Elevate Color-Blocking With Kast’s Pedestal Sinks

The U.K.-based bathroom brand (which has been a part of Kohler since 2023) takes color-blocking to the next level with pedestal sinks that conjure the idea of stacked cairns or tiered frosted cakes. Orme’s 3-foot-tall cylindrical base, in ribbed or smooth finish, is topped by a 16-inch concrete bowl, with an optional 22-inch-wide vanity shelf for maximum functionality. Handcrafted in Nottinghamshire of a concrete mix that incorporates locally sourced Derbyshire limestone aggregate, the playful freestanding plinth-plus-basin can be specified in any combination of Kast’s 28 signature colors, which, thanks to a natural casting process, never appear monotone. Instead, pinholes and other surface variations offer an organic aesthetic that pairs well with a pop (or two) of color.

Barbiecore Meets Bathroom In The Ultimate Pink-Powered Collab

You’d be hard-pressed to find a practical, private space in Barbie’s Dreamhouse. With fuchsia spiral slides and tinted-glass walls, the iconic town house shuns humancentric architecture in favor of the phantasmagorical. But in real life, Barbie embraces inclusivity, with a wide range of skin tones, body types, and disabilities both visible and not. Now, Mattel joins forces with Hewi, the German sanitary brand known for prioritizing intuitive usability and Bauhaus principles, to reimagine the latter’s 477/801 series in a Barbie-inspired palette of pink, with a dash of white and black. Nearly 40 products, from towel holders and soap dispensers to toilet brush sets and folding support rails, are made from durable, ultra hygienic through-dyed polyamide and adhere to universal design tenets. The two-tone hinged seat supports up to 330 pounds; folding support rails are optimally designed with tubular handles for maximum grip strength. Boasting clean lines and smooth monochromatic surfaces, 477/801 proves pink isn’t just for the dolls.

Chet Lo Teams Up With Rankin Editions On Futuristic Furnishings

Chet Lo was fresh out of London’s Central Saint Martins when COVID-19 lockdowns began, and he launched his eponymous label for a simple reason: fashion houses weren’t hiring, and he needed to pay the rent. Fast-forward five years, and the Asian-American knitwear designer’s signature barbed garments, worn by the likes of Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, and SZA, continue to garner hype, with a capsule collection for Tinder debuting last year and now, a foray into furniture. Lending a jolt of his tactile futurism to London-based Rankin Editions’ sinuous silhouettes, the collection encompasses the 6-foot-long Spiky Jet Lag chaise longue (available as a singular piece or modular sofa), 15-inch-square Spiky Red-Eye stool/side table, plus a selection of Italian-milled merino wool throw pillows, offered in red, dark navy, and cream. The resulting mashup of androgynous beauty and technorealism packs a punch.

Canvas To Carat: The Hidden Jewelry Talents Of Iconic Artists

French collector Diane Venet counts his visagelike Le Grand Faune pendant among her 220-piece trove of artist-made bijouterie. It turns out, several painters and sculptors shared this hobby. Pairings of their accessories and artworks in their respective mediums compose “Artists’ Jewelry: From Cubism to Pop, the Diane Venet Collection,” at the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach, Florida, through October 5. Among the ap­prox­imately 250 pieces is Alexander Calder’s primary-colored Spirales tapestry, which is joined by a belt buckle he designed, Lynda Benglis’s Cocoon wall sculpture, shown alongside a silver pin she crafted, and Niki de Saint Phalle’s voluptuous Nana figure, displayed with her Nana Ange brooch. Picasso’s pendant also appears, as does Venet’s coiled silver wedding ring, made by her sculptor husband Bernar, in lieu of a diamond.

Modern Flair Meets Art Deco In This New York Office

2024 Best of Year Winner for Small Financial Office

For new digs at 45 Rockefeller Plaza, Confidential investment firm sought a workplace that would balance gravitas with employee comfort. In response, Gensler strategically excised portions of a floor slab to create grand double-height spaces. The intervention also accommodates a glass-box mezzanine library carpeted in plush rust-colored silk-wool broadloom. On the floor below is the reception lounge, where a Nakashima Edition rug pairs with nesting Guilherme Torres tables and Minotti sofas, a setting that’s residential in feel. Throughout, metal accents such as Stickbulb’s nickel chandeliers in the 20-foot boardroom honor the landmarked 1933 New York building’s art deco heritage. Elsewhere, pockets of greenery provide the benefits of biophilia.

PROJECT TEAM: LAURENT LISIMACHIO; JULIETTE POUSSOT; JOE HYNN YANG; ALESSANDRA SHORTEN; NAOMI NOTTINGHAM; FANCH TSENG; ASKLY CHIRAYIL; KATHRYN MORSE; AUDREY STROM; TYLER DENNISON.

