Hasta La Ideas

This cabin covered in hand-painted patterns by Hackney architects Studio Weave provides a colourful art studio, bird-watching hide and rain shelter in a woodland park in Kent, England (+ slideshow).

Above: photograph is by Bryony Henderson

Named Ecology of Colour, the two-storey building has a gabled timber structure with walls and windows that hinge open on three different sides.

An indoor space is contained within the cantilevered first floor, designed to accommodate different activities. Birdwatchers hide behind the shutters during quiet periods to spy on the wildlife, while at other times dying workshops will take place to promote the use of natural dyes found in native planting.

A sheltered outdoor area is positioned directly beneath at ground floor level, providing additional workshop space for messy activities or protecting visitors to the park in wet weather.

Studio Weave collaborated with graphic designers Nous Vous to design the cabin’s colourful facade. The gridded pattern, entitled Joy, covers 144 timber cladding panels and was painted by local residents using organic paints.

“The pattern was a very intuitive response to a grid and it was this spontaneity with regard to form and colour that I hoped would bring across a sense of joy,” says Will Edmonds from Nous Vous.

Esme Fieldhouse from Studio Weave added: “The wood will be left to weather. The colours will stay bright for two to four years and then gradually fade as the timber silvers, allowing the building to age gracefully as it nestles into its surroundings.”

The architects have also teamed up with a horticulturist, who is installing a garden around the building that will yield natural dyes.

Studio Weave was founded by architects Je Ahn and Maria Smith. The studio’s past projects include Paleys upon Pilers, a timber-framed structure that marked a route to the Olympic Park, and the Lullaby Factory, a network of listening pipes at a children’s hospital.

Dezeen interviewed Ahn and Smith at our Designed in Hackney Day last summer. Watch the movie or see all our stories about Studio Weave.

Above: photograph by Benedict Johnson

Photography is by Jim Stephenson, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information by the architects:

Multi-award winning, art and architecture practice Studio Weave celebrate the possibilities offered by natural dyes through the creation of The Ecology of Colour – a beautiful timber, hand-painted building located on the Ecology Island in Dartford’s Central Park.

The Ecology of Colour is the third Artlands public realm commission for North Kent and responds to the charming site known as Ecology Island, a magical, wild, wooded peninsula hidden at the very heart of Dartford’s Central Park and is dedicated to the study of the natural environment within an urban context.

In response to this unique context, Studio Weave have designed a small versatile building with a semi-outdoor space at ground level and an enclosed area on the first floor with shutters of various sizes to allow for hidden bird watching. As well as a bird hide and art studio the building will be used as an outdoor classroom, a dyeing workshop and simply as a rain shelter within the Ecology Island.

The building unashamedly celebrates colour and Studio Weave have collaborated with designers Nous Vous who have created a bold, cohesive graphic visual language for the exterior of the structure. Prior to its installation, a team of local residents and artists worked together in a painting workshop to produce each of the 144 panels, which form the external cladding.

In tandem with the design of The Ecology of Colour, Studio Weave have worked in collaboration with a horticulturalist to design a garden that will yield natural dyes. The planting scheme, which will be installed next spring, predominantly includes traditional plants native to the south of England such as Golden Rod which produces a magnificent yellow, Alder known for its vibrant red and Bugloss whose roots produce a mesmerizing blue.

The post Ecology of Colour
by Studio Weave appeared first on Dezeen.

Rappelant le très beau projet Mila’s Daydreams, voici ce concept imaginé par le photographe Matej Peljhan mettant en scène cet enfant de 12 ans souffrant d’une maladie de dystrophie musculaire. Une série « Le Petit Prince » très imaginative de photographies illustrant le garçon en faisant des actions et du sport.

Fetishistic suits of armour, orthopaedic braces and wearable tusks all feature in an exhibition of prosthetics at the SHOWcabinet space in London (+ movie).

Curated by Niamh White, associate director of fashion film website SHOWstudio, the exhibition opened on Thursday and contains pieces intended to enhance, protect or deform the body.

The name of the showcase derives from the Ancient Greek word “prosthesis”, which means “to add”, but the collection also incorporates the modern understanding of prosthetics as replacement limbs.

