Hasta La Ideas

Imagine sitting on a beach, crystal clear blue waters, no traffic, smog, or dirt for miles – this is the ideal getaway that Paul Milinski at Vaulter brings to life with his 3D architectural renders. Let’s admit it, in these times, we all are secretly hoping the world goes back to normal in a week (whether our previous normal is good for the environment is a different question altogether) so we can go out and roam the streets fearlessly, go get that beach vacation we always wanted and put the entire COVID chapter behind us! The current world stats present a grim reality, so while we stay cooped up at our home to save the planet, let’s have Paul’s work transport us into this alternate dimension – full of serene water bodies, realistic tropical landscape and where pastel colors add a pop of freshness to that space. Paul’s talent in creating these detailed renders is evident from the fact that the first reaction of readers on seeing this image is to ask – where is this place?! So, let’s sit back, relax, and imagine ourselves living it up at these locations.

Life on the Pier at the edge of the water, where the sand means water is full of soothing pastels as imagined by Paul Milinski. The scene rendered out by Paul shows serene waters, almost like an escape in Bali or a scenic island, free of crowds and COVID of course!

Date night gets a whole new twist with this render titled ‘Table for Two’. Quiet, secluded, and chatting over the moonlit and candlelit dinner tables, that place is zen come to life, with water lapping at your feet. The table for two is the way to connect yourself with your partner, your surroundings and enjoy being in the present.

Titled the Peninsula, this cable car/ ropeway seats your group and provides panoramic views of your surroundings, allowing you to hang out in style. Continuing the theme of pastels to execute his design, Paul’s design once again provides that fantastic escapism we all crave right now!

An architectural render created in collaboration with Charlotte Taylor, this Palm Springs Villa design is the vacation home you didn’t know you wanted!

This design titled the ‘Beach House’ is perfect for every water-baby! With a private pool and a beach at your disposal, this home is designed to heal you with water and sounds of water surrounding you, making the environment just right!

People love a day at the beach, but I personally love the beach on a moonlit night. Firstly the place is quieter, and there is a serenity in the inky blue waters reflecting the silver moonlight, allowing you to speak to yourself and hear what your mind has to say. For such deep reflections, the Moonlight Bay is the house I need.

Forget new year resolutions, we are all out making post-COVID resolutions. One such resolution is to treat myself with a guilt-free spa day! Now, none of the spa’s I know match up to this Spa Mountain design, but it sure promises to heal and rejuvenate you for life!

The Occulus House, named for the circular windows I presume, challenges the traditional window design and adds plenty of sunlight and spotlight in the house by using these circular cutouts. The result, a modern home creating a modern look without any of the old-school window-frames!

Brutalist architecture has long been a favorite of mine, and Paul’s design merges modern architecture with the brutalist style to create my ideal home. The raw-ness of the design is contrasted with the clarity of the blue waters to create a balanced and relaxing environment.

The Towel Chair showcased here is the result of Paul’s exceptional rendering skills and his design skills – creating a product that makes you want to sit on it while the ‘towel’ texture of the design keeps you dry and the furniture safe!

Glass walls enclose the courtyard of this concrete house in Argentina, designed by architects María Belén García Bottazzini and Ekaterina Künzel.

Casa Castaños is Belén’s home and is in a gated residential community about a 45-minute drive from the city centre of Buenos Aires. She design the house for her and her family with Künzel, and it comprises a two-storey concrete structure with a flat roof and measures 236 square metres.

When designing the project, which is on a 16- by 32-metre plot, the duo had to create a residence in accordance with local building regulations. It had to have a five-metre setback from the front property line, a 10-metre setback from the rear and three-metre setbacks from each side.

In addition to observing these limitations, the goal was to create a home that did not look like a “bulky and heavy volume,” the duo added. As a result, they used a series of setbacks, outdoor areas and large portions of glass.

“The project strategy consisted of breaking down the total volume of the house, in a way that none of the facades would express the total height of the building, to avoid showing a robust object,” the architects said.

The concrete upper storey projects from the four walls of the ground level below and is supported with black pillars at four corners.

At the front of the house, an overhang forms a covered carport and the driveway has grass growing through its pavers.

By positioning the ground floor behind the carport, it becomes more private and protected – the team describe it as “visually hidden from the front by pulling back the entrance volume”.

