//Ideas

London-based design studio Brighten the Corners makes light of the messaging system now ingrained in our lives with their new set of posters aptly titled “Inbox.” From funny to feisty, the posters visualise 10 years of the design firm’s collection of emails, from the positive and amusing to the confused, the dull and the absurd!

“We’ve always kept ‘good’ emails with the intention of doing something with them,” says BTC founder Frank Philippin, “but it was a recent email thread that read - Please let me know if you don’t get this - that made us decide to share our back catalogue with the world.”

As well as an alternative documentation of Brighten the Corner’s last ten years in business, Inbox offers a glimpse into the practise of graphic design - a candid reminder of life’s ups and downs and a cheeky way to jazz up some office wall space.

Buy a set of the three A2 posters online for only £10.
BRIGHTENTHECORNERS.COM

//January 2010

//Travel

There are two types of people in the world: those who see the uneventful stretch after Christmas and New Year’s as time for rest and relaxation and those who deeply miss all the bustle and revelry and lapse into a bout of post-holiday blues. For those of the latter category, why not fill that empty void and cope with your post-December angst by celebrating Christmas all over again in St Petersburg, Russia? While Christmas falls on December 25th for those of us from the West, in Russia it is on January 7th. Take a sneak peek inside the largest and possibly most bewildering country on earth. Winston Churchill famously described Russia as a ‘riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’, and this remains an apt description of a place most outsiders know very little about.

The pastel painted city of St. Petersburg is one of World’s hidden gems. Considered to be the cultural heartbeat of Russia, it has a reputation of being at the centre of everything sensuous, luxurious and debauched. Hauntingly beautiful, it will capture and intrigue you with its mystery, then seduce and enchant you with its fusion of old European and Slavic charm. The city owes its creation to one man - Peter the Great. After taking inspiration from Holland and Amsterdam, it was his vision to build a European city in Russia. Described as Russia’s most Western city, and dubbed the Venice of the North, St Petersburg offers a balance of classical beauty and nature. It is admired for its enormous architectural buildings, expansive squares, alluring palaces, illustrious churches, tranquil canals and ancient bridges.

The city’s main attraction: the Winter Palace aka ‘The Hermitage’ doubles as Russia’s largest museum. Standing elegant and resolute on a vast stretch of royal concrete known as Palace Square, the sheer opulence of the palace is difficult to do justice with a description. The exquisite green and white baroque building is startling in its size and stunning in its detail. Host to one of the World’s greatest art collections, it houses some of the most famous paintings ever - including works by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Matisse and Cezanne. Since the fall of communism Russia has been changing and re-shaping itself, its boundaries and its culture. St. Petersburg is becoming very capitalist and consumer-friendly. Stretching through the city centre is Russia’s most famous street Nevsky Prospekt. This 4.5km buzzing social hub is a swirling mishmash of 24 hour colourful shops, restaurants, bars, art galleries and history. Russia to some may appear edgy and unnerving. Whilst a number of people still seem quite stone-faced and the language barrier does prove to be challenging, a trip to this timeless and elegant city is certainly rewarding. There are few places that balance bleak with beautiful like St. Petersburg. As the heart of the new Russia, it is certain to take your breath away.

SARAH RADHANAUTH

//January 2010

//Architecture

What do you do when you have a site so ‘weird’ that it restricts the building of your dreams? Well, how about taking some inspiration from Carapicuiba House, a mesmerising creation by acclaimed Brazilian architects Angelo Bucci and Alvaro Puntoni. Located in the densely populated city of Carapicuiba, Sao Paulo, this remarkable house is built on an unusual topographical surface which falls abruptly into a small valley and woods almost 6m below street level – a daunting task for any client and architect, but made easier by daring to let go of all preconceptions of what a ‘home’ should be.

The architects were asked to tie together two functions in the design, a house and an office, whilst also keeping them as distinct as possible. Instead of attempting to alter the peculiarities of the existing site, Bucci and Puntoni have cleverly utilized its unique topography to arrange these two main programs into a multi-level structure that separates private and professional space.

The construction may have been complex but the idea is quite simple. The existing street level is continued and extended via a double terrace connected by a steel-grid bridge, which gives the only access to the building. The bridge leads over the open space below and provides two options to the visitor upon entry; a descending staircase to the two-level living area, or an ascending staircase to the office - a dramatic concrete structure reminiscent of a shipping container which appears to be suspended in mid-air! This ‘tube’, measuring only 3m wide by 25m long, opens up at both extremities to provide stunning new views to the surrounding landscape, and sits discretely on just two concrete columns or ‘pilots’.

