Hasta La Ideas

There are two ways of going about designing an object. You could either A. look at previous versions of the object and try to improve upon them, or B. look at the problems the object was trying to solve and design a product that simply solves those problems. The Vext Slim feels a lot like the latter.

Rather than improving on traditional wallet designs, the Vext Slim looks at the contents of the modern wallet and the user’s needs and behavior patterns. In doing so, the Vext Slim behaves a lot like a great wallet, but don’t expect it to look like some rehashed version of a bifold or a money-clip, because it wasn’t designed with those products as a reference.

The Vext Slim’s design brief could arguably be summarized into three words. Smart, versatile storage. The wallet comes as a holster for your cards, made either out of carbon fiber or anodized aluminum (two materials known for their high strength-to-weight ratio). The wallet holds as many as 9 cards in a format that allows you to easily pick and choose cards with a single thumb. Swipe down for a card you don’t want to use, until you arrive at the right card, for which you swipe up… It’s essentially like Tinder for your cards. You can either pull out your active card to swipe it, or scan its chip right from within the wallet without taking it out… all with a single hand, making it easier to use if you’ve got one hand occupied, or better still, for someone with disabilities.

Along with its card-slot, the Vext Slim also packs an elastic band for your banknotes, as well as a discreet pouch for your coins or even other small items like thumb-drives, SIM cards, medicines, etc. In an increasingly digital world, the Vext Slim gets things right by prioritizing card-storage, but also being mindful of the fact that people still carry cash, receipts, coins, and other paraphernalia on them. Designed around this versatility, and more importantly around the behavior of whipping your wallet out of your pocket and popping the correct card out when you need it, the Vext shows that sometimes it’s more effective to build your product around user needs rather than simply trying to upgrade products of the past. Besides, the carbon-fiber construction should ensure your wallet lasts longer than you do!

Designer: Ari Horowitz of Sleek Life Design

Click Here to Buy Now: $30 $35 (15% off). Hurry, less than 48 hours left!

Vext Slim: The Quick Swipe Access Wallet

The Vext Slim carry cards, cash & small belongings in this intelligently-designed quick access wallet. This model holds up to 9 cards, and its signature design lets users easily swipe from one card to the next without taking any cards out. With a secure money band and discreet pocket on the back, Vext keeps cash and small items safe and sound.

The proprietary V-shaped window lets you easily swipe through cards to find the card you’re looking for. Simply swipe cards you don’t need down, and swipe the card you need up and out in a matter of seconds.

Vext Slim securely holds as few as 1 and as many as 9 cards (depending on card thickness). The cards are held by a gentle squeezing pressure on the edges (patent pending), meaning that no matter how many cards you’re carrying, you can be certain none of them will fall out.

Easy Chip Payments. You’ll never have to take a card out of your wallet to make a chip payment again. Simply slide the card forward to insert into the reader. Collapse the card back into place and keep moving.

Cash Band & Pouch. The band attached to the back of the wallet lets you hold cash and a few additional cards, without getting bulky. The industrial elastic is double stitch-enforced for strength, and the leather tab gives an area for you to pull the pocket open.

The band attached to the back of the wallet also doubles as a pocket. Perfect for holding onto valet tags, medication, and even a key or two (assuming you don’t need every key on your keychain for a night out).

All Vext Slim Wallets are engineered with extreme tolerance to ensure maximum security & durability. The wallets are machined from aircraft-grade aluminum and come in a variety of finishes:

– Glossy Carbon fiber- extremely lightweight, durable, black
– Aircraft-grade aluminum- lightweight, durable, variety of color options

Click Here to Buy Now: $30 $35 (15% off). Hurry, less than 48 hours left!

The concrete rooms of Jipyungzip, a guesthouse by BCHO Architects in South Korea, are sunk into a grassy shttps://admin.dezeen.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1485288&action=edit#edit_timestamplope with flat roofs that form terraces overlooking the sea.

Jipyungzip, also called Horizon Earth House, sits between a winding road and the coastline in South Gyeongsang.

Seoul-based practice BCHO Architects built Jipyungzip for a local woman to accommodate guests from across South Korea.

Six cuboid forms are arranged around a central open space, with smaller studio-style accommodation blocks to the south.

Long, thin bedroom blocks to the north facing out to sea, flanked by concrete walls that merge into the landscape.

“The predominant mode of seaside development in Korea has ravaged the natural coastline,” said BCHO Architects. “This project instead seeks a healing embrace where the building meets the earth.”

BCHO Architects used jets of high-pressure water to erode areas of the concrete, carving deep veins out of the surface of walls and floors to create areas for plants to grow.

“Sunken within the terrain, these walls become a verdant expression of a relationship with nature predicated on humility and softness,” said the studio.

Three blocks are divided into two en-suite bedrooms, which open onto external decked areas with outdoor baths through sliding glass doors.

Rooms are oriented so that the sea is the first thing guests see when they wake up.

Floating concrete staircases lead up to small mezzanine viewing areas.

Each unit is accessed via wooden steps that cut into the landscape, leading to a porch-like structures clad in thin wooden slats.

The porches are topped by a corrugated metal roof, with concrete roofs separated by a strip of clerestory glazing.

Opposite, the smaller blocks to the north are divided by sections of angular concrete wall that create sunken courtyards, divided by wooden screens and overlooked by windows in the adjacent blocks.

In the centre of these blocks, the communal dining room can be opened up to a low-walled terrace via a full-height concertina glass door.

The raw concrete of Jipyungzip’s interiors is tempered by pale wooden ceilings and wall panels to create simple, open spaces.

