Patricia Urquiola Brings Milanese Style to The Room Mate Giulia Hotel in Milan

I once had a dream that I lived inside a modern art gallery which is essentially what the Room Mate Giulia Hotel in Milan is, except you don’t find yourself in a college dorm when you wake up. When Room Mate employed designer Patricia Urquiola to dress up the interiors, she took the complete creative freedom to design a different kind of hotel experience. While the hotel is only steps away from the Piazza del Duomo and the Vittorio Emanuele gallery, you don’t need to step outside your room to experience a taste of Milanese culture; it’s right inside.

The same pink marble that’s found in the Duomo of Milan can also be found in the hotel lobby.

The use of terracotta bricks in Milanese architecture is a practice also found in the hotel, except with a cool tridimensional effect. Rich shades in terracotta, blues, greens and pinks exude a warm, welcoming atmosphere. (No snobby attitudes or bland walls here!)

Cassina Contract was asked to custom make all the furniture, including made to measure beds, tables, sofas, desks, bathroom dressers, mirrors and curtains.

Throughout the hotel you can find artwork and photographs from Milanesi artists, photographers, and illustrators, a reflection of the creative culture of the city. Geometric patterns are also a reoccurring motif in the interiors.

What: Room Mate Giulia Hotel
Where: Via Silvio Pellico 4 20121 Milano, Italia
How much?: Rooms and suites start at approximately $208 per night. You can stay in any of the 85 rooms of the hotel, which are divided into four categories: Standard, Premium, Deluxe, and Junior suite.
Highlights: A modern home-away-from-home hotel that reflects the Milanese culture right outside the building
Design draw: Every inch of the hotel has been carefully considered to create an authentic experience, from the materials of the walls to the artwork on the walls.
Book it: Visit Room Mate

Photos by Ricardo Labougle

from Design Milk http://design-milk.com/room-mate-giulia-hotel-milan/

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KLIO Brings 4K Digital Decor Into the Home

A Play of Dependencies: A Lamp For Communication

Everyday, most of us go to work in an office, where we sit in a shared space, while working on individual projects. We communicate mostly online, screens in front our faces, despite working towards the same common goal.

A Play of Dependencies is meant to help foster a healthy work environment, communication, and in-person interaction. Designed by Maya Pindeus and Johanna Pichlbauer, this lamp is actually a set of three table lamps that encourage engagement and interaction between coworkers. It is operated by two people, and needs either Agreement, Competition, or Cooperation to close off the electric circuit and make the lamps light up. A classic example of a group effort.

from Design Milk http://design-milk.com/play-dependencies-lamp-communication/

from Home Improvment http://notelocreesnitu.tumblr.com/post/149751088614

Fitzroy Loft Breathes Life into Warehouse

In a former life, this residence was once a 250 square meter brick warehouse. In 2015, it was transformed into the Fitzroy Loft.

The designers focused on creating corresponding intimate spaces and voids: the bed rooms and study are intimate and smaller in scale, while the areas for entertaining are plunging and dramatic, utilizing the full height of the warehouse walls. Two sections of the house in particular utilize this feature, creating “lungs” for the home to breathe. These “lungs” provide light and sky views into the more private residential quarters.

The whole space evokes the feeling of a country cottage, intertwined with industrial tones: clapboard is placed parallel to the original steel support beams. A windowed wall opens up to a greenhouse space, making it a private garden within the home. This space, with a verdant floor and walled with windows, is more like a private lawn for entertaining than an interior room.

This compelling use of private and public space made this home the winner of 2016 Australian Interior Design Award for Residential Design.

The post Fitzroy Loft Breathes Life into Warehouse appeared first on Freshome.com.

from Freshome.com - Interior Design & Architecture Magazine http://freshome.com/fitzroy-loft/

from Home Improvment http://notelocreesnitu.tumblr.com/post/149749305704

Luxury Penthouse in Dublin with Bespoke Details

Michael Ó Mara Interior Design worked with architects John O’Neil and Associates to completely remove the original penthouse that sat atop this four-story apartment building in Dublin.  The light-filled, luxury penthouse that they then created uses refined materials in a contemporary and classic design.

The tall windows that line the living room and bedroom open to a view of rooftops and the Dublin Bay.  The view is particularly wonderful from the bedroom, where you can easily imagine enjoying coffee on a lazy weekend morning.

The residents of this penthouse can also enjoy its bay views from a patio lined with potted trees.  The classic look of these topiaries contrasts with a modern railing to create a natural transition between the penthouse’s glazed walls and the building’s older exterior.

