Background: Launched in 1920 as a trade quarterly, Architectural Digest has evolved into a publication that celebrates international design talents and innovative homes. Since then the brand has spawned several international editions as well as AD PRO, a digital division of the brand that focuses on a professional audience, says Allie Weiss, deputy editor, AD…
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Architect Dara Huang says that young creatives should use their time working at other companies to make their most significant mistakes, before starting their own business.
“When you’re working for a high-profile company, or any company, it’s very easy for us to slag it off and feel like we’re being overworked and underpaid,” said Huang during a panel on entrepreneurism at Dezeen Day.
“But if you’re smart, don’t make mistakes on your own company – learn from where you are and absorb it.”
“Stay late and ask questions”
Speaking alongside Roksanda Ilincic and Benjamin Hubert, Huang explained that their early experiences at work will prevent young architects and designers from making blunders when they’re “completely alone” and running their own business.
“What you’re doing now and what you’ve done before – these are your formative years. Don’t sit there and say ‘I hate my job’ – embrace it, stay late and ask all the questions you want,” she continued.
“When I got tired of the company I was working for, I spent a year photographing the supplier library, asking questions about planning…I was 29 years old when I decided to start my own company, what did I know about anything?”
Huang – who established her studio DH Liberty back in 2013 – cut her teeth in the industry by working with Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, as well as with designer Thomas Heatherwick.
She has since gone on to launch a lighting brand called DH Liberty Lux and co-found Vivahouse: a prefabricated modular housing system that aims to turn disused commercial spaces into residential units.
“I was really lucky to work with Herzog and de Meuron, I was a terrible employee but they had so much faith in me as a person,” she said.
“Believe it or not, I was nervous, shy and didn’t speak my opinions and I couldn’t understand why they had faith – it’s not until now that I realised they saw something that I didn’t even see in myself,” Huang continued.
“It was something that, until I was forced to be an entrepreneur and carry my own weight, I didn’t see.”
“Money will follow passion”
Huang previously discussed the ins and outs of launching a design-focused business at a talk that Dezeen hosted back in 2017, when she claimed that entrepreneurs have to “wear every single hat until [they] can afford to do otherwise”.
The event also saw Huang touch upon the importance of entrepreneurs being completely devoted to their business ideas.
“When you start a business you’re probably not going to make any money for the first year, so you’ve got to love it. Money will follow passion.”
Dezeen Day took place at BFI Southbank on 30 October 2019. Speakers including Zaha Hadid principal Patrik Schumacher and Ellen MacArthur Foundation chief executive Andrew Morlet spoke in topics as various as education and the circular economy.
MoMA curator Paola Antonelli told the Dezeen Day audience that anger can be more useful than angst in the fight to make a better future for the planet. Speculative architect Liam Young, meanwhile, argued that architects would be better equipped for the future if they applied their skills to video-game design.
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Designer Irakli Sabekia has developed a device that can turn the border fence between Russia and his native Georgia into a radio transmitter.
Using the fence as an antennae, the specially tuned transmitter broadcasts the names and coordinates of villages that were erased during 2008’s Russo-Georgian War, in Morse code.
“Stating the names of the cities, and placing them on their proper locations forces the fence to voice what it’s meant to hide,” explained Sabekia, who was born in a town that now lies behind the occupation line.
According to the designer, Russia’s presence in the provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia destroyed many villages and many nationally-important buildings.
Now, 11 years on, a razor-wire fence still demarcates the area, separating families and communities.
“Behind the razor wire fence, Georgian villages are deliberately burned down, demolished, and then even the ruins completely removed from the area,” said the designer.
“In an attempt to rewrite history, the traces of the population in this area were completely erased. The fence keeps being moved further into Georgian territory, trapping more than 30 more villages since the war. “
This, Sabekia explained, keeps the country in a constant state of fear. Design was the only way he knew how to cope with it.
