Metals are such wonderful things. Some are capable of writing on paper, while others are capable of erasing odors. This little soap shaped bar can wash off any stench or odor from your hands that you may have accumulated in the kitchen, or anywhere else. Garlicky hands? A quick rinse with the Amco Rub-Away soap makes your hands smell normal again! How does it work? Well…
Molecules from the food you’re working with (Sulfur, in the case of garlic) stick to our hands and don’t wash away with water. In fact on contact, water turns the sulfur into sulfuric acid, only increasing the stench instead of washing it away. Stainless Steel (like the one used to make the Rub-Away soap) pulls off the sulfur molecules from your hands, so a quick wash with a steel soap not only physically cleans your hands, it removes odors on a molecular level. Science… wow, right?
Architects have attacked the culture of cost-cutting and “value-stripping” in UK construction, which they believe contributed to the fatal Grenfell Tower fire.
“This terrible event may prove to be the shock that finally forces commissioning public clients and the construction industry to take design quality and specification seriously,” said Paul Karakusevic of London-based Karakusevic Carson Architects.
“Value engineering, and the culture of value stripping, needs to be removed from the British lexicon and replaced by careful and considered design and robust quality building methods.”
Karakusevic – the author of a guide to the best European social housing – said the UK’s cities been left scarred by decades of “value engineering” in which he has seen sound designs undermined for the sake of profit maximisation.
Neil Deely of London studio Metropolitan Works said the problem is widespread, with financial risk often considered more highly than safety.
“Arms are twisted, designers scoffed at for raising concerns, and the contracting industry incentivises itself to continually cut cost and maximise margins at all costs,” Deely told Dezeen.
“Armies of project managers, whose task it is to manage risk (which usually means financial and programme risk rather than health and safety) drive down cost and quality to meet unrealistic budgets and/or shareholders’ expectations of profit,” he added.
Piers Taylor of Bath-based Invisible Studio said those dependent on social housing are worst affected by these corner-cutting measures.
“To be working class or to live in social housing is to be punished by a state and a society that considers your life so worthless that you should be banished to a world that is dangerous, ugly, cruel and uncaring,” he said.
“The Grenfell fire, tragically, comes as no surprise,” added Taylor. “As a society we have become almost blind to a world where social care, social housing and social services have their life, quite literally, squeezed out of them.”
The architects spoke out after being contacted by Dezeen in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, in which at least 80 residents of the north London high-rise lost their lives.
The fire at Grenfell Tower in north London broke out at around 1am on Wednesday 14 June. The blaze quickly burnt through the cladding added in recent renovation works and it believed to have killed over 80
Their words express a collective anger over what they see as an endemic culture that sidelines design quality in pursuit of profit.
“I’d love to believe that this terrible fire at Grenfell Tower will herald a sea change on how housing is conceived and delivered in the UK, but sadly, I think that despite an enormous amount of collective outrage followed by blame, finger-pointing and empty rhetoric instead of a new dawn for housing in the UK,” said Taylor.
“It will mean more empty-headed and useless consultants muddling their way through false promises to deliver more or less of the same substandard, ugly, socially isolating and dangerous housing we already bustle the most needy in our society into.”
“Deregulation, modern procurement practices and recent government housing policy have all conspired here,” added Deely.
“This terrible event may prove to be the shock that finally forces commissioning public clients and the construction industry to take design quality and specification seriously. Value engineering, and the culture of value stripping, needs to be removed from the British lexicon and replaced by careful and considered design and robust quality building methods.”
Graham Haworth and Steve Tompkins, founders of London practice Haworth Tompkins, hope the disaster will not lead to a backlash against tall buildings.
“This horrifying incident should not undermine the suitability of towers for certain urban locations, nor should it deter local authorities from seeking and carrying out the upgrades that are desperately needed within so much existing housing,” they said.
“For the most part these upgrades ensure a much safer and more secure environment for communities.”
The Royal Institute of British Architects has called for an urgent review of fire regulations in the aftermath of the fire.
