The Cape Town Artist Making 3D Renders of Our Personal Paradise

Five years ago, Alexis Christodoulou was a copywriter at an ad agency, hating his job and looking for some sort of creative release. Intrigued by a friend using SketchUp, the 3D-modeling program, Christodoulou taught himself how to use it and a whole new world suddenly opened for the Cape Town–based artist. Obsessed, he began putting all of his time into these renderings — desaturated, pastel worlds full of reflective pools, strong shapes, and the best kind of shadow-making light.
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This London Flat Will Make You Want to Cover Your Walls With Concrete Tile

Darkroom founder Rhonda Drakeford recently launched a studio under own name, Studio Rhonda, for which she creates objects, interiors, installations, and even something like public art. Our favorite project is an interior renovation Drakeford undertook in which the 4x4 tile — once relegated to builder-grade status — gets an upgrade by using pigmented concrete, color-blocked and coordinated with the furniture, to create an interior that might be the most fun we've seen this year.
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A Concrete and Pastel Oasis in Spain

Normally we'd dismiss an all-concrete restaurant as a terrible idea — too Meatpacking District circa Sex and the City, too cold and impersonal — but a submission we received today, from the Spanish architecture firm Lucas y Hernández-Gil, may have just opened our minds a little bit. Their interior for Casaplata restaurant in Seville, Spain, softens the chilly material with saturated colors, pale untreated woods, and tactile materials like velvet and perforated metal.
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A Sydney Eatery Inspired by An Icon of Mexican Architecture

While New York restaurant design is currently all about the blue banquette, we spent the weekend swooning over the rustier, more terracotta hues of the seating at this airy new Mexican restaurant in Sydney. Called Fonda, it was designed by Melbourne's up-and-coming Studio Esteta and inspired by both Mexican architecture — particularly the work of Luis Barragán — and the restaurant's coastal surroundings.
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Mociun’s New Brooklyn Flagship is a Sophisticated, Instagram-Friendly Oasis

Caitlin Mociun opened her universally-beloved home-goods store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn more than half a decade ago. But like the neighborhood she calls home, Mociun has done a lot of growing up in that time. Late last year, that growing up culminated in the opening of a second Mociun flagship, this one devoted primarily to her fine-jewelry line — i.e. the source of much Instagram-induced hyperventilation among certain women we know.
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Memphis Meets Secession in L.A.’s Coolest New Bar Interior

When the New York interiors firm Home Studios presented its first collection of lighting and furniture at our OFFSITE show earlier this year, the pieces were a culmination of an unusually prolific track record of custom design and fabrication. Having seen the firm's newest project, the West Hollywood bar Bibo Ergo Sum, in which Home designed every single element but the chairs, we can only imagine how ridiculously good their second collection is going to be.
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These 3D Interior Images Have Us Drooling Over a Tile Catalog

In the old days, this would have been one hell of an expensive photoshoot: Sourcing design icons-in-the-making from people like Lex Pott, Faye Toogood, and Sabine Marcelis; building out a set; and then painting, styling, and photographing the whole thing. But perhaps this will be known as the year when the rendered, three-dimensional image became almost more exciting — and decidedly cheaper — than the real thing, thereby making it almost de rigueur for brands to invest in these kinds of digital set-ups, no matter the product.
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Sight Unseen x Bower for 29Rooms

We Outfitted Fashion Week’s Coolest Pop-Up With This Painted-Plywood Furniture

Refinery29's 29Rooms event is basically a funhouse of art and culture, where each room presents its own mega-Instagrammable moment. But what if you need a teeny tiny break from all that selfie-ing? That's where we came in. When Refinery asked Sight Unseen to curate the 29Rooms lounge area, we turned immediately to Bower, who came back at us just a few hours later with a sketch for this amazing collection.
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