Demand for touchless products such as toilets and faucets is soaring as architects look to prevent the spread coronavirus in their buildings, according to Paul Flowers, chief design officer at water technology brand LIXIL.
Touchless products in bathrooms and kitchens combined with sensor-controlled doors and elevators mean that common areas of buildings could be entirely touchless, Flowers said.
“It is entirely feasible to create an environment which eliminates the need to touch surfaces,” Flowers said. “Technology exists from automatic doors to sensor faucets, eliminating the need for physical interaction.”
This could reduce the risk of people contracting viruses that can survive on surfaces. A recent study by the New England Journal of Medicine found that coronavirus particles can survive for up to three days on stainless steel and plastic, up to 24 hours on cardboard and around four hours on copper.
Homeowners are increasingly demanding touchless products such as the Sensia Arena shower toilet
Flowers said LIXIL, a Japanese company that owns brands including INAX, Grohe and American Standard, had seen huge demand for its touchless bathroom and kitchen products, both from professionals and consumers.
“In the last eight or nine weeks we have seen an increased demand for solutions that can be operated touchlessly through sensor technology,” said Flowers. “We are seeing a higher demand for our hygiene-enhancing products.”
Other products that can be operated with footswitches or parts of the body such as elbows or wrists also help avoid the need to touch surfaces with hands.
Architects and building owners are increasingly specifying these products while enquiries are also coming from domestic customers who have seen sensor-controlled products in airports, hotels and other public spaces.
“We have customers coming to us asking to change out the faucets in their buildings to touchless ones,” said Flowers. “Companies are keen to ensure the safety of their workforce and hygiene is top of the list.”
Sensor-controlled faucets like Grohe’s Eurosmart Cosmopolitan can be operated without touching them
The LIXIL group makes touchless products including faucets, showers and toilets. Grohe’s Sensia Arena “shower toilets” feature lids that open and close automatically plus automated washing, drying and flushing functions.
“You walk into the bathroom and the toilet lid lifts automatically,” said Flowers. “After use, it flushes and closes itself, eliminating the need to use your hands to operate the product. This advanced toilet also removes the need for toilet paper.”
Flowers spoke to Dezeen ahead of a video interview about trends in bathroom and kitchen design, recorded as part of a collaboration between Dezeen’s Virtual Design Festival and Grohe, which will be published on Tuesday 2 June.
“Whilst there are materials which are more resistant to bacteria and viruses, ultimately the best way to reduce cross-contamination is to remove the need for contact,” Flowers added.
“Touchless products with sensor technology are ideal for this scenario and also reduce water consumption.”
Grohe is headline sponsor of Virtual Design Festival.
VDF studio profiles: Ramona Albert Architecture is a New York-based studio that specialises in building and product design, and is driven by nature and contemporary technologies.
The studio was founded in Brooklyn in 2018 by Romanian designer, builder and Harvard University graduate Ramona Albert to utilise the skills she gained from working in construction management.
Ramona Albert Architecture champions environmentally-conscious design and sustainable practices, while also embracing the latest design technologies to develop new materials and building techniques.
Sungames is a recent VR experience developed by Brooklyn-based design studio Ramona Albert Architecture
“We are creating buildings and products that are in harmony with nature,” Ramona Albert Architecture told Dezeen.
“Ramona takes a holistic approach to the design process. With an aesthetic rooted in the natural environment and sustainable building, she relies on her extensive experience in construction management to develop buildings and products from inception to final construction, with a particular focus on innovation,” it added.
“She enthusiastically embraces advanced technology, pushing the limits toward the development of new materials and building techniques while continuously optimising results for each client and project.”
It features a pavilion powered by solar energy and exists to educate people on climate change and sustainability
Ramona Albert Architecture’s portfolio ranges from building design and renovations, through to interiors and luxury one-off products including jewellery and candle holders.
“We employ a rational, streamlined comprehensive process to deliver high-quality buildings and spaces, custom-construction assemblies and luxuriously crafted products,” added the studio.
“Drawing inspiration from the natural world, we develop ideas starting with the greater expression and focusing progressively in towards a one-to-one scale.”
The solar energy for The Sungames Pavilion is harvested by Solar digital flowers
Ramona Albert Architecture’s most recent project that demonstrates this ethos is Sungames, a virtual experience and educational project developed to encourage learning about climate change and sustainability.
Sungames has been developed by the studio to be accessed through using VR, and guides viewers on a journey through a digitally-designed rural landscape.
