Hasta La Ideas

This boutique hotel by Chilean firm Mobil Arquitectos perches atop a grassy hill, with a glazed dining and lounge area offering ocean views, and a subterranean spa.

Tierra Chiloe is located on the main island of the Chiloe archipelago in Chile, much of which is hilly and pastoral, with expansive views of the water.

Guests can take in vistas of the nearby channel, the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains across the water, as well as the wetlands of Pullao that surround the peninsula.

The exterior of the hotel is clad in wooden shingles to reference to the island’s historic wooden churches, which were built by Jesuits missionaries in the 1600s.

Mobil Arquitectos designed the hotel with three levels, all of which interact with the natural scenery. The ground floor is lined with floor-to-ceiling windows, the upper level is wrapped in the silvering shingles, and the basement is a cave-like space with hints of views outside.

“The hotel was designed and built as an element of the nature of the place,” said the firm. “Its architecture is a combination of the old Chiloe tradition with contemporary design tools.”

In plan, the building’s wings are arranged at an obtuse angle. Portions are raised on stilts to disturb the ground as little as possible.

“The design of the hotel has, as its starting point, a bridge that connects the distant views and that tries not to alter the topography of the landscape,” said Mobil Arquitectos, which is based in Santiago.

Guest rooms are suspended above the hilly site on the upper floor, while common areas underneath have lightwells and ceilings that angle upwards, all to amplify the natural light that enters.

One wing has twelve bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms located near the hallway. The opposite section includes five guest rooms on the top floor, with seven additional rooms below.

The design is based on a series of sheltered interiors, as the site is exposed to extreme weather conditions. Nevertheless, there are spaces for enjoying the outdoors on mild days.

On the main level, at the joint of the building, are two outdoor decks on either side. These public outdoor areas join an indoor lounge, bar, dining area, and various seating areas.

The communal spaces feature wooden boards on the ceilings to amplify the warm light. Upstairs, all of the walls, floors, and ceilings are similarly wrapped in honey-toned wood, to bring a cohesiveness to the project.

“The design of the hotel is the result of this dialogue between protecting and taking advantage of the unique characteristics of the site, which together build the memory and experience of visiting Chiloe,” said the studio, which is also behind a housing complex embedded into a hillside of a Chilean seaside town.

Furniture pieces throughout the hotel are also predominately wooden, and further contribute to the rustic and relaxed atmosphere. Black structural details are complemented by textiles in colours of black, grey, mauve, and cream – all chosen to relate to the rocky, windy site.

In the basement are a spa that includes a swimming pool, a wellness centre, a locker room and a technical centre. Doors lead outside to a second, larger pool and a stone patio that are both covered by a wooden ceiling that lifts up towards the coast.

Another portion of the building juts out from one of the main volumes at an oblique angle. Inside are the hotel’s kitchen, laundry and service room on the ground floor. Stairs near a reception desk lead up to offices and a fitness room on the upper level.

Chile’s dramatic landscape is a draw for travellers from around the world. Other accommodation options across the country include a hotel for stargazing in the Elqui Valley, a coastal retreat in Puerto Natales, and a series of cabins in remote Patagonia.

Photography is by Cristóbal Palma.

The post Mobil Arquitectos designs Tierra Chiloe hotel for exposed Chilean island site appeared first on Dezeen.

From pawdicures to glitter tattoos and even prosthetic testicles, the market for dog wellness and pampering has skyrocketed. According to the American Pet Products Association, $69.5 billion was spent on dogs, cats and other pets last year. As the……

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A Falcon X rocket tube converted by Elon Musk into a “kid-size submarine” is on its way to Thailand, to help rescue the last of the boys trapped in an underwater cave.

The SpaceX CEO and founder revealed on Twitter yesterday that his team were testing an adapted version of the rocket, which could function as an escape pod for the young football team.

