Hasta La Ideas

Daily coronavirus briefing: today’s architecture and design coronavirus briefing includes news on Dubai Expo 2020, how Covid-19 hospitals are built, Sam Jacob‘s design academy and an F1 team making a breathing aid.

How emergency coronavirus hospitals are built

Architects for Health chair Christopher Shaw explains how conference centres such as the ExCel in London are being converted into hospitals for coronavirus patients (via RIBAJ).

UN and WHO launch Global Call Out To Creatives to make informative coronavirus visuals

The United Nations and World Health Organisation have launched an open competition for creatives to create informative works that accurately communicate public health messages in a bid to “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus pandemic (via Dezeen).

Dubai Expo 2020 set to be delayed until 2021

The organisers of the Dubai Expo 2020, which was scheduled to begin on 20 October, want to delay the event until 2021 (via Bloomberg).

Sam Jacob launches weekly Desktop Design Academy

Dezeen columnist Sam Jacob has launched a weekly design challenge for those in isolation called the Desktop Design Academy. The first exercise, which is open to all, is to create a souvenir (via Sam Jacob).

SheltAir gridshell pods inflate in eight hours to isolate coronavirus patients

German architectural engineer Gregory Quinn has developed a domed bio-containment pod made from inflatable cushions that could help coronavirus patients isolate (via Dezeen).

National 3D Printing Society calls for printers to items for NHS

The National 3D Printing Society looking for architects and designers to donate their 3D printers to help create items for the National Health Service. The organisation has set up a database to coordinate manufacturing and distribution (via National 3D Printing Society).

Mercedes Formula One team create breathing aid in a week

Engineers from the Mercedes Formula One team and University College London (UCL), along with doctors at the UCL hospital, have made a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) breathing device, which can be used by coronavirus patients not in intensive care (via BBC).

Sick pay and self-isolation employment rights for architects

Architecture magazine Architects’ Journal has created a practical guide that explains architects employment rights during the coronavirus period of self-isolation (via Architects’ Journal).

Brooks Brothers making 150,000 masks a day

Brooks Brothers is the latest clothing company to begin mask production. It is set to make 150,000 masks a day in its factories in New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina (via National Review).

Apple launches coronavirus screening app

Apple has launched a new app that provides users with information about coronavirus. It also allows them to take a basic assessment, asking about relevant symptoms and recent travels, to find out whether they should seek medical care or not (via Hypebeast).

Virgin Orbit plans to mass-produce new medical breathing device

Richard Branson’s satellite launch company Virgin Orbit has developed a new breathing device to help medical workers treat patients with Covid-19, which the company is planning to mass-produce after FDA approval (via The Verge).

London Design Fair 2020 cancelled 

This year’s edition of the London Design Fair, which was set to take place 17-21 September, has been cancelled (via Art and Collections).

Keep up with developments by following Dezeen’s coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. For news of impacted events, check Dezeen Events Guide’s dedicated coronavirus page.

The post Daily coronavirus architecture and design briefing: 31 March appeared first on Dezeen.

The unprecedented present situation has all of donning our Masterchef hats! Be it a craving, lack of food delivery or your favorite restaurant shutting down, we are currently in a crisis mode with many food lovers picking up the spatula for the first time ever to meet their food goals. Social Media has provided us with a lot of tutorials for easy cooking but none of them make the task of approaching a fiery stove and facing the reality of burning our fingers any easier. So what is a foodie to do? Worry not, we have brought to you a collection of kitchen appliances that will make cooking time a fun time, and more importantly, a safe session for the new and the experienced chef alike. So go ahead and don your hats and share your culinary treat with the rest of the world, virtually, of course!

Made from heat-resistant and food-safe plastic, the Egguins by Peleg Design is an innovative way to store, boil, or serve eggs. The hollow penguin shape allows you to slide eggs (both small and large) into it, completing it visually and making it look like a flock of Emperor Penguins ready to dash right into the water – the visual metaphor of connecting the egg, the bird, and the water is just perfect! The uniform placement of the eggs also ensures they are cooked evenly, perfect for every new cook. Whoever said cooking cannot be fun.

The Ordine by Adriano Design features two hob units that are mounted on a central power hub on the wall. Elevated neatly out of the way, the user must simply grab one or both hobs off the wall and set the desired temperature to activate. Save that precious counter space.

Pretend to knock out some blues solos while you’re chopping up your greens because Etsy seller Dave Stencil of CuttingBoredom created some really cool looking wooden chopping boards inspired by two of rock music’s most iconic guitars, the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul. Available in Cherry, Mahogany, and Walnut, these cutting boards come made to perfection with wooden inlays that make them look just like the real deal. Perfect for classic rock lovers and healthy culinary aficionados.