“The story is a relaxing journey through time and space that engages the imagination and enhances our curiosity about our world and our mission to keep it alive,” explained the studio.
It features two key elements, named The Sungames Pavilion and the Solar digital flower. The Sungames Pavilion is a shelter that is powered by energy from the sun.
This is achieved through the Solar flowers, which are imagined to grow on top and around the pavilion by harvesting energy from the sun.
The studio’s ambition is to invite viewers to imagine a more sustainable future and built environment, where all the world’s buildings are powered by solar energy.
Sungames is an example of the studio’s focus on creating techology-driven design that exists “in harmony with nature”
Other recent projects by the studio include the Lincoln Square Synagogue, for which it developed a facade system with laminated fabric to filter UV-light while providing privacy for worshipers.
Elsewhere, it developed a proposal for the Madaras Chapel for a site in the Harghita mountains of Transylvania that married parametric design technologies with local construction techniques.
Virtual Design Festival is the world’s first online design festival, taking place from 15 April to 30 June. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us at vdf@dezeen.com.
A studio profile on Virtual Design Festival could expose your work to Dezeen’s three million monthly website visitors. Each studio profile will be featured on the VDF homepage and included in Dezeen’s daily newsletter, which has 170,000 subscribers.
Discussing the developmental path for carriers and leashes that last
For their October 2019 brand launch, Roverlund introduced design-forward and durable dog carriers, inspired by wanderlust, as their hero product. The airline-friendly item features mountain-climbing rope handles and a plush internal dog bed and speaks volumes about their mission: to provide dog-owners with a long-lasting product as adventurous and exciting as their pets. Since the launch, Roverlund’s camouflage colorway has already sold out (restocked next week) and they’ve picked up fans of their heavy-duty leashes and all-around reasonable prices. To further their relationship with dog-owners, they’ve also debuted a charming custom pet portrait program that underscores their love of dogs and design.
Jamie Knowles, the brand’s founder, says it’s all the result of his kaleidoscopic and seemingly disparate experiences: “I’ve been an Orvis-endorsed fly fishing guide, an internationally exhibited contemporary artist and am also a former Vogue staffer.” Knowles grew up with Springer Spaniels and now lives with an English Cocker Spaniel. It’s his love for his dog, and the joy the dog provides, as well as his typically tight travel schedule, that led to Roverlund. We spoke to Knowles to learn more about launching a dog-focused travel gear brand.
Where did you get the idea for Roverlund? And what motivated you to launch the company?
Jamie and Baci
The idea for Roverlund started when I got Baci, my little love boat of an English Cocker Spaniel, back in 2016.
I needed a dog that could be active, apartment-friendly, and small enough to travel in-cabin on planes. While we are not flying as much these days, Baci probably racked up more United miles than most people those first two years. It was in part through this non-stop, every-other-weekend-we’re-somewhere-else pace that I realized there were no design-centric yet durable dog carriers for people like me and dogs like Baci, who is a bigger mid-sized dog and is nearing the weight limit for in-cabin travel.
This got me thinking, researching, and tinkering—and, voila, three years later we launched!
How did you approach the design of your carriers and leashes?
My background is in art and fashion, and I am also an outdoors enthusiast, so I knew the design needed to balance both of these worlds. On top of that, it was crucial that the carrier elevated the experience of adventuring with your pup.
At the time, the options for dog carriers were limited. Everything was overly cutesy and bedazzled, poorly made, or generally benign in its aesthetic. In our first year with Baci, I easily went through four or five carriers, not because he chewed or destroyed them, but because they just fell apart. Throughout our design process, we were committed to developing a carrier that would be equally durable as it would be stylish.
Our carriers include clever design details throughout that make being-on-the-go with your pup a little easier. Our shoulder strap doubles as an extra strong leash, which we were first to introduce to market. And, we have incorporated other design considerations like a removable dog bed, extra pockets, and outdoor-grade hardware to make traveling hassle-free, comfortable, and last but not least classically cool.
What regulations do you need to work around when designing?
We prototyped the carrier (which also conveniently doubles as a car seat during these times of cheaper gas and safe, social-distancing) for two years; and, Baci conveniently put on a bit of weight over this time, helping us to ensure the carrier easily handles the maximum in-cabin weight, which is 25 pounds.
The criteria are very specific for in-cabin travel on planes—and trains too. Our carrier was developed in accordance with these regulations.
