Koko interior designer Pirajean Lees looked to the sultry, saturated colours of director Wong Kar Wai's films when renovating Hong Kong's Dragon-i nightclub.

Founded in 2002 by Gilbert Yeung, Dragon-i is one of Hong Kong's most famous nightlife venues.

London studio Pirajean Lees worked closely with Yeung to transform the venue's interior, which included the addition of a members' club, fitting out the spaces with bespoke furniture designed by the studio and crafted by Chinese artisans.

"Our goal from the beginning was to re-spark the sexiness and excitement, the ruggedness and roughness of the 1990s and early noughties," said studio co-founder James Lees. "For us, this was the idea of the rebirth of the romantic side of Hong Kong."

When visualising the interior, Lees and co-founder Clémence Pirajean were informed by the vivid cinematography of movies by Hong Kong filmmaker Wong, whose credits include the 2000 colour-drenched romance-drama In the Mood for Love.

The duo reconfigured the nightclub layout, which is anchored by a central marble-topped bar bejewelled with a pair of glittering glass-brick drinks cabinets.

Swirly timber panels frame the DJ booth, providing a textured backdrop for the sound system's handcrafted speakers, while banquettes were finished in silver leather.

Meticulous architectural framing features throughout the low-lit interior design, in a move the designers described as mimicking individual snapshotted "memories of amazing evenings".

"Everything was very cinematic," Pirajean told Dezeen. "We wanted to guide people's experiences."

The bathrooms are characterised by more framing, clad with purposefully disorienting floor-to-ceiling mirrored panels. Large cubicles were finished entirely in stainless steel and illuminated by singular pink lights.

"We're still working on putting a DJ in that toilet," joked Lees.

Decadent materials were selected for their intense sensory appeal, which the designers saw as fitting for a venue centred around music, including a selection of striking Chinese marbles that the duo had not worked with before.

"Some of them are pink, some of them are acid green, some of them have these amazing chunks like eggs," Pirajean said.

The members' club sits adjacent to the nightclub on the site of a former restaurant and was designed to balance the nightclub's sense of theatrics with intimate, homely touches.

This space includes a listening bar where guests can enjoy a wide selection of Yeung's personal records, which are stored in oversized shelving constructed behind the perforated DJ booth.

A central "library" was placed in the middle of the bar, defined by built-in, back-to-back sofas upholstered in plush velvet. Green-hued banquettes snake around the corners of the room, amplifying the textile-clad walls that soften the acoustics.

A games room is located next to the listening bar and was created to be as immersive as the rest of the venue, while outdoor terraces provide moments of respite.

Dragon-i is typical of the Dezeen Awards-nominated studio's "hyper-detailed", narrative-led approach.

"The spirit of the project was freedom, fun, something that is not taking itself too seriously," Pirajean said.

"It's a club where so many interesting, quirky creatives go," she added. "We didn't restrict ourselves in terms of, where does this wild character stop?"

"It's a bit of a mishmash," added Lees. "Just the bonkersness and craziness of Hong Kong city."

Known for their interior design of the members' space at north London nightclub Koko, Pirajean Lees has also worked on restaurants in the city, including central sushi spot Kioku and 20 Berkeley in Mayfair.

The photography is by Edmon Leong.

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Koko designer Archer Humphryes Architects has renovated the upstairs bar at London's iconic Ronnie Scott's jazz club to balance old-school glamour with the space's contemporary musical offering.

Upstairs at Ronnie's is an eclectic music venue at Ronnie Scott's, the famous jazz club on Soho's Frith Street, which was founded by saxophonists Ronnie Scott and Pete King in 1959.

Local studio Archer Humphryes Architects renovated the 140-seater bar to be a fully immersive setting for its two regular shows a night, as well as extra late shows hosted four nights a week.

"Our ambition is that the space acts as a kind of time machine, so that guests enjoying the early show lose their sense of time and orientation once lost in the music," said studio founders David Archer and Julie Humphryes, who previously led the renovation of music venue Koko in Camden.

This intimacy was achieved through a reworked floor plan. Subtly tiered cabaret seating was arranged around the central stage, which is framed by plush red velvet curtains and hosts a striking grand piano.

"In Upstairs, the relationship between the stage and the dance floor/circle is immediate," the duo told Dezeen. "So guests are within touching distance of the singer and performers, and the relationship of on stage and off stage is virtually dissolved."

Among the features designed to maximise the venue's acoustics is a large domed ceiling clad in richly patterned Zimbabwean textiles finished in red and orange hues.

Overhead tilted panels, also covered in textiles, allow natural light to filter in during the day and can be sealed to provide a more cocooned atmosphere in the evening.

Each of the venue's gleaming circular tables is topped with a traditional, jazz club-style lamp as a subtle reminder of the main auditorium downstairs.

"It is important to remember that Upstairs at Ronnie's has its own specific identity," Archer and Humphryes said, noting the venue's diverse musical billing that has ranged from gospel to Cuban salsa.

"The management team has launched the venue with a combination of R&B, jazz and classical music, giving depth, breadth and variety to the overall venue without in any way cannibalising the 'jazz Mecca' that is downstairs."

Smooth marble was selected for the drinks bar, positioned in front of dark timber cabinetry and lined with wooden slats.

Vibrant floral carpets and bar stools add to the liveliness of the space, while tasselled pendant lamps bring gentle illumination to the low-lit venue.

"What is important is that within the whole, each part sits within a hierarchy that informs an overall guest experience of anticipation, excitement and seduction, creating a memorable night out," Archer and Humphreyes said.

Upstairs at Ronnie's reopened last month following a year-long closure for the renovation.

Over in east London, designer Nicola Weetch recently expanded the Hackney listening bar Bambi with an updated interior and a bespoke stainless-steel-and-wood wall cabinet for vinyl records.

The photography is by Taran Wilkhu.

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DJ booths clad in wood, metal and a giant disco ball feature in this lookbook, which rounds up nightclubs, restaurants and even a bathhouse that centre music.

With dance music culture "booming again" throughout the world, the spaces where it happens are also receiving renewed attention.

The DJ booth is arguably at the centre of it all, serving as its own mini-gathering hub inside of a larger restaurant, nightclub or outdoor space.

In this lookbook, we take a look at unique booth designs from Japan to Australia that keep people on their feet.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring milking stools, stylish skylights and marble kitchen islands.

Unveiled, USA, by Studio MBM 

A semi-circular VIP area is tucked behind this metallic DJ booth in Unveiled, a nightclub located in the basement of the William Vale hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Bathed in blue lighting, the booth features a smooth, mirrored cladding, while the surrounding dancefloor walls are clad in a hammered metal.

Find out more about Unveiled ›

JAM Record Bar,  Australia, by Akin Atelier 

This bar in Sydney was designed to evoke Tokyo's mid-century listening bars, complete with walls lined with a collection of 15,000 vinyl records.

The small DJ booth is tucked into a nook at the end of the bar, and like the rest of the interior, is clad in pink plywood.

Find out more about Akin Atelier ›

Oven, Spain, by Clap Studio

As its name suggests, the Oven techno club in Valencia was designed to feel like an oven, featuring red and black Alpi wood walls with a rippled burl pattern that climbs up the interior.

Other surfaces, such as the central DJ booth, were clad in stainless steel to reflect the club's warm-toned lighting.

Find out more about Oven ›

The Nursery at Public Records, USA, by Mattaforma

Brooklyn music venue Public Records recently expanded its Gowanus complex with the Nursery, an outdoor music venue that has a DJ booth tucked into a shipping container.

The booth's minimal interior design was led by local studio Space Exploration, while the two, large, teal speakers that flank it were designed by audio studio OJAS.

Find out more about The Nursery at Public Records ›

Bursa Bar, Ukraine, by Nastia Mirzoyan

This wood-lined hotel bar is located on the ground floor of the boutique Bursa Hotel in Kyiv.

Its DJ booth stands towards the back and is clad in the same dark wood of the surrounding restaurant, while a mossy green, latticed ceiling was installed to improve acoustics.

Find out more about Bursa Bar ›

Supernova, USA, by Mutuus Studio

This Seattle nightclub was built around a huge disco ball DJ booth measuring eight feet (2.4 metres) in diameter.

Covered in mirrored tiles, the booth conceals a semicircle desk for the DJ's equipment.

TFind out more about Supernova ›

Koganeyu, Japan, by Schemata Architects

Schemata Architects added a central bar to this 1980s bathhouse in Tokyo as part of a modernisation aimed at attracting new visitors.

The bar was designed to convert into a DJ booth so the room can be used as an events space.

Find out more about Koganeyu ›

Side A, USA, by Studio Ahead

A custom aluminium DJ booth stands next to the bar in this San Francisco restaurant in front of a wall of vinyl records.

"Our intent was for design, music, and the culinary arts to come together in a hub for the creatives of the neighbourhood," said Studio Ahead co-founder Elena Dendiberi.

Find out more about the Side A ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring homes, milking stools, stylish skylights and marble kitchen islands.

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This Brooklyn nightclub designed by New York-based Studio MBM features two distinct areas: a 1970s-influenced lounge and a futuristic dance floor.

The 5,200-square-foot (483-square-metre) space is located in the basement of The William Vale hotel in Williamsburg and opened in February 2025.

Named Unveiled, the subterranean club and lounge was designed by Studio MBM to offer different experiences for those who want to relax or party.

"Envisioned as an immersive spatial experience, the project unfolds across two distinct yet interconnected areas, each with its own custom seating component," said Studio MBM, founded by Maurizio Bianchi Mattioli.

In the lounge area, the predominant material is burl wood veneer, which wraps the walls and curves over onto the ceiling to create a 1970s-influenced vibe.

The veneer also swoops down and over the bar that's made from dark green stone and contrasts the warm wood tones.

A series of cushioned, velvet-upholstered seating nooks are linked together in groups of five and all curve to face outward.

Mirrors are used on the end walls to make the space appear larger, while columns are sheathed in gently rippled metal.

The adjacent dance floor offers an open area with niches along each side, featuring tube-like leather seating and small tables.

A semi-circular VIP area behind the DJ booth continues the same seating in an arc around the back of the metal-faced stand.

Textured hammered metal covers many of the vertical surfaces, while the ceiling is fitted with lighting and sound equipment.

Acoustic panelling is installed in the niches and around the back of the VIP area to help improve the sound quality in the space.

"With an emphasis on material richness and dynamic contrasts, the design weaves together bold colours, tactile surfaces, and shifting ceiling heights to establish a layered spatial composition," Studio MBM said.

"These carefully orchestrated elements create a sense of rhythm and fluidity, subtly guiding guests through varying degrees of intimacy and interaction."

With partygoers constantly searching for ever-more unique experiences, architects and designers are getting experimental with nightclub interiors.

Others with elevated decor around the world include a techno club in Spain intended to look and feel like the inside of an oven, and an OMA-designed venue in Bali with optimised acoustics and a sprung dance floor.

The photography is by Sean Davidson.

