10 Design launches its Singapore studio
10 Design opens a new design studio in Singapore. It is established to support the practice’s ongoing and new projects in SE Asia.
Ross Milne, CEO of 10 Design, says: “The board’s decision to further expand into SE Asia and establish a design studio in Singapore was a natural progression in our business growth strategy. We have been fortunate to work with clients in the region who are committed to design excellence and interested in our innovative and design approach. Our current SE Asia portfolio extends across Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Myanmar. Opening the Singapore design studio truly marks a pivotal point in our growth, and will provide our clients with a greater level of on-the-ground design and delivery services in SE Asia.”
10 Design has also announced the appointments of Peter Barrett as Partner – Master Planning and José Cláudio Silva as Design Partner to lead the Singapore studio.
Peter brings over 28 years of planning and urban design experience and has been based in SE Asia since 1997. His diverse portfolio includes master planning projects and urban design studies for green-field and urban renewal sites globally with a strong focus on SE Asia.
José has over 18 years of design and delivery experience across SE Asia and internationally. He has led the design of a wide spectrum of building typologies and delivered numerous iconic projects. His experience encompasses all phases of a project cycle from concept design through to documentation and site supervision.
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Brooklyn-based design studio— ‘The Urban Conga’ showcasing the value of play in New York
The impact of play is often disregarded and undervalued in the discussions around architecture, urban development, and city change. The Urban Conga’s work is highlighting the impact play can have on the health, identity, social, and economic values within the future development of our cities and communities. Play is universal and should be utilized as a vital part of the movement forward in reactivating our communal public spaces to become more inclusive, safe, and healthier places.
The Urban Conga’s work showcases a variety of ways this can start to be explored within our urban development. The studio was recently selected as the winner of the 2021 Architizer A+ Firm of the Year Award for Small Projects as well as the 2020 ArchDaily Best Young Practice. Through receiving these accolades, their work promotes an acceleration in the appreciation and understanding of the value of implementing more play within our changing cities and communities moving forward.
This work is paving the way for city stakeholders, urban designers, architects, and more to start exploring the idea of becoming a “Playable City,” an ecosystem of playable opportunities intertwined within the existing urban infrastructure that doesn’t just disrupt our daily lives but adds to it. Looking at opportunities that explore how play can start to exist in everyday spaces, and begin to encourage people to think about these spaces that could become PLAYcs: like a crosswalk, laundromat, public park bench, street light, or just the everyday spaces in-between.
Investigating how these once often boring or underutilized situations can turn into inclusive, stimulating, creative outlets bringing people together within the built environment.
Photo credit: Savannah Lauren
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New interior design studio WORLDESIGNTEAM comes to Dubai
Interior design studio WORLDESIGNTEAM (WDM) launches in Dubai, UAE. Spanish founder and design director Guillermo Blanco combine his extensive design experience, including 30+ years working in prestigious design firms in Mallorca, Dubai, and Bangkok with a talented team of designers from around the world.
They deliver high-end projects in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia with exclusive designs in architecture, interior design, landscaping, and window design projects.
WDM works internationally on residential, hospitality, workplace, and commercial projects producing high-quality bespoke designs and complete turnkey solutions. WDM offers online design services globally with affordable yet professional design packages.
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SAY Studio turns Emaar Square Building into Middle East and Europe’s first commercial WELL-certified space
SAY Studio announces the completion of a Dh100m+ WELL project in Emaar Square for an undisclosed client. The project is the only commercial space across the Middle East and Europe to receive the WELL health and safety seal from the international WELL-building institute, the global authority on healthy buildings. The space is also awaiting confirmation of a Gold grade WELL certification.
With designers at the firm having worked with clients such as DEWA on its net zero footprint office space, Adidas’s award-winning, wellness HQ and big names in the technology space such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Google, designers at SAY Studio were tasked with undertaking the design of a brand-new 16,000sqm HQ under the theme “office of the future”, the first health and wellbeing focussed project of its kind for this client.
