'The Stomp' Dance Banned To Dance Floors (1963)

‘The Stomp’ dance banned to protect buildings (1963)..(Read…)

IKEA upcycles furniture into colourful Wildhomes for Wildlife

IKEA Wildhomes for Wildlife

IKEA worked with UK artists and designers to create this series of animal habitats, repurposed from the company’s used furniture.

Architects Studio Weave and designer Adam Nathaniel Furman are among the creatives to have contributed installations to the Wildhomes for Wildlife project, which has seen IKEA products transformed into insect towers, bat shelters and bird boxes.

IKEA Wildhomes for Wildlife
Dom by Supermundane is a colourful birdhouse made from IKEA’s Industriell shelving units

The project was masterminded by IKEA’s creative partner, the advertising agency Mother, to promote the opening of IKEA Greenwich — its “most sustainable store”, according to the Swedish company.

“Now all of our new neighbours can enjoy an amazing home,” said IKEA. “Even our furry, feathered and flying friends.”

IKEA Wildhomes for Wildlife
Fladdermösshus by Studio Weave is an alternative bat house with a very different aesthetic

Bold Memphis-style shapes and colours recur among the designs, including Furman‘s Bughattan, a totem pole-like tower with holes cut into it that invite bees and wasps to stop and rest. Furman created it from IKEA Eckbacken and Hammarp worktops.

Other bright creations come from graphic artist Supermundane. His Dom bird house and Pipi bat house are both colourful collages cut from Industriell shelving units.

IKEA Wildhomes for Wildlife
Honey I’m Home! by artist Hattie Newman is a home for bees built from IKEA’s Burvik side tables

Pipi has roughened surfaces on the inside to help the bats get a good grip for roosting, while Dom has a nesting box that can only be accessed by small birds like blue tits.

Architect Je Ahn, the co-founder of Studio Weave, contributed a more austere bat house design in the form of Fladdermösshus. Hanging stalactite-like from tree boughs, the structures are made from Kvistbro metal tables and are painted black to create extra warmth.

IKEA Wildhomes for Wildlife
Månstråle House by designers Beep Studio is a nesting pod for birds made from old Stråla lamp stands

Other participating architects were Sash Scott and Tamsin Hanke, who created the freestanding Hachi House, “an eye-catching bee house fit for a queen”, from Industriell and Verberod benches.

Månstråle House by designers Beep Studio is a more organic-looking design with old Stråla lamp stands repurposed into nesting pods for birds, while Honey I’m Home! by artist Hattie Newman is a “Brazilian-style” bee village that was once Burvik side tables.

IKEA Wildhomes for Wildlife
Supermundane also completed the Pipi bat house with a brightly coloured aesthetic

Leftover cladding from the Greenwich store also makes it into one of the installations, The Bug Bed by designer Iain Talbot, where it is combined with old IKEA chairs and filled with Thanet Sand to attract insects to nest.

IKEA and Mother have worked together since 2010, creating the “Wonderful Everyday” campaign as well as a recent rubbish-clearing boat.

IKEA Wildhomes for Wildlife
The Bug Bud by Iain Talbot is an insect “hotel” made from cladding from the Greenwich store

For its latest store in Greenwich, which opened on 7 February, IKEA has continued the sustainability push it has become known for in recent years, with green technologies such as solar panels, rainwater harvesting, geothermal heating and 100 per cent LED lighting.

It also offers a community garden, bike courier services and lifestyle workshops.

IKEA Wildhomes for Wildlife
Bughattan by Adam Nathaniel Furman invites bees and wasps to rest

However, Dezeen deputy editor Tom Ravenscroft has criticised the store’s sustainable credentials, since its construction required the demolition of another green building, the Sainsbury’s Greenwich, just 17 years after its opening.

The post IKEA upcycles furniture into colourful Wildhomes for Wildlife appeared first on Dezeen.

