A bit more on other projects....

Rounding up some recent publications....

Hospitality:

Powerful imagery of Uchi Lounge has a strong presence in WORKshop issue 08.

Nice to read in the blog of our structural engineer for Uchi Lounge: "...It is interesting how tight budgets and great architects drive great engineering."

I guess true creativity spark when being confined by restrictions...

 Cover of WORKshop issue 08

Watermoon is published by Chinese publishing house Sandu (available via PageOne) in "Taste It! - Innovative Restaurant Interiors".

It is also published by German publishing house Gestalten in "Let's Go Out! - Interiors and Architecture for Restaurants and Bars".

Watermoon was completed in 2010 May.

In the retail / hospitality world, where fitouts require constant renewal, Watermoon is considered an "old project".  Yet it continues to be picked up by publishing houses and gathering attention.  I think this says something about our consistent attitude towards architecture (permanence) and interior (transience).

Cover of "Taste it!"

Cover of "Let's Go Out!"

Retail:

Sneakerology and Streetology continue to gather attention after their completion in 2010 / 2011.  The design took place in 2009.

Again, they should be considered "old projects"....but still looking refreshing and stunning (hopefully I am allowed to say that myself...).

We consider longevity of design = ultimate sustainability 

"Brand Spaces - Branded Architecture and the Future of Retail Design" published by Gestalten (Germany)

  

  

Retail Design International Vol 74 No 5 (US)

Emerging Facet Studio!

Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2012 has revealed the winners - Facet Studio has been crowned twice under International Project category and Emerging Designer!

 Me and Yoshi on stage receiving the Emerging Designer Award

Over a range of high profile projects of all different types in the inaugural International Project category, M House has won high praises from the jury for the simple beauty and persistence in bringing the idea to life.

Here is what the Jury had to say about the International category:

On top of gaining recognition for our projects, we have also brought home with us the Emerging Designer award:

Leading up to the event we have been so immersed in the actual event design itself (which will be covered in a separate entry) that we were totally unprepared for a speech...but I think we did much better than last year, shows that practice (last year at IDEA 2011, Melbourne and earlier this year at Frame Moooi Award, Milan) does make things better - please note the improvement in our facial expressions!

The Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) is Australia’s largest and most successful independent design awards program. Launched by (Inside) magazine in 2003, the program celebrates the best of Australian interior and product design across 11 categories and five special awards.

To find out more about IDEA Awards:

Official Website click HERE
Official announcement click HERE
More about IDEA Awards from our blog click HERE
More about shortlist announcement click HERE

The other projects also shortlisted are:

Uchi Lounge 01 - Hospitality

Uchi Lounge 02 - Hospitality

Connect Sydney - Workplace under 1000sqm

We will try to upload more photos soon!

Uchi Lounge on ARQA

Uchi Lounge has again shown its international appeal - this time to Argentina!

 

The article is published in ARQA - Argentinian-based web magazine, open community of architecture, construction and design.

Click HERE to see the article!

Facet Studio is everywhere in (inside) 73

We have been interviewed by (inside) magazine!
The interview, covering our projects Seatondale Heritage, M House, and Uchi Lounge,  is published in issue 73, which is available in all good newsagency now!

 The front cover

 

 

This issue of (inside) magazine also published the shortlist of Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2012, which we are shortlisted in 4 categories.. woohoo~
...We are kind of everywhere in this issue...

rear cover

WORKPLACE UNDER 100SQM - CONNECT SYDNEY

HOSPITALITY - UCHI LOUNGE

EMERGING DESIGNER - FACET STUDIO
INTERNATIONAL PROJECT - M HOUSE

Dezeen x Uchi Lounge

Our project, Uchi Lounge 01 has been published on Dezeen!

Click HERE to view the article

Click HERE to see other entries on Uchi Lounge

Click HERE to see Uchi Lounge 01 in our official website

Click HERE to see other entries relating to Dezeen

Dezeen is UK based online design magazine with 2 million monthly visitors, and included in Time magazine’s Design 100 list of the most influential forces in global design, and in Design Week magazine’s Hot 50 list of key figures in design.

More love from ArchDaily

Both Uchi Lounge 01 and 02 have been published on ArchDaily!

 

 

For Uchi Lounge 01, enter HERE to read the original post.
For Uchi Lounge 02, enter HERE to read the original post.

Click HERE to see other entries on Uchi Lounge

Click HERE to see Uchi Lounge 01 in our official website

Click HERE to see Uchi Lounge 02 in our official website

Click HERE to see other entries relating to ArchDaily

ArchDaily was founded in March 2008 with the one mission of delivering the most complete information to architects around the world; every week, every day, every hour, every moment: as soon as it happens . It is the online source of continuous information for a growing community of thousands of architects searching for the latest architectural news: projects, products, events, interviews and competitions among others.