“If I’m faced with this overwhelming force, it’s true that I can’t control it,” he remembers thinking. “But maybe I can mine it. Maybe I can tap into it, in some way and use its energy against itself.”
And so the idea was born of turning the razor-wire fence, the weapon used to enforce the occupation, against itself.
“I started examining it just as a metal structure in the landscape, looking for properties that I could use to my advantage” he explained.
“And in my research, I came across an image of a beautiful old radio tower and it immediately sparked a question – if this structure can be used for communication, why can’t the wire do something similar?”
At the moment, the transmitter is being presented as part of Sabekia’s installation Voicing Borders, but he hopes that eventually it will be installed where it was always meant to be.
“Connecting the device to the actual fence was the plan all along. But in this militarised zone, any action from the Georgian side of the fence may cause a disproportionate and brutal response from the occupying force,” he told Dezeen.
“I could install the device quickly and in relative safety, but the safety of the local population who might have to deal with the consequences is my big concern. As my project develops I hope to find a way to do this in a responsible and reasonably safe way.”
Also presented as part of the Voicing Borders installation are a series of projections, showing satellite images of the South Ossetia region.
“The project started with a long research phase, in which I tracked down archive satellite images and mapped the location and structure of 16 disappeared villages,” the designer remembered.
“They are located in the area occupied during the actual conflict in 2008, but the process of their destruction stretches over several years after that, from 2009 to 2016, and is repeated with a recognisable pattern.”
Sabekia allows visitors to explore this evidence via an interactive installation, which shows bird’s eye views of empty landscapes.
However when standing in front of the projections, the shadow cast on the wall reveals the villages that used to stand in those places – the same ones whose coordinates are sent out via the radio transmitter.
To Sabekia, his work is far from done: “Since I presented my installation to the public first time, I found four more erased villages in the areas occupied during the conflict so I’m currently working on mapping their structure to include them in the installation.”
Voicing Borders was presented as part of the Design Academy Eindhoven degree show at Dutch Design Week.
Other notable projects from the event include Micheline Nahra’s deconstruction and reconstruction of a dining set in a bid to make absence visible, as well as Dorian Renard’s collection of hand-blown plastic furniture and sculptures.
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Today designers leave no material untouched in their attempt to create the most unique and innovative designs. Whether it’s recycled metals, cork, coconut fibers, you name it and the best of designers can incorporate it! Benjamin Hubert’s design agency Layer and the responsible fashion studio Raeburn came together to explore such a territory. Their ‘Canopy Collection’ consists of recycled parachute material wrapped over welded steel frames to create four rocking chairs and two screens. The collaboration was an attempt to merge both the respective brands’ passion for sustainability and their ever-growing interest in “recontextualizing undervalued materials”.
Designers: Layer x Raeburn
Combining two completely different worlds; industrial design and fashion, “The collection presents a timeless design language of strict geometry which acts as a framework for Raeburn’s innovative and forward-thinking recycled parachute upholstery.” Layer and Raeburn scrounged through the archives of Raeburn, to study how the brand has previously repurposed surplus ex-military parachutes to create statement fashion pieces. The unique ideas were transformed and integrated with furniture design.
“The Canopy Collection uses the strict geometry of the steel frames as a base on which to experiment with innovative and forward-thinking recycled parachute upholstery,” said the masterminds behind the collection. It is inspired by the semantics of a parachute in-flight “The lounge chair gently rocks back and forth whilst the re-configurable screen takes inspiration from the section and construction of a wing.” The entire collection reminds me of a billowy parachute wavering in the air, and then subtly settling onto the ground.
Though all the rocking chairs are crafted out of surplus ex-military parachutes and aircraft brake parachutes, they all exhibit varied auras and forms. One of them is multi-colored, boasting vivid tones of orange, white and olive green, while still possessing a very simple aesthetic. The screens are a result of the parachute material being stretched tacitly on the metal base, following a color scheme of orange, green and white as well. Reconfigurable, the screens can be easily opened and closed and moved to wherever you would want them to be placed.