Rolex Reveals 2019 Watch Collection

Rolex just unveiled its 2019 collection at the Baselworld watch fair in Switzerland. One announcement that will have a lot of fans talking is the new version of the ‘Batman’ GMT-Master II ($9,250), which gets updated with a Jubilee bracelet and an all-new caliber 3285 movement with a 70-hour power reserve. Other notable releases include a new white gold Yacht-Master ($27,800) with a 42mm case and a steel and gold Sea-Dweller ($16,050). Both of those watches will make use of Rolex’s new caliber 3235 movements…(Read…)

West-Line Studio creates bamboo-clad gateway to Chinese national park

Zhuhai National Park Gateway in Guizhou, China, by West-Line Studio

A zigzag elevated walkway and a pavilion wrapped in bamboo  by West-Line Studio in the province of Guizhou, China, has been revealed in new photos.

The Zhuhai National Park Gateway marks the entrance to an area covering 10,000 hectares around 25 miles from Chishui City, which is a popular tourist destination due to the presence of the famous “Bamboo Sea”.

Zhuhai National Park Gateway in Guizhou, China, by West-Line Studio

The building, which was completed in 2016, is one of several landscaping and architectural interventions made by the local cultural and tourism department to immerse visitors in the bamboo forest.

The main agenda for West-Line Studio‘s project was to respect the forest by limiting its physical impact on the landscape and making use of local technologies and sustainable materials.

Zhuhai National Park Gateway in Guizhou, China, by West-Line Studio

The programme includes the main entrance, a smaller tea pavilion, and a network of boardwalks that covers a total built area of just 514 square metres within the 22,000-square-metre landscaped zone. Beyond the gateway, the path extends upwards to the tea pavilion and onto the forested mountainside.

The centrepiece of the project is the entrance pavilion, which features a floor plan formed by four intersecting curved walls. The building’s concrete structure is wrapped in lengths of bamboo that help it to merge with its surroundings.

Zhuhai National Park Gateway in Guizhou, China, by West-Line Studio

“The park’s main entrance is designed as a dense assembly of vertical lines,” said the Guiyang-based studio. “The idea was to create, in the middle of the forest, a denser cluster, which can be randomly intercepted in the bamboo sea.”

The choice of materials used throughout the project and the way they are treated responds to the climatic conditions in the region, where sun, fog, rain, wind and snow directly affect the perception and performance of the building.

Zhuhai National Park Gateway in Guizhou, China, by West-Line Studio

High levels of humidity meant that the bamboo poles had to be steamed to remove natural oils that would otherwise cause them to decay.

Local equipment only permitted sections with a maximum length of six metres to be treated in this way, so the bamboo was cut into pieces measuring 5.5 metres that are fixed together to achieve the length required to cover the facades.

The architects developed a system for fixing the poles together using custom-made galvanised metal joints, which also allows them to be dismantled and reused or recycled in the future.

Other materials used in the project include flooring consisting of planks of anticorrosive bamboo plywood, and railings of rustproof blackened metal.

Zhuhai National Park Gateway in Guizhou, China, by West-Line Studio

The building and the network of walkways are raised above the landscape on a structure made from red fair-faced concrete to help minimise their lasting impact on the natural ecosystem.

“The two buildings and the boardwalk system are constructed to maximise the protection of the local natural environment,” the studio added. “Tourists can appreciate the unique characteristics of the bamboo sea without damaging the forest.”

Zhuhai National Park Gateway in Guizhou, China, by West-Line Studio

The walkway leading to the entrance pavilion zigzags over a large pond that was created by lining an existing pit with cow dung and soil to prevent the water seeping away.

Water evaporating from the pond’s surface creates a fog in the early morning or evening, and during winter or rainy days. This natural phenomenon heightens the effect of the architecture blending with the surrounding environment.

China’s Zhejiang Province landscape firm Turenscape created a network of meandering pathways connected by bridges at a wetland park at the mouth of three rivers, while in Shenzhen MLA+ connected the Xiangmi Science Library to a park with an elevated walkway.

