Category: Home & Kitchen

London firm Studio Varey Architects has simplified this Victorian terraced house to create a light-filled home in Notting Hill, with timber-framed skylights designed to catch the sun.

Set in the Westbourne Conservation Area, Huron House has belonged to its current owners for the last 25 years.

The overhaul of the 19th-century building started as a simple ground-floor renovation to replace the kitchen and improve the connection between the house and its garden.

However, exploratory works showed the four-storey property to be in bad structural condition, which demanded major improvement works but also gave the owners an opportunity to reimagine their period home.

The new brief to Studio Varey Architects included a full house renovation and interior design, with special emphasis on the bathrooms as well as custom joinery and the rebuilding of the 1990s rear extension to create a new open-plan kitchen and dining room.

“Our goal was to create an open-plan living space and bring lots of natural light into the ground floor, helping it to feel more inviting and better suited to entertaining friends and family,” the studio told Dezeen.

The property sits on a rough east-west axis, giving it the potential to achieve great light levels throughout the day, with the sun moving from the back of the house in the morning to the front in the afternoon.

“We wanted to ensure this natural light was captured through the architecture and design of the spaces,” the studio said.

On the ground floor, Studio Varey Architects removed a structural post that supported the building but divided the back wall.

This has been replaced with a steel frame, which allowed the studio to introduce slimline aluminium sliding doors that now run along the whole back of the property.

An existing skylight in the flat roof here was enlarged and framed with oak beams, pulling more light into the centre of the hybrid kitchen-dining space.

“Natural light cascades into the back of the house, while the introduction of oak beams created a feature that plays with the light as it travels through the property,” the studio said.

The whole staircase was replaced and positioned further away from the home’s large rear windows, creating a lightwell funnels sun into the lower floors.

On the top floor, an existing bathroom was fully renovated. Situated in the middle of the top floor it featured no windows save for a small skylight, meaning that light levels were totally inadequate.

Here, Studio Varey Architects cut back the ceiling to create a multifaceted surface clad in birch plywood – its colour knocked back with a wash of soft white – to bounce light around the space.

“We created a splayed ceiling that increased the height of the space, allowing for the playful integration of materials to emphasise the new angles,” the studio said.

“Naturally finished birch ply, leading from the skylight down into Tadelakt walls, beautifully captures sunlight creating a special warmth in the space.”

White oak can be found throughout the house in the form of built-in joinery from bookcases and wardrobes, as well as in the feature beams of the extension.

“We wanted to simplify the material palette and keep it light, both in appearance and number of elements we used,” the studio said.

“This was done to emphasise the quality of the materials themselves, highlight the craftsmanship of the work and establish a visual link between the interior spaces throughout the home.”

Polished concrete, used for the floor at ground level, is underlaid with underfloor heating and provides a durable surface that is easy to clean for the owners after walking their dog.

Other recently renovated houses in London include Sunderland Road House by 2LG, which features pastel-painted corniced ceilings, and Graphic House by Office S&M, which is defined by graphic shapes and bold hues.

The photography is by Taran Wilkhu.

Mint green materials cover this store for skincare brand Aesop, which Toronto studio Odami designed for the Palisades area of Los Angeles.

The Aesop store opened at the end of 2022 in the Palisades, a verdant corner of the city northwest of Santa Monica where several seminal modernist houses are located.

“Aesop Palisades Village takes inspiration from its natural surroundings, as well as the area’s vernacular architecture, where local buildings are delicately perched within a cascading landscape of lush ridges and valleys,” said Odami.

“Most notably, this includes celebrated local architect Ray Kappe’s own residence, a critical reference for the project.”

The same shade of pale green is used across the walls, ceiling, floors, display stand bases, and a sink for testing products in the centre of the store.

The velvet curtain and upholstery fabric is matched to the microcement surfaces, resulting in a monotone texture throughout the small shop.

Behind the full-height curtains, Aesop’s distinctive brown bottles are presented on shelves built using reclaimed walnut wood.

The dark wood is also used for countertops, individual shelves, and a storage unit that sits below a large product display set into one wall.

“Gently placed amongst this unfolding landscape, the various storage and display requirements are resolved as long horizontal planes, composed of either reclaimed wood or stainless steel, to create an interplay of levity and mass,” Odami said.

The sinks, which are lined with stainless steel, face a planter brimming with tropical foliage – a feature repeated perpendicularly along the adjacent side wall.

