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A lamp with counterweight that could be an art installation

We love it when a domestic, functional product boarders on becoming a sculptural piece of art that’s on display within the home. This is precisely the case with the Node Lamp, which carries an intriguing and alluring aesthetic that grabs the attention of passers-by, without compromising on its core functionality.

Designed for use on a desk, Node features a rigorous design that floods the workspace with light; it can be manipulated in a series of directions so the light can be targeted exactly where you desire, whilst the intensity of the light is altered by rotating the head. This is a beautiful addition to the lamp.

Node’s body is constructed from an aluminum tube, which has been paired with cast iron rod that acts as a counterweight. This incredible, sculpture-like desk lamp is certainly a beautiful alternative to the humble desk lamp!

Designer: Max Voytenko

Delta Light celebrates its 30th anniversary with new lighting bible

The Lighting Bible Anniversary Edition by Delta Light

Dezeen promotion: Delta Light has released The Lighting Bible Anniversary Edition, showcasing its latest designs in celebration of its 30th anniversary.

First published in 1997, The Lighting Bible catalogue combines technical information with “inspiration” for professionals and end-users, alongside an overview of projects by Delta Light.

The anniversary edition of the catalogue features an updated front cover and more than 1,100 pages of new designs, technical innovations and project images.

The Lighting Bible Anniversary Edition by Delta Light
Delta Light’s latest lighting bible celebrates the brand’s 30th anniversary

“Over the years we have made it our mission to come up with new collections every year,” explained Jan Ameloot, managing director of Delta Light.

“We are in an industry that is constantly evolving. New materials and technologies enable us to push the boundaries, while at the same time new expectations and trends in architecture and design challenge us to come up with innovative solutions.”

The Lighting Bible Anniversary Edition by Delta Light
The Lass-Oh! lamp is included in The Lighting Bible

Some of Delta Light’s new ranges featured in the latest Lighting Bible include Lass-Oh!, Shiftline Matrix, Breess, Fragma, Needle, and Magnetic Curves.

Lass-Oh! is designed to resemble a snake, with a “slim cylindrical contour” that is available in four different shapes, finished in black or metallic gold.

Delta Light has placed LEDs inside its body to ensure low-glare and maximum eye-comfort, and thin suspension cables that “seem to disappear”.

The Lighting Bible Anniversary Edition by Delta Light
Fragma is also included in the book

Another new range, the Shiftline Matrix is intended to offer maximum flexibility, comprising a system of magnetic connections that enable users to create their own lighting arrangements within a space.

Like Lass-Oh!, the collection is available in black and gold, and these colours can also be teamed together to create contrasting finishes.

The Lighting Bible Anniversary Edition by Delta Light
The Lighting Bible Anniversary Edition has over 1100 pages and includes new designs

Breess is wall mounted light, designed to resemble the “poetic movement from sheets of paper, twirling in the wind”.

It is similar in size to an A4 paper sheet, available as either “portrait or landscape”, and has a matt white finish and hidden wall fixtures to look as though it is floating against the wall.

“All-round track” spotlight Fragma is designed by Delta Light for “high-demanding commercial environments”, and is designed for visual comfort.

It is characterised by a strong black casing, mounted on a support that enables the fixtures to be rotated and tilted. It is available in three different versions.

The Lighting Bible Anniversary Edition by Delta Light
One of the new featured collections called Breess is designed to look like paper

One of Delta Light’s more minimal designs featured in the catalogue is Needle, which takes the form of slim tubes that “carelessly” hang down and “peek around to throw a highlight wherever needed”.

Delta Light intends for it to be combined with multiple fixtures to create playful clusters, or for it to be used as a single light.

Finally, the new Magnetic Curves range was developed to adapt to “curvature shapes of modern architecture”, and comprises a series of linear and rounded mounts onto which different lighting modules can be magnetically attached.

The Lighting Bible Anniversary Edition by Delta Light
It also features its new Magnetic Curves range designed for modern buildings

Delta Light is international lighting brand, grown from a local family Belgian manufacturing business. It is also headline sponsor for Dezeen Awards for the second year in a row.

Other recent projects by the company include its first Italian showroom in Milan, intended to educate visitors on architectural lighting, as well as its Polesano street lamp designed in collaboration with Dean Skira.

