Concrete home by HK Associates looks onto the Arizona desert

American practice HK Associates has completed a geometric concrete home on a desert site at the base of the Catalina Mountains in Tucson, Arizona.

Deep cuts in the cuboid form of Ventana House create a series of shaded terraces and covered balconies for the home, which the local practice has designed to be a "window onto the desert".

HK Associates designed the home with a covered entryway

"The two-storey dwelling rises from its mountainside setting like a geological outcropping, a rugged exterior form shaped from within by openings that afford panoramic views," described the practice.

A cut in the southwest corner of the home's ground floor creates a covered entryway. This leads into a double-height, skylit gallery space crossed by a small bridge above and containing a perforated steel staircase that allows light to filter through.

A large living space overlooks rocky terrain

The less-exposed ground floor contains a garage, media room and gym alongside a guest bedroom and bathroom. An external staircase along the eastern edge of the home provides direct access up to a first-floor terrace.

On this upper level, the home has been opened-up to create a large living, kitchen and dining space between two external terraces, contrasted by a more private block to the east containing two en-suite bedrooms and a study.

Minimal interiors are found in the kitchen

Throughout the home, large windows and glazed sliding doors frame views out onto the desert site, with larger openings set in deep recesses to prevent glare and overheating from the harsh sun.

"The spatial dialogue between interior volume and exterior form unfolds in a cinematic montage that complements the picture-window views," said the practice.

Referencing the silhouettes of the surrounding mountainous, the living areas sit beneath a sloped alder wood ceiling that subtly focuses the space towards the south-facing terrace. A large skylight along one edge illuminates the centre of the plan.

"The ceiling becomes an organising datum, mapping activities and interactions below: dining, cooking, conversing and relaxing," the practice continued.

The house features several glazed sliding doors

The interiors have been minimally detailed, with white wall surfaces and concealed built-in storage areas intended to create a "subtle backdrop" to the desert views.

"The interior of the home reveals itself as a series of discretely carved volumes proportioned in relationship to exterior apertures," said the practice.

A discrete fire pit cuts through the terrace

In the entrance lobby, these white surfaces are contrasted by warm wooden panelling that covers the wall and ceiling, as well as creating a small bench.

Other projects recently completed in the Arizona desert include a courtyard home with white stucco walls by architecture studio The Ranch Mine.

The photography is by Ema Peter.

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Roman and Williams turns historic police station into NoMad's London outpost

New York interior design firm Roman and Williams has combined decorative Victorian elements with references to New York's jazz age in its ornate interior for the NoMad hotel in London.

Set in the former Bow Street Magistrates Court and Police Station in Covent Garden, the hotel is the first international outpost from American hospitality chain NoMad.

NoMad London features 91 guest rooms (top and above)

Its Grade II-listed building, which dates back to the late 1800s, houses 91 hotel rooms, a glass-domed restaurant-cum-greenhouse, a bar styled like a classic British pub and a grand ballroom set within the original court.

Roman and Williams aimed to enhance the Victorian features of the complex while inserting new decorative accents that reference 1920s New York.

Each bedroom features a marble fireplace and gilded tracery wardrobes

"The challenge of integrating a newly built addition with the inherited architecture of the building materialised a space ripe with dichotomies," said the firm, which was founded by husband-wife duo Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch in 2002.

"Old and new, hard and soft, New York and London – these principles abound and flourish throughout the building."

The building's glass-roofed police yard has been turned into a dining hall

Guests enter the hotel's lobby through its original porte-cochere.

The reception is tucked to one side, with a paravent covered in a hand-embroidered version of Watts of Westminster's archival pattern Pear that took two months to produce.

A planting trough runs along the centre of the space

The design team added a new main staircase clad in mahogany and framed by a theatrical proscenium arch, while the lobby's chandelier was found in Connecticut, restored and shipped to the UK.

"This space is the nexus of the hotel, both in its acting as the physical compass for guests and wanderers as in its aesthetic junction," said the design team. "It embodies the dichotomy between old and new."

The courtroom has been converted into a ballroom for private events

A steel catwalk suspended above the lobby leads guests to their bedrooms while the former police yard beyond the reception, which is covered in a three-tiered glass dome, has been transformed into an all-day dining venue.

The space is filled with greenery from freestanding trees to climbing plants draped down columns to create the impression of being in an Edwardian greenhouse.

Bench seating upholstered in green mohair leads the eye through the centre of the dining space and custom tiles developed by Bantam Tile Works cover the walls.