Whereas two of the other rocking chairs showcase a tousled-feathery look, created by draping layers of the material over the steel structure, giving the entire piece a raw and rugged feel. They come in shades of black and white respectively, providing a stark contrast to one another.
Launched during the London Design Festival, the collection is all set to be exhibited at Raeburn’s new SOHO, London store. With an intense combination of fashion, sustainability, a well thought out design, and vibrant colors, this collection is sure to be a hit!
This week we’ve selected the top architecture and design opportunities based in China including vacancies at architecture studios UNStudio and Aedas.
UNStudio is looking for senior architects with extensive experience of built international, large-scale projects to join its office in Shanghai, China. The Dutch practice completed a mixed-use development in China’s Hangzhou, which features a pair of twisting glass towers.
Find out more about this role ›
Junior/mid-level architect at Aedas
Architect Andrew Bromberg of Aedas has designed a glass extension for the Winspear Centre for Music, which is home of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. The firm is seeking a junior mid-level architect to join its team in a number of locations in China including Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai.
Find out more about this role ›
Intern architects at Superimpose Architects
Superimpose Architecture is looking for intern architects to join its practice in Beijing, China. The company partnered with creative studio Shardisland to create the C02 Pavilion, an interactive pavilion at Beijing Design Week.
Find out more about this role ›
3D architectural visualiser at Alt-254
China-based studio Alt-254 completed a hillside villa on the Indonesian island of Lombok. The practice is hiring a 3D architectural visualiser with a strong knowledge of programmes including 3ds Max and V-Ray, to become part of its Hong Kong team.
Find out more about this role ›
See all the latest architecture and design roles on Dezeen Jobs ›
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Pour réaliser son récent court-métrage “X,Y” Jeff Hutchens s’est servi uniquement d’une caméra thermique, qui enregistre les ondes de chaleur. Le photographe et directeur photo, basé à Washington D.C., a ainsi filmé un couple de danseurs qui se livre à une chorégraphie lyrique improvisée dans les rues de New York. Poétiques et apaisantes, les images laissent la place aux mouvements et aux émotions.
Le titre du projet, “X,Y”, est une référence mathématique aux points de coordonnées qui situent un événement dans le temps et l’espace. “Chaque ensemble de coordonnées, chaque événement, donne seulement la possibilité de voir ce moment isolément. Mais lorsque l’échantillon est répété, la trajectoire devient évidente”, explique Jeff Hutchens.
Credits:
Directed by: Jeff Hutchens Dance by: Jessica Lamdon / Henry « Ry ‘El » Velandia ; Produced by: Jeff Hutchens / Talia Sawyer / Brandon Bray ; Cinematography by: Jeff Hutchens ; Edited by: Brandon Bray / Jeff Hutchens ; Special Thanks: FLIR Systems, Inc. / Tim McDowd / Vatche Arabian / Brett Kalikow ; Filmed on Location in New York City ; 2019 Copyright JHutchPhotoFilm, LLC
Japanese architects Shimpei Oda and Tetsuya Tanji made only subtle changes to this unfinished office unit in Nara, to turn it into a design studio.
The two architects, who lead the studios Shimpei Oda Architect Office and Atelier Loowe, created the workspace for graphic design office Panda.
Their main intervention was to add a new partition wall wrapping one corner, behind which they created a tiny kitchen, bathroom facilities and a small amount of shelving storage.
The rest of the 45-square-metre space is kept very simple and minimal, with only essential furnishings and a few decorative plants.
The existing wall and ceiling surfaces, embellished by steel cross-bracing and other industrial details, were left exactly as they were.
“With inner walls of extruded cement board and a concrete ceiling, the original internal space was incomplete,” explained Oda. “However, with its unique textures, it was a space with its own charm.”
The new L-shaped partition wall is painted in a soft grey tone that complements the existing surfaces without matching them.
A single door on one side leads through to the bathroom, while the kitchen is set behind a pair of double doors.