Find out more about the lighting bible on the Delta Light website.

The post Delta Light celebrates its 30th anniversary with new lighting bible appeared first on Dezeen.

Assemble turns derelict New Orleans building into experimental fashion school

Materials Institute in New Orleans by Assemble

London studio Assemble has transformed an industrial property in New Orleans into a hub for the local community to learn fashion design and manufacturing.

Assemble designed the Materials Institute for creating and producing garments and textiles as part of an experimental arts school founded by the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania.

Materials Institute in New Orleans by Assemble
Photograph by Ester Choi

The studio has been involved with the New Orleans school since 2016. It proposed creating the Materials Insititute to offer local youth, aged between 14 to 30, a place to develop artistic practices.

“Material Institute is a place where students are able to express themselves in a creative and professional way, and are supported to gain financial independence through their craft,” Assemble’s Maria Lisogorskaya told Dezeen.

Materials Institute in New Orleans by Assemble
Photograph by Ester Choi

“The goal of the Institute is to provide space, tools and professional guidance to those who would not have access to these opportunities otherwise – communities for whom affordable enriching education has been lacking,” she added.

Teaching practices are intended to be experimental, drawing on the precedent of North Carolina’s Black Mountain College, which was founded in 1933. The school, whose teachers included Buckminster Fuller, focused on a holistic and unusual approach to education, including non-hierarchical methods and allowing students to chose when they graduated.

Materials Institute in New Orleans by Assemble
Photograph by Assemble

“Material Institute grows out of the incredible, unique and diverse heritage of craft, costuming and fashions of New Orleans, as well as progressive educational models such as Black Mountain College,” said Assemble’s Louis Schulz.

“The Institute’s programme is designed to encourage learning through hands-on experimentation in both traditional craft and high fashion,” she continued.

Materials Institute in New Orleans by Assemble

The project involved the overhaul of a former car mechanics garage in the southern city’s St Roch area, which is a 10-minute drive from the well-known French Quarter. The Embassy recording studio and 24 Carrot cooperate garden,  also founded by MONA, are nearby.

Assemble has kept finishes simple, including exposed concrete floors and white-painted walls and brickwork. These are contrasted by orange-hued exposed structural beams, and ceilings coloured mint, which forms part of the overall aesthetic to team the industrial and the tropical.

A key feature of the interiors is a series of openings defined by rugged edges, as if they were created during demolition. “The large windows were created by removing sections of existing cinder blocks, exposing the block edges behind slick panes of glass,” said Lisogorskaya.

For the furniture, Assemble designed and welded everything on site. A sewing room features bright orange chairs and chandelier prototypes dip-dyed in indigo.

Materials Institute in New Orleans by Assemble
Photograph by Assemble

The studio collaborated with local and global fashion and textile designers for the entire project, from its inception to the current state.

In addition to creating the physical space, Assemble also designed the pilot phase of the educational programme, which ran from November to December 2018. The founding curriculum includes pattern cutting, draping, design, textile experimentation, embellishment and textile printing, culminating in a fashion show on-site.

Materials Institute in New Orleans by Assemble

Assemble also specified all facilities – including sewing machines, a large dye sublimation printer and heat press, weaving loom and natural dye lab tools.

The programme is currently operating at an interim scale of a short 10-week programme. Plans are for the school to become a permanent institution for New Orleans.

Materials Institute in New Orleans by Assemble
Photograph by Assemble

Founded in 2010, Assemble has created a handful of projects in barren plots, such as turning two derelict houses into Liverpool’s Granby Winter Garden and designing Goldsmith’s art centre in London in a public bathhouse.

New Orleans is experiencing a growth in new designs, particularly hotels, including Ace Hotel New Orleans, Henry Howard, Eliza Jane and Drifter.

Photography is by Kelly Colley unless stated otherwise.


Project credits:

Contractors and consultants: Aimée Toledano, Serius Enterprises, The Embassy, Nola DDM, Terrisiah Ty Zakar, Tracy Dundas, Atelier Orleans, Extreme Powder Coating, Broad Glass, Batture Engineers, Paper Machine, House of Aama, Able Audio, Adjoa Armah, Claire Miller, Tysean Riles, Kim Folse
Collaborators: MONA, Big Chief Demond Melancon, Faustine Steinmetz, Kenneth Ize, Carola Jones, Kristine Pichon, Kai Bussant

The post Assemble turns derelict New Orleans building into experimental fashion school appeared first on Dezeen.