Descend Into This Earthy Spa In The Heart Of The Mediterranean 

Sunshine and subterranean settings may seem incongruent. But unifying contrasts is rote for Makhno Studio. The Ukrainian studio’s latest endeavor, Vroda Clinic & Spa, in Limassol, Cyprus, continues the firm’s boundary-pushing MO. “The challenge was to create a space that doesn’t resemble a medical facility,” explains founder and architect Serhii Makhno, who conceived a soft yet brutalist scheme for the 14,700-square-foot project, with clinical cosmetology rooms on the first floor and the spa zone below. The latter offers a dozen water-based experiences—freestanding bathing capsules, voice-activated rain showers, plunge pools, snow chimneys (for cold treatments post sauna or steam room)—housed in annular coves. In the VIP area, Makhno’s cloudlike ceramic pendant fixtures, 3-D printed walls in an earthy clay, and plumes of pampas grass, arranged in the Japanese ikebana style, soothe and calm. Throughout, recessed LEDs and radiant salt blocks gently brighten, while staggered plaster columns and communal marble seating recall ancient Roman bathhouses.

Explore Stylish And Sustainable Indoor/Outdoor Rugs

2024 Best of Year Winner for Environmental Impact: Flooring

Inuit and Tuareg communities are nomadic, moving in search of resources and pastures for their animals. “Since they cannot carry more than light-weight elements, essentially, they build their homes with fabrics, rugs, and cushions,” designer Alejandra Gandía-Blasco Lloret notes. Her Nomad collection of indoor/outdoor rugs and stackable cushions is inspired by such lifestyles, and made with 100 percent recycled PET—netting the collection a Best of Year Award for Environmental Impact: Flooring. The patterns themselves are based on Indigenous Indian designs that Gan explored during research into how recycled PET fibers behave on a loom. Those samples are now the fabrics of Nomad, in two chromatic ranges: Inuit in neutral, pink, and gray, and Tuareg, in blue, taupe, and white.

Layered Waves Of Brick Wow At This Theater Café In China

2024 Best of Year Winner for Commercial Café

Inspired by the island location, One Plus Partnership devised an oceanic scheme for movie theater café, Haikou Gaoxingli Cinema Coffee Bar, albeit without the typical blue focus. Instead, the 11,400-square-foot space in Hainan, China, is defined by red-clay masonry, with undulating, precisely layered waves of brickwork evoking sand dunes on the shoreline—a conceit that’s dramatic in its monochromaticity. Brick courses laid in stack bond rise from the floor, cresting into concave benches and bowed counter-tops. Other forms hang like stalactites from the ceiling. Despite the rugged materiality, the scene is still cozy, with twinkling LEDs tucked into the pre-existing core holes of the bricks and plump custom chairs with rustic-colored upholstery scattered throughout.

PROJECT TEAM: AJAX LAW; VIRGINIA LUNG.

Explore A Helix Of Corridors In This Sculptural Sales Center In Shanghai

2024 Best of Year Winner for Sales Center

Wrapped in interwoven, ribbonlike GRC staircases that make the building appear as if in constant rotational motion, West Bund Orbit in Shanghai, an exhibition hall with exterior by Heatherwick Studio and interiors by Wutopia Lab, is unabashedly sculptural. The sense of movement continues inside, where behind a swooping CNC-carved marble wall that forms a sort of secondary facade—a visual whirlwind set behind the curtain wall—is the main events space, with a ceiling that soars to 32 feet. From here, a helix of corridors and multifunctional zones unscroll, inspired by the idea of a vortex. They terminate on the top level, where, under a domed skylight, model structures are displayed to would-be clients.

YU TING; LIRAN SUN; PAN DALI; KUANG ZHOU; XIONG JIAXING; WANG SIZHE; ZHANG NAIYUE; VI CHEN; GU XIANG; ZENG RUI; GAO BOLONG (WUTOPIA LAB); NEIL HUBBARD; FRANCIS NG; CONSUELO MANNA; MARY SUEN; STUART MACALISTER; NICOLAS OMBRES; KACPER CHMIELEWSKI; MARCO MAZZOTTA; LEO CHEUNG; BRANDO POSOCCO (HEATHERWICK STUDIO).

Cook Like A Michelin-Star Chef With These Kitchen Designs

Having conceived modules for two Michelin-starred chefs, it’s safe to say cabinetmaker Søren Hvalsøe Garde knows his way around a kitchen. The foodie and founder of his namesake firm has spent years in the workshop alongside studio partner Søren Lundh Aagaard perfecting heritage techniques from the Danish masters: Finn Juhl, Mogens Koch, Hans Wegner. At Denmark’s 3daysofdesign last spring, the duo hosted “Crafted to Last,” an exhibition at their showroom curated by interiors stylist Pernille Vest. (Portuguese furniture brand De La Espada was a co-exhibitor.) Visitors encountered a range of hit products including copper/ash and new zinc/beech iterations of Framed, a kitchen design from 2020; Solid, a 2013 island defined by oiled heart-oak planks; and Minimal, a 1999 model made of elmwood with a quartzite worktop, its shadow-gap around the drawers forming an elegant graphic expression.