Our carrier has an intentionally flexible rear frame which conforms to smaller aircraft seat requirements and provides extra space for your pup to spread out. You should always check with your airline for their current policy as there are slight variations on carrier dimensions and pet weight limits across the major airlines.
What was the process like for material research?
It was very important to use marine- and mountaineering-grade materials that we knew could withstand the unexpected. The carriers needed to be built to last, and not just make it through a handful of trips.
The mountain-climbing rope handles and leashes are a nod to each carrier’s durability and outdoor-inspired spirit. Even if the carrier is mainly helping you get around town or go to the vet these days, it is designed for the pursuit of adventure near and far.
Do you hope to expand into new areas for pets?
Yes, most definitely. We are actively working on and expanding into new categories of pet gear as well as gear for those of us who are lucky enough to be a dog’s best friend.
We just launched custom pet portraits by a group of wonderfully talented illustrators. During this very difficult time—especially in New York, where we are based—it has been an incredibly rewarding experience to help bring people joy and to create community among fellow pet lovers.
Can you talk about the origins of the pet portrait program?
We knew we needed to evolve and diversify our offering in order to stay viable [amid COVID-19]—and we needed to offer something that could be created, sold and sent as a 100% digital product. Pet portraits just came to me—perhaps from my background in the arts, I owned and operated a small fine art e-commerce platform a number of years ago, and pulled from that experience to get our pet portraits division up and running quickly. We are also offering custom printing and framing, which has been popular for gift giving especially during this time when we are not able to celebrate in person like we once did.
Assuming you can develop the skill, gnocchi has got to be the most satisfying pasta to shape:
If you’re the type of person who wants to make your own gnocchi, chances are you’ll want to make the gnocchi board, too. Here’s Chris Salomone showing you how he made his:
“Someone once rearranged these to spell out ‘OPEN PLAN SUCKS.’ We terminated them immediately.”
“My roommate has a permanent crick in his neck, so his books go in the middle.”
“The blueprints got crumpled coming off of the plotter. The contractor did the best he could.”
True story: This two-piece, high-end Squatty Potty alternative is designed to nest one inside the other to save space. It also gives you a fun activity to futz your way through right before you take a dump.
“Our research shows that most framers not only want the waffle head, but a slippery wooden handle and a nearly flat claw that’s unusable for de-nailing.”
“Limited Edish, yo.”
“Our design firm specializes in ergonomics.”
In the way that some people have a fear of clowns, I have a fear of this table.
“The design brief was to make it difficult to select the knife that you want.”
“I wanted a front door that me and a flock of crows could all enter at the same time. It’s also great for letting moths in at night.”
MagnetCube vividly reminds me of one of the greatest online games of our time. No, not Minecraft. Try a little older. Remember Rollercoaster Tycoon? And how if you didn’t have enough money to buy preset Rollercoaster designs, you had to build your own? Between you and me, I’d try to make the most outrageous coasters even if I DID have the money. Building a track together piece by piece, aligning the last piece to the end of the station to complete the track, and just watching as the virtual park-visitors screamed in sheer delight through the coaster ride. There’s something about that joy of creation that the MagnetCubes captures. Part creation, part elaborate gravity trick, MagnetCubes lets you build your own ball-bearing racetrack using its modular setup. With an incredibly exhaustive variety of track-shapes that let you build the ball-bearing rollercoaster of your dreams and a transparent framework to hold your creation up, the MagnetCubes is an engaging toy that’s infinitely customizable so you’re never bored, and it teaches you a fair bit about physics too – just like how RC Tycoon taught me never to bump up the velocity of the coaster beyond a certain limit, or that rollercoaster paths should always be closed and continuous.
Using a transparent framework of pillars and beams held in place by magnets, MagnetCube lets you build and test your ballbearing racetracks. The cube construction is much more versatile than the plug-and use tracks in Hot Wheels kits. With MagnetCubes, you can build in the third dimension too, and the hollow cubes let you see your track as you build it, making the construction process as engaging and fun as the playing process. Available in Standard and Advanced variants the MagnetCube kit is modular, allowing you to be small and efficient, or embrace a go-big-or-go-home attitude and make a wild track that’s filled with twists and turns. Each kit comes with ball-bearings that ride on the tracks you build, relying on their design and a combination of gravity, inertia, and potential/kinetic energy to get from A to B. It’s this fun approach to learning that allows kids to embrace concepts of physics, architecture, and even a fair share of mathematics… all while exercising their creativity, testing the limits of nature, and staying entertained without being attached to a screen – unless they’re filming it for their Instagram. I probably would.
