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The Most Wonderful Baskervill Projects => Today, Luxxu Blog presents you with the amazing interior design firm Baskervill and shows you the most stunning projects that they did. If you’re looking for some inspiration for your next design project let yourself be dazzled by these amazing projects.

Design spaces that empower ideas & connect people.

Continue reading The Most Wonderful Baskervill Projects at Luxxu Blog.

Sir David Adjaye’s star is ascendant and bright. The award-winning Ghanaian-British architect talks to us about climate, context, culture and community.

Unveiling his plans for the Africa Institute in Sharjah, UAE, last month, the lauded Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye has clearly been on a roll. Making his mark on places big and small around the globe, Adjaye could be a starchitect in the making.

There have been prolific collaborations with contemporary artists; he also designed the 56th Venice Biennale, last year he completed the luminous Webster flagship in Los Angeles; and in 2016, Washington DC’s Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Projects such as Oslo’s Nobel Peace Centre, Ruby City in Texas (with its striking angular crimson facade) or the bunker-like Mole House in Hackney (an artist studio and home) show the fearless intellect and elegance that are signatures of Adjaye’s style.

"Wherever the project may be, my design process is always rooted in geography, culture and climate … I address the overarching agenda that's applicable no matter where it's sited," Adjaye explains, "whether it's the desert climate of Sharjah, the urban grit of downtown Manhattan or even the prairie fields of Iowa. In each of these unique scenarios, what I'm most driven by is establishing sustainable systems and ecologies that are structured by unique bodies of knowledge that help us understand and, in turn, take care of our collective planet – Earth."

This approach breeds designs that have won him a whole host of awards, as well as a knighthood in 2017. This year, Adjaye was awarded the 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal. At the virtual ceremony, President Barack Obama (along with three African presidents) and Bono made speeches celebrating his work. Not to read too much into celebrity cachet, but when these two are fans you can safely say you've made it.

Born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Ghanian parents. Adjaye grew up moving around Africa and the Middle East before the family settled in London, where he ended up studying architecture. His father was a diplomat; that accrued early-life worldliness shows well in his work at Adjaye Associates, which he established in 2000. Here, design is anchored in context and local community with a penchant for sustainable systems.

With the world more connected, yet divided, than ever, perhaps it takes the mental machinations of a truly global citizen like Adjaye to be so deft at weaving between cultures, heritages and locales. His architectural firm has bases in Accra, London and New York, and his aesthetic spans the continents. Unveiled visions for projects such as the Edo Museum of West African Art in Benin City and the Princeton University Art Museum prove that Adjaye’s bold monuments will be defining more of our vital spaces soon.

The Africa Institute design shows an imposing pale pink structure, rectangular tower blocks rising high towards the sky and interconnected at the base. The 32,000-square-metre campus will be a key centre for African and African diaspora studies in the Arab world, hosting classrooms, an auditorium, bookstore, performance spaces, gallery and restaurant. Each block is made from low-carbon concrete and creates shade for the courtyards below.

“The campus is woven together through a shared internal courtyard,” Adjaye explains. “By extending the courtyard typology and infusing the public realm, the design allows climate and construct to cohabitate … so the campus lends itself to an experience of living and learning, not only from the curriculum but from the region itself.”

Adjaye has struck gold with several institutions of learning and collecting, whether it’s the disc-like Moscow’s Skolkovo School of Management, the domes of his Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in Johannesburg or the Studio Museum in Harlem. However, the Africa Institute is especially close to his heart, functioning “as a means of introducing a new type of pedagogy and centre for knowledge into the global academic sphere”. The impact on African culture and academia could be colossal if the site does what’s envisaged, acting “as a springboard that emerges lesser-known diasporas than that of the Atlantic slave trade and forges new connections between Africa, the African diaspora and the Arab world”.

Although Adjaye might be known for imposing large-scale buildings, his firm works on small-scale projects that have included audio speaker systems, fabrics and, now, incredibly rare whisky bottles. The exclusive Artistry in Oak for Gordan & McPhail, revealed last month, saw Adjaye creating “an experience-driven vessel whereby the act of opening Gordon & MacPhail whisky would become both ceremonial and sensorial”. This precious-jewel-like piece includes a hefty crystal decanter, glasses and a slatted oak casing holding the oldest single-malt whisky ever bottled, the Generations 80 Years Old from Glenlivet Distillery. The first bottle and casing will be auctioned by Sotheby’s Hong Kong in early October.