A skylight above the flora brings in extra natural light into the space, while a low bench offers customers a place to sit and pause.

“Together, the design for Aesop Pacific Palisades aims to create a biophilic environment, elevating the ritual of self-care through the presence and evocation of nature,” said Odami.

The Toronto studio was founded in 2017 by Spanish architect Aránzazu González Bernardo and Canadian designer Michael Fohring.

The team has completed a wide range of projects, from residential and restaurant interiors to a furniture collection, as well as another Aesop store located in Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood.

Aesop is renowned for the interiors of its stores, which each have a distinctive design relating to their location.

Recently completed include an outpost in London’s Marylebone that’s organised to reference a bookshop, and another in Cambridge, England that features handwoven bulrush shelves.

The photography is by Rafael Gamo.

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Project credits:

Client: Aesop
Design: Odami
General contractor: Precise Contractor Inc
Fabrication: Dayone Designs
Architect of record: WORD Design x Architecture
Engineering: RKM Consulting Engineers Inc

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Belgian designer Ramy Fischler has collaborated with Moët Hennessy and cocktail creator Franck Audoux to create the Cravan cocktail bar in the heart of Paris‘ Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Named Cravan, the bar for luxury drinks group Moët Hennessy was a collaboration between architect Fischler and restaurateur, author, historian and cocktail aficionado Audoux.

“The objective of the design was to amplify a story by Franck Audoux originating from his small bar in the 16th arrondissement of Paris and transforming it into a cocktail house over five levels in the centre of the capital – to imagine the creation of a new house of the Moët Hennessy group,” Fischler told Dezeen.

“This is not a one-shot but the beginning of a long adventure. It was therefore necessary to define a harmony, a coherence, between all the ingredients of the project, whether it is the decoration, the service, the music or the lighting.”

The space takes its name from the avant-garde poet-boxer and sometime art critic, Arthur Cravan, a free-spirited figure greatly admired by Audoux, with whom Fischler worked closely on this project.

“We share a common vision, based essentially on cultural references from literature and cinema, and above all a taste for scenic impact, framing a context, point of view, or narrative,” said Fischler.

“We started with the desire to freely assemble codes, eras, and styles to craft a new repertoire which made sense to us and expressed the essence of Cravan.”

Set in a 17th-century building in the heart of this historic and literary district, the space was arranged over five floors, with a small invitation-only space on the roof.

The building has separate bars, each with its own distinct character on the ground, first and third floors, while the second floor hosts the Rizzoli bookstore-cum-library, where guests can come with their drinks to leaf through and buy books. On the fourth floor, there’s another invitation-only atelier-style space.

According to Fischler, the whole project took its cues from the concept of the cocktail.

“I would never have imagined this project in its current state if it were not a question of drinking cocktails” he said.

“There are a number of ingredients that we blend together to create a unique whole, that seems offbeat but is actually very controlled,” he continued.

“I thought of the spaces as cinematic scenes, hence the individual atmospheres on each floor which form different sets. You can sit in front of the stage, on the stage, or behind the stage, depending on the experience and viewing angle you prefer.”

To create these different scenes, the project makes use of a wide range of materials, often reclaimed salvaged pieces including parquet floors, stone floors and wood wall coverings, painstakingly installed by a large team of craftspeople.

In Ramy Fischler’s projects, the textiles always play an important role and the practice features its own in-house textile designer.

“For Cravan, we tried to use as much re-used material as possible, and in particular textiles from Nona Source, a start-up that makes available leftover, unused fabrics from the fashion houses of the LVMH group.”

The practice strived to create a contrast between the warm and natural colours of the historic fittings, and the colder and metallic colours of the contemporary furniture and fittings, “which cohabit one alongside the other”.

“Depending on the level, the colour palette is totally different, and since no room is alike, and each colour has been chosen according to the universe we have sought to compose,” said Fischler.

All of Cravan’s furniture was custom designed and Fischler’s holistic approach extends to the cocktail glasses, which the practice designed for Cravan and which are displayed in the library.

“Rather than creating new shapes, we preferred to select, from the history of glassware over the past 300 years, the models that we liked and that we wanted customers to rediscover,” explained Fischler.

Other recent bars featured on Dezeen include an eclectic cocktail in Los Angeles designed by Kelly Wearstler to feel “like it has been there for ages” and the Ca’ Select bar and distillery in Venice.

