Hasta La Ideas

C’est au Lumen, le Musée de la Photo de Montagne en Italie, que la cérémonie de remise des prix du Red Bull Illume 2019 a eu lieu. Pour la cinquième édition, de nombreux participants ont tenté leurs chances dans 11 catégories distinctives. Ouverte aux photographes professionnels, mais aussi amateurs, cette compétition présente des photographies incroyables de sport, d’aventure et d’action. Trèves de suspense, qui est donc le grand vainqueur de cette nouvelle édition ? C’est Ben Thouard et sa photo incroyable du surfeur professionnel Adrien Buchan, dans les eaux cristallines de Polynésie, à Teahupo’o. Ainsi, Thouard arrive en numéro un sur les 59.551 participants après avoir été soumis au jugement des 50 juges de l’événement.

© Ben Thouard / Red Bull Illume.

Sur le site Red Bull Illume, on peut lire l’histoire derrière ce cliché incroyable, expliqué par son auteur : « Tahiti possède certaines des eaux les plus claires du monde, il m’a donc été facile d’en profiter et de l’explorer autant que possible. Cette photo a été prise lors d’une session de freesurf juste avant l’événement WCT à Teahupo’o. C’est Ace Buchan qui sort du canon à travers la vague, une technique pour échapper à une vague de fermeture. Heureusement, j’étais juste en dessous, à bout de souffle avec mon réservoir d’eau attendant ce moment et j’ai pu en capturer toute la séquence ; cette image du début de la séquence est la plus puissante à cause de l’eau autour de son visage et de son corps. »

© Alexander Wick / Red Bull Illume.

© Laurence Crossman-Emms / Red Bull Illume.

© Lorenz Holder / Red Bull Illume.

© Lorenz Holder / Red Bull Illume.

© Noah Wetzel / Red Bull Illume.

© Philip Platzer / Red Bull Illume.

By now many of you have seen that weird split door design that opens like this:

The original is called the EvolutionDoor, which we wrote about here. It was invented by Austrian artist Klemens Torggler, and we rarely see it credited to him.

People have made variants of it, like this one:

After seeing that video, Germany-based fabricator Phil Vandelay figured out how to build his own. Here’s how he did it:

New York architect Erica Tishman has died after being hit by a piece of falling debris in Midtown Manhattan yesterday.

Tishman, aged 60, was struck on the head by the debris on Tuesday 17 December, and was pronounced dead at the scene at around 10.45 am local time yesterday.

The debris fell from 729 7th Avenue, a 17-storey mixed-use building completed in 1915 on 49th Street, near Times Square, the New York Times reported.

Building had damaged facade

The Department of Buildings had fined the building’s owners Himmel + Meringoff Properties in April this year, after finding that its terra cotta facade was damaged.

The violation cited a “failure to maintain exterior building facade” and was listed as a Class 1 – the highest level of severity, which necessitates immediate action.

Himmel + Meringoff Properties was given the approval to start repairs on the exterior in November but were yet to install scaffolding or a protective cover. Work on installing a sidewalk shed began after the fatality, according to the New York Times.

Tishman previously principal of DeWitt Tishman

Tishman, née Erica Lindenbaum, studied at Princeton University and gained her master’s degree in architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She was awarded her architecture licence in New York in 1988.

She joined Manhattan firm DeWitt Tishman in 1993 one year after it was founded by architect Peter DeWitt, who added Tishman to the practice’s name.

The firm has completed a number of projects in New Jersey, such as residential buildings 333 River Street, the Sovereign, the Constitution, and Trump Plaza Residences.

DeWitt Tishman’s aesthetic, particularly its use of brickwork, was celebrated in a 2004 New York Times article.

“We are not timid in our choice of brickwork and colours,” Tishman told the publication at the time. “We make bold use of pattern and colour, which I think is what is very distinctive about our buildings.”

At the time of her death, Tishman was vice president at project management company Zubatkin Owner Representation, which has offices located a 10-minute walk from 729 7th Avenue.

The post Architect killed by falling debris from building in New York appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen has spoken to a huge number of architects, designers and activists this year. For our review of 2019, deputy editor Augusta Pownall picks 10 quotes that sum up what’s been going on in the architecture and design community.

Lena Pripp-Kovac: “We’re looking at a change of our total business”

Lena Pripp-Kovac, head of sustainability at IKEA, told Dezeen in an exclusive interview that the company will have to completely change its practices if it is reach its goal to become a circular business by 2030.

A year into the project, the company that produces 0.1 per cent of total global greenhouse gases is looking at its sourcing, supply chain, production and even its restaurants. Although it’s a “big journey”, the woman tasked with making it happen is “excited” by the daunting task.

