The World According to Concrete Published by nai010 publishers. Edited by Timo de Rijk. Text by Aaron Betsky, Gustav Beumer, Pieter Desmet, Marcel Wijnstekers. Large bunk beds line the walls of a luminous all-white basement; "elephant drum" tables double as dancing podiums; a huge bed (for 45 people) fills the "Bed Baroque" room: this is the Supperclub nightclub and restaurant in Rome, designed by the Dutch design firm Concrete. The group's design concept has been a success in Amsterdam, Rome and San Francisco, and will land soon in New York City. It has also mutated into Supperclub on Location and the Supperclub Cruise.
Over the past decade, Concrete has set tongues wagging with their subtle amalgamation of architecture, advertising, fashion and product design for clients including De Lairesse Pharmacy in Amsterdam (winner, along with Supperclub, of the Lensvelt-de Architect Interior Prize), Rituals Home & Body Cosmetics, Australian Homemade, The Coffee Company, London's Laundry Industry, the Centraal Museum in Utrecht and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. It has also made its mark with projects for Hyundai in Seoul, the ÜberFluss design hotel in Bremen and the recently completed designs for the restaurants and shops at the Mercedes-Benz Museum Stuttgart (a building designed by UN Studio architects), which have already garnered much critical admiration. The World According to Concrete examines this chic young bureau's working methods and its position within the world of (interior) architecture. Featuring 300 color images and essays by esteemed design critic Timo de Rijk among others, it provides a timely appraisal of one of the boldest and most innovative design companies on the international scene.
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