Hasta La Ideas

Nutrient pollution is one of the lesser-known but most pressing environmental challenges we face. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are all essential for plant growth—they’re known as the “Big 3” primary nutrients in fertilizer—but when they enter the environment in excess, they can cause a lot of damage. The Big 3 have another thing in common: they’re all found in our urine. But since these nutrients aren’t extracted at sewage treatment plants, they build up in streams, rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water, where they cause large growths of algae called algal blooms. Algal blooms reduce the amount of oxygen in water, killing fish while elevating toxins and bacterial growth.

The wall-mounted save! toilet looks like a conventional, rimless WC and can be used normally.

Austrian design firm EOOS and Swiss ceramics manufacturer Laufen have partnered up to propose a solution that’s rather simple. By extracting urine from wastewater, we can reduce water pollution and simultaneously tap into an alternative source of essential nutrients for fertilizer production (as another example of this, consider the Rich Earth Institute’s “pee-cycling” efforts in Vermont.) Continuing EOOS’s submission to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2011 Reinvented Toilet Challenge, the companies partnered with the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology to develop a urine-diverting toilet.

Schematic section illustrating the different flows of urine, feces, and greywater.

According to the product website, the Save! toilet features one key innovation, a patent-pending “urine trap”‘ invented by EOOS Design, “which directs urine towards a concealed outlet using only surface tension.” Laufen applied this concept to a new toilet design featuring a ceramic bowl whose inner geometries are “optimally shaped to guide the water flow” based on computational fluid dynamics simulations developed by ETH Zurich. The low-tech, out-of-sight solution means the toilet looks like any other WC, and for the most part, it doesn’t require any changes to user behavior, save for one catch: you have to urinate in a sitting position in order for it to hit the trap.

The Toilet Revolution! An installation by EOOS, commissioned and curated by MAK – Museum for Applied Arts, Vienna, XXII Triennale di Milano 2019.

Designed for use in Europe, save! Is the first urine-diverting toilet that meets all industry standards. It received wide acclaim during ISH Frankfurt, a leading plumbing trade show, and was Austria’s contribution to the XXII Triennale di Milano where it was exhibited as part of a multimedia installation investigating “the ecological interaction of coastal waters, sewage systems, and agriculture.”

To make a real dent in the issue of nutrient pollution, cities would have to rethink urine collection on a large, infrastructural scale. Save! represents a promising design solution that just might steer that conversation in the right direction.

Architects Luigi Valente and Mauro Di Bona have renovated the former church of Saint Rocco in southern Italy into a theatre with a black and white interior.

Located in the small commune of Rotello near Campobasso, the historic landmark has been restored into a permanent performance venue and multi-purpose hall.

Fragments of the stone floor stand out against the white-washed theatre space, hidden within the existing exterior masonry walls.

The ornamental interior, including the cornice, pilasters and arched niches were previously painted white but showed uneven broken paintwork near the ceiling.

The church’s beige natural stone flooring was replaced with a white floor to match the walls, where the majority was repainted to create a solid uniform colour.

Arranged in the centre of the auditorium are 90 small black armchairs facing the stage, which will be used for for theatre performances and conferences.

In front of the seating, the architects retained a remnant of the natural stone flooring laid in an irregular semi-circular formation.

“Information about the first church is very fragmented,” Valente told Dezeen. “Founded around 1300, only the old floor was visible at the time of renovation.”

The continuous white colour of the overall interior breaks into the line of the stone arc, designed as a visual nod to the renovation process of Saint Rocco’s church.

A series of previous renovation projects to the building had caused the old church to become unused. The original timber ceiling had been demolished with a false ceiling installed.

Valente and Di Bona removed this and reconstructed a timber ceiling using the original wooden beams, which can now be seen spanning the hall at regular intervals.

The architects designed adjustments to the stage, entrance points and the internal flooring to update them according to modern safety regulations.

In addition, the architects integrated new energy-efficient systems. LED equipment replaces the existing lighting and radiant heating provides reduced emissions for the theatre’s underfloor heating.