Inspired by the “history of craft, precision and innovation” that’s defined Gordon & MacPhail’s process for over a century, the design is a celebration of rare craftsmanship in a world dominated by mass production. The oak case nods to the casks used in whisky ageing, designed to blur the line “between the liquid and its container, evoking a more magical experience for the consumer”.

Contemporary design and architecture have become more humanistic and experiential of late. Whereas previously we paid more attention to the macro visual impact, today the lived micro nuances provide much food for thought. 

Architecture at the top remains lacking in diversity. However, Adjaye reasons that change is afoot. “I was deeply honoured to receive the RIBA Gold Medal 2021 and, in many ways, saw this as a sign that things are shifting.

“Diversity within design and architecture means the act of decentralisation. Decentralising Western knowledge as the pivotal default and instead, looking to other pillars of knowledge from other cultures, such as African and indigenous stories,” he says. 

This is a necessary step in the movement towards equality. There’s been much soul searching in architecture and design. We’re focusing more on the sustainability, social equality and health of places and spaces – and all with a new sense of aching awareness. A pandemic has only exacerbated and accelerated this. And it’s pushed professionals like Adjaye to explore and innovate. He’s even been experimenting with materials such as compressed mud that has carbon dioxide-soaking and air-purifying properties. 

As a leading Black architect, Adjaye’s work also holds extra significance today, particularly with projects such as the bronze, latticed Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, exemplifying the power of buildings as cultural monuments. More than just a museum, this is an interactive site for even the very uncomfortable parts of American history.

“The opportunity to contribute to something with so much resonance was something I once only dreamed of. It was challenging, invigorating and 10 years in the making,” Adjaye says. “It really speaks to so many people on so many levels as well as to history, and the possibility of multiplicity within history. How there are various stories that exist within a narrative that not only inform it but can transform it, in the way that the 200-year-old story of America can be informed by a 400-year-old story of slavery.”

If the built environment is the material expression of “contextual knowledge systems”, Adjaye believes that a truly sensitive architect must understand that “architecture is a planetary art”. What then, from his personal point of view, does good design have to “do”?

“I’ve been asked this question many times, and what it really comes down to is that design must have integrity within the context of its own time,” he says. “Good design has to understand the primary geographies of the place and the ways in which human habitation has traditionally formed and how it could evolve. This is the type of thinking that leads to radically sustainable design, it brings about design that’s informed by a type of listening that’s specific to its people, its geography and its climate.” 

With the social and public projects that Adjaye takes on (a Brooklyn East Flatbush regeneration proposal with 900 affordable housing units, for example) there’s the added pressure of creating spaces that are “socially edifying, unifying and liberating”, as well as beautiful. The role of design as a force for social good (and evil) is a well-pressed point, but after a year and a half of lockdowns, this spearheads the public consciousness. How do spaces serve the people? How can they facilitate and manipulate human interaction? What should a public space achieve? 

It needs to be “a site of conversation and negotiation, where various energies and people from different walks of life meet”, Adjaye argues. Since it’s where we all “learn how to be with others as well as how to be in the world”, it has bold implications for shaping future society, envisaged by Adjaye as a “planetary community” – a concept at the heart of his work.

The featured and hero image is of the Africa Institute in Sharjah, UAE

The post Award-winning Ghanaian-British Architect Sir David Adjaye’s Star is Ascendant and Bright appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

American businessman Marc Lore is working with BIG to create a future utopian city.

The post A model for Singapore: how a billionaire envisions future cities to be like appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

American businessman Marc Lore is working with BIG to create a future utopian city.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

Modern and Contemporary Statement Chandeliers with LUXXU => Austin, looking for a unique piece that will stand out in any room? You don’t need to look any further because you can be inspired here! LUXXU has selected a collection of modern and contemporary chandeliers that will dazzle you and promise to take a stance in this article.

See Also: The Sublime Curves Of Luxxu´s Snooker Suspensions

Shard Chandelier

Our one-of-a-kind Shard Chandelier was inspired by the remarkable Shard London Bridge.

Continue reading Modern and Contemporary Statement Chandeliers with LUXXU at Luxxu Blog.

Luxury window system distributor JS Aluminium Window invites five experienced designers to tell us about the importance of a high-quality, premium window system - from their point of view.

When designing your ideal place - be it a polished one to focus and work in, a relaxing one to unwind and retreat in, or even a welcoming one for a guest to stay in - creating space and setting the right mood is key. In this densely populated city with limited ground (over three-quarters of Hong Kong is green, conservation area!), it's important to utilise what you can to make your spaces open, bright and comforting.

