Five architecture students from the University of Oregon present their visions of a Centre for Democracy and Environmental Justice to repair “damaged urban context” in this VDF school show.

The schemes, which range from a water research facility to a building dedicated to education in an underserved neighbourhood in Portland, were completed on the Inclusive Architecture and Urban Design course at the university as part of a studio focused on sustainable urban design.

University of Oregon

University: University of Oregon, School of Architecture and Environment
Course: Just City. Just Future. Inclusive Architecture and Urban Design
Studio: Architecture 407/507 Seminar, 485/585 and 486/586 Design Studio
Instructor: Kaarin Knudson

Course statement:

“As structural inequalities, ecological degradation, and ongoing crises push people farther apart, design at all scales can be leveraged to reboot systems, repair a damaged urban context, bridge divides, and bring communities together.

“This studio will focus on sustainable urban design at the district scale, and the architecture of civic life and systems change. Working in teams, students will develop the masterplan for a multi-block, previously developed urban site. Within this mixed-use neighbourhood, each student will then design a new Centre for Democracy and Environmental Justice.”

Albina Water Research Centre by Emma Michael Schumacher

“Located in Northeast Portland, the Albina Water Research Centre promotes community involvement, environmental reparation, and government transparency. Bordering the centre to the north is a large constructed wetland that filters rain- and grey-water naturally on-site for reuse, and on the south, it borders a civic quad that engages with several large-scale community gathering spaces such as the Portland Moda Centre.

“The building holds the administrative offices for the Portland Water Bureau as well as a volunteer outreach centre for a local river wildlife organisation. A large portion of the building is also devoted to public meeting spaces and classrooms.”

Name: Emma Michael Schumacher
Project name: Albina Water Research Centre
Instagram: @e.m.schu 

Cascadia Environmental Courts by Nicklaus McGuire

“An environmental court serving the Cascadia bioregion, overlooking North East Portland Riverfront, and designed to meet the Living Building Challenge. The Cascadia Environmental Courts meet the needs of a Centre for Democracy and Environmental Justice while bringing together state-level judges, social services, environmental policymakers, education, and environmental advocates into one building.

“The building follows a regular order from which the courtrooms break away, creating an iconic moment that can be seen from the exterior of each facade. The Cascadia Environmental Courts have net-positive energy, handles 143 per cent of stormwater onsite, reuses greywater, and treats black water.”

Name: Nicklaus McGuire
Project name: Cascadia Environmental Courts
Contact address: nicklausmcguire@gmail.com

Albina Community Centre for Child Development and Environmental Education by Odessa Cleavenger

“The aim of the Albina Community Centre is to place education at the centre of a historically underserved neighbourhood on Portland’s East Waterfront. The centre emphasises learning in all forms – through use of clean energy systems, public gardens, places to move and promote physical health, and open workspaces for collaboration between local educational organisations like Oregon Head Start and Portland Public Schools.

“The program is split between two separate buildings, with the administrative and community facilities in the 90,000-square-foot (8361-square-metres) steel building and the athletic facilities being housed in the 16,000-square-foot (1486-square-metres) timber pavilion within the park.”

Name: Odessa Cleavenger
Project name: Albina Community Centre for Child Development and Environmental Education
Contact address: odessa.omc@gmail.com 

Albina Centre for Community Engagement and Environmental Justice (ACEEJ) by JAM Collaborative

“The ACEEJ serves as a gathering space while producing a larger dialogue between community, environmental justice and democracy. Community engagement and public participation are crucial to achieving Environmental Justice, thus a centre for Democracy and Environmental Justice is best served as a centre for the community.

“Basic needs must be met and maintained before communities can be empowered to build their capacity to address environmental justice and democracy. Combining community, wellness, and activism, the ACEEJ will be a nexus of activity, partnerships can be forged, collaborations explored, and resources shared.”

Name: JAM Collaborative (Annelies Gielstra, Marcela Morales, and Jack Wakeley)
Project name: Albina Centre for Community Engagement and Environmental Justice (ACEEJ)
Instagram: @jam_collaborative

Albina Community Hub by Kyle O’Hearn

“The Albina Community Hub is a transformation of the iconic Veterans Memorial Coliseum – a utilitarian stepping-stone in a wash of auto-focused infrastructure – into a high-speed rail station, botanic garden, and gathering space for informal and formal community growth and enrichment.

“The community hub serves as a cornerstone in a 240-acre (97-hectare) illustrative plan for the Lower Albina district of Northeast Portland, Oregon. Barriers to social, economic, and environmental justice are dismantled by providing convenient access to a network of green-space, multi-modal transportation, scalable vendor spaces, and civic engagement opportunities, bringing life back to the marginalised community that was once paved over.”

Name: Kyle O’Hearn
Project name: Albina Community Hub
Website: issuu.com/kyleohearn
Contact address: kohearn@uoregon.edu

Virtual Design Festival’s student and schools initiative offers a simple and affordable platform for student and graduate groups to present their work during the coronavirus pandemic. Click here for more details.

