Hasta La Ideas

While many brands have taken a serious, almost earnest approach to advertising during coronavirus, Burger King has tended to go the other way, delivering messages related to the pandemic but with a smile.

Earlier in lockdown, Burger King France offered advice on how to create its Whopper at home and pledged to throw a selection of parties for kids unlucky enough to have a birthday in lockdown. Now the brand’s latest campaign, from Wunderman Thompson Italia, is introducing the Social Distancing Whopper.

The new product, on sale in all Italian Burger King outlets, is everything you’d expect from the burger brand’s signature product, but with a twist: a thick layer of onions that aims to render you so stinky that people will want to keep away from you.

The campaign’s design may lack some of the panache of the Mouldy Burger ads, which got us all talking what feels like several decades ago in February, but Burger King is proving that the advertising idea remains king in these troubled times, and it has plenty of them.

The post Italian branches of Burger King introduce the Social Distancing Whopper appeared first on Creative Review.

VDF products fair: US manufacturer Milliken has updated its Crafted Series carpet collection by introducing a third tile design and twelve new colour choices.

The new carpet design, named Warp Winding, has a bold graphic style composed of colourful stripes and squares modelled on a weaver’s warp – a set of yarns stretched over a loom before the weft is introduced during the weaving process.

It is designed by Milliken to be used across an entire carpet, or as a patterned inset within other collections to evoke a rug.

The 12 new colours in the updated Crafted Series collection range from neutrals to more vibrant hues and, alongside the addition of Warp Winding, are intended to provide users with more options to be creative.

Crafted Series was originally launched by Milliken in 2018 to celebrate hand-made and woven textiles and featured two tile designs available in 6 different colours.

“As with the crafted items lovingly made by hand that inspired the collection, Crafted Series allows for a unique result every time it is used,” said the US manufacturer.

“The carpet tile designs and patterns give the designer endless possibilities to play with colour combinations, shape-building and designs that flow from one to another.”

Like the rest of the Crafted Series, the new Warp Winding design is made using yarn made entirely from Econyl regenerated nylon and features Comfort Lite cushion backing that reduces muscle strain and helps to reduce noise.

It can also be supplied with TractionBack for adhesive-free installation that eliminates the need for adhesives.

Product: Crafted Series
Brand: Milliken
Contact address: carpetenquiries@milliken.com

About VDF products fair: the VDF products fair offers an affordable launchpad for new products during Virtual Design Festival. For more details email vdf@dezeen.com.

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With less than a week to enter Dezeen Awards, Talenia Phua Gajardo, founder and CEO of digital art gallery The Artling, will be looking for “attention to detail”.

Gajardo will be judging the design categories alongside Michael Anastassiades, Ivy Ross, Paola Antonelli and Daan Roosegaarde.

“I’ll be looking for attention to detail, materiality and functionality,” she said.

“I think there’ll be a big shift towards a more conscious, utilitarian way of fabricating and designing.”

Based in Singapore, The Artling provides art and design advisory services to corporate firms, hospitality groups, property developers, interior designers and architects. The company also curates and sells contemporary Asian art and design both online and offline.

The Artling has opened a private viewing space in Shanghai, which recently held the China Design [Working Title] exhibition and displayed Jongha Choi’s De-dimension furniture collection.

“Awards programs can be great for visibility,” said Gajardo.

“Anything that can help to highlight up-and-coming studios who may not have the resources or network to showcase their work is a great opportunity,” she continued.

Enter Dezeen Awards 2020 now

The deadline is fast approaching with less than a week left to enter this year’s Dezeen Awards.

Hurry and enter your project or studio today.

Entries close at 23:59 BST on Tuesday 2 June.

If you have any questions please get in touch at awards@dezeen.com.

The post Dezeen Awards 2020 will be “great for visibility” says judge Talenia Phua Gajardo appeared first on Dezeen.

DK-CM has built a cross-laminated timber reception pavilion with a diagrid roof in the gap between two junior schools in Norfolk, UK, to connect the previously separate institutions.

The link building connects the 1950s junior school and 1990s infant school in Gorleston, Great Yarmouth, and aims to unite the two institutions that are now both part operated as the Wroughton Academy.

“The flexible space is a precise and minimal intervention that has had a transformative impact,” said DK-CM.

“Combining the two schools allows pupils to spend the full time of their early years education on the combined campus, creating a new sense of community, as infants and juniors begin to meet and learn together.”

The small timber structure contains a reception for both schools, but was also designed to be a flexible space that can be used by pupils in both buildings.

“The warm, fair-faced timber interior, with its four-meter-high patterned ceiling and large windows brings a scale and generosity of space more often associated with public building such as libraries or museums into the ordinary daily life of a school,” said the studio.

“The airy and open space formed by infilling between the two existing schools creates an unusually generous reception area, allowing a loose and un-programmed space for the two school communities to come together to learn.”

Constructed from cross-laminated timber (CLT) and Glulam, the reception pavilion has a striking diagrid – diagonal grid – patterned roof and exposed timber walls. The roof pattern is echoed in the grey and yellow, triangular floor decoration.

“The exposed timber interior gives a rich and distinctive character to the space, which pupils have already declared to be inspiring and well-loved,” said DK-CM.

On the building’s facade DK-CM reworked the concrete and brick architecture of the adjacent 1950s classroom block in timber, with a trio of angled roof supports framing large windows.

“Inspired by the open air school movement of the early 20th century, of which the existing junior school is a living example, our intervention celebrates the core principles of sun lighting, ample fresh air, spatial generosity, exposure to the outside, and is carefully sited to retain the existing green landscape,” added DK-CM.

