Footwear brand Allbirds uses merino wool to manufacture the textile uppers of its Wool Runners shoes, which also feature laces made from recycled plastic bottles and insoles produced using castor bean oil.
Allbirds co-founder Tim Brown was disappointed with the synthetic materials used to manufacture most footwear and set out to develop an alternative that is both more comfortable and more sustainable.
The London-based New Zealander spent several years researching ways of producing shoes using merino wool, which is popular in his home country because of its luxurious softness, breathability and insulating properties.
Brown teamed up with engineer and renewables expert Joey Zwillinger to develop a wool fabric that could be used specifically for making shoes.
Following a development process that involved creating between 60 and 80 prototypes, the company settled on a design that it claimed is “intentionally minimalist” and features “no senseless details”.
The company sold $1 million worth of shoes in its first month of trading, and the Wool Runners were described by TIME magazine as “The World’s Most Comfortable Shoe”. The shoe also features on the longlist for the Dezeen Awards 2019 in the wearable design category.
Allbirds worked with a specialist Italian mill to develop the proprietary dual-faced wool textile, which is soft to the touch, machine washable and durable enough for use in footwear.
The wool textile is used for the upper of the shoes to ensure they are comfortable and take advantage of the wool’s insulating properties to regulate the wearer’s body temperature.
The insole is also lined with wool so it benefits from the material’s softness, moisture wicking and odour-reduction qualities.
“Allbirds was the first to use wool for footwear in this way and the popularity of the Wool Runners has sparked a resurgence in popularity for the wonder-fibre,” said the company.
Sustainability is central to the brand’s identity and its goal is to use only renewable materials in the production of its shoes. According to Allbirds, the manufacturing process used to make the Wool Runners consumes 60 per cent less energy than conventional trainers.
The cushioned insole is made using castor bean oil, which is a more sustainable alternative to the synthetic materials typically used. The shoelaces are made from recycled plastic bottles and the products are shipped in boxes made entirely from recycled cardboard.
Based on input gathered from its customers, the company has gradually expanded its footwear collection to include a slip-on lounger, a high-top sneaker and low-rise style called Skippers.
British designer John Pawson has applied his signature minimalist aesthetic to a Barbican flat, which is simply arranged around a timber volume.
Set within London’s brutalist Barbican estate, the apartment has been overhauled by John Pawson to feature pale surfaces and just a smattering of furnishings.
“The architectural reimagining of the space began with the idea of paring away everything to a state of emptiness and using three axes from the underlying structure to shape the new geometry,” explained Pawson’s studio.
Prior to Pawson’s redesign the apartment had contained a rabbit warren of rooms, which have been completely stripped back to create a singule open-plan living space.
At its centre is a large boxy volume crafted from bleached maple wood. It contains the apartment’s kitchen, which features handleless white cabinetry, and a study area where the inhabitants can work from home.
Full-height cupboards have been integrated throughout so that personal belongings can be stowed away instead of cluttering the living spaces.
The central volume also helps partially conceal the apartment’s one bedroom – it was previously host to four.
A timber headboard and bedframe have been pushed up against an angled wall, directing sight lines to the surrounding cityscape.
A Buddha figurine is displayed on a chunky marble plinth in the corner of the room, one of five personal items that the clients wanted to spotlight in their home.
It joins three artworks and a grandfather clock, all of which Pawson is hoping will serve as “waypoints” in the otherwise sparse interior.
The other side of the central volume bears the living room, which is dressed with an oak wood-framed sofa and a coffee table topped with Carrera marble. These materials have also been used to craft a dining table that can be moved around different points of the apartment.
Surfaces throughout have been painted white, while the floor has been completed in grey as a subtle nod to the building’s concrete exterior.
A “breached monolith” hides a giant light-filled atrium at the heart of this Indian house, which Anagram Architects has completed on a busy street in New Delhi.
Named Cleft House, the four-storey dwelling is designed by Anagram Architects for three generations of the same family that wanted a spacious, light-filled home on a dense site close to their factory.
To achieve this while maintaining their privacy, the local studio built a stark windowless facade that shields the sun-drenched four-storey atrium inside, around which all the rooms are positioned.
“The house is located in a dense residential precinct, on a busy road that feeds an interstate highway and an industrial area. The owners bought this plot as it is within walking distance of their family business and factory,” explained project architect Vineet Dhall.
