Spanish designer Francesc Rifé has created a distinctive interior for a shoe store in Mallorca, using shades of soft pink and pale grey.
The ASH Mallorca store in Palma features curving concrete surfaces and suspended black shelves, set against a backdrop of soft pink curtains.
There are few other elements in the 95-square-metre space, ensuring that shoes are able to stand out.
"A conscious and austere selection of materials defines the shape and configuration of space," said Francesc Rifé Studio.
"The hardness of the concrete gives way to the softness of the fabric, and the virtues of the curved lines compete with bold footwear proposals with a great personality."
The ASH Mallorca store is organised over two levels. On the ground floor, a central walkway is framed on both sides by raised concrete platforms.
Slender shelves are set above these platforms, supported by black steel tubes that extend from floor to ceiling.
A curved staircase leads down to the basement. Although this element was already in place before the fit-out, its smooth shape matches the curves of Rifé's design.
The basement has a more free-flowing layout, framed by a large S-shape in the floor plan. Shelves and curtains follow the same line, and the effect is emphasised by spotlights in the ceiling.
On both floors, storage and checkout areas are concealed behind the pink curtains, so as not to disrupt the aesthetic.
Rifé's studio describes the mood created by this textile as "romantic and lively".
"A light pink textile layer unfolds over the body of the shop and emotionally connects the ground floor with the basement," said the studio.
"The lightness of this main element generates constant and spontaneous movements throughout the project," it added.
Concrete cylinders function as additional display stands, while larger pink cylinders provide seats.
Concealed lighting elements feature everywhere, helping to make each element feel impactful. "The light source is always hidden to focus all attention on whatever it is lighting," said the studio.
Francesc Rifé Studio has completed various stores for ASH, including spaces in London and Shanghai.
Dezeen Awards, now in its third year, is the benchmark for international design excellence and the ultimate accolade for architects and designers everywhere. With the deadline on 2 June, you still have plenty of time to enter.
This year’s edition is expanded to include 12 architecture categories, recognising even more of the best projects across the globe.
Judged by a panel of 75 industry-leading professionals, projects will be scored according to how beautiful, innovative and beneficial they are.
Landscape project
Any landscape architecture project involving the design of outdoor areas including public or private parks, gardens, the grounds of educational or business buildings, public spaces and playgrounds.
Infrastructure project
Any structure, facility or system that serves an area or society – including roads, cycle paths and highways, bridges and energy supplies.
Enter architecture studio or emerging architecture studio of the year
The studio categories have been around ever since Dezeen Awards first launched and have been specifically created to highlight the architects and designers producing the most outstanding work.
Our panel of industry-leading judges will be selecting the designers and studios who they feel are set to make a big impact on the design world.
The emerging category is for all-round design excellence over a body of work by an individual or practice that has been in business for ten years or less.
Questions?
If you run into issues or have any questions email us at awards@dezeen.com or visit our how to enter page for more information. Remember, the entry deadline is 2 June.
Designer Tom Dixon describes how a motorcycle crash forced him to abandon a career as a bass guitarist in the latest episode of Dezeen's Face to Face podcast.
In the Face to Face series, Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs sits down with leading architects and designers to discuss their lives.
British designer Tom Dixon features in the latest episode of Dezeen's Face to Face podcast. Photo is by Peer Lindgreen
For this episode, Fairs sat down with British designer Tom Dixon at his combined office, showroom, shop and restaurant at The Coal Office, a Victorian structure that previously hosted a nightclub in London's Kings Cross.
One of the few British designers to become a household name, Dixon produces furniture, lighting and accessories under his own brand name. He describes the Tom Dixon brand ethos as "expressive minimalism". This involves "trying to reduce the object as much as possible whilst maintaining its character".
Early creative streak
Yet he left school with only one qualification in pottery and worked in the music business and in nightclubs before turning his hand to producing hand-made metal furniture.
Born in Tunisia, Dixon spent his early childhood in Morocco before moving to London with his family at the age of six. While he admits to not having been a good student, it was at school that Dixon discovered his creative streak.
Dixon is the founder of his eponymous brand Tom Dixon which produces furniture, lighting and accessories
"I managed to fill my time, not with the stuff I should have been learning but tinkering around in the ceramics and life drawing departments and that's where I first encountered the joy of creation," he said in the interview.
When a first motorcycle accident put an end to a brief stint at Chelsea School of Art, he delved into the world of music, playing bass in disco-punk band Funkapolitan.
Opening for the Clash in New York
After signing a record deal, Funkapolitan enjoyed moderate success, touring, playing Glastonbury and supporting bands including The Clash.
"The people that went to see the Clash were punks and we were disco," Dixon said, recalling a gig in New York where the audience threw bottles and spat at the band. "That was a pretty scary experience. It was quite nasty but character-forming, you know. I was always a shy boy."