BCHO Architects has previously explored the idea of sinking structures into the landscape, with projects including a holiday home in Gyeonggi Province nestled into a mountainous terrain.

Photography is by Sergio Pirrone.

Project credit:

Client: Jeong Park
Architect: BCHO Architects
Project team: Yoojin Jang, Sookjung Kim, Javier Campoy
Construction: Chaeheon Construction & Engineering

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The American Institute of Architects has cancelled its annual conference, which was set to take place in a month, as the US continues to battle the spread of coronavirus.

The AIA had previously planned to postpone the conference scheduled for 14 to 16 May until a later date this year. It revealed today that it will instead take place next year.

Decision amid “uncertainties” of the coming months

“After carefully monitoring Covid-19 developments, we have determined that we will not be able to reschedule conference given the number of uncertainties we face as a nation in the coming months,” said AIA president Jane Frederick.

“We believe this decision is in the best interest of the health and safety of our members, colleagues, exhibitors and speakers and out of consideration for all attendees.”

The AIA is offering refunds to those that have purchased tickets to the 2020 Conference of Architecture, which was set to take place in Los Angeles with designer Virgil Abloh as the keynote speaker. It has not yet released dates for next year’s event.

AIA to focus efforts on issues caused by pandemic

Now that the event is cancelled, the institution said it would instead be focusing on other ways to address issues caused by the pandemic.

The AIA has previously urged Congress to provide financial support small architecture firms and their employees. It applauded the $2 trillion (£1.61 trillion) emergency rescue package that president Donald Trump signed shortly afterwards for the way that it could help architects and their firms.

The institution also established a task force to consult on how to adapt buildings into healthcare facilities. As part of this project, it launched a tool for assessing alternative care sites for treating Covid-19 patients.

“At this time, we are focusing all of our efforts on assisting our members through these economic uncertainties and supporting their important work in contributing to the Covid-19 response,” Frederick added.

Major architecture and design events cancelled or postponed

A majority of architecture and design events that were planned for spring and summer have been cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus crisis. They include Salone del Mobile in Milan, which has been cancelled until 2021, and the Venice Architecture Biennale, which has been postponed.

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.

Photograph of 2018 conference in New York’s  Radio City Music Hall, courtesy of AIA.

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Potli’s hemp-infused cold-pressed olive oil is genuine EVOO—made when olives are crushed using force, instead of chemicals, heat or other techniques. This oil boasts a naturally peppery taste and the cannabidiol adds to its existing herbaceous and floral flavor. In each 250ml bottle, there’s 250mg hemp-derived, non-psychoactive CBD; more dosage information can be found online. With each purchase, Potli donates product of equal or greater value to Food Runners, an organization dedicated to alleviating food insecurity and reducing waste in San Francisco.

Kengo Kuma’s SunnyHills cake shop illustrates how the architect interprets the Japanese vernacular, according to YouTuber Martin van der Linden in the first of a series of videos from Tokyo shared with Virtual Design Festival.

Van der Lindin, who produces the One Minute Architecture channel on YouTube, made a short film about the basket-like building in Tokyo’s fashionable Aoyama district.

“You might confuse the building behind me as the head office of the local Boy Scouts,” says van der Linden in the video. “But you’re wrong. This pile of wood is actually the design of the future Pritzker Prize-winner Kengo Kuma.”

Completed in 2014 for the baker of Taiwanese pineapple cakes, the three-storey building is clad in a grid of over 5,000 metres of wooden strips.

“A forest in the city”

“Our aim was to create a forest in the busy city centre,” said Kengo Kuma at the time of the building’s opening. “We studied how lighting states would change in a day in the woods, and came up with a shape like a basket.”

“Kuma has done something few of his colleagues have done before,” says van der Linden, founder of Tokyo-based Van Der Architects.

“Whereas other well-known Japanese architects have all gone for the highly minimalistic, aristocratic form of architecture, Kuma’s aesthetic is towards the common vernacular Japanese architecture.”

“Kuma is Japan’s Walt Disney,” he adds.

Kuma takes “the image of old Japan”

“Kuma is taking the image of the old Japan, of the Edo-period Tokyo or Kyoto, as he puts a heavy emphasis on wood and traditional craftsmanship,” he continues. “But then he stylises his forms in a completely new way, focussing on one or two elements that everyone associates with Japan.”

“In this case, it is taking the shape of a traditional bamboo basket and using it to wrap the building. The facade of the building is made using the traditional system of creating a wood lattice in which very few nails are used. He employed traditional Japanese craftsmen to build the hundreds of pieces of wood under a 30- or 60-degree angle.”

“A brilliant feat of imagineering”

“Did you notice how many times I said traditional?” van der Linden concludes. “Don’t get me wrong. I think in this particular project, called SunnyHills, Kuma succeeds brilliantly. This brilliant feat of imagineering has made this small shop for the manufacturer of Taiwanese cakes a major attraction for both sweet and architecture lovers.”

Virtual Design Festival has teamed up with van der Linden to present a selection of his best short architecture movies.

“Even after 28 years, I found Tokyo endlessly fascinating, and I enjoy making videos of its architecture, and its rather mysterious urbanity,” he said in a specially created video introducing the collaboration.

About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival, the world’s first digital design festival, runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020. It is a platform that will bring the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to extraordinary circumstances.

VDF will host a rolling programme of online talks, lectures, movies, product launches and more, complementing and supporting fairs and festivals around the world that have had to be postponed or cancelled and it will provide a platform for design businesses, so they can, in turn, support their supply chains.

Find out more here or email vdf@dezeen.com for details or to join our mailing list.

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