For the new premises of German textile-printing company Textilmacher, Munich firm Tillich Architektur has completed a building with a concrete facade reminiscent of creased fabric (+ slideshow).
Located in an industrial area north of Munich’s city centre, the three-storey building provides a new production centre and showroom for Textilmacher, which specialises in printed fabrics and embroidery.
Tillich Architektur‘s design concept was to enclose a simple and uncluttered interior behind a faceted external envelope that catches the light differently depending on the hour and the weather conditions.
“Its iconic feature is the geometrically folded facade, which deforms the simple cubature by an animated play of light and shadow,” said the architect team.
“Depending on the season, time of day, weather, and light incidence, the facade continuously changes its character,” they added.
Concrete pigmented with anthracite gives the facade its dark grey colouration. Each folded panel comprises a single insulated module, all of which were prefabricated in a factory before being brought to site, enabling a short build time.
“The mounting sequences were carefully planned, allowing the elements to be fitted one in another like a puzzle,” said the team, explaining how four different modules were used to create the patterned surface.
Dark grey doors complement the pigmented concrete, and windows are slightly recessed so that their frames are barely visible from outside.
The predominant colour inside the building is white, creating a minimal backdrop to the internal activities. The company uses the two lower levels as a production centre, while the uppermost floor accommodates the offices and showroom.
Polished concrete flooring runs throughout the interior and built-in furniture is made from steel. The only addition of colour comes from the larch window frames.
“The column-free rooms provide a high grade of flexibility and a constant adaption to changing processes in work,” added the designers.
A basement floor offers space for storage and technical services.
Backstage at Maison Martin Margiela’s fall 2012 haute couture show. (Photo: Tyrone Lebon)
If you know fashion, you know Fashion Television. Hosted by the indefatigable Jeanne Beker, the inside-fashion TV news show ceased production in 2012 after 27 seasons of designer interviews and from-the-collections reports. (In many American markets, it was followed by its Canadian counterpart, Fashion File, prompting viewers to wonder why stateside networks jettisoned the newsy angle after the CNN run of Elsa Klensch.) Beker is now making her curatorial debut with “Politics of Fashion | Fashion of Politics,” an exhibition that opens September 18 at Design Exchange in Toronto.
The Canadian design museum will showcase more than 200 works that reveal fashion as a powerful tool of expression, including the scandalous non-gown worn by Margaret Trudeau to the White House in 1977, a gold leopard print burqa from Jeremy Scott‘s spring 2013 “Arab Spring” collection, and an artisanal leather poncho from the fall 2013 Maison Martin Margiela collection. Fashion designer Jeremy Laing is masterminding the exhibition design, while Design Exchange curator Sara Nickleson worked with Beker on organizing the show. The bold and subversive pieces, which span from the 1960s (a star-spangled Bobby Kennedy-for-president paper dress) to today (an androgynous Rad Hourani jacket) are organized around five themes: Ethics/Activism, War/Peace, Consumption/Consumerism, Campaign/Power Dressing, and Gender/Sexuality.
Occupation: I’m a designer and the creative director of United Nude.
Location: I’m based in Guangzhou, China; that’s where we have our studio. But I also spend a lot of time abroad. We have showrooms in Amsterdam and New York, and we have shops all around the world. And then I spend the weekends in Hong Kong.
Current projects: We’re a seasonal business, so we’re designing a new collection every few months. Right now we are also making what I would call an “art car”—it’s basically a sculpture that you drive around, which is almost finished. In addition, we’re doing a 3D-printing project with 3D Systems, where we designed a shoe for very small-volume 3D printers. That was launched at our store in New York earlier this month.
Mission: To make cool products, and along the way try new things and push boundaries. To be inspired and inspire others.
United Nude’s 3D-printed Float shoe launched earlier this month. Top image: Koolhaas and the Biospiracy boot. Portrait by Rosanne Lowit
When did you decide that you wanted to be a designer? Well, I come from a family with a lot of designers. My uncle is an architect with the same name as me. My father was also an architect and my mother was a graphic artist. So I think I wanted to be an architect like my father basically from the very beginning.