Read the full interview>

Annalie Riches: “We don’t want to do anything that doesn’t aim for zero carbon now”

Following Mikhail Riches’ Stirling Prize win for the low-energy Goldsmith Street development in Norwich, practice co-founder Annalie Riches told Dezeen that they intend to minimise the embodied carbon in all future projects.

Riches, whose practice has signed up to Architects Declare, pointed out that in the light of the current climate emergency, the carbon used in construction should be at the top of architects’ agenda.

Read the full interview>

Jessica Walsh: “In design school, on average 70 per cent are women, but the numbers are small when you see who makes it to the top”

Designer Jessica Walsh left Sagmeister & Walsh this year, to found and lead a new creative agency &Walsh. Speaking to Dezeen in the wake of her decision, she decried the fact that so few women make it to the top rung of the design industry ladder.

Walsh also spoke out about the criticism she has received during her career, highlighting the fact that much of it had come from other woman. She responded by setting up an initiative where women in the industry can meet for a drink and network.

Read the full interview>

Paola Antonelli: “We will become extinct; extinction is normal, it’s natural”

Dezeen Day keynote speaker and curator of the Milan Triennale exhibition, Paola Antonelli, believes that humans don’t have the power to stop their own extinction but they can still make their remaining time on Earth count and leave a positive legacy.

Citizens are the true agents of change, she told Dezeen, and the work of curators, designers and writers to try and make a positive difference has fallen on the deaf ears of the political establishment.

Read the full interview>

Cyril Gutsch: “I don’t believe that we’re going to clean up the oceans”

With the debate about ocean plastic shifting to prevention, Parley for the Oceans founder Cyril Gutsch said that the idea that we are able to remove all the plastic in the sea is a dangerous illusion, and we should be focusing instead on finding new material solutions.

Parley welcomes any approach to the problem that is passionate and well-intentioned, but Gutsch slammed the recycling industry for failing to invest in chemical processes that could produce better-quality recycled materials.

Read the full interview>

Sara Arnold: “Creativity doesn’t mean to create more stuff”

Members of the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion staged a funeral for the planet during London Fashion Week in September. Dezeen reporter Natashah Hitti tracked down organiser Sara Arnold at the event to ask her why.

Arnold said that as the second most polluting industry after oil, the fashion world had blood on its hands. Whilst we need creativity “more than ever” it’s time to redefine it and move away from making ever more stuff for consumers to buy.

Read the full interview>

Stacie Woolsey: “We need to make education less elitist”

British design graduate Stacie Woolsey told us earlier this year that the main reason students don’t go on to further education is because they are priced out of an elitist education system that favours the wealthy.

Woolsey took matters into her own hands by approaching a number of designers and asking them to give her a brief that she could work on whilst juggling her paid job. After speaking at the inaugural Dezeen Day in October, she’s launched Make Your Own Masters to help 10 other students do the same.

Read the full interview>

Adebayo Oke-Lawal: “People are afraid to talk about toxic masculinity”

The Nigerian designer behind the fashion label Orange County releases collections that push the boundary of what might be considered masculine clothing. He told Dezeen that he hopes his label celebrates diversity and the idea of the individual rather than conforming to gender and racial stereotypes.

“It is embedded in our society that men are supposed to do a specific thing,” he said, arguing that toxic masculinity is a conversation which can’t be shied away from as its effects continue to be damaging to men in Africa, and around the world.

Read the full interview>

Jeanne Gang: ” Pay women equally for the equal work that they’re doing”

Jeanne Gang was named the world’s most influential architect by Time magazine this year. Seeking to influence the industry at large, she told Dezeen that the best way for practices to show respect to their female employees is to pay them the same amount as men.

Asking politely hasn’t worked, Gang says, so targets similar to the 2030 Challenge to create carbon neutral buildings should be put in place, and architecture firms asked to report on their progress.

Read the full interview>

Karim Rashid: “Universities are more exploiting than a small, brilliant architecture firm”

Designer Karim Rashid weighed in on the unpaid internship row, by declaring that it was expensive university courses that were exploiting students rather than architecture firms that he said “can inspire and be a catalyst for a student’s budding career”.

American industrial designer Brad Ascalon chimed in to suggest that unpaid internship programmes were run for the benefit of the students themselves, rather than the studios who are getting free labour in return, as the interns will need help to be any use to the studio at all.

Read the full interview>

The post Dezeen’s top 10 architecture and design quotes of 2019 appeared first on Dezeen.