He said that the pod was on its way. But he acknowledged that it may not arrive in time to be of use in the rescue mission – eight of the boys, aged between 11 and 16, have already now been rescued. Four remain, along with their 25-year-old coach.

“Mini-sub arriving in about 17 hours. Hopefully useful. If not, perhaps it will be in a future situation,” Musk tweeted late yesterday.

Musk proposes “kid-size submarine” for rescue

The Wild Boar youth football team disappeared after walking into the cave system and becoming trapped when heavy rains flooded the underground chambers.

It took 10 days for a search party, led by British dive experts Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, to find them perched on a ledge above murky floodwaters.

Simulating maneuvering through a narrow passage pic.twitter.com/2z01Ut3vxJ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2018

Musk’s solution involves using his SpaceX programme technology to create an underwater vehicle that could be steered by divers.

“Primary path is basically a tiny, kid-size submarine using the liquid oxygen transfer tube of Falcon rocket as hull,” he tweeted. “Light enough to be carried by two divers, small enough to get through narrow gaps. Extremely robust.”

The tech CEO tweeted videos of the adapted rocket equipment being tested in a swimming pool in LA. Footage shows a team of divers dragging the bullet-shaped pod through underwater obstacles before landing it and releasing a smiling volunteer from inside.

Musk already sent engineers to advise on the rescue

Fans of the entrepreneur first appealed to him on Twitter last week, calling on him to devise a hi-tech solution to help save the trapped group.

On 4 July, two days after the discovery, Musk tweeted that he was “happy to help if there is a way to do so”.

pic.twitter.com/D1umiFDr1t

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2018

He dispatched engineers from SpaceX and The Boring Company, his drilling company, to Thailand to offer assistance to the international rescue effort, which is being co-ordinated by the Thai military government.

Musk suggested that The Boring Company’s advanced radar technology could be used to help dig an exit tunnel.

But plans to drill a rescue shaft were swiftly disregarded, as the football team were trapped half a mile below the surface of the remote Tham Luang Nang Non cave system, which runs under Doi Nang Non mountain.

In a tweeted conversation with Bangkok-based space entrepreneur James Yenbamroong, Musk also suggested inserting a metre-wide nylon tube through the narrow, twisting cave system, which could be inflated “like a bouncy castle”. Rescuers could then bring the boys out through a system of air locks, he said.

Rescue mission became urgent

The rescue team had planned to take up to four months to carefully execute the mission. Having delivered food and medical care, initial plans involved pumping water out of the caves so the group could simply walk out.

But with the monsoon rains about to begin in earnest and oxygen levels in the cave system dropping rapidly, it became apparent that they would have to act in a matter of days.

It was eventually decided that the boys would be taken out by teams of divers guiding them through the dark, waterlogged caves. Divers began giving the boys, some of whom cannot swim, a crash course in using underwater breathing apparatus.

Eight boys have now been rescued

On Sunday a team of 13 expert divers and five Thai Navy SEALS brought the first four boys safely out of the caves.

The rescuers then worked to replenish oxygen canisters and tighten the ropes they installed along the caves to guide the divers and their charges out through the dark submerged passages, before going back to save the others.

Four more boys were reportedly bought out today, with witnesses saying they were loaded on to ambulances. Four more boys and the coach are still in the cave, with heavy rain due in the next few days.

One of the biggest challenges in the mission is the management of oxygen supplies. The youngsters are stuck two and a half miles in to the four mile cave system – a journey that takes experienced divers five hours to make. A rescue base has been established in a chamber one mile from the boys.

On Friday, a former Thai navy diver died returning from a mission to deliver oxygen to the group. Saman Gunan delivered the tanks but lost consciousness on the return trip and had to be dragged out by his dive partner.

Musk’s rescue pods could be used in space

Musk has assured his Twitter followers that, if used, his pod will fit comfortably through the underwater cave system, which has a choke point where the tunnel narrows to just 38 centimetres and tilts sharply upwards.

