The latest edition of our Dezeen Weekly newsletter includes 12 back-garden offices ideal for working from home.

Since the coronavirus pandemic many people are now working from home, so we have rounded-up 12 houses with garden studios designed to support focused work and creativity.

Included in the round-up is Oliver Dang, founder of Toronto architecture firm Six Four Five A’s workspace. The architect modelled his home office on a saltbox shed, cladding it in vertical timber strips intended to emphasise its asymmetrical roof.

In northern Belgium architect Indra Janda, co-founder of Ghent-based studio Atelier Janda Vanderghote, designed a project for her parent’s house. It features white polycarbonate shingles on the exterior that resemble snakeskin.

Other stories in this week’s newsletter include artist Frank Kunert’s handmade architectural models, Angelo Renna’s idea to plant 35,000 cypress trees in Milan’s San Siro stadium as a memorial for those lost to coronavirus and a Vietnamese restaurant in Texas.

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The post Back-garden offices feature in today’s Dezeen Weekly newsletter appeared first on Dezeen.

As an industrial designer in New York City, I commuted through Grand Central Station and never got tired of it. At least once a week, I’d halt my rush and take in some new detail of the ceiling or concourse.

I’m not alone in my appreciation. Grand Central Station is the most Instagrammed train station in the world, with some 339,116 IG posts featuring it to date, according to European rail travel website Trainline.

Grand Central Station

After GCS the numbers drop off precipitously, with Moscow’s Prospekt Mira Station clocking 167,209 posts, and the rest trailing into five- and four-figure counts.

Prospekt Mira Station, Russia. https://www.instagram.com/p/CACnQdCIUp0/

Trainline canvassed IG to come up with an overall list of the Most Instagrammed Train Stations in the World:

Aarau Cloud Canopy, Switzerland. https://www.instagram.com/p/-Cd1Bbr8fv/

Khaju Bridge, Iran. https://www.instagram.com/p/B_zKVqXg1h2/

Spaarne Hospital Bus Stop, the Netherlands. https://www.instagram.com/p/BfONPy7FE0e/

Leicester Station, UK. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf9Np8tDP_D/

Old Shimbashi Station, Japan. https://www.instagram.com/p/U73kRhrKrk/

Hrazdan Former Central Bus Station, Armenia. https://www.instagram.com/p/BycqkSelZs5/

Kazansky Station, Moscow. (Source unknown.)

Coimbra Footbridge, Portugal. https://www.instagram.com/p/By7SrIop5S2/

Dutch Royal waiting rooms, the Netherlands. https://www.instagram.com/p/BztoOrvInk8/

Liège-Guillemins Station, Belgium.. (Source unknown.)

CF Railway Station, Mozambique. https://www.instagram.com/p/BwE4fxwBIqc/

Helsinki Central Station, Finland. (Source unknown.)

Arts et Metiers, France. https://www.instagram.com/p/BwEBqa4lAr-/

Gare De Lens, France. https://www.instagram.com/p/B9YH7flq_sZ/

London Bridge Station Walkway, UK. https://www.instagram.com/p/B2nApPEBmdf/

Bus Home, USA. https://www.instagram.com/p/BzHa8u_pDCe/

Haydarpasa Terminal, Turkey. (Source unknown)

Uniion Station Denver, USA. (Source unknown.)

Gagra Wave Bus Stop, Abkhazia. https://www.instagram.com/p/B8W419_hM4U/

Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, Malaysia. https://www.instagram.com/p/BwQSCIql2fn/

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, India. https://www.instagram.com/p/B0GPHKpAMdw/

Cincinnati Union Terminal, USA. (Source unknown.)

Japanese Fruit Bus Stops. https://www.instagram.com/p/B6G4JsvjPXD/

Louvre Rivoli Metro Station, France. https://www.instagram.com/p/B27bcWUo-9l/

Kansas City Union Station, USA. https://www.instagram.com/p/BseetXalsSf/

Rotterdam Centraal Train Station, the Netherlands. https://www.instagram.com/p/B-RgiU5J_If/

Webb Bridge, Australia. https://www.instagram.com/p/B9sSLYgpgv3/

Chengyang Wind & Rain Bridge, China. https://www.instagram.com/p/B-8BtEqjMyS/

Keleti Station, Hungary. (Source unknown.)