The home, which nestles in the bottom of the valley, is also divided into two levels and fuses wonderfully with the outdoors. The interior areas and exterior patios flow seamlessly  throughout the house, creating more panoramic views than intimate spaces and blurring the boundaries between indoors and outdoors. The entertaining areas integrate with the valley, garden and pool through large sliding glass doors to become a more expansive open area, and the bedrooms also open to the patios and terraces at the lower level. By fusing the qualities of home and work together in this 3200sqm residence, the two functions thrive alongside one another in a poetic relationship with the outdoors. Somewhat bizarre and somewhat ingenious, this Brazilian design makes the most of its unusual situation to create a vibrant and unique look, resulting in a piece of modern architecture that would be difficult to replicate.

STEPHANIE COSTELLO

//January 2010

//Column

Many of us have a somewhat irrational yearning to live in small, dark thatched country cottages. I think this must be partly due to the fact that some of our earliest ancestors lived in caves which are also small, dark spaces.

One architect who has recognised this primordial instinct for wanting to live in Hobbit-like spaces is Terunobu Fujimori. His most recent design, Yakisugi House (literally, Charred Cedar House), was inspired by a small cave dwelling near Lascaux in France.  However looking at the  finished building it seems more likely that a princess rather than a Neanderthal Man is sleeping in the small room at the top of the house.

Fujimori, like an architectural Carl Jung, is preoccupied with primitive archetypes, and the notion that these are a much more fundamental expression of the human spirit than than much of what modernism has to offer. His houses are inspired by an incredibly diverse set of influences: 6th-century Japanese temples, the Neolithic stones of Callanish in Scotland, European thatched cottages and Malian rammed-earth mosques.

The resulting buildings create a sense of nostalgia that evokes memories of a distant past. Fujimori’s sums up his goal as to “rethink the basic relationship between architecture and nature using natural materials and plants and get closer to the time when human beings first built the artificial structures known as architecture."

HAMISH HERFORD

//January 2010

//Interiors

This month Jacqueline Willers kicks off 2010’s interior design advice column, that will give you new ideas on how to improve your home and get a bang for your buck...

It can sometimes seem be hard to know in what order to go about planning renovations and extensions. Well help is at hand. In the coming months I will endeavour to inspire and suggest creative solutions to many of your interior and renovation conundrums.

In my view the initial stages of a project should be purely creative. In consultation with designers and architects, one should challenge the obvious renovation works and put passion and creativity into a unique and spectacular solution for your way of living. Every need and desire should be considered and incorporated into the design.

Taking this ideal creative blue print one then has to consider the structural and cost implications.  This is where the journey starts... Projects vary in scale and complexity, therefore the team involved may vary and your project can only be as successful as the team you instruct. I would like to simplify and summarise the roles of the varying disciplines with the understanding that every project is unique and will require a range of needs.

  The Architect
The Interior Designer
The Structural Engineer/Surveyor
The Building Contractor
Additional services
Lighting Designer
Audio Visual specialist
Bespoke cabinetry and kitchens
Security specialist

I can’t stress enough that the collaboration and communication between these parties should be established from the outset, to avoid costly and timely mistakes in the 1st and 2nd fix of your project. All too often the interior designer or audio visual specialists are brought in during the final stages resulting in a compromised design scheme.   

Once you are delighted with your ideal internal layout that fulfils your every wish, it’s time to tender the project to prospective contractors. I would suggest putting your project to tender with a number of professional building contractors if you are commencing major works. If any tender comes in looking too good to be true, it probably is.

From here I hope I can give you ideas in the coming months, point out pit falls, inspire and energise what can be one of the most (second to getting married in a leaking marquee) stressful endeavours. Updating your home can be costly and emotionally draining if not planned and executed precisely, on time and within budget.

So rather than being disheartened and sceptical, start the New Year in a positive manner; look at what is possible with your existing property or a new purchase. Look up at lofts and down with basements, and to the side and rear with stunning glass structures, coupled with interior design tricks of the trade, tried and tested with successful results.    In the following months I hope to engage you with sound advice, provide insight into the latest products, and clarify - from my experience in interior design - the way to approach these undertakings.

Next month we will be focussing on the London sky line with loft conversions.

JACQUELINE WILLERS
Please contact Jacqueline for any interior design advice:
jacqueline@jacquelinewillersdesign.com
07967 608 671

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