Modern integration of different housing styles

The new housing project “Parklife*” was erected in 2010 on the former area of the Mercedes Benz garage in Salzburg Lehen. A new combination of living facilities was created, an old-aged home, assisted accommodation and family homes.

"The innovation within this project is to pick up proven elements, to transform them and to put into a new relationship. Thus a new forward-looking response to the urbanistic and architectural task could be given, so the Jury. The project has the potential to think further within the field of domestic architecture and simultaneously fulfills highest quality requirements."

(Jury, Europan 2003)

Starting point for the design of the whole complex was the idea of a homogenous urban perimeter block development to be brought into form by specific architectural operations.

Following this strategy a vertical separation into three layers was developed. The two elevated buildings for the upper part. Below them an exposed intermediate area is developed. The last layer is the topographically formed ground floor.

The assisted accommodation building only consists of sloped surfaces, which are forming new sloped triangle plains out of their intersection point. The residential building catches with its height of more than 32 m and is carried only by some slender pillars. The old-aged home is joining the parapets of glass and ALUCOBOND® up to the full-faced façade cladding.

+ Project facts

Project: Parklife*
Location: Salzburg-Lehen, Austria
Year of Construction: 2010-2011
Architects: Touzimsky Herold & Mehlem
Fabricator: ICC Fassadentechnik
Construction: riveted
Material: ALUCOBOND® white and anthrazite grey

The flaghsip stores in Milan, Pavia and Verona of the well-known italian brand of make-up were launched with a concept all made by Hangar Design Group and they mean the debut of Deborah Milano in the specialized retail.

In the heart of the Milano shopping area, at 58 in Corso Buenos Aires, was opened a few months ago the new Deborah Milano Store signed by Hangar Design Group, which was followed by the openings of Pavia and Verona, which enact the entry of Deborah Milano in the specialized retail.

Arranged on one level on 40 square meters, the flagship well illustrates the concept created by Hangar Design Group, focused on maximum emphasis for product, which becomes the only protagonist of the entire space.

Bright and airy, the store confirms the importance of the solutions about materials and colors choosen to return a appropriate mood to the needs of the client: the atmosphere is thin and neutral while the concept adopts a rational design and exhibition in an environment of great uniformity and visual unity, to emphasize the various shades and shapes of the cosmetics.

The store outside is candid, amplified by the reflective surfaces of the furnitures and the iridescent panels on the walls, which echo the vibrancy of the color fading in the neutrality of the variations of white. The interiors refuse any color variations to give space to the bright color of make up, true identity of the brand.

Rigorous and extreme formal clarity, the concept shows the perfect combination of being innovative and up to date of Deborah. These stores offer the full range of products, inclusive not only of the different collections of make-up but also the body and the men references. Conceived both a place of sale and a reference point where the consumer can find personalized advices, the store is a showcase designed to communicate the company's vocation for innovation.

The concept of the flagship store emphasizes the aesthetic dimension of the color and the packaging, spreading to most of the space devoted to the products displayed in series arranged in a visual rhythm of pictorial inspiration.

Stands on the walls, in neutral shades on a bright texture, the sign of the brand, which also appears in the outside mirror glass. Reflective material, brushed steel or polished, is also the façade, an explicit call to take care of ourself and to indulge in a full immersion in the Deborah world of beauty.

The bar-club is located where the balcony of the "Lumen" used to be: this former Lausanne cinema opened in 1908 then became the “ABC” in 1935. It was, at one time, one of the largest screens in Europe. In 1998, the cinema became the D! club, where the clubbing area took up the two spatial sections: the stalls and the balcony.

In 2012, the architects sas architecture and the client developed a "club within the club" concept for the balcony, separate from the D! club. They designed an intimate area both "rock attitude" and chic. The balcony's original volumes were made visible again and magnified, retaining the possibility of reverting to the original immense volume for specific events. The client's wish was for extreme flexibility of use and a very striking identity.

The architects played with the building's historic features as well as with its facetted geometry. They introduced reflection effects to splinter the existing space. The existing bar element was extended and tiled with tinted mirrors. It therefore became an impressive shining element connecting the full height of the former entry area with the former balcony.

Decor and lighting were developed with decorator Alexandre Boyer who repeatedly made reference to the cinema: Merry-Go-Round planes chasing each other 5 meters up in the air, tables recovered from former cabaret "La Belle Époque"; 2 colossal light fixtures from Le Havre, Normandy shipyards; velvet drapes; cinema seats; Ladies' decorated with "Dolce Vita" paparazzi paraphernalia; and a "Closer" movie atmosphere in the Gents'.

+ Project facts

Architects: sas specific architectural solutions
Decoration collaborator: Alexandre Boyer
Graphic collaborator: Audrey Dubussy
Civil engineer: Kälin & Rombolotto Ingénieurs
Photographer: Lionel Henriod / mc2

www.dclub.ch, www.sas-architecture.com

Joao Morgado shared with us his recent photography of a Night Club Eskada Porto designed by AAMD.

Drawing on themes from luxury, glamorous and trendy blends Eskada Club Porto stands for an invigorating atmosphere. Thought from a range of differently design rooms, each with its own special feature it has achieved a unique environment out of the mix between past, present and future.

In the buildings restoration, materials were carefully chosen to guaranty comfort and innovative design. Retaining the original features and characteristics of its stunning façade and blending them with modern European design, it stands out for an exclusive club in the nightlife of North’s Portugal region.

Original elements, such as the nude stone, architraves and coving have been restored and contrasted with modern, custom designed furniture, brushed and polished copper steel finishes and natural colors.

The light design trends for an exceptional visual experience. Through its minimalist elegance and implicity, it leads to a stimulating and refrained exuberance.

The result, taking the notions of reason and passion as a source, is a creation blending intimacy and community, function and fantasy, art and design, resonating in this modern definition of luxury.

+ About AAMD

AAMD is an architectural practice based in Porto, Portugal, and it’s by now responsible for making Portuguese people happier, glamorous and trendy, as it has created more than a dozen of the hottest clubs around this country.

We take fun a serious matter and clubs an expertise theme. Creating the latest trends in architectural plans and customizing furniture and lighting decoration AAMD have always stretched, and will continue to stretch, the professional boundaries to achieve the highest enjoyment.

Entertainment and well-being have emerged as the luxuries of our age, scarce and precious. In AAMD we are devoted to impose it upon our lives. In defining our own spaces we create our own manifestation of luxury.

Rejecting the trappings of traditional prestige and embracing the new luxuries of time and freedom AAMD will extend the limits of the nightlife.

Listen, AAMD has now been challenged to make Brazilian people happier in an already congenial social scene, can it be possible?

+ All images courtesy Joao Morgado