Much of the ground floor features windows, including glass walls that enclose a courtyard with a jacaranda tree.

The architects chose this ample amount of glazing to keep Casa Castaños naturally cool with cross ventilation. The vegetation at the centre of the home in the courtyard also creates a microclimate to help dissipate the heat in the summer months.

“The shadow of the treetop (when fully grown) will do as an umbrella, protecting the house from solar impact,” the architects said.

“We have selected the jacaranda tree because, besides its beauty, it is a deciduous species which will be in full bloom during summer, acting as a sunshade, but will also allow the sun radiation to pass-through during winter.”

The main entrance is to one side of the courtyard, and a double-height, glass-enclosed hallway contains a staircase. A walkway on the right side of the courtyard passes a covered outdoor grill area, which is concealed by a volume that contains a laundry room from the carport.

The rear of the ground floor contains an open-plan kitchen, dining room and living area. Glass doors access a patio, garden and outdoor swimming pool. A concrete volume is suspended from the ceiling in between the living room and dining area and houses a fireplace.

Upstairs contains three bedrooms and two bathrooms, which wrap around a walkway that contains a desk integrated into the walls. The master bedroom has a private terrace with a pergola for shade and overlooks the garden, while the two other bedrooms face towards the front of the house.

Interiors are pared down with walls painted dark grey, other portions of exposed concrete, concrete floors and furniture in white, cream and wood. Kitchen cabinets and counters are black and relate to the black steel window frames throughout.

The first floor was designed by the architects however to have a “more traditional profile” than the cool, dark interiors of the ground floor and feature plastered walls painted white and pale wood floors.

For warmth, concrete floors have radiant heat and the walls in the bedrooms have a layer of glass wool for insulation.

Casa Castaños is in the Nordelta district of Buenos Aires, and other projects nearby are a concrete sailing clubhouse on the Paraná River and Lamas House by Moarqs and Ottolenghi Architects.

Photography is by Daniela Mac Adden.

Project credits:

Building company: Constructora Correa
Site supervisor: Arch.Fernando Haller
Collaborators: Andrés Conde Blanco, Ariel Correa
Client: Martín Socstel

The post Architect builds herself concrete Casa Castaños on outskirts of Buenos Aires appeared first on Dezeen.

Inspired by the “irony that a dish that was designed to be cooked and eaten in under 10 minutes comes in packaging that takes upwards of eight decades to decompose,” product designer Holly Grounds set out to find an eco-friendly solution to ramen packaging. The recent graduate from Ravensbourne University London then developed a clever yet simple edible option. Eschewing the many plastic sachets that come with current iterations of instant noodles, Grounds based hers on a combination of potato starch, glycerin and water (with various flavors and spices infused) that dissolves—seasoning the broth—as the ramen cooks. Each package is heat-sealed, which keeps the noodles inside fresh. “The issue is that the world is not only confronting a rapidly growing mountain of plastic but also an even greater mountain of apathy. That’s why it was important to me to make the convenient choice the sustainable one,” she tells Dezeen. Read more there.

Breaking news: Architectural Association director Eva Franch i Gilabert has been fired by the London school two weeks after losing a vote of no confidence in her leadership.

“It is with regret that AA Council has terminated the employment contract of its director, Eva Franch i Gilabert,” said a statement from the Architectural Association.

AA alleges “specific failures of performance”

The vote of no confidence and a second vote against the Spanish architect’s strategy lead to the decision, the school said.

“At the heart of the decision is the failure to develop and implement a strategy and maintain the confidence of the AA school community which were specific failures of performance against clear objectives outlined in the original contract of employment,” said the statement.

The Spanish architect, who became the first-ever female director of the Architectural Association in March 2018, saw her five-year strategy for the school rejected by 80 per cent of Architectural Association community members.

“Following the meeting and vote of the school community on June 29, council undertook a series of meetings and consultations with Ms Franch i Gilabert to give her the opportunity to outline her plans to rectify these issues,” it continued.

Franch i Gilabert “did not provide council with the confidence” she could fulfil role

“Unfortunately, the discussions did not provide council with the confidence that she could fulfil her role as school director of the AA, one of the leading architecture schools in the world.”

