Oslo Opera House

Last year I visited Oslo and saw the Opera House there. 

The building has a glass facade with the internal structure clad in oak. The outermost spaces within this structure have narrow openings in flowing shapes, allowing visitors views out into the foyer and beyond to the surrounding harbour.

The lighting to these areas is provided by small square lights recessed into the outer wall close to the floor as well as concealed cove lighting to the top of the inner wall.

The sloping plaza around the building allows visitors to see into the building from many different angles, allowing them to appreciate the unusual geometry.

The building is particularly striking at night, when the lighting to the interior creates wedges of light in the sharply sloping surroundings.

Wahaca

Last month I ate at a restaurant called Wahaca. The menu is based on Mexican street food, and the interior design takes inspiration from street stalls.

Corrugated metal sheets in combination with timber reference ramshackle market stalls, and brightly coloured gloss paints are used in combination with raw materials.

Snog Covent Garden

Snog is a chain of frozen yogurt shops, one of which can be found in Covent Garden, London.

The decorative lighting in this shop is made up of a matrix of small spherical lights, suspended from the ceiling on poles of differing length. The colours of these lights change in waves through the spectrum, creating a mesmerising flow of colours.

The floor is finished with a grass effect vinyl, and the furniture resembles white fungus sprouting from it.

Lucien Pellat-Finet Store - Kengo Kuma

This shop, designed by Kengo Kuma for the fashion designer Lucien Pellat-Finet, and located in Osaka, Japan makes use of a plywood honeycomb structure. These unevenly shaped and sized compartments provide shelving to be used for displaying items on sale.

The interior is reminiscent of a bee hive with its organic curving walls and ceilings combined with the honeycomb structure.

I like the way that these honeycomb shapes are also visible from outside the shop and how gaps allow larger areas of the glass to be exposed to allow for better views in and out of the shop.

Source: DesignBoom

John Procario Lighting

These lighting sculptures are created by steam bending thin pieces of wood to create fluid shapes. A flexible LED strip and diffuser are then applied to one side of the wood.

The appearance that the wood has been split apart to reveal an illuminated interior is quite mesmerising. 

Procario currently only appears to make table-top lighting in this form. I can imagine a taller, floor standing version, or suspended version would be very beautiful.

Source: JohnProcario.com

Paseo Marítimo de la Playa Poniente, Spain

This seafront promenade creates a colourful and practical route for pedestrians to navigate this beach. The many access routes down to the beach as well as the overhanging edges make the whole of this structure useful and elegant.

The shape of the waves arriving at the beach can clearly be seen mirrored in the form of the promenade.

The paving graduates through the spectrum creating zones of different colours which merge together gradually.

These colour zones make navigating the beach much easier, for example: friends can arrange to meet at a particular colour zone.

Overhanging areas can be used for shelter.

These overhangs are well lit at night, discouraging undesirable activities and providing illumination to the nearby beach area.

Source: publicspace.org

Blog Restart

I have previously used this blog to document the journey through my masters in interior design. I will now use it to document any interesting design discoveries I make. This will cover interior design, architecture, product design, sustainability and I'm sure many more!