Stine Bidstrup imagines alternate anti-modernist world with Architectural Glass Fantasies

Kaleidoscopic expressionist architecture has taken over from the efficiency of modernism in the glass objects of Danish artist Stine Bidstrup, showcased in our Dezeen x The Mindcraft Project 2021 collaboration.

Bidstrup's ongoing series Architectural Glass Fantasies is inspired by the work of German writer Paul Scheerbart and architect Bruno Taut, whose 1914 Glashaus pavilion explored the potential of multifaceted coloured glass buildings to spark emotion and build a utopian world.

Stine Bidstrup's works can be seen as scale models of architectural landscapes. Photo by Anders Sune Berg

Three of these objects, each evoking an alternate reality where this kind of architecture prevailed over capitalist-driven modernism, feature in The Mindcraft Project exhibition of experimental Danish design.

The works are both abstract and hyper-detailed, made by blowing glass into a plaster-silica mould. Once the mould is removed, the glass within is cut and polished to display varying kinds of translucency.

The objects evoke a world of expressionist glass architecture, inspired by the work of Paul Scheerbart and Bruno Taut. Photo by Benjamin Lund

The details of digitally printed patterns and forms are visible through the vividly hued glass. Bidstrup hopes viewers see her works as scale models of architectural landscapes.

"My glass sculptures can sort of be seen as architectural models, suggesting a transformation of scale in the imagination of the viewer," said Bidstrup. "It's very much celebrating all the things you can do with glass in terms of light and colours and levels of translucency, transparency and opacity."

Video is by Benjamin Lund.

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Dezeen x The Mindcraft Project

The Mindcraft Project is an annual exhibition presented by the Copenhagen Design Agency to bring the best in explorative and experimental Danish design to the world.

The Dezeen x The Mindcraft Project 2021 collaboration showcases the work of 10 innovative designers and studios from the 2021 digital edition of the exhibition via a series of videos. Watch all the videos as we publish them at: www.dezeen.com/the-mindcraft-project-2021.

Dezeen x The Mindcraft Project 2021 is a partnership between Dezeen and Copenhagen Design Agency. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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Jasmine acoustic panels by Layla Mehdi Pour for Offecct

Dezeen Showroom: product designer Layla Mehdi Pour took cues from nature when creating the geometric Jasmine acoustic panels for Flokk-owned brand Offecct.

The Jasmine acoustic panels are part of Offecct's wider range of sound-absorbing wall coverings, called Soundwave.

Like the rest of the Soundwave collection, Jasmine can be mounted on the walls of open spaces to help reduce noise while doubling as decoration.

The Jasmine acoustic panels are designed to reduce noise

The Jasmine panels are triangular and available in three different colours: black, grey and off-white.

Their shape allows users to combine them in symmetrical compositions or in more playful, unbalanced arrangements. According to Pour, this is a reference to "nature's interplay between order and irregularity".

Black is one of three colour finishes

"When I designed Jasmine, I was inspired by natural elements that may seem irregular in their macro form but in the detail have a wonderful precision and regular structure," explained the product designer.

"I strived to capture nature's poetic rhythm and mix it with more geometric, triangular shapes that can be combined in different ways and create new expressions and compositions."

Product: Jasmine
Designer: Layla Mehdi Pour
Brand: Offecct
Contact: sara.gyllestrand@flokk.com

About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen's huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.

Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.

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Azab splits Spanish farmhouse into two interconnected modern homes

Architecture studio Azab has revamped a farmhouse on the edge of the town of Loiu in Spain and divided it into homes for a woman and her parents.

Designed as homes for two generations of the same family, Azab split the former farmhouse in Bizkaia in the north of Spain horizontally. An apartment for the parents occupies the ground floor, with the daughter's apartment above.

Azab split the farmhouse into two homes

The pair of homes have their own front doors, but share an access hall on the ground floor.

"The fundamental concept of the house is to take advantage of the original structure of the house to build two complementary ways of living from it, taking advantage of the kinship relationship of the owners of both houses," explained Azab principal Iñigo Berasategui.

The ground floor apartment has a large kitchen

Created for the older couple, the ground floor apartment has two bedrooms alongside a large kitchen and a large living room.

All of the rooms have floor to ceiling windows that were designed to connect the home with the surrounding countryside and are covered with light, white curtains.

The upstairs apartment is arranged around the kitchen

On the floor above, the daughter's apartment is arranged around the central entrance space that doubles as the home's kitchen and is lit by two angular skylights.

Around this central space are a series of six rooms that can be used as bedrooms, living spaces, dining areas or studies along with two bathrooms.

Red cabinets were used in the kitchen

According to the architect the two homes were designed to complement each other, with spaces that can be used by the other family members.

"The house on the ground floor opens to the outside with two large very marked rooms of dining room and living room in which to celebrate family meals or parties, while the upper house is a succession of rooms deliberately used," Berasategui told Dezeen.

"So that on a certain occasion the daughter may be able to use the parents' living rooms and the parents could house grandchildren or relatives in the rooms of the daughter's house."

The interiors have exposed concrete beams

Throughout the interiors, Azab combined the farmhouse's exposed concrete frame and lightly painted walls with flourishes of bright colour, mirrors and striped glass.

The upper kitchen, which is wrapped in a stripped-glass enclosure, has bright cabinets and a sky blue splashback, while the kitchen below is pink and crimson. Floors coloured blue and off-white were used to divide up the spaces and mark their uses.

Downstairs the kitchen is pink

"The interior of the house, unlike the exterior, navigates through some free patterns where the reds and pinks of the server furniture dot the calmer atmosphere with optimism," said Berasategui.

"The floors are great protagonists in the interior environment combined in two tones and changing their location on both floors trying to influence their antagonistic character."

