In a true fusion of genres, Abhi The Nomad blends hip-hop, electronic, jazz and more on “Marbled” from his EP of the same name. The bop changes up in rhythm (while remaining super-catchy) as his flow remains effortless and flawless. Previous tunes……
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In a world first, Nestlé Japan is launching a naturally pink chocolate: the ruby KitKat. The pink hue is the first new natural color since the 1930s (when white chocolate was created) and apparently tastes fruity. Teaming up with Swiss cacao processor……
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by Andrew Maness
The growth that Downtown Los Angeles and its Arts District just east of the iconic skyline has been rapid and fascinating. One of the busiest areas is around the intersection of Mateo and 7th Streets, making the arrival of The……
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Residents of a high-rise housing block in London’s Croydon have been told they must pay to replace the building’s cladding, which was found to be flammable in a review following the Grenfell Tower fire.
Cladding on the Citiscape complex in the south London town failed final system combustibility testing by the Building Research Establishment in August 2017, prompting the ministry of housing, communities and local government to advise its removal.
The test was one of hundreds carried out on tall buildings across the UK after 71 people died in the devastating Grenfell Tower fire, which spread rapidly thanks to the aluminium, combustable-core panels affixed to its concrete frame.
However Citiscape’s private owners have refused to cover the £2 million needed to replace the unsafe cladding, claiming that the leases for all apartments state that leaseholders are responsible for shared building costs.
Residents told they must each pay £31,100
Citiscape’s freehold is owned by Proxima GR Properties, a company held in the family trust of multimillionaire Vincent Tchenguiz.
The British-Iranian entrepreneur is estimated to have a combined net worth of £850 million with his brother and business partner Robert. Along with the reported 300,000 freeholds he owns, including 15,000 in London, the property magnate is well known for his love of supercars and yachts.
In one interview he claimed to have “forgotten” that he bought a Lamborghini, having shut it away in a garage just two days after buying it – but not before causing £30,000 of damage crashing it into a speed bump. And in early 2017 he bought a yacht that was estimated to have cost £20 million.
Residents of Citiscape’s 93 apartments were told by FirstPort, which manages the property on behalf of Proxima GR Properties, that each home was liable to pay £31,100 to cover the cost of the new cladding.
The average annual salary in Croydon is £34,098, and many of the apartment residents claim they either earn less than that or are retired.
Delays could cause further cost increases
FirstPort commissioned the surveyor that estimated the cost of the cladding replacement. The works are expected to cost between £1.8 and £2 million.
But the property manager has also warned that any delay to the funds being raised to undertake the work will lead to increased costs, as until the cladding is stripped, London Fire Brigade-mandated wardens must patrol the building at all hours.
“As the property manager, we are discharging our responsibilities under the leasehold agreements and working with residents as closely as possible to find a solution to this very complex situation,” FirstPort said in a statement.
“The government has pledged to offer support to owners and residents of high-rise buildings. However, given the pressing need to undertake these essential safety works and the potential costs to leaseholders, we and others in the property industry welcome any clarity the government can provide on what support will be made available.”
Dezeen approached the ministry and its MP Sajid Javid for comment, but it yet to receive a response.
Landlords should not pass on costs, says government
According to The Guardian, 262 towers across the UK were found to have faulty cladding in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told the paper: “We are clear we would like to see private sector landlords follow the lead of the social sector and not pass on the costs.”
FirstPort is taking the question of who should foot the bill to a tribunal on 6 February, which its claims is not in conflict with the residents but an attempt to obtain an independent ruling on the situation.
Government could offer interest-free loans
Nigel Glen, chief executive officer of the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) doesn’t believe that landlords should be liable to cover the cost of removing and replacing cladding that has failed fire tests.
“In the absence of alternative funding, it is likely that leaseholders will be legally liable to pay for the cost of fire safety work and also for the walking watches that the fire brigades have demanded,” he said.
“To avoid safety being compromised whilst lengthy legal battles are fought, ARMA’s proposal is that government provide an interest-free loan to leaseholders to cover the cost of this work,” he suggested.
