What struck me the most when I visited Koek & Zopie was the interior. It’s masculine with wood and steal details mixed with a vintage mood that’s modern at the same time. Going through my inspiration files I felt the office of designer duo Robin Standefer & Stephen Alesch of Roman & Williams is the embodiment of that aesthetic. Both designer have a background in the arts and met in the 1990′s while working in Hollywood as production designers and art directors. By looking at these picture you can just see and feel their designs tell a story of past and present. There names might not ring a bell but there projects will, two of New York’s most famous hotels, the Standard and the Ace Hotel.
I planned to post picture of other projects but then I found this really great interview which just explains it all. Do watch, Stephen Alesches sketches are worth the viewing alone. He still, until today, makes all presentation drawings by hand. Genius.
pictures where found here.
Built in Brussels, in the early thirties of last century, the private mansion of Baron Louis Empain by Swiss Architect Michel Polak was designed in the then prevailing Art Deco aesthetic. I have a weakness for the Art Deco movement which found it’s expression not only in architecture and interior design but also in industrial and graphic design, fashion and furniture. It’s considered to be an ornamental style (a dirty word when I studied architecture) but it just appeals (other dirty word) to me. I’m still stunned to see the eye for detail. Even the drains, doorknobs, lighting fixtures and heaters were carefully considered. Their aim was to design a total work of art. There is a richness in the use of materials, colours and textures, which resulted in unusual combinations as marble, polished granite, bronze and exotic wood, as depicted here. But i’m not the only one who fell in love with this aesthetic. Remember last week …when I took you to Malibu?
Since 2005 the villa is open to the public (after severe restoration) and is now the home of the Boghossian foundation: ‘making it a centre of art and dialogue between the cultures of the East and the West’. It is truly beautiful, a real aesthetic shelter, and so worth the visit.
All pictures by elisabeth for aestheticshelter
Pictures next week…Still figuring out how to describe the most beautiful house I saw in years. Have great weekend!
all pictures by elisabeth for aestheticshelter
It was built in 1929 for the Barcelona International Exhibition and it was THE point of reference for all my architecture teachers. When I started studying architecture I did not know one architect by name. Not a single one. I was quick to learn (thanks to a dear old friend) who Ludwig Mies Van de Rohe was. I have visited the Seagram Building in New York and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin but this struck a special cord.
pictures by elisabeth for aestheticshelter
