Hasta La Ideas

While music acts like Beyoncé entertain throngs at this year’s Coachella festival, visitors are also treated to large-scale sculptures and installations across the California desert site. Here are some of our favourites from the event this month.

Etherea by Edoardo Tresold

Wire mesh forms the blurred outline of three cathedral-like pavilions in this installation by Italian artist Edoardo Tresold.

Ranging in height from 36 to 72 feet (10.9 to 21.9 metres), each has a collonade with arched openings at the base and domed roof, which draw on the decorative features found neoclassical and baroque architecture styles.

Spectra by Newsubstance

Designed by UK studio Newsubstance to provide revellers with a place to retreat, Spectra is a seven-storey cylindrical tower with a spiral staircase that winds up to a lookout point at the top.

Translucent panels in a rainbow hue encase the structure, offering saturated views across Coachella during the day. At night time, 6,000 feet (1,828 metres) of LED lights illuminate the different hues.

Supernova by Roberto Behar & Rosario Marquardt (R&R Studios)

Large, multi-coloured spikes extend 40 feet (12.2 metres) in all directions to form Supernova, designed by Argentinian artists and architects Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt.

The structure, which is made up of 12 huge stars, provides festival-goers with a place of shade during the day. It then lights up at night to form a landmark meeting spot.

Palm-3 World Station by Simón Vega

For Palm-3 World Station, artist Simón Vega has used elements found in shanty towns in his home country El Salvador to model the shape of Soviet space station Mir.

The structure comprises 30 modules built from materials including corrugated metal sheets, television aerials, washings lines, trailing planting and signs, and spans 150 feet (45.7 metres) in length.

Display this Oasis by Katie Stout

Finding her original idea to build a four-storey-high water fountain in the desert climate too ambitious, US designer Katie Stout decided to develop a virtual version of a waterfall.

Stout, who collaborated with digital art studio Simaxiom, has erected canvases across the site where audiences can experience the augmented-reality artwork using the Coachella App and activating the Coachella Camera.

Lodestar by Randy Polumbo

This sculpture by Brooklyn-based artist Randy Polumbo looks like an aircraft nose-dived straight into the festival grounds.

An upturned Lockheed Martin Lodestar jet, a second world war aircraft that Polumbo sourced online, forms the body. The artist then added a cage-like viewing tower at is tail, decorated with glittery disco balls, hand-blown glass flowers and metallic petals.

Top image is by Roberto Conte. Other images are courtesy of Coachella Festival.

The post Installations and artworks headlining Coachella 2018 appeared first on Dezeen.

If you happened to miss last year’s inaugural PRIMER17 conference, well, you have another crack at rubbing shoulders and exchanging best practices with others devoted to speculative design, strategic foresight, design futures, and discursive design in general. PRIMER18  will be taking place this May 3–5 at several sites in the SF Bay Area. (Discounts! Core77 readers can take advantage of a 25% discount with web registration code CORE77P18; Educators and non-profits 50% off with EduDiscount50off; and Student tickets are $95 with a valid student ID–contact theprimerconference@gmail.com.)

Speakers include Nick Foster, Head of Design, Google X, and Julian Bleeker, Co-founder and CTO of Omata. Both also co-founders of the Near Future Laboratory.

This year’s keynote speakers are futurist and Carnegie Mellon professor, Stuart Candy, and multi-platform designer, Ani Liu fresh from the MIT Media Lab. Others such as Nick Foster, Head of Design at Google X along with his Near Futures Laboratory partner Julian Bleecker will also be sharing the stage. Twenty speakers from industry, academia, and independent practice will speak and run workshops involving present-day project opportunities and challenges, practical and critical frameworks, the sociopolitical implications of design, and no less than the future of humanity itself (which includes speculative practice).

We had the pleasure of attending last year and met the brainchild behind PRIMER and the increasingly international Speculative Futures meetup group, Phil Balagtas. We caught up with him again in the run-up to this year’s conference.

Phil Balagtas, Experience Design Director at McKinsey & Company

Where did the PRIMER conference come from?
PRIMER culminated out of the interest of the speculative design community we were building in San Francisco. We started our first meetup in April 2015 as an experiment to see if there were others in the Bay Area that were interested in Speculative & Critical Design. Interest grew quickly and we were thrilled by the feedback and reaction of people in the design community—many people had never heard of speculative design and wanted to know more. So we decided to organize a “glorified meetup” in Feb 2017. It was only meant to be a one day event where we would fly in some of our favorite designers. But the more we worked on it, the more it turned into a full-fledged conference.