All three doors are painted grey at the base, but the original tone and texture of the wood is left exposed on the top half.
This two-tone colour system continues into the spaces behind, including over the mirror in the bathroom. Oda describes it as a reference to the studio name Panda.
“With the doors fully opened, the vertical line and colour of the painted interior connects with the doors and integrates the functions out into the main space,” said the architect.
“Also considering functionality, it is easy to repaint the bottom part where dirt, wear and tear is more likely to show with regular use,” he added.
Other minimal details in the space include a lighting system integrated into suspended wooden frames and a bathroom basin served directly by a water pipe.
Oda often creates minimal designs for interiors. Previous projects include a studio flat with an “inner balcony and a renovated 1920s house.
Reflecting on this latest design, he said it “aims to create a continuous space with abstract areas”.
Photography is by Norihito Yamauchi.
Project credits:
Architecture: Shimpei Oda Architect Office, Atelier Loowe
Lead architects: Shimpei Oda, Tetsuya Tanji
Lighting: New Light Pottery, Koizumi Lighting Technology
Basin: Hiratile
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Swedish company Re:newcell is aiming to disrupt the fashion industry and save natural resources by creating garments from Circulose – a new material made from recycled cotton clothes.
Circulose was developed in response to the issue of waste generated by the fashion industry, which sees the vast majority of unwanted or worn out garments end up in landfill or incineration plants.
According to the company, which has its main office in Stockholm and operates a chemical recycling plant for pre- and post-consumer textiles in Kristinehamn, Sweden, less than one per cent of clothes are currently recycled.
Circulose aims to reduce the fashion industry’s reliance on virgin cotton, oil production and the harvesting of trees by reusing discarded textiles to create an innovative new material.
“Circulose was created with the ambition to shift the entire industry to circularity and to dramatically lower the impact fashion has on the environment,” said Harald Cavalli-Björkman, head of brand for Circulose.
Re:newcell is preparing to launch a range of garments made using its recycled fabric early next year, through collaborations with selected retailers.
The company described the garments as “the world’s first clothes made from circular cotton”, and suggested that “while there are several initiatives experimenting with new circular materials, this is the first solution that works on a larger scale”.
Re:newcell joins many other brands seeking to adopt circular design processes within their business.
Adidas has produced a sneaker made from plastic that can be ground up and reused again, while IKEA’s head of sustainability recently told Dezeen about the firm’s plans to become a circular business by 2030.
The Re:newcell process begins with customers donating garments with a high cellulosic content (cotton and viscose) to the company, which reuses chemicals to dissolve the natural fibres.
The resulting mixture is dried to produce a new, biodegradable raw material called Circulose pulp, which is packaged into bales and fed back into the textile production cycle.
Re:newcell added that its recycling system is vastly more sustainable than existing processes used to manufacture clothing fibres, as it uses less water and chemicals, emits less CO2 and helps to preserve the world’s resources.
Currently, the plant in Kristinehamn produces around 7,000 tonnes of Circulose pulp per year. The material is certified, organic, biodegradable, recyclable and offers similar characteristics to conventional cotton fibres.
“As a new material, we knew Circulose had to do three things in order to make a real difference in the industry; it needed to be circular, it needed to be affordable, and it needed to deliver the quality that people expect,” said Cavalli-Björkman.
“We’re now incredibly excited about our upcoming collaborations with some of the world’s leading brands to bring this material to the fashion runways and into the closets where it belongs,” he added.
The new collection of Circulose clothing was presented at the recent Première Vision fashion and textiles fair in Paris, ahead of its distribution to stores early in 2020.
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Noto is an internationally renowned product design studio near Cologne, Germany. After 16 years of successful product design, they are proud of what they have enabled- visually and economically. Noto has been awarded some of the most recognized design awards such as Good Design, iF and Red Dot Design Awards, and has helped businesses to grow prosperously. They believe that an understanding of the business model is key to creating successful products. Based on this understanding, they sometimes even improve the business model itself. Noto helps start-ups to tackle the next hurdle, supports design departments in refocusing on their job and stimulates companies to do better business. This has made them business design partners, starting with product design. Noto designs your growth by enriching life. Apply now to be a part of this unique design environment!