The walls are covered in a mural by Claire Basler

Tucked just off the Atrium, the hotel's Fireplace Room offers a more intimate dining space while continuing the glasshouse theme with hand-painted botanical wallpaper framed with dark timber panelling.

In the library, which acts as the hotel's living room, vintage velvet seating is surrounded by Sapele millwork shelves. Burnished brass picture lights illuminate oil paintings, paper ephemera and a collection of antique books.

The building's original Magistrates' court has been re-imagined as a formal ballroom with double-height walls covered in a mural by French painter Claire Basler.

Huge chandeliers hang from the original ceiling, which was uncovered by the design team, while hand-blown sconces spring from the surface of the mural to create a dark, moody atmosphere.

Lead-shaped sconces create moody lighting

Meanwhile in the former police station, Roman and Williams has created the Side Hustle bar as a modern take on the British pub.

Its interior references the golden age of locomotive travel, with walls clad in embossed leather upholstery and millwork panelling while blown glass globes and linen-shaded sconces hang between leather and mahogany booths.

The Side Hustle bar was designed to reference the classic English pub

The NoMad Bar in the Atrium on the other hand has an exuberant, maximalist design that celebrates the decorative arts.

It combines Delftware pottery, Italian modernist lighting and furniture in the style of the aesthetic movement – a late nineteenth-century art movement that championed pure beauty and "art for art's sake".

A golden damask fabric by Rubelli covers each of the ebonised mahogany panelled walls while hand-gilded, embossed leather by Atelier Premier fronts the bar.

The Fireplace Room is fringed in hand-painted botanical wallpaper

Each of NoMad London's guestrooms features a stone mosaic bathroom, marble vanity and custom Lelievre damask wallpaper.

The 20 suites are designed to resemble well-appointed apartments with their own living and dining spaces as well as claw-foot tubs in the bedroom.

Dark timber panelling completes the intimate dining space

NoMad, which is owned by New York-based Sydell Group, also has an outposts in Las Vegas and one in Los Angeles, set within a former bank headquarters.

The chain's original location, housed within a Beaux Arts building in New York's NoMad neighbourhood, announced its permanent closure earlier this year as a result of the pandemic.

Photography is by Simon Upton unless otherwise stated.

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Kengo Kuma and OPPO pair traditional materials and technology to create "spiritual experience"

In this video produced by Dezeen for OPPO, Japanese architect Kengo Kuma describes how he worked with the smart device brand to create Bamboo Ring, an installation currently showing at Milan design week.

Bamboo Ring is a two-metre diameter ring comprised of lengths of bamboo that have been bound to a carbon-fibre backing to form a strong, self-supporting structure.

The structure was installed at Cortile del Bagni as part of this year's Milan design week and will be on display until 19 September.

Kengo Kuma has partnered with OPPO to create a musical bamboo installation in Milan

The installation is a continuation of a collaboration between Kuma and smart device brand OPPO that saw a previous iteration of the structure installed in the courtyard of the V&A Museum as part of London Design Festival in 2019.

In an exclusive video interview with Dezeen, Kuma explained how technology was incorporated into the installation to offer visitors a multi-sensory experience.

"I wanted to combine a natural, traditional material with very contemporary, new technology," he said. "OPPO has provided us with very new technology and we tried to combine music with the installation."

Sounds resonate through the bamboo and carbon fibre structure

Motors, speakers and exciters connected to the structure reverberate cause it to reverberate and generate percussive sounds that act as part of a site-specific score composed by Japanese violinist Midori Komachi and architectural sound design studio Musicity.

"It is a pavilion, but at the same time it is a kind of instrument made of bamboo," explained Kuma. "Bamboo is often used for instruments in Asia, and I applied that idea to this pavilion."

The technology used to transform the structure into an instrument was based on research by OPPO's London Design Centre.

The soundtrack also features sounds from O Relax, an application developed for OPPO smartphones that generates calming soundscapes to help users relax. Visitors to the installation will hear sounds recorded for the app in locations around the world including Reykjavík, Beijing and Tokyo.

Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Photo by Dezeen

Kuma is known for designing architecture projects around the world with his studio Kengo Kuma & Associates, including the cedar-clad Japan National Stadium, which was the centrepiece for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the V&A Dundee.

According to the architect, Bamboo Ring was designed to offer its visitors an introspective experience that sets it apart from other exhibits at Milan design week.

