Stories On Design // Mesmerising Mirrors in Art & Architecture.

The magic of mirrors has played a theme role in our childhood stories – from mirrors on walls used by wicked step mothers to portals to step through into different worlds.

Much like the world of childhood fairytales, todays Story is dedicated to pristine, reflective buildings and installations that seamlessly blend into their surroundings. In doing so – they almost disappear, and their boundaries become infinite.

Mirrors are the ultimate chameleons. They posses special magical powers that can dramatically transform a built space, where a building or an interior takes on the characteristics of whatever is around – the space either expands or dissolves, and our experience and perception is shifted.

So it’s not at all surprising to discover that mirrors have become a go-to statement material in the world of art, architecture and design. Not just because they reflect the environment around them, but because by the very nature of their reflective quality, the mirrored surface only come to life because of the very images they portray outside of itself. The juxtaposition between two and three dimensions, transparency, mimicry, and ultimately illusion.

Related Stories:
Mesmerising Mirrored Mood // Architecture.
Mesmerising Mirrored Mood // Interiors & Art Installations.

See More ‘Stories on Design’ Curated by Yellowtrace.

ARCHITECTURE.

Images © HoG architektur.

Ballhaus: Broken Mirror House in Graz, Austria by HoG architektur // It’s a bit like something out of a Tim Burton film. The warped image playing on the street side elevation catches you off guard, not just because it’s beautiful but it’s damaged in a hallucinogenic way. It’s half meticulously constructed fantasy, half reality.

This residential building ‘Stadthaus Ballhausgasse’ sits in the historic city centre of Graz, Austria. Designed by HoG architektur, the street elevation interprets the design principals of the late 19th century using a contemporary materials and application. The collection of polished stainless steel panels refract and reflect the nearby architecture distorting it but mimicking it in equal measure. Not unlike a chameleon the building with its mirror like finish, it imitates and integrates with its surroundings.

Photography by Indiphos. Song Gi-myoun.

Jung Gil-Young Gallery in South Korea by Yoon Space Design // This gallery exhibits all the wonderful whimsical aspects of mirrors. What is essentially a large square mass becomes almost transparent due to the reflection of the natural environment around it. As you move around the building the mirror reflects back different views so the landscape seems ever evolving. It’s like a magic trick, a door opens in the mirrored landscape. Yellow white light pours out of the doorway, the entry to the gallery, making a perfect incision in the illusion of nature.

Photography © ShuHe.

Hutong Bubble 32 in Beijing, China by MAD Architects // MAD’s proposal for “Future of Hutongs,” which featured metallic bubbles scattered over Beijing was first revealed in Venice during the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale. Three years later, the first hutong bubble has appeared in a small courtyard in Beijing.

The hutong bubbles exist in symbiosis with the old housing. Their shiny exterior reflects the timber, brick and greenery. The bubbles multiply and morph to provide for the community’s various needs, thereby allowing local residents to continue living in the old neighbourhoods. HutongBubble 32 provides a toilet and a staircase that extends onto a roof terrace for a newly renovated courtyard house.

Photography by Jan Bitter.

V’ House in The Netherlands by Wiel Arets Architects // A burst of modernity arrived in Masstricht with this reflective and dynamic new building squeezed between two historical neighbours. Reflecting both the local architecture it blends in yet in complete contrast it’s bold mirrored face makes the new structure clearly an anomaly. The front doors, designed to be a seamless have no handles or keyholes and are instead remotely opened from any iPhone, anywhere in the world. Which is so cool! Almost a cool as the sleek, sexy mirror façade!

Photography by Oskar Da Riz.

The Mirror Houses in South-Tyrol, Italy by Peter Pichler Architecture // Bold and imposing these mirrored boxes reflect the ever-changing landscape around them, from a dusk sky to the rolling hills. This stunning Italian landscape is represented in its many incarnations in the mirrored walls of these holiday homes, set in the South Tyrolean Dolomites. The reflection of nature in the mirrors make the building seem almost invisible. To prevent birds colliding with it, the mirror glazing has been laminated with a UV coating. No doubt it must be quite confusing for our winged friends coming face to face with a parallel reality.

Images courtesy of Studio Remco Siebring.