New accessible toilet facilities have been installed behind the rows of seating near the entrance.

A white staircase winds up the corner of the hall leading to a mezzanine floor, with two stepped rows of additional seating available.

Following an epidemic in Rotello in the 1600s, the church was named after the patron saint Rocco, protector against the plague.

The community began to use the structure to host theatrical performances from the 1950s. As the renovation allows for the church to continue hosting performances, the architects aimed to amplify the status of the building in the town which has an “absence of structures”.

Natural stone fragments complemented with smooth surfaces can be seen in a house in Menorca by Nomo Studio which references its vernacular materiality, whilst artist Matthew Simmonds carved historic architectural features into miniature marble sculptures.

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Water rather than air carries sound in designer Rocco Giovannoni’s Inmergo headphones, which promise rich audio even for people who are hard of hearing.

A 2019 graduate of the Royal College of Art’s MA in Design Products, Giovannoni designed the soft silicone headphones to improve upon current bone-conduction audio technology.

Like other bone-conduction headphones on the market, his design bypasses the eardrum and conveys sound as vibrations through the bones of the skull, directly to the cochlea — the “hearing” part of the inner ear.

Unlike any other device on the market, it does so via waterproof speakers that are fully immersed in liquid and then sealed in a pliable membrane. This membrane sits against a person’s skin, transmitting sound vibrations through touch.

While existing bone-conduction headphones have proved popular among people who are deaf or have some hearing loss — as well as cyclists who want to listen to music but remain aware of their surroundings — the devices are hampered by poor sound-quality.

“I believe these are wasting an opportunity for a technology that has the potential of improving the music quality of common earphones and headphones,” said Giovannoni.

“Inmergo aims to unravel the undiscovered potential of bone conduction by delivering innovative and inclusive sound experiences that can improve the quality of our life.”

Inmergo does not quite match the sound experience of traditional headphones; instead, it offers a high-fidelity audio experience that’s all of its own.

Giovannoni describes it as “immersive omnidirectional” sound with richer bass. “It feels like you’re inside the song,” says one wide-eyed subject in Inmergo’s user testing video.

Another tester, a deaf person with a unilateral cochlear implant, described it as one of the best listening experiences of her life.

Giovannoni has two functioning prototype models — a two-unit set of headphones and five-unit helmet that wraps more comprehensively around the head. The units are filled with an ultrasonic gel, which the designer chose as the best-sounding fluid after many rounds of testing.

It delivers bass frequencies more efficiently than any air-based design, using just £5 worth of equipment.

Giovannoni hopes to continue developing the patent-pending design, which won the Snowdon Award for Disability as part of the RCA Helen Hamlyn Design Awards, and is currently looking for investors.

He believes the technology could one day be used in hi-fi headphones for hearing loss, virtual reality, sound- and thermo-therapy and as a bass supplement to standard earphones.

Another RCA student, Gemma Roper, experimented with bone conduction to make clip-on headphones in 2015.

Others have tried to use vibrations to offer an alternative listening experience, such as Liron Giro from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, who created a set of jewellery-like devices called Vibeat.

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Quebec studio Atelier Pierre Thibault‘s portfolio is filled with remote getaways around Canada. Here are five houses the firm has designed that make the most of their wooded settings.

Le Lupin

Light filters through slatted white walls of this residence buried in the woods of rural Quebec with terraces enveloping both levels of the minimal exterior.

To make the most of views of the Saint Lawrence River Atelier Pierre Thibault flipped the layout of Le Lupin so that the bedrooms are located on the ground floor and the kitchen and living spaces above.

“Interior spaces were kept to a minimum in order to maximise connections to the outdoors,” said Atelier Pierre Thibault.

Find out more about Le Lupin ›

La Maison Haute

Clad in pal cedar, this La Maison Haute is nestled in Quebec woodland. Its details include sloped roofs that rest atop the cedar-clad exteriors and a huge window that extends two storeys to offer views outside.

