What do you do when Heineken asks you to design their first shop? Do you place furniture and displays into a given space? Tjep thought it would be rather more appropriate to pour furniture into the six monumental buildings located in the heart of Amsterdam, as if Tjep were filling a cold fresh glass of X-tra cold Heineken. This concept translates into displays that evolve seamlessly from the floors to the walls and ceilings in abstract dynamic wave movements. The idea of coldness is consequently applied through the whole shop design including the lighting which is 100% LED based (the first in Europe). You will also find a three story high fridge (possibly another record) containing all the Heineken bottles from different markets around the world. Alongside the fridge an ice crystal evolves along the wall containing over 600 Heineken bottles.

The design of Heineken The City claims to be “revolutionary”, full of the latest technical devices, including speaking mirrors, 3D TV screens, an ice wall and interactive pillars. This store is the first in Europe to be 100% LED-lit. Products and services available in Heineken The City are divided into four cornerstones: Refreshing Sounds Studio (music), Fashion, Tickets & Travel (for trips and events) and a Beer Shop (selling beer-related products). Highlights include limited edition sneakers (pictured), special beer bottles from Asia, the opportunity to create self-designed Heineken bottles, or book a fashion tour of Amsterdam. Heineken The City targets Dutch consumer and will be open seven days a week.

Source : Tjep, Dezeen

The right coffee table can pull all of your furniture together, creating a focal point for the room and a gathering place for conversation. This Mission coffee table does all that, with traditional American style. Mission-style design features include straight lines, side slatting and gently tapered feet. The single drawer features an antique-inspired brass pull while the wood is finished with a lovely brown stain that accentuates the wood’s natural grain. Made from wood. Imported. 17-1/2Hx37-1/2Wx22D”.

* Wood
* Antique-inspired brass pull
* Single drawer
* Imported
* 17-1/2Hx37-1/2Wx22D”

Source : Amazon.com

Simple and elegant storage bench is a great accent for your home to use for storage and to seat additional guests. 29813 Features: Crafted from durable wood Assembly required Finish: Wood Dimensions: 40″(W) x 14″(D) x 17.88″(H) Item Weight: Approximately 29 lbs.

Source : Amazon.com

‘My beautiful backside’ is a seating collection launched by Moroso during Salone ‘08. This range draws upon a miniature painting of a Maharani sitting on the floor of her palace, surrounded and supported by multiples of pebble shaped cushions.

The divans, available in four sizes, have a composition of floating back cushions with celebratory colours and shapes. They used a combination of wool fabric and felt, reminiscent of fine tailored English suits while the use of gold and silver foiling introduces a layer of Indian opulence.

Source : Doshi Levien

Philip Galanes was an entertainment lawyer, Chief Operating Officer for a children’s media company, and is now an author, avid furniture collector and consults on interior design projects. Philip now also consults on interior design projects for select clients. Recent projects include a House in East Hampton, interior design, furnishings and art for an Edward Durrell Stone townhouse, and a guest house/garden pavilion in Greenwich Village.

Source : Philip Galanes

Source : Woodson & Rummerfield’s House of Design

This is the largest project completed to date by the practice with an overall construction budget of $3 million, with a complete interior rebuild behind the existing façade. The building had a typical layout for a London Victorian town house. Their remodelling emphasised the division between the front of the house (the public side) and the back of the house (the private side) with the garden at the back of the house acting as a focal point for the private rooms. This involved changing the layout and location of the principal staircase and the subsequent spaces that lead off it. This change resulted in wider well proportioned spaces that are lit by the windows along the full width of the house. Space, light and the use of beautiful and luxurious materials were the tools to create the sequence of interesting and liveable spaces.

The house was totally demolished internally and now comprises: a family room within a new extension in the basement, as well as a kitchen and formal dining room; a drawing room and study on the ground floor; a master bedroom suite on the first floor; the second floor with three additional bedrooms; the top floor containing a guest suite and the plant room. The five floors are all linked by a central staircase that is lit overhead by a skylight.

This is the third project that the practice has completed for this client, an interior designer and art collector. The client’s aim was to create a theme of restrained luxury and eclecticism. Although the scale of the project was large for the practice, the understanding of detailing and use of materials that comes from a multidisciplinary approach was very beneficial. The client along with the architect and designer were keen to explore new materials as well as rediscover traditional ones. Voon Wong and Benson Saw have an excellent network of contacts from their product design experience to draw upon.