Awarded ‘Best of Innovation’ at the Consumer Electronics Show 2016 in Las Vegas, the Beolab 90 changes the experience of sound with every fingertip on the control app and from every point of hearing. It represents the future of sound, celebrating 90 years of Bang & Olufsen.
Noto is an internationally active product design studio. Design research is their inspiration, product design is at the heart of what they do and with business design, they capture the value of ideas. They use their 16 years of experience and excellence in the design and development of products to build meaningful business opportunities. From developing new products to creating original services or value propositions for an idea, Noto works with you to hit the ground running and bring to life ideas that endure. And they need an innovative and independent Product Design Intern to help them with this!
Working at Noto means being passionate about the subject and considerate towards the team members and clients alike. Noto emphasizes a flat organizational structure, direct communication, and a familiar atmosphere. In their old factory-building studio around 15 talented people learn, create, ideate, design and develop as a team. Enjoy freshly prepared lunch dishes by their own cook, compete in the next table tennis tournament or participate in their regular knowledge exchange format. This and other after-work events make Noto a vivid and inspiring place to work.
Send Noto your portfolio at jobs@noto.design
Hürth, near Cologne, Germany.
Check out all the latest design openings on Yanko Design Job Board
Wutopia Lab has used over 5,000 white steel pipes to form the structure of The Last Redoubt, China’s first museum for architectural models.
Steel walkways connect rooms lined with thin white columns, where the models are displayed on floating white shelves at different levels.
Designed by for exhibition company Fengyuzhu, the museum is divided into zones with names taken from science fiction films such as the Pod Bay and the Thunder Dome, from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Mad Max respectively.
Fengyuzhu‘ founder Li Hui found inspiration for the project in the Archi-Depot Museum in Tokyo, the first museum of its kind in Japan, which is located in a former warehouse.
“When I looked through photos of Archi-Depot, an idea popped into my head,” said Hui.
“Since the museum focuses on models of various built or unbuilt projects, if we look at these vastly different projects from a macro perspective, and ignore the difference in region and time period, the can form a world together.”
The collection was chosen to present architectural visions of the future.
Originally the intention was to use curtains to define the spaces, but once the steel rods were in place Hui was “deeply touched” by the effect they had on light entering the museum.
The diaphanous effect of vertical dividers is designed to give the sense that The Last Redoubt is one giant architectural model housing scores of models, like a dollhouse.
The central space – accessed via a corridor called Stargate – is lined with glass at its edges and a ceiling of distorted mirrors.
Around this wraps a ring of exhibition spaces separated by partitions of steel rods that create a complex series of sight-lines and a dynamic play of light through the interiors.
The Last Redoubt’s exhibition spaces operate at two scales: model and human. At the scale of the models, the structure has ten storeys of cantilevering shelves protruding from the steel pipework walls.
At the human scale there are two levels, with the main exhibition areas at ground level and a mezzanine walkway allowing visitors to see the higher shelves
In one corner of the museum is the circular Thunder Dome. Lined with white panels and lit by an illuminated ceiling, it is a media hub with virtual reality technology.
“Although I named it the Thunder Dome, it is a peaceful place filled with divine light,” said Hui.
Wutopia Lab‘s previous projects include a pair of pink and blue houses exploring ideas of masculinity and femininity, and a visitor centre in Qinhuangdo with a striped facade inspired by a nautical T-shirts.
Photography is by CreatAR Images.
Project credits:
Architects: Wutopia Lab
Lead architect: YU Ting
Project architect: Wutian SUN
Design team: Haixu ZHANG, Ben ZHANG
Construction: Shanghai Maichang Construction Ltd.
Client: Fengyuzhu
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