“Residents can appreciate the sound of pouring water and the clicking of leaves, and watch the slow fall of snowflakes,” said Atelier Pierre Thibault.

Find out more about La Maison Haute ›

Le Fraternelle

Two black buildings provide independence and privacy for the pair of brothers that own this house in Charlevoix, Canada, a ski destination outside of Quebec City.

“Two black volumes with slightly different orientations are laid out above a plinth that nestles into the site’s steep slope,” Atelier Pierre Thibault said.

Views of the wooded area that surround the two houses are accentuated by a two-storey, glass-panelled porch. Le Fraternelle emphasises the landscape over the interiors by using a minimal design that features lots of built-in and custom furniture.

Find out more about Le Fraternelle ›

La Louve 

This long, narrow cabin situated near Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains was designed with experiencing nature in mind. “The longitudinal house represents the continuation of a walking path,” said the firm. “You amble through the house as through the forest, passing through spaces that thicken and narrow, alternating between living spaces, small courtyards, and landscape sightlines.”

A central entrance separates La Louve’s public and private areas. The main living space is lifted up by several columns putting the surrounding trees at eye level, while the private quarters rest at ground level orientated towards the mountains.

Find out more about La Louve ›

Le Grand Plateau

A rooftop terrace wraps a glazed lounge on top of this house set atop a bluff overlooking Lake Huron in Canada.

“The main thing we wanted to achieve was the illusion of a grand plateau that would seem to be floating on a very steep hillside,” the architects said.

Le Grand Plateau is elevated above its forest’s setting on metal stilts landscape. Its wood interiors match the exterior’s cladding and unite the space with the outdoors.

Find out more about Le Grand Plateau ›

The post Five woodland retreats in Canada by Atelier Pierre Thibault appeared first on Dezeen.

Morris + Company has completed a retirement living scheme with a bevelled brick facade for developer Pegasus Life in Hampstead, London.

Called Belle Vue, the development is sandwiched between the Royal Free Hospital and a series of 19th-century brick residential and civic structures in a conservation area.

Belle Vue’s exterior has a textured brick base and chamfered window reveals that widen further up the blocks. Thin strips of precast concrete have been introduced to unify the elevations and give external horizontal definition to each level.

“This sequence of blocks is finished in a brick skin which modulates in tone and texture as the blocks increase in height, as well as mediating between the varying mass and topography of the surrounding cityscape,” said Morris + Company.

The ten-storey development is a series of interconnected blocks housing 59 one and two-bed apartments, a health spa, gym, swimming pool, resident’s lounge, library, gardens and a public restaurant and cafe.

Blocks are arranged around the central garden space, which is visible as soon as residents and visitors enter the reception and is overlooked by the public restaurant, the larder of which opens onto a small herb garden.

Occupying the lower ground floor, both the pool and the large residents’ lounge also overlook this courtyard with large windows.

The staggered arrangement allows for a subtle delineation between Belle Vue’s public-facing facilities, located at the northern end of the plan, and the residents’ private spaces.

Most of the apartments have been created as dual-aspect, with large windows and deep inset corner balconies, preventing overlooking from the neighbouring structures.

These balconies have been finished with delicate steel filigree balustrades, contrasting the robustness of the brickwork.

Morris + Company has recently completed another scheme for Pegasus Life at the Wildernesse Estate in Kent, with a staggered terrace of brick houses and also a public restaurant.

Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.

Project credits:

Architect: Morris+Company
Project directors: Joe Morris and Miranda MacLaren
Project associate: Danielle Purkiss
Planning consultant: Tibbalds
Planning construction manager: RISE
Contractor (interior D&B): ISG
Structural engineer: Elliott Wood
Environmental engineer: Max Fordham
Cost consultant: Deloitte
Landscape consultant: Camlins
Interiors: Woods Bagot
Interiors executive architect: Architecture PLB
Building control authority: Assent Building Control
Brickwork: Galostar
Precast concrete: Cambridge Architectural Precast
Glazing: Stanta (IdealCombi & Schueco)
Interiors: Harrison Jorge

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