MagnetCubes – Modular Magnetic Blocks With Dynamic Marble Run
Using the power of gravity and inspired imagination, MagnetCubes is a fun way to relax and have fun. This interactive new building system promotes learning, stress relief and fun with a simple way to build an infinite number of marble runs and roller coasters for fun and education.
Most of the marble runs include the track and the holes on the same molded pieces, limiting your options for how the pieces can be fitted together. With the modular design of MagnetCubes, you can easily connect multiple structures together.
The structure becomes a complex and impressive multi-level design. Build and rebuild whatever you can imagine. You could sit down again and again, with new creations every time.
Build Your Imagination Freely
This intuitive building system is fun for all ages and can be configured in endless ways.
This toy is a modern take on the simple building blocks and construction sets that we all grow up with. MagnetCubes is great for getting kids curious and interested in STEM concepts by challenging spatial reasoning and understanding of physics principles.
People of all ages have a natural desire to build and create. It’s the reason that all generations grew up with some kind of building toy such as blocks, Legos or other construction sets. This kind of toys engage kids and satisfy their curiosity while developing important motor and coordination skills.
Unlimited Possibilities & Endless Fun
The sets use open cubes with magnets in each corner that easily snap together without the need for special connectors or any prior experience. Simply unpack and build!
With 64 cubes and multiple action pieces, the design possibilities are endless. Each set can be added onto the next, allowing you to build big and fantastic marble runs as you imagine.
The open design of MagnetCubes makes all the action visible. With the panels included in the AdvancedPack, you can weave marble tracks in and out of the architectural structures.
Fun For All Age-Groups
This building set is not just for kids. Building MagnetCubes is also a joyful experience for parents and adults. Join in the fun and build with the kids to make more complex designs.
Keep stacking the modular and magnetic building blocks together. Be amazed at how easily, quickly and massively tall structures can be made without toppling over. It’s more fun to play together, with your friends, family, co-workers.
Great for quick breaks from the screen. Relieve stress by fidgeting with beautiful structures and relaxing kinetic movement.
MagnetCubes is a building system that inspires children to learn STEM principles. The combination of play, exploration, and iterative testing will help children develop critical thinking skills needed to excel in multiple fields. In no time at all, you will have a creative engineer and designer on your hands.
“The Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts in Interior Design at Pratt Institute have consistently ranked as the top interior design programmes in the United States. The programmes prepare students to engage in critical inquiry and exploration, skills that establish them as innovators able to impact the profession as well as research on the interior environment.
“The programmes are architecturally oriented, with emphasis on spatial articulation. They are designed to guide students in generating creative solutions through an understanding of craft and making, light, colour, and material research.
“Through both theoretical and applied research, the curriculum addresses emerging technologies, interdisciplinary collaboration and sustainable practices. Both degrees focus on larger issues of ethical and social responsibility, diversity and inclusion through an understanding of global cultural history and its context.
“The BFA and the MFA culminate in a thesis project developed in the final year of study, providing students with the opportunity and freedom to pursue a topic in depth.”
Cultural Switcher by Manlin Zhang, MFA
“Cultural Switcher is a model community for immigrants that creates a new housing paradigm for their successful transition into a non-native cultural context by manipulating visual boundaries, materiality and spatial sequence within fixed interior conditions.
“Specifically, this project proposes the creation of a new housing typology for Chinese immigrants who cannot participate in the current culture due to language barriers and foreign social customs. It questions and reinvents the relationship between public and private realms based on the five cultural models presented by psychologist Teresa La Fromboise.
“The ultimate goal is to create an environment that promotes the integration of Chinese immigrants amongst themselves and with other groups in society while creating a collective memory together and thereby stimulating a sense of identity.”
“Symbiosis is a capsule hotel apartment set in the Soho area of New York that introduces visitors and occupants to urban farming and educates them about the concept.
“The project explores how consumerism in cities has almost always relied on a onesided exploitation of the environment and how this can be replaced with a different system in which we live and work in symbiosis with nature, creating a mutual relationship between us and the environment.”
“The nature of sunlight entails daily and seasonal movement as well as the action of sunlight on materials in the sequence of time. The intention of this proposal is to visualize and shape people’s physical and spiritual perception of time by using sunlight as a medium to help people understand its preciousness.