Uchi Lounge 02 on Dezeen

Our project, Uchi Lounge 02, has been featured in Dezeen!

 

Click HERE to view the article
Click HERE to see other entries on Uchi Lounge
Click HERE to see Uchi Lounge 02 in our official website
Click HERE to see other entries relating to Dezeen

Dezeen is UK based online design magazine with 2 million monthly visitors, and included in Time magazine’s Design 100 list of the most influential forces in global design, and in Design Week magazine’s Hot 50 list of key figures in design.

Multiple shortlisting!

Whilst we were working away on construction site, IDEA Awards (Interior Design Excellence Awards) has announced the shortlisted projects for 2012 - and we are shortlisted in 4 categories!

They are:
Emerging Designer [Facet Studio]
Hospitality [Uchi Lounge 01 & 02]
Workplace Under 1000sqm [Connect Sydney]
International Project [M House]

We are always challenging ourselves with different building and space types, rather than confining to particular types of spaces.

  

To read about last year our project Sneakerology/ Streetology winner of IDEA 2011 Retail category, click HERE
To find out more about the IDEA Awards, visit: http://www.idea-awards.com.au/
To find out more about the 2012 shortlists, visit: http://www.idea-awards.com.au/category/2012/2012-shortlist/

End of Day 8

We arrived on site at Bay Road Hair Studio on the 8th Day into construction, when it was starting to get dark outside.

There was an unspoken tranquility in the little space, within the lovely setting overlooking the bay outside.
The builders finished boarding up the wall frames, ready for tiling on the next day, and started working on the frames for the mirrors. The frames house a few functions: mirror, lighting, table for customers, hanger for hairdresser tools.. And we just threw in mitre corners to add to the fun.

We have worked with our builder Ken quite a few times now (Watermoon, Uchi Lounge, Phamish..) and it is funny how he always started out complaining about how tricky our projects are, but always ended up gracing over the projects with loving and proud glance.

 

 

 

 

To see or to be seen

After attempting to take photos ourselves, we finally decided to organize a professional photoshoot for Uchi Lounge.
Today we did the first round of the "empty space" shots, and will come back for "patronized shots" later in the week.

It is a bit of a dilemma...
We architects depend on photographers to record and showcase our architectural work, and we have certain visions we would like to present through photography. At the same time the same architectural work, when seen through different eyes, can be interpreted differently. There exists a fine balance between "make sure our vision is communicated" and "freedom of interpretation from fresh eyes".

I guess I am still curious about how others view our work.. Looking forward to the photos.

Uchi Shots

We have tried taking some photos of Uchi Lounge ourselves this time.
These are trial shots, but we have not yet had the time to go back for a proper shoot so they are the ones on our website for now.
Ah it was difficult.... especially on a busy Friday night, all the curious patrons (some were very keen to be in the shot whilst some were totally unsure).. Although having people in the space really animated the atmosphere.  I always think, if a space looks better without people, there must be some thing wrong - Good that it is not the case for us.

So here are the trial / semi permanent/ permanent shots......

 From entry

From rear

Sometimes it is difficult to imagine the hard work behind the finished space; I mean, after all it is all worth it.

The 11m long steel beams look effortlessly elegant flying across the length of the space with a mysterious ribbon of light; 

The huge concrete table look stern and anchoring.

Well, these photos are from the day the table top was delivered to site...

The concrete table tops arrived from Adelaide after an unexpected delay.
To be precise, it is a product called GRC (Glass Reinforced Concrete), which by incorporating glass fibres in the concrete cement mix, provides a denser and stronger concrete product - it is commonly used in public sculpture and prefabricated building facade panels. The huge table we have on site could not be manufactured in 1 single piece and was broken into 5 equal panels.

Each table top panel weighed around 200kg.
Due to the limited space, and narrow access way, the table tops were manually carried inside.  Even with 4 grown men it was not a easy task.
I think next time we will construct this by casting in-situ (which was first rejected by the builder but then was much to his regret)... entire process took half a day.
Later that night we found out the 5 panels had a certain order (with edge conditions) and the builders had to reshuffle the panels the next morning........ oh joy..

It's a wrap! at Uchi Lounge

After the wrap-up dinner at Uchi Lounge on Friday, I felt we can finally call it a completed project.

(Read more about Uchi Lounge HERE - I aim to write about it more in the following few entries)

The team (from left): Raymond (electrical), Jackson (electrical), JJ (FS), Olivia (FS), Yoshi (FS), Charles (builder), Ken (builder)

A few Facet Studio members worth mentioning, and have sadly left Facet Studio before the wrap-up party, are as below.

Big "Thank You!!!" to you all:

Disheng Neo (left), Benjamin Chan (right) - on site light testing

Neo and Ben testing out the lightbox prototype in Facet Studio office

SooJin Hwang - brightening up the construction site with her pink jacket on the right..