Mirror Mirror by Remco Siebring // Mirror Mirror is a small roof extension on top of a classified monument in a small city in the north of Holland. The design is based on the principle of a tree house. The extension is completely covered in mirrored glass to reflect the old contours of the house. During the day the mirrored glass wall reflects the surroundings outside offering privacy inside and as the dusk sets and the lights go inside, the interior is now visible to the outside.

Photography by Shigetomo Mizuno.

Mirrors Cafe in Gifu, Japan by Bandesign // A bank of cherry blossoms are mirrored in the reflective gables of this cafe fittingly named Mirrors. The building has two wings and looks as if it has been split in half as it angles around a single Camellia tree. Stunningly the cherry blossom trees from across the road, reflected in the mirrored walls of the café appear to be part of the café itself. Gorgeous!

Photography by Tim Van de Velde.

Notariaat 2.0 Continuous Landscape in Horebeke, Belgium by Atelier Vens Vanbelle // “It’s boxy but it’s good,” used to be Volvo’s motto. It could well be appropriated here for this mirrored box-house extension. The original dwelling only built 5 years previously required something radical to enable the space to continue evolving. Et voila. A perfectly executed stainless steel box that radiates tranquillity by blending into the surrounding landscape. It reflects back to the viewer the trees and sky that surround it whilst maintaining its own unique integrity from the original building it is connected to.

Photography by Bernhard Fiedler.

52 Cubic Wood in Mödling, Austria by JOSEP + Atelier Haumer // This stunning home half timber, half mirrored building is more than just a place to live. “The Forest” an ingenious design to increase CO2 and Oxygen is a home built in Austria for a client who runs a nursery garden planting and cutting wood. The mirrored base reflects the natural environment around it, making it seem invisible and by extension giving rise to the concept of a levitating building above.

Photography by Jose Campos.

MIMA Light Prefabricated Cabin with Near Invisible in Portugal Base by MIMA Architects // If you don’t look closely you won’t notice that these buildings are not in fact sitting on grass. It’s merely the reflection of grass from the mirrored base. Alternatively the buildings also seem to levitate above the ground, the illusion is simple but incredibly effective. These modest building models were designed to offer affordable high-quality homes that are quick and easy to manufacture. No one ever said affordable couldn’t be super cool and effortlessly sexy too!

Photography by Yoon Joonhawn.

Cafe With Volcanic Stone Walls in South Korea by Platform_A // The café situated on the once volcanic Jeju Island of South Korea is surrounded by both sea and deep red boulders. It’s received a lot of attention for its integration of architecture and landscape. Particularly because of the mirror material used. If you were ever going to make the effort to design sheer walls of mirrors it would be whilst overlooking a landscape such as this, one with the sea and sky and it’s ever changing moods and colours. One too that reflects with the raw, rocky outcrops that recall the past days of volcanic action.

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.

Photography by Christian Brandstaetter.

Casa Invisible in Austria by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects // Some buildings just leave you dead in your tracks. This is one of them. Not often you read an elevation as monolithic and graceful at the same time but this building manages it. Casa Invisible is a flexible housing unit, which consists of a prefabricated wood structure designed for a turnkey implementation at any designated site. As with all mirrored surfaces, they reflect the surrounding landscape but the sheer scale of this mirrored building reflects back in super size the blankets of snow in winter, the blue sky in spring and life-size replications of the trees as they transition through every season. It is an exceptional execution of design marrying nature. No two ways about it.

Photography by Aitor Ortiz.

High Voltage Laboratory in Spain by ACXT Architects // Hi voltage indeed! The exterior of this building is something straight out of Space X. The new Laboratory which is 30 meters high has a polished metal facade that vibrates and breaks along its perimeter, allowing integration with the building below, significantly shorter than itself. A stunning expression of what scale and selection of materials can achieve.

Photography by Prof. Valentin Wormbs, Stuttgart.

House WZ in Ludwigsburg, Germany by Bernd Zimmermann Architekten // Hansel and Gretel just got themselves a new updated cottage in this storybook inspired home in Germany. Instead of one covered in sweets and treats this little beauty is covered in a wavy, reflected fabric. The architects removed all the existing windows and wrapped the stainless steel covering on the walls and the roof. This gem reflects the environment around it adapting to the existing surrounding, without being subordinated to it.

Photography by Jeroen Musch.

