Let’s start with something out of the ordinary! Two sturdy concrete pillars perfectly frame the bed and the gorgeous geometric mosaic that backs the headboard.
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Visualizer: Lucas Studio
Bold disc-shaped impressions give even more depth to this eye-catching interior wall. The combination of rugged finish and smooth geometry
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Designer: Albert Abutov
Amazing! This material is unlike any other – translucent concrete gains its ethereal properties from embedded optical fibers that easily transmit light through an otherwise impenetrable material.
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Visualizer: Fly Design Studio
Here, brushed concrete captures the light of the nearby pendants to increase its warmth and textural appeal, all without departing from clean minimalism.
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Visualizer: Anwar Al Jufrey Khalid
Bedrooms are rarely heavy on concrete but this one pulls it off fantastically. Roughhewn wood serves as an organic counterbalance and helps pull the outdoors in.
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Visualizer: Roman Pravnik
Wood and concrete again make a fabulous pairing in this handsome bedroom inspired by industrial decor. An oversized pendant and plush leather headboard introduce a hint of luxury to the composition.
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Visualizer: Anna Fedyukina
Concrete changes character depending on its material complements. The smooth texture and lightness of these wood details contribute to a purely contemporary look that strays from the roughness of the previous industrial themes.
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Visualizer: KDVA Architects
Even ordinary minimally finished concrete can make a big impression with a little smart embellishment. This accent wall includes a strip of integrated lighting to boost its appeal.
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Visualizer: Kyde Architects
Because concrete is often perceived as dark, harsh, or unwelcoming, lighting additions like these can make a world of difference.
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Visualizer: Yovo Bozhinovski
Of course, there are big ways to embellish concrete as well! A little stain and an artistic eye can transform this rigid material into a versatile canvas for expression.
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Visualizer: Olesya Ligay
Another way that concrete excels is as a neutral backdrop for a dramatic focal point, like this dimpled wall panel.
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Visualizer: Abdullah Taranov
Tilted and lighted panels make up the headboard wall for this room. The entire surrounding structure is smoothed over with light concrete to avoid overwhelming the unique panel installation.
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Visualizer: Buro 82
This panel installation uses a similar arrangement, but this time both surfaces feature a concrete texture. Do you love the integrated lighting? Check out our bedroom lighting ideas post for more inspiration!
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Visualizer: Ilya Leg4atov
Artwork is another fantastic way to dress up a stark concrete finish. This neutral bedroom just wouldn’t be the same without the blue lighthouse prints hung above the bed.
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Visualizer: Harun Kaymaz
This print serves an important purpose by lightening an otherwise dark composition. Mid-toned concrete adds depth to the bed’s niche while the white painting pushes outward and grabs attention.
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Visualizer: Yazan Samsam
In a room defined by grey concrete, color becomes even more powerful as a decor tool. Artwork and architectural details blend into the background allowing furniture and accessories to shine brightly.
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Visualizer: Maxim Zhukov
Here’s another space where vivid color stands out. Check out our profile of this casual loft style __home for more photos and information – the entire residence is worth exploring if you’re curious about a unique spin on industrial decor.
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Visualizer: Alex Koretsky
Purple and blue soften the aesthetic of this bedroom with ease. Concrete has a reputation as a rugged material, but here its strength takes on richer nuances.
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Visualizer: Zooi Design
Darker concrete is a great backdrop for highly saturated colors like these tangerine orange accents.
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Visualizer: M3
Now let’s look at a few different decor themes that lend themselves well (or even surprisingly well) to concrete walls. Minimalism is an obvious choice, as depicted in this bright and sunny bedroom.
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Visualizer: he.D creative group
Concrete is a go-to for industrial themes as well.
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Visualizer: KeremmucuR
Concrete may set the scene but the textiles and prints set the mood where this strong industrial setting meets the whimsy of nautical decor.
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Visualizer: Albert Mizuno
Low bed platforms are a popular choice for modernist bedrooms, especially the ones influenced by traditional Japanese and Korean design. The contrast between modern design and traditional inspiration strikes quite a contrast in this fully concrete bedroom.
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Visualizer: Cleer Design Studio
Here’s another interesting combination – modern concrete walls with vintage-inspired furniture. It also has a low-profile bed (perfect to show off the large artwork at the headboard) – if you’re interested in seeing more sleeping arrangements like this, check out our post dedicated entirely to bedrooms with low level beds.
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Via: Penint Design Studio
Geometric patterns have been a hot design statement in super-modern homes, Scandinavian-inspired homes, and a few other styles. These concrete tiles are a beautiful example.
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Visualizer: Annete Manuilova
Contemporary stripes, white wooden wall paneling, and soft colors give this bedroom a lot of casual chic appeal. The stunning concrete accent behind the bed is an unexpected and effective way to update the theme for today’s tastes.
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Visualizer: Mitaka Dimov
Now let’s take a look at a few finishing techniques, starting with something quite unique! The decorative herringbone scoring adds an artistic element to the distressed concrete accent wall.
