Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen promotion: Fentress Architects is inviting entries to its annual Fentress Global Challenge – a competition that tasks students with designing an airport terminal for the year 2100.

First launched in 2011, the annual Fentress Global Challenge (FGC) is open to graduate and undergraduate students across the globe, and aims to advance the pursuit of innovative design in public architecture.

Designers are asked to create a new airport terminal concept, taking into consideration forecasts for the future population, environmental conditions, modes of travel and potential destinations.

“Despite a multitude of technological advances including video conferencing and drones, the proliferation of airports worldwide continues to be spurred on by global commerce and an unrelenting demand for travel,” said Fentress Architects.

“While the airport terminal – conceived a century ago – is a relatively new architectural typology, it has since its inception held equal importance with quintessential civic buildings: city halls, courthouses, libraries, museums, and theatres.”

“Yet, airports are uniquely complex and they are more than just high volume transportation hubs,” added the US practice. “Increasingly, airports are also workplaces, centres of commerce, recreational outlets, and cultural resources.”

Over its past 10 editions, the competition has accrued thousands of entries from over 75 countries that have competed for top honours.

Both undergraduate students who are currently pursuing architecture or engineering degrees in an accredited university program and recent graduates who have received a degree in architecture or engineering within the last four years are free to enter.

Current students must provide proof of active enrolment status, which includes a scanned copy of their student ID and current course schedule. Recent graduates must provide a scanned copy of their diploma.

As Fentress Architects explains, all concepts must be contextualised to create an identity for themselves.

“Context is more than an intellectual consideration of the history or physical appearance of a neighbourhood, city, or state, and it’s more than the way new will live with old.”

“Context draws on the senses, the sights, smells and memories that define a place and make it unique. Context grows from community, and people respond to it.”

Entrants are also encouraged to make predictions about the factors that will most influence airport terminal building design in the year 2100, and improve on at least one of these elements.

This includes mobility, urbanisation, globalisation, technology, flexibility, security, project feasibility and passenger experience.

Concepts must be sustainable – boasting environmentally responsible, healthy, equitable and profitable qualities – as well as resilient – being capable of adapting to changing conditions and maintaining functionality through natural and manmade disasters.

The new terminal concept must also be located at one of the world’s 20 busiest airports, including Dubai International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and London’s Heathrow airport.

Designs are evaluated on their use of clear and concise language to convey ideas, key points and design solutions, and photographs, diagrams, renderings, animations, collages and other visualisations are encouraged to help explain the concept.

A jury of distinguished industry experts will look for innovative and inspiring design approaches, with both the concept and design solution being presented through unique and compelling graphics and other media.

The winner of first place will be awarded $10,000, and will be given the opportunity to accompany FGC founder, Curtis Fentress, to a prestigious architectural event. Airfare, lodging and entrance fees will be paid for by Fentress Architects, with a limit of $5,000.

If designers are entering as a group, the monetary prize and attendance at the architectural event will be distributed equally.

The second place winner will receive $3,000, and the third place winner will receive $2,000, while the two selected winners of the People’s Choice Award will each be given $1,000.

Entrants must submit their concepts by midnight 31 July 2020. The shortlist will be announced on 4 September, before the winners announcement on 2 October 2020.

Participants must register and upload competition materials to their profile page on the FGC website.

Concepts must be written in English, and use the American system of measurements.

To find out more about the submission guidelines and Fentress’ “eight touchstones of design”, visit the company’s design philosophy page.

For more information on the competition itself, visit the Fentress Architects website.

The post Fentress Architects launches 2020 competition to design airport of the future appeared first on Dezeen.

Comme chaque semaine nous vous proposons de partir à la rencontre de la nouvelle artiste mise en avant sur notre nouvelle plateforme Fubiz Prints. Après les photographes Raul Cabrera, Louis Dazy et Ludwig Favre, nous vous dévoilons le travail de Valentine Reinhardt. Vous pourrez acquérir ses oeuvres colorées jusqu’au lundi 6 avril 12h (heure française).

Cette artiste basée à Paris imagine des compositions photographique où la féminité et la nature sont au centre du sujet. Ainsi les corps et les fleurs cohabitent pour nous transporter dans un univers proche de l’onirique. Elle fait aussi la part belle à la couleur. Dans chacune de ses créations, le sujet vit au coeur d’une ambiance colorimétrique, qui constitue l’identité du travail de Valentine Reinhardt. Cette dernière a notamment prêté sa patte artistique sur l’un des derniers clips de Sébastien Tellier.

Nous vous présentons donc cette semaine une sélection de cinq créations de Valentine Reinhardt dont chacune sera proposée au prix unique de 39€. Il est temps de vous procurer une impression numérotée et donc unique de cette artiste durant une semaine, au format de 48 x 68 cm imprimée sur un Papier d’art de qualité MOHAWK (175gsm Superfine Eggshell). Vous avez jusqu’au lundi 6 avril 12h (heure française) pour commander votre oeuvre favorite. Ne ratez pas cette occasion unique !