The post West-Line Studio creates bamboo-clad gateway to Chinese national park appeared first on Dezeen.

Dyson’s latest lamp uses algorithms to exactly reproduce sunlight

Known for creating some of the most technically sound products in the world, Dyson has extended their signature level of engineering to lighting too with the LightCycle, a lamp that A. is designed to near perfectly mimic natural sunlight, B. has the ability to automatically adjust its lighting temperature based on ambient light or time of day, and C. last for as long as 60 years, which is practically a decade shorter than the human average life expectancy! This is Dyson’s LightCycle, and it was unveiled at Dyson’s global event today.

Research has shown that your body clock and your circadian rhythm, which help regulate your sleep, are tied to the cycles of natural light. The Dyson helps recreate that light cycle indoors. The lamp is powered by Dyson’s proprietary algorithm that mixes three cool LED lights and three warm LED lights to replicate the natural light of any GPS location on the planet during a specific time of day and year. Operated using Dyson’s LightCycle app, the lamp analyzes your GPS location and the time of the day to create a light that is unique to your exact region. The algorithm will even account for your latitude, giving you the exact frequency and color-temperature of sunlight based on the time of the year and whether you’re closer to the equator or to the poles.

The lamp can be activated using a touch-sensitive control panel right above the bulb, and even allows you to slide to dim or brighten the light (when not used in the ambient mode). A button along the bottom allows you to enter ambient mode that allows the LightCycle to change lighting temperatures based on the natural light it finds in the room. But wait, there’s more! Dyson’s lamp even comes with the ability to adjust lighting according to your age! With a function available in the app, you can get the LightCycle to adjust brightness based on your age, letting the light shine brighter for older people, and dimmer for younger people.

The lamp, with a lifespan of 60 years, features a level of engineering (or over-engineering as some may say) that is usually expected of Dyson. Designed with an ingenious heat sink mechanism to pull heat away from the LEDs so they don’t degrade, the lamp can practically last you your entire life, which means you can use the Dyson LightCycle all the way from your childhood till you’re a senior citizen… I suppose that age-based brightness feature would come in handy now.

Designer: Dyson

YD Talks: With ‘Sam Does Design’ about designing The Weight lamp for Gantri

Sam Gwilt started his fledgling YouTube channel to capture his journey as a designer. Over time, that YouTube channel helped build a community that, along with Sam, ‘does design’. Sam’s channel ‘Sam Does Design’ is host to a lot of videos, from sketching and rendering tutorials, to Q&A’s to even portfolio reviews, and has helped Sam build a strong audience/community of designers and design students. Sam recently designed a lamp, titled The Weight, for Gantri, an online studio that partners with designers to create modern-day lighting designs exclusively using 3D printing. The Weight plays on the word ‘light’ and creates a visual contrast by being the opposite… heavy. Designed to look like an orb that weighs down on a platform, causing it to visually deform, The Weight is entirely 3D printed (and is actually quite lightweight). Its soft design (and soft lighting) instantly adds a touch of playfulness to a room while also lighting it up with a soft glow.

We got a chance to sit down with Sam and talk to him about The Weight, the design process behind it, his YouTube channel, and got him to share some portfolio tips with us. We even asked him about the can of San Pellegrino that went viral on his Instagram page!

Yanko Design: Hi Sam! Tell us about yourself and how you came to ‘do design’
Sam Gwilt: “Hey I’m Sam and I do design!” I’ve been interested in design for as long as I can remember. One side of my family are engineers, the other side artists, so I’ve always had a deep appreciation for both disciplines. Luckily for me, there was a technology college close to my childhood home. That was where my first lessons in design were taught, which laid the foundations for my career without me even knowing.
I studied industrial design at Brunel University London where, alongside my studies, I gained two years of industry experience. That was how I managed to get my foot in the door and secured my current job at Precipice Design. I also worked with Made in Brunel as a Social Media Manager. I was part of the student-led programme that connects students with industry and organises the design events throughout the year. I used the skills I learned there to help run Sam Does Design, which in turn helps to teach others.