From inspiration in the fields of the island of Negros Occidental to bottling in the capital, Manila

In the Philippines, Don Papa premium rum is made from one of the oldest strains of sugarcane grown in some of the richest volcanic soils on the planet. The liquid is crafted in the foothills of active volcano Mt Kanlaon, on the island of Negros Occidental in the country’s Western Visayas region. Launched in 2012, the brand began when owner Stephen Carroll visited Hacienda Rosalia—one of the last remaining sugar plantation homes on the island.

Built in 1933, Hacienda Rosalia is currently home to 86-year-old Monsignor Guillermo Ma. Gaston—a descendant of 19th century sugar baron Victor Fernandez Gaston, a pioneer of sugarcane cultivation in the region. When Carroll visited, he climbed to the rooftop and found the stunning views of the sugarcane fields. This splendid vision inspired him to create Don Papa—the only small-batch premium rum brand in the Philippines.

Don Papa was named to honor unsung hero and mystic Papa Isio (aka Dionisio Magbuelas), one of the leading figures of the late 19th century Philippine Revolution. Initially a foreman at a sugar plantation, his courage played a critical part in liberating Negros Occidental from Spanish rule. Carroll tells us, “I went digging into the archive of the island’s history and found this story about this guy Papa Isio who was the first one to rise up against the Spanish and help boot them off the island… He was more like a sort of Garibaldi figure—something a bit Robin Hood about him.” He continues, “Then when the Americans invaded he was the last of the major fighters to surrender! He lasted another 10 years in the hills, most of the others surrendered. The Americans consolidated their control, but he carried on for another seven or eight years. It was a good story that helped inspire me and the name is an homage to him.”

Made from molasses—the by-product of refined sugar—rum truly begins in the sugarcane fields. We ride a steam-powered train (one of the last few still operating) into the center of a field to see how farmers in the region continue to collect the Nobel Cane (or Cara Morada). Nobel Cane is the original variety of sugarcane in Southeast Asia, dating back thousands of years. The cane is grown for one year, allowing a six-month break for the soil to recuperate before the next cycle. This means the cane can grow to the peak of maturity before flowering. The volcanic soil and the year-round high humidity on Negros Occidental provides the ideal conditions for the sugarcane to grow with vigor.

Farmers use a mud-press technique (and use waste produced from the sugar milling process). This method improves the amount of organic matter in the soil and almost entirely eliminates the use of harmful chemicals and pesticides in this style of traditional sugarcane farming. Farmers then cut down sugarcane with machetes and load it onto oxen. The sugarcane is then loaded onto trucks that deliver them to the mills where it’s crushed, boiled and spun into the refined sugar we are familiar with today.

Don Papa’s molasses comes from one of the island’s oldest sugar mills and is distilled at Ginebra San Miguel Distillery in columns before being aged in American oak casks, many of them coming from Tennessee, Louisville and Kentucky. Carroll tells us many barrels start at Woodford Reserve, Four Roses and Jack Daniels. “They are fantastic,” he explains. “American wood is fabulous and it softens the rum and you get some really nice vanilla notes and cream notes. We also use these magical STR barrels, which again are American Oak. They were used in the wine industry in Spain for making Rioja or Ribera del Duero and then we shave them, toast them and roast them. This really helps magnify some of the fruity notes in the rum and you see how the mass is completely rich and juicy.”

Carroll explains that Philippine rum is naturally sweet because “the molasses is super-rich straight out of the barrel. Philippine molasses has the highest sucrose rate in the world partly due to the fact that the mills are quite inefficient, so there is no added sugar in Don Papa Rum. Inefficient mills make great molasses, great molasses makes great rum.” This contributes to the high flavor profile and quality of the spirit.

Aging rum in the barrels the Philippines humidity is so intense that it causes evaporation (aka angel’s share) of approximately eight to 12% per year. Don Papa Rum loses more than half of the barrel after seven years of aging, which results in a very rich rum that is full in flavor and amber in color. The Master Blender selects the best barrels which are then emptied and blended. The rum is then brought down to 40% ABV with spring water before undergoing a chill charcoal filtration to remove any tannins and impurities. Bottled in Manila, it’s then prepared to be distributed.

While it’s suggested to be sipped on the rocks and garnished with lime, Carroll shared his favorite cocktail recipe with us, The Darker Don.

The Darker Don

Designed to accentuate Don Papa’s fruit-forward, vanilla-noted, smooth rum, the Darker Don is zesty and refreshing.

2 ounces Don Papa Rum
½ ounce lime juice
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Blend ingredients and serve over ice, top off glass with ginger beer and garnish with mint leaves.

Hero image courtesy of Don Papa Rum