But it's not just aesthetics - given the unpredictable weather we see year and year on, it's more important than ever to choose a high-quality, typhoon-proof window system that is guaranteed to withstand whatever is thrown at it and protect your home. Windows are an essential tool in space-making and mood-setting - let these five interior designers tell you exactly why:

Bean Buro

Led by Royal Institute of British Architects architects Lorène Faure and Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui, architecture and interior studio Bean Buro provides award-winning architectural interior design services.

“With our background as architects, we approach our interiors, emphasising utilising natural daylight and shadows to create spaces. Windows are fundamental to the architectural setting since they are situated at the threshold between inside and outside, constantly informing our perception of the external sceneries and our tactile experiences of internal material finishes when they are brought to life by natural daylight.”

— Lorène Faure & Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui, founders of Bean Buro

Bean Buro, www.beanburo.com, instagram.com/bean_buro, facebook.com/beanburo

BEAUTY BLOODY BONZA

Integrated architecture and interior design firm BEAUTY BLOODY BONZA specialises in multi-residential, private residential and commercial design in cities across Asia, with an Australian design philosophy.

“Not purely a visual medium, windows alter the way we feel space and experience our home. Simultaneously protecting from and connecting to the elements, fenestration presents the ability to transform the spaces we inhabit. Through operability and manoeuvrability, they become key touchpoints, where the quality of the system is felt through the weighted effortlessness of their movement”

— Peter Scott, co-founder of BEAUTY BLOODY BONZA

BEAUTY BLOODY BONZA, www.beautybloodybonza.com, instagram.com/beautybloodybonza

Monotype Studio

Design firm Monotype Studio is the brainchild of Bartlett School of Architecture graduate Jackey Ip. The founder and design director draws inspiration from Hong Kong's rich cultural history - some of his projects include co-designing the MoMa store in K11 Musea as well as the recent opening of the Golden Scene cinema in Kennedy Town by his own studio.

“Picture window invites us to take in a view that is thoughtfully framed, from a scenic moment to a time-lapse of urban dynamics. The awareness of time gives us hints to adapt our day with timely events or functions. Our interior layouts could be composed from inside out, and harmoniously with windows outside in, dramatizing a façade with a montage of indoor life and lights at night…”

— Jackey Ip, founder and design director Monotype Studio

Monotype Studio, instagram.com/mntyp.hk, facebook.com/mntyp.hk

OFGA

Started in 2013, OFGA is a boutique design practice based in Hong Kong that specialises in architecture, branding and space-making.

“A window gives orientation. It's a point of connection to the elements. Is there a dramatic view? What is the quality of the light? Is it loud outside? Do we want to draw air in? Modern windows give us greater creative freedom in selecting which elements to draw in and which to keep out. It affords us greater confidence to go bigger and to create more meaningful connections.”

— Winston Yeo, co-founder of OFGA

OFGA, www.ofga.co, www.instagram.com/ofga_hk, www.facebook.com/ofgahk

Eureka

Design firm Eureka's projects include bringing new life into existing libraries and tenements, as well as constructing everything from piers to children's playrooms.

“We see window as a spatial device that defines the atmosphere of a space. Be it a narrow slit opening that brings in a glance of the landscape at a meditation space, or a mirage-like impressionist painting through textured glass, the window is performing actively in the creation of the emotion of a space."

— Eureka Hong Kong

Eureka Hong Kong, www.eurekadesign.hk, www.facebook.com/eureka.architects

JS Aluminium Window Group Limited, info@js-window.com; +852 3621-0138

The post 5 Designers Tell Us How Essential Windows Are in Creating Open Space and the Right Ambiance appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Aero Studios – Architecture And Interiors With A Modern Touch ⇒ Aero Studios is one of the best interior design firms in the United States of America, based in New York. Today Luxxu Blog will show you some of the best projects by AERO Studios. Be amazed by our list of 10 best projects and get inspired for your next design project.

Continue reading Aero Studios – Architecture And Interiors With A Modern Touch at Luxxu Blog.

Top 10 contemporary interior designers ⇒  Architecture and design are not static professions: styles evolve, technologies advance, challenges propel. We decided it’s time to update our list of top 10 interior designers in the world. The following famous interior designers represent a fellowship of standard-bearers whose work is imaginative, intelligent, and inspiring. All of them you probably already know from our previous articles and project galleries.

Continue reading Top 10 Contemporary Interior Designers at Luxxu Blog.

Unconventional features in this house keep a cool breeze flowing for a multi-generational family.

The post Luxury homes: a Bukit Timah home built to keep its residents cool appeared first on The Peak Magazine.