Hasta La Ideas

Le pavillon “bookworm” – comprendre rat de bibliothèque – est loin d’être une bibliothèque classique. Conçue par le cabinet d’architecture Nudes, cette structure mobile s’étale sur plus de 36 mètres de long et 12 mètres de large, et propose au lecteur de s’immerger dans un tunnel de livres tortueux, entre des étagères en bois dont le mouvement rappelle celui des vagues. Les livres s’y entreposent sur de multiples cases, que le lecteur peut également utiliser comme assise.  

Conçue pour être mobile, la bibliothèque a vocation à se déplacer en Afrique subsaharienne et en Asie du Sud afin d’offrir un accès à la lecture dans des zones où les populations ne sont que peu, ou pas, alphabétisées. Installé dans les jardins du musée CSMVS à Bombay jusqu’en décembre, le pavillon “bookworm” se déplacera ensuite à travers l’Inde.

Incense has always been used by people for religious and spiritual activities, as well as to eradicate unpleasant odors. However, the smoke produced from the incense contains toxic gaseous substances, that can adversely impact our respiratory system. Hence, product designer Dongkyu Kim designed Hyang. Hyang is an incense humidifier, that replaces the traditional incense!

It features an incense-like stick, as well as a base incense holder. You simply fill the base holder with water and add a fragrance of your choice. Place the cover on top, and close it. Then insert the stick into the holder. It automatically lights up and begins to emit steam. The steam is a healthier and cleaner alternative to the usual incense smoke. The incense humidifier can be charged via a USB Type-C, so it need not be connected to a power source at all times, making it portable as well! Plus since there’s no actually burning happening, there’s no chance of setting anything on fire, or even accidentally burning yourself!

Having won several awards such as the iF Talent Award in 2018, The Asia Design Award in 2019, and the Silver PIN UP Concept Design Award in 2019, Hyang is a portable and safer option to the usual incense, especially in countries where incense burning is a daily religious practice. Not to mention it simultaneously functions as a humidifier, and its minimal and clean aesthetics make for a sweet decoration piece!

Designer: Dongkyu Kim

A brick holiday home in Tangshan, China designed by Arch Studio has four external terraces partially sheltered under a pitched roof.

Replacing a demolished wooden dwelling, the site is near to an organic food plant and a Buddhist shrine also completed by Arch Studio.

Aptly named Courtyard Villa, the holiday home is an inversion of traditional courtyard dwellings in China called siheyuan.

“Siheyuan has an inward-facing architectural structure, with buildings arranged around a central courtyard,” said Arch Studio.

“The exterior of siheyuan is closed, while the interior courtyard is completely open, which offers little privacy for the occupants.”

Reversing this traditional arrangement, the covered centre of Courtyard Villa houses a large, covered communal hall for entertaining guests.

Sheltered courtyards that are open on one side are pushed to the edge of the cross-shaped plan, where they have views out across the rural landscape.

These terraces and the central hall have been kept as open as possible.

Conversely, the four arms of the home that support the roof and house bedrooms, a study and a kitchen are wrapped in brick and turn inwards to overlook small internal courtyards.

The brown paving of the terraces continues in to the interior of the hall, which contains a large dining table and a living space arranged around a fireplace.

Full-height windows and doors allow the activities in the hall to spill out on to the external terraces, which are four distinct areas divided by the other rooms.

The wooden roof structure has been left exposed internally, and topped with charred wood tiles externally.

“The combination of wood and bricks produces an austere, warm and natural interior ambiance,” said the studio.

Deep brick openings lead into the bedrooms, which feature the same paved floor finish and minimal furniture and fixings.

Each one looks out through floor-to-ceiling glass on to a private internal courtyard.

Small sections of brick wall have been perforated to allow dappled light and fresh air to enter the bedrooms while maintaining privacy.

Instead of windows, daylight enters the room through these boxed-in yards.

Arch Studio often turns to the courtyard dwelling typology for its designs.

At the organic food plant in Tangshan, different functions of the programme were housed in individual house-like blocks linked by their external spaces.

More recently, the practice completed a series of workspaces in Beijing that reinvigorated a series of neglected buildings by introducing a “folding’ walkway that created rooftop paths around courtyards.

Photography is by Wang Ning.

Project credits:

Design firm: Arch Studio
Chief designer: Han Wenqiang
Architectural and interior design: Jiang Zhao, Hu Bo
Structural design: Zhang Yong
Electrical and plumbing design: Zheng Baowei
HVAC consultation: JAGA

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Snøhetta has been granted planning permission for an indoor garden at New York’s 550 Madison, which forms part of its overhaul of the postmodern tower.

Snøhetta‘s proposal for the indoor public garden on the ground floor of the 37-storey office building was approved by the New York City Planning Commission this week.

The garden is part of an updated proposal that the firm revealed in 2018, after a major backlash against its initial design resulted in the postmodern tower gaining landmark status.