What is your background and relation to speculative design / design futures?
I discovered SCD when I was at the California College of the Arts pursuing my masters in 2009. I was desperately seeking a topic area for my thesis and saw Dunne & Raby in the documentary, Objectified. I was fascinated at how they looked at design and what the future meant for designers and interaction design. I quickly started researching everything that was coming out of the RCA and found more and more examples of critical design. It would eventually shape my thesis that year.  After school, I was a bit discouraged w/ my work so I got a job in software in Silicon Valley, all the while poking at SCD and smuggling it into design thinking sessions with our clients hoping it would instill some urgency about the impact they were having on society with their products. But we always found challenges and had to scale back the “speculation” to meet business needs. Years later, I saw a project by the agency, Method, called Method Money (see video below) win an interaction design award. While, not entirely a critical design piece, it gave me hope that there were still others out there practicing speculative design and that it was not just relegated to art schools or museums. That’s when I decided to start the Speculative Futures Meetup. So for the past 3 years, we’ve hosted speakers and I’ve curated workshops to help our community learn how to think about the future through speculative design. I also speak and teach workshops around the world on the topic. I’ll be at InteractOhio from April 25–26 speaking to a digital marketing crowd.

Why call it “Primer”?
We weren’t sure what to call this “glorified meetup” at first. I knew I wanted it to have its own unique name. At my day job (at the time I was a designer at General Electric) we always talked about “priming” our customers for design thinking. And always creating a “primer” deck to help introduce people to new ideas. I thought it was perfect for the conference. We believe it means that the things we speculate about, the cultural, economic, political, environmental implications are “priming” our audience and society for possible futures. And we’ve created this platform not just to share work but to really ignite a concern about how things could be, and how we can avert the dangers and fortify opportunities for designing a better tomorrow.

What has been most surprising for you?
The most surprising thing has really been the growth of our Speculative Futures meetup community. We never intended it to grow beyond San Francisco, but the more I spoke in other cities, the more people wanted to help and grow their own local communities. We’re now in 6 cities worldwide: San Francisco, Austin, Indiana, New York, London, Berlin, and soon Australia.

A day of workshops: Actionable Futures Toolkit (Sami Niemelä; Transgenerational Futures (Alana Aquilino); Foresight and Innovation approaches (Frank Spencer); and the Speculative City (Matt Wizinsky).

What’s been a great outcome of the conference?
I still recall something someone said at PRIMER 17–”It’s nice to know that I’m not alone.” I think the most rewarding thing about the conference is seeing people who’ve come from all over and meet each other and feel thrilled to know there are others out there practicing this work and sharing the same ideas and methodologies. We just want to connect the world, really. We strongly believe in the mission of using speculative design to deliver new agendas at a global scale. So the more people that meet and are inspired and can go back to their home and keep the fire burning and spread the methodologies and ideas, the more grateful we are.

What do you see in PRIMER’s future?
We have some exciting announcements we’re going to make at PRIMER 18 and all I can say is “growth”. The meet ups are already growing and working at a grassroots level. But we’re looking forward to how PRIMER can connect even more communities outside of design globally. At PRIMER 18 we’ve decided to extend our invitation to Futurists, Strategic Foresight practitioners, and even Sci-fi authors. We believe we are all in the same family and can help each other imagine, grow and execute real-world strategies. So you’re going to hear from a lot of different people at PRIMER 18, not just Speculative Designers.

www.primerconference.com

www.futures.design

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Iroquois longhouses influenced the creation of a country home by Canadian firm Scott Posno Design, which consists of a slender bar wrapped in cedar and glass.

The project, called The Farm, is situated an hour east of Toronto, on a tranquil site surrounded by farmland and a protected forest. The two-storey dwelling serves as a nature retreat for a man and his grown children, along with friends and family wanting to escape the bustle of city life.

The residence consists of several structures spread over a 65-acre (26-hectare) property, all designed to embrace the bucolic setting.

“The Farm was not conceived of as a single iconic house in the country, but as a compound of buildings that engage the compelling qualities of site and landscape,” said Scott Posno Design, a Vancouver-based studio established in 2003.

Resting atop a shallow ridge, the main house is accessed via a driveway that connects to a dead-end gravel road. Taking cues from traditional dwellings created by the indigenous Iroquois people, the team conceived a long bar that stretches 153 feet (47 metres) and is topped with a gabled roof.

“Its steeply gabled form and exaggerated length suggest a modern interpretation of the vernacular longhouse typology,” the studio said.

The home has a wooden frame, with walls clad in cedar. The siding’s soft grey hue is meant to complement the colours found in the natural landscape. Standing-seam metal was used for the roof, and deep overhangs were incorporated on the north and south ends.

Providing views and a strong connection to the landscape was imperative. In response, ample glazing on the east elevation captures the morning light and offers long vistas of rolling hills, thickets of trees and the Ganaraska Forest in the distance.

“An existing pond concentrates activity downslope,” the team said. “Continuing on, a winding stream that bisects the property is a calming presence, shaded by the surrounding trees.”

The ground level of the 4,000-square-foot (372-square-metre) home is split between public and private areas. A garage was placed on the north end and leads into the dining area, living room and kitchen. The southern end is occupied by a double-height master suite with a secluded patio.

“The longhouse form translates into an even distribution of programme, from public to private functions in a sequential fashion,” said the studio.

Two bedrooms were situated upstairs. Additionally, the team created a loft space above the garage, which can function as an artist’s studio or guest suite.

