Uchronia founder Julian Sebban demonstrates how to work with texture and colour using SketchUp in the second part of his filmed Design Workshop, which was produced by Dezeen for the software brand.
Sebban created an interior for a fictional bar especially for the video, which is the second installment of Dezeen and SketchUp’s filmed Design Workshops.
The Design Workshops series features leading designers explaining how they used SketchUp’s 3D modelling software to create original interior environments.
In the video, Sebban explains how SketchUp allowed him to introduce materiality and colourful gradients to the 3D model of the bar, as well as enabling him to populate it with furniture.
“Uchronia really tries to work with the senses,” he says in the video. “Each one of our senses is important to achieve the best project possible, whether it’s a resin glittery table, or walls that are made in raw concrete.”
Gradients are a key element of Uchronia’s design language and have featured markedly in the studio’s previous projects.
These include the sunset-hued Cafe Nuances in Paris and a Haussmann-era apartment designed by the studio in the same city, in which blue-to-white gradations of colour were applied to the original boiserie wooden panelling.
“We really like to play with gradients, whether it’s on a wall, on a ceiling, on all kinds of surfaces,” Sebban said. “In this bar, you have the ombre walls that are very important design elements in this space.”
“The ceiling light is also made as an ombre in glass, going from purple to orange,” he continued. “The top of the bar is also made as a gradient, but this one is in lava stone, so we use different materiality but having the same effect.”
The centrepiece of Uchronia’s design is a bar with an amorphous form clad in a colourful mosaic.
“The way we’ve designed this motif is using glass mosaic,” Sebban said in the workshop while showing a board of samples to the camera.
“We applied the glass elements into the motif of a wave, having this very vibrant purple to orange to yellow, making the bar iconic but also super highly detailed.”
He went on to explain how custom patterns and textures can be imported into SketchUp and applied to surfaces using the paint tool.
Another feature of SketchUp’s software highlighted by Sebban is its 3D Warehouse platform, which provides users with a comprehensive library of searchable, pre-made 3D models that can be imported into a project.
“One of the key features of SketchUp is 3D Warehouse, which allows you to download any kind of element, going from tables to glasses to fridges,” he explained. “It allows you to populate your 3D model and make it look like a real project.”
In the video, he demonstrates how he was able to import Uchronia’s Cookie Table into 3D warehouse to feature it in the bar, as well as how he selected and imported the barstools that were chosen for the space.
Sebban’s Paris-based practice Uchronia, known for its bold application of shape, colour and reflective surfaces, was named emerging interior designer of the year at last year’s Dezeen Awards.
His workshops will be followed by a further two hosted by London-based interior designer Tola Ojuolape, who was shortlisted at last year’s Dezeen Awards for emerging interior designer of the year.
Ojuolape, who is the founder of the eponymous design practice Tola Ojuolape Studio, has designed a library in SketchUp for this project.
SketchUp is 3D design software used to model architectural and interior design projects, product designs, civil and mechanical engineering and more. It is owned by construction technology company Trimble.
Dezeen collaborated with the brand last year on Climate Salon, a podcast series exploring the role that architects and designers can play in tackling climate change.
Partnership content
This video series was produced by Dezeen in partnership with SketchUp. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
