Art Architecture Dezign

The Lookout on the English seaside, designed by Hampshire County Council, has a slender mono-pitched roof and concrete fins that shelter it from the "beautiful and brutal" elements and rising sea levels.

This visitor centre and restaurant was designed by Hampshire County Council's Property Services to improve the experience for visitors to Lepe Country Park on the England's south coast.

The Lookout replaces an existing cafe and visitor centre, which was threatened by the encroaching sea level. Its narrow site is flanked by trees behind and looks out across the Solent straight towards the Isle of Wight.

It's design and material palette are informed by its context and the harsh seaside climate it needs to withstand.

A row of concrete fins raise the occupied areas 2.5 metres above the beach to mitigate against the rise in the water level expected in the next 100 years, while the large mono-pitched roof provides shade and protection from the elements.

The building accommodates a restaurant, visitor information point, staff offices and supporting facilities, providing a recreation space capable of handling almost half a million visitors per year.

"Restricted to a narrow margin of land ownership at beach level alongside the original cafe, [the building's] location tested both planning policy and the technical expertise of the designers and engineers," said the council's design manager, Martin Hallum.

"From the outset it was important that the building had composure in an environment that can be both beautiful and brutal."

The centre comprises two connected volumes, with a simple box at the rear containing service areas including offices, a meeting room, a visitor information point and the restaurant's kitchen.

A more open area at the front of the building contains the restaurant's seating area, which looks out across the beach through a large band of windows. This space is topped with the sloping roof, which shelters clerestory windows providing a view of trees to the rear of the site.

The restaurant area connects at either end with east and west-facing terraces that are lined with curving timber balustrades and provide opportunities for outdoor dining.

"The loosening of the straight line geometry of the external terraces responds to the more natural wavy edge to the sea and provides elegant, nautically styled platforms to which we could land stairs and timber boardwalks," the project team added.

The wooden cladding that wraps around the terraces also lines the stairs and covers some surfaces of the two main volumes, as well as a separate toilet block at beach level.

As an island country, Britain's extensive coastline provides architects with plenty of potential for hardy yet beautiful buildings.

British architect Lisa Shell designed a cork-clad cabin on stilts for an artist's retreat that's only accessible when the tide is out, and dRMM won the Stirling Prize with its restoration of Hasting's wooden pier.

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This time-lapse footage shows the petals atop Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which is hosting the 53rd Super Bowl game today, slide past each other to cover the American football pitch below.

The venue, where the New England Patriots will take on the Los Angeles Rams from 6:30pm EST, was designed by global architecture firm HOK with an ETFE roof that "opens and closes like a camera aperture".

Find out more about the Mercedes-Benz Stadium ›

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Russian studio Asketik has designed a cafe with bright white interiors in Moscow, offset with many indoor plants to soften the industrial space.

Bloom-n-Brew occupies a former Soviet silk factory overhauled by Asketik, which also led the branding design, including a new logo and menu with a type-based graphic.

The cafe's name refers to the fragrant smell that is released when brewing a fresh cup of coffee.

Defined by high ceilings and hardly any internal walls, the space measures 1,238 square feet (115 square metres) and is located in the Russian capital's Factoria Park neighbourhood.

Areas for baristas and customers are arranged between various cabinets and exposed pillars, with large windows bringing light in.

White walls, white ceilings, and light grey floors create a stark backdrop, amplified by exposed pipes that have also been painted white.

"The inspiration was the history of the space," Asketik told Dezeen. "We wanted to save this industrial view and original purpose of the space."

Softening the cafe are numerous indoor plants in terracotta pots, and different seating nooks. The lush foliage pops against the stark space.

The square floor plan is organised around a central coffee area, with four counters that are wrapped in powder-coated profiled sheeting, commonly used for roofs and fences.

A nook alongside the windows accommodates distinct, high wooden table designs. Another high-top area features a series of barstools, with simple hooks designed by Asketik.

The studio was founded by designer Maxim Maximov, who started with one small object at a time to grow a full collection. Asketik's shelves are also used at Bloom-n-Brew, along with other pieces.

Curved-back chairs and small round tables are included in white, black and light wood. Designed by Delo Design of Saint Petersburg, these pieces have an eclectic yet unified effect.

Also new to Moscow's food and drink scene are a shiny pink pastrami joint and a concrete-clad restaurant with a geometric exterior, both by Crosby Studios.

Photography is by Mikhail Loskutov.

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British designer Lara Bohinc looked to the geometric forms of planetary orbits when creating this table collection, which "expresses the simplicity of Bauhaus design".