Although Dixon is known for his work in design, he originally tried to make it in the music industry as a bass player in disco-punk band Funkapolitan
While he wasn't a fan at the time, the DIY ethos of the punk scene influenced the way he approached the beginning of his career.
"The thing about British music is that you can actually be shit," he said in the interview. "As long as you got a unique attitude, people will collect around that. You don't have to be naturally gifted, you don't have to be naturally polished and you can teach yourself how to do something."
Welding with scrap metal
After a second motorcycle crash ended his music career, Dixon started producing welded furniture made from scrap metal, which he sold to people he'd met on the London nightclub scene.
The iconic S-Chair was later produced by Italian furniture brand Cappellini
"I get bored so easily, so there was something about the speed of action in metal that really appealed to me," he explained. "Peering through the goggles at the fire and seeing the molten metal fuse together and then suddenly having a structure that you could sit on."
Dixon started to gain prominence as part of the ad-hoc Creative Salvage movement, alongside Ron Arad, Mark Brazier-Jones and other London designers who produced hand-made objects from found materials.
The iconic S-Chair, featuring a sinuous steel frame with straw upholstery, was designed around this time and later became the first Tom Dixon piece to be added to the catalogue of Italian furniture brand Cappellini.
Dixon later worked as creative director at retailer Habitat before setting up his eponymous brand.
"I had 10 years of life in a corporation," he explained. "I'll always be grateful because I learned so much but I was hungry to design again rather than telling other people how to design."
Dixon describes the brand's style as "expressive minimalism"
"I'd managed to meet some of the great designers of that time, including [Achille] Castiglioni and Verner Panton, and managed to commission lots of people like the Bouroullecs and other younger designers," he added. You know, I was a bit jealous of them, so it was time to start again."
Dixon now employs around 140 people at his London headquarters and sells around 1,000 different products, including fragrances and textiles, in 75 countries. Last year he opened The Manzoni, a second combined restaurant and showroom in Milan and recent ventures include a collaboration with Swedish synthesizer outfit Teenage Engineering.
"I don't want to be like in the music business where you have to play your greatest hits again and again," he said, before heading off for a jam session with a Danish techno musician.
The podcast features original music composed by Japanese designer and sound artist Yuri Suzuki.
Face to Face is sponsored by Twinmotion, the real-time architectural visualisation solution that can create immersive photo and video renders in seconds.
London-based architect Stiliyana Minkovska has designed a trio of undulating birthing chairs called Ultima Thule, which offer women a "sanctuary-like" environment during childbirth.
Minkovska's alternative birthing suite, called Ultima Thule, comprises a collection of three chairs that are designed to support different stages of childbirth.
The project was conceived as an alternative to "hostile" hospital maternity wards, which, as Minkovska told Dezeen, made her feel like a "medical object" during her own birthing process.
Minkovska has designed an alternative birthing suite made up of three undulating chairs
When giving birth to her daughter, Minkovska explained how she found respite in "exploring the farthest imaginable place".
This, for her, was "ultima thule" – a term derived from Latin that translates to "a distant unknown region" or "beyond the known world".
Inspired by methods such as hypnobirthing and water-births, Minkovska's designed Ultima Thule birthing suite as a "sanctuary-like" space where the mother can have greater control over her delivery and reproductive health.
The chairs are designed to create a relaxing environment reminiscent of "a distant unknown region"
"My own voyage into motherhood came into focus during childbirth, when physical sensations gave way to an interstellar experience," the designer explained.
"I felt like a medical object during the birth of my daughter, therefore my urge as a designer and architect was to re-imagine the birthing environments within the institution of the hospital, where the majority of women within the western society reproduce."
The Labour Silla chair is designed for the initial stage of childbirth
The first chair, Labour Silla, is designed for the initial stage of childbirth, when the mother-to-be goes into labour and the contractions start.
Aiming to both empower and comfort the woman using it, its ergonomic and "elasto-mechanical" qualities respond to the multiple demands of the pregnant body, enabling the mother to prepare for parturition.
The undulating form of the chair encourages the woman to sit, kneel, squat, rest, lean and crawl until she finds a comfortable position.
The Parturition Stool is designed for the birth-giving stage
The second piece of furniture, Parturition Stool, is designed as a tandem for the birth-giving stage. Its step-like design allows the woman to take a squatting position at the bottom half of the chair while a second person can support them from behind.
According to Minkovska, this squat position reduces the risks of tear, episiotomy, C-section, medical interventions and forceps deliveries, as opposed to the traditional supine position, which can also extend the delivery time.