Mirror House in Almere, The Netherlands by Johan Selbing + Anouk Vogel // The Mirror House is a private villa and part of the experimental house settlements in Almere. The house was designed to have a strong relationship to its surroundings. The facade consists entirely of reflective glass, which acts both as a camouflage and a visual obstruction, offering privacy to of the interior.

Photography by Soopakorn Srisakul.

MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Thailand by all(zone) // An old warehouse was dramatically transformed into a dynamic space to create The MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum. From the exterior, the museum immediately draws attention because the main façade is clad with thousands of small, decorative mirror tiles. These tiles reflect light, a decorative technique inspired by traditional Thai temple architecture. The reflections help to dissolve the wall into the surroundings and vice versa. At the same time, it calls to the passers-by to stop and witness its beauty and the lightness of the architecture.

TEMPORARY INSTALLATIONS.

Photography © Gavin Smith.

Mark’s House in Flint Mitchigan by Two Islands // ‘Mark’s house’ is a temporary pavilion in an empty parking area of downtown Flint, Michigan. It represents abandonment, loss and the importance of shelter. Raised a storey above the ground, the Tudor-styled welling cantilevers on top of a mirrored pedestal and is coated in a 5 mm reflective mylar skin. The mirror finish changes with the weather conditions, stretching or wrinkling with varying amounts of moisture in the air.

Photography by Lance Gerber Studio.

The Mirage Sculpture by Doug Aitken in the Desert Outside Palm Springs // This wondrous marvel is clad entirely in mirrors. And we’re talking entirely here – the walls, the roof, the gables, the eaves, even under the eaves! The sculpture was based on an American ranch style house. The desert landscape surrounding the sculpture is reflected in every angle from every perceivable perspective. Inside, the reflective surfaces create a kaleidoscopic effect intended to evoke confusion rather than comfort.

Images courtesy of Natura Futura Arquitectura.

Ecuador’s Invisible Portal by Natura Futura Arquitectura // On a hillside in the Ecuadorean countryside, The Invisible Portal, a viewing platform, is a rest stop for hikers. The 13sqm structure is constructed from timber and covered in mirrored panels that reflect the valley below and the forest covered mountains surrounding it. The mirror walls are intended to help the observation platform blend seamlessly into it’s environment whilst echoing the beauty of the vista.

Photography by Thomas Lenden.

Pavilion for an Artist in Amsterdam, The Netherlands by Bureau LADA // “Archive” was an innovative and functional design for a contemporary artist’s studio. It’s strong, hard and reflective shell belies the warm and soft core. From the outside, the building is camouflaged with mirrors; it reflects the surroundings, negating its own existence. It at first seems impenetrable, as the large, joinery doors are almost invisible. But the journey as with all good art is after discovering the way in, to decipher the secrets inside.

Photography by Ross Campbell.

Mirrored Cabin in Scottish Glen by Angus Ritchie & Daniel Tyler // Local architecture students built a mirrored lookout point in a Scottish national park, in their first year of university. The lookout frames and reflects the views of the surrounding lochs and glens. With a budget of just £5,000, the architects designed a wood-framed pavilion with benches built into its different elevations to frame various views of the landscape. And what absolutely cracking views they are! The mirrored stainless steel was laminated to birch ply sheets and fixed to the exterior. The result is that the shifting reflections help the structure blend in with it’s surroundings.

Photography by Mark Sephton.

Mirrored Beach Hut in Worthing, United Kingdom by ECE Architecture + Creative Forager // It’s so damn little and cute you just want to pick it up and take it home. It took six weeks to design and build the beach hut using laser-cut mirrored acrylic sheets applied to wooden panels finished with dark grey shadow gaps. This playful beach hut mirrors the ever-changing reflections of the sea and has become quite the starlet of Worthing. Never missing a photo op it’s been delighting the community it was designed for, ever since.

Photography by Chen Hao – Zhou Dingqi.

Blossom Pavilion in Shanghai, China by Atelier Deshaus // The starting point for this flower-topped pavilion was the stainless steel sculptures of Zhan Wang’s Rockery Series. Atelier Deshaus reinterpreted these forms as structural elements, aiming to create a pavilion modelled on a rock garden. Six slender rock-shaped columns support a solid steel roof, which is topped by plants and flowers. With the rockery sculpture cast in stainless steel, the pavilion demonstrates the quality of reflecting the surroundings into the interior space.

Photography by Paul Kozlowski.