The two homes share an entrance

In contrast to the interiors, the building's exterior is restrained with plain facades marked with a subtle diamond pattern that is only visible when the light is right.

"The rhombus pattern that wraps the entire facade is used to complete the distant image," said Berasategui.

"It is a compositional exercise that exalts the ornament in a subtle way, through a repetitive and little marked geometric pattern that only with a certain light can be sensed engraved on the facade," he continued.

"This allusion to the ornamental is a vindication of the identity or the tradition, of the popular and artisanal pride of the decorative always present in humble ways in the constructions of the field."

Facades have a subtle diamond pattern

Bilbao architecture studio Azab was established in 2018 by Berasategui, Cristina Acha, Miguel Zaballa and Ane Arce.

The studio previously created an apartment with a bubblegum-pink corridor and a forest green kitchen in Bilbao and used floor-to-ceiling curtains to carve up the interiors of another flat in the city.

Photography is by Luis Diaz Diaz.

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Jun Aoki & Associates wraps Louis Vuitton's Tokyo store in "poetic yet playful" pearlescent facade

Japanese studio Jun Aoki & Associates has created a distinctive flagship store for Louis Vuitton in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district with an undulating facade and interiors by architect Peter Marino.

Replacing the brand's previous store, which has occupied the same corner since 1981, the seven-storey Louis Vuitton Ginza Namiki store is wrapped in a water-like facade.

Designed by Jun Aoki and Associates, this undulating pearlescent facade was created to give the building a modern look and reflect Ginza's location near Tokyo Bay.

Top: Louis Vuitton Ginza Namiki store by Jun Aoki and Associates. Above: the facade has an undulating water-like design

"The building's highly modern appearance interprets the reflections of water as a material phenomenon," said Louis Vuitton.

"Poetic yet playful; shimmering and rhythmic. Once a peninsula extending in Tokyo Bay, this evocation of water is expressed throughout as smooth, undulating surfaces – from the glass facade that transmits shifting colour to the feature staircase and fixtures."

The store occupies a busy corner site

The facade was constructed from two layers of glass that curve and ripple like water, which was covered with a dichroic film to create a pearlescent colouring.

A clear opening at the corner of the ground floor showcases the latest collections and allows glimpses of the art-filled, natured inspired interiors by New York-based studio Peter Marino.

The facade of the store reflects and distorts its surroundings

"Jun Aoki's facade is at once monolithic and imbued with fluidity – his representation of a 'pillar of water'," said Louis Vuitton.

"At street level, the building reflects the dynamism of Ginza; higher up, neighbouring towers become wavy apparitions, while a skyscape sweeps across the glass, marking the passage of each day."

The interior has large monogram jellyfish suspended from the ceiling

The lower four floors of the store are dedicated to retail. Pale stone covers the floor of the ground level with curved panelling on ceilings to add a three-dimensional effect.

Throughout the retail spaces textured walls, curved surfaces and a wood and glass material palette fill the space adding a lightness to the interior while reinforcing the natural theme.

A wooden staircase is encased by a four-storey tall feature wall

The retail floors are connected by a central staircase constructed from sculptural oak and glass that winds through the store surrounding by suspended jellyfish with monogram detailing.

A secondary staircase at the rear of the store employs a similar material palette and is framed by a four-storey feature wall that reinterprets a painting by Japanese artist Kimiko Fujimura and reflects the buildings organic aesthetic.

Retail spaces boast a neutral palette with colourful accents

Furniture by Pierre Paulin was added to inject acidic hues to the tonal interior, bright pinks and oranges can be found throughout the women's floors while reds, blues, and muted yellows fill the men's.

The store also includes a permanent space to showcase new arrivals as well as a VIP area on the sixth floor and the Le Café V on the building's top floor.

A zoned area has an underwater theme

Jun Aoki & Associates has completed several other projects for the fashion house, including this a flagship store in Osaka wrapped in curved glass sails and the nearby Ginza store that has a perforated facade based on the Vuitton monogram.

Marino has similarly renovated the brand's New Bond Street store in London that uses artworks by Tracy Emin and the Campana Brothers.

Photography is by Daici Ano.

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Knitting lounge chair by Ib Kofod-Larsen via Menu

Dezeen Showroom: Danish brand Menu has relaunched the mid-century Knitting lounge chair by furniture designer Ib Kofod-Larsen with contemporary sheepskin upholstery.

Menu's reissue of the Knitting chair is intended to put "a modern spin on the iconic design", which was developed by Kofod-Larsen in 1951.

In addition to the updated sheepskin upholstery, the low-slung seat is now also available with a natural oak, dark-stained oak or walnut frame.

Menu has reissued the mid-century Knitting chair

The Knitting chair was originally designed as a limited edition piece, which makes it a sought-after collector's item.

It is distinguished by the distinctive cut-outs in its backrest, allowing users to rest their elbows while knitting.

It features cut-outs that double as armrests

The chair features a gently curved seat and slanted back, which Kofod-Larsen designed for optimal comfort, while the compact, triangular frame makes it ideally suited to small spaces.

Its new sheepskin upholstery is available in three shades, but for a more traditional look the chair is also available with leather upholstery in three colours.

Sheepskin puts a "modern spin" on the 1950s design

"Offering optimal sitting comfort and handmade in Sweden by skilled craftspeople using a careful combination of traditional and modern craftsmanship techniques, the Knitting chair's masterful proportion and unexpected, sculptural form bring personality to any room – and a sense of timeless design of the highest quality," Menu explained.

Product: Knitting chair
Designer: Ib Kofod-Larsen
Brand: Menu
Contact: press@menuspace.com

About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen's huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.

Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.

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