G-Rough Rome: a nostalgic look towards the city with a contemporary twist

G-Rough – from the Originals behind PalazzinaG – looks at the city with a nostalgic eye while keeping contemporary design firmly in mind. Created by bon vivants and visionaries Gabriele Salini and Emanuele Garosci, with the coordination of the architect  Giorgia Cerulli. Design Hotels™ only member in Rome captures 400 years of architectural history, blending it with contemporary art and vintage Italian design.  The result: A ten suite triumph in which a new “Made in Italy” brand of unconventional luxury is presented. 

The residential façade of 69/70 Pasquino is set on a tall and narrow five-story building, perched on the edge of the bustling Piazza Navona, with the domed Sant’Agnese church just a stone´s throw away. Inscribed with “SATIS AMPLA QVAE SECVRITATE RIDEAT” (Latin for “big enough to give a feeling of security”), the building still presents a perfect picture of classic Italy. Set on the Piazza Di Pasquino, ten meters from the iconic Piazza Navona, this was the main market area in Rome for over 300 years, and now plays host to picturesque fountains as well as a number of lively restaurants, shops, and bars.

Beautifully bare walls and high oak beam ceilings contrast with clean-cut designer furniture, creating a signature rustic-meets-refined effect. Each of the ten suites, set over five floors, draws inspiration from a different Italian design legend from the 1930s to the 1970s, with original furniture from the likes of as Ico Parisi, Giò Ponti, Guglielmo Ulrich and Aristide Seguso, among others. Futuristic twinkling lamps and mid-century modern furniture contrast against naked wood, original parquet and tiled floors, and unfinished walls to create a uniquely harmonious aesthetic. “We’re presenting a very Italian sense of luxury, one with history, design, art, and a touch of whimsy,” says entrepreneur Gabriele Salini. Sophisticated, Fellini-esque interiors, a wine gallery, and a homey atmosphere abound, while a youthful, energetic spirit pervades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Info courtesy of DDL Studio

Images © G-Rough

G-Rough Rome: a nostalgic look towards the city with a contemporary twist

One Kleomenous: a digitally created facade landscape in Athens

One Kleomenous is a revolutionary new concept of a living space that was created based on cutting edge design and construction techniques and technologies. The investors and architects shared adoration for the beautiful hill of Lycabettus has been the driving force behind the creation of an innovative building typology.

On the city end of the plot, a vertical direct adjacency with an existing building instructed the architects to continue upon its form with a simple planar surface. The neighbouring with the city fabric was further honoured by using plain stucco, one of the city’s most popular materials. On the forest end of the plot, the harsh volumes of the cantilevered balconies, almost touched by the trees and plantation of the forest, needed to be geometrically manipulated in order to adopt to the fluid forms of the hill.

Omniview digitally created a facade landscape by assigning natural morphing transition volumes between the blocky balcony forms. They then sliced it up in multiple consequent sections to the creation of their cladding system members. They added no extra volume to the building, but unified the existing ones to the creation of a natural looking geometry.

The choice of Travertine marble was in fact very rational: they needed a material that matches in colour the characteristic beige stones which are the main building block for all of Lycabettus’s retaining walls. From the beginning of the project, the intensity of the building’s visual relationship with the Acropolis had marbles on the architects’ moodboard. Travertino was a perfect match in colour, but also a material that communicates very intensively its non artificial status due to its porous nature. Moreover, it is a very popular material in the surrounding areas 70’s modernist style condo developments.

The inner building’s skin colour has been carefully selected to match the colour of soil. The glass balusters have been selected to be extra reflective and thus carry the image of the sky and the trees around them. In general, the material pallete of the whole building was designed to refer to Omniview’s innate aesthetic conception of Attica’s indigenous landscape: its made of soil, stone and sky.

 

 

 

 

Info © Omniview

Photo credit © Omniview, Dimitris Graffin

One Kleomenous: a digitally created facade landscape in Athens

A historic brewery converted into a shopping center

The building of the commercial and socio-cultural center of Pivovar Děčín (Decin Brewery) is located in the former brewery of Decin Podmokly, Czech Republic. The core of the building consists of a two-story shopping mall with more than 60 shop units, summing up to a leasable area of 17,500 square meters. The main idea of the whole concept builds on using and preserving the original buildings in a harmonious balance with the construction of the new retail spaces and technical facilities. The two-story part of the new building uses the existing configuration of the terrain – the roof of the new building forms a continuation of the slope and serves as a parking lot for 400 cars. The historic brewery buildings originated in the mid-19th century to the early 20th century; therefore they have strong influences of classicism and industrial era style. These buildings with various unique spaces and structures have been renovated and reused for both classical and specific business units – a restaurant with microbrewery, playground, halls for one-off events, café, etc. The configuration is based on joining two previous inner courtyards situated at the center of the historical part. The new shopping areas are uniting these spaces with a tall and brightly lit gallery that functions as the access area to the shopping units.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Info and images © Studio acht

A historic brewery converted into a shopping center

White concrete poured into white timber merge in this house in Spain

Located in a setting of great beauty and valuable landscape, in front of the Mediterranean Sea, between El Portixol and Cala Blanca, the Sardinera House lays on the top of a hillside, lined by a headland entering the sea on a bay of turquoise waters. The house is oriented east-west to ensure the exploitation of the natural currents of air and sunlight. The east façade is protected by overhangs, while the west façade has an enclosure formed by a blade, motorised, steerable and adjustable, which protects in the summer of sunlight allowing for the passage of the breezes, in winter it is open by capturing the sun. In the large glass surfaces has been provided a double coating with thermal and acoustic insulation with solar control. In addition, the housing presents a wraparound of ten centimeters of extruded polystyrene, high density, which ensures a high thermal insulation. Under the outdoor swimming pool has been prepared an underground tank of 100,000 liters, where the rainwater is channeled subsequently for the use of irrigation. The groundcover vegetation of the garden is watered by exudation.
The species used in the landscaping are native to providing a high level of integration in the environment and rational behavior of the species, with a consistent and controlled consumption of water resources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Info and images © Ramón Esteve

White concrete poured into white timber merge in this house in Spain

A house inspired by the dune landscape of a northern Dutch island

The concept of the house is inspired by the dune landscape of one of the northern Dutch islands in which the house is embedded. The programmatic configuration is derived from the experience of walking through the dunes; it exposes a sequence of view points on the dune landscape: from submerged and intimate viewpoints to elevated and stretched out views over the sea. The different spaces of the house are connected to each other in a continues way by a spiral route. Split-level floors – functioning as large steps – wind along the central core (used as technical space, fireplace and bookcase) of the building. This spiraling route connects the most intimate underground private spaces (bedrooms) with the living, dining and relax spaces on the upper levels. Every level has its own unique connection with the surrounding landscape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Info and images © Marc Koehler Architects

A house inspired by the dune landscape of a northern Dutch island

TI.VEDO is an owl-shaped table and wall lamp

Despite its intimidating name, Ti.Vedo, a table and wall lamp shaped like an owl in white matt ceramic, has two attention attracting bright eyes. Ti.vedo comes to life when it is lit up, and in meantime when lit off, works as an decorative element.

 

 

 

 

Info and images © Matteo Ugolini

TI.VEDO is an owl-shaped table and wall lamp