When would you need a convertible suited equally to the four seasons? Perhaps you’re skirting the Alps, zipping from Lake Annecy to Courmayeur on a summer’s day. Or maybe you’re in British Columbia, crossing the Coast Mountains from Vancouver to Whistler……
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Artist Anish Kapoor has created a blocky red trophy with the Brittania figure trapped in its centre for winners at next year’s Brit Awards.
London-based Kapoor has applied a sculptural approach to his design for the trophies, which will be awarded to musicians at the Brit Awards ceremony on 21 February 2018.
His design sees Britannia – the female personification of Britain – trapped inside a transparent red-coloured block.
“Sculpture is often a process of positive and negative form,” he said. “I have made the award using both.
Kapoor – who was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize in 1991, and ranked as the most popular artist in the inaugural Dezeen Hot List – is the first sculptor to design the trophy.
“Anish has created some of the most adventurous and memorable works of our lifetime, which is reflected in the new Brit award,” said Brit Awards chairman Jason Iley.
“He constantly pushes boundaries and challenges the norm and I love the way he has reimagined this year’s award. The beauty of this award is that it challenges perspectives. Every which way you look at it, you discover more.”
He follows in the footsteps of a number of famous artists and designers tasked with making over the music awards’ statuette – including British artists Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, who contributed in 2015 and 2013 respectively.
This year’s trophies were designed by the late Zaha Hadid, who aimed to “represent diversity” among the winning musicians with a set of figurines that each curved in a different way.
Kapoor was born in India in 1954 and came to Britain in the 1970s. His previous works include a series of womb-like orbs in the Paris’ Grand Palais and an inflatable mobile concert hall for earthquake-affected areas.
Earlier this year, he formed a coalition called Hands Off Our Revolution with over 200 creatives, which will stage contemporary art exhibitions to confront right-wing populism.
The post Anish Kapoor designs sculptural red trophy for Brit Awards 2018 appeared first on Dezeen.
Lighthouses and Noah’s Ark provided design cues for this nautical-inspired townhouse in north London – one of the properties vying to be named UK house of the year.
Birds Portchmouth Russum Architects co-founder Michael Russum and his partner Sally spent 12 years planning and building 6 Wood Lane, which slots into a typical terrace of houses in Highgate.
Standing in striking contrast to its more traditional neighbours, the four-storey house features zigzagging glazing, a prow-like balcony and a bridge entrance.
It is one of seven properties shortlisted for the RIBA House of the Year prize, which will be announced as the conclusion of a four-part series of television show Grand Designs, broadcast tomorrow, 28 November 2017.
Russum described the property as “a kind of mystery vessel”.
“We try and deliver something joyous that is beyond the normal expectation,” he explained, speaking in an earlier episode of the show.
To give the house its unusual curved body, Russum employed boatbuilding techniques.
The barrel-vaulted wooden framework was prefabricated offsite, before being craned into place, on top of a more rectilinear base structure.
This base structure contains two storeys, both with external access.
The bridge entrance slopes gently upwards to the upper-ground floor, which contains a sizeable lounge and balcony. Meanwhile the slightly sunken lower ground floor connects with a garden at the rear of the property, and accommodates two bedrooms.
The most impressive space in the property is located on the first floor – a large kitchen and dining room, featuring curved surfaces and details that match the vaulted walls.
Above it, a “jewel-like” rooftop conservatory functions as a lookout point. It is wrapped by the zigzagging glass and topped by a circular skylight, which can be opened to bring ventilation down into the house from above.
“The ramped footbridge signals the departure from the prosaic world and the commencement of an extraordinary journey across a metaphorical seascape,” said the architect.
“The entrance hall is articulated as a rippling shoreline and a lighthouse marks embarking the stepped gangway into the dramatic double-height ark,” said the studio. “At its prow a projecting balcony views the scurrying world below.”
At the end of the garden, Russum has also built himself an expansive shed, with grass and wildflowers on its roof.
Nautical references feature throughout the interiors, which are largely symmetric. They include porthole openings, curved metal balcony railings, a smooth wooden staircase and a pastel colour palette.
Furniture is built to fit the proportions of the space, from a speaker at the end of the staircase, to the desk that curves around the conservatory.
The same holistic approach was used when considering the building’s energy use. Its walls are highly insulated, while a hybrid heating, cooling and ventilation system serves the entire interior.
Russum’s house was one of 20 properties named on the longlist for this year’s RIBA House of the Year award – along with a Dorset retirement home, a residence with rippling white walls and a cork-covered holiday home in Essex.
This list has so far been whittled down to a shortlist of six, although a seventh is expected to named tomorrow, just before the overall winner is announced.
Photography is by Nick Kane.