Take That's Greatest Hits tour features a 40-tonne digital sphere

Take That tour set design

A rotating 10-metre sphere is the centrepiece of the set for British pop group Take That’s current world tour, which was designed by Ray Winkler of Stufish.

Winkler – who has previously worked with acts including The Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2 and Beyoncé – designed a 40-tonne 3D sphere with a cut-out section, covered in 2,800 digital panels.

It displays a host of video content throughout the show, mimicking spherical objects including a human eye, a globe and a mechanical security camera.

Take That tour set design
The stage features a central sphere, a large oval stage deck and two smaller oval stages

“The critical success of this show is the perfect storm of video content and set three-dimensionality,” said Winkler, who is CEO and design director of Stufish, a London-based entertainment architecture studio founded by the late stage designer Mark Fisher.

“The audience is looking for something fresh that they can engage with,” he told Dezeen. “Video is usually presented as a flat surface. Very rarely do we turn it into a 3D object.”

Stage design based on Odyssey album cover

The architect worked closely with the band’s creative director Kim Gavin and band member Mark Owen, who wanted the set design to reflect the album cover of their 2018 album Odyssey, which features a cream sphere with a segment cut out.

“Mark Owen wanted the stage to represent the Odyssey album logo, which we tried to emulate within the constraints of an actual set piece that needed to tour. We had the challenge of turning it into a tourable item,” Winkler told Dezeen.

“It needed to satisfy all of the creative needs that the band and creative director Kim Gavin had in terms of choreographing the show, building the drama and the suspense,” he explained.

Take That tour set design
The sphere is covered in 2,800 digital panels that display an ever-changing series of images

Described by Winkler as “very clean and very simple”, the stage features a large oval stage deck and two smaller oval stages on either side for the band’s musicians, as well as the central sphere that “looks like a mirror ball”.

It rotates 360 degrees using a slew ring, a giant electric motor-powered cog, and the same technology used to operate and turn tower cranes.

A 60-metre-long digital screen stretches across the back of the stage behind the sphere.

Take That tour set design
3D digital models of the stage design were built on modelling software Rhino

“The band wanted something different to what they’d done before,” said Winkler.

Complete with trap doors, lifts and revolving staircases, the sphere’s cut-out segment displays Take That’s logo – a vertically mirrored double “T” emblem, as well as containing a stage area for parts of the show.

Set built from eight separate sections

With over 50 dates across Europe, the Greatest Hits tour, which kicked off last month, is designed for 15- to 20,000 capacity arenas.

Keeping the band involved at every level of the design process, Winkler and his team built 3D digital-models of the stage design on modelling software Rhino.

This was presented to the band using VR headsets, which – using VR software Vive – allowed them to navigate around the space, “from the middle of the front row to the seats at the very back of the arena”.

Take That tour set design
The sphere displays a host of video content, including a human eye and a globe

The final stage components, including the sphere, were built over a period of four months, beginning in January this year.

A challenge faced by the team when designing the set was finding a way to disassemble and transport the sphere across cities without it being damaged.

“The design had to fit in with the touring schedule, fit into a certain amount of trucks and be demountable in a way that could be handled by the crew,” said Winkler.

Take That tour set design
Stufish uploaded the model set design onto VR headsets, which allowed the band to navigate around the space before construction

To remedy this, Winkler opted for a design made of eight separate sections that slot together “like a jigsaw puzzle”.

“The sphere has a core inner structure made of steel, where the staircase is and the power runs through. Then there’s a secondary frame that gives it its skin and a tertiary frame that is the digital media,” he explained.

“It splits into eight large components that plug together. You attach these piece to a crane that lowers them one-by-one into the arena,” he continued.

Winkler previously worked on Wonderland tour

Winkler joined Stufish after graduating from the Bartlett School of Architecture in 1996 and worked his way up, taking over the reins after the death of his mentor, Mark Fisher, in 2013.

