British architecture studio MICA has completed a boarding house in the grounds of Stowe School in England, featuring an assemblage of pale-brick volumes including a cylindrical tower and glazed bridge.

Stowe School is an independent school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, which was founded in 1923 and is situated within 750 acres of landscaped gardens that also accommodate the 17th-century Stowe House.

The school has recently invested more than £30 million to enhance its educational and boarding facilities, with MICA overseeing a 25-year masterplan that has already involved the completion of two other boarding houses and an arts facility.

The masterplan and earlier phases of the project were undertaken when the practice was still known as Rick Mather Architects, prior to the death of its American founder in 2013.

The latest building to be completed is called West 5 and provides accommodation for 24 female pupils on a plot adjacent to a cluster of 1930s masters’ houses that were previously converted for boarding.

West 5 was developed in response to the need for additional sixth-form boarding rooms, and joins the four existing buildings on the edge of the Western Gardens.

The new buildings are divided into two blocks, with the larger two-storey section housing the main communal facilities and an external terrace.

A bridge connects this block with the second building, which is partially sunken into the gently sloping terrain and extends to three storeys.

The structures reference the simple geometric forms of the existing masters’ houses, and employ a similar palette of brick and white steel-framed windows.

However, the paler tone of the brick and massing of the buildings – with their irregular arrangement of forms and flat roofs – marks them out distinctly as contemporary additions.

“Datums are taken from the adjacent houses – the common eaves level marks a parapet, with a soldier course regulating ground and first floor divisions,” explained the architects.

“From these guides, volumes shift, rise and fall in curtains of brick. Windows are loosely arranged in open plan spaces or aligned behind stacks of accommodation, in crisp white arrangements.”

A path running between the two blocks beneath the bridge is flanked by solid brick walls, with a rectangular tower to one side containing a lift and a drum-like form on the other accommodating a staircase.

The en-suite bedrooms are grouped around communal areas to promote an enhanced sense of shared living. These spaces include a double-height atrium and terraces on different levels.

The common areas feature light-toned oak floors and white walls to create a neutral backdrop that focuses attention on the views of the surrounding gardens through large picture windows.

Yellow and orange flooring on the upper storeys enlivens the common areas and helps to differentiate the various floors and connecting shared spaces.

The en-suite bedrooms also feature coloured flooring that stands out against the muted tones of the walls and built-in furniture, which includes window seats looking out across the grounds.

Photography is by Richard Chivers.

Project credits:

Structural engineer: Price & Myers
M&E consultant: RED Engineering
Quantity surveyors: Michael Edwards & Associates
Landscape consultants: Quartet Design
Acoustic consultants: Sandy Brown Associates
CDM coordinator: Vance Miller Health and Safety
Building inspector: Salus
Main contractor: Stepnell

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There’s something timeless about the CRKT Snap Lock Knife. For starters, looking at it, you probably wouldn’t have figured that this knife was in production as early as 2004 (it won the Most Innovative Knife Award at the Blade Show). It looks incredibly cutting edge (clever wordplay?) even today, for a knife design that’s turning 14 this year. CRKT’s reissue of this legendary blade means more people can own it and be charmed by its awe-inspiring design that comes with a pretty nifty looking cam mechanism that allows the blade to rotate on a completely different axis as compared to switchblades/folding-blades. The mechanism demands the knife have a hollow handle that allows it to look just stunning when opened AND when closed, while making sure that the knife itself remains lightweight (weighing just 2.56 ounces). As a result, when closed, the sharp edge of the blade is completely concealed and out of harm’s way. What’s more, the knife’s design even integrates a money clip into the product. Made in 2004… Desirable forever after.

Designers: Ed Van Hoy & CRKT (Columbia River Knife & Tool).

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In the past, a designer’s engagement with materials was to understand the material’s properties and how to exploit them to serve the end user. Having that grasp was enough to be considered a responsible designer where materials were concerned.

Today the demands are very different, as our understanding of science has grown. A responsible designer or manufacturer must consider the impact of the materials they are using and the very business practices by which that material is being acquired and sold. Not considering these things is how we wound up with H&M’s disastrous (and enduring) “fast fashion” trend, which profits by viewing clothing as short-lived, disposable objects. The materials used to make clothing are often resource-intensive, and by hastening their journey into landfill we are ripping off the planet.

The company on the opposite end of the spectrum from H&M is Patagonia. The company’s careful and continuous consideration and monitoring of their materials, along with a deep sense of corporate responsibility, provide the clear–and admittedly very difficult–path of behavior that all mass manufacturers should take.

In this series we’ll look at three materials Patagonia sources and the impacts that those materials mitigate. While there is considerable overlap between the following three categories, for the sake of simplicity we’ll break it down into “Better for the environment,” “Better for animal welfare” and “Better for the end user.”

Better for the Environment

Being all-natural, 100% cotton sounds like great stuff. If you asked any hippie environmentalist in the 1960s what they’d like to wear, it’s fair to say 100% cotton would be high up on the list.

But as it turns out, conventionally-grown cotton is an environmental disaster. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly the World Wildlife Fund), “It can take more than 20,000 litres (5,283 gallons) of water to produce 1kg (2.2 pounds) of cotton; equivalent to a single T-shirt and pair of jeans.” On top of that, “2.4% of the world’s crop land is planted with cotton and yet it accounts for 24% and 11% of the global sales of insecticide and pesticides respectively.”

The Organic Trade Association has the water figures of conventionally-grown cotton slightly lower, at “more than 2,700 liters (713 gallons) of water to make one conventional cotton t-shirt, and almost 11,000 (2,905 gallons) to make a pair of jeans,” which is still staggering.