Venetian plaster was used extensively for the accent walls to provide a beautiful surface sheen. Custom balustrades and light fittings were cast in bronze. Acrylic panels, shelving and handrails concealed LED light fittings. This combination of new materials alongside the traditional was the key to creating a sense of understated luxury in a contemporary but enduring set of spaces.

The client chose fabrics and furniture and art pieces to emphasise this theme: rugs in silk, cashmere curtains, Swarovski crystal chandeliers and upholstery fabrics in silk velvets. Furniture ranges from Mies van der Rohe day beds, Jean Michel Frank sofas, Yves Klein coffee tables alongside many custom designed pieces by the client herself and the architect.

The practice worked closely with the landscape architects del Buono Gazerwitz to create the rear garden. The south facing garden is the focal point of the rear of the house and is created so that the architectural elements of the basement extension and the external spaces are perceived as a unity. In fine weather the doors of the Family Room can be completely pushed back so that the boundary between the inside and outside is completely removed. The patio seating, water feature, planting and central lawn all contribute to the creation of an outdoor room that is a harmonious extension of the extended basement.

Voon Wong and Benson Saw are a pair of London based designers that have been working together since 2001. Their work has been featured in exhibitions in London, Milan and Singapore. The Loop lamp from 2003 was nominated for the Compasso D’Oro and is now manufactured by Fontana Arte. The ELma vases from the EL light series won the OXO Peugeot Design award. They have completed architecture and interior design projects in Shanghai, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. As well as numerous projects in London and Singapore, their current major project is the master plan of a new factory for a high quality bone china manufacturer outside Beijing. They are also cooperating with this manufacturer to design a new collection of bone china table ware to be launched later this year at an exhibition in London.

Source : Voon Wong and Benson Saw

The Kube is dominated by one particular geometric shape in its interior design. Designers Raymond Morel and Christiane Derory have given the U-shaped building, located in a quiet street in Paris’s bubbling 18th arrondissement, a truly mind-bending revamp.

In addition to, obviously, lots of cubes, the themes of coolness and transparency, which are emphasised throughout the public spaces are offset by the warming sense of privacy and comfort that pervades the guestrooms. The courtyard of the revamped 19th century building features a see-through cube, which contains the necessary reception facilities in a suitable way.

Sashaying into the stylish bar, which serves as the heart of the hotel, you’ll find yourself transported to a rather futuristic space, complete with generously high ceilings, lots of stainless-steel gratings, floor-to-ceiling curtains and a long counter in tarnished silver to lean against and get your wits back about you. Cubic seats and lounge chairs accented in fur set off the black glass of the walls, which are animated in turn by a whole row of plasma-screen televisions.

Bars play a pivotal role in the hotel’s concept so you’ll find the “Ice Kube” bar on the mezzanine – held at a constant temperature of only minus 5°C, it is a whole universe entirely made out of 25 tons of ice. Once you take off the polar coat provided for the ice bar, you may well feel like heating things up again while swinging in Eero Aarnio’s 1968 ‘Bubble Chairs’ suspended in mid-air.

Oozing a sleek iciness in its public spaces, the 31 guestrooms and 10 suites of the hotel turn the heat up a little with warm touches added to the arctic-geometric theme. Black and white faux-fur curtains give the space a definite cuddly feel whilst readily living up to the chic provided by the pastel-coloured furniture by Raymond Morel in tarnished glass. Spinning the crystalline look further in the bathrooms, Philippe Starck’s aptly named ‘Jelly Cubes’ collection for Duravit of rectangular elements sits squarely with specially made glass cube showers made from matt the high-tech material Corian.

Source : Design Hotels

Voon Wong and Benson Saw are based out of London and specialize in interior and architecture design and produce furniture, lighting and accessories.

The interior of a Victorian terraced house on four levels is completely remodelled and extended to suit the needs of a family both as individuals and as a whole.

The house is arranged as a collection of spaces that are stacked to make up a series of floors and half levels. Each of these interlocking volumes has its own character and spatial quality in response to the need of the particular users.

The public areas are open plan whilst the private accommodation is designed as individual ‘apartments’ within the house. The glass/timber extension at the rear of the house is yet another of these volumes which is displaced externally; this joins a composition of interlocking volumes that make up the rear garden façade.

New window openings and translucent materials were deployed to channel light into the centre of the house. Materials are chosen for their tonal neutrality as well as their light reflective qualities.

Source : voonwong & bensonsaw