Fine Lines and Dotwork Form Surreal Monochromatic Tattoos by Michele Volpi

Italian artist Michele Volpi tattoos highly detailed conceptual pieces using black ink and the negative space of her clients’ skin. With a surrealist style and a monochromatic palette, Volpi inks diagrams of insects, plants, and human anatomy that resemble vintage illustrations borrowed from science textbooks. With precise lines and controlled dotwork, each tattoo looks as if it were printed rather than done by hand.

Born in Sant’Elpidio a Mare, Italy in 1991, Volpi tells Colossal that she discovered the art tattooing 5 years ago and fell in love. While attending technical school, she also practiced various art styles to fulfill a desire to have her “fingers in many pies.” A friend recommended buying a tattooing starter kit, and Volpi said that it changed her life. After learning the basics and experimenting with techniques, the young tattoo artist found that line and dotwork were among her favorites. “My style was influenced by geometries, nature, surrealism, and the sciences,” she says. “I like to push my self every day finding inspiration from all around me and trying to go beyond the shallow in what I see. The world of art is endless and I can’t wait to discover it with my passion.”

Volpi also translates her sketches to paper to create handmade works of art. To see more tattoos and for appointment booking information, follow the artist on Instagram. To browse and buy her watercolor bookmarks, head over to her Etsy store.

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Our Lady of the Snows church combines Moravian and Innu influences

Woodford Sheppard Architecture has completed a minimal wooden church in a remote town in Labrador, Canada.

Our Lady of the Snows is located in Sheshatshiu, a small isolated village with 1,300 residents located in Canadian province Newfoundland and Labrador. The area is a settlement of indigenous people of Eastern Quebec and Labrador, known as the Innus.

The project was commissioned by the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation Band Council, the local institution that governs the village, to form a community amenity for religious and secular users in the village.

"Situated on the banks of Labrador's Lake Melville, Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church stands against an impressively rugged landscape, one that is characteristic of Canada's northern regions," said architectural office Woodford Sheppard.

"While the intention of the building's design was to create a visible landmark within the community, the new church endeavours to not overshadow or dominate its neighbours."

The 422 square-metre building is sited in the centre of the town, on the shore of Lake Melville. It draws inspiration from Moravian church design, which is found throughout the region, and vernacular Innu and First Nation's influences.

Moravian Protestants first reached Canada's East coast in the 18th century. This branch of Christianity has Germanic origins, and its architecture typically displays austere features. This tradition still survives throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

Wood is the primary building material and was used for the building's structure, cladding and interior finishes.

The selection was "carefully chosen from the limited number of materials that are available in this remote region, further responding to Sheshatshiu's vernacular character", according to the architects.

Although the building is primarily a Catholic church, the architects sought to be inclusive of non-religious community activities. To do this, they created two separate areas within the building's open floor plan.

The main portion of the building is a traditional nave, where congregants gather for weddings, funerals, baptisms and mass.

Plywood lines the walls of this space. It has almost no ornamentation save for 14 depictions of Jesus bearing the cross designed and fabricated by the architects.

"The pieces serve as meditative elements depicting Jesus Christ's final journey, with inscribed descriptions in the Innu-aimun language along with English translations included as subtext," said Woodford Sheppard Architecture.

The apse was reimagined as a community space for smaller secular meetings in the rear of the church.

"Positioned in what is traditionally known as the apse, this intimate gathering area combines architectural elements familiar to both Catholic typologies along with Innu ones," the firm added.

This room was oriented towards the Mealy Mountains, a formation that defines the region's horizon beyond Lake Melville. This volume is taller than the rest of the building, and its high ceilings are formed as an asymmetrical trapezoid, lit with recessed linear lights.

At the back of the building, towards the village, an entrance porch is carved out, protecting visitors from the weather and providing a gathering space outside. The structure's tall, narrow windows with pointed tops and a discreet spire call out the religious programme inside.

Other religious structures include a high-rise church in Hong Kong by Rocco Design Architecture, and an all-white church in Italy, that was built by inmates of the La Dozza penitentiary.

Photography is by Julian Parkinson.

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Project credits:

Design team: Chris Woodford, Taryn Sheppard, Chris Panting, Jovana Randjelovic

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Planted terraces overlook the sea at the Grand Park Hotel by 3LHD

The Grand Park Hotel in Rovinj, Croatia, is topped with a series of planted terraces that step down towards the Adriatic Sea.

Designed by local practice 3LHD, with interiors by Italian architect and designer Piero Lissoni, the hotel has been designed to step down from the town centre to the seafront while having a minimal impact on the natural landscape.

The hotel is the "final touch" in the wider redevelopment of the area, which has seen 3LHD design several other hotels as well as a concrete promenade that runs alongside the hotel.

"No matter where they are in the hotel, the guest gets the impression they are staying in a park overlooking Rovinj, St Euphemia, the island of St Catherine and the most beautiful sea sunset," said the practice.

Seeking to "blend into the existing forest", space has been made for five pine trees that have been growing on the site for decades and now occupy a prominent position on the hotel's first floor terrace.

