Hasta La Ideas

With Tinseltown under lockdown due to coronavirus, a new genre of “virus fiction” or “ViFi” could emerge, says speculative architect and director Liam Young in the first of a series of video messages from creatives around the world recorded as part of our Virtual Design Festival.

“So welcome to the American apocalypse,” Young says in the video message, which was recorded in his studio in Downtown Los Angeles.

“There are lines outside the gun shops”

“There are lines outside the gun shops after they’ve just reopened having been deemed essential businesses; there are bootleg mask sellers on the street corners and the entire film industry here in LA has been put indefinitely on pause.”

So it means a town of predominantly freelance creatives can no longer pay the rent or buy groceries,” he adds. “So LA, so often the setting for so many sci-fi films, is now a live-action dystopian film playing out in real-time.

Young, who leads the Master of Science in Fiction and Entertainment course at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles, was a keynote speaker at the Dezeen Day conference in October last year.

In his Dezeen Day lecture, Young explained why architects and filmmakers should “must all actively shape and define” the future to “help us understand our own world in new ways”.

“There is no return to normal”

The coronavirus pandemic means that sketching out possible futures is more important than ever, Young says, predicting that the virus will force creatives to lay plans for a better world.

“But for a town of so many worldbuilders and storytellers, I’m sure the scripts for a new genre of virus fictions – or ViFi – or already in the works,” Young says. “And perhaps that is the real opportunity of this present moment: to imagine the potential fictions and futures and to prototype the new worlds that we all want to be a part of when the viral cloud lifts.”

“So in many ways, we must recognize that there is no return to normal because our default setting is what created these conditions for collapse in the first place,” he concludes. “So thank you, and I’ll see you all after the end of the world.”

Send us a video message

In the run-up to the launch of Virtual Design Festival on Wednesday, Dezeen invited architects, designers, artists and industry figures to record video messages from lockdown. We also put out an open call for submissions from readers – read the brief here.

We plan to publish one clip every day during the festival, plus a montage featuring over 30 of the messages we’ve already received with be published on Wednesday to launch VDF.

Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival runs from 15 April to 20 June. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us at virtualdesignfestival@dezeen.com.

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Life in Shanghai is slowly getting back to normal, reports curator Aric Chen in this video message recorded for Virtual Design Festival on his first day in the fresh air after 14 days of home quarantine.

Chen, the curatorial director of the Design Miami fair, recorded the message from the street on Sunday 12 April – the day his mandatory 14-day quarantine ended.

“I’m shooting this outside partly just because I can,” says Chen. “I just got out of a home quarantine, a mandatory 14-day home quarantine yesterday that was very strictly enforced.”

“Everyone was very kind”

“I had daily visits by a nurse, a sensor on my door,” he adds. “Though I have to say everyone was very kind and nice and polite. I even got a care package sent to me by the authorities.”

Chen, a US citizen based in Shanghai, flew from Hong Kong to Shanghai on 27 March, just hours before the Chinese authorities barred foreign passport-holders from entering the country due to coronavirus.

“It caps off more than two months during which I somehow stayed a half-step ahead of the pandemic as it spread from China to the Middle East, Europe and the USA, before I finally made it back to Asia,” Chen wrote in an email that accompanied his video submission.

This was Chen’s second period of 14-day home quarantine: he went through his first period of mandatory self-isolation in Shanghai in February, after returning home from the middle east. He has been tested twice for coronavirus, with negative results each time.

“There are signs of life on the streets of Shanghai”

“I’m obviously much happier to be outside today,” Chen says in the video. “And as you can see, there are signs of life out on the streets of Shanghai now. People are out and about. The shops seem busy. I had dinner plans last night. I have some meetings this week; like real meetings with people, in person.”

“And, you know, we’re certainly not out, we’re certainly not in the clear yet,” he adds. “There are still a lot of restrictions and checks in place, but I hope this offers a little bit of a glimmer of hope that things can, will and are getting better.”

“And for the moment, at least, today is a very good day and I hope that all of you start having a lot more good days very soon as well. Hang in there.”