A chunky pink-plaster counter dominates the otherwise sparse interior of this cafe in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, which has been revamped by design studio Bone.

La Petite is situated in Al Ain’s Al Tiwayyah neighbourhood and has been a popular food and drink spot amongst locals for several years.

Over time it had grown tired in appearance, encouraging its owners to tweak its visual identity and menu. Design studio Bone was brought on board to completely overhaul the cafe’s interiors.

The 85-square-metre space is now anchored by a huge service counter that’s covered in dusty-pink plaster. It comprises two different-sized blocks – the taller one conceals back-of-house utilities, while the lower one is where staff prepare orders.

Directly in front is a row of earth-tone seating poufs, allowing the lower block to serve as a spot for customers to enjoy their drinks. A cushioned bench seat has also been integrated into the taller block.

“We wanted to highlight the longitudinal nature of the space by designing a monolithic volume that functions as a working, serving, display, table, and seating surface – redefining the conventional coffee bar,” the studio told Dezeen.

“In order to avoid the volume feeling invasive, the idea was to create a sunken block that serves both the barista and the customer,” it continued.

“The goal was to achieve a fluid interaction between the customer seated in front of the bar and the barista at work behind the bar – where both eye levels meet.”

More seating is available on the opposite side of the cafe, where a white communal sofa runs the length of an entire wall.

This takes cues from the Arabic term majlis – a private lounge or reception room where guests are entertained, typically sitting on floor cushions that are placed around the periphery of the room.

Blocky steel side tables and black-frame chairs from multidisciplinary design studio Frama have also been used to decorate the space, as well as a handful of vases filled with wildflowers.

Surfaces throughout have been washed with sandy-beige plaster, the colour intended as a subtle nod to Al Ain’s desert landscape.

The glass doors that previously fronted the cafe have been replaced by 2.6 metre-high glazed panels. These can be concertinaed to open up the space to a gravelled outdoor terrace that’s dressed with casual fold-out timber chairs.

Customers can alternatively perch on the high-back cushions that have been placed on the cafe’s steps.

La Petite is the latest cafe to be completed by Bone, which recently developed the interiors of the Hoof eatery in Ras Al Khaimah.

Designed to resemble horse stalls, the space boasts rough plaster walls and huge, trough-like metal sinks.

Photography is by Oculis Project.

Project credits:

Design: Bone
Contractor: Fusion
Custom mineral plaster finishes: Optimum Gulf
Interior architectural lighting: PSLab
Exterior lighting: Flos
Table lamps: In Common With
Door system: Oryx
Furniture: Gervasoni, Frama, Skargaarden, Ethnicraft

The post Monolithic plaster counter centres La Petite cafe in Abu Dhabi appeared first on Dezeen.

While diversity has become an increasingly urgent and widely discussed topic in the creative industries over the last few years, in the UK only 13.8% of people working in ad agencies identify as multicultural, and 5.6% of those in executive positions are from ethnic minority backgrounds, while at board level female representation sits at just 32.7%.

These are the stats that inspired Ally Owen to set up Brixton Finishing School in 2017. Owen, who has 25 years’ worth of experience in the media and ad industries, founded the south London-based school in order to give under-represented 18-25 year olds a chance to break into the industry via real world advertising experiences.

Some of last year’s intake of students have since gone on to secure roles at creative agencies and media companies including adam&eveDDB, R/GA, Mediacom and Mail Metro Media. An online version of the course had already been planned for 2021 to allow for a bigger intake of students from under-served communities across the UK but, in a rare piece of positive coronavirus related news, it has been brought forward to this year.

Here, we speak to Owen about what hopeful applicants can expect to get out of the fast-track course, and how virtual schools could help provide a creative solution to the post-coronavirus uncertainty in the creative industries.

Creative Review: Tell us about why you set up Brixton Finishing School.
Ally Owen: Oddly enough, the school was inspired by the existence of Katie Hopkins (for ‘inspired’ also read that as ‘fucked me off so much I had to take action’). I began to ask myself, why should she get a platform when so many voices in our community are ignored by the media industry? By relying on a narrow type of talent to transmit messages, ideas and create work (83% of creative directors are white males), we are missing out on so much, and also producing some clangers along the way – Pepsi anyone?

Together with our wonderful founding sponsors and supporters we created a free, ten-week course that transformed raw talent into entry-level candidates for a spectrum of ring-fenced roles at big-name companies across the digital, media and creative industries. Our focus is multicultural, female, neurodiverse and income-challenged individuals who want to accelerate their digital, creative and professional skills.

It’s taught by the best in the industry through a series of lectures, masterclasses, real world experiences and online learning. A number of bursaries are available to fund living costs while our students study. Our 2018 cohort had 95% employment 12 weeks after graduation. As well as entry level roles, students have the opportunity to win scholarships to the SCA 2.0, the world’s most awarded ad school.