Georg-Brauchle-Ring station, Germany. https://www.instagram.com/p/B_5CagcjER7/

Kintai Bridge, Japan. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw4hm4tAQ1E/

Union Station Chicago, USA. (Source unknown.)

Stockholm Metro, Sweden. https://www.instagram.com/p/B4LlMZYAbUT/

Dunedin Railway Station, New Zealand. (Source unknown.)

Leeds Train Station Northern Concourse, UK. https://www.instagram.com/p/B-PlA07lqY_/

St. Pancras International Station, UK. (Source unknown.)

Union Station Los Angeles, USA. (Source unknown.)

Bonifacius Bridge, Belgium. https://www.instagram.com/p/B8otHMXIg9A/

Kanazawa Station, Japan. https://www.instagram.com/p/ByeTDWuB1uI/

Sirkeci Station, Turkey. https://www.instagram.com/p/BhZhP7GgHxi/

Gare de Lyon, France. (Source unknown.)

Merchant Square Footbridge, UK. https://www.instagram.com/p/BIKlqsnAiqO/

Praha Hlavní Station, Czech Republic. (Source unknown.)

Formosa Boulevard Station, Taiwan. https://www.instagram.com/p/B–xYQIFca5/

Manchester Victoria Station Tile Map, UK. https://www.instagram.com/p/By7nd9npx6D/

Main Street Station Richmond, USA. (Source unknown.)

Antwerp Centraal Station, Belgium. https://www.instagram.com/p/B6heZ3SJQND/

Milano Centrale Station, Italy. (Source unknown.)

Toledo Metro Station, USA. https://www.instagram.com/p/B445Pk1lMLl/

São Bento Station, Portugal. (Source unknown.)

Madrid Atocha Station, Spain. (Source unknown.)

Building on the success of the original portable laser-engraver Cubiio (which secured over $1.3 million in funding on Kickstarter in the fall of 2017), the Cubiio 2 is a slim, flatbed laser-engraver/cutter with a resolution of 500 DPI, autofocus, and the ability to preview your print/patterns before you execute them.

The Cubiio 2 comes with a compact design that’s almost reminiscent of a flatbed scanner. With a tinted glass hood covering the engraving area, the Cubiio 2 is incredibly easy to use. Just lift the lid, place the object you want to engrave on, or cut into and take a picture using the Cubiio app. The app then lets you accurately position your artwork on the product of your choice, following which all you need to do is approve of the placement and close the lid, allowing the Cubiio 2 to get to work. The Cubiio 2’s laser automatically focuses on its subject, and can handle materials like aluminum, stainless steel, wood, glass, acrylic, paper, cork, leather, and even cement.

The Cubiio 2 works as an efficient laser-cutter and engraver that’s safe for even kids to use – all the action happens behind the tinted glass lid. You can customize existing products by adding logos, messages, or even artwork to it in the form of engravings, or make your own line of items from scratch using the laser-cutting tool, creating a variety of laser-cut designs and products.

With its slim, scanner-ish design, easy to use UX, and versatile build, the Cubiio 2 promises to make laser-engraving/cutting as ‘easy’ as laserjet printing. The Cubiio 2 comes in two sizes, a regular that handles jobs of 11.8″ x 8.6″, and a Plus size that handles larger jobs of 16.5″ x 11.8″. The device comes along with Cubiio 2’s app, and works entirely over WiFi, supporting a wide variety of image and vector formats. You can even choose the laser cartridge you want fitted into your Cubiio 2 – a 3.5W laser offers basic functionality, while a higher intensity 5W laser allows you to work with more unusual materials including stainless steel, aluminum, ceramics, and even cement/concrete. Whether it’s building products like laser-cut cards, toys, or prototypes or customizing items with your own designs (like monogramming pens, etching photos into wood or acrylic, or adding your logo to leather products, the Cubiio 2 aims at making the process of cutting and engraving incredibly precise – with its 500dpi resolution, incredibly safe – with its enclosed design, password lock feature, and auto-shutdown feature, and incredibly accessible, thanks to its sleek, compact design!