YD: You recently designed a lamp in partnership with Gantri. Do tell us more about the ‘Weight Lamp’.
SG: Weight is an ambient light with a 360-degree glow. It was designed specifically for 3D printing and is made from a corn-based polymer. I wanted to play with the concept of weight and mass; how heavy could I make light seem? The 3D printing process means that plastic becomes molten as the product is made, and I wanted to capture that aspect of the process. The intention was to make the final form seem soft and malleable. The sphere appears to have fallen onto the base and has deformed the shape, where it now seems suspended in time.

YD: How did this collaboration with Gantri come about?
SG: I posted a separate concept design to my Instagram page, and I saw a comment that said: “this looks like a design for Gantri”. That was the first time I’d heard about them, so I checked out their website and was really impressed by their process and existing designs, and eager to find out if there was a way I could work with them. I reached out to see if they were looking for new designers and the stars must have aligned because the timing was perfect. After chatting with the team at Gantri, I began working on the concept about a month later.

YD: So, what was the design brief? And how long did it take to go from idea to final product?
SG: The brief was refreshingly open to interpretation. Gantri has an amazing in-house design and engineering team but the big-picture concept and specific scenario were up to me to define. I presented three completely different concept routes that I thought could be interesting, and we decided to develop the strongest one based on how easy it was for potential customers to understand the concept at first glance. It was important for the product to be understood without needing to be explained with any sales copy. I had ideas that explored aspects other than weight but still kept surface and material exploration as a theme, and I hope to revisit those designs in the future. I’d love to work with Gantri again: their streamlined design process and fast prototype turnaround meant that from concept to sale took around three months.

YD: The Weight lamp is designed specifically for 3D printing. How different is that from designing for injection or blow molding?
SG: No draft angles! The geometric design lends itself to 3D printing as nothing needs to be de-moulded. That meant that all sides could be geometrically perfect. The flip side is not being able to print past 45 degrees due to printer constraints, but some clever engineering and internal structures meant that the cylinder base prints perfectly every time. Another benefit was working on the whole product without the need for split lines or multiple parts. It’s a sad moment when a split line needs to interrupt a nice clean surface due to pesky manufacturing constraints. Creating the part for 3D printing meant that wasn’t an issue.

YD: If you had to list a couple of design references for the Weight, what would they be?
SG: I loved the idea of mixing genres of design using technology as an enabler. I wanted Weight to be minimal and contemporary but fun and whimsical. The base and sphere reflect many different styles and also pay homage to past designs: the Memphis Bay lamp and Wilhelm Wagenfeld’s Bauhaus Lamp to name a couple.

YD: Any designers you particularly look up to?
SG: I got my first taste of lighting design at Paul Cocksedge Studio during my time at university. I helped develop the designs and travelled the world building the installations. The hours were long and intensive, but I’m grateful for the inspiration and experience. Coming from a particularly engineering-based university, it was freeing to be immersed in an environment where nothing had been tried and tested before. We were the first and only team ever to produce the manufacturing methods for Paul’s pieces.
There are other designers that I’ve had the pleasure of working with both in the industry and at university that inspire me greatly. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met a creative that doesn’t inspire me in one way or another.

YD: Tell us a little bit about Sam Does Design. Do you ever think about pursuing it full time?
SG: I love that Sam Does Design as a channel is giving back to the community that I’ve learned so much from. I originally started the page to post daily sketches and asked for constructive feedback from the wider design circle. Eventually, I began to notice that people were asking me how I achieved certain things within the world of design, and I began to make the switch to share the knowledge I’d gained. It’s still funny to me that the tiny decision to make an Instagram when I was bored three years ago is having such an effect on my life now. If I thought that it would go anywhere as a career, I would have chosen a better name!
In terms of going full time, I’m so happy at my current day job as a consultant at Precipice. I’ve worked on a variety of amazing projects alongside a multidisciplinary team. Being surrounded by such talented people has helped me grow as a person and designer.

