Hasta La Ideas

I was in the Arctic Circle last year freezing my butt off, and it never ceases to amaze me that humans have lived up there for eons, well before indoor heat. One “technology” that enabled early cold-climate survival was the simple layering of clothes; Nanook the First was wearing a bearskin and froze to death, but Nanook the Second added another bearskin and was fine.

With the idea of layering clothes to insulate our bodies being such an old principle, it’s rather amazing it’s taken American architects so long to get around to applying it to buildings. (It’s old-hat to Europeans.) According to the Chicago Tribune,

…Federal officials on Thursday unveiled an innovative design that leave the exterior of Cleveland’s aging federal building in place and wrap a new metal and glass skin around it. This type of design, known as a “double wall,” is expected to cut energy costs and give the stolid steel-and-glass building a fresh skyline identity, making its appearance change constantly in the light.

Renovation work already has begun on the 16-story Peter W. Rodino Federal Building in Newark, N.J. It’s laying the groundwork for that building to be “shrink-wrapped,” as the plan’s chief architect, Richard Dattner, puts it, in a new metal and glass skin. As at the Cleveland building, the two walls in Newark will be separated by a cavity of air, about three feet wide.

Such double walls filter out harsh sunlight and create an insulating layer of air that moderates climatic extremes and lowers energy costs. Office buildings in Europe have used double walls for more than a decade, but the technology remains unusual in the U.S.

Fringe benefits of this type of renovation are that the tenants need not move out during the re-fit, saving some bread there, and the double wall provides more blast protection for would-be terrorist targets (the Cleveland building houses certain Department of Defense offices). Learn more about it here.

A couple of reasons I don’t expect to see this taking off in New York: 1) See that crawlspace between the windows? Just a matter of time before it’s filled with rats and pigeons, and 2) eventually a teenager with a can of spraypaint will figure out how to get into the crawlspace and just tag the crap out of it.

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This week’s Workspace of the Week is Louish’s glass and not-glass office:

Okay, okay, I’ll admit — I chose this office strictly because of the monitor background images. I think they’re amazing! What surprises me most is how they disguise the monitors. If you have a workspace in your bedroom or another area of your home where a computer might not always be welcome, creating a wallpaper like this can help to hide it. It’s as if you’re looking through the computer. Thanks, Louish, for submitting your creative workspace to our Flickr pool.

Want to have your own workspace featured in Workspace of the Week? Submit a picture to the Unclutterer Flickr pool. Check it out because we have a nice little community brewing there. Also, don’t forget that workspaces aren’t just desks. If you’re a cook, it’s a kitchen; if you’re a carpenter, it’s your workbench.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

Lui è Brogen Averill.
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Cologne 2011: the Rewrite desk by Copenhagen designers GamFratesi (see our earlier story) has been put into production by French brand Ligne Roset.

The desk has a cave-like shield on top to create a private working environment.

This fiberglass cocoon is covered in foam and woolen fabric, while the desk itself is made of walnut.

A slit in the back of the surface accommodates cables while a lacquered steel container underneath hides laptop transformers and loose wires.

See the prototype in our earlier story.

The product was shown at imm cologne, which took place 18-23 January. See all our coverage of the event here »

More furniture on Dezeen »
More about GamFratesi on Dezeen »
More about Ligne Roset on Dezeen »

Here’s a little information from Ligne Roset:

GamFratesi is a design agency which was founded in Copenhagen in 2006 by Danish architect Stine Gam and Italian architect Enrico Fratesi. This Italian-Danish coupling brings together two gifted European design traditions: a magical union between Southern and Northern design. And the result: the Rewrite desk, designed like a bubble, a little jewel of modernity and softness.

Those who work from home do not necessarily want their living rooms to resemble an open plan office! At once aesthetic and functional, this astonishing study cocoon, covered in a sound-absorbing woollen material, is perfect for preserving both concentration and intimacy.

AESTHETICS

The soundproofed ball affords protection from both light and external noises and also dampens sounds emanating from within it. The natural, precious materials of which it is composed, walnut and Kvadrat Divina wool, reinforce the overall feeling of softness and security.

The astonishing appearance arises from the unexpected meeting between the déjà-vu and a surprising new element: the desk section is quite traditional in terms of its shape and materials (a wooden table), but when one adds its bubble, it breaks free of all historical or proportional references.

The functional aspect is covered by a lacquered metal chest, fixed beneath the desk, which conceals transformers and electrical cables, and by a slit cable port in the top of the desk. Whist staying connected, the user can isolate himself and construct for himself a very private space which is nonetheless still linked to the outside world…Thanks to its rounded shape, the Rewrite desk can be located as a ‘point’ anywhere in a room, be it living room, bedroom or even a large hallway.

Rewrite has already been displayed at the Danish Museum of Art and Design, Copenhagen.

Desk with legs in solid walnut and top in walnut veneered MDF, with the exception of the slit cable port in the rear section which is made from solid walnut. Ball/screen in fibreglass clad in polyether foam and Divina craie on both its internal and external faces. Chest in white lacquered steel to take transformers and cables, located beneath the top.

See also:

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Jean Nouvel for Ligne Roset	Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec for Ligne Roset	Inga Sempé for Ligne Roset