Montréal’s Café Constance by Atelier Zébulon Perron Mixes Elements for Lovers of Ballet

Located in the lobby of the building that is home to Montréal’s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Café Constance by Atelier Zébulon Perron is both stately and whimsical. It’s meant to serve those seeing performances, but the café is an event in itself. Vintage elements mix with custom ones in the 1,390-square-foot space. Walnut tables wind through the café in unexpected shapes, and custom blush lamps above evoke the motion of dancing skirts. Floral patterns are sprinkled in, alongside leather. Beveled glass, brass, mirrored elements, and velvet also make an appearance. “We adopted a theatrical approach in order to build a sort of spectacle that is really quite literal,” explains Zébulon Perron, founder and lead designer. Through Atelier Zébulon Perron’s design, the café becomes more than a place to eat and drink, serving as a space to linger, feel at ease, and enjoy the atmosphere.  

Randi Renate Creates a Permanent Installation in Elizabethtown, New York

Hiking the High Peaks region in New York’s Adirondack Mountains during the pandemic lockdown, Randi Renate was struck by the enveloping cerulean sky. It inspired the artist to create blue is the atmospheric refraction I see you through, a permanent installation now on the grounds of the Adirondack History Museum in Elizabethtown. Among the other influences on the 14-foot-tall, spherical structure are Renate’s studies in biology and oceanography, her myriad readings on distance, subjectivity, and connection, and Bluets, Maggie Nelson’s book-length ode to the color.

Renate began the sculpture by crafting a ceramic model, and then visiting the museum to pitch it to director Aurora McCaffrey, who not only agreed to host the independent project but also helped the artist successfully apply for a community grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. Those funds were supplemented by private donations, plus an estimated 1,500 hours’ worth of work contributed by several of Renate’s artist friends.

The wood rowboats found on the region’s lakes informed the work’s plank-on-frame construction, which is built from locally sourced Adirondack white cedar. Thin strips of the same timber were stack-laminated to make handrails for a pair of curving staircases cut deep into either half of the sphere, which is finished in celestial-blue casein paint. Visitors climb the steps in unison to meet at the top of the piece. “They’re encompassed by the walls, slowly disappearing within the sculpture on the sixth or seventh step,” Renate explains. And when they reach the summit, Hurricane Mountain, the closest peak, appears on the horizon.

Field Conforming Studio Creates a Sculptural Memorial to Home, Life, and Loss in China

Field Conforming Studio employs weathering steel for a sculptural memorial to home, life, and loss in central China. Take a look at the making of this intricate structure.

Constructing The Vanished House

For The Vanished House, a permanent steel installation in China’s Wuhan Shimen­feng Memorial Park, Field Conforming Studio began by translating a sketch of a basic pitched-roof home into a cardboard model scaled 1:10.

On it, founder and chief designer Quanchun Hu, who studied oil painting before earning his master’s in architecture, drew an interlaced network of thin lines evocative of ivy vines growing across a facade.

The model was then dismantled, scanned at high resolution, and, using Rhinoceros, turned into vector files that guided the manufacturing of the Cor-Ten structure.

After the plates of ¾-inch-thick steel were laser-cut, a process necessitating multiple machines cutting simultaneously in the factory, support insections and ornamental strips were brought to the site, where they were welded together.

8 installers led by Field Conforming Studio founder and chief designer Quanchun Hu

2,600 square feet

300 hours laser-cutting the Cor-Ten steel

15 days of installation

Field Conforming Studio designed The Vanished House for the second East Lake International Ecological Sculpture Biennale in 2021, but it is sited permanently at the tranquil Wuhan Shimenfeng Memorial Park cemetery.

Cor-Ten steel was chosen for its crimson appearance, which will darken with sun and rain, making the installation increas­ingly prominent, and for its strength, which can support an open-air structure without additional stab­ilization.

Some 30,000 people have visited the work, which is meant to recall a house covered in sprawling ivy and be a symbol of hearth and home.