Laila Al-Yousuf, design director at SAY Studio said: “WELL Projects are required to meet certain, high-level criteria across a broad spectrum of categories and this project required an in-depth understanding of both the built environment, and the operational requirements in order to accomplish this. It’s been a privilege to work on the first health and safety rated commercial space and we are really looking forward to applying our now extensive knowledge on the subject to more of our clients in the near future.”
The WELL Health and Safety seal can be seen on buildings which have set out to prioritise end user’s health and safety. This includes measures such as cleaning and sanitising procedures, air and water quality control, emergency preparedness programs and health services.
The client has offices in 157 countries around the world and the overall design concept for the project was to represent the client’s global presence. We achieved this by designing each of the floors with subtle references back to different pivotal locations. The objectives were two-fold, to maximise productivity and staff wellness, and more specifically staff health and safety, which has globally come under scrutiny since COVID-19 hit and is now an element of WELL accreditation which is being heavily promoted.
The project began in March 2019, and took 19 months to complete. It consists of floors G to five, plus the roof terrace. It is the largest and most adventurous of its kind across the region and for the brand, globally. SAY Studio continues to focus on ground breaking commercial projects with blue chip clients, while gathering momentum in sectors such as hospitality, mixed-use developments and biochemical.
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Lama Arouri is the new managing director at Studio N
Lama Arouri will be the new managing director at Studio N. Arouri joined Nulty in 2020 as business development director and has over ten years of experience working in the lighting industry.
Alex Holler will step down as managing director of Studio N in March 2020.
Arouri will bring both strategic planning and local market knowledge to her new role: “I am thrilled to be joining Studio N at an exciting time in the company’s development. My focus will be on driving continued growth for the business, as well as positioning Studio N as the first choice in delivering lighting consultation.”
Despite the pandemic, 2020 was a busy year for the practice, with a range of lighting schemes delivered across multiple sectors. From the Salero Restaurant in Bahrain to the Moda retail store in Jeddah, there has been considerable and exciting growth. More recently, it was announced that Azizi Developments, a leading private developer in the UAE, has appointed Studio N to incorporate façade lighting into the architecture of Creek View I, an exciting mix-use landmark currently in development.
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Indigo Living launches a bespoke design studio
Indigo Living has introduced a new design studio at its Al Wasl showroom in Jumeirah. The new design studio will showcase bespoke furniture and accessories for residential and commercial use, designed in-house and produced locally in the UAE -bringing an elevated and exceptional design aesthetic to the UAE is the newly launched premium design concept by Indigo Living.
The area unveils a range of beautifully designed custom-made collection that adds a new artistic dimension to the brand. The creative space aims to provide a visual essay on how to transform any space into elegant statement and have its own unique characteristic.
The bespoke collection by the Indigo Design Studio is carefully curated using refined materials such as solid wood, glass, stone, bronze, brass and velvet keeping the design connoisseurs in mind. It will also feature innovative, multi-functional smart home devices and automated curtains and a vast selection of fabric samples that makes the brand a one-shop-stop for all the home décor needs.
Gavin Quill, GM, Indigo Living said: “We want to showcase a contemporary custom made space that not only uses aesthetically beautiful products but also show how it can be adapted to meet our clients’ needs – that is both stunning and inviting. The new design studio aims to offer inspiration to anyone who wants to transform a space to an elegant statement.”
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The Designers’ Studio launches its new premises at The Courtyard, AlQuoz
Encouraging collaboration, enterprise, and an entrepreneurial approach, The Designers’ Studio aims to provide career-focussed education in Interior Design for women in the region looking to upskill, get back into the workplace after having children, or to start a career as an Interior Designer. This January they’ve opened their beautiful new premises at The Courtyard in Al Quoz, alongside other Dubai institutions such as Tribe, Cassette, and The Courtyard Playhouse.
Last week, design professionals and journalists were invited to view the new studios and gain an insight into their exciting plans for 2021 with tours led by local female entrepreneur, and CEO of The Designers’ Studio, Anam Clarke. With talks from leading industry experts, including Toni Snyder from Color Swank and Stephanie Farah from The Tile Society, guests were treated to informative and inspiring talks on the future of design in the region and the emerging trends for 2021.