Send us a video message

In the run-up to the launch of Virtual Design Festival on Wednesday, Dezeen invited architects, designers, artists and industry figures to record video messages from lockdown. We also put out an open call for submissions from readers – read the brief here.

We plan to publish one clip every day during the festival, plus a montage featuring over 30 of the messages we’ve already received with be published on Wednesday to launch VDF.

Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival runs from 15 April to 20 June. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us at virtualdesignfestival@dezeen.com.

The post “I hope this offers a glimmer of hope that things are getting better” says Aric Chen appeared first on Dezeen.

A couple of years ago, we spotted this 1940s sketch of an unusual vehicle done for Preston Tucker. The Tucker Corporation famously went belly-up and this vehicle was never produced.

However! Take a look at this:

Image source: Homemadetools

That’s not a one-off. That’s a 1956 Lumberjack, manufactured by a company called DeKalb, which originally started out as a wagon manufacturer. DeKalb made truck bodies that could be bolted on to the truck chassis produced by major automakers like Ford, GMC, Chevrolet and Dodge.

Image source: Homemadetools

Note how tall the door is! It looks like you can just walk into the cab.

In this photo, you can see there’s both upper and lower loading levels:

Image source: Homemadetools

The two levels were designed to hold differing materials. I found a clipping from a 1955 issue of a DeKalb, Illinois newspaper explaining the thinking behind the truck’s design:

With four-wheel-drive and off-road tires, this thing would be the ultimate farm truck. All of that loading space freed up by omitting the passenger seat. I covet it.

Alas, I haven’t spotted any of these at Bringatrailer.com.

The power of creating your own products and tools seems even more relevant, in a time of general scarcity. 3Dsimo’s taken it upon themselves to show users how to use their MultiPro pen’s variety of tools to craft their own PPE using basic materials.

The MultiPro is a versatile $109 pen with the ability to cut, engrave, drill, etch, solder, and even 3D print using a variety of interchangeable heads that snap right onto the pen’s body. The pen, along with a bit of skill and 3Dsimo’s tutorials, enables you to repurpose everyday household items into quality wearable masks, and face-shields.

The nose and mouth mask just requires a piece of cotton cloth that you can cut accurately with the pen’s cutting head. Switch to the 3D printing head to add dabs of plastic that help seal parts of the mask together creating a finished product that you can tie right around your face to filter out any particulate matter as you breathe. The face shield requires a fair bit of expertise, but 3Dsimo’s ever-expanding channel of YouTube tutorials and downloadable templates are more than sufficient to guide any novice through the process of building the shields from scratch. The 3D printing module allows you to sketch out your ideas in plastic, building the frame for your face shield which you can mount the transparent sheet onto. The drilling tool lets you perforate the rim of the transparent sheet, allowing you to snap it onto its plastic frame.

The MultiPro’s true talent isn’t quite the fact that it can cut, engrave, drill, etch, solder, or 3D print; it’s the pen’s ability to let you create anything you want or need. The pen’s interchangeable head system and handheld ability puts a veritable workshop in the palm of your hand, making the act and art of designing affordable, and something that can happen at home… both which seem pretty congruous with the fact that we’re all under lockdown for a while now. The guys at 3Dsimo are even running an Easter sale with free shipping to help get their multi-capable creative-tools out there to an eager community of makers and creators – who are ready to collectively fight this pandemic with their ability to now make their own PPE at home! With every order get 60 ml of disinfection gel and 1x Face Mask.

Designer: Petr Duba

Click Here to Buy Now: $109 $129 (16% off). Hurry, Easter sales end today!

Use the 3Dsimo MultiPro to create your own medical mask, respirator or face shield, that can help you or your loved one survive these trying times.

How to Make the Face Mask

– Download template/tutorial Face Mask.
– To create the medical mask, you will need a piece of cotton, ruler and 3Dsimo MultiPro.
– Measure the cotton cloth and cut to size using the MultiPro.
– By using the burning tip, you are able to cut the cloth easily, without fraying it.
– Then, fold the face side several times into finger-wide strips, while gluing them together with filament.