Designer: Cubiio

Click Here to Buy Now: $1,150 $1700 ($550 off). Hurry, only 2/50 left! Raised over $1,750,000.

Cubiio 2 – Laser Cutter & Metal Engraver with Autofocus

In 2017, their first project, the Cubiio 1 was the most funded fabrication tool ever on Kickstarter. Now they are back with the 2nd generation – more powerful, much faster, yet still sporting a refined look with a compact footprint.

At 2.5″ slim, with a diagonal of 25″ and a weight of 13 lbs, the Cubiio 2 features a workspace bigger than a standard Letter or A4 size paper, offering you plenty of room to flex your creative muscle.

Metal Engraving

Eiffel Tower on iPad. Anodized Aluminum / 10 min

Thanks to the latest advances in semiconductor laser technology, their laser cartridge works on stainless steel directly, without pre-coating spray. Cubiio 2 can engrave on titanium, dark glass, shale, brick, concrete, most varieties of colored anodized aluminum, and other materials. It even works on curved surfaces, like wine bottles.

What Can Be Cut?

Cubiio 2 can cut through paper, wood, leather, fabric, felt, cardboard, non-transparent acrylic, and many other materials. If the work material is too thick for a single pass to cut through, Cubiio 2 will continue to focus downward into the material for subsequent passes. The maximum cutting thickness is 5 mm.

Excellent Resolution

Cubiio 2 outputs at a resolution of 500 DPI or 0.05 mm. That’s even thinner than your hair! In contrast to PWM control, our “realtime analog control” of laser power produces a wide range of gray tones. With Cubiio 2, your laser portrait is not only black and white.

Autofocus

Thanks to LiDAR, some high-end smartphones are now equipped with 3D cameras. LiDAR calculates distances by emitting infrared light to a target and measuring the time it takes for the reflection to bounce back. Cubiio 2 employs LiDAR technology to focus the laser beam on the target’s surface automatically and precisely.

Preview

Put an object in the machine and take a top view picture with the Cubiio App. Don’t worry about getting it perfect because the App will compensate for the angle deviation. Scale, rotate, position your art work, and go. What you see is what you get!

Easy to Use

Cubiio 2 is easy to use thanks to features like autofocus, preview, Wi-Fi remote control, OTA firmware update, cross-format compatibility, alignment-free optics, and embedded fume filter. The App is user-friendly and intuitive. It is developed by programmers led by Mr. Michael Pan, an Apple Certified Trainer.

Cubiio Club

Hundreds of amazing projects are ready to use in the cloud database (Cubiio Club). Browse, download one, and laser it immediately. Even a beginner can achieve amazing results. Cubiio Team has hired professional designers to enrich the database regularly. Users are also welcome to upload and share their projects with the community.

Community Sharing

More than 5k Cubiio owners have joined the “Quser group”, where they share useful tips and thousands of beautiful pictures. If you have questions, seasoned enthusiasts from all over the world would love to help you.

Safety

Cubiio 2 is a Class 1 laser product – naked-eye safe under all conditions of normal use. The complete enclosure prevents the laser from leaking. Lifting the lid stops the laser immediately. Cubiio 2 is equipped with an attenuator, digital lock, thermometer, accelerometer, beeper, emission indicator, and emergency stop switch.

Click Here to Buy Now: $1,150 $1700 ($550 off). Hurry, only 2/50 left! Raised over $1,750,000.