Project credits:

Client: Full Life Hospitality and Laker Capital Group
Design and creative direction: Studio MBM and Yakka Studio
Architect of record: Concept Design Studios
Branding: Sized.ltd
MEP: Concept Design Studios
Lighting design: Carlos Garcia
Theatrical lighting: Kawa Lighting
Audio design: Phonic Technologies

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Spanish firm Clap Studio used patterned Alpi wood, stainless steel and coloured lighting to make this techno club in Spain look and feel like the inside of an oven.

Aptly named Oven, the club is located in the city of Valencia and was established in 2018, before which it occupied a single room in a larger club.

Clap Studio designed Oven's original interior on a limited budget when the venue first opened, creating a design scheme with an industrial aesthetic featuring metal mesh.

Oven's new interior, which was completed in April of this year, retains its original layout and still includes metallic elements, however the space was given a more distinctive character relating to the venue's name.

All surfaces, finishes and materials were carefully selected to contribute to the effect of being inside an oven.

"The concept materialises through a visual and material language that evokes what happens inside an oven: a place where temperature rises, materials transform, and everything vibrates with intensity," said Clap Studio.

Two-tone Alpi wood featuring an almost psychedelic, burl-like pattern rendered in a dramatic combination of red and black was chosen to represent flames and the process of burning.

The metal panelling that clads the bar areas and DJ booth furthers the oven-like aesthetic, while also enhancing the dynamic lighting scheme by bouncing light around the space.

"Stainless steel surfaces reflect the venue’s moving lights, generating a sense of heat and constant motion," said Clap Studio.

Wall-mounted light bars, ceiling-mounted track lighting and a grid-like lighting system above each bar recall the glowing heating elements inside the roof of an oven.

The lighting can be programmed to become different colours depending on the mood of the event.

An LED screen provides an eye-catching backdrop behind the DJ booth, which continues on the ceiling and stretches out above the dance floor.

Underpinning the whole interior is a solid-red vinyl floor by Tarkett, setting the warm, dramatic tone for the space.

"The new scheme reflects the club's evolution and its established presence as one of the most important venues in Valencia," Clap told Dezeen. "The design reinforces Oven's identity and positions it as a reference in the scene."

Clap Studio was founded in 2017 by creative director Jordi Iranzo and technical architect Àngela Montagud. Based in Valencia, the practice works on projects internationally, specialising in retail and hospitality interiors.

Other nightclubs previously published on Dezeen include a red-and-gold club interior by Cosby Studios designed in homage to the director David Lynch, a funfair-like live music venue in Oklahoma City by AB Lafitte and a fully LGBTQIA+ inclusive, visually stimulating Seattle nightclub by Mutuus Studio.

The photography is by Simone Marcoli.

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Set designers Shirin Naveed, Shankho Chaudhuri and Esha Sikander created a mini-nightclub for this year's Glastonbury festival that only played music from South Asian artists.

Arrivals is Glastonbury's first dedicated South Asian stage, envisioned by cultural collectives Dialled In, Daytimers and Going South to provide emerging musicians from across the diaspora with a gateway into the music industry and mainstream festivals.

Conceptualised as a cinematic journey to an alien jungle planet, the stage design combines iconography borrowed from pulp classic sci-fi films and comic books within a newly redefined South Asian aesthetic rooted in politics.

"Orientalism is bedded into sci-fi," Chaudhuri told Dezeen. "What if there existed a canon of sci-fi that centred the South Asian experience? This was a way to reclaim and recontextualise a lot of those references through our own community."

The stage, set in Glastonbury's Shangri-La area, consists of an indoor dancefloor and a garden space, fronted by a dramatic facade designed to recall vintage cinema halls found across Britain and America.

A large-scale billboard was created for the entrance facade, paying homage to the styling of Indian cinemas with their neon signs and classic Bollywood posters.

"We opted for an art deco facade directly referencing the Dominion Cinema in Southall, which [Sikh student] Gurdip Singh Chaggar was murdered outside of in the late 70s, starting a whole movement of South Asian resistance that's still alive today," Naveed said.

The painted facade features the vibrant work of illustrator Osheen Siva, currently based in Goa, who imagines surreal, speculative depictions of queer feminine power in decolonised dreamscapes.

"I wanted to create three main retro-futuristic characters amplifying strength and culture," said Siva.

Other references found in her illustrations, which feature across the interior, include body armour modelled on saris, cyborg masks and space guns informed by Mughal architecture and garments with the distinctive patterns created by ikat dyeing.

The physical Arrivals building was constructed from sheet wood with the idea that, should the installation be resurrected in future, the materials can be easily reused and reassembled.

The dancefloor itself is centred on a bright yellow DJ "island" enclosed in a metal lighting rig and surrounded by a 360-degree panoramic mural illustrated by Siva.

A nod to Glastonbury's iconic Pyramid main stage, the geometric DJ booth is decorated with fake plants and wires – a mix of technology and plant life.

"I went to go see the V&A's Tropical Modernism exhibition and it clicked," Chaudhuri said. "Placing tropical modernist design in the centre of our island stage and the architecture of that space felt like the stars had aligned."

"We found a language, something that felt futuristic but also had a lineage with something that was inherently South Asian in its origin."

East London manufacturing company CNC Projects created the side panelling for the booth, decorated with rows of triangular cut-outs.

"That tessellated, triangular geodesic language is a trope of sci-fi," Chaudhuri said. "There's definitely a bit of Raj Rehwal's Hall of Nations and the Daft Punk Alive 2007 tour in there as well, the fusion and remixing of different disparate elements coming together."

The island stage was placed in the middle of the tent to evoke the effect of a crash-landed spaceship on an alien planet.

"That central configuration broke the barrier between having one viewpoint towards the artist or DJ who's on stage, to feel as though you are part of the space within the film," Sikander said.

"There is anti-colonial rhetoric that threads through what it is that we're trying to do whereby all of South Asia, mainly the Indian subcontinent, is without its borders. We create a context for all of us to feel as though we're part of that inclusive space."

Arrivals' fortress-like outdoor garden space was informed by Islamic architecture and South Asia's cultural link to textiles.

"We looked at different weaving techniques inspired by the Punjabi region, but also daybeds across South Asia," said Naveed. "We opted for flat webbing and geodesic domes for the structure, spray painted and constructed from scrap materials."

There's even a table for playing the Indian board game Carrom.

Artists that played Arrivals included DJ Ritu of the 90s Asian underground scene, emerging artists Anish Kumar and Gracie T, and popular DJs Manara and Nabihah Iqbal.

Other new stages debuted at this year's Glastonbury include The Dragonfly, made from a decommissioned military helicopter, and the Tree Stage centred on a storm-felled 300-year-old oak tree.

The photography is by Yushy.

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For our latest lookbook, we've chosen eight nightclubs that utilise clever construction methods and aesthetic solutions to execute elevated interiors with grand fittings and lavish fixtures.

The nightclub interiors, which range from an underground bunker in Beirut to a PVC inflatable in Geneva, spotlight ambitious designs that prioritise audiovisual quality and user experience through contemporary takes on accessibility and performance.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring gallery-like living rooms with sculptural furniture pieces and neutral-hued homes with herringbone flooring.

Klymax, Indonesia, by OMA

Located at the Potato Head resort in Seminyak, Bali, this sleek interior with teak veneer panelling was arranged around a 208-square-metre sprung dance floor.

Architecture studio OMA implemented a floating DJ booth and speakers with thick concrete padding engineered to avoid rattling.

Find out more about Klymax ›

B018, Lebanon, by Bernard Khoury

Beirut's underground bunker nightclub B018 was given a complete overhaul in 2019, with architect Bernard Khoury replacing original wooden furniture with gothic stone booths and podiums.

Referencing religious architecture and abattoirs, Khoury added a macabre row of skeletal metal rods hanging from the centre of the nightclub as lighting fixtures. Walls, floors, ceilings and furniture are all finished in stone.

Find out more about B018 ›

Supernova, USA, by Mutuus Studio

Set within a timber warehouse building, this inclusive art and entertainment space is arranged around a giant disco ball that contains the DJ booth.

The hemispherical booth sits in the centre of a nine-metre-long stage and is accompanied by suspended audiovisual equipment and flashy diamond-patterned lighting arrangements.

Find out more about Supernova ›

Public Records, USA, by Shane David

Musician Shane David turned a historic Brooklyn building into a "music driven social space" called the Sound Room. The interiors are dark and moody with perforated plywood panels cladding the walls for strong acoustics.

Other sound engineering details include wooden walls that were cut on a CNC router, and a contoured ceiling meant to diffuse sound.

Find out more about Public Records ›

2 Weeks, Lebanon, by Rabih Geha Architects

Layers of perforated webbed black steel divide up the industrial interiors of this downtown Beirut nightclub, separating the main bar, DJ booth and seating area.

Clubbers must walk around the outside of 2 Weeks' container-like walls, informed by the shipping containers of its New Waterfront Area location, to enter via a gap in the steel partition.

Find out more about 2 Weeks ›

Shelter, Switzerland, by Bureau A

Commissioned by the Federation of Swiss Architects, this intimate inflatable nightclub is made out of black PVC membrane that can be easily deflated and transported due to its lightweight structure.

Named Shelter, the building created by studio Bureau A contains a bar and a dance floor that contains an assortment of inflatable furniture including seating, tables and a DJ booth.

Find out more about Shelter ›

Silencio NYC, USA, by Crosby Studios

At Silencio NYC, gold accented metal panels, curvy built-in seating, rich-red velvet curtains and cinematic red lighting were designed to pay homage to the club's original location in Paris, which was designed by director David Lynch.

Mirrored walls create the illusion of extended space in the nightclub, which was also informed by Studio 54.

Find out more about Silencio NYC ›

The Prada Double Club Miami, USA, by Carsten Höller

Belgian artist Carsten Höller designed this Miami pop-up nightclub for fashion brand Prada, with opposing identities and aesthetics dictating both internal and external spaces.

Contrary to the colourful neon aesthetic created for outside, the club's entirely monochromatic interiors fed into unique grayscale approaches to lighting and furniture that honoured the glory of its former 1920s film studio location.

Find out more about The Prada Double Club Miami ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring gallery-like living rooms with sculptural furniture pieces and neutral-hued homes with herringbone flooring.

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UK studio Zaha Hadid Architects is designing a yacht club, nightclub and casino in the Bahamas as part of the Habacoa marina development.

The UK-based studio is designing two venues – a yacht club and entertainment building containing a nightclub and casino – at Habacoa, which is described as "North America’s largest and most comprehensive super yacht marina".

According to the developer, the pair of buildings will form the "social epicentre" of the development.

Located on a prominent site at the entrance to the marina, the two-storey yacht club will consist of two glazed structures connected by a twisted concrete roof.

Along with bars, restaurants and events spaces, the club will be topped with a roof terrace.

"An architectural landmark visible from the horizon, the yacht club will be 25,000-square-foot awe-inspiring design that features a unique roof that evokes the fluid movement of waves and direct cooling sea breezes throughout its interiors," described the developers.

Set to be built alongside the marina, the design of the nightclub and casino buildings was also informed by the sea.