The photography is by Vincent Leroux and Alice Fenwick

The kitchen can be a blank canvas on which you can paint your masterpiece. And 2023 has been an exciting year, pushing the envelope of kitchen design towards innovation and new ways we look at style. Technology and design are becoming one in the same as modern design is influenced by providing the homeowner with a perfect blend of minimalistic and functional options. And while we are well into 2023, we’re now able to identify new and exciting, trending kitchen elements. While we could go on about each aspect, today we’ll focus on an often-overlooked element: accessories. Accessories are often an afterthought, but they can offer a lot to your remodel. Whether it is trying all your elements together or building towards the aesthetic you’re developing. So, without further ado, let’s look at some accessories you can incorporate into your next 2023 remodel that’ll turn heads. 

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Standard counter height is a widely accepted measurement that is designed to ensure comfort for the majority of tasks. Standard counter height is typically 36 inches. It represents a careful balance between comfort and practicality, ensuring that the kitchen counter height is appropriate for a wide range of kitchen activities.

Some designers and homeowners do not follow this conventional rule in their own space for both ergonomic and aesthetic purposes. Find out why standard counter height may or may not be the best choice for your kitchen.

What is Standard Counter Height for the Kitchen?

The standard counter height in an average kitchen is 36 inches high, which is a combination measurement of cabinets with countertop. Kitchen cabinets measure 34.5 inches high topped with average countertops that are 1.5 inches thick. This overall standard height is used in kitchen designs because many experts believe that it provides ergonomic comfort and functionality for the majority of household members.

Standard Counter Height and Ergonomics

Standard counter height is about providing the best ergonomic design for average human beings. Ergonomics are directly related to countertop height as each person has a comfortable working posture that helps to minimize strain, maximize workflow, and increase accessibility.

Some designers question the wisdom of the 36-inch countertop height and believe that it is too low for many people today. Standard countertop height was first set in the 1930s when men and women were, on average, several inches shorter than they are today. Today, the average height of males is 5 feet 9 inches and women 5 feet 4 inches, compared to 5 feet 7 inches for males and 5 feet 3 inches for females in the 1930s.

Based on today’s average heights, many ergonomic experts question if standard counter height is still best. This is especially true when they consider the wide ranges in height across men and women. Instead, they believe that the best height for counters is anywhere between 32-39 inches depending on the user’s height.

Ergonomic calculations suggest that the way to calculate the best working counter height for someone is for the person to hold their arms over a surface at a 45-degree angle. Measure 3-4 inches below their arms to calculate their ideal counter height. But even if you have calculated your best counter height and it deviates from the standard counter height, it may not be worth the extra time and expense that it will take to create a custom counter height.

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Reasons to Follow Standard Counter Height Rules

Complying with standard kitchen counter height offers many benefits in terms of functionality, aesthetics, and home value.

Ergonomic comfort and accessibility for most people

The standard counter height of 36 inches splits the difference between tall and short counters. This countertop height will not provide everyone with the same level of comfort, it is still workable for human beings of all different heights.

Consistency in design

Standard counter height contributes to a cohesive and balanced kitchen design. This countertop height provides a consistent look when integrating standard appliances like ovens and dishwashers.

Resale value

Adhering to standard counter heights contributes positively to your resale value. Most prospective buyers will value standard height over specialized countertops as they will likely not be the same height or have the same special needs or kitchen goals as the home seller.

Multifunctional use

Standard counter height supports all the many activities that take place in the kitchen. Kitchens are the heart of the home where we cook, socialize, do homework, dine, do crafts, and play games. Standard counter height provides the most flexibility for all of these tasks.

Wide range of possibilities

Manufacturers create most kitchen design elements from cabinets to appliances with standard counter height in mind. This means that you will be able to find more options when you follow this counter height. Replacing appliances that break is also easier when you stick with standard kitchen counter height.

Budget constraints

It is overall less expensive to use standard counter height because there is less customization involved. Buying custom appliances that work with non-standard counters tremendously increases the cost of the overall kitchen.

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Reasons to Break Standard Counter Height Rules

Adhering to the standard counter height may be an easier option, but there are certain situations where deviating from the standard counter height might benefit your family or your kitchen design.

Personal ergonomic considerations

Men and women that vary from the average by a significant degree will benefit from counters of a different height. Adjusting the countertop height in your kitchen will reduce the strain that you experience carrying out all of the multi-varied duties in the kitchen. This is even more true if you spend a significant amount of time in the kitchen or plan on living in a particular space over a long period.