“However, the heavy and loud traffic on the road outside and the desire to continue and enhance their deep intergenerational bonds were the primary concerns our design sought to address,” Dhall told Dezeen.
Cleft House’s monolithic facade is made from white marble panels mounted on a steel structure. Marble was chosen by Anagram Architects for its “luminescence”, which is accentuated with sconce lighting.
These panels continue inside through the slit at the centre of the facade, after which the house is named, before opening up to the skylit atrium.
Intended to echo the central courtyard of traditional Indian homes, the atrium forms the heart of Cleft House, and connects all the communal spaces on the ground floor.
Its size and form also ensures there is ample natural light throughout the house and its basement, while also facilitating natural ventilation.
The bedrooms are all contained within the upper storeys of the dwelling, which are enclosed by faceted walls and glass-lined balconies that visually connect the rooms.
However, to briefly “soften up the rigidity of the faceted geometry”, Anagram Architects has also incorporated a grand spiral staircase on one side. Along with the elevator on the opposite side, this provides access to the private spaces.
Each of the bedrooms in the house is complete with bold finishes developed to meet the specific tastes of their occupants.
These offer a contrast from to the more reserved material palette used in atrium and shared spaces, distinguished by black marble, concrete and wooden details, hoped to appeal to all the family members.
“The family consists of a husband and wife, their two teenage sons and the husband’s parents,” added Dhall.
“The differences in lifestyles, activities and daily routines of the three generations needed to be resolved with the family’s desire to stay connected and live together. The design attempts to cater to both.”
Imperial graduate Nicole Stjernsward has invented Kaiku, a system that turns plants into powdered paint pigments using vaporisation technology.
Avocados, pomegranates, beetroots, lemons and onions are just some of the fruits and vegetables that can be placed into Kaiku and turned into the raw material for paints, inks and dyes.
Skins and peels are boiled in water to produce a dye, which is transferred to a reservoir in the Kaiku system. Along with hot, pressurised air this dye is forced through an atomising nozzle into a glass vacuum cleaner.
The fine mist produced is hot enough that it vaporises almost instantly, and the dry particles are pulled through the chamber and into the collection reservoir.
Stjernsward designed Kaiku to offer a natural alternative to using artificial pigments that can often be toxic.
“By transitioning to natural based pigments, it will be easier for us to recycle products and make them more circular,” Stjernsward, who studied at Imperial College London, told Dezeen.
“Since many synthetic pigments today are toxic or made of ambiguous materials, colour is typically considered a ‘contamination’ in the Circular Economy principles,” she added. “I hope to change this paradigm.”
Stjernsward began her project by interviewing artists and meeting with David Peggie, a chemist who works at London’s National Gallery, to better understand the paint pigments used by both the old masters of art history and contemporary painters.
Originally pigments were derived from nature, such as blues from lapis lazuli stones, yellows from ochre clay and reds from the crushed up wings of beetles. Vegetables such as onions were traditionally used to dye fabrics.
These methods have fallen out of fashion with industrialisation and the introduction of cheaper pigments derived from petrochemicals. But the effect on people and the environment can be disastrous.
Paints can release petrochemicals into the air long after they have dried, causing respiratory problems and harming the ozone layer. Industrial effluent containing synthetic dyes leaches into the water system, poisoning aquatic life and posing a major health hazard to humans.
Kaiku offers an alternative system that uses food waste that would otherwise rot in landfill to produce non-toxic pigments.
“Because the pigments are dry powder, this means they can be used as an additive in almost any paint recipe,” said Stjernsward.
“As a paint, I have successfully tried them with egg tempera, watercolour and inks. In terms of materials, I’ve tried them with agar bioplastics, bacterial cellulose, paper, fabric, plaster, and wood veneer. I could see applications with biomaterials, traditional artist’s paints, printer inks, pen inks, and even cosmetics.”
Because they contain tannins, avocado skins and peels produce a ruby-red dye that appears orange as paint or dyes fabric a pinky-blush colour.
Pomegranates and onions make a yellow dye, and adding vinegar or baking soda to the dye is a way of modifying the resulting colours.
Stjernsward is working with painters and textile designers to test ways to use the pigments. Kaiku means echo in Finnish, the language of her grandmother.