Described as "virtually transparent" by the developers, the two-storey nightclub building has fully glazed walls and is topped with a roof terrace.

Alongside it, a casino with a 5,000-square-foot (464-square-metre) gaming floor will be topped by five glazed pavilions.

Projected to open in 2027, the wider development will be built around a 150-berth marina surrounded by around 250 residences.

The development will also include a performance venue, spa, water park and numerous shops and restaurants.

Zaha Hadid Architects is one of the world's best-known architecture studios. The studio is currently designing a set of hydrogen refuelling stations for Italian marinas and a waterfront development in Oman.

Dezeen recently rounded up 10 upcoming skyscrapers being designed by the studio.

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Architecture studio OMA has collaborated with DJ Harvey on a nightclub at the Potato Head resort in Seminyak, Bali, where optimised acoustics and a sprung dance floor elevate the experience for partygoers.

After completing the resort itself in 2020, OMA returned to work with the Potato Head Design Studio on the interiors for Klymax, which are acoustically treated to turn the entire dance floor into a "sonic sweet spot".

English DJ Harvey Bassett, known as DJ Harvey, also contributed his knowledge gained from four decades of experience working in nightclubs.

He aimed to distil "the most unique and significant elements of the world's foremost parties and venues — past and present — into what he considers the most rewarding nightclub experience imaginable", the design team explained.

"At Klymax, the sound comes first," the team continued. "It just so happens that when constructing a room to present the music in the best possible way, the design is visually appealing."

The walls and ceilings of the club are panelled in teak veneer, perforated with over 2.6 million holes that help to "tame errant frequencies" by preventing the sound waves from reflecting and altering the audio.

The panels are fitted on top of equally perforated plywood sheets and a layer of Rockwool insulation, creating a buffer in front of the 20-centimetre-thick concrete exterior walls.

A 208-square-metre sprung dance floor, similar to the one at London's Ministry of Sound, is designed to reduce fatigue and stress on dancers' joints.

Also found in ballrooms and basketball courts, the technology comprises four layers of a wooden lattice structure with 50 millimetres of foam between each intersection.

Klymax's audio engineer George Stavro worked with fellow engineer Richard Long, who was responsible for the sound at legendary Manhattan venues Studio 54 and Paradise Garage.

"It's a classic disco nightclub system based on a blueprint established in 1970s New York clubs," the team said.

To absorb vibrations, the speakers sit on 11-centimetre-thick concrete padding that is also engineered to be separated from the sprung floor to avoid rattling.

"Rich, finely poised and immaculately detailed, the system creates a vast sonic sweet spot, presenting the music exactly as it was intended to be heard with every nuance intact – perfectly pitched to optimise the audio experience," said the team.

A floating DJ booth is sound-isolated from the dance floor so that the music doesn't bleed in, while a reflective pond on the Klymax roof also prevents noise from leaking through the roof.

Lighting was devised in collaboration with Tokyo's Real Rock Design, the same studio behind Japan's Rainbow Disco Club festival.

A raised lounge area with leather seating is located on one side of the room, while a disco ball measuring one metre in diameter hangs from the ceiling in the centre.

The club also has a "muted bar", at which cocktails are served on tap to avoid the noise of shakers and bottles.

Throughout May 2024, DJ Harvey will partake in a month-long artist residency at Potato Head, which will encompass several all-night sets at Klymax as well as a curated programme of movie screenings, surfing and mindfulness sessions.

A line-up of international residents and DJs including HAAi, Dave Clarke, Sophie McAlister and Jonathan Kusuma is also planned for the nightclub.

OMA completed the Potato Head Studios resort in 2020 as part of the Desa Potato Head village in Balinese beach town Seminyak.

The firm has previously lent its expertise in nightclub design to a pop-up venue for fashion brand Miu Miu via its research arm AMO.  And in 2017, the studio revealed its design for a shapeshifting new venue for Ministry Of Sound, which won a competition in 2015 but was scrapped shortly after.

The photography is by Tommaso Riva.

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New York-based Crosby Studios has utilised gold accents and rich-red fabrics and lights informed by director David Lynch for the interiors of Silencio nightclub in Manhattan.

Silencio NYC is located between Times Square and Hell's Kitchen and is the second location for the club, whose Paris flagship was designed by Lynch.

Crosby Studios founder Harry Nuriev wanted to respect Lynch's original design while fusing the "essence of French flair into the character of New York City," according to the studio.

Evoking the same mystery and allure as Silencio's first Paris location, Nuriev created sumptuous interiors that are saturated with Lynch's signature hue.

"Being the next designer for Silencio, Harry wanted to have a dialogue with the director through the movies he grew up on," said Crosby Studios.

"The signature red colour of [David Lynch] was heavily used to capture the true essence of modern-day New York. Harry wanted to create a space that felt sexy and as if you were in a movie."

The newly opened space is situated near the former location of iconic nightclub Studio 54, which also informed the design of New York's Silencio.

Expected to face a strict door policy, those who make it over the threshold will experience a series of spaces where the walls and floor are covered in plush red carpet.

Thin strips of glowing red lighting follow the outlines of the rooms, framing doorways and openings to a variety of small lounge spaces.

These raised private areas are lined entirely in golden metal panels and surfaces including curvy built-in seating.

"In New York, as in Paris, Silencio tunes into the ambient air," said the club's team. "Its agenda celebrates the moments that make the city pulse; the club becomes a nighttime landmark."

"Inside, you will find Silencio's signature universe - minimal and contemporary - expertly reimagined by the aesthete Harry Nuriev," the team added.

Red velvet curtains can be drawn across to conceal those desiring privacy, but when open, the gold nooks reflect the cinematic red lighting elsewhere. The same gold was used for the dance floor.

In the main room, mirrored walls create the illusion of more space and upholstered benches allow guests to rest their feet if needed.

A larger niche is positioned behind the minimal DJ booth, offering an area for VIPs to party during music performances from local and international talents.

Silencio also recently opened a beach house in Ibiza, and a second Paris outpost in Saint-Germain-des-Prés on the Left Bank of the Seine.

Its original address is on Rue Montmartre in the second arrondissement of Paris and was opened in 2011 by Arnaud Frisch and Antoine Caton.

Silencio offers a membership program for those wishing to enjoy all of its locations, and gain access to cultural offerings and events that include concerts, performances, talks, screenings, exhibitions, dinners, private tours and more.

"Resolutely multidisciplinary, Silencio fosters free movement of ideas and the birth of new projects," the club said. "Its curious and eclectic programming generates a unique energy in confidential venues."

Nuriev has risen to prominence through collaborations with brands like Nike and Balenciaga and has previously designed hospitality spaces such as a Moscow restaurant where gleaming sheets of pink corrugated metal contrast with rough plaster walls.

The designer also added his "signature boldness" to his own NYC apartment, which features tiled walls, purple carpeting and leathery cabinets.

The photography is by Pauline Shapiro.

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This live music venue in Oklahoma City was created by local interior designer AB Laffite as a "psychedelic funhouse" using carnival lighting strips and a palette of sunset hues.

Resonant Head occupies a previously vacant building on SW 25th Street in the historic Capitol Hill neighbourhood, south of the Oklahoma River from the city's downtown area.

With a capacity of over 250, the renovated space is intended for hosting small performances within a visually stimulating and immersive environment.

"Designed to be a carnival-like playground for both fans and artists, the venue reintroduced the building's original mid-century modern architecture as a psychedelic funhouse," said Laffite.

"The goal was to create an eccentric design that maintained the character of the building while also straying from the typical dark and industrial music venue aesthetic," she added.

The renovation of the building involved negotiating the "wildly angular" original concrete ceiling, which is the most prominent visual element and proved to be the biggest design constraint.

The designer chose to highlight its geometric faux coffering using four different sunset-hued paints and attaching strings of multi-coloured carnival lights to its ribs.

A central column, from which the ceiling panels emanate, was wrapped in thin strips of gold mirror and encircled by a counter for placing drinks.

At the back of the venue, the raised stage area is painted red, lined with iridescent silver curtains and illuminated by thin neon tubes.

The diner-esque bar combines yellow-gold laminate, chrome edge banding, amber glass blocks, mosaic tiles and terrazzo flooring to create a nostalgic feel. "1970s club swank was the goal," Laffite said.

To one side of the bar is a seating area, where red leather banquettes are set into a niche in the wall and accompanied by cafe tables and chairs. Sconces by lighting brand Rich Brilliant Willing add a soft glow.

Meanwhile, "the restrooms are destinations in themselves," according to Laffite, who added checkerboard tiles, retro-coloured glazed sink and urinals, and pilled-shaped mirrors.

The aim of the project overall was to create a unique spot for locals to enjoy music together, as well as to help revive a once-bustling commercial thoroughfare.

"The conversion of this former department store (and later bar) into a music venue has returned a social gathering place back to the community, where it will hopefully become a cultural anchor in the revitalisation efforts of the Capitol Hill neighborhood," said Laffite.

Self-described as a Midwest-based designer, she founded her own studio in 2021 after working in the Los Angeles design industry for several years.

Elsewhere in the US, other small performance venues and nightclubs to recently open include Supernova in Seattle, designed by Mutuus Studio to be an inclusive environment for all.

The photography is by Justin Miers.

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A giant disco ball holds the DJ booth at this nightclub in Seattle, designed by local firm Mutuus Studio to be a "safe and welcoming environment for women, BIPOC, and all members of the LGBTQIA+ community".

Supernova was established by DJ Zac Levine with Mutuus Studio, GMD Custom and several artists as an inclusive art and entertainment space.

The nightclub occupies a 6,500-square-foot (604-square-metre) timber warehouse building built in 1937 in Seattle's SoDo neighbourhood, which was transformed by the team into a two-floor venue.

"Supernova's guiding principle was to create a safe and welcoming environment for women, BIPOC, and all members of the LGBTQIA+ community as employees, patrons, and entertainers," said Mutuus Studio. "Catering to diverse audiences, and self-expression, Supernova welcomes everyone to enjoy a night of dancing, music, and art."

Patrons enter past graffitied walls and a neon-lit hall of mirrors onto a mezzanine on the upper level, which overlooks the main dance floor below.

The DJ booth is housed within a huge disco ball, covered in small mirrored tiles and measuring eight feet (2.4 metres) in diameter.

The hemispherical booth sits in the centre of a 30-foot-long (9.1-metre) stage, used by entertainers for performances of all kinds.

These are accompanied by lighting arranged in diamond patterns behind the booth and other audiovisual equipment suspended from the roof.

A variety of installations can be found throughout the club's many smaller spaces.

A VIP area is demarcated by classic red velvet ropes and golden stanchions, beneath a ceiling of more disco balls that scatter light fractals across the dark space below the mezzanine.

In another lounge area, fluorescent panels cut into wavy shapes frame sofas and a pink neon mounted on the back wall.

Some of the panels swoop down from the ceiling to create additional seating, while the first spans the room's full height and is punctured by an amorphous shape that forms the doorway.

Drinks are served from a metallic bar, as well as through the front of a vintage Volkswagen van – its windscreen missing but headlights still functioning.

