There are plenty of variations in reusable water bottle designs, but none quite like the Solar Waterbag! The flexible, filled bag is made to unroll, flatten and be placed in the sunlight to warm the water. Why this athlete in the photo is chugging warm water while exercising remains a mystery, but it seems like a great idea for camping!
Designers: Furong Zhang, Yuqian Jin, Hengchang Su, Jianzhuang Tian, Song Qiao
Oliver Hernaiz Architecture Lab has completed a house on the Spanish island of Mallorca, made up of white blocks that are all oriented towards different viewpoints (+ slideshow).
Palma-based Oliver Hernaiz Architecture Lab – OHLAB for short – designed MM House for a sloped site in Palma de Mallorca, aiming to make the most of the views available.
The architects divided the building into four stepped boxes. They each point in different directions, but all feature large windows that offer views to suit the activities that take place inside.
The living-cum-dining room overlooks the sea, the kitchen points to the vegetable patch, and the bedrooms face the more private garden.
“The project optimises the programme, grouping it in four boxes – kitchen, living-dining, main bedroom and guest bedrooms – which can be used together or independently,” said OHLAB.
“Each box is placed carefully on the ground and rotates on its axis with precision to find the best views and orientation for their use,” added the team.
In response to the warm climate, the south-facing openings are recessed, allowing sun to enter in the winter when it is low in the sky, but blocking it in during the summer when it is high.
Native vegetation and deciduous trees planted along the south side of the house provide additional shade. There are also shutters flanking the east- and west-facing openings.
In the largest block, the living area features glazed sliding doors that open to a covered terrace overlooking the sea. The double-height space also has a black wood-burning stone, while a staircase with a net banister leads to a gallery study.
From here there is also access to a viewing terrace, creating by a triangular gap in the roof. Green tiles cover the floor of the outside area, contrasting the cream tiles with small squares of green that feature inside.
Minimal finishes are used throughout the interior, with white-painted walls matching the house’s exterior and wooden furniture complementing the timber-framed windows.
MM House is designed to meet the low-energy requirements of a Passivhaus – a title granted to buildings that use natural methods of heating and cooling, rather than relying on electrical systems.
Hot water is obtained almost entirely from tanks placed in the gaps created between the housing and the slope of the terrain.
Three of the pitched roofs collect rainwater for both irrigation and general use, while the fourth roof gathers water for drinking.
Mallorca forms part of the Balearic Islands – an archipelago that also includes Ibiza and Formentera. Other recently completed projects there include a garden viewpoint on a picturesque hillside and the transformation of an old farmhouse into an art studio and gallery.
Photography is by José Hevia.
Project credits:
OHLAB team: Paloma Hernaiz, Jaime Oliver, Rebeca Lavín, Walter Brandt and Sergio Rivero de Cáceres
Quantity surveyor: Jorge Ramón
Structure: Jesús Alonso
Energy efficiency advisor: Anne Vogt
Project management: Paloma Hernaiz, Jaime Oliver (architects), Jorge Ramón (quantity surveyor)
The post Four angular white volumes form house in Mallorca by Oliver Hernaiz Architecture Lab appeared first on Dezeen.
The Breck collection includes a lounge chair, ottoman and two tables, all at a low-lounge height. Breck is an endlessly reconfigurable collection that..
More lava lamps were sold in the 1960’s than in any other time period. They were originally called astro globes!..(Read…)
OMA has teamed up with creative studio Bengler to propose a “disruption-as-a-service toolkit” for the workers of digital sharing platforms like Uber and Airbnb.
On show as part of the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016, which opened last week, Panda is a project that aims to mobilise the workforce behind sharing companies, by making them part of a trade-union-style network.
The conceptual project takes the form of an app that provides individuals with services and strategies, ranging from communications networks to legal support.
OMA architect Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli described it as a “super colluder”.
“It aggregates common issues across many people and defines a strategy to give them negotiating power,” he told Dezeen in an exclusive interview.