Above: Fragmented Figure by Úna Burke

Designer Úna Burke created original pieces for the show made from leather straps joined with rivets, which encase limbs like a suit of armour.

Above: RE.TREAT #4 by Úna Burke

A black leather outfit is made up of one piece that covers the neck, arms and shoulders, and another that fits over the legs up to the waist, leaving the chest and abdomen exposed.

Above: RE.TREAT #8 by Úna Burke

Similar tan coloured pieces include a bodice extended over the shoulders and up the neck, fingerless gauntlets and a restraining device that forces the arms into a submissive position by encasing them together in front of the body.

Above: RE.TREAT #6 by Úna Burke

Burke and SHOWstudio collaborated on a film titled Bound, in which the black attire is warped as if a wearer is moving in it – watch a teaser at the top of this page or the full movie here.

Above: Infundibulum White Brace by Kat Marks

Other items in the collection include legs worn by American athlete Aimee Mullins at the London 2012 Paralympics opening ceremony, adorned with golden wings that flow up each shin.

Above: Infundibulum Black Brace by Kat Marks

Following her experience of wearing a back brace as a teenager, designer Kat Marks created three vacuum-formed thermo-plastic braces in 2009.

Above: Crown of Thorns with Mirror by Patrick Ian Hartley

A headdress formed from pipette-shaped glass tubes that fan out from a metal head brace complete with screws is by designer Patrick Ian Hartley, as are a range of restored artificial hip joints.

Above: Animal – The Other Side of Evolution #4 by Ana Rajcevic

Horns and tusks from London College of Fashion graduate Ana Rajcevic‘s Animal: The Other Side of Evolution series are also on display.

Above: Animal – The Other Side of Evolution #3 by Ana Rajcevic

The SHOWcabinet gallery space and shop are situated in Belgravia, west London, and host new exhibitions every couple of months. The Prosthetics exhibition is on display until 31 May.

Above: Splint #1 by Patrick Ian Hartley

SHOWstudio recently streamed a live project during which photographer Nick Knight captured water thrown at model Daphne Guinness. His images were used by Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen to create a dress – more information in our previous story.

Above: Splint #2 by Patrick Ian Hartley

See all our stories about fashion »
See more architecture and design exhibitions »

The information below is from SHOWstudio:

The term ‘prosthetic’ is now attributed to the branch of surgery dedicated to replacing missing or defective limbs, but to the Ancient Greeks it was an altogether more assertive concept meaning ‘to add’, ‘to advance’ or ‘to give power to’. For April’s SHOWcabinet, our re-imagined gallery space, we embrace this original meaning and display a range of artefacts that engage directly with prosthetics’ ability to adorn, equip and enhance.

Above: Splint #3 by Patrick Ian Hartley

Una Burke’s leather sculptures create the foundation for the installation. Her inanimate bodies engage the language of the physical gesture. Each limb is constructed from countless, beautifully bound leather straps and resemble orthopedic braces or suits of armour. While offering protection or support, they also suggest that the encased body is a fragile system. This constant interplay between empowerment and restriction creates a fetishistic dialectic between invisibility and visibility, as well as denial and disclosure. Burke will also release an exclusive film directed by SHOWstudio’s Head of Fashion Film Marie Schuller to coincide with the launch of the cabinet. The film sees her ordinarily motionless figure brought surreally and subtly to life.

Above: Chimere by Yiqing Yin

Alongside Burke’s work sit a variety of objects and artefacts which explore ideas surrounding prosthetics. Created during a dynamic collaboration between Aimee Mullins, Betony Vernon and Dorset Orthopeadics, the prosthetic legs that Mullins wore as a Chef de Mission for the Paralympic Opening Ceremony will be on view in the cabinet. With the legacy of last summer’s Olympic games still fresh, the imagery on Mullins’ sculptural legs is powerful. A full set of wings run the length of each shin – a reminder of Icarus, and a nod to intrepid innovation. Mullins herself competed in the Atlanta Paralympic Games in 2006 sporting a pair of the then newly developed cheetah style prosthetics and has painstakingly spent her career giving a more positive and empowered face to disability.