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This year sees the Festival of Marketing expand from its previous two-day format into five days presented digitally, from October 5-9. Over 80 sessions will take place across the five days, including a mix of headline speakers and panel discussions, as well as marketing masterclasses and mentoring and virtual networking opportunities.

The themes explored across the five days will include understanding trends, delivering for customers, change and strategy, and driving recovery. Also, for the first time, there will be a day devoted to exploring creative effectiveness, hosted by Creative Review.

In this, there will be a mix of talks and panel discussions looking at topics such as the client-agency relationship, how to build an effective in-house creative team, and how to measure creative effectiveness. There will also be a panel discussion featuring a mix of leading creatives and marketers to discuss ‘home truths’ about the industry and the biggest challenges we face today.

Speakers that are confirmed so far at Festival of Marketing 2020 include: Mark Ritson, professor of marketing and Marketing Week columnist; Paul Pomroy, CEO of McDonald’s UK; Claire Hennah, Global Vice President of Ecommerce at Unilever; Ines Ures, Chief Marketing Officer of Deliveroo; and Alex Weller, European Marketing Director, Patagonia.

“The marketing industry is full of innovative, creative and resourceful people,” says Marketing Week editor Russell Parsons. “We will bring many of those together in October to discuss, debate and determine the best way to face the future. With the help of brightest minds from the world of marketing and beyond, we will present over five days inspiration, insight and advice on how to tackle the biggest challenges you face.”

“It’s not just another crappy conference,” says Mark Ritson. “It’s the Festival of Marketing! And online or offline it’s unmissable.”

For a full-list of confirmed speakers and buy a pass for this year’s Festival of Marketing, visit festivalofmarketing.com

The post Festival of Marketing returns for 2020, in a digital format appeared first on Creative Review.

Hilla Shamia, designer et artisane basée à Tel Aviv, dans ses créations élégantes et modernes mélange savamment bois et aluminium pour un résultat étonnant, parfaite synthèse de tradition et style industriel. La designer verse le métal chaud dans des moules de pied qui entourent le bois, en préservant ainsi la forme et la texture de ce matériau et s’assurant que chaque console, banc et tabouret est une pièce unique. « Nous nous concentrons sur la recherche matérielle et le développement des formes, tout en nous inspirant de l’effet que le temps a sur les objets et des imperfections intrinsèques à la nature », explique Shamia. A la croisé entre art et artisanat, ces meubles feront le bonheur des passionnés.es de design post-industriel et fonctionnel qui ne renonce pas à un côté chaleureux.

Australian architecture firm Bates Smart has built a skinny skyscraper named Collins House in Melbourne that’s 184 metres tall and just 11 and a half metres wide at its slimmest point.

The apartment building has a footprint the size of a single netball court and has a height-to-width ratio of 16:1. According to Bates Smart this makes skyscraper is Australia’s slimmest tower and the third slimmest skyscarper in the world.

Collins House has 259 apartments set over 60 floors.

Amenities for Collins House include a residents’ club on the 27th floor with a private dining room, a gym and a car stacking system with space for 108 vehicles. A terrace on the third floor features an open-air bar.

The tower was built above the 1908 Makers Mark building that has an 11-metre-wide ornate facade on Collins Street.

The building extends up from behind this facade, which has been retained, and then cantilevers four and a half metres out on one side over an existing 11-storey office building next door.

Australian developer Golden Age bought the air rights above this building to allow the development to happen.

The floors of Collins House have an H-shaped plan, with the lifts pushed to the side meaning that all of the floor plates are column-free.

A herringbone pattern is picked out in white frames around all four sides of the tower’s glazed facade.

Bates Smart used a modular system of prefabricated parts to speed up construction and facilitate building on such a compact site between existing buildings.

“It is the first superslim residential tower in Australia designed using modular components,” said Bates Smart managing director Simon Swaney. “A solution that enabled construction on a site that was previously deemed undevelopable.”

Prefabrication specialists Hickory developed a system of precast panels and components built in situ that did not require a jumpform – a working platform that is moved up the building as it is built.

Using a single tower crane and one hoist, precast storeys were craned into place, each level taking two to three hours to install.

Each storey was comprised of a 150-millimetre-thick floor, precast post-tension beams and a facade that was already installed. Precast stairs were built off-site.

Bates Smart estimates that this method saved up to four days per floor in construction, bringing the overall timeframe down from 40 months to just 30.

The architecture studio hopes that Collins House is a demonstration of how superslim towers can be built in similarly constrained sites in other cities.

Bates Smart, which was founded in 1853, completed the new Australian embassy in Washington DC in 2016.

Another skinny tower projects pushing the limits of architecture is 111 West 57th by SHoP Architects in New York. Due to top out at 433 metres tall and 13 metres wide when it completes, it will have a height-to-width ratio of 24:1.

New York has so many skinny towers under construction that the city’s Skyscraper Museum has built an online tracker to chart them.