YD: You recently began doing portfolio reviews. Could you give our readers a few quick pointers?
SG: Quick tips: Tell a story. Your portfolio isn’t a siloed list of your skills, it’s an advert for your thought process. Only show your best work. Only show the work relevant to the job you’re applying for. Each portfolio should be tailored to the company. Show work you love doing along with work you want to do more of. Sell your project to me with in-context hero images; I won’t read anything you put in a paragraph.

YD: Any upcoming projects you’d like to talk about? What’s cooking!?
SG: I’m working on some amazing projects at Precipice that I’m unfortunately not allowed to talk about. The Sam Does Design projects coming up include multidisciplinary collaborations across the design world, branching out from industrial and product design. I’m hoping to share a more in-depth process through various collaborations and formats. I’m very excited about how one, in particular, is panning out. Watch this space! “Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, hit the bell button and everything else that YouTube asks you to do!”

YD: Lastly, what ever happened to that can of San Pellegrino?! (Sam managed to capture a stray can of San Pellegrino Limon and turn it viral on his Instagram page. I’m surprised the can doesn’t have its own Instagram profile yet.)
SG: The San Pel can that was stuck above the glass elevator for 6 months lives on in our thoughts! A lucky maintenance worker drank it and I caught them on my Instagram Stories. I honestly still think about it every time I have a can, which is more often than I’d like to admit.

Visit Sam Gwilt’s Website or his YouTube Channel for his work/vlogs. Click Here to visit Gantri’s Webstore to buy The Weight.

Polish modernist Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak is celebrated in Manhattan retrospective

Patchwork exhibit by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak

A scale model of a concrete housing complex features alongside architectural photography in this New York exhibition, detailing the works of Polish modernist architect Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak. 

Patchwork: The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak is currently on show at the American Institute of Architects‘ (AIA) Center for Architecture in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.

Patchwork exhibit by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak
Photographs, models and images feature in the exhibit at the American Institute of Architects’ Center for Architecture, also pictured top

AIA‘s New York outpost organised the retrospective in collaboration with curators Michał Duda and Małgorzata Devosges-Cuber of the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław.

It marks the first comprehensive presentation of the work produced by the late architect, who is billed as “one of the most important Polish architects of the 20th century”, outside of Poland.

Photographs, models and images in the exhibit detail Grabowska-Hawrylak’s lengthy career, with projects ranging from 1954 to 1993.

Patchwork exhibit by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak
Building models top a table at the centre of the space

Among her accomplishments include a slew of housing estates and schools, built across Poland. She was also a key participant in rebuilding Wrocław after it severely destroyed in the second world war.

“From her participation in Wrocław’s post-war reconstruction in the 1950s, to her modernist designs of the 1960s and 70s, and the postmodern aesthetic adopted in her later work in the 80s and 90s, Grabowska-Hawrylak’s career reflects the changing politics and culture of Poland,” said a description from the exhibit.

Patchwork exhibit by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak
Drawers underneath are filled with additional information, plans and diagrams

Patchwork spans two levels at AIA‘s centre in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. At the entrance, a central room is wrapped with digital screens that display buildings by Grabowska-Hawrylak.

Anchoring the space is a table topped with dozens of building models. Drawers underneath the table pull out to reveal additional information, as well as plans and diagrams.

Patchwork exhibit by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak
A focal point of the exhibit is a scale model of the Grunwaldzki Square housing complex

A focal point of the exhibit is a scale model of the Grunwaldzki Square housing complex, which she completed in Wrocław in 1973.

The complex is one of Grabowska-Hawrylak’s best-known works. It led to her becoming the first woman to be awarded the most prestigious architecture prize in Poland, the Honorary Award from the Association of Polish Architects (SARP), in 1974.