“In this case, a mundane building has been transformed using a series of movie-like scenarios to create special conditions that allow visitors to explore qualities of space, atmosphere, emotion, rhythm, brightness and darkness.”
“This thesis explores the unconscious time acceleration caused by imagery-driven media. It investigates how time awareness can be created through observation and the expression of different speeds based on the movement of imagery, body, and sound.
“The interior provides both physical and virtual environments to observe. In the physical space, the interior acts as a datum for occupants to articulate and observe two scales of time: media time as defined by cutting frequency and body time as defined by movements. In the virtual reality space, occupants experience an inversion of this influence.
“Through this experience, occupants are directed through a journey of muting, exposing and submerging in the sequence of interior, exterior and virtual dimensions. They are exploring and experiencing the phenomenon of merging and activation caused by human coexistence with media.”
“For the Sake of Subversion interrogates the normative goals and practices of interior design through the design of a monument to the AIDS crisis in America.
“Inserting a typically exterior object, a monument, into the built interior begins a conversation on the boundaries of the interior and exterior. This blurring of boundaries is reinforced by removing the building’s glazing and roof to expose it to the elements.
“A stereotypical element of monument design, the fountain, is inverted. An atrium is cut through the entire building to make space for an ‘anti-fountain’. Only fed by the rain, its emptiness echoes the absence of those lost to the AIDS epidemic.”
“This project is a reproduction and amplification of awkward moments in a daily setting that aims to explore the productivity of awkwardness. Set in the central atrium of the Beekman Hotel, the installation consists of a hotel suite that constantly reconfigures itself, with the four auxiliary rooms riding up and down in different elevator cabs.
“Awkwardness occurs when residents come into contact with random passengers of each elevator. Through these instances, the luxury suite becomes a laboratory that explores social ethology and opens up a possibility for a more performative and interactive architecture.”
“Physical bodies and physical space share a universal element: water. Our physical bodies are composed of 60 per cent water while buildings hold complex plumbing systems. Within both of these structures, the complex water systems are hidden.
“How can we resurface and reimagine this hidden material to connect our physical bodies with the physical spaces they occupy? This thesis tests how water can be used as both a building material to shape our built environment and a pedagogical tool to reshape our narrative of its use.”
“This thesis introduces a new agricultural environment to an existing urban educational facility located in a New York food desert. The integration of the two programmes is to expose the students and neighbourhood residents to a diverse diet and promote healthy eating habits.
“It proposes the insertion of a secondary farming programme within an existing, underused urban space and blurs the boundary between the two, in order to create a didactic, symbiotic relationship. Therefore, an environment of curiosity and learning can emerge in this designed space.”
“Getting Home aims to showcase the relationship between local senior residents and tourists as part of the ‘Disneyfication’ occurring in many ancient, historic towns.
“It attempts to counter the demolition of a land’s identity by instead creating a cultural landscape that carries both nostalgia and exoticism, producing novelty for young and old tourists alike and a welcoming respite for the elders living among them.
“My programme is a response to the mix of old people’s homes and hotels located in Lili ancient town in China. My purpose is not only to help local seniors retrieve the attachment to their homeland but also to help tourists understand the historic and cultural value embedded in this town.”
Space of Translation/Elements of Narrative by Chenchen Kang, MFA
“This thesis tests the translational relationship between literature and architecture. The hope is that, by translating the language of text into the language of design, one might reveal new aspects that were unseen in the other.
“The narrative of Dante’s Divine Comedy becomes the ethereal backdrop for the spatial narrative within a cemetery and an abandoned power plant. The three paths dedicated to the mourners, the deceased and the contemplators intertwine with one another to create a space that resides between the boundaries of life and death, self and other, body and spirit.”
“How can water be used to promote a sense of equality in spaces? Water is both a healing and destructive foundation of life and symbolizes power, freedom, and tranquillity.
“This project explores equality, segregation and healing as embodied by the swimming pool throughout American history and proposes a swimming pool centre for use by NYC schools. Water is used to bring people together and heal the distance created through history.
“Users will enter a series of different water spaces that promote interaction and embark on a journey of learning. Waterfalls and water slides connect both users and water together in the space to promote a sense of gathering.”
The New Theatre with Living Laboratory by Terry (Junghyun) Hong, MFA
“This project for housing insecure college students is a spatial template for co-existence that introduces veiled, mutualistic habitable volumes into a theatre.