Supernova currently hosts weekly events, including house music and disco-themed parties on Fridays and Saturdays.

The project was completed in July 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when many nightlife venues were hit hard by lockdowns and restrictions.

In response, creative studio Production Club designed a personal protective suit for clubbing in the time of social distancing, which includes features for phone integration and beverage and vape consumption

Based in Seattle, Mutuus Studio has completed a wide range of projects in the Pacific Northwest – from designing a cosy farm-to-table restaurant, to turning a large, steel sphere into an installation in a waterfront park.

The photography is by James Gerde, unless stated otherwise.

Project credits:

Mutuus Studio design team: Kristen Becker, Saul Becker, Jim Friesz, Jorge Gomez

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Creative studio Production Club has designed a personal protective suit for clubbing in the time of coronavirus, which includes features for phone integration and beverage and vape consumption.

Production Club's concept for the personal protective equipment (PPE) suit, called Micrashell, is designed to offer people a way of safely gathering and partying at gigs and nightclubs during a pandemic.

Described by the studio as "the future of human interaction", the design comprises an air-tight top suit and helmet that covers the hands, arms, upper torso and head.

It has a number of features that cater specifically to its intended party environment, including an in-suit beverage and vape supply system, built-in speakers and smartphone integration.

As the creators told Dezeen, they wanted the suit to be less "science fiction" and more fashionable and approachable. They took design cues from brands like Nike Lab and Ambush Design, and designers such as Yohji Yamamoto.

"The Micrashell was born from concern for our community, and concern about reckless social behaviour," Miguel Risueño, the studio's head of inventions, told Dezeen.

"After witnessing the events industry fall into an unprecedented recession, and seeing large groups of people ignore social distancing directives in order to go out and party, we felt obligated to address both issues and find a solution that benefited all," he continued.

"We have been physically socialising in a similar way to what we have done now for tens of thousands of years, so the consequences of an abrupt cut in human-to-human interaction for a long period of time could be catastrophic."

"The bottom line is mental health, as society can’t positively evolve if we are unhappy," added Risueño.

As the suit only covers the top half of the body, wearers can easily perform normal activities while still being protected, such as using the restroom or even engaging in sexual intercourse, the studio said.

So-called loading chambers positioned on the chest underneath the helmet allow users to safely consume drinks and vape via "easy-snap" sealed canisters that aren't accessible to anyone other than the wearer and the bartender.

The studio are currently in the process of creating prototypes of the concept in-house. Thanks to the "simple" design they hope to have the first batch of the suits available for testing in a few months.

The air-tight top-suit and helmet are made from a high-performance and cut-resistant fabric that is also easy to disinfect.

A clear but stiff shield protects the eye area while allowing for easy visibility. The rest of the helmet is made from a softer, yet still see-through material, to allow the user to move their neck around more freely.

The helmet also features a particulate filtration system based on the N95 standard approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

A wireless voice communication system is integrated into the suit, enabling users to control the audio levels of different external sources individually, as well as modifying how their own voice is presented to others in real time.

An internal speaker system plays live music to its wearer in three modes: dry (directly streamed from the DJ or band), wet (as an emulation of the room's sound based on psychoacoustics), or as a passthrough from the room via the suit's embedded microphones.

A custom pocket in the suit holds and connects to the user's smartphone to allow them to control certain features via their device. This includes a camera that can be used to take photos and videos of the event.

The suit is secured to the body with expandable straps, making it suitable for people of different sizes. These straps can be customised with add-ons such as patches, velcro, magnets and hooks.

Rows of RGBW lights can also be customised to act as indicators of the wearer's mood, needs and messages. For example, a rainbow lighting effect across the suit could express joy, while a static red light could express that the wearer is busy.

This is the first time Production Club – a multidisciplinary studio based in Los Angeles and Spain – has delved into product design. Usually its work involves creating immersive experiences for the music, tech and gaming industries.

The company has previously designed installations and events for artists like Skrillex, Grimes, Zedd and The Chainsmokers, as well as companies such as Amazon, YouTube and Epic Games.

The team worked in 12 hour shifts between Spain and Los Angeles until the Micrashell design was completed, in a bid to provide solutions to those whose work depends on social interaction in close proximity.

Many other architects, designers, institutions and brands across the globe have also been focusing their efforts on making face shields to help the health-workers fighting coronavirus.

Foster + Partners designed a laser-cut face shield that can be easily disassembled, sanitised and reused after wearing, while Nike used materials usually found in its shoes and clothing to create a face shield that it is distributing to hospitals in Oregon, USA.

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Shane Davis and partners have overhauled an industrial building in Brooklyn's Gowanus area into a spot that functions as a vegan cafe by day, and a bar and restaurant, complete with a nightclub, after dark.

Located at the tip of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, Public Records is the brainchild of musician Francis Harris and Shane Davis, who was the project's lead designer, and hospitality director Erik VanderWal.

Davis and the team renovated the historic brick building from 1912 to include three different venues: an all-day vegan eatery, an Audiofile record and cocktail bar, and a listening and performance space called The Sound Room.

"Public Records is a music driven social space," Davis said.

The property was originally the headquarters for Brooklyn's American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and was later used by a church organ restoration company, a vintage guitar restoration shop and a retail space.

Much of the original structure was kept and upgraded with paint, including exposes pipes, pillars and ductwork.

"The history of the building was an inspiration," Davis said. "The atrium is historic and was left intact," he added." Everything is super DIY."

"The strategy was to leave as much of the original bones in tact while adding functional elements for sound attenuation," Davis continued.

In the main area, where there is the bar and restaurant, is an atrium-like space with cream walls and matching concrete pillars. The slender columns support the gabled glass roof and expansive ceilings, while glass doors next to a built-in bar bring in more natural light.

A record player is tucked to a side area, and is a home for "rare record collectors" to be featured nightly. Walls and parts of the ceiling are also covered with cream sound panels to improve acoustics.

Wood chairs, plywood tables, built-in booths with pale grey cushions, plants and linoleum ledges decorate the bar and dining space. Davis found the dining chairs in London at an antique store and had them recovered in black to match the room's speakers.

Guests are encouraged to enter Public Records' eating area via an outdoor walkway that passes through the garden, along a brick wall.

The project also contains a smaller nook closer to its street entrance that accommodates a coffee counter, while the back of the property forms the nightclub venue.

The site is complete with a gravelled courtyard for outdoor seating.

"We knocked down the bar to garden wall and built a steel and glass support system that connects the bar to the garden, and reoriented the entryway so that guests enter through our garden navigating through three very old existing trees," said Davis.

For the music space, called the Sound Room, interiors are dark and moody with perforated plywood panels cladding the walls for strong acoustics. The club is left bare and open for congregating and dancing.

"All gestures were made with sound immersion in mind and then how to make it beautiful in the process," Davis said.

In contrast with the bar and restaurant area, the Sound Room is almost completely new.

British company ARUP consulted on sound engineering, which included creating wooden walls that were cut on a CNC router according to a sound model. It is "a room within a room, to achieve the most refined acoustic environment possible," said Davis.

Other details in are a contoured ceiling, meant to diffuse sound, with lighting installed by Nitemind as well as an entry, coat check, restrooms and bar.

Custom speakers were designed and built by Devon Turnbull, founder of design studio Ojas, in collaboration with Global Audio Systems, and Isonoe built custom rotary mixers.

Davis and the team renovated the historic Brooklyn building in collaboration with the American Construction League and Space Exploration for documentation.

It forms part of a number of commercial outposts to set up shop in Brooklyn's industrial Gowanus neighbourhood in the past few years. Another spot nearby is Gowanus Inn by Savvy Studio, as well as the office of local architecture studio PRO led by Mirriam Peterson and Nathan Rich.

Photography is by Cody Guilfoyle.

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Brooklyn Museum has revealed its plans to stage a major showcase focused on the history and influence of legendary New York nightclub Studio 54 next year.

Studio 54: Night Magic will open at the art museum next Spring, comprising hundreds of objects, never released photographs, drawings, films and set pieces from the historic New York club.

Hoteliers Ian Schrager and the late Steve Rubell created Studio 54 inside an old opera house in Manhattan in 1977, turning the old stage into the dance floor.

The club's extravagant parties became internationally renowned for their creative set design, lighting, and famous guest lists that included artists, actors and writers such as Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Elizabeth Taylor and Yves St. Laurent . It closed in 1980 but has remained an "icon" of disco since.

"Studio 54 has come to represent the visual height of disco-era America: glamorous people in glamorous fashions, surrounded by gleaming lights and glitter, dancing 'The Hustle' in an opera house," said exhibition curator Matthew Yokobosky.

"At a time of economic crisis, Studio 54 helped New York City to rebrand its image, and set the new gold standard for a dynamic night out," he added. "Today the nightclub continues to be a model for social revolution, gender fluidity, and sexual freedom."

Yokobosky has arranged the exhibition chronologically with showcases of original blueprints, sketches and models of the venue.

Fifty costume designs, created by Antonio Lopez, devised for Studio 54's opening night will be displayed alongside unrealised set designs created by Tony Walton and Mark Ravitz. Brooklyn Museum will also use the club's original lighting and feature audio of chart topping songs of the era to recreate its visual and auditory experience.

Images of Studio 54's extravagant themed parties and the over the top fashion that attended them will also be on display in addition to promotional content used to advertise the club.

Studio 54 was featured in an exhibition in Germany's Vitra Museum called Night Fever, alongside other prominent night clubs such as Hacienda and Tresor, however this exhibit will be the first showcase solely focused on the club.

"Studio 54: Night Magic is the first exhibition to trace the groundbreaking aesthetics and social politics of the historic nightclub, and its lasting influence on nightclub design, cinema, and fashion," said Brooklyn Museum.

The exhibition opens to the public 13 March 202o and will run up until 5 July 2020.

Anne Pasternak, the Shelby White and Leon Levy Director of the Brooklyn Museum, adds that the staging of the showcase comes at an important time in contemporary culture.

"At this current moment in history, when struggles for liberation often collide with restrictive social norms, we are excited to present Studio 54: Night Magic," said Pasternak.

"The exhibition encourages visitors to reflect on a significant era in our shared history and challenges us to consider the future and the many ways we can create a freer and more just world."

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Hotel brand Trunk worked alongside design studio Tripster to create this boutique hotel in Tokyo, which takes cues from traditional Japanese aesthetics – but unusually boasts its own miniature nightclub.

Hidden away down a cobbled street in Tokyo's buzzing Kagurazaka neighbourhood, Trunk House has been created by the hotel's in-house design team and locally based studio Tripster to have a residential feel.

"The idea for Trunk House was inspired by the salons found in Tokyo in the past, where artists and creatives would congregate – spaces where people would share ideas and exchange thoughts, where culture could be fostered," Hiroe Tanaka, creative director of Trunk, told Dezeen.

"We wanted to make a contemporary version of this concept which would accommodate modern creatives in and out of Japan."

The one-bedroom boutique hotel takes over a 70-year-old geisha house: a property where Japanese female entertainers, known as geishas, would live and practice how to dance, sing and make conversation with male clients.