Inside, the design team added interesting details throughout, including a bespoke walnut door and shadow gap door framing.  Clean lines and light colors draw your attention to the fine detailing. [Photography and information courtesy of Michael Ó Mara Interior Design and John O’Neil and Associates]

The post Luxury Penthouse in Dublin with Bespoke Details appeared first on Freshome.com.

from Freshome.com - Interior Design & Architecture Magazine http://freshome.com/luxury-penthouse-in-dublin/

from Home Improvment http://notelocreesnitu.tumblr.com/post/149749191394

With or Without: Jay Shinn

No, it’s not a U2 song. With or Without is a solo exhibition by Jay Shinn at the Louise Alexander Gallery, where his multifaceted birch wall sculptures and neon lights explore the theme of illusion. Colorful and organic, these dodecahedral pieces create an interesting semblance of 3D form. The exhibition also includes a selection of his neon works, which explore the relationship between light and line. By bending and displaying neon lights in a particular way, it creates a similar illusion that transcends dimensions.

The exhibition is running in Porto Cervo, Italy until 14 September 2016.

from Design Milk http://design-milk.com/without-jay-shinn/

from Home Improvment http://notelocreesnitu.tumblr.com/post/149749165089

Castor Design: Particle Accelerator

Castor Design produced a “Particle Accelerator” for a recent installation at the Design Exchange in Toronto this past July. I’m sure you’re either saying a what?! or, you’ve immediately pictured CERN’s Large Hadron Collidor. Well, essentially Castor Design took the idea of the particle accelerator, and applied it to light. Based on research by physicist JJ Thomson at Cambridge in 1897, who is credited with discovering the electron while passing a cathode ray between two electrodes in a glass vacuum tube, Castor explores the nature of electricity and light.

Castor’s particle accelerator is a beautiful hand­blown glass tube that sits atop a black marble base, covered with an overhang. It’s outfitted with machined electrodes, and its transformer and vacuum are presented alongside, housed in custom component boxes.

I can’t explain it as eloquently or as scientifically accurate as they have, so let me just turn it over to them to elaborate:

When electrical current is activated and a enough of a vacuum has been formed within the tube in order for electrons to travel without striking a molecule of gas, low­​mass particles accelerate to 30% of the speed of light. These electrons strike other atoms and give off light as they settle to their original energy levels.

The light first appears in arced shape, and quickly stabilizes and “flows” in a straight line across the centre of the tube. This beam of light bends around a magnet when one is placed beside the bottle, indicating the presence of the electron.

As gas molecules undergo more collisions inside the bottle, emission wavelengths appear separated out into plasma bands, demonstrating the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. More columns indicate that the electrons’ energy in a given state is less defined. When the vacuum dissipates, the plasma reaches its extinction point and scatters.

View it in action:

from Design Milk http://design-milk.com/castor-design-particle-accelerator/

from Home Improvment http://notelocreesnitu.tumblr.com/post/149747413469

Handwoven Hammocks for the Perfect Nap

Colombian-born Yaiza Dronkers Londoño was raised in The Netherlands but never forgot her roots. Handcrafted ‘hamacas’, the Spanish word for hammocks, have always been a part of Colombian culture but with the armed conflict in the country, the hammock-making tradition has mostly faded away. Looking for a way to help support the artisans there, she formed MAKA, which merges contemporary designs with traditional weaving techniques. The hammocks are available in three handwoven designs in various colors.

The Poncho design was inspired by the traditional Colombian woven ponchos and it combines two different artisanal weaving traditions with bold colors.

Looking to create a blending effect, the Frangipani design was made using a new way of weaving.

Inspired by Pablo Picasso, the Pablo P. design features minimalist stripes in either black or grey that are woven in alternating thicknesses.

from Design Milk http://design-milk.com/handwoven-hammocks-perfect-nap/

from Home Improvment http://notelocreesnitu.tumblr.com/post/149745696664

New 2016 Talent from Cappellini Next

Every year, Cappellini searches for the best up-and-coming talent and showcases their experimental designs, completely unedited just as they were made for Cappellini Next. The raw concepts aren’t conceived with mass production in mind or if the product would sell, letting the designers push boundaries they haven’t pushed before. Check out two of this year’s pieces.

Luisa Kahlfeldt designed a series of stools made from rolled cardboard. Using colorful cardboard, Kahlfeldt rolled it up into solid cylindrical shapes and then smoothed the edges to give them the look of a sharpened pencil leaving behind graphic details.

The Cutting Edge sofa, by Dutch designer Martijn Rigters, is a piece that aims to challenge the chaos theory. Rigters sculpts the sofa from a single block of foam using a hot wire system that cuts the foam randomly into completely unique pieces.

from Design Milk http://design-milk.com/new-2016-talent-cappellini-next/

from Home Improvment http://notelocreesnitu.tumblr.com/post/149708048039