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Visualizer: Kola Studio
Vertical scores of pocked concrete help create the illusion of wood wall panels with a rugged industrial edge – just one of many ways to bring substantial character to concrete walls.
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Visualizer: Anjey Babych
Here’s an example of two concrete finishes in one room. Vertical broom finish makes the walls appear taller, while the ceiling sections alternate for a balanced look.
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Visualizer: Diff Studio
Dark textural finishes are great for sultry minimalist bedrooms like this. See more minimalist bedrooms – with and without concrete – at our minimalist bedrooms post.
These spectacular office lobbies, masterpieces in their own right, offer a preliminary taste of the workplace wonder that unfolds inside. For more inspiration, check out our office spaces board on Pinterest.
1. Edmunds.com by M+M Creative Studio
The bold Los Angeles headquarters of car data provider Edmunds.com can best be described as a visual tour de force by M+M Creative Studio. In reception, the desk’s mirror-polished stainless steel nods to the chrome bumpers on old Cadillacs. Visitors look up to see a 2016 Corvette Stingray convertible, gleaming in silver with a crimson leather interior, mounted upside down on a turntable set into a huge round cutout in the ceiling. Perched underneath the staircase are two more, Stingrays this time miniature and coin-operated.
2. Hongkou Soho Building by Kengo Kuma and Associates
Respite from hectic urban bustle dictated Kengo Kuma’s __design for the lobby at a mixed-use building in Shanghai. Louvers made of thin, flexible sheet aluminum, powder-coated white, undulate across the ceiling and down a wall—just like rippling waves. Another wall is pale gray marble with veining that echoes the wave pattern, polished to “soften the spatial atmosphere,” says Kuma.
3. Douglas Elliman by Patrick Tighe Architecture
The entire ground level of real estate agency Douglas Elliman’s latest office is a grand entrance to the Los Angeles scene—thanks to Patrick Tighe Architecture. The “wow” moment, a spectacular stairway entirely of Tighe’s invention, is a ribbon of flawless white plaster that actually starts out as the front of the solid-surface reception desk, swooping upward to become a balustrade. A continuous cove of LEDs—similar to the recessed lighting in the canopy—illuminates the gray-stained oak steps.
4. Frankfurt Office Tower by Ippolito Fleitz Group
Ippolito Fleitz Group managed to bring high-style oomph with a touch of whimsy to a 1990’s office tower that epitomized the clean-cut Frankfurt look. In the lobby, white fins protrude from the walls in slightly different depths to create a mesmerizing, undulating visual effect. Tucked in between is a soundproofing system that reduces background noise, a common drawback to lobbies with lots of foot traffic. Overhead, the firm installed a composition of mirrored triangles that create kaleidoscopic reflections.
5. Sony Corporation of America by Studios Architecture
After rebranding Philip Johnson’s iconic Sony building and selling it to a real-estate developer, Sony enlisted Studios Architecture to guide the search for a new Manhattan headquarters. The firm’s answer fit the bill—the tech giant’s new outpost occupies 570,000 square feet across 10 levels at the top of an Art Deco landmark a few blocks downtown. Gleaming in white marble and terrazzo, the lobby’s furnishings are intentionally spare, but for added effect, bass reverberates across the lobby as music videos pulse across an LED billboard.
6. Maike Group by Hallucinate __design Office and Interdesign Associates
Metals giant Maike Group received a brand-new headquarters in Shaanxi by Hallucinate Design Group and Interdesign Associates across two buildings and a staggering 3.5 million square feet. The lobby features a towering enclosure that presents a surface of white-slatted horizontal bands on which ghostly white numbers marquee across. In contrast to the architecture’s dramatic scale, however, Hallucinate’s creative director Wang Weliang exercised reserve when it came to the color scheme—black and white, dominated by white—with sleek colorless furnishings perched on quartz composite flooring.
7. IHeartMedia by A+I and Beneville Studios
In IHeartMedia CEO Robert Pittman’s fantasy, clients would walk into the company’s New York headquarters and ask “Who are these people?” Pittman commissioned Beneville Studios, who then selected Brad Zizmor and Dag Folger of Architecture + Information, to get the job done. The project’s masterpiece is the interactive entry sequence—magically projected video appears on a curtain of fog that emerges from jets as visitors exit the elevators. Striding toward reception, visitors serve as a tuning dial that trips invisible infrared beams and instructs the sidewalls’ vertical rows of white LEDs to shift temporarily to red, with hidden speakers playing successive channels of streaming live audio sourced from IHeartRadio stations.
Each year, the Architectural League of New York spotlights eight North American firms as part of its Emerging Voices competition. A jury, composed of architecture and __design luminaries, selects winners based on past accomplishments and potential to influence architecture’s trajectory in coming years. One of North American architecture’s most coveted awards, the League has honored top industry practitioners such as Deborah Berke (1993), Michael Maltzan (1998), and Jeanne Gang (2006). Meet this year’s winners:
Brian Bell and David Yocum of BLDGS
Caddell Building at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta by BLDGS. Photography by Fredrik Brauer. Congregation Or Hadash in Sandy Springs, GA, by BLDGS. Photography by Jonathan Hillyer.