The project is intended as a response to the contractual framework created by many of the big sharing platforms, which defines workers as individuals rather than as members of a workforce.
For instance, according to Pestellini Laparelli, Uber drivers are obliged to sign a service agreement that includes a clause preventing them from bringing disputes against the company on a collective basis.
The architect compares the situation with the regime of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
“The Thatcher vision – that there is no such thing as society, just individuals and families – is today embedded into the contractual framework of many of these sharing platforms,” he said.
“But Panda creates temporary aggregations, a web of temporary alignment for a workforce of people with similar problems. Panda is able to map them and provide them with strategies.”
This service wouldn’t come for free though. Pestellini Laparelli sees Panda as a profit-making business. He describes its as “at once an act of resistance and a business opportunity”.
For the exhibition in Oslo, Pestellini Laparelli worked with Even Westwang and Simen Svale Skogsrud from Bengler to research over 400 legal cases that have brought against sharing platforms.
Related story: OMA completes pixellated Timmerhuis complex in Rotterdam
They used this research to imagine a situation where the masses have fought back against these frictions, resulting in widespread disruption and rioting.
This is presented through a fictional headquarters for Panda, which showcases both propaganda material and media coverage.
Panda is one of the 33 projects that make up On Residence, one of the two main shows of the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016, located at the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture.
“As software eats the world, as everything solid melts into air, Panda recasts technologies of oppression into a machinery of individual empowerment,” added the team.
“By providing tools to actively navigate the turmoils of new digital regimes, Panda fosters a new sense of belonging and purpose.”
The post OMA and Bengler propose digital platform to disrupt the sharing economy appeared first on Dezeen.
Here’s the first look at Bastards, an upcoming 2017 comedy film starring Owen Wilson, Ed Helms, J. K. Simmons, Glenn Close, Ving Rhames, Katt Williams, and Terry Bradshaw. Bastards comes to theaters on January 27th, 2017″Ed Helms and Owen Wilson play Peter and Kyle Reynolds, two brothers whose eccentric mother (Glenn Close) raised them to believe their father had died when they were young. When they discover this to be a lie, they set out to find their real father, learning more about their mother than they probably ever wanted to know.”..(Read…)
The stars of the upcoming 2016 Marvel superhero film, Doctor Strange, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, and more, discuss the film’s characters in this short sneak peek featurette…(Read…)
In this brilliant new commercial from Audi Germany, a melancholic Tyrannosaurus Rex gets his lust for life back after years of being ridiculed on the Internet for his stubby arms…(Read…)
The kids discuss strategies to recover after a relationship ends unexpectedly when your girlfriend/boyfriend break up with you…(Read…)
In March of this year, Guardian US welcomed 34.7 million unique visitors, a new record. A few months later, the organization was celebrating another highwater mark, for June, of 41.8 million unique visitors
But that sort of traffic means little without the accompanying ad revenue dollars and today, when the paper announced it would be laying off around 40 of its total U.S. staff of 140, Guardian US hinted at another critical stat: the amount of advertising dollars being sucked up by Facebook and Google, with their engaged audiences and precise targeting tools. From today’s communique:
According to some estimates, technology groups such as Facebook and Google attract 85% of digital advertising spend in the U.S. Faced with such competition, Guardian revenues have failed to meet expectations despite having risen in the current financial year.
In an email to staff, the Guardian’s editor in chief, Katharine Viner, and the chief executive, David Pemsel, said the cuts were necessary even though strong audience growth in the U.S. had led to the newspaper group being “among the top five digital newspaper platforms in America”.
This Saturday’s Online News Association conference session in Denver featuring three Guardian US staffers might feel a little bittersweet. It’s titled “Guardian US: Building Communities – How the Guardian Involves Its Readers in Its Journalism.” It will follow an opening day, today, during which the first keynote session featured Facebook director of product Fidji Simo.
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