"The birthing scene has evolved, but sadly the elements supporting these techniques have not," she said. "They are dated and lack the progressiveness needed to accommodate the broad range of birthing techniques, such as hypnobirthing or water birth."
"The hospital can feel like a baby factory – you could deliver and be home within the same day," she continued. "I think it is a shock for the body and the maternal biological system."
"Through the Ultima Thule project, I recognised that birth is not a universal or monolithic experience, hence the flexible nature of the designs I have proposed."
The Solace Chaise chair is designed for postpartum or recovery use
The third piece, named Solace Chaise, is a chaise lounge for postpartum or recovery use. Designed as a relaxing "secured cocoon", the chair offers the woman a private space for after every birth experience.
"Not all women have straightforward pregnancies, and therefore not all have so-called 'natural' births. I would like all women, regardless their life story, to feel included within the project," she said.
"This includes women who have decided to either willingly or unwillingly to terminate their pregnancies, women who have had still births as well as women who have undergone miscarriages," she continued.
"In our current socio-political climate, birth is a cultural conditioning. We are told what is right and wrong, but we are not taught how to protect ourselves and our well-being. I think design is a powerful tool for doing so, for liberating and empowering."
Minkovska's Ultima Thule suite was on display at London's Design Museum
Minkovska hopes that the chairs can become the new normal, being used by women and birthing mothers in private hospitals such as the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital and the Portland hospital in London.
"I think that our maternity centres and wards require strong design attention and female-centred qualities through light, sound and material palettes," said the designer.
"I have had some incredible feedback by mothers, doulas, health care professionals, doctors and midwives who agree that we need to have human-centred design at the core of our most humane institutions, especially at the sector where life begins."
Mále Uribe Forés reimagined salt as a precious material, while Marta Giralt made the microscopic "wonder material" graphene visible and Robert Johnson gave value to the fat waste produced in commercial kitchens across London.
Architecture firm Woods Bagot has designed a modular system that can adapt apartments to make them suited to working, playing and cooking, as people spend more time at home because of the coronavirus.
AD-APT is a series of adjustable walls and screens that can be used to divide an open-plan apartment into a number of dedicated spaces, including a home office, exercise room, entertainment area and bedrooms.
Woods Bagot developed the scheme in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has meant that a number of people are self-isolating and getting accustomed to working from home.
"As more people become comfortable with working remotely, they will expect to be able to do so more often," said firm principal Simon Saint.
"This will change the way we design and use our workplaces, schools and homes. While we expect the physical changes to offices and classrooms to happen over time, the changes to our homes could be far more rapid."
In Day Mode the two moveable booths are separated to form a home office with a desk and a living and dining room
AD-APT is designed to be rearranged throughout the day to meet the demands of the residents as they work, play and learn from home.
Woods Bagot recognises there is a number of ways people adapt to working from home, but has identified two of the most common.
The first, Split Shift Home, is designed for a couple with children. It imagines that one parent works in the morning, while the other cares for the children. In the afternoon the parents switch roles.
The second called Double Desk Home is a mode that could be used by professional couples or flatmates that share a makeshift desk or dining table, in which one person is relegated to work elsewhere.
"While these two homes seem to have very different needs, they must both support different activities," Saint added. "Each needs comfortable, acoustically separated places for focused work, education, calls and entertainment."
For the evening hours, the flexible volumes can divide the open apartment into three rooms.
While AD-APT can be configured to consider a resident's amenities, the studio has imagined an example layout to showcase how a home could function.
In the proposal, an entry hallway creates space for storage while the rest of the apartment is formed by two movable booths and a fixed bathroom unit. Around the apartment are a number of storage and space-saving solutions, including furniture that folds out from the walls.
It also would have a porch that could be used for outdoor entertainment and exercise needs. The studio envisions aeroponic planters on the terrace so residents can grow their own food without soil.
Drawings of AD-APT show the modular system in three arrangements that correspond with the course of a family's day.
In Day Mode the two moveable booths are separated to form two spaces. One is a home office with a desk that can tuck into the wall when not in use. The other is a large living and dining area with an eating surface that folds out from the wall.
For the evening hours the flexible volumes can divide the open apartment into three rooms. The size of the living room from Day Mode decreases to make room for a second bedroom, while the home office converts into a master bedroom.
Play mode allows for a large open space for entertaining
In the Play Mode arrangement, the two moveable units are pushed up against the perimeter walls to form one large area for entertainment use, where people can gather.
Added features such as the aeroponic cultivation system and extra storage for essential items, like food, lessen people's need to source services and items from external systems, as they can grow it themselves.
A number of have imagined new products and systems in response to the outbreak, such as Danish startup Stykka which designed a temporary cardboard desk and Shift Architecture Urbanism which developed a model for an outdoor market that enforces social distancing guidelines.