He said an inflatable replica would be used for a test run, so as not to block the escape route if it got stuck. He added that a submarine 30 centimetre smaller than the first was also nearly complete.

“The smaller sub will be more convenient for even harder to reach areas, but the base one should be able to squeeze in too,” he tweeted.

“Smaller one will be even cooler, but the base sub is still formidable.”

Musk has suggested the technology his engineers have devised for the rescue could also be used as an escape pod for space missions.

With SpaceX, he already has plans to send manned missions to Mars by 2020. Earlier this year he sent his own Tesla sports car into orbit on the “world’s most powerful” rocket, the Falcon Heavy.

The post Elon Musk sends SpaceX technology to aid Thai cave rescue appeared first on Dezeen.

Architect Jeanne Gang has closed the gender pay gap at her firm Studio Gang, and called for others to follow suit and “fix pay inequity now”.

Gang revealed that after looking into the issue, she found that male employees in her firm were paid a small margin more than their female counterparts.

The architect therefore moved to resolve the differences through pay rises this year.

In an article written for Fast Company – titled Architecture’s great injustice, according to Jeanne Gang – she explained that she was prompted to reassess the salaries of Studio Gang employees as part of a major push to improve gender equality and women’s recognition.

This drive encompasses events and movements including International Women’s Day, global marches and #MeToo. Dezeen also launched an initiative called Move the Needle to help encourage diversity in the architecture and design industry, in line with this shift.

Gang calls on architecture and design offices to fix pay inequity

Gang is now calling on other architecture and design offices to do the same, describing it as the most “tangible” way to create parity in the workplace.

“We can start by looking to the fundamental issue of respect in the workplace — pay,” said Gang in the article. “Unlike other measures of value, pay is a number. It’s tangible and objective.”

“Achieving pay equity is a foundational act of building an environment in which creativity can flourish,” she continued.

“Taking the first step toward equality via pay empowers us to move forward, together, to address the more complex challenges that await. Follow the money (or lack thereof), and fix pay inequity now.”

Major firms including Foster + Partners move to close gender pay gap

Studio Gang has 100 employees across its Chicago, New York and San Francisco offices. Four of its 10 principals, including Gang, are female – a markedly better ratio than the one found by a Dezeen survey of the world’s 100 biggest architecture firms, which revealed a “quite shocking” lack of gender diversity at senior levels.

Of Studio Gang’s 12 directors, five are women, while 35 of the 78 other team members are female.

Gang used a calculator created by the UK’s Government Equalities Office, which takes into account “incremental differences” like bonuses, to assess the equality of wages at her firm.

Dezeen also developed a calculator to measure the mean gender pay gap of salaries at architecture and design firms, as part of Move the Needle. Both Foster + Partners and Boogertman + Partners, Africa’s largest architecture practice, promised to tackle the gap at their firms after using the tool.

Gang joins wave of female architects pushing for gender equality

Gang’s move forms part of a major push to improve gender equality in the profession by boosting support for women in the field. She joins a host of female architects that are campaigning for equal rights in their profession, and attended a flash mob held at the Venice Architecture Biennale earlier this year that called for gender equality.

Others who have spoken publicly about the need to improve the numbers of women in the profession in comparison to men include Elizabeth Diller, who highlighted problems in the poor university-to-workplace ratio among women, and Billie Tsien, who called for better childcare provisions to help improve gender parity.

Architect and filmmaker Beverly Willis also recently released a new movie that aims to raise awareness of the women who have built projects in New York City.

Gang is among the female architects who are making waves in the city. Her firm – which she founded in 1997 – is currently developing a tower that will hug the High Line and recently revealed plans for a scalloped concrete condo tower for Brooklyn that follows a trend for non-glass skyscrapers in New York.

Last week, Studio Gang unveiled a proposal for a Toronto skyscraper made up of stretched hexagonal volumes, which would be its first project for Canada.

Portrait of Jeanne Gang is courtesy of Studio Gang.

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