“The name speaks to the inherent value within the pigments, which, compared to conventional colours are normally treated as inert things without a story or past,” she said.
“These colours sometimes behave in surprising ways, which makes you remember they came from living plants.”
Shortlisted architecture projects this year are from 31 countries across the globe, including Cambodia, Fiji, Peru, Russia and Sri Lanka. China is the country where the most shortlisted projects are located, with six buildings on the list.
In total there are 53 architecture projects across ten categories on this year’s Dezeen Award shortlist, revealing the world’s best buildings completed within the past two years.
The longlist of 267 architecture projects were whittled down using three criteria, scoring them according to how beautiful, innovative and beneficial to people and planet they are.
The winner of each project category will be announced online in October. All ten winners will then go on to compete for the title of architecture project of the year, which will be revealed at the awards party in London on 30 October. Shortlisted firms will be sent details of the party soon!
Look out for the interiors, design and studios shortlists, which will be revealed on Dezeen later this week.
An abstracted Lamborghini, a scrunched-up bike and a motorcycle operated by a smartphone are among the pieces showcased in an exhibition at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
The exhibition Disruptors features work by Rem D Koolhaas and Joey Ruiter, two renowned creatives who have both explored automotive design. An array of objects are on view, ranging from a high-heel shoe and sunglasses to vehicles powered by humans or motors.
Koolhaas’ concept automobile, pictured top and above, is called Lo Res Car and envisioned as an abstracted Lamborghini Countach
“Disruptors is a critical analysis on how two designers with backgrounds in fashion, architecture and industrial design have come to perceive the automobile,” said Terry L Karges, executive director of LA’s Petersen Automotive Museum, in a statement.
“This exhibit is unlike any other we’ve presented in the past because the content challenges common perceptions of vehicles, and the presentation is appropriately unconventional in its aesthetic.”
Koolhaas is also exhibiting angular sunglasses from United Nude’s Lo Res collection
Ruiter, who is based in Michigan, has worked with a range of brands to create unconventional furniture, household objects, powerboats and other pieces.
Koolhaas, a nephew of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, founded the footwear brand United Nude in 2003. Last year the company moved its headquarters from Guangzhou to Los Angeles.
This faceted black bracelet are among other designs in the series
The exhibition is staged in a spacious gallery in the four-storey Petersen Automotive Museum, which was renovated by Kohn Pedersen Fox in 2015. The exhibition design, featuring black walls and white text, was conceived by a team from United Nude.
The centrepiece of the show is two concept cars by Koolhaas and Ruiter.
“Although Koolhaas and Ruiter do not come from automotive backgrounds, they both independently began applying their dramatic design approaches to the automobile, resulting in vehicles with limited facets and curves that are still technically advanced and fully functional,” the museum said.
The Lo Res Car by Koolhaas was envisioned as an abstracted Lamborghini Countach, a sports car designed by Italian car designer Marcello Gadini in the early 1970s. Koolhaas’ version is a two-seater vehicle with an angular steel frame and a smoky polycarbonate body.
Instead of opening doors, drivers enter the vehicle by lifting up a top portion that is attached to the back of the car via hinges. The cockpit features tandem seating and a hexagonal steering wheel. Powered by an electric engine, the car can travel up to 50 kilometres per hour (kph).
The Consumer Car by Ruiter takes the shape of a chunky, trapezoidal block
Other objects on view by Koolhaas include several pieces from United Nude’s Lo Res collection, including sunglasses, a bracelet and a Mary Jane-style pump. Featuring triangulated planes, the Lo Res designs evolved from the studio’s exploration into 3D scanning technology.
In contrast to Koolhaas’ faceted designs, the pieces by Ruiter have a simpler profile.
The Consumer Car by Ruiter takes the shape of a chunky, trapezoidal block. The open-top, low-slung car has four wheels, which are hidden behind a black body made of metal and the high-tech fabric Xorel.
Ruiter’s Moto Undone is intended to offer an alternative to the traditional motorcycle and its bold decoration
The car’s front grill consists of a two-way mirror, with LED bands concealed behind the reflective surface. The lights become visible when turned on.
Another vehicle by Ruiter is Moto Undone, which offers an alternative to the traditional motorcycle and its bold decoration, exposed mechanical components and loud exhaust system.