This thesis is an experiment in implanting heterogeneous rooms into stable, existing interior space. The host volume is the Theatre for a New Audience – a modern theatre for performances based on classical Shakespeare plays.
The thesis expands the theatre’s social utility as an art centre and deepens the cooperation with neighbouring universities through the dual use of its performative living stage for diverse civil educational programs. The Veil of Ignorance is a theoretical framework for an internal system of equality, morality, and humanity.
“How could social online shopping educate us about virtual living? Composing my thesis as a satire, I reimagined Kith as a multi-user, online virtual store within the digitally reproduced Scholastic Building in Soho.
“The project proposes a comprehensive shopping system while presenting and examining the interiors of e-commerce retailers. In order to educate users about how shopping reinforces social differentiation, I introduced a membership system to enhance their experience.
“Membership levels are reflected through vertical, structural differences and virtual view-controlling materials, which also implies an aspect of surveillance as a by-product of online social activity.”
“Considering the relative, simultaneous time dimensions of past, present and future, the NOHO Memory Archive is an investigation into making memory tangible in spatial form.
“As an archive research and performance space for the performing arts in Lower Manhattan, it presents memory as a way to commemorate past historical and avant-garde performances, which can be accessed through books, tapes and videos, while also inviting the public to witness the process behind current works.
“The bottom three floors of the original cast-iron facade with its columned, loft-style structure is reimagined with an inserted staircase, as well as pyramid and bridge shapes that utilize a combination of reflective and patterned tactile surfaces to evoke a memory-making atmosphere.”
Clockwise from top left: Ziyi Cui, MFA; Vanwalee Chansue, BFA; Erin Loffler, MFA; Aislinn Jefferies, MFA; Christine (Chai Yeon) Park, BFA
A complete presentation of work from the MFA and BFA interior design class of 2020, as well as from the wider School of Design can be found on the Pratt Show website.
The pink seesaws installed across the US-Mexico border last summer by architect Rael San Fratello were smuggled into place, partner Virginia San Fratello has revealed.
The project, which became a viral sensation when it was installed at the border fence on 27 July 2019, was part of an ongoing exploration of border architecture by the California studio.
It was installed between Anapra and Sunland Park in July 2019
“We’ve been working at the border between the United States and Mexico for probably 10 years,” added San Fratello, whose partner Ronald Rael wrote the 2017 book Borderwall as Architecture.
“We’ve worked hard to smuggle in design at the border.”
The seesaws briefly allowed communities on both sides of the border to play together. The aim, said San Fratello, was “to show the world that play can be an act of resistance.”
The seesaws, or teeter-totters, were installed across the controversial barrier wall where it divides Anapra in Mexico from Sunland Park in the US state of New Mexico, splitting a once unified urban area in two.
“No one was willing to support us”
The duo had been working on the idea for several years but had been unable to gain official backing.
“No one was willing to support us – not the border patrol or any local municipalities,” she explained. “We ended up just saying: ‘Well, we’re going to do it because we think it’s important’.”
It is illegal to attach anything permanently to the border wall, so the three seesaws had to be designed for swift and clandestine assembly.
The design is optimised to slip quickly and easily in between the bars that make up the border wall
“We designed it so that you could very quickly slide the horizontal parts in between the fence,” said San Fratello, who is co-founder of Rael San Fratello and an assistant professor at San José State University.
The devices were fabricated in Ciudad Juárez on the Mexican side of the border in collaboration with local workshop Taller Herrería.
“My partner Ronald went to Juárez, picked up the teeter-totters with some friends and brought them to the border,” she explained.
“Then I, with some friends, came from the US side with the seats and the handlebars and we put them on really quickly.”
Border patrol stood by and watched
The installation process was watched by US border forces.
“We could see the border patrol up on the mesa,” she explained. “So we knew they could see us and we knew they would come quickly and we didn’t know what they would do. Our plan was to be able to play for five to seven minutes before the border patrol showed up.”
However, the authorities kept their distance while the equipment was installed.
“They stayed there the whole time and watched,” she said. “We were mostly women and children, which I thought was interesting and not something that I necessarily anticipated. I think there was a lot of joy there and I think they recognized that.”
When the agents eventually arrived, they allowed people to continue using the devices. The seesaws were then disassembled and removed.
“We played for about 40 minutes and then, you know, people started getting a little bit tired. And we took them down and took them back to Juárez.”