The Architectural Association is now planning to redefine the role of the director position before finding a replacement for Franch i Gilabert.

“Council recognises how difficult this period has been for many people within the AA School Community and thanks them for their heartfelt and thoughtful feedback,” continued the statement.

“Council will now work closely with the senior management team, staff and students to manage the school in the short term and to clarify the role of the school director going forward before a new search process begins.”

No confidence vote caused “profound unease”

The vote of no confidence in Franch i Gilabert prompted outrage from supporters of the Spanish architect, with academics and architects writing an open letter expressing “profound unease”.

“Eva Franch is one of the most inspired leaders and radical thinkers of a younger generation of architects,” the letter said.

Architecture has become “too satisfied with commonplace formulations” 

Franch i Gilabert took over as director of the AA in 2018. In her post-election interview with Dezeen, the Catalan architect said she believes architecture education needs a shake-up to keep pace with the outside world.

“Architects and architecture institutions have either become too satisfied with commonplace formulations such as sustainability, participation, and bottom-up practices, or too hermetic with self-proclaimed avant-gardism and meta-discursive narrative with an aesthetic devoid of any social or political currency,” she said.

The post Eva Franch i Gilabert fired as AA director for “specific failures of performance” appeared first on Dezeen.

The words “Design” and “Better” are bound pretty closely together. There is no design if it isn’t making a situation or an experience better, solving a problem, enriching a life, or transforming an industry. Designers are always striving to make the future better than the past, and the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD is committed to rewarding designs and designers that are pushing the boundaries to imagine and ideate for a better future for humanity as well as for the planet. In fact, “Design for a Better Tomorrow” is the underlying theme of the Lexus Design Award 2020. Currently in its 8th year, this year’s Lexus Design Award looks at solutions that have a uniquely positive impact on society, humanity, and in the process, to reward a new generation of designers for their impactful ideas. The Lexus Design Award’s core objective has always been to foster great ideas and great talent. Creating the perfect environment for a design to grow, Lexus helps engineer ideas into real, impactful solutions. The brand’s strong association with design and with innovation helps it accelerate ideas to achieve their full potential. Apart from accelerating, developing, and promoting design projects, the Lexus Design Award helps kickstart design careers too, with exclusive mentorships from international design stalwarts, funding for prototypes (up to 3 million Japanese Yen or $25,000) and the opportunity to have your work judged by the biggest figures in design in the final Grand Prix competition. Past Judges include architects Sir David Adjaye and Shigeru Ban, famed curator Aric Chen, and artist-designer Jaime Hayon. This year, the Grand Prix winner will be announced on September 1st on the Lexus Design Award website.

The award process for the Lexus Design Award is pretty unique too. After the entry submission phase, 6 Grand Prix finalists are selected to be mentored at the brand space INTERSECT BY LEXUS in New York by a panel of globally renowned creators with established design practices and decades of experience in the field. This year Joe Doucet (Founder, Joe Doucet x Partners), Bethan Gray (Creative Director, Bethan Gray Design), Philippe Malouin (Director, Philippe Maluin Studio), and Shohei Shigematsu (Partner-Director OMA New York) served as mentors. Mentors help define and refine ideas, turning them into world-class products which are then prototyped and incubated by the Lexus Design Award. The projects and their refined prototypes are then presented and judged by an esteemed panel of judges in a virtual Grand Prix selection event in August. Winners, apart from being able to showcase the award in their resume, also benefit from having been mentored by world-class designers, having their design taken from concept to finished prototype, being judged by design and tech icons like John Maeda (technologist & author of The Laws Of Simplicity), Jeanne Gang (award-winning architect), Paola Antonelli (Senior Curator at MoMA), and Simon Humphries (Head of Toyota and Lexus Global Design), and having their work gain unparalleled exposure through the programme.

Entries for the 2020 Lexus Design Award came from as many as 79 countries, spanning across the categories of Industrial Design, Architecture, Technology/Engineering, Interior Design, and Fashion Design. As the participants currently go through their prototyping phase, here’s a look at the 6 Grand Prix finalist designs.

Click Here to Know More About the Lexus Design Award 2020 Finalists competing for the Grand Prix that will be announced on September 1st, 2020.