Trunk's design team went about completely restoring and renovating the building to make it suitable for guest use.

Its focal point is now a bright-red room that, according to the designers, is the smallest disco in Japan. Complete with a curved drinks bar, glittering disco ball and illuminated dance floor, there is also a karaoke machine available for guests to use.

Spaces throughout the rest of the guesthouse –which can sleep up to four when required – boast a much more pared-back aesthetic.

In the master bedroom, a single artwork overlooks a mattress perched upon an elevated wooden platform, while the dining room features almost-black walls and a long oak table.

It looks through to a small, greenery-filled courtyard and open kitchen where professional chefs will cook-up traditional dishes for guests.

There is also a tiled bathroom that's dominated by a huge square bath crafted from cypress wood, and a tearoom with tatami mats arranged around a sunken fireplace.

Guests can alternatively relax in the sitting room, which is dressed with a chunky brown-leather sofa.

The hotel is exited via a small, split-level foyer with grey mortar walls.

It's been designed to resemble a genkan – the recessed floor area at the entrance of Japanese homes, where visitors can remove their shoes before stepping into the house proper.

"The interiors of Trunk House were informed by our understanding of Tokyo's cultural and architectural landscape: ever-changing, fluid, and a mixture of tradition and modernity," said Tanaka.

Trunk House is meant to offer a different guest experience to the brand's existing Trunk Hotel that opened in Shibuya in 2017.

Host to 15 rooms and several lively public spaces where locals and international visitors can interact, the original hotel is meant to help guests "feel part of Tokyo".

Photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.

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Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury has refurbished Beirut's underground bunker nightclub B018, adding spine-shaped lamps that double as dancing poles.

Khoury gained notoriety for his war-infused designs when the nightclub first opened in 1998. Two decades later he's returned to make it even darker, furnishing it with gothic elements that reference religious architecture and abattoirs.

B018 started out as an underground music night in the 1980s against the backdrop of the Lebanon War.

In the late-1990s Khoury built a permanent home for the club in the industrial Karantina district, the site of a horrific massacre of Palestinian muslims in 1976.

Sunk into the ground like a cross between a military bunker and a mass grave, B018 is covered by a huge circular metal plate roof that resembles a helicopter landing pad.

Most famously, this roof is retractable so clubbers can dance underground yet beneath the open night sky.

"B018 had in its initial setup a very symmetrical plan, reminiscent of religious architecture in many ways," Khoury told Dezeen.

"On the pavement floor, mahogany furniture was placed like musical instruments in a simple orthogonal formation."

Khoury only designed the club to last five years. Now he has given it a complete overhaul, replacing the original wooden furniture with stone booths and podiums.

"The new interior is entirely built with solid stone. Walls, floors, ceilings, furniture are all finished in stone, in complete opposition to the initial take on B018," he said

"B018 is now more than 20 years of age. We consider it permanent. The choice of stone was driven by this issue of permanence."

In its previous iteration B018 was sparsely decorated, but in the redesign Khoury has added the macabre detail of a row of skeletal metal rods that hang from the centre of the nightclub like carcasses in an abattoir.

"The hanging 'spines' are lighting fixtures," he explained. "They also serve as dancing companions for the uninhibited."

Khoury designed the booths to maintain the connection with religious architecture. On one side people can sit in their alcoves, whilst the tops serve as an altar-like bar for the people behind them.

Grills carved into the stone add visual interest and give the leather-cushioned booths an industrial edge, whilst allowing occupants to spy on each other through the grating.

The roof still opens with a hinge located behind the bar. When closed, it's underside is covered in rows of mirrored metal panels. Instead of shelves, the bar has a series of slots for bottles to rest in neck first, as if they were racks of weaponry.

Khoury's infamous design for B018 has had a lasting influence on the architecture of Beirut. Last year Rabih Geha Architects used layers of perforated steel to create an industrial-style club on the waterfront where drinkers could observe each other through mesh partitions.

Fouad Samara Architects built an apartment block in Beirut with huge metal panels that can be pushed out and retracted to change the configuration of the rooms inside.

Photography is by İeva Saudargaitė.

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MVRDV has completed a white and gold entertainment complex, The Imprint, next to South Korea's Incheon Airport, with facades that incorporate elements of nearby buildings.

The two buildings contain an indoor theme park and a nightclub. Neither of these needed natural daylight, so MVRDV was able to make them both windowless. As a result, the Dutch studio had free reign with the buildings' facades.

The firm chose to make the structures reference the buildings of the surrounding Paradise City, a hotel resort that serves South Korea's largest airport. Elements of these existing buildings crop up all over the facades of The Imprint.

"By placing, as it were, surrounding buildings into the facades of our buildings and in the central plaza, we connect The Imprint with the neighbours," explained Winy Maas, principal and co-founder of MVRDV.

"This ensures coherence. Paradise City is not a collection of individual objects such as Las Vegas, but a real city."

Windows, doorways and other facade details of the nearby buildings are mapped onto the majority of the new structures.

Due to the complexity of facades, the numerous individual panels are made from glass-fibre reinforced concrete that were cast in moulds produced using the architects 3D modelling files.

Both buildings are painted white to emphasise the mirrored facade elements, except one facade of the theme park building.

Finished in gold, it is intended to grab the attention of passengers as they land at the airport.

"The virgin building has received a splash of gold," said Maas. "This makes it as if the entrance is also illuminated at night by a ray of sunlight."

"Passengers in the incoming aircraft can already see this 'sun' from above the ocean, as a kind of welcome to South Korea."

An entrance in this golden facade, which has been built to appear like a raised curtain, leads into a walkway through the building.

This walkway has a glass floor made from multimedia screens, which are reflected by the curved mirrored ceilings.

"Reflection and theatricality are therefore combined," said Maas.

"With our design, after the nightly escapades, a zen-like silence follows during the day, providing an almost literally reflective situation for the after parties."

The architect believes that, as well as offering entertainment, the complex could be seen as a work of art.

"Two months ago most of the cladding was done and client said, 'this is an art piece'. What is interesting about that is that they are looking for that momentum – that entertainment can become art or that the building can become artistic in that way," continued Maas.

"What, then, is the difference between architecture an art? The project plays with that and I think that abstraction is part of it, but it has to surprise, seduce and it has to calm down."

MVRDV is led by Maas with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries. The studio also recently revealed plans for a mirrored office block in southern Germany  and is designing a rocking viewing platform on the Dutch coast.

Photography is by Ossip van Duivenbode.

Project credits:

Architect: MVRDV
Principal-in-charge: Winy Maas
Partner: Wenchian Shi
Design team: María López Calleja with Daehee Suk, Xiaoting Chen, Kyosuk Lee, Guang Ruey Tan, Stavros Gargaretas, Mafalda Rangel, and Dong Min Lee
Co-architect: GANSAM Architects & Partners
Facade consultant: VS-A Group
Panelization consultant: Withworks
GFRC: Techwall
Lighting design: EON SLD
Lighting: L'Observatoire International

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Studiopepe opened a private venue during Milan design week called Club Unseen, featuring retro furniture, intimate music performances and cocktails made by disembodied bartenders.

The Milan-based studio, led by designers Arianna Lelli Mami and Chiara Di Pinto, took over the ground floor of a late 19th-century warehouse in the city's Piazza Tricolore neighbourhood to create the immersive installation.

"The aim this year was to create a secret members club, a place where people could go, drink a cocktail and spend time with friends," Mami told Dezeen. "Once you are here, you feel this sensation that you are in a haven, away from the hectic time of Salone."

The club was arranged across seven distinct rooms – including three living rooms, a bar, dining room and beauty parlour – with interiors combining graphic shapes, grid patterns, pastels and metallic finishes.

The aim, according to Mami, was to capture the spirit of some of the nightclubs of the 1970s.

"Those years are fascinating to us – the colours and materials were very glamorous," she said. "We wanted to create that here but with a twist."

Design products crafted by Studiopepe, in collaboration with a selection of design brands, were used to furnish the rooms. They were displayed alongside vintage furniture, artworks and limited-edition classics from brands such as Cassina and Tacchini.

The bespoke products designed by Studiopepe included a round wall mirror produced by Italian bathroom brand Agape, wall hangings by CC Tapis, a collection of tiles by Botteganove, and a travertine and marble table by Solid Nature.

At the centre of the club's linear layout was a bar run by mixologists from Drink & Taste Milano, who served cocktails from behind a horizontal screen. Donning white gloves, the mixologists lowered the drinks onto the bar so that only their gloved hands were visible to members.

"In this way, the bar becomes a stage," explained the designers.

In a space called Informal Living, a huge wall-to-wall sofa bed provided a place for guests to relax and listen to live music performances by independent Italian and international musicians.

"For us it's a modern vision of a club," Lelli Mami told Dezeen.

"We wanted to explore this idea of the club as a place where you have the freedom to enjoy things – especially in the last room, where there is a huge sofa bed for people to jump on and listen to the music. Guests can kick off their shoes and enjoy the concert."

Shortly before the opening, select guests were given the address of the club and a transfer tattoo of the club's logo in order to gain entry.

Continuing the air of mystery, the entrance to the club was subtly signposted. Upon arrival, a butler welcomed members, inviting them to discover the rooms and serving them a drink.

Guests were also encouraged to download an augmented-reality app called Aria, which provided additional information about the design pieces on show. When users framed illustrated targets around the space with their smart devices, special animated content was loaded onto the screen that could then be shared on social media.

Other disco-themed projects shown during Milan design week included a collection of discotheque-inspired carpets and furniture produced by Italian brand Gufram, while India Mahdhavi designed a pop-up nightclub for gallerist Nina Yashar of Nilufar Gallery.

In Milan's NoLo district, Rockwell Group teamed with Surface Magazine to create an American-style diner serving up breakfast, lunch, dinner and cocktails.

"For this Salone we saw many similar ideas with designers and brands creating clubs or secret venues," added Mami. "It's a trend I think."

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London nightclub Ministry of Sound is opening a Squire and Partners-designed co-working space and members' club with a bar at its centre to appeal to the "next generation of rebel creatives".

Named The Ministry the workspace and private members club is being built in a former 19th-century printing works near the iconic club in Elephant and Castle, south London.

The members' club, which has been designed by London-based studio Squire and Partners, is set to open in July 2018.

Ministry of Sound is making the move into the ever growing co-working sector as it believes the experience gained working with younger generations will allow the company to create a workspace that specifically caters for creatives.

"From the start we challenged convention, broke rules, and helped create an entire youth culture," The Ministry's creative director Simon Moore told Dezeen.

"Now 27 years later, the desire is to use the knowledge gained over this time to create the perfect environment for the next generation of rebel creative businesses," he continued.

"Unlike other companies within this space, we actually understand how creative people work and what their environment needs to be like to maximise their chances of success."

The members club will contain a 20-metre-long bar that will span the entire entire ground floor and be the central meeting space in the building.

"We also understand that this is a very social industry, so at the heart of the building is a bar and restaurant," said Moore. "Far from this being just an add-on or afterthought tucked away in a corner that feels like a glorified staff canteen, we decided to create something with the aim of it measuring up against any other bar in London."