More border interventions to come
The architect also revealed that there are secret plans is in the making for more, similarly provocative projects surrounding the topic.
“We sketch out different ideas for different projects that we could keep pounding on the border, to expose the harsh reality of what is there,” she said.
“I think what’s important for us is to show the faces of the people who live there. There is this myth that the people crossing the border are ‘bad men’. But the reality is that the people who live there are families, just like you and me.”
Ronald Rael brought the seesaws to the border from the workshop in Ciudad Juárez
“These are families that have been there for generations and the border crossed them and divided them. [But] they were there first,” she continued. “These are people who cross the border to go to work every day or to take their children to school. And I think we want to show the reality of it.”
San Fratello revealed that the seesaws will be installed at the National Building Museum in Washington DC “when things open up again”.
“We want to give people a chance to play and ride them there as well so they can have a little bit of a continued life,” she explained.
Earth as a building material is “better than concrete”
In the live interview, San Fratello showed 3D-printing projects created under the duo’s additive manufacturing studio Emerging Objects.
Some of the handlebars featured a shiny purple airhorn
As part of the studio’s investigation of earth as a modern building material, the duo has previously built an adobe house in Marfa, Texas, and plans to 3D print a fully inhabitable version this summer.
“Earth as a building material and as a thermal mass is better than concrete in many regions of the world,” said San Fratello.
“It would provide cooler interiors in the summer and warmer interiors in the winter. [And] it’s free. Why ship cement and concrete around the world when you have a perfectly suitable building material right there?”
San Fratello wants to see border wall removed
The architect also shared that the duo previously proposed a project that would allow the border wall to be used in a productive way, as the home for a solar farm.
“This is one of the sunniest places in the United States and Mexico. And we could use the border wall to literally provide power and electricity to cities on both sides of the border – so that it could be useful if it has to be there,” she said.
“But of course, the reality is we don’t advocate for the wall at all. We would like to see it gone.”
Czech studio Refuel Works took cues from buildings by Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha to design this concrete villa nestled into the jungle in Costa Rica.
Art Villa is part of the Art Villas resort in Playa Hermosa, an extensive property that comprises rentable houses, including a residence with a green roof and a multifunctional pavilion.
Refuel Works, led by Jan Skoupý and Zbyněk Ryška, worked with architecture firm Formafatal to complete the 570-square-metre rentable residence.
The studios designed the two-storey structure to reference the tropical landscape and buildings by Mendes da Rocha, which are known for their monolithic concrete forms.
“When designing the interiors, we found inspiration not only in the surrounding wild jungle, but also in the work of the Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha,” the studio said.
Two horizontal concrete slabs form the structure’s flat roof and wraparound terrace. A massive concrete block that contains the property’s swimming pool protrudes from the house extending over the sloping site.
Each of the faces is fronted with large glass doors that open to a wood deck that wraps the villa. All of the concrete walls were left in their original state to enhance the other natural elements used in the design, such as plants and water.
“The concrete walls are deliberately left raw, complementing the interior components, selected materials, water, and greenery – altogether creating an unusual environment, both rough and luxurious,” it added.
The top floor houses the living areas, kitchen, five bedrooms and access to the swimming pool, while the lower level is occupied by recreational spaces, including a gym and playroom, and utility rooms.
Polished concrete covers the floors throughout the main living spaces and mismatched ornamental cement tiles from Nicaragua are used in the bedrooms and bathrooms.
Crisscrossing track lights from Wac Lighting span across the concrete ceilings in the interiors.
In the foyer of the house, there is a shallow circular reflecting pond and situated above the water feature is a round black and white with ripple-like pattern across its face.
Formafatal constructed a number of wood furnishings in the holiday residence using teak and Brazilian IPE wood, including the irregularly shaped dining table, a bookcase and the rectangular headboards. The wood is also used to form the bedroom doors.
The studios introduced colour to the design with a number of pastel pieces, such as a modular blue sofa, ombre painted stools, a custom watercolour jungle scene tiles in the kitchen and several green plants.
From Zella Day’s forthcoming EP, Where Does The Devil Hide (due 28 August), “My Game” is retro-inflected delight. Produced by Dan Auerbach (of The Black Keys), the track is “a disco game board with a pair of cherry red dice rolling in my favor,” according to Day. With plenty of disco influence, a touch of Motown, and nods to the ’60s in the video, “My Game” proves transportive and true to Day’s glamorous style.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
“Our design firm specializes in ergonomics.”
