Joao Morgado shared with us one of his recent architectural photography – BAKERY in Oporto by Paulo Merlini.

+ Design statement from Paulo Merlini

We believe that if we can correctly control the stimuli that enters the brain, we can influence the state of mind of the user, making him happier.

We created three different environments so that the costumer can select the space that fits better to his or her mood, rather than have to adapt itself to an imposing environment. This way we provide a more emphatic place and consequently amplify three times the commercial potential.

But a customer isn´t one till he gets in. How could we get him inside?

+ Project facts

Architecture: Paulo Merlini
Location: Gondomar, Porto – Portugal
Area: 460 sqm
Photo credits: João Morgado – Architecture Photography

courtesy Joao Morgado

courtesy Joao Morgado

courtesy Joao Morgado

courtesy Joao Morgado

courtesy Joao Morgado

courtesy Joao Morgado

+ All images courtesy Joao Morgado

The multidisciplinary design workshop THiNC – Héctor Esrawe + Ignacio Cadena – has intervened in two spaces in the exhibition Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting at the High Museum in Atlanta.

courtesy THiNC

courtesy THiNC

The exhibition presents the work of the two artists, as well as a series of photographs narrating Frida and Diego’s life together and passion for one another. The two spaces intervened in by THiNC are profoundly inspired by the personal relationship between the two artists, and by their work. In the intervention, THiNC used as motifs two colours that are representative of the work of the artists: yellow and red.

courtesy THiNC

courtesy THiNC

Yellow

"Insanity, disease, cowardice, part of the sun and of joy!
Frida Kahlo

This space, which is entirely saturated in yellow, focuses on an archetypical local chair as an element in the exican colonial heritage, and a frequently recurring object in the private and personal spaces inhabited by Diego and Frida.

The repetition of the element creates a large-scale sculpture that is full of texture and geometry, which is homogenised by the colour yellow and alludes to the sun and happiness.

courtesy THiNC

Red

Blood? Who can say?
Frida Kahlo

This space – steeped in the colour red – is inspired by the close relationship between Frida and the bed to which she was confined for much of her life, due to the injuries she sustained in a tragic accident at the age of eighteen. It was on this item of furniture – and with the help of a mirror that she had installed on the bed's canopy – that Frida created several of the self-portraits in which she recorded her suffering.

The colour is reminiscent of these feelings, and it also evokes Diego in the colour of the Communist Party.

These two intervened spaces translate into contemporary language a part of the life and work of the couple, at the same time that they explore the limits between colour, sculptural installation and functional space.

+ About THiNC

THiNC is a multidisciplinary design workshop that brings togethermethodology, creative talent, research and experience to develop projects in which the creative processes are the added value that produce unique, integral results.

THiNC is under the direction of Industrial Designer Héctor Esrawe, who runs Esrawe Studio, and Ignacio Cadena, Creative Director at Cadena + Asoc. Branding.

+ All images courtesy THiNC

MKV Design has completed the Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest.

Our aim has been to impart a renewed personality to the hotel, by working with the scale and volume of the existing building, it has been possible to celebrate its form while creating spaces that responds to the varying desires of guests through day and evening, on business or at leisure, leaving a unique and lasting impression upon them all.

MKV Design

courtesy MKV Design

courtesy MKV Design

courtesy MKV Design

courtesy MKV Design

courtesy MKV Design

courtesy MKV Design

+ Design statement from MKV Design

The public areas of the Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest have undergone a remarkable transformation by MKV Design, the hotel's first major refurbishment since it first opened in 1992. Designed originally by the renowned Hungarian architect, Mr Jozsef Finta, and named after the Renaissance King Matthias Corvinus who established Budapest as a European centre of art and culture, it was the first internationally branded hotel to be established in the city after the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and a significant symbol of Budapest's re-emergence on the European stage. However, over the years, the interiors had come to need new life and distinction in a way that would meet the expectations of luxury hotel guests in the first quarter of the 21st Century. MKV Design's courageous vision for the public areas firmly places the hotel in the present, enhancing the dramatic scale of the interior yet also creating a sequence of unique spaces that are inviting and exciting for overseas guests and local people alike.

The lobby with its soaring nine metre volume up to a glazed roof has become a glowing expanse that amplifies its scale and harmonises the existing shapes and levels. Its light now shines beguilingly through the glazed front façade, and the space flows from the main porte cochère to reception, offering views through the café and restaurant to the second entrance on the opposite side of the building.