With a talented line-up of supportive tutors, the fully immersive KHDA-approved courses team up with some of the region’s biggest homeware brands to give a hands-on learning experience that leaves students armed with an eye-catching portfolio and skills required to make them sought after candidates for internships and employment. The idea for the studio’s flexible learning courses was born from the idea that work should fit in and around student’s busy lives, whether that’s taking care of their family, working in their existing careers, or juggling it around other studies. CEO and founder of the studio, Anam Clarke, is passionate about making the courses accessible to all and helping graduate students win work placements after their studies are completed. “Our courses are for everyone, from taking up interior design as a new hobby, designing your own home, or those looking to earn a Diploma in Interior Design and start a career in the industry!”
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In Pictures: Courtyard Xiaoya in China by Da Xiang Design Studio
The transition of the city is a complicated process. Along with the old memories gradually gone, new emotions are constantly being generated. When production breaks through itself and has more connections with life, the vision of the garden will continue.
The project is located in the Xucun Industrial Zone, Haining, Jiaxing, in which the architect built an elegant courtyard on the roof of a factory and named it Xiaoya. In this courtyard, the functions of reception, catering, and office are combined. And it has broken through the single working mode and expanded the breadth and depth of life.
How to deal with the relationship between architecture and environment has to be the first research focus of the design. The place is adjacent to the main road of the city, and there are many self-built houses in the surrounding countryside. So the designer uses green plants as walls to shield from the noise on the road and disorder of vision, which has embodied the concept of oriental gardens by modern garden methods and created an atmosphere of being in the city but like a wild place.
They utilise the natural sightline deviations of the roof platform to balance the surrounding axis, and the phototaxis of the biological instinct to allow the viewer to do the natural selection. The architecture is opened, and the interior and exterior spaces are infiltrated with each other, both spacious and enclosed.
The corridor design overlaps with the tourist line, which leads the free ramble mode to become an opportunity for interaction between people and the site. The delight of the stroll is the purpose of the landscape design. It is expected that people will walk barefoot. With the changes in texture and temperature of wood, stone, rock, and sand, they will touch the nerves of the footsteps, during which people will return to purity.
In the eyes of Mies Van Der Rohe, the barrier is no longer the antonym of the transparent but creates one more space and one more possibility. Inspired by this, the corridors twist and turn volatile and extend in the open backyard of Xiaoya, where the white wall penetrates into the field of vision, but part of the landscape emerges from behind, and the geometric espalier hides the end of the corridor and played a “Cloze Play Thinks” with the brain.
There are two water courtyards. The central one takes a view of the sky and takes the water as a mirror. The shadow is refracted into the restaurant and meeting room, and the fold-up water landscape continues to extend indoors.
In The Book of Songs·Xiaoya·Deer Bell, stirred up the feelings by deer bell and eating grass. It shows the way of hospitality and the mind to entertain the guests, by utilizing which the designer creates a resonance between people and space. The squeezing and dislocation of the building create a series of wonderful corner spaces. Behind the “cloudy pine forest” painting that landed like a screen in the lobby was a small deer that came out of the probe.
The elements of the grille are used one after another in the place. Make space becomes an alienated sundial and combines the sunlight. Mottled shadows which change along with the time, like clouds and fog, like electric light, which lets the “rime” sway and flow.
Xiaoya uses the concept of oriental gardens to create a western garden landscape that incorporates geometric patterns, vegetation, architecture, and water features, etc, which uses simple cubes to summarize the combination of the natural stones laying, cascade and the fold-up of the sceneries, which forms a unified visual element.
In the meeting room, the view is divided by vertical walls. Then the view of the left eye is a spacious outdoor space, and the right is an enclosed meeting space. The view outside the window of the living room in the lounge area is cleverly reflected by the mirror to the dining person, which makes the water courtyard, pine, and the bamboo in the corners outside the window all visible to the eye.
When the sky gets a bit dark, you can see the interior through the light and shadow on the glass, and see the opposite view through the rear window, which is mellow and interesting.
Photo credit: © Haha Lu
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