Nike Canteen by UXUS Design

Athletes are illustrated across a wall of orange tubes in this canteen at the headquarters of sports brand Nike in Hilversum, the Netherlands, by Amsterdam studio UXUS Design.

Located at the company’s Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters, the dining room contains individual tables and timber-slatted booths adorned with logos and statistics.

Coloured chairs and picnic benches provide additional seating.

White graphics on the walls of the kitchen list the favoured lunches of sports stars including Maria Sharapova and Paula Radcliffe.

A glass-fronted mezzanine at first floor level overlooks the ground floor.

See also: K-Swiss pop-up store by UXUS Design.

Photography is by Dim Balsem.

Here are a few words from Uxus Design:

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Nike EMEA Headquarters commissioned UXUS to be part of the team to re-design their corporate canteen.

The objective was to create a personalized, social hub inspired by sports that encouraged and enabled the exchange of ideas.

Working alongside the Nike design team, UXUS created a space utilizing mismatched elements to accommodate the various moods and needs of the employees.

Semi-enclosed areas and cozy spaces offer solitude,while vast tables and counters stimulate interaction.

Every element was designed for efficiency and the ability of employees to create a personalized eating experience.

Material choices were inspired by sports facilities with contrasting bright and neutral colors.

Various ceiling elements such as low hanging lamps create rhythm to diffuse and humanize the tall volume of the main eating hall, while a striking, orange tube wall with super-graphic ties the 2 levels together.

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011 by Peter Zumthor

Here are the first official photographs of the completed 2011 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, which was unveiled today by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.

A planted garden by Dutch designer Piet Oudolf is enclosed at the heart of the black-painted pavilion, filled with flowers and shrubs.

This inner garden is surrounded by a blue bench under a canopy that projects inwards from the walls.

The pavilion is a timber framed structure covered in gauze and painted over with a black adhesive.

A narrow corridor circulates the perimeter of the building between the facade and the garden.

The pavilion opens to the public this Friday the 1 July and remains open until 16 October.

It is the first building to be completed in the UK by Zumthor and will be followed next year by The Secular Retreat in Devon for Alain de Botton’s Living Architecture project.

Photography is by Walter Herfst.

Here are some details from the Serpentine Gallery:

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Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011
Designed by Peter Zumthor
1 July – 16 October 2011

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011 is designed by world-renowned Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. This year’s Pavilion is the 11th commission in the Gallery’s annual series, the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind. It is the architect’s first completed building in the UK and includes a specially created garden by the influential Dutch designer Piet Oudolf.

At the heart of Peter Zumthor’s Pavilion is a garden that the architect hopes will inspire visitors to become observers. Zumthor says his design ‘aims to help its audience take the time to relax, to observe and then, perhaps, start to talk again – maybe not.’ The design emphasises the role the senses and emotions play in our experience of architecture. With a refined selection of materials Zumthor creates contemplative spaces that evoke the spiritual dimension of our physical environment. As always, Zumthor’s aesthetic goal is to customise the building precisely to its purpose as a physical body and an object of emotional experience. Zumthor has stated that ‘the concept for this year’s Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. The building acts as a stage, a backdrop for the interior garden of flowers and light. Through blackness and shadow one enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London – an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers. This experience will be intense and memorable, as will the materials themselves – full of memory and time.’

Materials have always played an evocative as well as an essential role in the buildings designed by Zumthor. The 2011 Pavilion is constructed of a lightweight timber frame wrapped with scrim and coated with a black Idenden over scrim. Exterior and interior walls with staggered doorways offer multiple paths for visitors to follow, gently guiding them to a central, hidden inner garden. The covered walkways and seating surrounding this central space create a serene, contemplative environment from which visitors look onto the richly planted sunlit garden, the heart and focus of the building.

With this Pavilion, as with previous structures such as the famous Thermal Baths at Vals, Switzerland, or the Bruder Klaus Chapel in Mechernich, Germany, Zumthor has emphasised the sensory and spiritual aspects of the architectural experience, from the precise yet simple composition and ‘presence’ of the materials, to the handling of scale and the effect of light. Piet Oudolf is a prominent garden designer and a leading figure of the New Perennial planting movement. His award-winning designs emphasise the natural architecture of plants, using expressive drifts of grasses and herbaceous perennials to create gardens that evolve in form throughout the lives of the plants. These are chosen for their structure, form, texture and colour, showcasing many different varieties in his compositions. Oudolf has pioneered an approach to gardening that embraces the full life-cycle of plants, delighting in their beauty throughout the seasons.

Piet Oudolf said: “I am very pleased to be collaborating with Peter Zumthor and the Serpentine Gallery on this year’s Pavilion and to be part of this exciting project. My work aims to bring nature back into human surroundings and this Pavilion provides the perfect opportunity for people to reflect and relax in a contemplative garden away from the busy metropolis.”

The Serpentine’s Pavilion commission, conceived in 2000 by Gallery Director Julia PeytonJones, has become an international site for architectural experimentation and follows a decade of Pavilions by some of the world’s greatest architects. Each Pavilion is sited on the Gallery’s lawn for three months and the immediacy of the commission – a maximum of six months from invitation to completion – provides a unique model worldwide.

Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Serpentine Gallery, said: “It is an honour and a great joy to be working with Peter Zumthor on the 11th Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. The commission allows us to connect with the best architects in the world and each year is an exciting and completely new experience. Zumthor’s plans will realise an exquisite space for the public to enjoy throughout the summer.”

Zumthor’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion will operate as a public space and as a venue for Park Nights, the Gallery’s high-profile programme of public talks and events. Park Nights will culminate in the annual Serpentine Gallery Marathon in October, now in its sixth year. In 2006 the Park Nights programme included the renowned 24-hour Serpentine Gallery Interview Marathon, convened by Hans Ulrich Obrist and architect Rem Koolhaas; in 2007, the Serpentine Gallery Experiment Marathon presented by artist Olafur Eliasson and Hans Ulrich Obrist; in 2008, Obrist led over 60 participants in the Serpentine Gallery Manifesto Marathon. These were followed in 2009 by the Serpentine Gallery Poetry Marathon and in 2010 by the Serpentine Gallery Map Marathon.

Kokura Tanaka House by Akinari Tanaka, POI, Nawakenjimu and Lapin

Japanese architects Akinari Tanaka, POI, Nawakenjimu and Lapin have completed this diamond-shaped house in Kokura, Japan, with a ledge in one corner for climbing up to the roof terrace.

The Kokura Tanaka House is split into quarters by two crossing walls in the centre, creating four equal rooms that each have access to outdoor terraces.

The small plot is surrounded by the perimeter walls of neighbouring residences, which are now painted in the same shade as the new house to make it feel less hemmed-in.

More Japanese houses on Dezeen »

Photography is by Kei Sugimoto.

More information is provided by the architects below:

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Kokura Tanaka House

This is the project that the client returned to the birthplace after the retirement and rebuilt an old house. He requested sunny one-storied house with good ventilation.

But there was a problem that an erstwhile quiet green residential area was changed into densely built-up area, and moreover neighbour’s concrete block wall surrounded his flagpole shape site. And there was a sense of being oppressed.

So we tried the design “Shakuhei”(=Borrowed wall) to turn this bad condition to the advantage. Incorporating beautiful landscape is usual method at “Shakkei”, but this project “Shakuhei” is a trial to incorporating neighbour’s ordinary concrete block wall. Therefore, we dared to make the house with a concrete block wall.

Firstly, we cut this site into pieces on a cross with concrete block wall. Secondly, we put one roof over the top of the wall. As a result, in all rooms we obtained scenery that our wall and neighbour’s wall are seen at the same time.

In a word, it is felt that neighbours’ walls are own walls. And we feel this house compact but large, because each rooms have a garden.

Further, we got a sense of unity and a reflection effect by painting neighbour’s wall white with their consent. However, we want not only to borrow the wall from neighbours but also to build the relation of win-win. So that, we secured the neighbor’s sunny space with good breeze by making the flat roof terrace and painting it white.

[structure and air conditioning]
Fill-up concrete block structure (=for retaining walls) makes it possible to secure horizontal force by even if it is a straight joint. We planned efficient air conditioning in consideration of loop space. The air-conditioner blows air into air loop duct after taking return air from the center of the house.

The air inlets are familiar screen blocks in a Japanese town. And the air outlets are simple holes but manual regulation of air volume is possible.

Architects: Akinari Tanaka+POI+Nawakenjimu+Lapin
Location: Kokura,Japan
Project area: 67 sqm
Site area: 247 sqm
Project year: 2009-2010

The William Penn Hotel

Since opening in 1916, the William Penn Hotel has been the cultural hub for many of Pittsburgh's more elegant social events (my parents were married here as well as having their high school proms on the upper level ballrooms).

While the hotel might be a tad bit shabby these days, I never miss a chance of having a drink in the Terrace Room off the lobby seen here, and last weekend was no exception. Elegant crystal chandeliers, great old details and wood paneling, not to mention the sense of history here, all draw me in (as did the bartender's heavy pour!).

Do you have a favorite local hotel that you haunt?

The charming Chateau Marmont

While in LA, friends stayed in a bungalow at the famous Chateau Marmont and we spent a lazy afternoon lounging at the pool. I just had to share it with you!

Nestled into the Hollywood Hills above Sunset Boulevard, the hotel offers extreme privacy and actually feels more 'east coast' then Hollywood.

Right under the disturbing billboard James Franco put up in honor of Brad Renfro (seen above) is the pool where we had bottles of rose and fresh cherries delivered while dangling our feet into the near bathwater temperature water; heaven.

Built in 1929, the hotel feels like a relic stuck in time, in the best way possible. I loved this patio furniture.

The bungalows are behind the pool along a series of heavily planted pathways with charming surprises around each corner like this little water feature.

The doors have arched sidelights and beautiful stained glass which look to be inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. The front door leads directly into a casually furnished living room .

The design throughout speaks of the arts and crafts movement and every little detail could be original to the hotel's building.Each bungalow has a small kitchen that I imagine myself spending most of my time.

Love the high painted wood wainscoting and wallpaper.

No dishwasher here - we're back in time afterall! I'm not sure I'd want to cook a full meal on this vintage stove, but it's a charming place to warm up water for tea or leftovers. My grandparents had a similar stove and refrigerator in their basement that were original to their house and I always just loved the look of them.If you ever find yourself in LA, I highly recommend a stay at the Chateau! For more pictures and information -visit the post by HabituallyChic from last year HERE.