Cooking for the first time can be scary – all that playing with fire literally! The last thing you need is splatters and spills to clean up after. This is where the Frywall comes into play. Fix Frywall around your pan and it always stays on guard, protecting your stovetop even when you stir with a spoon or flip with a spatula. Yet it lets steam escape, so proteins sear without getting soggy. You get the freedom of an open pan, with a lot less mess. And just roll it and store it when not in use! Now experiment fearlessly in the kitchen!

The true pleasure of cooking comes when you can pay attention to every detail, creating that perfect bite of food. And who better than the Japanese to embody that attention to detail? Mimicking a waffle maker, the Mitsubishi Bread Oven looks like it’s come straight out of the ’80s with its retro-esque veneer brown look. Built with a sealed thermal-insulated structure, it can toast your bread without releasing any moisture, ensuring the bread is soft, fluffy and far from being dry. The metal box is equipped with two plates that can go up to temperatures as high as 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Mitsubishi designed the oven ensuring only one slice of bread could be cooked in one go, but slam-dunking it by guaranteeing that slice would be the best toast we ever have.

Unlike traditional 4-burner systems, the Cookacross by Zaviè Design Studio features a grid of multiple gas outlets with independent valves that shut on/off instantaneously. The smart system automatically detects the size of the pot or pan placed on the surface and turns on the individual gas outlets beneath it. This not only prevents waste but ensures the evenest heat distribution of any stovetop solution. Of course, users can also pull up the COOKACROSS app on their smartphone and reduce the number or the heating level with a simple swipe or touch.

Supporting you in your eating-clean-habit is the Mizzle by Gökhan Çetinkaya & Deniz İbanoğlu, a smart aeroponic kitchen appliance that helps you grow microgreens. This smart cultivator comes with three compartments, one for the germination process (a little dark and humid place), and two for the growth and harvesting process. What I like about the design is that it not only grows the greens for you efficiently but also makes the cultivation process engaging and exciting for the user. You can track the progress via an app on the mobile and also get alerts with regards to water levels in the tank. The app also helps you with recipes that make you use the microgreens. Added bonus – get fresh veggies for cooking without stepping out of your home. Social Distancing is achieved!

Now that you have chopped the onions, time to get rid of the smell. Molecules from the food you’re working with (sulfur, in the case of garlic) stick to our hands and don’t wash away with water. In fact on contact, water turns the sulfur into sulfuric acid, only increasing the stench instead of washing it away. Stainless Steel, like the one used to make the Rub-Away soap by Amco, pulls off the sulfur molecules from your hands, so a quick wash with a steel soap not only physically cleans your hands, it removes odors on a molecular level. And it never gets over!

The Kitchen Multi-Tool by Gentlemen’s Hardware is built so that you can take your culinary talents with you wherever you are. The size of any regular multi-tool, the Kitchen Multi-Tool comes jam-packed with 12 very specific, very handy day-to-day kitchen tools that will bring a certain flair and flavor to all your culinary experiments – in quarantine and outdoors!

There’s something simple and beautiful about this chopping board with a storage box designed by Dewel. It ticks all the boxes of good product design, solving problems without creating new ones. You slice your veggies or any other food that needs slicing and then either store the sliced bits in the container and use it to directly empty contents into your cooking vessel, or use the board for peeling and store all the leftovers and peels in the container, which then empties itself into the waste bin.

COFFEEJACK comes from Ashley Hribar-Green & Matthew Aston Cain who have set out to shrink the coffee machine to a form factor so small, you might as well carry it around everywhere you go along with the rest of your belongings. The COFFEEJACK works with any coffee-grind, enabling you to have your favorite espresso anywhere you go. Just add your coffee grind to the lower chamber and COFFEEJACK’s in-built tamper will level the grounds and pack them tightly. Open out the pump and pour hot water into the upper chamber and you’re ready to go! The espresso maker’s manual pump matches the high-pressure output of most coffee machines, giving you an espresso that is as deliciously thick and even has that layer of flavor-packed crema on top, just like the one your barista makes with professional equipment. Who needs Starbucks anymore? Not just quarantine, this goes into our apocalypse survival kit!

Designed by Savin Dimov and Altino Alex, Bubble is a food tracker that monitors our food consumption, in an attempt to encourage a healthier lifestyle and to reduce food wastage. With people hoarding everything from toilet paper to groceries, it is imperative that we don’t waste all the food stored, because what a shame that would be! Bubble identifies and tracks all the items within. It directly sends updates to your smartphone, so you’re always aware of what’s in your kitchen! You can track which food products you consume the most, and what you consume the least. Bubble ensures all the storage data is at the tip of your fingers, so you can shop and live mindfully, without creating any unnecessary wastage of food.