Education: I have a master’s degree in architecture from the Technical University of Delft in Holland.
First design job: While I was still a student, I worked at several architecture firms, including OMA; I worked on the Prada store in New York. And then, before I graduated, I had already started United Nude with Galahad Clark, who comes from the Clark’s shoe company family. We were already in product development, and the brand was officially launched about a year after I graduated.
Who is your design hero? It’s between John DeLorean, from DeLorean Motors, and the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
The Biospiracy bootie (left) and boot are the latest designs in an ongoing collaboration between United Nude and Iris Van Harpen.
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« Ocean Kitchen », c’est le nom de cette cuisine pensée par le designer hollandais Robert Kolenik proposant un aquarium comme décoration principale. Une idée maligne et visuellement impressionnante qui éclaire la cuisine et donne envie de se plonger dans une recette.
It occupies a mountain site in the Nordland region that is accessible only by foot or on skis, meaning the materials for the project had to be delivered using a helicopter.
Photograph by Svein Arne Brygfjeld
The exposed position necessitated a design that could withstand the harsh weather conditions that often descend on the mountain range.
Photograph by Svein Arne Brygfjeld
“The main cabin is an eye catching yet neutral volume in the landscape with a diagonal programmatic and spatial concept,” said the architects in a statement.
“The behaviour of snow and heavy winds on the site have generated the simple shape of the cabin, without protruding elements.”
Photograph by Svein Arne Brygfjeld
Two chimneys are designed to mimic the shapes of the surrounding mountain peaks, and their shapes provide additional strength to the 200-square-metre structure.
Photograph by Jan Inge Larsen
The building is clad in locally sourced thick timber boards, treated with ferric sulphate to produce a natural-looking grey finish.
The same timber slats have been used to clad common spaces in the interior of the building, which provides accommodation for up to 30 people across seven bedrooms.
Photograph by Jan Inge Larsen
Entrances to the building are situated on opposite sides of the structure, next to a toilet and firewood storage room. A communal kitchen fills the connecting space between the two, with a double-height dining area and lounge and relaxation space arranged diagonally on either side.
Photograph by Svein Arne Brygfjeld
Large windows along the walls offer panoramic views of the mountain range on one side and gallery on the other.
Each of these shared rooms has a fire-burning stove, which between them generate all the heat necessary for the cabin.
Photograph by Svein Arne Brygfjeld
“The plan is strategically devised with the possibility of closing one half of the cabin with sliding does for more efficient heating when fewer people visit the cabin,” explained the architects.
A mezzanine running above the kitchen space hosts additional bunk beds and a children’s play area as well as storage and technical rooms.
Photograph by Svein Arne Brygfjeld
The bedrooms have been clad in white-varnished wood panels to create a brighter feel, with smaller windows to offer framed views as a contrast to the panoramas visible from the common areas.
“All windows have been calibrated for accurate gas pressure on site to protect the glass from possible high altitude self-destruction,” said the architects.
Photograph by Svein Arne Brygfjeld
The site has no mains electricity and the power for the lights inside is provided by solar panels.
Photograph by Svein Arne Brygfjeld
A smaller outbuilding, due to complete next year, is situated 50 metres from the main building to provide emergency shelter if the cabin is badly damaged by the weather.
Photograph by Svein Arne Brygfjeld
The cabin is named after French glaciologist and geographer Charles Rabot, who explored the mountains in the province of Nordland.
Project credits:
Client: Hemnes Turistforening Consultants: Walter Jacobson MNT, Rambøll AS, MBA Entrepreør AS Primary architects: Einar Jarmund, Håkon Vigsnæs, Alessandra Kosberg, Ane Sønderaal Tolfsen
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United Nude’s 3D-printed 
The Biospiracy bootie (left) and boot are the latest designs in an ongoing collaboration between United Nude and Iris Van Harpen.
