Interior Design, Interior Decorating Ideas, Home Improvement

Summer Highlights – Part One

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For all our readers that missed catching up to the novelty in interior design, A Designer Spot is back to bring you some of the season’s highlights. We were out there scouting the streets for intriguing projects, and we have come up with a neat selection that inspired us with novelty, ingenuity and eco-awareness.

The projects are listed chronologically, starting with the debutants of the summer. Enjoy!

Brooklyn Reclamation Store

Brooklyn residents and design affiliates can add a new location to their itinerary, as a new retail store opened the doors for a showcase of reclaimed, restored and repurposed objects. Williamsburg greeted the new location which complements the already renowned destination for vintage fashion, independent labels and unique boutiques.

The owners, the four Sofky brothers, have achieved their goal – a complete line of antique and custom made furnishings is carefully displayed throughout the store, being at the same time an interactive source of inspiration for every customer passing by. The store addresses not only top names in entertainment, interior/set design and restoration but also genuine vintage passionates seeking unique fixtures to spruce up their living space.

Andaz Hotel Awarded for Best Interior Design

This year’s Interior Design Competition, hosted by IIDA to reward outstanding interior design and encourage new ideas and techniques has declared Tony Chi & Associates Best in Competition. Their awarded Andaz 5^th Avenue Hotel sets the stage for an iconic reinvention of the ordinary hotel interior space.

The Andaz experience is thoroughly inspired by New York City. Within the limestone and brick façade of the historic 1916 building, acclaimed designer Tony Chi has created spaces inspired by the high ceilings and solidity of the city’s pre-war apartments and the moments that characterize the city in the minds of New Yorkers.

True to the Andaz brand, Andaz 5^th Avenue offers uncomplicated and attentive service by real people who are passionate about NYC – this translates into a unique experience within pure New York sophistication.

Visit the website below for more of IIDA 2011 competition winners.

http://www.iida.org/content.cfm/2011-idc-winners

Café Omonia Opens Bakery in Queens

Café Omonia has moved on to the next level – a tasty display of Greek pastries and breads designed by Bluarch Architecture in Astoria, NY. According to Bluarch, the design ‘celebrates indulgence’ while reflecting the delicacies provided.

The interior space is soft, warm and exciting, allowing the customers to experience the sweet delights while blending the flowing surfaces of the ceiling, walls and floors. The main feature of the interior space is a fluid cladding of chocolate brown Bisazza tiles which covers the ceiling and the side walls to different heights. The luminous ceiling consists of 6 inch tubular incandescent light bulbs, complemented with an arrangement of red cedar wood spheres which perfectly renders the refined atmosphere below.

All the magic happens in the tempered clear glass box kitchen at the end of the display counter. Here customers can take a sneak peak at the delicacies as they are being prepared on-site. For those customers who want to prolong the experience, a coffee perch extends from the wall in the same chocolate Bisazza tiles – perfect for a quick snack in the middle of the day.

‘Conversation Pieces’ for W Hotels

Each June, the W Hotels Designers of the Future Award honors a select group of promising young designers and studios who exemplify new directions in design culture. This year, Design Miami/Basel hosted on June 15 the inspired conversation pieces of Asif Khan, Mischer’Traxler and Studio Juju.

This year’s theme aims to encourage people to overcome social barriers, to spark unexpected interactions, to instigate discussions among strangers or to forge new relationships. These are the winners’ approaches, all of which blurred the lines between creation and social interaction, stimulated conversation and forced self-reflection.

London designer Asif Khan created floating clouds of foaming bubbles by filling soap suds with helium and forcing them through fishing nets. Khan describes his project “Cloud,” as an “architectural experiment.” It features a machine that uses water, soap, and a helium gas, “which bubbles up and creates a roof canopy that shades us from the sun we’ve made,” Khan says. The diffused gradients of light splayed against the white backdrop are able to be viewed from commencement to fruition.

Thomas Traxler and Katharina Mischer of Mischer’Traxler present mirrors that only work when more than one person is standing in front of them, alongside their Relumine lights. Taking this psychological interpretation a step further, Mischer’Traxler created a body of work that functions based on the premise that working together produces a better outcome. Their installation, called “It Takes More Than One,” functions only when two or more people stand before it. The segmented piece takes quantum physics to a literal level by turning on once people are attentive to it, and connecting two pairs of lamps with the same light beam.

Singapore designers Timo Wong and Priscilla Lui of Studio Juju have created a meeting place with flexible metal strips that frame little blue chairs. Studio Juju took a self-reflective approach, asking themselves how to choreograph a space that is conducive to interaction. The partners created a free-standing metal tent void of walls and skin, allowing participants to convene inside a smaller space within a larger environment, but simultaneously not restricting them. “It’s something quite psychological,” Timo Wong says, “that when you are in here you feel like you are inside, but at the same time, the fact is people can hear you outside.”

Stay tuned for more summer highlights!