Vélocité Café

Vélocité Café is more than just a coffee shop. It’s also home to a bike workshop and a bike and accessories shop. In here everything is about bikes!
A retro decor with Nordic touches uses several of the bikes and vintage inspired accessories for sale as decor elements: racks, bags, handlebars, handgrips and wheels fill the walls and shelves here.
Although it looks small from the outside, the truth is that inside it has a few small tables with mismatched chairs, a bar in the center and the bike workshop with a huge glass window at the end on the left, where you can see all the work and/or restoration taking place. Outside there are a few tables overlooking a bike lane, which can be very pleasant on a sunny day, and a front bike set and wheel hang from the ceiling just above the front door.
The service and menu are very simple but efficient. Here everything is fresh and we can enjoy salads, vegetarian dishes and fresh pressed fruit juices. Oh! And if you arrive by bike you get 10% off!

Marta. 

vélocité café

via vélocité café

via miguel barroso

miguel barroso

miguel barroso

miguel barroso

miguel barroso

A blog: Desire to Inspire

Desire to Inspire is a blog by Kim and Jo, two lovely ladies who have never met but that share the same blogging space although they live on opposite sides of the world. Kim lives in Ottawa, Canada, where she works as supervisor for a web development team and Jo has a catering business in Brisbane, Australia.
They share with their readers not only their homes, but also what inspires them and what should inspire others. Architects, Photographers, Designers, common people’s rooms and shots, online for everyone to see and admire!
We at 351 Design Street follow them and they were one of the blogs that inspired me to start this online adventure!

Check them out!

Marta.

desire to inspire

desire to inspire

desire to inspire

desire to inspire

desire to inspire

desire to inspire

desire to inspire

Contemporary meets traditional at Villa Extramuros

While visiting the castle of Arraiolos, I notice a somehow distant white building. It's Villa Extramuros, designed by Voar Arquitectura, on the outskirts of Arraiolos, a village in Alentejo, Portugal. 

I drive through a dirt road and, after a while, I reach an olive grove through which I can see a two-floor contemporary building with cork-lined walls and ceilings that bolster the volume of the white walls. 

“The architecture of the Villa, inspired by Roman camps as well as by medieval convents […] pays homage to the characteristic materials of Alentejo: white marble stone, white-washed walls and cork”, as mentioned in their webpage. 

I am welcomed by one the owners, a Parisian man that has settled in Alentejo, that guides me through the common areas: a patio that, as with medieval cloisters, joins the areas that surround it; a dinning area; a lounging area; and five rooms that are located in the upper floor (and which I could not visit seeing they were occupied). In the exterior, one can easily be enthralled by the tranquility of the olive grove and the infinity swimming pool overlooking the Castle of Arraiolos.

The strategy used in the decoration is also very interesting, as it combines design from the 50s to today, with local crafts.

Ana

Photo ©Adrià Goula. Via: http://www.archdaily.com/

Photo ©Adrià Goula. Via: http://www.archdaily.com/

Photo ©Adrià Goula. Via: http://www.archdaily.com/

Photo ©Alexandre Gempeler. Via: http://www.wallpaper.com

Photo ©Adrià Goula. Via: http://www.archdaily.com/

Photo ©Alexandre Gempeler. Via: http://www.wallpaper.com

Photo ©Alexandre Gempeler. Via: http://www.archdaily.com/

Photo ©Adrià Goula. Via http://www.wallpaper.com

Photo ©Alexandre Gempeler. Via: http://www.wallpaper.com

Photo ©Alexandre Gempeler. Via: http://www.wallpaper.com

Photo ©Alexandre Gempeler. Via: http://www.archdaily.com

TASA project - crafts' future

The TASA project combines the materials and techniques of the traditional crafts with the strategic innovation so important nowadays: the design, packaging and image of a product.
With several items somehow innovative, when compared to the products typically produced by craftsmen, the TASA project intends to demonstrate that it is possible to have a contemporary crafted product.

Marta.

Photos by TASA

Portuguese Design at Boa Safra

The banners on the façade don't mislead you: you've arrived at Embaixada!
The result of a private initiative (funded by Anthony Lanier's EastBanc), this comecial space in the Ribeiro da Cunha neo-Arab manor house opened doors in 2013. The rehabilitation project harmoniously combines contemporary architecture with the romantic taste of the end of the 19th century. The concept presents an alternative to shopping malls and to the mainstream brands, and showcases several Portuguese-designer items.
And it is here that we will find Boa Safra, a publishing company that is also a designer store. It displays original ecological design pieces, several of these by Portuguese designers such as Carlos Aguiar, Daniel Pera, Magda Alves Pereira, Lu Barradas, Luis Porém, Samuel Pereira Pinto and MOOD.
You can browse the Boa Safra catalogue here.
And, if you would like to see your own design be built, contact Boa Safra through Youdesign and see your dream come true!

Ana

Chest of drawers. Design by Magda Alves Pereira and Daniel Pera
Via: http://revistadesignmagazine.com/block/

Coffee table. Design by Magda Alves Pereira and Daniel Pera

Console. Design by Magda Alves Pereira and Daniel Pera

Zero stool. Design by Luís Porém

Three-legged stool. Design by Samuel Pinto. Via www.noema.pt

Erus lamp. Design by Daniel Pereira

Erus lamp. Design by Daniel Pereira

Woody lamp. Design by MOOD

Woody lamp. Design by MOOD

Encaustic cement tiles - the storytellers!

This past week I read at A Ervilha Cor de Rosa a post about encaustic cement tiles. A few years ago I would passthese and would not give them much thought, but nowadays looking at a floor (or wall!) that has them will make my day! But what is encaustic cement tile and what’s the story behind it?
Encaustic cement tiles – or hydraulic tiles - are completely handmade made from cement that is hardened through a hydraulic press instead of being baked. The art of encaustic cement tiles was born in southern France in the late 19th century, but spread largely to Spain, Italy, England and Portugal. It was popular for its resistance and decorative qualities: with encaustic cement tiles you can tell several different stories. It was considered exclusive to the upper class of the time due to its manual manufacturing process.
With the industrialization of the 60s other less elaborate and more profitable materials gradually replaced it and it was, eventually, forgotten and almost disappeared. However, in recent years we have witnessed a reuse of this material in contemporary architecture with retro touches. Therefore, we’re entering a major new phase of manufacture. Of course this new phase, as Rosa Pomar said in her post "mosaico hidráulico 2.0", has both good and bad consequences. The good? The new impulse due to the vintage and retro trend going on right now, resulting in more fans and more manufacturers and invariably more options. The bad? Poor quality imitations in which the pattern is printed.
The real encaustic cement tile still has to be produced as it was originally; despite the technological advances, it is still impossible to industrially reproduce the colors, matte finish and soft texture of the handmade mosaic.

Marta.

via pinterest

via pinterest

via oppa

via mosaic del sur

via mosaic del sur

via arquitete

via egue & seta