Inspiration Archives

Paths and pattern

This floor design is a great idea to create a calming focal point for large atriums.

Redefining the hotel experience

The Swiss hotel by Null Stern has been designed to ‘put the guest at the centre of the hotel experience and to focus on the intangible by reducing everything else to the minimum.’

Light-emitting wood at Cabrini Hospital Malvern

How can digital fabrication enhance traditional craftsmanship?

Using CNC machines to reproduce a one-thousand-year-old style of Japanese joinery.

Danish dining

As strong advocates of reclaimed and recycled materials, this Danish restaurant designed by Genbyg ticks a lot of boxes. Whether it’s the re purposed windows slotted together to create a large central plant filled greenhouse, the shelves behind the bar made from file drawers salvaged from Denmark’s National Museum or the lamps formed using old milk cans, we love the care taken by the design team and founders of Vakst to create a space built on principles of environmental sustainability.

Breathing Colour

Breathing Colour by acclaimed Dutch designer Hella Jongerius at London’s Design Museum, is an installation-based exhibition that takes a deeper look at the way colour behaves, exploring shapes, materials, shadows and reflections. The way we experience colour depends on the quality of light. However, the quality of light especially daylight, changes throughout the day. To reflect this, the exhibition includes spaces and installations that explore the relationship between colour and light at different times of the day.

Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Advanced Paediatric Care Pavilion

Perkins + Will have employed evidence based design techniques to meet the heeling needs of the children at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Advanced Paediatric Care Pavilion. The building is divided into three distinct zones- family, patient and caregiver though all three flow together seamlessly. ‘Wonder Rooms’ throughout the hospital encourage children to take their minds away from their illness or injury allowing them to interact with tactile textured surfaces and other playful objects for a multi-sensory experience.

Community kitchen

The most beautiful soup kitchen you did ever see designed by Ilse Crawford.

“The brief was simple: to make it beautiful, a universal pleasure that is often missing from social projects,” she continued. “This not only brings dignity to the space but also – rather more pragmatically – makes a space that is welcomed by the community and attractive to hire after hours.”

Lighting up Mental Health

‘Citizens with the greatest need for comfort and reassurance are subjected to hostile-looking environments with none of the finesse and subtleties we would wish in order to provide convivial surroundings.’

A great article setting the benchmark for mental health facilities. It is rare to see pendants suspended in a mental health establishment so it is brilliant to see it done successfully. Pendants were designed to be soft and unbreakable with a diffuse shape, suspended from the ceiling using low tension nylon wire, which break easily with any weight placed on it, therefore obviating ligature risk.