Personal needs or preferences

Some household members spend vast amounts of time in the kitchen because of their work or because of personal desire. For those who spend hours in their kitchen on particular tasks, it will benefit them to adapt their kitchen to their specific needs.

Cultural or regional variations

Specific cultural or regional characteristics can be accommodated with countertops of different heights. For people whose cultural heritage involves intricate food serving and preparation, they might be more likely to adapt their countertops to this type of food.

Multigenerational living

Some homes feature family members of several generations. It may be appropriate in these situations to modify the counter height in some areas. This will allow both children and elders easy access to some counter space.

Adaptive needs

Family dynamics and needs change over time. Some family members have mobility challenges or need wheelchairs to facilitate movement. Adapting some countertops will allow these family members to accomplish daily activities without help.

Aesthetic considerations

Some homeowners will prefer a non-standard-height kitchen countertop or area for aesthetic reasons. This could be part of a specific design style or you might want to incorporate certain pieces in the kitchen that work best with non-traditional counter heights. Unique counter heights do create more visual impact than standard countertop heights.

Do All the Kitchen Countertops Have to Be the Same Height?

The short answer is no. Countertop height can be varied throughout the kitchen based on specific needs, purposes, and aesthetic considerations. In fact, this might be your best strategy for accommodating your kitchen if you need a particular counter height without breaking the bank.

The cost for specialized kitchen countertop height can be expensive, so modifying just part of your kitchen, like the island, is more cost-effective. You can either modify an existing cabinet or buy a unique piece and modify it yourself. This will not just save your back and shoulders as you work to prepare food, but it will give your kitchen an attractive custom look.

Should You Use Standard Counter Height or Not?

Deviating from standard counter height is a complicated decision involving the careful consideration of several factors.

• Personal comfort – It is not wrong to prioritize your comfort in the kitchen. Consider your height, posture, and physical limitations when deciding on a particular counter height, especially if you spend a significant amount of time working on the countertops.
• Household members – Take into account the members of your family that use the kitchen regularly. It may be best to create a compromise countertop height if you have members of your family with varying heights that use the countertops. This argues in favor of a countertop at least close to standard counter height.
• Kitchen function – Consider all the ways you use your kitchen. Choose a counter height that is an average height if you use your kitchen for many activities. Another height may be appropriate if you use your kitchen for just extensive food prep and cooking.
• Architectural constraints – Examine the layout and design of your kitchen. This will help guide choices in determining countertop height possibilities and constraints.
• Budget considerations – Non-standard counter heights will increase your kitchen costs as this is a specialized option. It will increase the costs for cabinets and for appliances that fit. It is more cost-effective to use standard counter height and there are more modular cabinet design options available for this height.
• Potential resale – You may want to reconsider a non-standard counter height if you are planning on selling your house in the foreseeable future. A specialized counter height may make your home less attractive to people for whom this height does not work. You will also not recoup the cost associated with the specialized countertops if you completed the design in the recent past.

 

Global team NWDS took a spontaneous approach to designing the Tons fashion boutique in Pittsburgh, which contains a mix of modest materials and iconic furniture pieces.

The Tons store in the city’s East Liberty neighbourhood occupies a long, narrow building with its shorter side facing the street.

Formerly an atelier, the two-storey structure was reimagined by NWDS to create a light-filled destination “where high-end fashion meets art and design”.

“Inside is a spacious and light-filled interior that now hosts a multifunctional venue designed to meet the needs of a modern-day sartorialist equally interested in fashion, art, and culture,” said the group.

Designing the interiors of the 400-square-metre space involved dividing up the floor plan into several distinct areas that all flow together, but serve different purposes.

Throughout the various retail and office areas, a selection of unexpected materials were combined and layered.

Immediately through the glass front door is a lobby where new collections are presented.

Here, product displays were built from concrete breeze blocks, while the upper walls above the clothing rails were dressed in transparent plastic curtains.

The ceiling above was covered with metal tubes of different lengths and diameters, and gives way to a double-height space where tall tapestry-like artworks by Sasha Brodsky hang over opposite walls, and white paint was seemingly dragged across another.

“There was a lot of spontaneity and many design decisions taken on site: some surfaces were uncovered and left in an unfinished state, and some were splashed with white paint,” NWDS said.

Further along, fitting rooms are lined up behind black and white streaked partitions to one side, facing a room defined by glass panels that hosts monobrand products.