Ruiter’s motorbike has an aluminium exterior that hides mechanical equipment, including an electric engine that “enables its rider to dissolve silently into the surroundings”. Physical controls have been removed, as the vehicle is operated using a smartphone.
His Inner City Bike 36 is also similarly stripped down
Additional designs by Ruiter include the Inner City Bike 36, a minimalist bicycle that has a seat, grips, brakes and two wheels – all of which are tightly arranged. The human-powered vehicle provides “only what is essential for cutting through short, circuitous routes punctuated by highly populated spaces”.
Dezeen promotion: a concrete grocery store converted into a boutique hotel and a series of remote timber-frame cabins on the Namibian coast are some of the projects shortlisted in the 2019 AHEAD MEA awards.
This edition of the AHEAD MEA awards celebrates outstanding hospitality projects completed in the Middle East and Africa between January 2018 and February 2019.
Submitted projects have been arranged into 11 categories, which recognise everything from the most eye-catching spa and wellness spaces to the best event spaces and resorts.
The AHEAD MEA 2019 shortlist includes the Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge
The shortlist has been assembled by an expert panel of architects, interior designers, hoteliers and industry commentators.
Figures this year include Leila Abdul Rahim, design director of Hilton Worldwide, Pinar Calimano, director of the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and Nick Acton-Adams, director of design at Meraas/North25.
Anarchitect’s Al Faya Lodge has been shortlist in two categories
The Al Faya Lodge desert retreat and spa, located in the city of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, has been shortlisted in both the Guestrooms and the Renovation, Restoration & Conversion categories.
Designed by Dubai-based architecture studio Anarchitect, the spa retreat previously operated as a clinic and grocery store, housed inside two single-story stone structures from the 1960s.
Since abandoned, Anarchitect converted the buildings into a luxury, contemporary boutique hotel and restaurant, with the addition of a newly built saltwater spa building to “offer relief from the intensity of the city”.
The Gorgeous George Hotel is also shortlisted in two categories
Another project on the shortlist is the Gorgeous George Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, which has also been recognised in two categories – Suite and the Renovation, Restoration & Conversion.
Designed by Urban Citizen Architecture, with interiors by Tristan Du Plessis, the 20-room, 12-suite hotel blends an “18th-century grandeur” with the “raw, industrial edge” of central Cape Town.
Shipwreck Lodge in Namibia has also been shortlisted
Each of the timber cabins has a bedroom housed inside a structure designed to evoke broken pieces of ships, which is connected to a bathroom in a pointed bow-like section.
The Al Manara hotel in Jordan in has also been shortlisted
Winners will be announced at a ceremony in Dubai’s Caesars Forum on 13 November. Tickets for the event can be purchased via AHEAD’s website.
The Middle East and Africa region is one of four regions covered by the AHEAD awards, which also looks at projects from Asia, Europe, and the America. Champions from each region will go on to contend in a global biennale, where worldwide titles are up for grabs.
See the full shortlist below:
Bar, Club or Lounge
Alice & Fifth at Sandton Sun Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa Peacock Alley at Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre, UAE Toro Toro at Grosvenor House, Dubai, UAE Wavehouse at Atlantis The Palm, Dubai, UAE
Event Spaces
Aloft Hotel City Centre Deira, Dubai, UAE Caesars Forum at Caesars Bluewaters Dubai, UAE Grand Plaza by Mövenpick Media City, Dubai, UAE Mandarin Oriental, Doha, Qatar
Hotel Newbuild Al Manara, Saraya Aqaba, Jordan Mandarin Oriental, Doha, Qatar Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai, UAE Studio One Hotel, Dubai, UAE
Landscaping & Outdoor Spaces
Caesars Bluewaters Dubai, UAE Four Seasons Resort Seychelles at Desroches Island, Seychelles Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai, UAE W Dubai, The Palm, UAE
Lobby & Public Spaces
Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai, UAE The Merchant House, Manama, Bahrain Zabeel House by Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE Omaanda, Windhoek East, Namibia
Al Bait Sharjah, UAE Al Faya Lodge & Spa, Sharjah, UAE Gorgeous George, Cape Town, South Africa Zabeel House by Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE
Resort
Four Seasons Hotel Tunis, Tunisia Four Seasons Resort Seychelles at Desroches Island, Seychelles Jumeirah Royal Saray Hotel, Seef, Bahrain Zuri Zanzibar, Tanzania
Restaurant
Indya by Vineet at Le Royal Meridien, Dubai, UAE Lah Lah at Zabeel House by Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE Netsu at Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai, UAE Tasca by José Avillez at Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai, UAE
Spa & Wellness
Four Seasons Hotel Tunis, Tunisia Four Seasons Resort Seychelles at Desroches Island, Seychelles The Spa at Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai, UAE Away Spa at W Dubai, The Palm, UAE
Suite
Gorgeous George, Cape Town, South Africa Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai, UAE One&Only Nyungwe House, Rwanda Zuri Zanzibar, Tanzania
Background: Readers who want the inside scoop on the New York restaurant industry look to Eater New York. “Eater NY’s core audience is people who are obsessed with dining out in New York,” says Serena Dai, editor. “That means they’re interested in what’s new, what’s cool, and what they need to know to be the…
A bar made out of old IKEA mattresses has won the architecture prize at Chart 2019, ahead of structures built from latex, salt, paper and jute fabric.