In the exhibition, the replica details one of the project’s many towers, based on prefabricated concrete volumes with curved patios.

The development – commonly referred is referred to as “Manhattan” in Wrocław, or sedesowce – was, however, originally designed to be white. This never transpired and, as a result, has been associated with the brutalist architectural style, much to Grabowska-Hawrylak’s misgivings.

Patchwork exhibit by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak
Rising two floors, the scale replica details one of the project’s many towers

“These buildings are considered one of the best examples of brutalism in Poland, but Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak hated brutalism,” curator Duda told Dezeen at the exhibit’s opening on 28 February 2019.

“She just wanted it to be sleek and smooth,” he continued. “That concrete was designed as a white concrete, and covered in plants.”

Patchwork exhibit by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak
Completed in 1973, Grabowska-Hawrylak’s complex rises in Grunwaldzki Square. Photograph by Stefan Arczyński, courtesy of Poland National Digital Archive

In recent years, the complex has been painted white to honour the architect’s initial design.

Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak was born on 29 October 1920 in Tarnawce, and studied architecture in Wrocław. Another of her key works is the Millenium Memorial Church of the Wrocław Diocese, which features a large gabled brick structure topped with a minimal, angular frame.

Patchwork exhibit by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak
Works are also depicted in photographs, like this image of a woman shading herself on a patio at the housing complex. Photograph by Chris Niedenthal

The exhibit is titled Patchwork because Grabowska-Hawrylak moved onto quilts after decades spent practising as an architect. When Duda met with her to discuss the exhibit, she dismissed the idea of it focusing solely on her architecture.

Patchwork was initially displayed at the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, and the inaugural show featured her quiltwork alongside her buildings.

Patchwork exhibit by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak
This image captures the numerous curved moments that define “Manhattan”. Photograph by Chris Niedenthal

Duda has also written a book, titled the name of the exhibition, that outlines the story of Grabowska-Hawrylak as well as Wrocław.

“We have a very strong and long tradition of women architects (in Poland), but all of these ladies were very close with cooperating with male architect husbands,” Duda said. “Jadwiga was an exception; she did it all on her own.”

Patchwork exhibit by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak
Grabowska-Hawrylak ‘s other key projects include the Millenium Church, featuring brick structure with square windows. Photograph by Jakub Certowicz

“Unfortunately, Jadwiga passed away last year (in 2018), and you cannot imagine how proud she would be if she could be here,” Duda concluded.

Patchwork is on display at AIA’s Center for Architecture in Greenwich Village from 28 February until 18 May 2019.

Photography is by Anna Morgowicz, unless stated otherwise. Images courtesy of the AIA and the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław

The post Polish modernist Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak is celebrated in Manhattan retrospective appeared first on Dezeen.

The MovinGenius envisions a future where there’s a special world wide web for cars

In Mohammad Ghezel’s vision of the future, vehicles communicate with each other, with the road and all the traffic elements on it, and even with a Traffic Center that’s dubbed as the WWVW, or the World Wide Vehicle Web. This allows the vehicles in Ghezel’s vision to avoid bumpy rides, collisions, and even traffic jams, as the cars employ an Anti-Collide System, where millions of cars can swarm together and drive right by each other without any impact. Since everything is in constant communication with a central web just for vehicles, they find their paths with sheer convenience, circumventing past other cars and avoiding gridlocks.

In this future of convenient conveyance, Ghezel’s also designed a smart-car that drives autonomously while also giving you the ability to sit behind the wheel and control it. Titled the MovinGenius, the automobile is absolutely state-of-the-art. Powered entirely by 6 flexible solar panels that sit on the roof of the vehicle, the MovinGenius operates entirely on clean energy that powers its zero-emissions electric motor. On the sides, the MovinGenius is clad with a smart-glass that can go from transparent to highly-tinted in a matter of seconds with the flip of a button. This transition enables riders within the MovinGenius to alternate between an open or a fully-private car experience. The MovinGenius comes armed with two gullwing doors that allow drivers and passengers to board the vehicle. There’s space for 5 people, including an optional driver, who can take reins of the vehicle whenever needed. The seats inside the MovinGenius are fully adjustable too, moving forwards, backwards, and even side to side to give you the seating experience you desire. Seats can even rotate 360° to give you any sort of layout you’re looking for, and the glass has the ability to transform into an interactive smart screen, displaying media directly on the glass itself.

