Hasta La Ideas

A massive mound of plastic in the Pacific Ocean becomes a country with its own passport, flag and “Debris” currency, in this design proposal intended to raise awareness about ocean pollution.

The Trash Isles imagines the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a pile of primarily plastic waste floating in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean – as an official country recognised by the United Nations.

Advertising creatives Michael Hughes and Dal Evans De Almeida, known as Dal and Mike, launched the proposal to force world leaders to address the scale of the ocean trash, which they say has accumulated to the size of France.

“We knew that, even though the trash patch covers an area the size of a country, it is easy for world leaders to ignore it – the saying ‘out of sight out of mind’ could not be more applicable than with this issue,” Hughes told Dezeen.

“We wanted to come up with a way to ensure world leaders can’t ignore it anymore, a way to stick it under their noses, literally,” he added.

Dal and Mike are teaming up with social media news company LADbible and non-profit organisation The Plastic Oceans Foundation on the project.

They submitted an application to the United Nations earlier this year, coinciding with World’s Ocean Day, to make the project a reality. They have now also launched an online petition through LADbible to support the application, and hoping to gain one billon signatures.

To add further gravitas to their proposal, Dal and Mike enlisted London-based designer Mario Kerkstra to create a passport, money and stamps for the country, which are all made from recycled materials.

“Working with Mario as a designer, we originated the idea to create everything an official country needs, so with him we designed a passport, money, stamps and a flag,” Hughes explained.

Kerkstra worked with illustrator Jürgen Willbarth at Illustration Web to create a blue passport with a bespoke coat of arms. Emblazoned with the slogan The Ocean Needs Us, it features a sea lion and a turtle, holding a shield bearing an image of a whale diving into the ocean.

Kerkstra also designed bank notes for the Trash Isle’s Debris currency, which Tony Wilson at Jelly London Kitchen has illustrated with images of the ocean devastated by waste.

One side of the 100 Debris note shows a seagull with its head through a plastic six-pack rings, while the other side presents a while diving into water with plastic bottles and bags floating on top.

The 50 Debris note depicts a sea lion tangled in a web of rubbish, while an octopus swims alongside floating waste on the 20 Debris note.

Blue stamps costing 0.30 Debris are also included in the Trash Isles paraphernalia. They depict birds, fish and other wildlife within a web of rubbish.

Dal and Mike hope that recognising the waste as its own country will encourage other world nations to clean it up, under the policy of The UN’s Environmental Charter.

So far the the petition has attracted over 100,000 signatories – who are told that they can call themselves citizens of Trash Isle, known as Trash Islanders.

Former US Vice President Al Gore, actress Judy Dench, Olympic athlete Mo Farah and actor Ross Kemp have already signed up, and LADbible are posting promotional movies of some of these famous citizens.

“We’re doing this to raise awareness of the massive issue affecting our planet and engage our audience to do something about it, whilst having a little bit of fun too,” said LADbible’s Stephen Mai, who is leading the campaign.

Ocean plastic is a huge concern for environmentalists, but has also attracted the interest of designers, who have developed a range of ideas to mitigate the problem and raise awareness.

Among the most well-known is Adidas‘ longstanding collaboration with Parley for the Oceans. Products in the series include trainers made from recycled plastic and of swimwear made from upcycled fishing nets and debris. 

An Australian duo created a floating rubbish bin that filters litter from marinas, while Dutch engineering student Boyan Slat has developed a floating barrier to slowly push floating plastic to shore.

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New York studio DFA has envisioned a prefabricated timber tower for New York’s Central Park that would both filter a contaminated reservoir and provide views over the city.

The temporary 712-foot-tall (220-metre) Central Park Tower would sit in the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, a 106-acre man-made lake that encompasses one-eighth of the park’s area and contains one billion gallons of contaminated water.

“Aside from supplying water to the pool and Harlem Meer, the Reservoir sits stagnant and fenced off due to its current state as a health threat to millions of New Yorkers, tourists and animals,” said DFA.

The firm’s concept imagines the structure would contain a filtration system in its base, which would turn the hazardous reservoir into a useable pond.

It would also provide a series of ring-shaped viewing platforms on its upper levels, creating a tourist attraction to be used during the clean-up process.

“DFA envisions a temporary landmark that is remarkably of its time to creatively transform the reservoir into one of New York’s boldest urban amenities,” said studio founder Laith Sayigh.

“This conceptual project pushes the boundaries of what we perceive is possible in a city as dense, historic and environmentally vulnerable as ours.”