Above: Brand New Smile by Kyle Hopkins

Also featured in the cabinet is Kat Marks’ artefact collection ‘The Braces’. Inspired by her own experience of having to wear a Boston Back Brace to redirect the curvature of her spine in her adolescence, Marks has created 3 vacuum-formed thermo-plastic braces in various colours and styles. Remaining true to the original function of the brace, these stylised pieces hold the waist in tight and accentuate the hips, exaggerating a shape which echoes an hour glass figure. No longer does the brace read as medical accoutrement but rather speaks to fashionable ideals of beauty and sexuality.

Alongside these powerful anchors, we present an array of items from innovators in fashion and art who embrace augmentation and aesthetics in tackling the idea of bodily enhancement and extension. Medical anomalies and instruments were often housed in early nineteenth century curiosity cabinets, but we’ve chosen to include artwork by Una Burke, Aimee Mullins, Betony Vernon, Kat Marks, Patrick Ian Hartley, Dai Rees, Kyle Hopkins, Ana Rajcevic, Naomi Filmer, Tara Dougans and Yiqing Yin as a means to probe the potential in prosthetics.

The display will be accompanied by a series of events and discussion geared towards exploring the creative industries’ capabilities to expand perceptions of prosthetics.

The post Prosthetics exhibition
at SHOWcabinet appeared first on Dezeen.

Revellers at this year’s Coachella festival in California can visit a silent disco inside a dome of colour-changing balls by Spanish designer Héctor Serrano (+ slideshow).

Produced by Borealis, the installation arm of Serrano’s studio, The Dome is built from nearly 1000 inflated PVC spheres with LED lights at their centres. “They’re kind of like beach balls,” Serrano told Dezeen.

Each LED is connected to a computerised system, which relays a combination of around 50 different patterns of light and colour. The program can be downloaded to a smartphone or tablet, making it easy to alter the sequence.

Cables fix each of the balls around the skeletal framework of the dome.

Serrano says he originally planned to rent a much smaller structure, but ended up using a dome that Coachella already owned.

“It’s four times bigger than our original proposal,” he explains. “We had to have the balls custom made in China to get them ready in time.”

The structure was installed for the two weekends of the annual music festival and will be dismantled later this month.

Héctor Serrano is based in London. Past projects by the designer include a speaker designed to look like a computer icon and a set of accessories for turning balloons into animal heads. See more design by Héctor Serrano.

Other designs we’ve featured from music festivals include tree-mounted urinals at Roskilde in Denmark and star-shaped lights from Burning Man festival in Nevada.

Here’s some more information from Héctor Serrano:

The Dome by Borealis for Coachella

Inspired by the Pantheon dome in Rome, the installation resemblance a cathedral of light, an art piece where the visitor is immerse in a 360º unique experience completely surround with light. The dome works as immersive environments when inside and as large scale sculpture when view from outside. The dome is made out of nearly 1000 spheres and LEDs that are used as a pixel, creating a volumetric environment with infinite patterns and possibilities.

Borealis is the installation division of Hector Serrano. The Dome launches on Friday 12 April and will be open for Coachella two weekends 12-15 and 19-21 and attended by more than 200,000 people. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is an annual three-day music and arts festival, held in Indio, California in the Inland Empire’s Coachella Valley. The event features many music genres, including rock, indie, hip hop, and electronic music, as well as sculpture.

The post The Dome by Héctor Serrano
at Coachella appeared first on Dezeen.

The awards-gala season is in full swing, and Creative Time is cooking up a night to remember at Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Factory. The arts organization, which recently trotted out Nick Cave‘s soundsuited steeds in Grand Central terminal, will cap off the month with an April 30 benefit to honor the multitalented Julian Schnabel. Mario Batali is handling the food, daughter Lola is crafting the playlist, and the likes of Laurie Anderson and Al Pacino are lining up to praise the man of the moment in charming yet succinct video tributes. As you prepare to fetch your credit card to buy a ticket (after all, gala proceeds provide nearly a third of Creative Time’s annual budget), watch Anderson’s salute to Schnabel:

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.