Yesterday morning Grenfell survivors and the media were barred from a Kensington and Chelsea council meeting regarding the fire, after dozens stormed the town hall in protest last week.
Labour councillor Robert Atkinson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I am ashamed of the way in which the council proceeded. They’ve been hiding from residents; they’ve been hiding from backbench councillors for over a week.”
Piers Taylor said that the government’s response to the incident is endemic of how those in power treat the working class.
“That the state should have failed on multiple counts to provide social housing of an adequate standard to support human life is symptomatic of a state that, quite simply, couldn’t care less about the provision of facilities – including housing – that are the basis of any civilised society,” said Taylor.
“In particular, to be working class or to live in social housing is to be punished by a state and a society that considers your life so worthless that you should be banished to a world that is dangerous, ugly, cruel and uncaring.”
Five years after an avalanche destroyed a chapel belonging to a group of farmers in the Austrian alps, local firm Innauer-Matt Architekten has completed a replacement featuring a steeply pitched roof and concrete walls inset with flat stones.
The chapel is located in the Bregenzerwald valley in western Austria, where the transhumance farming method is still practised and livestock is moved between winter and summer pastures.
Innauer-Matt Architekten designed the building for a cooperative of farmers that owns and occupies a pasture area called Wirmboden, situated at the base of the Kanisfluh mountain.
Wirmboden’s previous chapel had stood for 32 years before it was ruined by an avalanche in 2012 that also destroyed several of the farmers’ huts.
The studio’s task was to develop a proposal for a new building that was acceptable to the whole community and would eventually be built by them over the course of three years.
“With the client being a collective of farmers, each with their own differing opinion, the difficulties were not so much of architectural but rather of interpersonal nature,” suggested the architects.
“What we see now at Wirmboden is a symbol for the collective spirit of this very diverse group of people.”
The chapel’s compact form and tall gables are intended to complement the existing buildings and the region’s architectural vernacular, as well as referencing traditional religious buildings.
The steep roof helps to prevent snow building up and is constructed using narrowly spaced spruce rafters that can resist heavy loads. Rough-split shingles covering the roof will age naturally over time.
Walls made from tamped concrete incorporate stones gathered from the site, with a narrow wooden door opening into the six-square-metre oratory.
The same German spruce used for the rafters also forms the door and the bell space above it, which comprises perpendicular battens creating a perforated three-dimensional surface. This wood is more typically used to make musical instruments due to its excellent acoustic properties.
Natural light enters the building through a narrow opening at the apex of the roof, which is lined with blasted stainless steel.
Daylight also filters through a vertical slot window containing blue glass, contributing to what the architects described as an “ethereal, contemplative atmosphere”.
Almost every member of the Wirmboden collective contributed practical skills to the construction of the chapel, which now provides them with a place for casual meetings, prayer, memorials and celebrations.
Numerous websites have linked to the following video where designer Nils Frederking showcases his incredible, folding furniture. The design is wonderfully sleek, functional, and space-saving.
Sculpted in Jonathan Adler’s Soho studio, these hand-shaped serving utensils are then cast in solid brass and finished with a food-safe lacquer. Little sculptures in their own right, these table tools serve up a bit of surrealism as they sparkle. In……
This edition of ListenUp is made up of songs by artists who will be performing at this weekend’s RHA Festival taking place on the sands of Punta Mita, Mexico. RHA’s goals are simple: to offer cultured house music enthusiasts a sublime location and……
Dezeen has interviewed some of the most talented and inspiring people from the global design scene and we compiled the best of these conversations in our latest book.
Dezeen Book of Interviews usually retails at £12, but until Sunday 2 July 2017 you can save over 50 per cent and get a copy for just £5.
“I was trying to find out how to make subway cookies when I came across this Satanic video. I sent it to my friend Kenny Wayne and he has yet to respond. I’m almost sure that he puked.”..(Read…)
Jimmy greets the audience during a break in filming and ends up chatting with 92-year-old Days of our Lives actor, and former Tonight Show guest, Bill Hayes about how he recorded the classic “Ballad of Davy Crockett.”..(Read…)
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