Split into three areas, the hotel rooms occupy the first three floors of the structure, with the fourth floor containing a conference area and a "wellness terrace", which extends to an indoor and outdoor pool on the top floor.

The interior spaces on each floor plate are set-back, allowing for a large planted area that wraps around the rooms at each level to give the impression of being surrounded by greenery that extends into the horizon.

The ground floor has a cafe, bar, restaurant and concept store, overlooking the promenade through a glazed facade, and in the lobby a triple-height light-well draws in natural light.

The interiors by Piero Lissoni use earthy tones to contrast the blue of the sea and sky, and terraces have been given wooden decking.

Wood lines the conference space, which overlook the sea through a vast window, and the rooftop pool is encased in a glass pavilion with a glass sliding door that can be raised to allow guests to swim outside.

"Public spaces are characterised by a multitude of details, a large number of types and specific pieces of furniture that, despite mutual diversity, make a unique story together," said the studio.

3LHD was founded in 1994 by Saša Begović, Marko Dabrović, Tanja Grozdanić Begović and Silvije Novac. Previous projects by the practice include the conversion of a cinema in Zagreb into a dance centre, and a large cultural and sports centre in Zamet.

Photography is by Jure Zivkovic.

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Restored plasterwork and paintings adorn Aires Mateus' self-designed studio

Ornate paintings and decorative stucco ceilings appear inside the self-designed studio of architecture practice Aires Mateus, which occupies an 18th-century building in Lisbon, Portugal.

Aires Mateus' four-storey studio, which has been named Atelier Cecílio de Sousa after the street it's located on, contains working and meeting spaces, two model-making areas and a multipurpose room.

Existing decorative features throughout the 18th-century building have been restored, while the damaged roof structure has been entirely rebuilt.

The historic building comprises a two-storey building that was originally built in 1779 and two additional storeys added 20 years later. The four levels were in varying need of renovation work.

Rooms up to the third floor required superficial touches of restoration, like fresh coats of paint and replacing rotting timber floorboards with solid planks of wood.

However, on the third level, part of the floor that was caving inwards and affecting painted ceiling panels below was replaced. The building's disintegrated roof was also rebuilt.

"Throughout the whole intervention, the goal was to keep the integrity of the existing building, as well as its spatial, constructive and formal characteristics," Cassandra Carvas, architect at Aires Mateus, told Dezeen.

Several other features have been retained, including the framework, stonework, coatings, friezes, shutters, cornices and balustrades on the facades.

Two meeting rooms and two areas for models are dotted across the building's four levels, while the remaining space is dedicated to workstations.

The focal point of the building is the second-floor meeting area called the Noble Room, which has elaborate decorative details that were retained .

Specialised restoration work was required on the tiling found in the room's skirtings, wainscoting and framing panels, as well as the stucco and painted elements on the ceiling.

Wooden frame chairs are arranged around a pale timber table at the centre of the room.

The room has been given a balanced and symmetrical layout so that furnishings sit in line with the paintings in stucco oval frames. Above, a large ceiling mural depicts an idealistic scene of figures on horseback and cherubs surrounding them.

An all-white curved staircase connects the third and fourth floor. With windows on the north facade, a large room is used as a multipurpose space, where the studio holds workshops and lectures.

Storage and technical spaces are placed on the ground floor, alongside a parking area.

Several small, shed-like structures from previous renovation projects were removed from the office's double-height courtyard. This space has been turned into a garden with a water mirror.

The lavish interior of this office is a far cry from the often minimal and monolithic work by the studio, which was founded by brothers Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus.

A deep, gabled opening marks the entrance of a faculty building the studio created in Belgium, whereas irregular voids punch through the facade of a community centre it completed in Grândola.

Photography is by Rui Cardoso.

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Project credits:

Project leader: Inês Cordovil
Collaborators: Ana Rita Rosa, Teresa M Marques, Catharina Mark, Olga Sanina, Inês Potes, Luz Jiménez, David Carceller, Inês Gulbenkian
Interior design project leader: Maria Rebelo Pinto
Interior design collaborator: António Sardo
Engineering: AFA consult
Constructor: Manuel Mateus Frazão
Landscaping: F|C Arquitectura

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Explore contemporary architecture in Beijing's hutongs on our new Pinterest board

Our latest Pinterest board features innovative architecture in Beijing's historic hutongs, including radical transformations of traditional courtyard houses such as this one by Chinese architect MAD. Follow Dezeen on Pinterest or visit our hutongs board to see more examples.

Once common in Beijing and other northern Chinese cities, hutongs are narrow streets or alleys formed by rows of single-storey houses arranged around courtyards. This distinctive urban form dates back hundreds of years but many were demolished in the twentieth century.

More recently there have been efforts to preserve the remaining hutongs, and many architects have renovated and redesigned the courtyard houses found in them.

Examples published on Dezeen include a former house transformed into a specialist fan shop and a traditional courtyard house with grey-brick paving that undulates between exterior to interior spaces.

Read more stories about hutong architecture in Dezeen's tag or explore contemporary Chinese architecture on our Pinterest board.

Dezeen's Pinterest account features thousands of images, organised into hundreds of boards. To explore them, open the Pinterest app on your phone, tap the camera icon and scan the Pincode below.

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