Photography is by Peter Clarke unless otherwise stated.

Project credits:

Architecture: Bates Smart
Design director: Kristen Whittle
Interiors: Bates Smart
Developer: Golden Age
Prefabricated building system: Hickory
Structural engineers: 4D Workshop
Surveyors: Socrates Capouleas/PLP
Heritage consultants: Lovell Chen

The post Bates Smart completes skyscraper that’s only 11 and a half metres wide appeared first on Dezeen.

From inspired collaborations to limited edition pieces and even a translucent watch from recycled materials

As time passes, watch brands continue to release new models and styles to appease collectors and appeal to new consumers. The value of a wristwatch remains unchanged: more than a vessel for timekeeping; it’s also an expression of taste. In many cases, it’s also an investment. The following watches posses something extra—a flourish of color, an intonation from texture, a partnership of aesthetics. They also represent a broad range of prices and, arguably, even personalities.

Grand Seiko Soko US Special Edition

A wristwatch inspired by the end of autumn in Japan (a sub-season called sōkō in Japanese), Grand Seiko’s Soko Special Edition watch nods to the first frost and the fortitude of bamboo (referenced in texture on the dial). One of two limited edition, US-only pieces, this 39mm stainless steel Soko watch ($5,000) features a proprietary Spring Drive 9R65 Caliber automatic movement inside.

Breda PLAY

Formed from recycled plastic, the colorful Breda PLAY ($100) stuns in translucent tangerine. It’s a summer 2020 release from the often-collaborative and family-run, Dallas-based brand. Inside the watch, a Japan-made “2025 3 Hand” movement is visible through an exposition caseback. The 35mm case allows the watch to be an appropriate fit for all genders.

Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon H. Moser x MB&F

A collaboration between two visionary watch brands, the Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon ($79,000) sees H Moser & Cie work in conjunction with CH favorite MB&F. Limited to 15 pieces, the watch—with stunning 3D architecture—originated as a Moser design but it has been injected with MB&F’s sci-fi structure. It’s also only half of the collaboration, as Moser brought their refined aesthetics to the beloved MB&F LM101 wristwatch, too (pictured in the hero).

Alpina Seastrong Diver Comtesse

Available in the US in August, though already out in Switzerland, Alpina’s Seastrong Diver Comtesse (1,095CHF) sets an elegant mother-of-pearl dial within a sporty 34mm stainless steel case. This functional dive watch includes a unidirectional bezel, luminous hands and a screw-down crown. It could (and should) be used when diving, as it can withstand 300 meters in depth.

Zodiac Grandrally Chronograph

Zodiac’s Grandrally Chronograph ($495 to $595) honors the brand’s iconic driver chronographs from the late ’60s and early ’70s. All of the pieces measure to 45mm watch, including the endearing green dial iteration, which comes on a leather strap. Each of these Swiss-made Zodiac watches draw power from a Quartz chronograph movement.

Ressence Type 1 Slim X

To celebrate independent watch innovator Ressence‘s 10th anniversary, the brand released a limited edition model called the Type 1 Slim X ($21,500). A variation on their Type 1 Slim (which debuted in 2019), the X model employs their signature Ressence Orbital Convex System (ROCS) time-telling mechanism but incorporates an olive-green dial with various finishes. Only 40 were produced. It’s an exciting, welcome release from another favorite.

Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Off-Centered Chronograph

An exquisite variation of Jaquet Droz‘s Grande Seconde Off-Centered Chronograph, the new 43mm Black Onyx iteration ($21,000) flows through an “off-center” dial design that invokes a tilting figure eight. Atop the black stone, one large central seconds hand sweeps opposite a counterweight and over two subdials, one of which offers a retrograde date function. One pumpkin-shaped monopusher activates the chronography. Inside the stainless steel case, the brand’s Jaquet Droz 26M5R caliber movement drives all functions. It’s visible working behind an exposed sapphire crystal caseback. Undeniably, the timepiece is even greater than the sum of its carefully considered parts.

Bell & Ross BR 05 Skeleton Blue

From its circular blue sapphire crystal set within its 40mm rounded-square case to its skeletonized dial, Bell & Ross’s BR 05 Skeleton Blue ($6,400 to $6,900) plays on their groundbreaking architecture. This style, available on either a blue rubber strap or satin-finished and polished steel bracelet, is limited to 500 pieces. Within, the brand’s calibre BR-CAL.322 automatic mechanical movement gives it life.

Hublot Big Bang Millennial Pink

Limited to 200 pieces and designed in collaboration with Garage Italia (and their founder Lapo Elkann), Hublot‘s Big Bang Millennial Pink ($20,900) features a unique satin-finished and polished pink anodized aluminum case and matte pink skeleton dial. The 42mm automatic watch, powered by their Unico 2 automatic chronograph movement, also includes a very uncommon velcro strap. Altogether, it’s an experimental endeavor for the brand intended for all genders.

Hero image courtesy of MB&F + H Moser & Cie