“The government has suggested that landlords should pay for the works but there is no suggestion that anyone has acted inappropriately or cut corners, rather that Building Control approved and signed off the various types of cladding at the time and have only now tested those very systems and found them unsuitable.”
An interim report of the review of building regulations commissioned in the wake of Grenfell highlighted that current regulations were unfit for purpose because there are too many opportunities to take short cuts.
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Montreal architecture studio Naturehumaine has transformed a local 1950s residence with a new grey exterior and pared-down interior, and a layout reduced to one bedroom to add space elsewhere.
The single-storey residence is built in the Prairie School style – made popular by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and typified by a low pitched roof, overhanging eaves, and large grouped windows.
Its owners wanted to expand the building and revitalise its appearance, so asked Naturehumaine to overhaul the entire property while maintaining its character.
The studio’s interventions included swapping the cream-coloured brick exterior with new masonry, timber elements, and enlarged black-framed glazed portions.
“The existing house is partly demolished and rebuilt by reinterpreting features in a contemporary way such as a low and elongated profile, a overhanging roof and the use of masonry and wood on the facades,” said Stéphane Rasselet and Marc-André Plasse, who co-founded Naturehumaine in 2004.
The windows and a garage remain in the same locations, while the front door is shifted left.
“The main window in the living room, as well as the corner window of the corner office, are now without mullions,” the studio said, providing natural light and larger views outside.
A large tree has been removed in the front yard to showcase the existing chimney, dramatically changing the home’s overall appearance from the street.
Grey limestone now covers the exterior, along with panels of warm-toned cedar, and the house is topped with a zinc roof to match the colour of the stone.
A fully enclosed garden and separate back terrace are among new additions to the layout. “The original surface of the ground floor was extended outwards on by an additional 1,100 square feet (102 square metres), making all the rooms much more spacious with respect to the original house,” the studio said.
Upon entering is a small foyer, or vestibule, with a pale wood closet and steps leading down to a basement. The house was entirely reconfigured, with 8 foot (2.4 metre) ceilings doubling in height in a main living area.
The staircase features thin, black metal rods and a railing, similar to those in Naturehumaine’s renovation of a three-storey home with a skylight in another part of Montreal.
Glazing along the top half of the entryway emphasises the home’s angular lines. A 16-foot (five-metre) sloping ceiling defines a main living area, which follows the home’s pitched roof.
To the right is an open-plan kitchen, dining, and living room. Cabinetry in the kitchen is either pale wood or white, with light grey floors and black countertops.
A sitting area overlooking an original fireplace is lined in dark brown wood, which carries through in the hallway and beyond.
The fireplace is coloured in grey rather than the existing brick, with light wood built-in cabinetry to its left and an enclosed garden beyond.
Off the kitchen, and towards the backyard, is a terrace that has room for another dining table. Nearby is a laundry room and small bathroom.
To the left of the entrance is an office with floor-to-ceiling cabinetry and an L-shaped desk. This side of the residence also contains the main bedroom with walk-in closet, and a large bathroom with two toilets and double sinks.
“Responding to client’s desire to create spacious and bright living spaces, the ground floor layout includes minimally a single bedroom adjoining a study and full bathroom,” the studio said.
Naturehumaine has completed several other renovation projects in Montreal, including a grey-and-black extension to a 1920s brick house, an angular two-storey addition on a 1860s light stone dwelling, and a white rooftop unit built onto a 1920s brick apartment building.
Photography is by Adrien Williams.
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The latest edition of Dezeen Mail includes a space-saving 19-square-metre apartment in London by Ab Rogers Design and The Guardian’s major redesign of its print and online editions. Subscribe to Dezeen Mail ›
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Students and faculty at the University of Miami’s architecture school constructed a performance venue from a series of orange poles underneath the city’s Brickell MetroRail station.
The temporary Brickell Stage was designed and erected by a group from the university, and hosted a range of free outdoor performances that included music, comedy and poetry.
