added.

The bathroom is also awash with pattern, featuring a jumbo scalloped-edged cabinet and pink and brown terrazzo tiles.

Bulbous pendant lighting illuminates the space, which contains a walk-in shower.

Summarising the holiday apartment, Żurek called it a place to "have fun and cuddle".

"Certainly, there are many enthusiasts of such candy-like solutions, but this interior may not be for everyone, especially for long-term use, such as in the case of a private home," reflected the designer.

"For short-term rentals, I believe most people would be tempted to experience how it feels to be in such a vibrant interior," she added.

"These projects allow for the use of [design] solutions that might be somewhat tiring on a daily basis, but spending a brief moment in such a place opens us up to new experiences, feelings of peace and relaxation."

Elsewhere in Kraków, London-based office Studio Mills transformed an apartment at a converted monastery into a family home. Polish practice Projekt Praga created a bar with a self-service beer fountain within the taproom of a centuries-old brewery just outside of the city.

The photography is by ONI Studio. 

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