In the public areas, polished concrete floors are paired with white oak woodwork, which was also used for the stairs and flooring on the second level. Exposed ceilings made of Douglas fir remind the occupants “of the inherently rustic origins of the project”. Vancouver studio &Daughters oversaw the interior design.

“A restrained material palette defers to the power of the dramatic site conditions, allowing the simplicity of form and the subtleties of light and shadow to inflect the project,” the team said.

An area of particular note within the home is the dining room, which is lined with glass walls that can be opened or closed.

“When the sliding glass pocket doors on either side are closed, the room is a warm, intimate space for gathering,” the team said. “When the doors are slid open, it becomes a breezeway – not merely an outdoor room, but a conduit connecting front and back, interior and exterior, east and west.”

The project also entailed the creation of a semi-enclosed zen garden just beyond the garage.

Perfectly square in plan, the space can be used for solitary or group activities, such as yoga, meditation and reading. Ipe slats constitute the walls, while overhead, aluminium strips form a trellis, “offering partial protection and cover”.

South of the main house, the architects created an outdoor area with a pool, a hot tub and a sunken fire pit, along with a gabled pool house.

“A separate, enticingly compact cabana mirrors the form and materiality of the main house – a perfectly proportioned additional one-bedroom guest suite should the need arise,” the team said.

Other projects in Ontario include a home by Williamson Williamson that will adapt as its residents age, and a cedar-clad lakehouse by Lazor Offices that is V-shaped in plan.

Photography is by Double Space Photography.

Project credits:

Architect: Scott Posno Design
Designer and firm principal: Scott Posno
Project design lead: Darcy Hanna
Interior design: &Daughters
Builder: Den Bosche & Finchley
Structural engineer: Blackwell Structural Engineers
Millworker: Lakeland Interiors

The post Ontario holiday home by Scott Posno takes cues from indigenous architecture appeared first on Dezeen.

#WiiChallenge..(Read…)

À l’occasion du Air Max Day 2018, l’un des événements les plus attendus de l’année pour les amateurs de sneakers, la marque au swoosh a dévoilé son tout nouveau modèle, la Air Max 270. Cette année, Nike a décidé d’aller encore plus loin en organisant un événement unique « Nike On Air » pour imaginer la Air Max de demain, à l’image de sa ville. Après avoir traversé les villes de Shanghai, Londres, New York, Séoul et Tokyo, Nike On Air s’arrête à Paris.

© Sam Sarabandi

© Sam Sarabandi

L’événement s’est tenu pendant trois jours à la Cité de la Mode et du Design. Fort d’une scénographie soignée, Nike On Air a fait voyager les visiteurs au rythme du design, des tendances et de la généalogie de la Air Max.

Un premier temps fort retrace l’histoire de la chaussure à travers une exposition originale. Sur fond de bulles d’air et de tuyaux apparents, les amateurs ont pu redécouvrir les modèles iconiques qui ont fait la légende de la marque.

© Sam Sarabandi

© Sam Sarabandi

On se souvient des premières inspirations de la Air Max. Il y a plus de 30 ans, le designer Tinker Hatfield découvre le Centre George Pompidou, un bâtiment singulier qui montre à l’extérieur l’architecture intérieure habituellement cachée. Ce dernier s’en inspire, pour à son tour, révéler à l’extérieur ce qui se cache à l’intérieur : la bulle d’air. Tinker ouvre la structure de la chaussure et conçoit ce qui deviendra la ligne directrice de la Air Max 1.

© Sam Sarabandi

© Sam Sarabandi

Second temps fort, les participants ont planché sur la Air Max de demain, en choisissant entre silhouettes, textures, matières, palettes de couleurs et finitions pour inventer le modèle de leur rêve. Au total près de 2400 personnes ont participé aux ateliers, en ayant la chance d’être accompagné par les designers Nike présents à l’événement.

© Sam Sarabandi

© Sam Sarabandi

Selon Courtney Dailey, Senior Colors Designer : « la couleur est une arme, un vecteur d’histoire. Elle est au coeur de notre réflexion. Nous essayons toujours de proposer des produits innovants en analysant les nuances de couleurs avant tout. La chaussure que tu vas acheter est représentée d’abord par ses couleurs, ensuite tu construis ta tenue en fonction de cela. »

Pour Marie Odinot, Footwear Designer qui a travaillé sur la Air Max 270 : « La contrainte c’est d’abord de faire une chaussure confortable pour des personnes qui vont la porter toute la journée. Ensuite, le design doit mettre en valeur l’air bag, la chose la plus importante de la chaussure. Tu peux t’inspirer des anciens modèles mais toujours avec l’idée en tête que tu proposeras une chaussure très différente des autres modèles»

Trois modèles ont été sélectionnés et seront mis en ligne sur le Global Voting Hub. Tout le monde est invité à voter et les vainqueurs seront annoncés le 14 Mai.

© Sam Sarabandi

Les participants du Nike On Air ont pu terminer leur expérience sur un atelier de customisation de produits, qui propose de choisir quelques motifs parmi une palette, pour créer un vêtement Nike à son image et repartir avec. La tagline « de l’imagination à la réalité ».