German architectural engineer Gregory Quinn has developed SheltAir, domed bio-containment pods erected using inflatable cushions that could help coronavirus patients isolate.

SheltAir consists of a gridshell of plastic rods, which is assembled flat before being pushed up into its final, domed shape through a pneumatic formwork of inflatables.

This blow-up cushion is made of PVC-coated polyester. It stays in place once inflated, doubling as the building’s architectural envelope.

The envelope is heat-welded to an outer skin to create a completely sealed environment, which is crucial when it comes to isolating with a virus like Covid-19.

“One of the problems that hospitals are facing is that staff and visitors are at risk of infections,” Quinn told Dezeen.

“So smaller units of containment make a lot of sense. To create negative pressure and filter out any particles or droplet you need a sealed environment,” he added.

“Some people have been proposing converting shipping containers into ICUs but sealing them is a real challenge, whereas the SheltAir comes pre-sealed.”

The design has been passed on to the World Bank to assess a potential roll-out in the fight against the coronavirus. Quinn is currently in talks with medical evacuation, or medivac, companies about getting the design into the field.

A key benefit SheltAir’s gridshell structure, which was popularised by German architect Frei Otto, is that its lattice skeleton is lightweight. It uses minimal material while remaining incredibly sturdy through its double-curved structure.

“It’s sort of like an egg shell which is very stiff given how light and thin it is,” Quinn explained.

“So in their end state, gridshells are incredibly efficient but the erection process has historically been abysmal. It can take days and weeks because you either have to lift it up with a crane or push it up with stilts or scaffolding, which is unstable and a logistical nightmare.”

Quinn’s solution of introducing pneumatic cushions, which are often used to erect concrete shells, minimises erection time to eight hours – and in future prototypes he is hoping to cut this time by half.

The method for setting up the SheltAir is purposefully low-tech and low-skill.

It starts with a ground sheet that comes complete with drawn-on instructions and is laid out to serves as a template for the building.

“The glass fibre-reinforced rods of the gridshell come collapsed in pre-assembled bundles, which are flipped open to form six large rod tiles and connected together on top of the ground sheet,” he said.

“Laser-cut steel plates are assembled along the perimeter of that sheet. Once the structure is inflated, the beam ends stick out of the edge of the cushion and need to be pulled down to their support points in the perimeter plates, sort of like with a tent.”

The SheltAir was originally conceptualised as a rapid disaster relief shelter for refugees, as part of the Healthy Housing for the Displaced (HHftD) project from the University of Bath and Cambridge.

For this purpose, the grid structure offers more than 100 hanging points for lights, utensils and partitions to accommodate more than one family in the same space, while the addition of portholes allows for easy ventilation in hot climates.

“The design is heavily influenced by Bedouin architecture, and it exploits those openings at the perimeter and the opening at the top to create a really effective nighttime purge cooling,” he explained.

“The idea of using soft petition curtains also played into this idea of keeping one volume of air that is always moving.”

Portholes allow for easy ventilation in hot climatesQuinn is working with charities with the aim of introducing SheltAirs into refugee camps in the coming months.

“It’s really hard to innovate in terms shelter design and disaster relief response because when the crisis hits people just need to respond really quickly and go with the solution that’s most readily available,” he explained.

“That’s why the need for larger, communal spaces – for medical treatment and social or religious gathering – is never really catered to. But the coronavirus pandemic is a unique crisis because it’s happening everywhere. Each country is being affected at a different rate and at a different time, so it actually presents a really interesting opportunity for a more considered approach.”

The coronavirus has now infected more than half a million people around the world, with numbers continuing to climb.

In response, Italian firm Carlo Ratti Associati has unveiled plans for creating intensive care pods within shipping containers, while start-up Jupe has designed flat-packed, pop-up health care facilities.

Meanwhile the American Institute of Architects is working on a set of guidelines on how to safely and effectively convert existing buildings into temporary hospitals.

The post SheltAir gridshell pods inflate in 8 hours to isolate coronavirus patients appeared first on Dezeen.

As we adjust to this new normal, we are understanding the value of a good pair of earphones. Given that we are constantly on a video call with a co-worker/friend or isolating with roommates/family, earphones are a part of the heroes of our homes…of course, WiFi is the supreme leader of that list. Inspired by essential personal devices that help us during quarantine, designer Felipe Duarte has created Yinyang earbuds for Samsung that are going to make you want to switch from your AirPods because it solves the major issues we face – the one-size that doesn’t fit all, the case which is an added device to charge, the bulky aesthetic, portability without the case and a charging solution if you lose the case.