"This is the heart of our building, it's the space through which everyone passes on their way in and its aesthetic has informed the way the rest of the space looks."

There will also be an outdoor courtyard space, restaurant, 36-seat cinema, sound-proof production studios and an immersive technology studio.

The architects were instructed to design a workspace that incorporates the "premium raw" aesthetic of the Ministry of Sound club.

Ministry of Sound chose to work with Squire and Partners after seeing the practice's overhaul of a department store in Brixton to house their own offices, which has a similar aesthetic.

"Having seen their work on the Department Store we felt like Squire and Partners would be the perfect fit to help us realise this vision," explained Moore.

For the members' club this means that the printworks will be stripped-back to expose the original building's fabric, with simple furniture and plush textiles added to the interiors.

"The contrast of these two styles creates a powerful and distinctive aesthetic that's true to the parent brand's heritage but feels very contemporary, and is a world away from the sterile, claustrophobically-new feel of most working environments and the ubiquitous vintage-heavy look of members' clubs," said Moore.

Ministry of Sound's co-working space joins a growing number of shared workspaces built in London. Second Home's informal workspace in Shoreditch by SelgasCano was one of the earliest examples in 2014.

AvroKO recently transformed an art-deco building into a members' club and workspace in Fitzrovia, while Palmspace created a co-working studio in a former factory in Hackney.

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The interiors and graphics of some of the world's most famous nightclubs are profiled in a major new exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum.

Night Fever officially opened today at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany.

The gallery has been filled with photographs, flyers, artworks and records relating to some of the world's most iconic nightclubs, dating from the 1960s to present day. Among them are Manchester's Hacienda and the iconic Studio 54 in New York.

The exhibition aims to explore the "relationship between club culture and design", looking to the nightclub as a point of inspiration for architects and designers alike.

Organised in a chronological order, exhibits includes a site-specific music and light installation created by Konstantin Grcic and lighting designer Matthias Singer.

"The nightclub is one of the most important design spaces in contemporary culture," said Vitra. "Since the 1960s, nightclubs have been epicentres of pop culture, distinct spaces of nocturnal leisure providing architects and designers all over the world with opportunities and inspiration."

"The multidisciplinary exhibition reveals the nightclub as much more than a dance bar or a music venue; it is an immersive environment for intense experiences."

Visitors enter the exhibition in the 1960s, where designs from clubs including New York's Electric Circus and Florence's Space Electronic are on show.

In this section, Italy's so-called "radical period" – a movement that saw creative practices take on an avant-garde style – is also explored.

Venues associated with the radical period are profiled, including the multifunctional Piper space in Turin, designed by Giorgio Ceretti, Pietro Derossi and Riccardo Rosso with a modular interior.

Moving onto the 1970s, Night Fever looks to the influence of New York's Studio 54. Founded in 1977 by Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, the club gained cult status thanks to its celebrity visitors and opulent interiors.

Much of the 80s section focuses on Manchester's Hacienda, which featured post-industrial style interiors by architect and designer Ben Kelly.

The influence of the Hacienda and its impact on the acid-house genre spread to Berlin in the early 1990s – a period detailed in the next section of the exhibition.

Soon after the Berlin Wall came down, ravers began occupying disused and derelict spaces to create clubs, such as Tresor. Organisers would send out details of parties through flyers, which often followed a heavily graphic aesthetic emblazoned with lo-fi typography.

In 2004, Berlin became home to Berghain, which is located inside a former heating plant.

"[This demonstrated] yet again how a vibrant club scene can flourish in the cracks of the urban fabric, on empty lots and in vacant buildings," said Vitra.

Finally, the exhibition looks to the complexities of modern-day nightclub design.

"On the one hand, club culture is thriving and evolving as it is adopted by global brands and music festivals; on the other, many nightclubs have been pushed out of the city or survive merely as sad historical monuments and modern ruins of a hedonistic past," said the curators.

"At the same time, a new generation of architects is addressing the nightclub typology," they added.

Those thought to be part of this include Dutch firm OMA, which developed a proposal for a new Ministry of Sound club in London in 2015, but which was scrapped shortly after.

Having been briefed by the nightclub owners, the architects proposed a building that changes its shape from night to day, through walls that mechanically lift up and down.

Night Fever is open to the public from 17 March to 9 September 2018.

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Rabih Geha Architects has used layers of perforated steel to divide up the interior of a nightclub on the waterfront of Beirut, Lebanon.

The local architecture studio collaborated with Lebanese entertainment company Add-Mind Group to design  a bar and club in downtown Beirut named 2 WEEKS.

Rabih Geha Architects  had only two months to turn the location, an abandoned restaurant on the top floor of a building in the New Waterfront Area, into a hip nighttime venue.

"2 WEEKS was a very raw project with a limited time frame, so we decided not to touch the existing carcass and inject the new shell within it," studio founder Rabih Geha told Dezeen.

Walls damaged by the decay of three years of neglect were left raw, with a wall of webbed black steel inserted as a "shell within a shell", to separate the main bar, DJ booth and seating area.

"The idea of containment does come from the shipping containers that nest along the port," explained Geha.

"The duality between a container in an open-ended sea was interesting to explore; containment with escape, with diffusion, without full enclosure - these were themes we tried to investigate."

Clubbers entering via the cloakroom must walk around the outside of the container-like walls to enter the inner area via a gap in the steel partition.

Guests who are seated on the banquettes ranged around the inner sanctum can peer through gaps in the mesh at those circulating and in two additional bars, and vice versa.

Breaks in the steel panels behind the bar reveal huge windows, giving those seated at the high tables views out over the docks.

Beirut's waterfront has become hot property for architects. Foster + Partners trio of staggered limestone residential towers, called 3Beirut, is just a few blocks away from 2WEEKS and boasts views out over the marina.

Also overlooking the sea is Herzog & de Meuron's Beirut Terraces, a 119-metre tower of staggered white floorplates and planted balcony gardens.

In 2WEEKS, parallel lines of vertical strip lighting elements illuminate the inside of the container-like screens. These industrial elements have been juxtaposed with the plush velvet upholstery and zig-zag brushed brass of the DJ booth.

Rabih Geha Architects chose to retain the original floor of diagonal lines of black and white tiles, left there from when the space was a restaurant, in certain areas.

"The floor is quite interesting, because, like most elements in the project, our design intervention is always in relation to the site itself," said Geha.

"For the inside of the structure, however, we decided to install black terrazzo to contrast with the existing floor. The areas marrying the old with new are poured concrete."

Taking the opposite approach, Belgian artist Carsten Höller created a pop-up Prada nightclub in Florida where the indoor and outdoor areas had wildly varied visual identities. Everything inside the Prada Double Club Miami was entirely monochromatic, while the exterior was festooned with colourful neon lights,

Photography by Tony Elieh.

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Manchester-based designer Rick Banks has compiled three decade's worth of nightclub graphics into a new book. In a Dezeen exclusive, he picks out five of the most important examples and explains why they were so successful.

Launched on Kickstarter earlier this year, the publication – named Clubbed – documents artwork from Britain's most iconic dance music institutions, including Manchester venue The Haçienda and London nightclub Fabric.

Banks embarked on the project after noticing a lack of books based on the visuals associated with the UK's club scene.

Through a range of logos, posters, photography, tickets, cover art, signage, lanyards and flyers – the designer aimed to create a "graphic record" of the country's nightclub history.

"Dance music was hugely influential to me when I was growing up; it was one of the biggest reasons I got into graphic design," he told Dezeen.

"For years, I was always amazed no one had done a modern, visual book on clubbing," he continued. "Similar types of books were published in the early 1990s and they generally featured just flyers with some 'humorous', awful pastiche design."

Banks – who heads up his own studio named Face37 – began by visiting a number of design archives in London and Manchester, including those owned by designers Peter Saville, Mark Farrow and Trevor Johnson.

"I got Peter Hook's blessing to use the Haçienda brand, and Matt Robertson, who produced the Factory Records book, gave me access to all of Peter Saville's archive," he said. "I then spent time in Manchester with legendary designer Trevor Johnson going through his amazing archive."

After thorough research, that involved accessing flyer databases BoroSix and Phatmedia, and looking through old music magazines from the 1990s, he began the process of modernising outdated digital files.

"A lot of the work had to be redrawn from scratch, especially the typography. In one case a whole font had to be digitalised for just one flyer," he explained.

Older designs from the 1980s and 1990s were converted from a discontinued Adobe software Freehand MX to Illustrator.

"We had trouble opening old file," Banks said. "For some of the Cream & Renaissance work, Phil Sims – who now runs the design studio Neighbour  – had done a lot of his work in Freehand."

"Luckily, he has kept an old iMac running OS X 10.6.8 which is the last operating system that will natively run Freehand MX. This allowed him to open Freehand files from version 5 from the mid-90s to version 11 which was the last one before it got abandoned by Adobe," he continued. "He could then convert them to Illustrator files. It's nice to think that if he hadn’t done this now they would be lost forever."

Read on for Banks' pick of the five most important examples from Clubbed.

The Haçienda's 15th birthday poster

Farrow's fluorescent poster design for The Haçienda's 15th birthday is my favourite design in the book; so much so it's the first thing you see when you enter my house. The modernist minimalism, subtly and craft inspired me hugely as a young designer and influenced my own design work.

The code 51 15 25 05 97 was printed in a reflective ink onto a grey background which rendered it almost invisible in daylight. The poster only came to life at night under the glare of car headlights. The reasoning is that the message was only important to people who were out after dark.

Renaissance photography

As a teenager, I vividly remember seeing the photographic campaign by Toby McFarlane Pond; art directed by Phil Sims at the now defunct Dolphin agency. I was amazed by the stunning abstraction. It went against the very graphic nature of some of the design at the time.

The typography and hierarchy were always wonderfully set and made me appreciate grids as a young designer. There was an elegant beauty about the whole campaign.

Cream's logo

This is my favourite logo in the book and one of my favourites of all time. I actually wanted to shave the Cream logo on my head as a teenager! Embarrassing looking back. But that's how strong the logo is. It's timeless.

Fabric's surrealist posters

Fabric's initial designs were very graphic like a lot of the clubs at the time. However, they quickly abandoned this style in favour of a photographic approach.

Over time, under the direction of Jonathon Cooke and Roberto Rosolin, Fabric has created its own, unique surreal world which is instantly recognisable — it doesn't even need to use the logo on posters.

Gatecrasher's branding

I liked everything about tDR's holistic approach for Gatecrasher — the bespoke font, the tiny details, the lairy colours, intricate illustration and distinct tone of voice. It was one of my first experiences of a "brand world".

Printworks' logo

Printworks' fluid identity by design studio Only takes inspiration from the venue's former purpose as the largest printing facility in Europe.

The wordmark was created by wrapping the Printworks name around a cylinder, to mimic the huge rollers of the printing press. The marque uses a silhouette of the printing rollers in profile.

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Belgian artist Carsten Höller has designed a pop-up nightclub in Miami for fashion brand Prada, where indoor and outdoor spaces have very different identities.