How to Make the Face Shield

– Download template/tutorial Face Shield.
– Use the handy tutorial to create the main part, which will hold the shield on your head, and smooth the surface using the burning attachment.
– The smoothing process not only makes your creation look better, but also helps strengthen the part.
– Then, get a PET soda bottle or laminating sheets (you can find in office supplies).
– Cut them to size using the burning attachment and create small holes to attach the shield to the headband. – Attach those two parts together with some filament and voila, you have successfully created your own face shield.

How to Make the Functional Respirator

Make a functional respirator with a replaceable filter. All created with 3Dsimo MultiPro.

Click Here to Buy Now: $109 $129 (16% off). Hurry, Easter sales end today!

Cats’ Pink House is a holiday home in Taiwan that includes cat ladders, a rotating carousel-shaped climbing frame and a fluffy pink swing for the owner’s feline companions.

KC Design Studio made everything pink, even the basketball hoop and court for the human occupants.

The three-storey house by the sea is a place for the client to “relax and have fun with her three cats on holiday” said the studio.

A whole room on the second floor is dedicated to the cats, viewable from the master bedroom via a wide picture window.

Pink cat ladders lead up to a writing desk and connect to ledges running around the room.

“The owner can do what she likes to do and play with the cats at the same time,” said KC Design Studio. “She can also stay in the master bedroom to observe the cats’ moves next door before going to sleep.”

Another vantage point for the cats is a large metal spiral staircase that hangs from the ceiling. This cat tree rotates like a carousel for extra feline enrichment.

Pink fuzzy cat beds litter the floor, and a swing with a seat covered in pink fluff hangs from the ceiling, for human or cat enjoyment.

In the master bedroom, a walk-in wardrobe is divided by floor-to-ceiling pink glass. Across the landing the bathroom opens onto the cats’ room.

White terrazzo with large flecks of pink and grey forms a plinth that serves as the bathroom floor and the half-wall separating the bathroom. Pink glass, which can be dimmed for privacy, tops this plinth.

Small white tiles line the back wall, with a circular mirror and a hanging globe light over the sink. A pink kitty litter box is tucked under the floating bathroom counter.

Larger square pink tiles continue across the bathroom floor, under and around the stand-alone bath and rose-gold shower.

KC Design Studio used mineral-based paint to achieve the desired pink hue for the walls of the holiday home.

Downstairs on the first floor, the owner’s collection of figurines are displayed on rose-gold shelves in arched niches. Podiums dotted around the room display some of the larger art pieces.

A kitchen with a breakfast bar is tucked under a built-in archway lined with curving panels of wood, with the ends painted to match the terrazzo used upstairs.

Pepto-bismol pink stools sit along the breakfast bar, which has a curve carved into the underside.

Another kitchen island turns into an oblong dining table topped with white marble.

A long, low pink bench upholstered with pink velvet has matching rounded edges. Three pink velvet chairs with high rounded backs sit on the other side, under the arch niches.

A seating area with an L-shaped sofa sits across from the dining area.

The guest bathroom is screened by a gauzy pink curtain and features a recessed sink that’s been painted to look like stone.

Outside, a triangular space surrounding the plot has been turned into a basketball practice area.

The hoop backboard is pink, and stylised markings have been painted onto the floor in candy-colours.

On the roof, there’s a room outfitted in more sombre tones, finished with dark wood floors and grey concrete surfaces.

Dark metal shelves line the walls and more figurines sit on matching metal podiums, their chrome surfaces reflected in a mirrored back wall.

This room opens completely to a decked rooftop terrace.

KC Design Studio is based in Taiwan and recently completed a house with bespoke space-saving furniture.

Other residential projects for clients who want to include their pets include a house in Beijing designed around the needs of a dog with joint disease, and an apartment in Hong Kong that keeps their pet parrot and cat separate at all times.

Photography is by Hey! Cheese.

Project credits:

Client: Ms Yeh
Interior design: KC Design Studio
Lead designer: Kuan-huan Liu

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