The two dominant columns have been over-clad to become magnificent sculptural forms, "contained" within a back-lit arch which frames the hotel beyond. New elements pick up on the circular glazed roof – for example, the patina of the marble flooring, the shaping of the portal walls and a circular seating area in the heart of the lobby. From here, guests catch glimpses of other parts of the ground floor reflected in glass and mirrored panels designed to play upon their curiosity and draw them further into the hotel.

Reception takes the form of elegant padded leather desks, increased in number from two to four; when the extra desks are not needed, they slide into a full-height timber wall treatment.

Key to the designers' re-planning of the lobby was the replacement of the staircase leading up to the first floor function and meeting rooms. A modern interpretation of the conventional grand staircase is now one of the first elements that greets guests upon arrival – a magnificent staircase which curves around the edge of the lobby and is as much a work of art as functional stairway. Constructed in an elegant brown stone against a glazed-over Crystalux wall, its decorative and perforated metal balustrade, reminiscent of the Art Nouveau styling for which Budapest is famed, sweeps up and wraps around the first floor where it looks over the lobby atrium.

MKV has captured space for a ground floor bar with its own street entrance. Blue Fox The Bar is intimate and clubby in ambience with its dark walnut timber floor and tables together with richly toned upholstery to the seating. Lighting is low and discreet, supplemented by the play of reflections from mirrored nooks and columns.

The deep glow of the cobalt blue acrylic bar surround, inset with mesh and suggestive of a soda siphon, completes the sophisticated vibe of the space.

Located within the central atrium, The Living Room is a modern interpretation of Budapest's traditional coffee house culture. This is a deeply comfortable area and a quiet contrast to the theatricality of the lobby, where guests are invited to take time out of their day to sink into comfortable sofas or high-back armchairs, read books and relax near the fire. A stand-out feature is the new patisserie counter distinguished by a back-lit coloured glass panel behind as well as by its display of tempting cakes and the aroma of warming pastries emanating from its oven. A soft colour palette in shades of orange, pink, yellow and green brings warmth to the space and feminises the rich timber envelope.

The restaurant, re-named ÉS Bisztró ('es' is Hungarian for 'and'), is where the designers' concept taps into the international trend for creating a dining experience that hints of locale and tradition yet is firmly rooted in a modern context. It is both farmhouse kitchen and stylish urban restaurant, traditional and modern, a breakfast room and a party venue, fun-loving and grown-up, 'Kanal es Villa' – spoon and fork. Guests can enjoy a contemporary, informal and relaxed experience reflecting the quality food offering and complementing the hotel's fine dining restaurant.

The floor is of rustic timber with modern tessellated tiles defining buffet areas, simple white tiles clad the walls and the hanging metal ceiling lights are a modern take on traditional central European café lighting. The centrepiece bevelled mirror screen, custom-designed in three curved parts, glimpses and plays with reflections of people as they pass; patterned tin ceiling tiles also catch a hint of movement below.

A large space as is necessary at breakfast time, the restaurant has been carefully planned to divide into three areas during less busy times and the mirrored screen obscures the restaurant beyond from street view. The front of the restaurant now has a greater connection to the terrace and street outside than with the hotel behind, and from the street appears as an urban street café rather than hotel diner, offering an altogether more attractive proposition for passers-by on the boutique-lined Fashion Street.

The Promenade is another striking intervention by MKV Design. What was previously only a circulation space is now reinvented as a destination in its own right – a chic and welcoming lounge where guests will go to see and be seen. The atmosphere changes completely between morning, when the Promenade has the quality of a conservatory bathed in the direct sunlight that shines through the atrium's glazed roof, and the evening when the space becomes full of mood and the design is shown to dramatic effect.

Seating areas are beautifully defined by inset mosaic "rugs" which fan out to meet the curve of the space, and lighting is low and atmospheric. The colour palette is natural and timeless: tan leather sofas,warm walnut panelling to the columns and ceiling, bronze tables and alcoves clad in honey-toned, deep-stitched Alcantara softly washed by down-lighters. It is here that guests can now absorb the most complete connection with the experience of the Kempinski Hotel Corvinus; although an internal space, by following the curve of the circular skylight, the Promenade offers glimpses of both entrances and all the spaces in-between as well as the sky above.

+ All images courtesy MKV Design