Founded in 2006, Atlanta-based firm BLDGS follows a self-proclaimed responsibility to the civic realm that inspires founding principals Bell and Yocum. The firm recently finished the Congregation Or Hadash Synagogue and is currently restoring a windowless Brutalist-style building for Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, slated for completion in 2017.
Eduardo Cadaval and Clara Solà-Morales of Cadaval & Solà-Morales
ReUrbano in Mexico City by Cadaval & Solà-Morales. Photography by Miguel de Guzmán. MA House in Tepoztlán, Mexico, by Cadaval & Solà-Morales. Photography by Sandra Pereznieto.
Cadaval & Solà-Morales, based in Mexico City and Barcelona, view their practice as one that stands at the intersection of theory, academy, and praxis. Recent projects include Córdoba Reurbano, apartments added to a historic Mexico City building; CH 139, a mixed-use renovation that preserves a Spanish Colonial facade, and a guesthouse for travelers in Tepoztlán.
Roy Decker and Anne Marie Duvall Decker of Duvall Decker Architects
Mississippi Library Commission in Jackson, MS, by Duvall Decker Architects. Photography by Timothy Hursley. Midtown Affordable Housing in Jackson, MS, by Duvall Decker Architects. Photography by Timothy Hursley.
Duvall Decker Architects founders Roy Decker and Ann Marie Duvall Decker seek to accomplish more with fewer resources, partially due to the lack of public funds in their home state of Mississippi. In 2012, the firm completed the Midtown Affordable Housing complex in Jackson, which includes 22 federally funded affordable units. They also recently renovated the Dumas Hall at Alcorn State University and Bennie G. Thompson academic and Civil Rights Research Center at Tougaloo College.
Frida Escobedo of Frida Escobedo, Taller de Arquitectura
La Tallera in Cuernacava, Mexico, by Frida Escobedo, Taller de Arquitectura. Photography by Rafael Gamo. Civic State in Lisbon, Portugal, by Frida Escobedo, Taller de Arquitectura. Photography by Catarina Botello.
Frida Escobedo, who founded her Mexico City–based firm in 2006, strives to __design forward-thinking large-scale projects. Her recent work includes the Octavio Paz Library’s 2014 renovation and a 2015 pavilion for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Escobedo’s firm also designed a civic stage for the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennale.
Chris Leong and Dominic Leong of Leong Leong
Anita May Rosenstein Campus at the Los Angeles LGBT Center by Leong Leong in association with Killefer Flaming Architects. Image courtesy of Leong Leong. City View Garage in Miami by Leong Leong. Image courtesy of Leong Leong.
Chris Leong and Dominic Leong’s mission at Leong Leong is driven by a curiosity for new aesthetic experiences. The practice, founded in 2009, designed the 2014 U.S. Pavilion for the XIV Venice Architecture Biennale. Current projects include the Center for Community and Entrepreneurship in Queens, New York, and the Anita May Rosenstein Campus at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, both slated for completion in 2019.
Thomas S. Robinson of LEVER Architecture
TreeHouse in Portland, OR, by LEVER Architecture. Photography by Lara Swimmer. Union Way in Portland, OR, by LEVER Architecture. Photography by Jeremy Bittermann.
LEVER Architecture founding principal Thomas F. Robinson emphasizes material research; he has pioneered study into cross-laminated-timber (CLT) since starting his Portland-based firm in 2009. In 2018, LEVER will complete a CLT-clad high-rise that offers affordable housing. The firm also designed Union Way, a European-inspired retail arcade that uses locally-sourced poplar.
Jonathan Tate of OJT
3106 St. Thomas in New Orleans by OJT with development partner Charles Rutledge. Photography by William Crocker. 7510 Zimple in New Orleans by OJT. Photography by William Crocker.
Jonathan Tate, founder of New Orleans–based firm OJT, concentrates on the context of each project, accounting for social, spatial, historical, economic, and environmental concerns. In 2017, OJT will complete Bastion Community, an 80-unit multi-family housing community for combat veterans in the city.
David Scott and Susan Scott of Scott & Scott Architects
Whistler Cabin in Whistler, British Columbia, by Scott & Scott Architects. Image courtesy of Scott & Scott Architects Gulf Island Barn in Gulf Islands, British Columbia, by Scott & Scott Architects. Image courtesy of Scott & Scott Architects
David Scott and Susan Scott of Vancouver–based firm Scott & Scott Architects have a portfolio that spans from agricultural and community master planning to urban adaptive reuse for commercial clients. The firm recently completed two retail projects: a knife shop and ice cream parlor, the latter located on the loading dock of a restored 1912 warehouse.