The Prada Double Club Miami in the arty Wynwood district is open for three nights during the Art Basel fair and host of other events like Design Miami across the city this week.

Höller has revisited a previous concept, when he created a club in London that stayed open for eight months in 2008, but took a different thematic and aesthetic approach this time around.

"In this new project, the artist further investigates the notion of two-sidedness: the audience is presented with two different spaces which offer visually and acoustically opposed experiences, with no concession to fusion," said a statement from the venue.

Located at a former 1920s film studio, the nightclub is divided into internal and external areas. The first is entirely monochromatic, down to the lighting, and is hosting international DJs and live music acts.

Dark patterned surfaces are illuminated with white neons, which glow above and behind the bar. Metal mesh furniture is provided for those who need a break from dancing.

Outside, the neon lights shine in bright colours. The tubes are installed around the edges of a thatched hut that houses the bar, as well as an orthogonal structure with a DJ booth and a dance floor, where clubbers can enjoy music from locally based Caribbean and South American acts.

"Each performer embodies the oppositional concept behind the project itself: guests and clubbers can cross a permeable boundaries to venture into a double dimension and 'schizophrenic' journey," the venue's statement said.

The first events at The Prada Double Club Miami also coincide with the opening of a new Prada store in Miami Design District this week. The brand was founded in 1913 and is now headed by designer Miuccia Prada.

This isn't her first nightclub commission. In 2015, she asked AMO – the research arm of architecture firm OMA – to create 1990s-themed party venue for her other fashion brand Miu Miu in Paris.

Höller is best known for his playful architectural interventions, which have included the addition of a giant slide to London's ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture.

Art Basel Miami Beach runs 7 to 10 December 2017 at Miami Beach Convention, while Design Miami takes place from 6 to 10 December 2017 at a tent nearby.

Photography by Casey Kelbaugh.

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Architecture firm OMA has revealed its previously unseen design for a shapeshifting new venue for London nightclub Ministry Of Sound.

According to Rem Koolhaas' firm, it won a competition to design a new home for the world-famous nightclub back in 2015, but the project was unexpectedly scrapped shortly after.

In a post on his Facebook page, OMA partner Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli wrote: "Apparently we won the competition (we were told so) but then surprisingly the project was cancelled."

OMA was invited by Ministry of Sound to enter the competition, which called for a new building next to the club's historic location in Elephant and Castle, south London.

Based on research from the firm's research studio AMO, the architects proposed a building that changes its shape from night to day, thanks to walls that mechanically lift up and down.

This would allow the nightclub to easily change from open to closed, and to offer spaces that respond to different climate conditions. For instance, the indoor atrium would change to create a VIP roof terrace.

The design also addressed the fact – claimed by OMA – that nightclubs have lost their relevance, now that electronic devices are able to offer the same kind of immersive experience.

The aim was to include as diverse a variety of spatial experiences as possible, to exaggerate the change from day to night.

"The result of our work was a combination of a dynamic design – an experiment on a double identity – and of applied research into the status of nightlife and its spatial implications," said Pestellini Laparelli.

Ministry of Sound was first established in 1991 in a converted office building. As "the first regulated 24-hour safe haven for partygoers to dance throughout the night", it offered an alternative to the illegal warehouse rave scene.

The club went on to become a global brand, but over the years it has had several clashes with the local council over the redevelopment of its surrounding area, and has frequently claimed it was being pushed out.

The company has not yet responded to Dezeen's request for comment as to why its competition for a new building was cancelled.

But it is the latest in a series of problems for London's nightlife scene, which has seen many famous clubs shut down over the last decade because of licensing issues.

Clerkenwell club Fabric almost closed down at the end of last year too, after two teenagers who took drugs at the venue tragically died, but the club reopened this week with stricter security.

OMA and Rem Koolhaas ranked 12th in the Dezeen Hot List,  a countdown of the most newsworthy players in the design industry.

This isn't the first time the Rotterdam-based firm has designed a nightclub – the firm previously created a 1990s-style club in Paris to host a one-off event for fashion brand Miu Miu.

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Swiss studio Bureau A created this inflatable PVC nightclub to host the annual party of the Federation of Swiss Architects (+ slideshow).

Named Shelter, the black blow-up building contains a bar and a dance floor, as well as an assortment of inflatable furniture that includes seating, tables and a DJ booth.

Everything is made out of black PVC membrane, meaning the lightweight structure can be easily deflated and transported to a new location.

The structure was commissioned by the Federation of Swiss Architects, better known as Bund Schweizer Architekten, to host the organisation's summer party. For this event, it was installed inside Pavillon Sicli – a cultural venue in Geneva.

Bureau A described the structure as a "mysterious black vessel in a highly engendered concrete vault".

"For one night, the black hole of a neat and well-organised society is revealed as a potential for distortion, a potential of let-go and provoke, with a slight smile, the unsaid and the sweat," they said.

With offices in both Geneva and Lisbon, architects Leopold Banchini and Daniel Zamarbide established Bureau A as an office for both architecture and research – with past projects ranging from a marble urinal to a mobile mini-skyscraper.

They see Shelter as a study of the architecture of the underground, as explored by theorists including Gaston Bachelard, Paul Virilio and Beatriz Colomina.

"Architecture seeks the underground, searches for new territories under the skin of the earth," said the team. "Bachelard woke up the right to the unconscious spatial exploration of the underground through the figure of the cellar."

"Virilio unveiled the potential of semi-buried architectures in his Bunker Archeology," they continued. "Colomina brought to light the hidden architectures and psychotic strategies of the American society during the Second World War in her book Domesticity at War."

"The underground fascinates and completes the hygienic and panoptical world of the overground."

Bureau A is the latest in a series of architects to have experimented with inflatable structures in recent months. Other examples include BIG's "cloud pavilion" and the bubble-like structure by Spanish architects DOSIS.

Photography is by Dylan Perrenoud.

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Dutch firm MVRDV has designed an entertainment complex featuring inverted facades and a huge blob of gold, which will be built in Seoul, South Korea, ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics (+ slideshow).

Called Paradise City, the 9,800-square-metre complex will form the centre of a new tourist district in Seoul. It will feature a nightclub and a retail building, with a public plaza sandwiched between.

MVRDV wants to create two buildings that look like siblings. The two structures, named the Nightclub and the Sandbox, are both designed to feature a "concrete casting" of neighbouring facades.

The buildings will be introverted, with very few window openings. The few openings that visitors will use will lift up like draping curtains.

The main entrance to the complex will be marked by a large golden circle, like a shadow. According to MVRDV, this will be visible to tourists flying into the nearby Incheon airport.

"The project takes two simple volumes, which create a new urban space," explained MVRDV co-founder Winy Maas. "These masses then take an imprint of the facades around the site, stretching over the two buildings."

"The buildings are opened by lifting them like a curtain, unravelling their interior," said Maas.

"Then, to top it off is the golden spot, marking the entrance like a sunbeam, making its presence known even from the air and the landing planes at Incheon airport."

The Sandbox will be a 3,600-square-metre shopping centre that curves around to connect to a new casino.

The 6,200-square-metre Nightclub will be located opposite. More rectangular in shape, it will also feature a "water club" and a roof garden.

An underground car park will be located below.

Paradise City is expected to complete in time for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which will take place in nearby PyeongChang. A mono-rail link will offer a direct link to the airport.

It forms part of a masterplan that comprises four main zones; a hotel with a casino and convention facilities; the Plaza, with a boutique hotel, food-court, retail space and galleries; a spa; and the Entertainment Square, with retail spaces and a nightclub.

The project will be completed in collaboration with local firm Gansam Architects & Partners, which also designed the masterplan, and facade specialist VS-A, which will help create the introverted effect.

Construction is envisaged to begin in September 2016 and complete by 2018.

Winy Maas co-founded Rotterdam-based MVRDV in 1993 with Nathalie de Vries and Jacob van Rijs.

Last year, the firm released plans to transform a Seoul overpass into High Line-inspired park. MVRDV's completed projects include a library contained within a glass pyramid and a transparent interior for Hong Kong office block.

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The research arm of Dutch studio OMA created a 1990s-style nightclub in Paris to host a one-off event for fashion brand Miu Miu (+ slideshow).

AMO's Miu Miu Club hosted a dinner, a fashion show and several musical acts within the 1937 Palais d'Iena – a Neoclassical-style building in Paris originally designed by French architect Auguste Perret, who specialised in using reinforced concrete. The structure currently houses government offices.

The Miu Miu event took place on Saturday 4 July 2015, the night before the city's haute-couture fashion week for the Autumn Winter 2015 season kicked off.

Borrowing cues from 1990s nightclubs, the AMO design "referenced an underground and industrial atmosphere with strip lighting, metal grids, and PVC sheets".

The Rotterdam studio – which also designed the set for Prada's menswear show in Milan last month – built a temporary scaffolding structure around the sides of the room.

Miu Miu is the nickname of Italian fashion designer Miuccia Prada, who set up an offshoot brand with the same name in 1993 as a platform for explorations beyond her main Prada collections.

The Miu Miu logo was emblazoned above the entrance to the space in neon lights, while further tube lighting was attached to the structure's metal poles.

Dining tables were located beneath the metal beams, which supported a platform that was used as a catwalk to present clothes from the Miu Miu line.

A dance floor in the centre of the room faced a DJ booth, backed by a light-up wall that illuminated in time with the music.

AMO and sister studio OMA have a longstanding relationship with the Prada group, having worked together for 25 years as a result of a friendship between their founders – architect Rem Koolhaas and Miuccia Prada.

Catwalks designed by the architects for the fashion house include a series of linked symmetrical vestibules and a runway that floated on a blue pool, while other projects have encompassed store interiors, furniture collections and even a portable, shape-shifting cultural pavilion.

OMA also recently completed the Fondazione Prada – a new arts centre inside a former distillery in Milan that opened in May 2015.

However Herzog & de Meuron was chosen to design Miu Miu's new store in Tokyo, which opened earlier this year.

Paris' Haute Couture fashion week continues until 9 July 2015.

Photography is by Agostino Osio, courtesy of OMA, unless otherwise stated.

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World-famous nightclubs including Berlin's Berghain and London's Fabric are illustrated in this series by Barcelona-based graphic designer Pablo Benito (+ slideshow).

Pablo Benito chose his favourite nightclubs in the world to draw as "a beautiful way to remember them," he told Dezeen.

The facade of each building is depicted as a simple line drawing in muted colours, highlighting the diversity of their architectural styles – from industrial to almost rural.

The vast windows of the upper storeys of Berlin's infamous Berghain, a defunct East German heating and power station, are shown lit up in red and green.

Benito has also drawn the original venue of techno nightclub Tresor, which occupied a former department store in Mitte. The exterior of the club is shown lit by a street lamp with red light shining out from the basement.

Unlike these two Berlin venues, Benito illustrates the majority of clubs in daylight.

"Illustration by night is a bit harder, some of that clubs don't change to much by night, but others like Tresor or Berghain do and illustrating it is a good way to see this," said Benito.