The "celestially-inspired" Orbit tea table and coffee table feature steel frames and geometric copper surfaces that have been patinated to achieve a blue-green-hued verdigris finish.

The Orbit tea table features two semi-circular surfaces separated by a U-shaped curve, intended to store magazines.

The coffee table is made of three individual tiered surfaces, featuring a circle, oblong and square. Each surface rests at a different level, meaning the elements can be stored on top of one another when not in use.

Bohinc began by laser-cutting steel into 14-millimetre rods and welding them together to form semi-circles and straight lines for the table's frame.

"The aim is clarity in form, but the pieces remain striking, dramatic, and full of flair," she explained.

The surfaces were laser-cut from copper sheets and patinated to achieve an "intense yet airy" blue-green finish.

Both tables are available in either a chocolate bronze or brass-coated steel frame. Each piece was manufactured in collaboration with London-based gallery Matter of Stuff.

Bohinc based the lines and shapes of the tables on the "gravitationally curved trajectories" of planetary orbits.

"I have always been fascinated by the complexities of geometry, as well as pure and simple forms. For my Orbit tables, I contrasted curved shapes with linear structures to create designs that are both geometric and feminine," said Bohinc, who heads Bohinc Studio.

She was also inspired by the "pure yet intricate" geometric minimalism of classic Bauhaus design, particularly the work of German artist Marianne Brandt.

"I continue to be influenced by pure geometry and the production-led design of the Bauhaus. I work frequently with metal, exploring its versatility and sustainability – a reference to Marianne Brandt's way of using the smallest numbers of materials to better celebrate their properties," she said.

Bohinc, a former jewellery designer, made her debut in lighting design back in May 2017 with lamps made to look like colliding orbs. 

Last year, she designed a series of three chairs inspired by the shapes of planets and their orbits.

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Leopold Banchini Architects gave the House for Architectural Heritage in Muharraq, Bahrain, retractable glass walls that open it up to its surroundings.

Architects Noura Al Sayeh Holtrop and Leopold Banchini designed the architectural archive and exhibition space for an empty site in the city of Muharraq, known for its dense urban fabric and traditional Bahraini houses.

It provides a permanent home for the archives of architect John Yarwood, who documented and surveyed Muharraq's architectural heritage during the 1980s.

Rather than imitating the local vernacular, the project team decided to introduce a contemporary architectural expression that reflects the city's constant evolution.

The building is constructed from reinforced concrete, with a 26-metre beam spanning the width of the site and linking the streets at either end.

This structural solution allows sliding doors incorporated into the end facades to be raised into the void formed by the beam, resulting in an open space that functions as a public passage.

Its side elevations also incorporate glazed surfaces that can be completely opened up by retracting folding doors that extend across the whole length.

"The project is conceived as a beam structure that frames the existing adjacent walls of the two neighbouring buildings, serving as a showcase for the architectural heritage of the city, the old as well as the new," the architects said in their statement.

The new building's reinforced concrete surfaces contrast with the coral stone and blockwork of its neighbours.

Existing walls are painted in a thin layer of lime wash that creates a consistent feel inside the exhibition space and is representative of the way local buildings are traditionally finished.

The project was commissioned by the Shaikh Ebrahim Centre for Culture & Research, an NGO focusing on the preservation of Bahrain's traditional buildings and promoting local culture.

Alongside a space for housing and displaying Yarwood's archive, the centre includes a small architecture library and exhibition area.

The project showcases the architecture of Muharraq with a design that invites visitors step in off the streets and presents the facades of its neighbours as part of the exhibit.

Its design presents a tangible expression of the area's architectural evolution, providing a cultural space that actively participates in the local landscape.

"By providing a space that can be completely opened on to the streets, in a neighbourhood that houses communities that often feel excluded, the project attempts to provide a new exhibition typology," the architects added.

The building's narrow plot is flanked on one side by the Abdullah Al Zayed House for Press Heritage, which also belongs to the Shaikh Ebrahim Centre and had been previously restored by the organisation.

Yarwood's archival documents are stored and displayed alongside a small library on a mezzanine level reached by a spiral staircase. This space is suspended from the concrete beam and its elevated position away from the windows protects it from direct sunlight.

Leopold Banchini Architects has also built a house on stilts in Switzerland, and a system of rooms and furniture that folds into the floor of the Centre Pompidou.

Photography is by Dylan Perrenoud.

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Our new Pinterest board is dedicated to interiors that feature arches, including a Chinese cafe-cum-cocktail bar with emerald green walls and a rippled rose gold ceiling and a bookshop with imposing steel archways. Follow Dezeen on Pinterest ›

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