Sultan is one of five food and drinks kiosks built by young Danish architects and students for an exhibition at Chart, an art and design fair that took place in Copenhagen over the weekend.
Chart 2019 featured five pavilions promoting sustainable architecture
The challenge was to experiment with how reusable or recycled materials could be used to create more sustainable architecture.
Anne Bea Høgh Mikkelsen, Katrine Kretzschmar Nielsen, Klara Lyshøj, and Josefine Østergaard Kallehave designed and built theirs using every component of IKEA’s bestselling mattress.
Sultan is made out of old IKEA mattresses
The designers hoped to make a statement about “mindless consumerism”. They wanted to highlight the issues in an economic system where it is cheaper and easier to buy new products rather than to recycle old ones.
The project is named Sultan, like the mattress, and repurposes its metal springs, foam stuffing and fabric. These form multilayered, textured walls for the double-height, timber-framed structure.
The mattresses form multilayered, textured walls
Judges awarded the project first prize in the architecture contest, after being impressed with the way it made recycling completely central to the design.
‘The Sultan project was a clear winner both because it is conceptually very strong and because its fabrication is very precise,” said BIG partner David Zahle, who was one of the judges.
“IKEA is one of the biggest players in the world, and if you want your idea to really make a difference, you need partners with a big reach,” he added.
Rock Paper CNC is made from recycled paper
All five of the student-built pavilions were in use for the three days of Chart. Sultan served as a bar for 1664 Blanc, while the other four offered up other varieties of food and drink.
A kiosk made from recycled paper served up Japanese food and sake. Called Rock Paper CNC, it was built by Diana Smiljkovic, Gustav Kjær Vad Nielsen, Jonas Bentzen and Haris Hasanbegovic, along with artist Oskar Koliander.
The structure comprises five timber-framed towers clad in the paper tiles
The structure comprises a cluster of five timber-framed towers, all clad in 30-centimetre-square, recycled-paper tiles.
These tiles are produced through a process of mixing, compressing and baking. These were made using waste sourced from the offices of architects and engineers, including Arup and COBE.
Salaria is made from old fishing nets, salt and wood
Cristina Román Díaz and Frederik Bo Bojesen used salt in the making of Salaria, a kiosk serving up salt-water oysters. It creates a floor surface that crunches underfoot, and also coats fishing nets to create a shelter overhead.
Recycled plywood was sourced from Roskilde Festival to build the building’s A-shaped frame, while the discarded fishing nets were rescued from Copenhagen harbour.
Cell is a balloon-like structure made from latex
Josefine Rita Vain Hansen and Marie Louise Thorning used latex to create their design – a gin bar serving up Nordic-inspired cocktails.
Called Cell, the structure can be inflated and deflated like a balloon.
Snug as a Bug in a Rug is clad with latex-coated jute fabric
Latex also features in Snug as a Bug in a Rug, designed by Mathias Bank Stigsen and Andreas Körner.
The building is clad in a latex-coated jute fabric, designed to invite touch. During Chart, it served up vegetarian burgers from Gasoline Grill.
It served up vegetarian burgers from Gasoline Grill
Chart 2019 took place from 30 August to 1 September at two venues, Charlottenborg and Den Frie.
The five pavilions were selected from 54 proposals. They were built in 72 hours, with technical support from Arup, in the courtyard outside the Charlottenborg venue.
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