In 2017, he designed the set for Take That’s Wonderland tour, which featured a series of rectangular panels that moved across various formations.

Take That tour set design
The sphere was made of eight separate sections that slot together “like a jigsaw puzzle”

“This tour is very 3D compared to the Wonderland tour in 2017,” said Winkler.

He attributes this to recent advancements in digital media: “Content plays a massively important part in this because people want to see something they haven’t seen before.”

“Digital media is much lighter, brighter and easier to assemble now, while rendering times have shrunk to a fraction of what they used to be – processing power is better too, meaning that you can do real-time image processing,” he explained.

“It’s easier to tour, so a lot of set design is veered towards putting that into the set design formula. If you think you can get away with screensaver content, think again.”

The post Take That’s Greatest Hits tour features a 40-tonne digital sphere appeared first on Dezeen.

Facebook claims to "put privacy first" with updated site design

Facebook puts privacy first with updated site design

Facebook has traded in the blue background of its site for a more “modern”, all-white design that aims to put privacy at the forefront of users’ social interactions.

Announced at the company’s annual F8 developer conference in San Jose, California, the new FB5 design signals an attempt to distance the social networking site from the scandal it faced last year regarding the mishandling of users’ data.

Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg described the new design as “more modern” and “clean”, as the blue bar at the top of the site has been swapped for extra white space, and the square logo replaced with a circle.

Users will see these updates in the Facebook app immediately, whilst changes to the desktop site will come in the next few months.

Facebook puts privacy first with updated site design
Facebook has swapped the blue background of its site for a “cleaner”, all-white design

Zuckerberg opened the event with a speech explaining how Facebook is building a more “privacy-focused social platform”, prioritising private interactions between friends and small groups.

“This isn’t just about building features, we need to change a lot of the ways we run this company today,” said Zuckerberg at the conference.

“I get that a lot of people aren’t sure that we’re serious about this – I know that we don’t exactly have the strongest reputation on privacy right now, to put it lightly,” he continued. “But I’m committed to doing this well, and to starting a new chapter for our products.”

Facebook puts privacy first with updated site design
The redesign aims to put privacy at the forefront of users’ social interactions

According to Zuckerberg, the overhaul is based on six principles: private interactions, encryption, reduced permanence, safety, inter-operability and secure data storage.

This includes creating “simple, intimate spaces” where users have confidence that what they are saying and doing is private, that these private communications are secure, and that what users say won’t “come back to hurt [them] later”.

Facebook puts privacy first with updated site design
Private groups are prioritised, with a Groups tab that now shows a personalised feed

As one of the most popular features on the site, with more than 400 million members of “meaningful” Facebook groups, private groups have been made a central focus of the app.

This aims to make it easier for people to go from public spaces on the site to more private ones, and introduces tools to better enable users to discover and engage with groups of people who share their interests.

Facebook puts privacy first with updated site design
The company also updated the Facebook Dating app with a “Secret Crush” feature

The Groups tab has been redesigned to show a personalised feed of activity across all of the user’s groups, with a discovery tool and improved recommendations to allow users to quickly find groups they may be interested in.

The redesign also introduces new Health Support groups, where members can post questions and share information without their name appearing on a post.

Facebook puts privacy first with updated site design
The formerly square logo has been replaced with a circular design

The company also announced redesigns to the Messenger and Instagram apps, as well as updates on the Facebook Dating app, which now boasts a “Secret Crush” feature where users can find potential matches within their own extended circle of friends.

In a similar move towards a more private online presence, Gadi Amit’s studio New Deal Design recently collaborated with tech start-up Helm to create a home server to save people from “being caught up in the next massive online breach”.

The post Facebook claims to “put privacy first” with updated site design appeared first on Dezeen.

Matthew Chamberlain proposes Street Tree Pods to alleviate London's housing crisis

Street Tree Pods by Matthew Chamberlain

University of Westminster graduate Matthew Chamberlain has designed a sustainable treehouse to provide starter homes on London‘s streets, while also tackling the city’s high pollution levels.

The Street Tree Pods are teardrop-shaped structures made from wood, designed to merge with existing or new trees.