CR: Why did you decide to launch the virtual course, and how does it differ from the existing one?
AO: Our ambition was always to take a version of the Brixton learning experience online; we’ve just accelerated it as a response to the economic impact of Covid-19 on our target groups. We need to create positive pathways for those affected by the crisis, a chance to upskill and open new doors. By creating a virtual school, we overcome the challenge of location, and hopefully get some more northern and regional voices into the business. It means we can introduce our ‘secret’ world to a much wider audience, who may never have considered a career in creativity and advertising.

We are working on the exact course content, and want to ensure it hits the quality I look for. It will include weekly webinars with industry experts, professional skills workshops, live Q&As, and virtual group project work on real briefs. We can also introduce remote mentoring. We want to make this as inclusive and accessible as possible, so we aren’t going to overload the weekly curriculum (the physical school is pretty intensive), as we presume participants may already be in some form of paid work or education. We envisage it being ongoing and growing in terms of its breath of coverage.

CR: Talk us through the application process, and what you look for in potential applicants?
AO: The physical course has a maximum of 36 students. For the virtual school we are finalising the total number of students we can mentor and support on working on briefs (the more supporters who offer time, the more we can do, so please volunteer). I’m hoping for at least 100. I’m also hoping we can make aspects including masterclasses and Q&As open to all.

Brixton Finishing School looks for qualities in people when selecting who will take part, we value qualifications but we also value potential. Applicants are asked to register on our website and attend a virtual taster evening where they are assessed in a group task on listening, creativity, communication, teamwork and positive input by a team of industry supporters. If you are neuro-diverse this isn’t necessarily the best way to judge your potential, so we have a second stage 45-minute, one-to-one interview about your personal brand values with another experienced volunteer.

I believe it takes a village to raise a talent, so throughout the selection process and the course we involve as many potential employers and industry representatives as possible. Luckily it’s not up to me to choose, otherwise we would be packed to the rafters.

CR: What kind of teaching methods and experiences does the course include?
AO: Our approach blends unique, real world industry experiences, expert masterclasses and advice on how to win at work. Our teaching staff include industry leaders, university lecturers and workshop leads on professional skills. Our aim is to make the student as employable as possible so they can achieve their creative career goals by understanding how to deliver their A game in interviews and demonstrate potential.

In ten weeks they will cover digital marketing theory and practice, creative thinking, and the soft skills needed to succeed in the workplace. As the end of the course approaches, the focus shifts to include interview practice and CV writing. Real world experiences are packed in with immersion days at our sponsors and networking events. It’s a packed schedule and one that produces results.

CR: Do you think the long-term impact of coronavirus will make the creative industries more open to the potential of virtual courses like this one?
AO: At the heart of creativity is innovation and the ability to pivot based on consumer needs. We are just moving our messaging to the platform that works best for our users currently, and which opens up new markets. An online course can be enriching, virtual group work reflects the global nature of the creative business and prepares its students for the real world. We are in a massive digital experiment over the next three weeks of lockdown, by the end of it I’m pretty sure we will have nailed working virtually as an industry.

Brixton Finishing School is currently taking applications until 1 May. The 10-week virtual course will begin on 29 June 2020, find out more and apply at brixtonfinishingschool.org

The post Brixton Finishing School’s new virtual course combats coronavirus paralysis appeared first on Creative Review.

Dezeen Jobs has a number of promising architecture and design roles available right now, including positions at international studio White Red Architects and Chinese firm Superimpose Architecture.

Part 3/project architect at White Red Architects

White Red Architects has an opening for an experienced Part 3 architect or project architect at its London office. The studio completed a study room for the members-only area of The British Library, allowing membership-holders to access a private space for studying.

View more Part 3 opportunities ›

Mandarin-speaking architects at Superimpose Architecture

Superimpose Architecture created an interactive pavilion as part of Beijing Design Week 2018, intended to offer a place of calm in the centre of the capital.

The studio is seeking Mandarin-speaking architects with a minimum of two years’ experience join its practice in Beijing, China.

See all jobs in Beijing ›

Senior architect at UNStudio

UNStudio has an opportunity for a senior architect with extensive experience of international large-scale projects, to become part of its team in Shanghai, China.

The firm has revealed plans to build a 300-metre skyscraper in Dubai, featuring a ceramic-tile facade which will be illuminated at night.

Browse all architecture positions ›

Part 2/3 architects at Works Progress Architecture

Works Progress Architecture completed a three-sided building in northern Portland, featuring protruding windows that are set at varying angles.

The practice is looking for motivated Part 2/3 architects to join its Portland team in the US.

See more vacancies in the US ›

Landscape designer at MAD

MAD is recruiting for a landscape designer to work on large-scale mixed-use, cultural and civic projects at its studio in Beijing, China.

The firm has designed a glass-topped theatre set to be built on an island in China’s Dongyang River, intended to give the appearance of a boat sailing on water.

Browse all landscape architecture jobs ›

See all the latest architecture and design roles on Dezeen Jobs ›

The post This week’s top opportunities include White Red Architects and Superimpose Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.