The Yinyang earbuds are influenced by the duality of the millennia-old cultural concept of yin and yang. The Chinese philosophical thought behind the yin and yang is the balance between two forces that oppose and complement each other at all times. These conceptual Samsung earbuds are designed to reflect that philosophy by striking a perfect balance between user experience and portability. Yinyang earbuds are created to be the smallest in the market to that it can fit everyone (a problem I personally go through with my first-gen AirPods). The compact size will be achieved by getting rid of the ear tips.

The conceptual technology of the Yingyang earbuds that make it one-of-its-kind lies in the inflatable hook which secures the earbuds in place. It also features wireless charging and magnets on the rear end of the gadget so they can be charged on the back of our NFC-enabled cell phone, thus eliminating the need for a charging case (if there was one, I would humbly request it not to resemble a floss box). You can also kinetically charge the earbuds by keeping yourself moving (we all could use some extra steps and exercise right now!) if your phone dies. The Yinyang earbuds can also be attached to the lapel of the jacket – that is how portable they are and with the sleek aesthetic, you are upping your accessory game with your tech.

Felipe, if you are reading this, please make this happen once we are all back out in the world, thank you.

Designer: Felipe Duarte

Dezeen’s Face to Face podcast series continues with an interview with British architect David Chipperfield, who describes growing up on a farm, struggling at school, how Zaha Hadid saved him from failing his architecture diploma – and why he still suffers from imposter syndrome.

Listen to the episode below or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts to catch the whole series.

In the Face to Face series, Dezeen’s founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs sits down with leading architects and designers to discuss their lives and careers.

Chipperfield is one of the world’s most celebrated architects, known for his calm, rational style that resists the wild experimentalism of many of his contemporaries. “I was brought up on a heavy diet of good old-fashioned modernism,” he said in the interview.

Childhood influences 

Chipperfield grew up in Devon and worked on his father’s farm before attending boarding school, where he discovered he was good at long-distance running and art, but not much else. “I was not very good at school,” he explained. “Fairly hopeless I would say. But I was good at art.”

His poor grades dashed his early hopes of becoming a vet, so he instead pursued architecture thanks to the encouragement of his art teacher. After graduating from Kingston School of Art in London, he attended the Architectural Association school, which was then a hotbed of radical ideas.

Studying at the AA

Chipperfield studied at the AA at the same time as the late Zaha Hadid, who once stood up for him during a difficult review that could have resulted in him failing the course. “Zaha, until her dying days, reminded me that if it hadn’t been for her, I would have failed and that she got me my diploma,” he remembered during the interview.

Chipperfield went on to work for both Richard Rogers and Norman Foster for a number of years, despite not being partial to the high-tech architecture movement they helped pioneer.

“I wasn’t particularly interested in high-tech, funnily enough,” he said. “Although I had the opportunity to go to Paris and see the Centre Pompidou during construction with Richard and I thought that was just the sexiest building I’d ever seen,” he added.

“I feel a bit of a fake”

After setting up his own office in the mid-eighties, his career took off when he designed a series of stores for fashion designer Issey Miyake in Japan.

His practice, David Chipperfield Architects, has since designed acclaimed projects all over the world, including the Neues Museum in Berlin, the Amorepacific headquarters in Seoul and The Hepworth Wakefield museum in England.

However, despite his success, Chipperfield said he feels like “a sham” compared to his contemporaries. “I have a sense of purpose maybe but I don’t have innate creative talents to the level of someone like Renzo [Piano] or maybe Frank Gehry or Álvaro Siza,” he said. “So in that sense, I feel a bit of a fake.”

However, he remains motivated “more than ever” to promote the role of the architect in society as possible solutions to issues such as the housing and climate crises. “Architects used to work for the common good and now we work for the market,” he said. “So I think that this crisis is forcing everybody to rethink things that we fundamentally believe.”

Read more Dezeen stories about David Chipperfield.

Produced by Dezeen’s in-house creative team Dezeen Studio, Face to Face episodes will be released every Tuesday for the next eight weeks. Future interviewees will include Roksanda Illinčić, Tom Dixon and Norman Foster.

The previous episode of Face to Face features industrial designer Hella Jongerius, who explains how she grew up on a tomato farm and discovered her creative ability when she took an evening course in carpentry.

The podcast features original music composed by Japanese designer and sound artist Yuri Suzuki.

Face to Face is sponsored by Twinmotion, the real-time architectural visualisation solution that can create immersive photo and video renders in seconds.

Subscribe to Dezeen’s podcasts

You can listen to Face to Face here on Dezeen or subscribe on podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

The post “I feel like a bit of a fake” says David Chipperfield in Dezeen’s latest podcast appeared first on Dezeen.