Second impressions

First impressions of Jean Nouvel's Serpentine Pavilion weren't great.

It's very striking in block red and the 12 metre red glass wall rising out of the ground at a jaunty angle, but it seemed a bit standard. I felt that the pavilions have got increasingly commercial - more just a pretty cafe than experimental architecture with something to say and I was a bit disappointed when I settled down with my coffee.

But sitting in the sunshine and taking it all in, I started to change my mind.

As a piece of democratic architecture in the public realm it's actually quite successful. With a kid's soft play area, parents are happy, and sunken seating areas with built in green and red chess boards - visitors really seemed to be making the space their own.

With scattered cushions, people lounged about reading books and curled up with their dogs, they created their own interiors. It became more tham just a cafe, as people took time to rest there and enjoy the space.

Pivoting glass screens allow you to change the interior spaces and hammocks and ping pong tables create a relaxed and playful atmosphere.

This relaxation and payfulness made me forget the shoddy workmanship and cheap materials, and appreciate the little details like a red and green veg patch and changing red and green floor finishes.

I stand corrected. It's quite a cool structure!

Stacking houses

Earlier this year, Vitra's museum - VitraHaus - opened in Weil am Rhein in Germany.

The building received great acclaim, commending Herzog and de Mueron's stacking that the practice has been exploring in recent projects, and the domestic-scale interiors the pitched roofs create. It has also attracted criticism as an overly simplistic idea.

I feel that the strong, simple interior is true to the architect's vision of creating domestic spaces that first and foremost display Vitra's products. The objects inside are supposed to be the star, and they just happen to sit in a beautiful backdrop.

Whatever your opinion, there is a clear and pure intention that has been executed well.

The same cannot be said to this pile of random blocks. You can see what they were striving at too - but isn't it a shame!

The half-hearted attempt at a stacked apartment complex has balcomies crashing into the sides of each cube and drab cladding. The extruded elements are only once referenced in the building, with no follow-through of the idea on any other facade.

And ok, it's just a bog-standard residential building without the resources or aspirations of Vitra, but if you're going to do it - be true to the idea!

Get stuffed!

It's not PC, but taxidermy is cool.

Maybe not zebra and giraffe, but quirky applications of the old techniques, or even modern interpretations of the classic stag's head.

Take Emma Hawkins - a young, attractive taxidermist with waiting lists for penguins and items costing £60,000. It's macabre but fascinating, and Hawkins boasts celebrity clients and a high end London address.

Starck is at it of course - see his lit acrylic deer head - and the traditional stag heads look best set in contemporary surroundings. A well preserved deer head set against a crisp white background and some cool styling, softens and humanises a modern interior that can often seem a little clinical and unloved.

Sometimes it's art, comic or dark.

I'll work on the next appropriate hotel client and let you know if I convince them that stuffing can be sexy!

Springtime

Spring has sprung and the green shoots are coming through. This is a great time to inject some new life into an interior with a shot of green.



Whether its a stack of spider plants in the bathroom or an innovative 'Normann Grass' vase - be playful and enjoy your interior.

Looks fresh with white and grey.

Posts

First post and it's about posts. Or at least a structure/sculpture formed from posts...

An 'interior' that's been created to add interest to a corporate hub off Euston Road, it plays with light and makes a bold linear statement.

Each element is formed by 50 x 50mm steel square posts, with the dimensions fixed and used to aid construction. Posts are sunk into floor level, with tiles repeating the 50x50. The repetition creates a forest or 'room' that you can sit in and watch the world go by. And our eyes like repetition. On a bright spring day this is just the kind of place that can take your mind off work and make you look to the sky.

I want to appreciate these attempts to enrich spaces in the public realm. They can create a sense of place and add interest to homogenous office blocks in central London.