Costas Voyatzis

Established in 1906 at Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, Bouillon Julien is a veritable Parisian gem both for its exceptional Art Nouveau interior and its famous clientele such as Ernest Hemingway, and Edith Piaf who frequently dined at ‘table n. 24’ with her lover, Marcel Cerdan, the champion boxer. Immaculately restored to its original glory by British designer John Whelan, and founder of London-based studio The Guild of Saint Luke, the restaurant recently re-opened its doors to the public as an aesthetic and culinary homage to splendour of the Belle Époque. John Whelan is no stranger to this kind of ambitious project: having lived in Paris for over 10 years, he grew disappointed with the state of the country’s historic brasseries so he decided to do something about it. Backed by his design studio, The Guild of Saint Luke, whose affiliated team of artists, architects and artisans specialize in renovating historic interiors, he has - since 2016 - been overseeing the refurbishment of several prestigious establishments in Reims, Strasbourg, and Nancy as part of an ambitious project to renovate 15 brasseries all over France owned by the restaurant group Les Grandes Brasseries de l’Est.

Located in one of the most iconic and prestigious building in Valencia, Spain, this recently renovated apartment by Valencia-based practice Balzar Arquitectos impresses with its abstract minimalism and sculptural fluidity. Built in the early 1970s as the epitome of luxurious living by the late Spanish architect Antonio Escario in collaboration with José Vives and José Antonio Vidal, Torre de Ripalda is a 16-storey tower block locally known as ‘La Pagoda’ due to its tiered configuration, hexagonal shape and protruding corners. The building’s unique polygonal shape may have ensured its status as a city landmark but it also presented quite a challenge when it came to reconfiguring the three-bedroom apartment’s layout. Faced with diagonal walls, obtuse angles and numerous structural columns throughout, the architects came up with a unique design that sculpturally merges different structural and built-in elements into a cohesive sequence of spaces.

When it comes to renovating a loft, interior designers can’t really go wrong with Scandinavian modernism, especially when we are talking about Søren Rose Studio, a Copenhagen and New York-based, multidisciplinary design studio whose masterfully crafted interiors, products and furnishings combine Scandinavian poise with downtown grit. Located in a pre-war building in TriBeCa in New York City and flooded in daylight, courtesy of plenty of windows on three sides and a large central skylight, Hudson Loft was the perfect property to showcase the Studio’s eclectic take on Scandinavian modernism. What made this project even more special is the fact that it was one of the rare lofts in the area that hadn’t already been snatched up by some big shot developer, completely gutted and turned into luxury apartments. Occupying a modest 130 square metre space that hadn’t been touched for more than 50 years, Søren Rose Studio’ challenge in this project was therefore twofold: to convert the studio apartment into a comfortable home for a family of five, and to renovate the dilapidated interior without effacing its grungy character.

The answer to this very interesting design challenge is what triggered architect Jurjen van Hulzen, the creative talent behind Amsterdam-based architectural & design studio The Nieuw and Ibiza-based Ibiza Interiors, in transforming a 100-year-old abandoned warehouse into a contemporary loft. Once a workshop and storage building, the edifice situated in a remote mountain field in the northern part of Ibiza, has now been turned into a beautiful guesthouse and is a showcase project for Jurjen, who also owns the property. Nestled on a lovely stretch of untamed, rugged land, the 80 square metre building had been left in very poor condition, with nothing standing but the walls and part of the roof, creating an empty shell that offered the architects a clean frame to work on, enabling them to invent its spatial elements from scratch. This creative freedom did not come without a price however, since the building had no electricity, water, or sewage systems; water had to be sourced from a private well and solar panels were installed for hot water, floor heating and electricity, offering the house the gift of self-sustainability.