Towards the back, a lounge area that also displays shoes is reached by descending a short flight of stairs, which run parallel to a raised, built-in seating area.

The lower floor level in this space results in a higher ceiling, which NWDS took advantage of by extending a mural the full height behind a wall-mounted shoe display.

A staircase at the very back leads to the upper storey, where retail displays and office areas for store employees sit side by side, and a photography studio is in full view.

“Inside Tons, the client space and the workspace are blended,” said NWDS.

“Buyers and managers have their work desks right next to the sale rails on the first floor, and store visitors are welcome to take a peek at the fashion photo shoot happening right there at Tons.”

Throughout the store are a selection of iconic furniture pieces that continue the theme of unexpected materials and functionality.

They include metal-mesh Hi Tech armchairs by Piero Lissoni, a Mate chair by (A+B) Dominoni, Quaquaro that doubles as shelving, and Frank Gehry‘s compressed cardboard Wiggle Chair for Vitra.

“An interior comprising modest materials is a backdrop for high-end Italian furniture pieces, a collection carefully curated by the NWDS team,” said the designers.

NWDS was established in 2013 as a team of architects, designers, curators and researchers from cities including New York, Tbilisi, Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Yerevan, Lisbon and Dubai. The group’s projects span residential, retail, hospitality, culture, exhibition design and more.

Other recently completed boutiques that feature unusual materials include the Boyy flagship in Milan, which reveals layers of the store’s history, and a Parisian jewellery store featuring rippled sheets of acrylic.

The photography is by Ekaterina Izmestieva and Alexandra Ribar.

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Project credits:

Design concept: NWDS
Supervision and project management: Brnz Bureau
Lighting design: Natalia Markevich
Art: Sasha Brodsky

US studio Atelier Cho Thompson has redesigned the shared spaces for an office building in Boston, borrowing shapes and materials from its history for new interior elements.

The project involved reimagining the communal areas at 179 Lincoln Street, a full-block building in the city’s Leather District that was constructed as a shoe factory in 1899.

Atelier Cho Thompson looked to this history to guide the design of areas at the margins of the building, including the under-utilized lobby space, a dark central core, and empty pocket spaces on each of five floors – all totalling 8,000 square feet (743 square metres).

“We unearthed and amplified the building’s rich history while creating a space that is responsive to the needs of the post-pandemic workplace,” said studio founder Cho Thompson.

Work began with removing the layers of previous renovations, including vinyl tile and commercial carpet, which had left areas “dark and generic”.

The team uncovered original terrazzo floors in some areas and worked with experts to restore any sections that were damaged.

They also looked to the arched geometry and detailed ornamentation of the building’s historic facade for interior design cues.

The arches are repeated in the lobby as grooved patterns across the hand-troweled plaster walls, and again at a smaller scale around the white oak front of the marble-topped reception counter.

“With a modern sensibility, we developed a language of detail that brought elements of the exterior into the building’s core,” Thompson said.

“In that transformation, we brought a playful spirit, bringing massive forms down to human size and creating juxtapositions of materials, patterns, and scales.”

Shiny black floors contrast the pale colour palette used across all other surfaces, while brass – chosen to match the building’s mail chute – provides a bright accent on railings, drawer handles and other details.

Lighting fixtures by Lam Partners comprise globe-shaped components attached to thin brass supports, in a variety of linear configurations.

In other “in-between” communal areas, red brick walls and columns are exposed beneath skylights.

A series of brass-topped counters are scattered through these spaces, creating spots for casual conversation between colleagues.

Banquettes and benches also provide opportunities for group and collaborative work outside of typical meeting rooms.

These are upholstered in dusty pink leather as a nod to the building’s shoe-making past.

“This project responds to the changing landscape of office life by offering opportunities that go beyond what we can experience in only working from home,” said Thompson.

“With a hospitality approach, the spaces of the project offer a fresh, welcoming, and inclusive place to spend time with colleagues.”

Reimagining historic buildings as contemporary workplaces is a common challenge for architects and designers, and refreshing communal or public-facing spaces is typically an impactful place to start.

Similarly, GRT Architects overhauled the entrance to the art deco Fashion Tower in New York, restoring its facade and modernising the lobby.

The photography is by Jared Kuzia, unless stated otherwise.

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Project credits:

Client: EQ Office
Architect: Atelier Cho Thompson
Lighting designer: Lam Partners

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Visualisation artist Charlotte Taylor discusses how she is translating her digital design work into built architecture projects for the first time in this interview.