Artist Elisa Passino Draws on the Art Deco Aesthetic in Her Latest Wallcovering for Astek

Combining graphic forms with soft pastels, the Astratta Miami collection was inspired by the Art Deco architecture of the titular city. Designed by Italian artist Elisa Passino for Astek, the Type II wallcovering includes touches of risograph-printed forms to add additional texture. Nine patterns—including Ocean Drive, Miami Springs, and Coconut Grove—are available in a few colorways each, including black-and-pink offerings and cobalt-and-bubblegum options. The line brings the distinctive architecture of an iconic beachside city to interior spaces, including commercial and hospitality projects. The digital print is made to order, the scale can be altered, and custom colors can be swapped in for the standard hues.

Incorporating a Parametric Installation, SKD Creates a Versatile Office for Soch Group in Mumbai

When Saniya Kantawala was only 22 years old, she established the interior design firm Saniya Kantawala Design (SKD), in 2014. Over the past eight years, SKD has since completed nearly 70 projects, including restaurants, residences, and offices. In every project, Kantawala has aimed to incorporate art inspired by India’s cultural heritage while creating spaces that enhance well-being. 

An office in Mumbai for Soch Group, an enterprise that supports Indian start-ups, integrates artwork, colorful furnishings, and plentiful greenery. The brief called for dividing and defining open work areas, as well as creating zones within the director’s area. Additionally, Soch Group’s leadership asked for shades of blues and shades of wine. Beyond that, SKD was given free rein. “The client offered us a blank canvas to create and innovate,” Kantawala explains. “And the Soch office is a warm and comfortable office space for a young, millennial workforce.” Bean bags are incorporated along the office periphery, furniture is upholstered in bright geometrics, and spatial elements emphasize the building’s natural light.

The thoughtfully executed elements add up to an elegant and versatile space. But the project had a tight budget and even tighter timeframe—less than two months, start to finish. The biggest challenge was executing a custom parametric installation that coasts and bends through the open work areas, main reception, and meeting pods. Assembled on site and requiring multiple iterations, the installation adds texture and definition to the 3,300-square-foot space. 

Calico Wallpaper Plays with Light and Patterns in Their Newest Endeavor, Glow

The New York–based wallpaper outfit founded by Rachel and Nick Cope, Calico Wallpaper, has long been inspired by global art practices, including traditional ones from Japan and Turkey. Their newest endeavor, Glow, is inspired by artists closer to home—including Light and Space legend (and California native) James Turrell. Squint and you can see vast fields of pale-colored bands gracing the wallpaper designs. Six colorways include the pink-tinted Flame and the gray-and-mauve Gleam, as well as Lumen, Float, Crosslight, and Bend. The product was created by experimenting with collage, mixing vellum and translucent Lucite, to create a distinctive and welcoming play of light and pattern. 

Architects Office Creates a São Paulo Apartment That is Both Warm and Minimal 

For an apartment in a leafy residential neighborhood in São Paulo, Brazil, the client had lived in the apartment for years. Ready for a refresh that could also accommodate work-from-home needs, they approached Greg Bousquet’s Architects Office, an architecture and interiors firm with offices in Brazil and Portugal. Led by Raphaell Valença and Vinicius Fernandes, the firm’s intent was to adapt new demands and create an apartment that was both for living and for working. “The project managed to meet the demand for refuge and meeting at the same time,” Fernandes says. “It presents the possibilities of living with well-being in contemporary times,” Valença adds. 

In the home office, Architects Office designed a custom desk and shelving. In the living room, iconic pieces mix with furniture from emerging Brazilian designers. Linen curtains help create warmth throughout, alongside wood tables, artwork, and soft textiles. Throughout the space, Architects Office worked to mix pieces together in a way that was both minimal and cozy. Individual pieces are distinctive and have personality, but together they create a home that is a sanctuary.