Seaside Breath Box Covered in Mirrors in La Grande Motte, France by NAS Architectures// Breath Box, the waterfront pavilion, was designed for a French architecture festival that takes place every summer. Over 300 mirrored flaps are lifted up and down by the breeze to animate the facade of this seaside structure in La Grande Motte. The architects wanted the structure to both reflect its scenic location and work with the key site constraint – the prevailing coastal wind.

Images courtesy of taak.

Tomas Saraceno Solar Bell Floating Sculpture // ‘Solar Bell’ is an aerial wind sculpture, which examines the future of flying architecture. The sculpture has been built using the latest technologies in the fields of sustainable wind energy.

The framework is made of light carbon fibre tubing and thin, flexible solar panels for the sails. The floating sculpture is lighter than air and can be fully lifted by the wind. As the solar panels catch the sun’s reflections the mirror like sails appear to glitter and flutter in the air.

Photography © Balázs Danyi.

Mirrored Pavilion for Hungary’s Sziget Music Festival by Studio Nomad // Studio Nomad created an installation for the Hungarian music festival by drawing visitors back to nature. Their mirrored pavilion is a simple approach that creates a powerful experience for visitors. More than 1200 reflective plastic sheets create shards of reflections, which appear to fragment the surrounding forest.

A pattern of mirrors strung between trees was inspired by the camouflage patterns of WWII battleships. This allows viewers to simultaneously look through and past the installation to the external environment whilst enjoying the reflection the mirrors offer fragmenting their views.

Photography © Hampus Per Berndtson.

Disappearing Lighthouse Renovation in Denmark by JAJA Architects + Bessards’ Studio // On the North West Coast of Denmark stands what remains of the Rubjerg Knude Ligthouse. Re-opened it was retro fitted with an architectural installation. Celebrating its historic function as a beacon for the ships at sea, the architects inserted a gigantic wind-powered kaleidoscope at the peak of the lighthouse. The mirrored installation captures natural light and reflection, sending it inwards to create an ever-changing landscape of colours and glimpses of the sea and surrounding environment.

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.

Photography © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

MINDCRAFT15 by GamFratesi at Milan Design Week 2015 // The historic cloisters located in the Brera Design District, provided a stunning space for the selection of new products, each of which corresponded with the theme of “In Between”.’

GamFratesi carpeted the central courtyard with mirrors and populated the space with black wire cages. Reflecting and capturing both the cages and the products displayed in them. The final result was whimsical and enchanting.

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.

Photography by Fernando Guerra.

Bureau Betak’s Knockout Mirrored Installation for Felipe Oliveira Baptista // This kaleidoscopic space was designed for the 10th anniversary of fashion designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista. The exhibition was held in the Museu do Design e da Moda (MUDE), the design and fashion museum in Lisbon, Portugal. Mirrored surfaces made into geometric forms reflect the raw surroundings. The clean lines of the mirrors are in sharp contrast to the unrefined and course concrete finishing on the ceilings and floors.

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.

Photography by Victor Frankowski.

Mirror Maze by Es Devlin for Chanel & i.D Magazine // If a mirror maze wasn’t enough to get your senses jumping, British set designer Es Devlin has infused his installation titled Mirror Maze with Chanel perfume. The installation in a former industrial estate, used as artists’ studios is located in Peckham in south east London. Designed to have the visitor feel welcomed into the art piece, it’s like a playground for grown ups, visually enticing and fun to boot!

Images courtesy of Jupiter Artland.

Mirrored Shed by Jim Lambie at Jupiter Artland // Scottish artist Jim Lambie’s mirrored shed, ‘a forest’, is colourful installation situated in the woodland environment at Jupiter Artland. Chrome painted panels cover the entire surface of the structure, reflecting warped and misaligned versions of the trees surround it. The colourful panels peel away like pages of book revealing a spectrum of colours.

Photography by José Hevia.

The Keenfolks Ad Agency in Barcelona by Guillermo Santomà // Smack bang in the middle of this Ad Agency is a mirrored “cupola”. The two meter tall hemispheric meeting room is clad in 3mm thick MDF, transparent panels and mirrors. Whimsical palm fronds poke out from the roof and any of the panels and mirrors can be detached and shifted to another position. Playful and organic it’s the perfect addition to a space that’s prepared to bend the rules the same way the mirrors bend the interior of the space they reflect.

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.