Taylor is the founder of 3D-design studio Maison de Sable, where she collaborates with other 3D designers on renderings of imaginary, fantastical interiors and buildings.

Recently Taylor’s designs have become less fantasy-driven and closer to real spaces, with some of them set to get built as physical architecture projects.

“In the long term, I’d like to move more into architecture,” Taylor told Dezeen.

Having not pursued formal architecture training, the designer believes there should be more non-traditional pathways to designing buildings.

“I didn’t train in architecture at all,” she said. “I think it would be great if there were more entries into architecture because it’s such a hard career to get into.”

“I’d like to think that there’s hope that you can get into building physical spaces through unconventional means.”

One of Taylor’s designs due to be built is Casa Atibaia, a house that was originally conceived as an imaginary project in collaboration with designer Nicholas Préaud.

The duo imagined the house situated by the Atibaia River in São Paulo, creating a digital model of part of the riverbank based on information from Google Maps.

From this, Taylor and Préaud designed a concrete and glass fantasy home raised on huge boulders, the interior of which features on the front cover of Taylor’s first book, Design Dreams, published last month.

Although the project was not originally intended to be built, Taylor is now in the process of finding a plot of land suitable to actualise the design.

Taylor has also collaborated with architectural designer Andrew Trotter on a house in Utah, which forms part of Trotter’s wider design for a hotel and retreat centre named Paréa.

The house, which is currently under construction, was designed to blend into the desert landscape with large spans of glazing and walls finished in lime plaster.

According to Taylor her fictional designs have received a mixed response from architects, with some saying that “in the real world, it doesn’t work like that”.

But for Taylor, not having an architecture degree and exploring spatial design digitally without being constrained by lighting, noise, safety and budget requirements allows for more creativity.

“It acts as a sort of creative playground for me in which I can test out all these concepts and see how they work visually,” said Taylor.

“Then bringing that into the physical world and working with engineers and architects, it becomes pared down.”

“I think not having architectural education makes you find different solutions or ideas to bring to the real world that wouldn’t have come from just designing an actual space,” she added.

The designer mentioned that her design icon Carlo Scarpa also never became a licenced architect.

“My icon, Carlo Scarpa, never had his full qualification, so there are little stories that inspire me, but the general thinking is quite rigid – this particular entry is a bit frowned upon from what I’ve experienced,” said Taylor.

Having learned most of her design skills from experimenting with digital design and collaborating with other designers, Taylor describes herself as “self-studious” and encourages other designers to create work that they feel best represents themselves.

“Strive to build a portfolio that excites you and represents you the most,” Taylor said.

“Through building a portfolio and working with 3D designers and architects was how I learnt – it’s very research-heavy.”

Taylor’s Design Dreams book features 3D designs of buildings and interiors created by herself and other artists.

The curation includes fantasy-like environments as well as renderings of interiors that appear like real, tangible spaces.

“[The book] became a space in which to share my personal projects, the artists I work with and work I admire around the field of interiors and architecture,” said Taylor.

Although most of the images are already widely shared online, by collating them all into one volume Taylor hopes readers will enjoy getting lost in the printed format.

“The same way that the Instagram page acts where people go to get lost in the images, to have that in a physical format means you are able to spend more time in detail than you can on a phone screen,” she said.

“To take something digital that doesn’t exist in the physical world and bring it to print was quite important for me, to see it in that way,” the designer added.

Although they work in the digital sphere, Taylor maintains that 3D-visual creators play a part in interior design trends.

“The arts trends that happen in 3D gradually make their way into interior spaces, and it’s really interesting to see the Pinterest effect,” she said.

“People love to collect images and make their ideal moodboard with them, and these spaces really play into that. People are constructing their own ideas and making architecture and interiors more accessible rather than something very professional.”

In her own interior visual designs, Taylor includes elements from her actual home to make the spaces feel more relatable than traditional architecture renderings.

“It’s down to the construction of the images, they have this sort of lightning and familiarity, and we always put little props that will often be things from my home,” she said.

“These little details make it lived-in and more relatable versus traditional architectural visualisation, which can be very sterile and not aesthetically relatable.”

Taylor has also previously worked on various NFT projects, including a video artwork informed by an OMA-design sculpture and NFT capsules that contain digital images of fantasy architecture projects.

The images are by Charlotte Taylor unless stated.

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