Diogo Aguiar Studio Creates an Ode to Adico’s Iconic Steel Chair to Celebrate the Brand’s Centennial

Inspired by the easy energy of seaside esplanades, the Portuguese chair has been an iconic fixture in Iberian daily life since furniture manufacturer Adico began producing the steel stacking seat in the 1920’s. (The joke is everyone in Portugal has sat in one.) To celebrate the centennial of the company, which has played a major role in the development of its hometown, Avanca, the enclosing city of Estarreja commissioned Diogo Aguiar Studio to create a commemorative monument in a municipal park.

The Porto-based architectural firm conceived Círculo Azul, a permanent installation comprising 40 of the ubiquitous chairs rendered in stainless steel, powder-coated International Klein Blue, and arranged in a 33-foot-diameter circle. Because the site regularly floods in winter, however, the chair legs are dramatically elongated, raising the structure 6 feet into the air and out of harm’s way. “Partially submerged, it creates reflections in the water,” principal Diogo Aguiar reports. At other times, parkgoers can access the lofty perches via ladders welded to the front legs, while the back legs extend outward like guy ropes supporting a circus tent. “It’s a monument designed to be activated by people,” Aguiar explains, and an intimate circle that offers an inviting place to not only come together, converse, and watch performances but also reflect quietly above the park landscape from a familiar seat with an inspiring new point of view.

California Artist Robert Irwin Transforms a 1960’s Power Plant in Berlin into a Visual Feast

After gaining success as an abstract painter, California artist Robert Irwin famously abandoned studio-based work in 1970. He has spent the subsequent decades creating installations that make innovative use of light to attune the perception of architectural space. Last winter, Light Art Space, a foundation in Berlin that commissions works involving luminosity, mounted Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin), the largest installation the now 93-year-old Irwin has created in Europe. His chosen site was the turbine hall of a decommissioned 1960’s power plant formerly serving East Berlin. Irwin transformed the soaring 88,000-square-foot hall, which is flanked by colonnades of concrete pillars and elevated metal catwalks, by inserting a 52-foot-square plasterboard partition two-thirds of the way down its 315-foot length.

Nearly 60 installers from six different companies worked for a month to erect the partition, each side of which was festooned with 240 fluorescent tubes in a non-repeating geometric pattern—white on the front, blue on the back. (The structure incorporated 1 1/2 miles of electrical cables.) According to Irwin, any part of the space altered by the emitted light became a part of the work. “The installation—monumental, freestanding, bold—matched the gravity and moment of the vast space,” LAS head of programs Amira Gad notes. To engage younger viewers, the foundation collaborated with educational consultant Ephra on children’s programming, which included having them lie on the floor in front of Irwin’s installation and color posters printed with the gridded pattern.

Delavegacanolasso for Tini Devises a Modular Showcase Garage for a Madrid Home

60 days. That’s the length of time Madrid-based modular home company Tini promises construction and installation of its units, which are designed by Ignacio de la Vega and Pilar Cano-Lasso, both also of architecture firm Delavegacanolasso. That estimate includes customization, and although there are two standard sizes for Tini modules—253 and 366 square feet—many clients combine them to meet their specific spatial needs.

For a Madrid residence, two units were joined to create a 560-square-foot showcase garage for the family’s 1948 Porsche 356 and 1959 Austin Healey 3000. The architects customized the modules to accommodate six lindens on the verdant site. “We adapted the width and length of both structures, so we had no need to touch the trees,” de la Vega explains. “As a result, from the first day the pavilion looked as if it had been there for years, totally integrated in the garden.”

The pavilion’s frame is weathering steel, while the 29.5-foot-long facade is composed of a trio of manually operated sliding doors with vertically oriented 2 ¾-inch-wide pine slats that allow light and air into the space. Interior plywood boards were painted a dramatic matte black to highlight the vintage cars, while the floor is a treated prefab concrete slab. The architects set down a pair of black Barcelona chairs and a custom pine side table to create a lounge area within the pavilion. Though less than 200 feet from the main residence, the garage feels light-years away.