Acclaimed Estonian artist Kris Lemsalu Malone (who represented the Baltic nation at 2019’s Venice Biennale) and her husband Kyp Malone Lemsalu (of the band TV on the Radio) have partnered once again, this time on an imaginative, immersive exhibition for Tallinn’s Kai Art Center. It’s a rebirth (and extension) of their KW Institute for Contemporary Art exhibit which shuttered early in Berlin because of COVID-19. For Love Song Sing Along (Once Again With Feeling!), the Brooklyn-based couple populate their own version of a creation myth with an array of characters—as eccentric sculptures and upon tapestries. As with their previous collaborations, Kyp has built the exhibitions soundscape, too. See more of the installation images at Kai Art Center’s site.

Image courtesy of Stanislav Stepaško

Photographer Cristobal Palma has captured late Chilean architect Cristián Boza’s cliffside retreat, which was built in the 1990s and features a winding yellow wall and circular swimming pool.

Boza completed the house in Los Vilos, Chile, in 1997 as a weekend retreat for his family, including his wife and their four children.

Having only seen Los Vilos House in photos from the 1990s, Palma arranged to visit the site in September last year through Boza’s son, Cristián Boza Wilson. The Chilean photographer said the late architect managed to see the new set of images just before he died this year and was pleased with them.

“I knew that Boza’s health was not very good and I wanted to photograph his house while he was still around,” Palma told Dezeen.

Los Vilos House is topped by an undulating yellow-painted concrete wall that protects its roof terrace from winds. Measuring six by 25 metres, the concrete terrace forms steps on its shorter side to sit with views of the South Pacific Ocean and sunsets.

An elevated bridge crossing a long set of steps links the terrace to a round stone swimming pool.

The walkway extends over a staircase leading down between from the top of the site to the water, splitting in two at the end to form a second stair to the rooftop. Two walls made of local stone flank the stair and are punctured with windows and doors into the house.

“In this house, each space is arranged around the long stoned passage that originates at the highest point of the terrain and ends in the ocean,” added Boza’s son, who runs their firm Boza Wilson Arquitectos.

“All the rooms of the house are aligned along this path full of doors and windows, just like a fishing village in the Mediterranean Sea.”

Stone walls are left exposed inside the house, which has a lounge with large windows facing the ocean. A metal chimney is elevated on one wall running up through a slender mezzanine level with storage for books.

Steps lead up to the dining room on a slightly higher level with yellow-painted concrete floors reminiscent of the wall outside. A door from the dining room provides access to the kitchen located on the other side of the staircase.

The master bedroom is placed behind the dining room, while four more bedrooms are located to the rear of the house and accessed from the stone paths.

Boza also created a separate second stone volume to house a sauna and a jacuzzi facing the sea. The landscaping was designed with his wife Diana Wilson.

Palma’s photography forms part of a wider project to capture Chilean architecture from the late 1990s. He said Boza’s 22-year-old design provides an example of a typology still popular today.

“I wanted to start photographing some projects that could be identified as key in the ‘new wave’ of Chilean architecture that started to get noticed abroad in the late 90s, and this project is definitely part of that bunch,” Palma told Dezeen.

“This kind of ‘house hanging by the cliff facing the Pacific’ became a typology in itself here in Chile,” he added. “This house is definitely one of the best-accomplished samples of the ones I have been lucky to get to visit.”

Other houses completed more recently complete in this style include a property by Office of Ryue Nishizawa with a wavy concrete roof and a residence by Alejandro Aravena with a huge chimney.

Boza died aged 76 due to liver disease. He is known for buildings like The Santiago Justice Center, the Quinta Normal River Park, the Bellavista headquarters of the San Sebastián University, and a number of houses for Chilean president Sebastián Piñera.

He was also the dean of architecture at the San Sebastián University but resigned following controversial comments.

“You could definitely describe him as one of those larger than life types of characters,” Palma added.

“Both his work and his public persona became somewhat controversial in the last decade or so, so in a way I was even more intrigued by this house that I had only seen in pictures from the 90s.”

Photography is by Cristobal Palma.

Project credits:

Builder: Pablo Epulef
Construction engineer: Ricardo Aránguiz
Landscape designer: Cristián Boza, Diana Wilson

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