GAGA Café in Shenzhen, China by Coordination Asia

Completed in 2015, the newest member of the GAGA Café chain in China draws in guests with its punchy design and keeps them coming for more with its delicious food and coffee. The team at Coordination Asia was responsible not only for the interior design but also for the café’s concept development and branding.

The Café in London’s Café Royal Serves only Desserts 

The iconic Hotel Café Royal on London’s Regent Street now has a dedicated dessert restaurant called The Café, with a delectable menu created by Executive Pastry Chef, Sarah Barber. The Café features a selection of pastries and sweets, all served with optional wine pairings, available from 6pm to 10.30pm daily. We have to admit that what first caught our eye were the tiger-striped, yellow marble counters and shelves, but the desserts on offer are also little works of art in their own right.

New Freitag Campaign by Studio Marcus Kraft

Zurich-based Studio Marcus Kraft was commissioned by Freitag to create the campaign for the brand’s new biodegradable F-ABRIC textiles. Photographed by Nadine Ottawa, the campaign involved hand-painting mottos promoting recycling and environmental awareness on the featured clothes and the models’ bodies. 

“Autumn Lights” installation by Liz West

British artist Liz West has installed these coloured glass panels and screens inside Little Moreton Hall, a 16th-century Tudor manor house in Cheshire, UK. Inspired by the subtle colour impurities seen in the manor’s hand-blown glass panes, the “Autumn Lights” installation highlights details in the building’s architecture that would otherwise go unnoticed. “Little Moreton Hall has over thirty thousand lead window panes containing Tudor and Victorian hand blown glass,” West says. “This is subtly tinted by coloured impurities of copper, iron and magnesium”. West’s interventions further alter the light creating new kinds of ambience that change depending on how natural light moves in the space. 

Cut Throat Barber Shop in Amsterdam

As any A’dam hipster can attest, the barber scene in the city is pretty much saturated. Cut Throat Barber however, now ups the ante by adding new features to its already unique locale: housed under the yellow-brick domes of Amsterdam’s former Stock Exchange café, the concept shop was designed by local design studio TANK and now also includes a bar, and restaurant serving American dishes.

Grow Plants in Windowless Environments with the Mygdal Lamp

Designed by Nui Studio, the Mygdal Lamp is a small feat of design and inventiveness. The lamp itself is basically an air-tight jar, inside of which a self-sustained ecosystem is created to provide an environment where a plant can grow without any need for watering. When the lamp is on, the plant produces oxygen through photosynthesis; when it’s off, it breathes the oxygen it has produced. The lamp comes both as a pendant and a standing lamp.

Lookout Tower and Shelter on Galya-tető, Hungary

This lookout tower and hiker’s shelter on Galya-tető mountain in Hungary was given a touch-up by local architecture studio Nartarchitects. Treating the existing structure as a “found object,” the architects wrapped the tower in wire mesh, raised the top observation deck and added circular coloured windows to create a more welcoming atmosphere to the many hikers visiting the shelter. Galya-tető is part of the Matra mountain range, and is on an 1100-kilometer-long trekking path that cuts across northern Hungary.

Osaka Metal Chair Series by Pedrali

Designed by Michele Cazzaniga, Simone Mandelli and Antonio Pagliarulo for Pedrali, the Osaka chair series combines metal, wood and plastic to create a whole range of ergonomic and practical seating. Efficient, light and stackable, the Osaka chairs just go to prove that Italians can be great at minimalism too.

Telaio Series by Amaury Poudray Pays Tribute to the Loom

French designer Amaury Poudray designed a series of furniture inspired by the loom as a global symbol of creativity and productivity. Titled “Telaio”, this series of functional objects is made of a wooden frame and strips of coloured fabric stretched across in the same way that threads are stretched on a loom. The series is currently on display at The Gallery Brussels, in an exhibition co-organised with the French Embassy in Belgium.