It comprises 1,001 orange-painted rods, fixed vertically to a square base in the same colour. The poles decrease incrementally from three sides to the centre, leaving a triangular area at the front to be used as a stage.
“This design creates a forced perspective that focuses the attention of the spectators on the performers and heightens the visual experience for all,” said a statement from the team.
Lights attached to the branches of T-shaped poles were positioned at the front and back of the square base, to illuminate the structure and allow performances to take place at night.
Performers could make use of matching orange stools, while the audience was able to arrange themselves as they pleased across a patch of green flooring.
“The open-air structure creates a sense of place with an elevated stage and flexible seating to host a variety of free interactive performances,” the team said.
The stage was installed to coincide with the Art Basel fair and wider Miami art week, which took place 7 to 10 December 2018.
The project was a winner of The Miami Foundation‘s Public Space Challenge, which promotes the creation and enhancement of parks and potential gathering spaces in the city.
Brickell Stage was installed along what will become The Underline, a linear park that follows beneath the elevated metro rail lines.
Designed by James Corner Field Operations – which worked on the similar High Line in New York – the 10-mile-long (16 kilometre) trail will run from Brickell Station to Dadeland South Station, and is due to open in 2020.
Photography is by Carlos Domenech.
Project credits:
Design Team: Cristina Canton, Jaime Correa, Adib Cure, Steven Fett, Carie Penabad, Elie Mehreb, Bernardo Rievling, Qiazi Chen
Production team: Tiffany Banks, Andrew Dai, Emily Elkin, Max Erickson, Marisa Gudiel, Elsa Hiraldo, AJ Guillen, Andrea Hernandez-Torres, David Holmes, Laura Martinez, Israel Martinez, Sydney Maubert, Christel Orbe, Mario Ostalaza, Cynthia Pacheco, Dorianne Paris, Cristian Ruiz-Lucio, Jack Shao, Stephanie Tarud, Yuanxun Xia
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The one time I’m dying to drive a concept and it doesn’t even have a steering wheel! You’re sure to feel this first world problem too when you take a look at the NV01 by Radek Stepan.
This wicked looking roadster is entirely autonomous. Just hop inside the cockpit made completely of glass, use your voice to tell it where to go and it will take you there at breakneck speed. Riders immediately find themselves in a comfortable laying position where they can take in the passing surroundings or watch movies or surf the web on the haptic holographic screen projected on the glass canopy. Without a steering wheel or other manual controls, there’s more room for fun accessories like a mini-bar and snack cubby. I’ve never been so upset something was autonomous because all I want to do is drive it!
Designer: Radek Stepan
Amazon Alexa is inside EVERYTHING. It’s starting to become somewhat of a prison in your home, walking through the house talking to yourself and then having an inanimate object respond with “I didn’t quite catch that.” As of late, I’ve become a huge fan of companies trying to push the boundaries themselves and challenge the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant products, and nobody has done it better than the ever-creative Teenage Engineering with their release, H.
Taken from their site, Teenage Engineering has said “In Silicon Valley, they would call a device like the ‘H’ a ‘smart speaker.’ Our friends in Beijing, who asked us to collaborate on the H, rather talk about it in terms of ‘a colorful device for splendid moments’ and ‘flexible operations for life guidance.’ We think that’s a quite humble way for them to talk about their world-leading AI technology.”
The integrated battery enables the user to remove the top level of this friendly AI device and keep it close to your body, so you don’t need to shout or pop your head around the door to ask H a question. Not only is this little guy incredibly smart, the limitless functionality of its microphone and touch sensitivity working simultaneously is really exciting. The interaction and feedback with H are second to none, and it’s due to this that H is easily becoming my favorite product of this year so far.
Designer: Teenage Engineering
Insurance company Aflac and health research company Sproutel unveiled a robot duck companion at this year’s CES, made for children going through cancer treatment. More than just a plush toy, the animated robot features a chest sensor with a chemotherapy……
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