"At Milan design week, most of the products are not so spiritual," he told Dezeen. "I want to give a special spiritual experience to people by using technology and traditional materials."

The installation is on show at Cortile del Bagni in Milan until 19 September

In future, the structure will be donated to the permanent collection of outdoor art museum Arte Sella Park in Trentino, Italy.

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This video was produced by Dezeen for OPPO as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen's partnership content here.

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Acre lounge chair by Blu Dot

Dezeen Showroom: the Acre lounge chair by US brand Blu Dot combines a minimalist silhouette with enough back support to remain comfortable for hours at a time.

The Acre lounge chair is a riff on one of the brand's earlier products, the Field chair, reimagined with a more compact form that works solo or in pairs.

The Acre Lounge chair is designed to support hours of reading

The chair has a tubular base made of stainless or blackened steel and an upholstered foam shell seat.

A tucked seam detail on the rear adds visual interest while also helping to create the lumbar support that makes the Acre armchair suited for hours of reading.

It is available in a range of upholstery options including copper velvet

"Prototyping taught us a key to comfort would be additional lumbar support to the lower back," said Blu Dot. "Seeing an opportunity for an upholstery detail, we designed a subtle tucked seam that provided a smooth transition from arms to back."

Acre is available in a range of upholstery options including two colours of velvet, a linen blend and a dark grey fabric made of 80 per cent post-consumer recycled polyester.

Product: Acre lounge chair
Brand: Blu Dot
Contact: partnerships@bludot.com

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Muji and ÉCAL students design compact furniture built to tidy up daily life

Design brand Muji has collaborated with students at ÉCAL to create a collection of space-saving furniture, which was presented in an exhibition at Milan design week.

Called Compact Life, the collection features of tables, shelves and chairs was on display at Muji's Milan store as part of the Fuorisalone events programme.

A combined stepladder and storage unit by Victorine Lefebvre was part of the collection

BA Industrial Design students from Switzerland's ÉCAL university worked with the brand to design pieces in line with Muji's trademark minimalist style, under the tuition of Industrial Design head of programme Stéphane Halmaï-Voisard and Swiss designer Michel Charlot.

"It's always interesting to work with students because they have new ideas," assistant teacher in industrial design at ÉCAL Elie Fazel told Dezeen.

Noémie Soriano craeted a slim bedside table

The students were asked to emulate a key part of Muji's product development process, which involves using photographic studies of ordinary homes in order to determine how best to design products.

By documenting the state of their own homes, the ÉCAL students gained an idea of how they interact with their surroundings in an attempt to design space-saving furniture.

Rolling basket trolleys by Théo Blanchard were presented by Muji

For example, student Noémie Soriano created a flat-pack bedside table made from solid oak with an adjustable storage shelf designed to store a smartphone overnight.

Théo Blanchard designed a series of steel wire basket trolleys to stow belongings in that can slide under a bed, while Paper Wall Pocket by Lucie De Martin is a hangable structure made of strong laminated crepe paper that can store objects in its pockets.

Lucie De Martin designed a flexible paper wall-hanging

"It was interesting to document the everyday living of Europeans compared to most of Muji's studies, which are done in Asia," said Stéphane Halmaï-Voisard when discussing the students' research.

"So for Muji, it was a way for us to introduce a little bit of our Swiss or European way of living," he continued.

Other furniture includes Stéfanie Kay's Hanger Pole, a clothes stand that can be fitted with a wide variety of hooks and hangers, and a small house-shaped cage by Jillian Reichlin that provides shelter for insects when filled with natural materials such as bark or wood scraps.

"For these students specifically, who are young and fresh, they are basically building what they would use themselves," added Halmaï-Voisard.

Insect House by Jillian Reichlin can be hung anywhere

Among the other designs with simplicity at their core are a pressed metal shelf by Marine Fondin that fits into corners, and a collapsible chair made of plywood by Alan Shopfer with a handle-shaped backrest used to easily transport the object.

"As a designer, I'll always try to optimise my space and make the most out of it," concluded Halmaï-Voisard.

Marine Fondin's corner shelf

Muji is a Japanese lifestyle brand founded in 1980. The brand has launched a prefabricated home to encourage indoor-outdoor living.

ÉCAL is an art and design university based in Renens. Recent innovative graduate projects include nappies made of seaweed-fibre and moulded cellulose bento-style boxes designed for takeaway food.

The images are courtesy of Muji and ÉCAL.

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