Taking up the same amount of space as a single car-parking bay, each structure would offer short-term accommodation to a single occupant. Chamberlain sees them being occupied by students, young professionals and first-time buyers, or to people who are homeless or in the process of being rehoused.

Street Tree Pods by Matthew Chamberlain
The Street Tree Pods are are designed to merge with existing or new trees

“Street Tree Pods seeks to offer a fresh insight into urbanisation and community living within London, tackling and challenging both the current housing crisis and the growing pollution issues within the city,” explained Chamberlain.

“These self-sufficient, low impact urban tree pods merge the house and street tree together, facilitating humans innate attraction towards nature and natural processes, along with focusing on the importance of wellness and sustainable architecture.”

Street Tree Pods by Matthew Chamberlain
Each one takes up the same amount of space as a car parking bay

The curved wooden form of the design is intended to reference inosculation – the natural phenomenon where the branches, trunks and roots of two trees grow and merge together.

Cedar shingles would give the buildings a natural, textured cladding, while wooden bird boxes would be installed on top, set amongst the tree branches.

Chamberlain, who completed the project as part of his MA in architecture at University of Westminster, believes the project can help people to realise that trees are “a vital piece of infrastructure for a city”.

Street Tree Pods by Matthew Chamberlain
The design mimics the natural phenomenon where tree branches and trunks merge together

He claims the project could increase both the density of greenery and housing in the UK capital, while also allowing residents to enjoy the psychological benefits of being surrounded by nature – often overlooked in urban environments.

“Trees have proved to decrease obesity, reduce certain health risks and aid mental behaviour and ultimately make people feel happier and more positive in their day to day lives,” he told Dezeen. “Too often, however, they are disregarded as a vital component of urban master planning infrastructure and healthcare.”

“This project is quietly arguing that more should be made to live among our natural landscape,” he continued.

“It is not enough to simply move it out of the way for our architectural interventions. Trees are imperative to the success, health and wellbeing of all people and only ever provide advantages to our quality and way of life.”

Street Tree Pods by Matthew Chamberlain

Tree trunks would run through the core of each structure, providing structural stability and ensuring no weight is placed on the branches.

The trunks would be enclosed in an ETFE shell – a system that would allow water to reach the tree and run through to the ground – while a rubber gasket between them will allow the tree to expand whilst remaining sealed.

Outside, the leaves of the trees would be used as a natural shading device.

To access the treehouses, each structure would incorporate a retractable ladder that could be operated from outside.

This would lead into each dwelling, where Chamberlain has designed four storeys. The lowest level is the plant room, which would contain the rainwater storage tanks, air source heat pump and bio digester.

Above, the second floor would house a kitchen and living space, with a small bathroom and balcony, while the third hosts a shower room, workspace and storage. Lastly, the top floor is the bedroom with roof light.

Street Tree Pods by Matthew Chamberlain
A raised cycling highway could connect the pods through the city

Each pod also incorporates rainwater collection, natural air ventilation, and air-source heat pumps, helping them to function sustainably, while cycle storage and a car parking space sit below.

Chamberlain has also conceptualised a raised cycling highway that would connect each of the pods throughout the city. This would be accessible through doors positioned at the third level of each treehouse. 

Street Tree Pods by Matthew Chamberlain
A Street Tree Pod app would work as a real-estate portal

Additionally, a Street Tree Pod app would work as a real-estate portal for the dwellings.

“The Street Tree Pod app was designed as a vision for how the project would develop in the future,” said Chamberlain. “The home screen of the app displays all the various types of street tree pods available, along with the relevant information that define it such as number of bedrooms and type of tree.”

While Chamberlain designed the Street Tree Pods concept for the London Plane Tree, he has also developed a parametric algorithm that would enable it to be extended for use by different trees of varying shapes and sizes.

Other designers to have responded to London’s housing crisis include Royal College of Art architecture graduate Llywelyn James, who proposed a series of elevated residential blocks for a brownfield site, and Opposite Office, which reimagined Buckingham Palace as a co-living space for 50,000 people.

The post Matthew Chamberlain proposes Street Tree Pods to alleviate London’s housing crisis appeared first on Dezeen.