Additionally, the OTA points out that conventionally-grown cotton crops are laced with pesticides like glyphosate, ethephon, trifluralin, acetochlor, tribufos, sodium chlorate, acephate, s-metolachlor, diuron, and paraquat. Those chemicals have landed on a variety of unappealing lists: Possible, probable and known carcinogens, toxic pesticides, possible or known endocrine disruptors. Glyphosate has been found in air and water near crops its used on, and subsequently has made its way into food like Cheerios, Ritz Crackers and even honey.

“As it happens, very little is pure or natural about cotton when it is raised conventionally,” Patagonia writes. “We learned this in the early 1990s when we started looking more closely into our cotton supply chains. At that time…every year, conventional cotton crops in California alone were doused with 6.9 million pounds of chemicals. And research showed that extensive and intensive use of synthetic fertilizers, soil additives, defoliants and other substances wreak terrible havoc on soil, water, air and many, many living things.”

Thus Patagonia began looking into alternatives, and found a viable one in a movement that had started just a few years earlier, in the 1980s: Organically grown cotton. In the book “Sustainability in Denim,” textiles sustainability expert Dr. Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu writes that “Organic cotton is…grown from nongenetically modified plants [and] grown without the use of synthetic agricultural chemicals such as fertilizers or pesticides.” In her book “Textiles and Fashion: Materials, Design and Technology,” design instructor and textiles expert Rose Sinclair writes that “organic cotton promotes and enhances biodiversity and biological cycles and so is beneficial to human health and the environment.”

To produce viable yields, organic cotton farmers use natural tricks to deter pests, like using garlic, hydrogen peroxide and vinegar. They use natural fertilizers like compost and animal manure, which reduces carbon and nitrogen emissions. Some even weed by hand. All of this is more time-consuming to produce–which makes it more expensive. So the question any business would have to ask itself: Would customers pay extra for something to prevent an environmental problem that was invisible to them?

Ultimately, Patagonia decided it didn’t matter: “We believed we had no choice,” they write. “In 1996, we began the exclusive use of organically grown cotton in all of our cotton products. Our decision was not without considerable financial risks, but we decided never to go back to conventional cotton, regardless of the outcome.”

The company turned out to be on the right side not only of the environment, but of the viability of organic cotton farming, which has continued to grow over the years. In America “20,681 acres (8,369 hectares) were planted with organic cotton [in 2016], yielding 4,524 metric tons (approximately 20,800 bales), or slightly higher than one bale/acre,” according to the Organic Trade Association. “This represented a 15 percent increase in bales from 2015.”

“As it turned out, the move [to organic cotton] didn’t compromise quality,” Patagonia writes. “It provoked a fundamental change in our attitudes about agriculture. As part of our organic cotton program, hundreds of us took tours of cotton fields, and we saw for ourselves the dangers of pesticide use and the benefits of organic farming. Many of us have since shifted to buying organic foods and clothing.”

Here is a list of the clothing and accessories the company makes from organic cotton.

Lastly, even though this series is focused on materials, I must point out that responsible material selection alone is not enough to do true good. For instance, according to Textile Exchange’s 2017 Organic Cotton Market Report, in 2016 the #2 purchaser by volume of organic cotton was H&M–the company I’d maligned in the intro.

Much smaller Patagonia only made #7 of the “Top 10 by Growth” list. But the difference is that just “13.7% of the cotton H&M uses is organic,” according to Quartz. Patagonia’s figure is 100%.

And the main reason I will continue to buy Patagonia rather than H&M is simple. H&M’s goal is to move as much product as possible on a fast fashion cycle, which gets clothing into landfill far faster than it can be recycled. Patagonia’s goal is for you to keep and use your garment as long as possible. We’ll look at how they have addressed this with another smart materials choice in Part 2 of this series. Stay tuned.

Also See:

– Patagonia and REI Selling Used Gear/Clothing at Great Prices

– The Sweater Stone, Patagonia, Product Longevity, and How to Keep Customers for Life

It takes a talented eye to see where the designs of two dissimilar styles of skirt overlap, but it takes remarkable vision to incorporate those facets into that of a chandelier. Such is the case with the Tutu 2.0 pendant light, which culls and……

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Autonomous vehicles will soon be tested and deployed on public roads in California without a safety driver behind the wheel.

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced the move yesterday, 26 February 2018, after lawmakers approved regulations that have been in development for three years.

The new rules allow vehicles to operate without a “natural person” on board, but still require a “remote operator” that can override via a wireless connection or communicate with any passengers.

Regulation changes could dramatically impact how cars are designed

This paves the way for cars without steering wheels, or acceleration and break pedals, to be deployed as soon as 2 April 2018 – providing their manufacturers can prove that they are safe.

Up until now, a human driver has been required to be present during test drives, to take over in case of a malfunction.

“This is a major step forward for autonomous technology in California,” said California DMV director Jean Shiomoto in a statement.

Stipulations include the need for companies to provide details of how they would deal with law enforcement if a driverless car is pulled over. Data recorders similar to those used on airlines will also be required in each vehicle, to be retrieved in the event of an accident and used to help determine its cause.

The DMV is set to issue a notice outlining the details regulations on 2 March 2018, along with information about how to apply for permits – which the organisation says will take a month to process.

Updated regulations signal long-awaited progress for Silicon Valley companies

California joins Arizona, Michigan and Nevada on the list of states that allow fully driverless cars to be tested, but its inclusion is significant due to the volume of those currently developing and testing autonomous technology in the state.

Fifty companies including Apple, Uber and Alphabet are already testing driverless cars in and around Silicon Valley, where many of them are headquartered. Car brands like Ford, General Motors and Toyota are also using California as a test ground for their technologies.

Advances in autonomous vehicle design and technology are becoming ever more frequent. Recent announcements have included a patent filed by Alphabet’s Waymo programme for cars that would soften on impact if they hit a pedestrian.

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