Here’s a look at MovinGenius’s specifications:

• Adds new experiences to its database so it can decide progressively better and faster (machine learning)
• Knows the speed and location of approaching vehicles.
• Can see the vehicles that you can’t see.
• Knows road conditions that you don’t know.
• Mimicking grasshopper Anti-Collide System (millions of them swarm without any collision) avoids collisions.
• Pre-Scanning the road for potholes, bumps and etc. to drive more smoothly.
• IoE, Internet of Everything; all connected devices and data are available anytime.
• Ultrasonic Sensor on Wheels to Measure Velocity and Proximity of nearby Objects
• Pedestrian Detection | Blind Spot Detection | Night Vision | Safe Speed – Lane Change Assistant | Side Impact Alert | Cross Traffic Alert | Foresighted Driving | Safe Following | Adaptive Cruise Control
• Improve urban air quality with Smarter Transportation
• Transform Vehicles to totally Connected Machines
• Call your Vehicle from everywhere at anytime
• 6 Wheels | 4+1 VIP Passengers
• 6 Flexible 110W | 18.5V Solar Panels

Designer: Mohammad Ghezel

This article was sent to us using the ‘Submit A Design’ feature.
We encourage designers/students/studios to send in their projects to be featured on Yanko Design!

Dror Benshetrit is Joining We Company as Co-Founder of New Smart Cities Initiative

After recently expanding into co-living with WeLive and education with WeGrow, the We Company—formerly known as WeWork—has announced it will also be launching a smart cities program, led by former Waze executive Di-Ann Eisnor and designer, futurist and former Core77 Design Awards Jury Captain Dror Benshetrit.

Together the two will “build a team of engineers, architects, data scientists, and biologists who will work to fuse nature, design, technology, and community in our cities in order to measurably improve the lives of citizens,” Benshetrit told us in an email announcement. This work will be a natural extension of the ideas-driven projects he’s pursued with Studio Dror over the years, which include the design of an island in Turkey, a masterplan of the first self-driving car neighborhood in Canada, an art installation that recreates the feeling of standing on the moon, and a new lightbulb concept, to name just a few.

Studio Dror’s 2012 Havvada Island in Turkey

Studio Dror’s proposal for Holland Park in New York City

This news comes just a few months after Benshetrit launched a new practice, SUPERNATURE Labs, with a focus on creating structures that collaborate with nature. “One of the biggest problems that I see in architecture today is the fact that it’s either urban or natural,” he explained in an interview last year. “What we set out to do with this practice is to work on new ways architectural systems can incorporate soil and nature within them and allow for people and vegetation.” The idea behind the practice is to act as a catalyzing agent. Benshetrit envisions local teams of people forming Supernature Labs around the world and using their local and collective knowledge to begin addressing problems of globalization and climate change in our cities.

Studio Dror’s Montreal Dome on île Sainte-Héléne

Studio Dror’s proposal for Parque de la Innovación in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Since launching in 2010, We has collected an enormous amount of data on how people work and live, using that information to shape its more than 600 spaces. Not only has the company recently expanded its co-working offices with co-living spaces, schools, and wellness centers, in the past two years it has also acquired an extensive portfolio of software companies. In 2017, We bought Meetup, a platform for getting groups together—and along with it over 18-years worth of data. In 2018 We acquired Teem, a workplace analytics company that measures how workers use conference rooms and already this year it acquired Euclid, a startup that maps how people move through physical spaces.