Throughout the design of the building DK-CM consulted with the school’s children as the client, the Creative Education Trust, has a special focus on design and engineering within their curriculum.

“At the outset of our appointment, we delivered a series of workshops with pupils, testing and playing within the space, taking in questions from where the reception should go to patterns for the floor and structure,” said DK-CM.

“With older students, we hosted workshops exploring methods of construction and the importance of sustainability for our future. The project culminated in an opening ceremony where pupils involved cut the ribbon.”

CLT was chosen for the structure due to its sustainable credentials, which were important to both the architects and the pupils.

“Sustainable environmentally conscious design is also fundamental to the practice’s design process,” said DK-CM. “When working within new and existing buildings, we look to maximise their performance with minimum impact to our world’s finite resources.”

“CLT construction brings well-being benefits, the breathable and comfortable internal climate reducing stress and improving cognitive function – fundamental for the future of learning,” added the studio.

“Modern, modular construction methods reduced construction period and waste, and once delivered the CLT and Glulam frame was quickly assembled, minimising disruption to the school which remained operational throughout.”

London based architecture studio DK-CM was founded by David Knight and Cristina Monteiro in 2012. The studio previously built a glowing polycarbonate “lighthouse” alongside the River Thames.

Photography is by Neil Perry.

The post DK-CM unites post-war and 1990s schools with CLT reception pavilion appeared first on Dezeen.

Julien alias « Blank city » sur Instagram est un artiste français vivant à Marseille. Il photographie et sublime villes, rues et architectures via des compositions minimalistes, lumineuses et colorées.

« Mon intérêt pour la photographie tient beaucoup à mon goût pour le déplacement. (…) Photographier la ville et l’architecture, en mon sens, est la forme d’art la plus accessible et en même temps, une des plus difficiles. Il s’agit de changer mon regard sur la routine. Et essayer par là de changer le regard des autres sur leur ville, sur leurs rues. (…) J’aime la répétition du même. Marcher mille fois dans une même rue et photographier mille fois le même mur, mais de façon différente.
Sous un angle différent, à différentes heures, avec une lumière différente. Ça ne marche pas tout le temps, ça prend du temps, il faut souvent patienter jusqu’à l’été, ou l’hiver, pour que la lumière revienne de telle manière sur tel coin de mur avec telle intensité. J’aime appréhender la photographie sous cet angle du temps qui passe, et du photographe qui passe, à travers ce temps d’attente, comme un outil qui vient révéler un décor onirique derrière une façade monotone. » nous explique-t-il.

« Je viens par exemple de déménager et j’ai de nouvelles rues dans lesquelles je passe tous les jours pour aller travailler. Je me sens comme investi d’une tâche, de documenter ce nouveau quotidien de formes, d’ombres, de couleurs et de lumière. C’est comme passer le réel dans un tamis et n’en garder que ces éléments visuels narratifs et minimalistes. Bien sûr, il y a une recherche, j’ai repéré un immeuble aux formes parfaites, mais n’ai pas encore trouvé le moment où la lumière vient parfaitement mettre en valeur une forme ou souligner un trait pour former un bloc photographique parfait. J’y vais donc tous les jours, à différentes heures, tout en sachant que peut-être, il n’y aura pas de juste moment pour ce lieu, que cela restera peut-être sans intérêt. » rajoute-t-il.

La photographie, Julien a commencé à la pratiquer il y a une quinzaine d’années. « Je suis musicien et j’ai commencé à prendre un appareil photo argentique avec moi pour les tournées. De façon très « touristique », pour les souvenirs. Puis j’ai continué, en argentique, à documenter mon quotidien, comme un journal intime, pendant une dizaine d’années. Avec des images assez granuleuses, sombres, de sensations, de moments, de paysages. » nous dit-il.

Ce n’est qu’en 2017 que Julien a démarré son projet de photographies d’architecture, appelé « Blank city », que vous pouvez découvrir sur son compte Instagram. À cause ou grâce à… une blessure au dos ! « Je devais partir en montagne pour l’été et je me suis À le dos en abusant sur le sport juste avant de partir. J’étais bloqué, le dos droit sur une chaise pour un mois d’été. Du coup, je passais énormément de temps sur les réseaux, à regarder des images sur Instagram, à chercher des idées, et comment occuper ce temps de presque totale inertie.

J’avais un bon appareil photo numérique que je n’avais presque jamais utilisé et j’ai commencé à sortir autour de chez moi avec l’appareil, je ne pouvais pas aller très loin à cause de mon problème, j’ai cherché quoi regarder dans ces rues que je connaissais par cœur. Quoi trouver de neuf là-dedans. Et j’ai développé une fascination pour la lumière, car c’était elle le vecteur de création, qui venait changer la forme de la ville selon l’heure, qui venait mettre du nouveau sur le quotidien et les murs que je pensais gris et sans intérêt.

Il est difficile pour moi d’analyser ce que je fais, car je suis à 99% dans la prise de vue, l’accumulation de matière photographique. C’est comme une chasse au trésor, avec à la clé, la forme parfaite, avec la lumière parfaite et les couleurs parfaites. Je suis plus focalisé sur cette quête que sur le résultat, car il est forcément toujours imparfait. Faire une photo parfaite serait certainement signe que je n’en prendrai jamais plus d’autres, c’est donc une des choses que je redoute le plus. » précise-t-il.

« J’ai l’impression d’avoir une pratique assez monomaniaque… Je pense que le message que j’aimerais faire passer à ma communauté est aussi contenu dans cette idée-là ; creusez au maximum vos obsessions, même si c’est moche au début, avec le temps et la pratique, il en ressortira forcément quelque chose d’unique. » finit-il par dire. C’est réussi pour lui !