Project credits:
Architects: Birds Portchmouth Russum
Project team: Andrew Birds, Richard Portchmouth Michael Russum, Adam Johnston, John Cook, Mickey Kloihofer
Structural engineers: Techniker
Landscape design: John Duane + Farrer Huxley Associates
Masonry base: Big Basement Company
Timber shell specialist: Cowley Timberwork
Structural steelwork: RSJ Steel
Balustrading + Footbridge: RSJ Steel
Zinc Roof: Peters Roofing
Render: External Wall Services
Conservatory glazing: Cantafix
Flashings: Ivor Andrews
Specialist furniture: Karl Lewin
The post Michael Russum uses boatbuilding techniques to build his “mystery vessel” house appeared first on Dezeen.
In a mountainous valley in British Columbia, design-build firm Studio North has created an elevated A-frame dwelling that is meant to be used by campers and birds.
The Birdhut is situated on a forested slope in Windermere, a small village in western Canada‘s Columbia Valley. The pointy structure is lifted nine feet (2.7 metres) off the ground by wooden stilts and rises to a height of 20 feet (six metres), enabling it to blend in with the trees.
Encompassing 100 square feet (9.2 square metres), the tree house is designed to house two people, 12 species of birds and other “inquisitive critters that come by to visit”.
“In addition to being an inviting place for people to nest, the whimsical facade has twelve birdhouses, each designed for various local birds that live in the mountains of the Columbia Valley,” said Calgary-based Studio North.
The front elevation is clad in custom-cut shingles made of western red cedar, with several featuring circular openings for birds. The cavities range in size in order to accommodate a wide variety of birds, from large pileated woodpeckers to petite warblers.
The height of the holes responds to birds’ varying nesting habits. Some prefer to be closer to the ground, while others seek out spaces high up in the trees.
“The materials, form, and orientation of the Birdhut were designed to offer nesting opportunities for as wide a variety of local birds as possible,” the team said.
The X-shaped stilts that hold up the structure are made of sturdy lodgepole pine logs, which were foraged from an area ravaged by fire. To fabricate the hut’s platform and cladding, the team used planks reclaimed from an old cabin deck.
“Mimicking the process of a bird building a nest, the materials of the Birdhut were scavenged from the immediate surroundings,” the studio said.
Polycarbonate sheets were used for the side walls of the A-frame structure. Two oculi on the front and back facades bring in natural light and air.
“To give a sense of being in the canopy of the trees, the roof of the Birdhut disappears with clear, eight-millimetre polycarbonate panels,” said Studio North. “As a result, the space is passively heated by the sun, acting as a kind of greenhouse that is passively ventilated by the two circle windows.”
A bridge connects the hut to the hillside, where a stone path leads down to a campfire and a natural spring.
Treehouses have long been popular with campers wanting to get the most from the great outdoors. They vary in size from tiny huts in the canopy to palatial villas surrounded by the forest.
The post Birds and humans share wooden treehouse in western Canada by Studio North appeared first on Dezeen.
Dezeen promotion: Spanish studio MUT Design has created a range of colourful sound-absorbing wall panels inspired by beetle shells for furniture brand Sancal.
After a visit to a natural science museum, the Spanish studio was inspired to create “beautiful and harmless” versions of the insects they saw on display.
MUT’s Beetle panel range includes 12 different designs, each made from a combination of six different panel shapes. All are designed to emulate the patterns and colours found on a beetle’s shell.
One design has a round textured black body, featuring a fluorescent speckled top panel that has been made using Kvadrat‘s Galaxy fabric, and is held together with a yellow wooden mount.
Another panel consists of two sandy beige panels, one finished with a collection of geometric shapes made from individual lines – a design by Febrik called Razzle Dazzle.
Other beetles include one with a blue base topped with a brown panel covered in red speckles, and another made from a combination of navy, orange and burgundy panels.
There is a range of eight fabric finishes available to choose from, and each comes in an array of colours – from pistachio and toffee, to ginger and blossom.
The beetles are then mounted to the wall using supporting stands made from oak, which can be stained in any of the coloured tints on Sancal’s chart, such as Klein blue, nut, or rose.
MUT was founded in 2010 by Alberto Sánchez and Eduardo Villalón. The studio’s beetles build on Sancal’s existing range of acoustic panels, which also includes the Tartana ceiling-mounted fabric hood.
The post Sancal’s fabric acoustic panels are designed to look like beetles appeared first on Dezeen.
Architecture firm Snøhetta has designed a residential skyscraper for Manhattan’s Upper West Side, which will feature an angular terrace cut into its side.
Close to Lincoln Center and Central Park, the tower at 50 West 66th Street will feature several slices up its form, as it narrows in stages from base to top.
“The design is achieved through a series of sculptural excavations, evocative of the chiselled stone of Manhattan’s geologic legacy,” said Snøhetta, which has offices in both Oslo and New York.
Residents will enter from the north, while a public synagogue will be accessible from 65th Street.
