Forget for a moment about the black décor of the bachelor pads of yore. These days, the color is helping craft sleek and polished looks for a diverse array of spaces and structures. Today, we look at a handful of recent projects that have tastefully and successfully incorporated the color — whether in large swaths or smaller details — to imbue sophistication, the materials and products their architects and designers turned to and some swank products in black to inspire you.
Casa Encallada by Whale! Architecture
Standing watch over an estuary that leads to the Tunquén wetland of Chile, this three-bedroom, single-family house has a massive multi-angle roofline that seemingly follows the surrounding terrain’s slopes. While its interior is defined by locally sourced, light reclaimed wood, its exterior boasts dramatic, dark cladding of shou sugi ban-style charred pine.
Photography by Hugo Bertolotto
Hotel Vincci Gala by TBI Architecture and Engineering
This Barcelona hotel pays tribute to Surrealist Salvador Dalí and his wife and muse, “Gala,” with striking graphics and forms, but it may be the color palette that is most eye-catching. The architects frequently juxtaposed gold and black both because they evoke luxury and present contrast. Gold-and-black, KriskaDECOR aluminum-chain curtains “veil” the glass balustrades overlooking the central atrium, for instance. Black painted room doors and ceilings in the corridors and public areas continue the theme of contrast. And a continuous black Corian® element moves from ceiling to wall to countertop and front at the lobby bar, which is wrapped on the sides with gold wall coverings.
Noir Presentation Centre by Mike Niven Interior Design
Essentially a pre-sale showroom for a new condominium in Downtown Toronto, this presentation center aimed to attract sophisticated clientele. Mike Niven’s solution was to reference the neo-victorian and goth motifs from the condo’s own marketing campaign with a backlit glass and black-lace canopy in the entry. The dramatic entrance, visible from the street, creates mystery and intrigue and gives way to an equally sexy, polished bronze reception desk with a glossy black top.
Photography by Paul Casselman Photography
Tel Aviv Duplex by Toledano Architects
A palette of concrete, wood and black metal lends a decidedly industrial yet warm feel to a duplex penthouse apartment in Tel Aviv. The chic kitchen is covered in a number of black finishes and countertops, but it’s the home’s suspended staircase that looks most stunning in black: the dark folded-steel element hangs from a balustrade fashioned out of crisscrossing black rods.
The Shadow House by Liddicoat and Goldhill
This small London house packs a big punch with its stark black-glazed brick envelope as well as some of the interior walls. The simple material is a perfect counterpoint to the white plaster porticos of neighboring houses as well as white marble and tile accents, off-white cabinetry and exposed larch-glulam ceiling beams.
Vegamar Selección by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos
This Valencia, Spain, wine shop has the air of a high-end gallery thanks to its spare décor, clean lines, edgy linear lighting and, of course, its slick black-and-white palette. Black lacquered MDF panels clad most of the vertical surfaces save for illuminated display niches and backlit seating areas. But the glossy black returns on a column and its attached cantilevered counter.
Photography by Diego Opazo
PRODUCTS
41zero42: Signs and Rigo
The young Italian tile company offers a number of products that look particularly smart in black. One is Signs, a series of medium-size rectangular extruded units that boast imprinted textured surfaces with six different abstract patterns. The tiles are full-body color porcelain. Meanwhile, Rigo mimics reclaimed wood strips in a two-by-14-inch ceramic tile in black, gray, mud or white.
41zero42
Cosentino: Dekton
The ultra-compact, near-zero-porosity slab comes in a wide range of styles and colors including stone-evoking designs. Dekton can be used on just about any interior or exterior vertical or horizontal surface as it provides resistance to water absorption, heat, freezing, UV rays, stains and abrasion.
Cosentino
EeStairs: Helical Stairs
These curved-form sculptural staircases add grandeur to any setting, whether in a home, showroom or office lobby. EeStairs can fabricate the staircases using a variety of materials for the components, from glass and stone to blackened steel.
EeStairs
Equitone: Façade Panels
Equitone’s panels are composed of through-color fiber-cement and have clad the exteriors of such cutting-edge projects as Delugan Meissl’s Festival Hall of Tiroler Festspiele Erlin Austria (shown below). The units come in sizes of up to four by 10 feet and can be custom-perforated or printed and cut into about any shape.
Equitone
ReSAWN TIMBER Co.: Charred Black
If you want to clad your project in shou sugi ban-style wood but don’t want to do the process yourself, consider the Charred Black products from this company. Suitable for both interior and exterior application, the planks come in cypress, red oak or reclaimed hemlock wood.
ReSAWN TIMBER Co.
Valspar: Fluropon Effects
Think of this as nail polish for metallic surfaces done in the manufacturing facility. Fluropon Effects adds vivid hues as well as subtle sparkle to wall or roof panels, window and door frames, storefronts and more through either continuous coil coating (coil is unwound, painted and baked) or extrusion coating (vertical or horizontal materials are sprayed and thermally cured).
Valspar