The new scheme was approved by New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in February 2019.

Construction on the garden will begin this year and the building’s interior renovation is currently underway, and over 50 per cent complete. The firm is still awaiting permission to complete exterior renovation work.

Snøhetta’s garden will be accessed from the west side of 550 Madison, formerly known as the AT&T Building. The design reimagines 550 Madison’s existing public area which previously housed cafe tables and chairs, and linked to the adjacent building at 717 5th Avenue.

The firm will rip out the existing curved glass roof covering the space and also remove annex buildings built inside, to create 50 per cent more room for the project.

A new, steel-and-glass roof supported by slender white columns will provide cover over the space and be a reference to the former roof.

An abundance of vegetation will feature inside with many evergreens and shrubs native to the Northeastern US. “Over 40 trees will be planted where today there are none,” Snøhetta said.

Greenery will also cover over a new car park and truck dock, forming a buffer along the rear wall.

“Conceptually, the landscape responds to the canyon-like verticality of Midtown Manhattan, with a verdant, layered topography that lifts up along the west side of the garden, both minimising the impact of existing tower service infrastructure while providing a sense of being immersed in the garden,” said Snøhetta.

The indoor garden will contain a feature water wall that will also help to buffer street commotion from the surroundings of Midtown Manhattan.

550 Madison’s garden is a privately-owned public space (POPS) that is modelled on “pocket parks” elsewhere in the city, like the Modern Musem of Art‘s Sculpture Garden and the nearby Paley Park. Snøhetta claims the 550 Madison garden will be the “biggest outdoor space in Midtown” free for the public to use.

The garden will also be visible from inside the tower’s office lobby, which will be renovated by Gensler.

“Privately-owned public spaces are a critical part of New York City’s public realm,” said Snøhetta’s director of landscape architecture Michelle Delk. “Urban life thrives in and around spaces that allow us to connect with one another and to nature.”

“We need to make the most of the spaces we already have and recognise that they are part of a network that contributes to the livelihood of the city,” Delk added.

Johnson completed Madison in 1984 with John Burgee, 550 Madison. Formerly home to companies AT&T and Sony, it is regarded as the first skyscraper in the controversial postmodern style, which emerged in the late 1970s as an ideological reaction against the utopian ideals of modernism.

Snøhetta’s original scheme, revealed in 2017, included plans to replace portions of the exterior with an undulated curtain wall of translucent glass, which prompted criticism and protests from the architecture industry. The team revised the proposal is more a stripped-back design and intends to restore many features to Johnson’s original intention and sprucing up the existing brickwork.

A series of circular forms will also be included in the garden to take cues from Johnson’s circular motifs at 550 Madison, like the large circular window defining its front entrance and the arches in the lobby.

Pavings will be laid in circular shapes to mark different areas in the public space, including The Living Room, The Waterfall Room, The Tree Room and The Picnic Room.

In addition to 550 Madison, Snøhetta is also working on a waterfront community centre in Denmark, Ford’s Research & Engineering Center, and a public library building in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Renderings are by Snøhetta and MOARE.

Project credits:

Design architect and landscape architect: Snøhetta
Architect of record: AAI
Landscape architect of record: SiteWorks
Horticulturalist: Phyto
Development team: The Olayan Group, RXR Realty, Chelsfield

The post Snøhetta gets go ahead for public garden at Phillip Johnson’s AT&T building appeared first on Dezeen.

I can just feel like the punchline for this article should be “Can you dig it?”

This is the Kikka Digga, just like its energetic name, it helps energize the act of digging by reducing the strain and load on your back, allowing you to dig faster and better. The Kikka Digga, with its universal fixture, snaps onto all standard shovels, spades, and pitchforks. With a secure, two-part design, it secures to the base of the handle, and gives you a footrest that helps you transfer the load and make digging easier.

Imagine lifting something very heavy without any help. You bend down, pick up the load, and lift either with your knees or your back. Either way, it causes physical strain, limiting the amount of work you can do. Now imagine using a seesaw to lift the same amount of weight. Instead of using your back, you use a lever with a fulcrum, making the work significantly easier. The Kikka Digga works the same way. Once you push the shovel or pitchfork into the ground, place your foot on Kikka Digga’s footrest. This footrest immediately acts as a fulcrum-point so instead of lifting the shovel and soil upwards, you just need to pull down and back as the shovel pushes the soil up and forward. If you want to get into the mechanics of it, since the Kikka Digga works quite like a seesaw, the attachment’s positioning is crucial. It sits at the very base of the handle, giving you a longer lever-arm to tug on… and if anyone’s studied basic physics in the seventh grade, it helps drastically cut down the amount of effort you’d normally apply, letting you easily shovel dirt, soil, cement, sand, snow, all without breaking a sweat, or worse, breaking your spine. *insert punchline*

The Kikka Digga is a winner of the European Product Design Award for the year 2019.

Designer: Nick Skaliotis