The $47 billion company will use the spatial data and tools drawn from these acquisitions as it strives to develop a smart city. As others have noted, We occupies an interesting space to tackle this project, as a technology-driven real estate company ready to bring together design, construction, data, security, and customer experience expertise to keep cities and people connected. It will be interesting to see how Benshetrit pushes this agenda through his more holistic approach. “Creativity has tremendous power of solving the world’s biggest problems,” he notes. But “a lot of time we’re looking more at data and analyzing data and studying a certain pattern; sometimes those are not necessarily the only places to look at.”

Daniel Libeskind designs angular archeology museum for northern Chile

Museo Regional de Tarapaca by Studio Libeskind

Daniel Libeskind’s architecture firm has revealed plans for a museum in Iquique, Chile, featuring jagged, earthy concrete walls that are intended to evoke “the stark landscape of the Atacama Desert”.

Studio Libeskind has designed the structure to replace the Museo Regional de Tarapacá (MAR) – which translates as Regional Museum of Iquique – in the northern Chilean port city of Iquique.

Comprising angular volumes and a red-toned concrete facade, the museum is designed to draw on the local landscapes, including the Atacama Desert. East of Iquique and one of the driest places in the world, the desert plateau covers 1000 kilometres of land along the Pacific coast, with the Andes mountains further inland.

Museo Regional de Tarapaca by Studio Libeskind

“The inspiration for the design entitled ‘El Dragon de Tarapacá’ came from the stark landscape of the Atacama Desert, the giant cliffs and the urban dune of Iquique, the ‘Cerro Dragon’,” said Studio Libeskind in a project statement.

“Every volume references the surrounding landscape — dune, mountain, desert, ocean,” studio founder Daniel Libeskind added. “The result is a silent musical composition in proportion, materiality, and light.”

Renderings of the structure show it comprises huge slanted walls that enclose a glazed volume. “It consists of three pairs of parallel vertical walls shaping the major spaces of the museum,” said the studio.

Locally sourced materials, such as earth-coloured concrete and hardwood timber flooring, are to be used in the construction of the museum to “reference the palette and textures of the surrounding natural landscape”.

Set to be built along the city’s main boulevard, Avenida La Tirana, the 3,760-square-metre building will allow for a larger showcase of the existing Museo Regional de Tarapacá, which was completed in 1892 and is too small for the museum’s vast collection.

Works on show will cover more than 6,000 years of history of northern Chile – including pre-Hispanic history of the Atacama Desert, the colonial history of Chile, its mining years and the present day.

Displayed in the museum are notable archaeological remains discovered in Iquique’s Cerro Esmeralda (Emerald Hill), a coastal mountain range of the Andes. Many artefacts are also from the Chinchorro, Pica, Tarapacá and Inca cultures.

Currently, the existing museum can only display approximately 20 per cent of the collection.

Museo Regional de Tarapaca by Studio Libeskind

In Libeskind’s scheme, these artefacts will be shown in exhibition spaces that span two levels and run along the length of the building. At one end, an area is proposed to feature a mirror wall to reflect the surrounding cliffs and dunes.

Additional areas include a cafe that is set to overlook the coastline to the south, with spaces intended for education and events below.

Chile’s new Museo Regional de Tarapacá is slated to break ground in early 2020.

Studio Libeskind has designed a similarly slanted cultural building in Canada: the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa.

Meanwhile, in 2001, Libeskind’s preference for leaning walls was presented in his design for the Serpentine Pavilion in London, at the city’s Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park.

Daniel Libeskind is a Jewish Polish-American architect, who founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife Nina.

The firm, which has offices in New York and Zurich, has completed a handful of other museums, including the Jewish Museum Berlin and accompanying education centre, the MO Museum in Lithuania, and the Museum of Military History in Dresden.

In July 2018, Studio Libeskind unveiled a museum in China, which is the firm’s first project in the country.

Renderings are by Studio Libeskind.

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