The tower would be constructed from a lattice of curved glue-laminated timber beams, which would be manufactured off site and assembled in less than six months.

Tensile steel cables would be anchored to the pre-cast concrete base to aid stability. The tower’s main body would be formed by a pair of helix structures, with a ramp in between the two layers from the 375- to 500-foot (114- to 152-metre) height marks.

Covered with a transparent material, its outer skin is designed to be more porous than the inner core. This would allow visitors to take in the views as they spiral up the ramp, culminating at the 360-degree viewing platform.

A wind turbine at the top would generate power for the filtration system and the elevators to the observation decks. Crowned with a 112-foot-tall spire that doubles as a lighting rod, the tower would become the world’s tallest timber structure if it was built.

“The Central Park Tower has the potential to be a model project for other cities aiming to fix existing infrastructure, build tall to capture views and elevate the urban public realm,” Sayigh said.

Central Park is the most visited urban park in the US. Designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and architect Calvert Vaux, it was established in 1857 and completed at its current 843-acre (341-hectare) size in 1873.

Today, a host of supertall skyscrapers are popping up close to the park’s southern end, which New Yorkers say are casting shadows over its green spaces.

These residential buildings include Rafael Viñoly’s 432 Park Avenue tower, and Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture’s Central Park Tower, which is set to become the world’s tallest residential building.

The post DFA proposes tallest timber observation tower to clean Central Park reservoir appeared first on Dezeen.

Brooklyn-based Office of Architecture has completely gutted and expanded a local row house for an architect, jewellery designer and their two children.

Having lived in the home for eight years, the family chose to stay in the up-and-coming neighbourhood and renovate the 1,000-square-foot (93-square-metre) home.

“The owners of this 11-foot-wide row house in Brooklyn were faced with a conundrum that many young families in New York eventually confront: the possibility of sacrificing location for space,” said Office of Architecture.

Tucked away in South Slope near New York’s harbour and Prospect Park, the Brooklyn row house was fully renovated and nearly doubled in size.

The narrowness of the site posed a challenge for Office of Architecture, who needed to create extra floor area without using more lot space.

Therefore, the studio added two new storeys to the original two-storey home: a rooftop master suite and a renovated cellar.

A staircase was moved to the opposite side of the building, and a lightwell was created to draw sunshine and air through the interior. A new entryway was also designed through the basement, along with additional laundry and storage space.

On the ground floor, an open-plan living space with a family room is located where the original entryway used to be. A dining space joins the area, and includes a built-in bench and shelving system.

A galley kitchen at the far end features a white cabinets and Carrara marble countertops. A long, narrow window runs along one of the counters, and a glazed door opens to the backyard.

White walls line the interior, with black and white accents throughout. Rustic walnut floors and wooden furniture add warmth to the otherwise monochrome interior.

Two children’s rooms are found on the second floor, with a two-sink bathroom in between. In the rooftop extension, a master bedroom with en-suite has access to two separate terraces on either side.

“The result is a home that is not just larger, but livelier – filled with the possibility to do more and stay longer in a city that requires its residents to be resourceful and inventive,” said the firm.

Many row houses are being renovated throughout Brooklyn for young, growing families seeking more space. In neighbouring Sunset Park, Bostudio has redesigned an open-layout row house, while Barker Freeman has added more windows onto a brick residence in the borough.

The post Office of Architecture adds rooftop master suite during Brooklyn row house overhaul appeared first on Dezeen.

Paper shredders are annoying. Period. If you don’t line up the paper just right, you’re bound for a paper jam. Ain’t nobody got time for all that finickiness! That’s where the PWshredder comes in. It’s designed around our habit of crumbling up paper into wads before tossing it into the bin, meaning you can still practice your shooting aim!

In fact, you should do exactly that! Just crumble, toss, and PWshredder will get to work. Its one-of-a-kind, three-headed shredding mechanism is designed to shred more effectively than horizontal versions. Equipped with a silicon cover and weight-sensing safety feature, it’s also much safer. Better yet, it requires less emptying thanks to a built in compactor!

Designer: SeungHyeop Lee

L’artiste Damon Belanger s’est amusé à repeindre les trottoirs de la ville de Redwood en Californie en donnant aux objets que l’on croise tous les jours une petite ombre d’humour et de fantaisie. Il s’inspire d’un banc, d’une boîte aux lettres ou d’un panneau publicitaire pour créer au sol des ombres à la fois étranges et fantastiques. La position des peintures est tellement parfaite qu’on ne peut s’empêcher de vérifier si un singe est réellement assis sur le parcmètre.