Benito also chose to feature four clubs in his home city, including Sala Apolo, housed in a former theatre, and another cavernous warehouse building, Razzmatazz.

Amsterdam's Trouw, which shut early this year, was housed in a former print factory that is being turned into student housing. Benito also drew New York's Paradise Garage, another now-defunct club.

One of the most unique buildings in the series is Paris' La Machine du Moulin Rouge, recognisable by the windmill on its roof.

Another of the clubs with a distinctive exterior, and also the longest-running, is Barraca in Valencia – a former country house in the middle of a rice field named after the typical hut-like buildings of the area. Barraca was the first club Benito drew, as a present for his mother.

"Right now I'm trying to illustrate some of the very first clubs in the world, it is quite hard to found proper images, but with time I will find them!" said Benito.

Others in the series include London's Fabric, which occupies a renovated Victorian building opposite Smithfield Meat Market in Farringdon.

"In terms of architecture maybe Berghain is the most impressive for me, but you can see how," said Benito.

"La Paloma, Apolo, Cibeles and Moulin Rouge are similar, with similar colours, as all them were built at more or less on the same time! For sure, Barraca is the most different as its made from wood, straw and clay."

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Volcanic stone walls feature a geometric pattern of copper-leaf triangles inside this restaurant and nightclub on the banks of the Seine river in Paris (+ slideshow).

Mexico City architects Emmanuel Picault and Ludwig Godfrey collaborated with Paris architect Nicolas Sisto to insert the Nüba nightclub on the upper level of a shopping centre and exhibition hall near Austerlizt station.

The project is inspired by Mexican architecture and materials. "Living in Mexico City for a few years, this project of Nüba brought us back home to Paris through our adopted country Mexico," said Godfrey and Picault, who both grew up in France.

The trio shipped five tonnes of volcanic stone from Veracruz to Le Havre to build the interior then applied 300 square metres of copper leaf from Santa Clara Del Cobre across the ceiling.

These materials helped to create a dark and shadowy interior with simple undertones of brown, grey and gold, illuminated by low lights and the reflection of the copper-leaf detailing.

The tessellated wall patterns are complemented by triangular cornices. "Simple and sharp geometry is the defining aesthetic of this project, reinforced by the use of the best Mexican handcraft, a tribute to this country," the architects added.

The space operates as a restaurant during the day, transforming into a concert hall and club at night.

A kitchen and bar area are positioned at the rear of the space, with the restaurant area off to one side. A dancing area with a raised, wooden stage and small backstage area leads out onto a large outdoor bar and terrace.

Small wooden stools are positioned along the front of the bar and grouped together with tables in the restaurant.

Nüba is on top of DOCKS en Seine, a combined exhibition hall, shopping centre, fashion school and restaurant designed by French architects Jakob + Macfarlane. See more images of the building in our previous story »

Picault and Godfrey also completed a textured timber pyramid nightclub in Mexico City.

Other bars and nightclubs we've featured include a club and penthouse with chunky black trees, also in Paris, a nightclub in a converted car park near Stockholm and a timber pavilion club on Fire Island, New York. See more bars »

Photography is by Nicolas Sisto.

Here's a project description from the architects:

Nüba Club

The Franco-Mexicans architects Emmanuel Picault, Ludwig Godefroy and Nicolas Sisto have just completed a new restaurant/club in Paris, called the Nüba. Located on the rooftops of Paris, right in the city centre, in the recently revitalised neighbourhood of gare d' Austerlizt, the generous 1400sqm space is widely open on the river Seine.

This project is the story of a voyage.The journey of Lionel Bensemoun, owner of Le Baron (Paris, New York, London, Tokyo), with the purpose of giving a party in Mexico City made happened our first encounter with him.Living in Mexico City since a few years, this project of Nüba brought us back home to Paris, through our adopted country, Mexico.

According to the genesis of the project, we decided to flight a project from Mexico to Paris. Using Mexican references and materials, we landed a temple on top of the French capital, a revisited one, fit to host a music consecration.

Simple and sharp geometry is defining the aesthetic of the project, reinforced by the use of the best mexican handcraft, a tribute to this country.

Among all materials, the most significant we shipped were, 5 tons of volcanic stones from Veracruz to Le Havre, as well as 200 sqm of leather from Leon Guanajuato to cover the walls, and 300 sqm of Santa Clara Del Cobre copper leaf for the ceiling.

With the help of our friend and ally, architect Nicolas Sisto, we managed to gather together all the materials in Mexico and rebuild the project in Paris, on the rooftop of the cité de la mode et du design, built by architects Jakob & Macfarlane.

Restaurant during the day, and concert hall and club at night, the space is centred around a large terrace providing a fluent and festive runaround for the clients, passing from one interest spot to another, from the inner bar to the outdoor one, enjoying this way either the outdoor DJ set on the terrace, the one inside or maybe the band playing live music on the stage.

Architecture: Emmanuel Picault (Mexico), Ludwig Godefroy (Mexico), Nicolas Sisto (Paris)
Conceptual team: Lionel Bensemoun, Jean Marie Tassy, Gael Personnaz, Emmanuel Picault, Ludwig Godefroy, Nicolas Sisto
Industrial design: Atelier Antoine Daniel, Emmanuel Picault, Ludwig Godefroy
Advisors: Helena Ich&Kar
Administration in Mexico: Roberto Ayala
Administration in Paris: Alice Stahl
Interior finishing: Aaron Yepez, Jose Luis Madrigal
Construction: Josue Caniah (JRC)

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Lighting projectors and cables hang from the spindly branches of chunky black trees inside this penthouse bar and nightclub in Paris by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur (+ slideshow).

Named Electric, the music venue features soundproofed music rooms, an outdoor terrace and a dance floor facing out over the city skyline.

Mathieu Lehanneur collaborated with architect Ana Moussinet to design the interior and added split levels to define different zones.

By day, sofas and trunk-shaped stools can be dotted around the space to form lounge seating areas. By night, these are stored away to open up a ballroom with a rippled DJ booth.

Faceted windows and diagonal panels give texture to the walls in one of the spaces. Others can be used as screens for lighting and video projections.

Mathieu Lehanneur launched his industrial design and interiors studio in 2001. Other interiors he's designed include a renovation of a Romanesque church in France and an office filled with pulped paper caves. See more design by Mathieu Lehanneur.

Trees have featured in a few interiors recently. See a few more in our recent feature all about indoor forests.

Daytime photography is by Felipe Ribon and night photography is by Fred Fiol.

Here's some more information from the design team:

Electric by Mathieu Lehanneur

"If Alice in Wonderland had liked rock this is where she would have spent her days and nights…" summarised Mathieu Lehanneur. Electric, the new cultural platform in Paris, is already an event in itself: a 1,000 m2 penthouse in which the designer has devised a canopy of sound suspended between heaven and earth, monumental electrical braids emerging like pitch black trees.

Impressive by day, magical by night, Electric is a venue which never sleeps. A lounge interspersed with soundproofed modules and an 80m2 terrace, Electric is a space equipped with a mixing console whose ballroom floor provides a new perspective over Paris, integrating the ring road as a perpetually moving graphic foreground facing the metal mesh of the Eiffel Tower.

An ephemeral restaurant at lunchtime, a lounge or a club from dusk 'til dawn, Lehanneur and Ana Moussinet have designed a space which can also be freely customised through video projections and an infinite number of layouts available to its customers.

A huge trompe l'œil window onto the city, surrounded by streams of LED lights, is an ultimate nod to a new Versailles, Electric has already been chosen by We Love Art, and Kavinski for the global launch of his next album, and Ducasse… Meanwhile there are already rumours about the installation of an enormous open-air swimming-pool on the site of the car park this summer.

A result of the high creative demands of the management ensured by curator John Michael Ramirez whose range of artists contributes to the cultural distinction of the venue: Greater Paris has found its centre of gravity.

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A house once occupied by Mexican communist party founder M. N. Roy has been converted into a nightclub by French architects Emmanuel Picault and Ludwig Godefroy.

The private club, located in a run-down terrace in the Roma district of Mexico City, is named M.N.ROY in honour of its famous former resident.

The outside of the house is left completely unaltered, concealing the nightclub where a textured timber pyramid envelops a double-height dance floor and DJ booth.

Rough timber blocks and glistening copper tiles cover the walls of other rooms, which are filled with wooden and leather furniture.

Corridor walls are clad with black basalt tiles that are dramatically lit from below to accentuate patterns carved into their surfaces.

Behind the pyramid, black walls gradually step inwards to surround a dimly lit bar.

Clubbers overlook the dance floor from a glass-fronted mezzanine.

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Photography is by Ramiro Chaves.

Here are some more details from Godefroy:

M.N.ROY club in Mexico City

Chic By Accident from the Franco Mexican architect Emmanuel Picault together with the French architect Ludwig Godefroy just completed a private club in Mexico City, called M.N.ROY.

What s M.N.ROY ?

M.N.ROY is a project made as an open question, the one has for goal not to answer obviously what's actually the M.N.ROY.

In this way, the place can be perceived as an anti-project of what could be the commission of a private club in Mexico City, an more precisely in its Roma neighborhood.

In fact Roma has been very important in the definition of the architectural identity of this space, located in a very dueling neighborhood, and responding on one hand to its past, the one of the high mexican bourgeoisie of Porfirio Diaz (Mexican dictator 1876 – 1911) time which abandoned the neighborhood after the 1985 earthquake; and the today's reality of a trendy urban area that Roma became.

The club is the expression a high singular personality settling in the strong left over of its past time.

According to this, where normally the renovation of the facade appears to be the starting point, the opposite was done: letting the facade untouched to increase the rupture between the original meaning of the house and the redefinition of it.

We kept the house as a testimony of what it was, the house where Manabendra Nath Roy founded the first clandestine Mexican communist party.

By not touching the facade we made paradoxically appealing the building from outside, stimulating the curiosity of the people passing by and seeing a large queue trying to enter an almost ruin house.

Once inside, we made another step in a schizophrenic architectural way, introducing a new language, deeply belonging to the mexican culture, and nevertheless completely stranger to the Porfirio Diaz architecture time.

We used a pre-hispanic language reminiscence inside, in a participative way and not contemplative as could be a nostalgic neo pre-hispanic vision of it, introducing new materials (copper, leather, wood, volcanic stone), geometries (puuc art, maya arch, pyramids), and everything, down impressive generous volumes.

M.N.ROY is the impossible mix of cultures, volumes, architectural styles, making possible an improbable modern space of melting pot.

Architects: Emmanuel Picault / Ludwig Godefroy

Creative team: Rodrigo Madrazo / Marco Margain / Claudio Margain / Rodrigo Diaz Frances / Paolo Montiel / Leon Larregui / Emmanuel Picault / Ludwig Godefroy

Industrial design: Laila salomon / Emmanuel Picault / Ludwig Godefroy

Administration: Roberto Ayala

Construction: Aaron Yepez / Jose Luis Madrigal / Carlos Tapia / Base por altura / Alonzo Mungia / Carlos Cortes / Jose Luis Iturbe / Rigoberto Martinez

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