The beautiful pairing of earphones and earrings

We use earphones so regularly that they have almost become a part of our outfit, and they have an impact on our image. However, certain earphones can interfere with earrings, leading to the user having to make the decision about what they think is more important! The YoonJy Earphones offer a rather unique solution to this problem, and one which sees earphones and jewelry working in harmony.

YoonJy is the result of combining the two items together; a large metal hoop intersects the bottom of the earphone, emulating an earring. The simplicity of the hoop has been paired with an equally as minimal earphone; the cylindrical body is interrupted by the circular earpiece, where its color beautifully harmonizes it with the hoop that hangs below.

Designers: Rick Kim & Milmul Studio

Adjust the volume by turning the ring on the earphone.

Experts concerned over five-year deadline for Notre-Dame rebuild

Apple has pledged to donate to help rebuild Notre Dame cathedral after the fire

Over 1,000 architecture and heritage experts have called on France’s president to reconsider plans to rebuild Notre-Dame before the Olympic Games in 2024, saying the reconstruction should be carried out “without haste”.

Former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Philippe de Montebello is one of 1,170 experts to sign a petition calling for greater consideration over the plan to rebuild Notre-Dame before the city hosts the Olympics.

“Let’s take the time to find the right path and then, yes, set an ambitious deadline for an exemplary restoration,” reads the letter.  “Let us not erase the complexity of the thought that must surround this site behind a display of efficiency.”

French newspaper Le Figaro published the open letter to president Emmanual Macron that was signed by architecture, art and heritage experts, including president of the association of heritage architects Rémi Desalbres and general administrator of the Louvre museum Wanda Diebolt.

After Notre-Dame suffered a serious fire last month, which saw the spire collapse along with most of the roof, Macron made a televised address promising to restore the cathedral in just five years.

Macron must listen to experts

It’s a timeline has already been flagged by experts in medieval architecture as less than half the predicted time for a project of this magnitude and sensitivity.

“Let’s take the time to diagnose. The executive can not do without listening to the experts,” continues the letter.

“These French and international resources put the best chances on the side of France to restore Notre-Dame de Paris in its symbolic dignity. Let’s listen to them. Let’s trust them, trust them, without delay but without haste.”

In the aftermath of the fire French prime minister Edouard Philippe floated the idea of holding an international architecture competition to replace the 19th century spire designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, which collapsed in the flames.

News of the competition has prompted architects from around the world to release visualisations of their ideas for replacing the spire.

Notre-Dame should not become “a gesture of architecture”

But the experts cautioned against making the restoration process simply about the architectural grandeur of the landmark.

“The world is watching us. It is not a gesture of architecture but of millions of gestures, humble and experts, governed by science and knowledge” said the letter.

The signatories also reminded the French president that the government had failed to prioritise the preservation of the landmark building.

“Throughout this history, France has long played a leading role, relying on institutions of excellence training protection specialists, recognised internationally and attracting students from around the world,” said the open letter.

“Unfortunately, this excellence has also been somewhat forgotten by previous governments.”

Before the fire Notre-Dame had been undergoing urgent restoration work, which may have accidentally led to the fire. In 2017 an appeal called Friends of Notre Dame was launched to try and raise the €1 million (£860,000) needed to restore the gothic cathedral’s crumbling flying buttresses and spire.

Now over €1 billion (£860,000) has been donated towards the rebuilding project, mostly from French billionaires.

Main image by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images.

The post Experts concerned over five-year deadline for Notre-Dame rebuild appeared first on Dezeen.

Paris By Night By Loic Le Quéré

« Mon inspiration peut venir d’une ambiance, d’une lumière, d’un personnage ou bien d’un lieu », révèle Loic Le Quéré. Ce graphiste retoucheur, photographe à ses heures perdues offre ici un nouveau regard sur la ville-lumière qui est celle où il a grandi. Armé de son smartphone, l’artiste réalise des clichés uniques empreints d’une magie caractéristique à l’obscurité. « La photographie, c’est ma passion. Je l’ai apprise sur le terrain. Mon smartphone c’est mon appareil de tous les jours lorsque je suis chez moi en région parisienne. Dans cet exercice je n’ai aucune règle particulière, si ce n’est, prendre du plaisir ». Un plaisir qu’il offre sans concessions, à retrouver sur sa page Instagram : @lekoil_photo.