3.20.2020 | DIGS.NET 35
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Instrumental to cultivating the highly finished atmosphere
are muted tones and a virtuous material palette that together
nurtures a soft and settled yet aesthetically rich environment.
As a graceful understatement, the project also is one of a
natural, earthy warmth featuring walls treated in Kabe, a
multifunctional plaster conventionally used castles, temples
and exclusive teahouses of Japan, which Norm Architects touts
for its special "wabi sabi quality" as well as for the ways the
treatment "mimic the tactility and color of the exterior facades
of neoclassical buildings in central Copenhagen surrounding
the location of space." A bench lined in leather, architectural
lighting, wooden elements including tables from Dinesan oak,
and clouds of ethereal gray draping are among the supporting
elements. A series of small nooks and niches, meanwhile, were
"created to clean up existing irregularities in the space and use
them as an advantage to create surprising views and details in
the architecture." Among these is a generous cubby fashioned
after a Japanese tokohoma; a virtual cradle is large enough for
one to cozy up to attend to a burst of creative energy or indulge
a contemplative moment. The reception area, meanwhile, upends
the typical office hub with a more welcoming living room effect
fostered by the appointment of contemporary wall shelving with
artistic material and a large round table in the center of the space
that announces a social element. Unmistakable is the parallel
sensibility that emerges from the synthesis of inspirations and
influences from Scandinavian and Japan.
In making a series of carefully considered calculations, Norm
Architects created a built environment of surprising exactness
and order that, like an issue of Kinfolk, makes a case for the logic
of pure clean lines and contemporary thinking. Kinfolk Gallery
is a thing of beauty on its face, but also for how effortlessly it
manages contradictions—here is a space that is strict but
not severe, nuanced yet flagrantly modern. Norm Architects
completed Kinfolk Gallery with a tidy summary of its work,
deeming it "elegant, sophisticated and crisp." It is a description of
no real fanfare or affectation, but it doesn't need to be. A practice,
a project and the simple, beautiful truth that results—there is no
greater audacity. normcph.com