At street level, textured limestone, glass storefronts and bronze details will surround the podium. After the building narrows on its second level, tall windows with bronze frames will be set into the stone facades.
“As the building rises, its bulk is carved away, splitting the tower volume into two,” the studio said.
A stepped outdoor terrace will occupy a large portion of the 16th floor. This amenity space for residents will include a pool, seating areas and planting – all split over two levels to follow the angle of the building’s form.
“This terrace creates a new social heart for the building in a unique location and encourages a sense of community among its residents,” Snøhetta said.
Above, glazing will cover the majority of the more slender tower, which will appear to have its opposing corners sliced away to create balconies, and will be topped by a faceted roof.
Details about the building’s height, the number of residences it will house, and a start date for construction are yet to be confirmed.
The unveiling of 50 West 66th Street comes after a month of controversy for Snøhetta in New York, where the firm has proposed an overhaul of Philip Johnson’s iconic AT&T Building.
Plans to dramatically alter the postmodern tower’s stone base caused outcry from several in the architecture community, some of whom staged a protest outside the Midtown building – now known as 55 Madison – on 3 November 2017.
The post Snøhetta unveils “chiseled” New York tower with bronze details appeared first on Dezeen.
Always the ones to push boundaries, Advanced were the first to foresee the iPhone 7 disappearing headphone jack problem and in turn created the Accessport to not just allow users to plug headphones into mobiles without an audio jack, but also have them listen to their music with amplified greatness, hearing frequencies and notes that often died out because smartphones heavily downsample your music. Now they’re changing the way you directly listen to music with the Advanced GT-R headphones.
Headphones (all speakers in general) are driven by diaphragms made to vibrate via magnets. The strength, nature, and design of the magnet helps add character to your audio. The GT-R headphones sport what’s known as a planar magnetic driver. Reserved for most high-end applications, planar magnetic drivers involve multiple magnets supporting a single diaphragm, resulting in a much more stable set-up that provides, simply put, better sound. While traditional dynamic driver headphones are much more commonplace, their economically viable nature results in trade-offs with regards to sound quality. Planar magnetic drivers are usually slightly on the heavier side, but the sound difference is said to be remarkedly better.
The GT-R headphones come with a design that gives comfort full priority. Designed to be the kind of headphones you would want to wear for long amounts of time, the plush earcups sit around your ear, muffling all external sound, while the self-adjusting suspended head-strap rests comfortably against your head, negating most of the weight of the headphones.
The headphones come with an open back design that allows the GT-R’s imaging to be accurate and realistic. Designed to cut out audio leakage thanks to the single sided nature of the drivers, the GT-R not only traps music inside your headphones, it also blocks all external noise from filtering in. Built with the kind of isolation that will make you forget where you are, and absolutely monstrous 65mm drivers that will transport you to the studio where the music was recorded, the GT-R headphones are designed to give you the audiophile experience, but for the price of a regular set of cans!
Designer: Peter Yoon
Click here to Buy Now: $249.00 $399.00
The proprietary single-sided 65mm planar magnetic driver used to power the GT-R provides extremely transient and quick bass response and treble extension that far exceeds regular headphones in the market.
The open-back design means that the back of the headphone housing is open. This allows the sound-stage to be ever so expansive, and its imaging to be accurate and realistic.
Click here to Buy Now: $249.00 $399.00
L’illustratrice Manjit Thapp a créée un zine dedié à Wes Anderson, qui présente de jolis portraits des héros et héroïnes de films tels que The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom ou Darjeeling Limited. Dessinée à la main et finie sur Photoshop, son oeuvre est une belle ode au monde de Wes Anderson. Plus de son travail ici et sur Instagram.
Patrick Pfaff, photographe allemand d’aventure, de lifestyle et d’architecture, nous emmène dans son voyage de 5 jours en Bavière et en Autriche dans une série d’images à couper le souffle qui montrent la rencontre entre l’homme et la nature. Des paysages grandioses de Berchtesgaden à l’incroyable ville de Hallstatt, Pfaff capte la magie et la beauté de ces deux belles destinations. Plus de son travail ici et suivez-le sur Instagram.
La firme d’architecture mexicaine YEAH Architects vient de dévoiler son design de super-bâtiment durable, avec un centre commercial en forme de dôme. Afin de gérer le problème de la croissance démentielle des zones urbaines, l’idée est de créer un centre qui soit très efficace en terme d’énergie. La forme de dôme est particulièrement intéressante car, en plus d’etre, très résistante aux risques de catastrophe naturelle, moins chère à construire que les centres commerciaux carrés, et de laisser des possibilités de design illimitées, cette forme s’insère dans l’espace urbain de manière sublime. Un très beau projet, écologique et particulièrement élaboré, qui s’inscrit dans la nouvelle vague d’architecture respectueuse de l’environnement.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