Biocraft by Sutherlin Santo

Biocraft attempts at transforming mundane objects into living ones that interact with the environment. Originally named Bio.Scales, the Biocraft is a revolutionary material that combines natural biopolymers with emerging technology to create a new material that possesses capabilities like being able to extract CO2 from the air, rid the ambient environment of pollutants, or even disseminate nutrients into the atmosphere. Created by Paul and Garrett Sutherlin Santo from Los Angeles, Biocraft hopes to eventually replace materials like thermoplastics, eventually creating regular products that don’t just exist to solve a problem, but rather serve a higher purpose by being ‘living entities’ that have a positive impact on human health and the environment.

Feltscape by Théophile Peju & Salvatore Cicero

Think of the Feltscape as an isolation chamber that imitates the feeling of being within a womb. Designed by UK-based Théophile Peju & Salvatore Cicero, the Feltscape is a ‘breathing cloud’ made of felt and recycled bio-plastic with an innovative robotic fabrication process. Equipped with sensors and kinetic mechanisms, the Feltscape can sense a user’s breathing patterns, allowing the isolation chamber’s smart membrane to react to its user’s breath. Creating a perfect atmosphere for reflection, meditation, and an escape from the immediate world, Feltscape provides a cocoon-like isolation experience that helps slowly and surely calm people down. Its organic design reflects inspiration from cocoons too!

Flash Pak by Yaokun Wu

Akin to having a fire-extinguisher mounted on the walls of buildings, Flash Pak by Yaokun Wu of China aims at providing flood-prone areas with instant access to life-jackets. Designed to be attached to lamp-poles in areas susceptible to flash floods, the FlashPak sits in its protective housing at regular times, but in the event of a flood, naturally rises to the surface thanks to the life-jacket’s innate buoyancy. Floods, now an unfortunately common by-product of climate change, displaces millions each year, resulting in thousands of deaths annually. Solutions like the Flash Pak can turn a lamp-post (or any regular post) into a potential life-saving zone, giving people instant access to life-saving jackets during times of need. New jackets can easily be placed back in their housing once the flood subsides, and the Flash Pak’s automatic deployment during a flash flood makes it an incredibly effective, life-changing solution.

L.I.C.K. by Irina Samoilova

A quirky example of biomimicry, the L.I.C.K. by Irina Samoilova from Russia is a portable body cleaner that takes inspiration from the way felines clean themselves. The L.I.C.K. is modeled on a cat’s tongue, with a soft cleaning surface with unique papillae that helps people who are unable to have a bath to clean themselves. Designed for people with no immediate access to water, or with injuries/bandages/casts that require being kept away from water, the L.I.C.K. provides a unique tactile experience that helps keep the body clean. Designed to work just the way a cat’s tongue does, the L.I.C.K. can simply be run across the body while its specially designed papillae and U-shaped cavities help lift dirt off the body (while feeling great to the touch too!)

Open Source Communities by BellTower

What if architecture, like software, could be open-sourced so that people can collectively develop something better together? The Open Source Communities, a Grand Prix finalist from Kenya-based BellTower, hopes to create universally available open-source home-design plans that can be used to design communities in developing and underdeveloped countries. These open-sourced homes can help provide a safe and secure haven for people in developing areas, while helping designers leverage the power of open-source planning to effectively allocate resources, allowing communities to even be sustainable, energy-efficient, and eco-friendly by design!

Pursewit by Aqsa Ajmal

The Pursewit is uniquely positioned to help the visually impaired not just be independent, but also develop vocational skills that help them make a living. Designed by Pakistan-based designer, Aqsa Ajmal, after her friend lost her vision in an accident, the Pursewit makes sewing more accessible with a design that’s built around ease-of-use with an approach that’s immediately intuitive and with a relatively shallow learning curve. The design scales the form of the sewing machine down, making it less cumbersome while also being simpler and safer. Ajmal hopes that the Pursewit will go beyond just helping the visually impaired be more independent by sewing or fixing their clothes, by also allowing them to take on a skill set that helps them earn a daily wage and be financially independent too.

The Grand Prix trophy was designed by Hideki Yoshimoto.

Click Here to Know More About the Lexus Design Award 2020 Finalists competing for the Grand Prix that will be announced on September 1st, 2020.