Spring Place by Bluarch: 2016 Best of Year Winner for Bar/Lounge
Business deals used to happen on the golf course. Now, with the rise of the creative class, private clubs have cropped up in cities worldwide. At this one, principal Antonio Di Oronzo offers perhaps the most chic environment for those in the film, art, and design worlds.
To create the perfect backdrop for members accustomed to attending fashion shows, movie screenings, and gallery openings alike, Di Oronzo looked to the rugged materials and strong forms of brutalism. “It’s about exposing the honesty of the materials,” he says, pointing out the cantilevered concrete forms throughout the club’s 12,000-square-foot social zone and adding that a fellow Italian architect was an influence. “Carlo Scarpa is a poet with concrete. It took me a while to understand him.”
The overall palette of concrete, blackened steel, white oak, and glass is softened and glamorized in the events space, boasting an angular ceiling canopy in antiqued brass, a conversation pit, and deep-red sheepskin carpet—making you question whether you should be wearing shoes. Di Oronzo insists that sheepskin is extremely durable. “It’s what truck drivers use on their seats,” he says with a laugh. Though it’s doubtful any truck drivers have visited, we have confirmation that Leonardo DiCaprio has stopped in.
Project Team: Masashi Kobayashi; Juhee Chung.
