ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN GUIDE

with or without takes the upcharge as the fee. Both methods are considered typical. You just want to be sure you’re aware of how much you’re paying for services. Reputable designers will provide you with a thorough budget before they start making purchases, so seeing a cost breakdown shouldn’t be that difficult. If your designer seems resistant to the idea, you may want to look elsewhere.

Meeting Tiffany & Co’s commitment to sustainability, MVRDV designs the façade of the company’s Changi Airport store, made up of recycled ocean plastics forming a unique cell-like pattern.

MVRDV has identified a series of distinctive design characteristics that would speak to Tiffany’s identity and history, ranging from touches of Tiffany Blue® to the use of innovative materials, inspired by Louis Comfort Tiffany’s contributions to the world of glass art during the late 19th century.

Also drawing from Tiffany’s design legacy are nods to flora and fauna throughout the store.

MVRDV’s designers looked to the local environment and Singapore’s coral reefs for a thematic anchor. Using the patterns seen in coral species as a guide, the team designed a screen to cover the store’s façade with an organic, cell-like pattern.

This screen foregrounds a layer of glass that was screen printed with a color gradient, transitioning from Tiffany’s signature robin’s-egg blue to a deep blue that references Singapore’s ocean setting.

The technology task force at MVRDV NEXT helped to refine the pattern of the coral-inspired screen, developing scripts to make sure the design could withstand various stresses.

3D printing experts developed a process to produce the 50-millimeter-thick screen using recycled plastic, including reclaimed and recycled fishing nets.

By making use of this unusual source of recycled plastic, the design not only draws inspiration from the oceans but also plays a part in protecting them.

A particularly challenging task was to meet the stringent regulations for fire safety required in an airport; here, BUROMILAN solved the issue by adding a chemical to the mixture that is also manufactured using seawater.

The gradient of light and dark blue returns in the 3D-printed portion of the design, in multiple ways: around the store’s entrances, the screen is light blue at the front and dark blue at the back; this gradient is reversed in the very corners of the façade, with a gradual transition in between – a gradient in all three dimensions.

By Maria Konnari

Poetry was the way I channeled the hardest days and the most dreadful nights into something I could reflect on. There was so much torturing my mind, that I needed a safe place to write it down and let it go. After journaling all my inner, deepest, and unacceptable truths about myself, it was suddenly easier to move on from it. I feel like a lot of us choose to ignore things that challenge us, make us sad, or feel something unwanted. But the reality of it all is that with ignorance there never comes acceptance; therefore, your mind will keep circling around the same thing you wanted to forget. If it wasn't for my best friends, I would have never recognized that running eventually gets so tiring that you end up drowning when you stop. They were the ones who also taught me that you shouldn't stop loving so deeply just because love isn't all you were given. Instead of running, learn! Instead of ignoring, accept! Instead of hating, forgive! Instead of fear, choose hope! That's what this unexpected path showed me. And once I let go of all those negative, triggering miserable feelings and thoughts, I was clear about what I needed and wanted from that day on. So, then, I found it!

This book is still hard for me to share, as there are parts of me I never even wanted to let others see. But after a while of talking about these difficult times and topics, I realized we’re kind of all similar, and maybe more people than I know of will find this book helpful, relatable, and empowering. Because there's indeed light at the end of every tunnel. We just must keep going till we reach it. The book is available on AMAZON.

Maria Konnari Stevens Marketing Director

Luxury Living Design & Lifestyle

AD iDesign Miami Magazine Marketing Director

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Hire a commercial and residential interior design specialist in Miami, Boca Raton, FL or New York, NY, Charlotte NC, Charleston SC www.arcondesignllc.com

Whether designed for living or business, the science of interior design serves two masters— the clientele and the investor. The art Marianna Holoway brings into this science & design approach is to balance their needs in ways that honor the laws of attraction at every price point—building brand loyalty, satisfaction, and happiness. Arcon Design’s approach is a unique specialty in the construction industry. From designing restaurants, nightclubs, hotels, luxury apartments, or mega mansions, to a portfolio that extends into customizing furniture, lighting fixtures, and floor plan solutions while providing the best materials every time.

Our concept of “democratic design”—to increase the quality of the objects at lower prices so that more people can enjoy the best—set Arcon Design apart in early 2000 when the design was geared exclusively towards the elite.

Our inventive and fanciful interior concepts for numerous restaurant, hospitality, and retail projects are world-renowned and our design is entirely sustainable and eco-friendly.

A self-proclaimed “tireless citizen of the world” Marianna Holoway considers it her duty to share her ethical and subversive vision with the world.