Hasta La Ideas

Central Saint Martins graduate Amelia Kociolkowska has designed a spandex pouch called Carrie, which offers those working in the police or armed forces a discreet and hygienic way to store their sanitary products while in the field.

With easy access in mind, the “wearable pocket” is designed to be either strapped around the thigh like a holster or clipped on to a belt loop and tucked into the waistband.

Storing tampons and pads directly on the body allows female officers to quickly change them even while on active duty, as well as avoiding pointed comments from male colleagues when reaching for their sanitary products.

Kociolkowska determined these as the most pressing concerns after conducting a series of interviews and workshops with women in these professions, as well as joining a police ride-along.

“A former soldier described how, when she was out in the field, she would have to hide behind a bush to change and would depend on the help of another woman to hold her bag of period products,” she told Dezeen.

“She couldn’t store them in her uniform as it was constantly dirty and, if she was in the field alone, she’d have to balance her artillery and equipment with her period products, which is as difficult as it is unhygienic.”

The Carrie mitigates this difficulty by having the products automatically revealed upon pulling down the trousers, with designated compartments for tampons and pads.

Developed in collaboration with London College of Fashion graduate and costume designer Zsofia Kiss, the Carrie features a clean white, streamlined design reminiscent of traditional shapewear, forgoing any seams that might be visible through clothing.

One of the pockets also comes with a zipper and a detachable, waterproof lining to store used period products when there is no place to dispose of them.

According to Kociolkowska, situations like these are surprisingly common while officers are in the field.

“One of the roles of the police involves visits to crime scenes. During these visits, it is vital to not interfere with the environment or leave behind traces of DNA, so it would be unprofessional to throw away any waste product on a site like that,” the designer explained.

“Officers are often required to be on patrol for several hours with no place to go to change their tampons. One of my interviewees told me she used to have to wrap them up in a plastic bag and dispose of them once she was back at the police station.

“My idea to include a smell-resistant, antimicrobial and washable pocket is a sustainable attempt to humanise this action,” she continued.

Although in-situ testing of Carrie had to be postponed due to the ongoing pandemic, Kociolkowska is planning to further develop the product in collaboration with female officers to ensure that it is as comfortable and practical as possible.

The project originally began as an investigation of the gender data gap, as defined by writer Caroline Criado Perez in her book Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.

“The vast majority of information that we have collected globally, and continue to collect – everything from economic data to urban planning data to medical data – has been collected on men, male bodies, and typical male lifestyle patterns,” the author explained in an interview with Dezeen.

“The result is that many things in the world, most things actually, just don’t work as well for women. This is the gender data gap.”

This idea is what led Kociolkowska to talk to women in male-dominated professions, to assess what impact a work environment that was not designed for female officers has on them and their mindset.

“I think it’s important to design gender-specific uniforms because there is proof that the current options do not serve women as well as they do men,” she said.

“For years, women entering these industries have essentially been handed a male uniform. This fuels imposter syndrome, which is already an issue for women in a range of careers.”

Other designers have chosen to use rather less covert methods of storing period products, such as Swedish-born Katarina Hornwall who created a necklace designed to hold an “emergency tampon” in its bullet-shaped pendant.

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Goethe’s words “I call architecture frozen music” couldn’t ring more true for these 20 structural marvels. If architecture truly is frozen music, this article is a mixtape of 2019’s greatest songs.

A part of A’ Design Award and Competition‘s winner list, these buildings are awarded for the uniqueness of the project, social impacts, environment friendliness, energy utilization, and other project-specific criteria. Ranging from conceptual designs to residential units, to spas, offices, museums, and retail spaces, the A’ Design Award covers architecture in its entirety, aside from a wide roster of other categories. Not only does winning an A’ Design Award look great on an architect’s resume, it also brings a lot of repute and focus to the work, uplifting its value!

Architecture remains the most popular category at the A’ Design Awards, receiving entries by the thousands each year. Here are a few favorites that we wish we had enough money to afford!

The A’ Design Award is currently accepting entries for the 2021 edition of the award program, so go ahead and give your work and career the push it deserves!

If you’re an architect or spatial designer looking to participate in the A’ Design Awards this year, click here to register. Hurry! The regular deadline ends on September 30th, 2020.

01. Solar Skywalks by Peter Kuczia

A beautiful combination of aesthetics and functionality, the Solar Skywalks don’t just provide a pretty footbridge for people to walk through, they help generate electricity too! The skywalk’s continuous facade is, in fact, made from power generating photovoltaic modules (or solar panels) on the outside, and lighting panels on the inside that illuminate at night. The skywalk’s design features a continuous series of polygons that look like a rotating wormhole from the inside. Once the lights switch on, the wormhole comes to life with a hypnotic series of light-spirals that absolutely catch the eye!

02. Yuzhou Langting Mansion by Tengyuan Design

Inspired by oriental deptions of mountains as well as running streams, the Yuzhou Langting Mansion is an exhibition center that hopes to redefine traditional Chinese architecture by modernizing it. Metal slats and columns replace the use of traditional materials like wood and bamboo, adding a contemporary touch to it while giving it a geometric beauty that’s difficult to look away from. Its beauty is only multiplied once you introduce backlighting to it, giving the entire structure a series of halos.

03. Cloud of Luster Wedding Chapel by Tetsuya Matsumoto

This wedding chapel’s unusual amoeboid shape gives one the appearance of being inside a cloud… a fitting metaphor for people who literally feel like they’re on the top of the world when they get married! The Cloud of Luster’s white ceiling gives it a certain austerity that’s hard to ignore, and those gently descending pillars make the architecture look unconventionally light. Couple that with the fact that the entire chapel floats on a man-made pond and you get some dazzling reflections of the space on the water below. Truly a magical sight for people wanting to celebrate their magical moment, if you ask me!

04. Flying Exhibition Center by Kris Lin

Located in Jiangyin city, at the center of the Yangtze River Delta, the Fly Exhibition Center looks like an abstraction of a bird in flight. Its edgy aesthetic gives it the appearance of a folded origami bird, taking off over the banks of the Yangtze river and acting as a metaphor of ascension and success. “It is hoped that it will represent the development and take off of the city in the Yangtze River basin. Therefore, it is named as the Flying”, says designer Kris Lin

05. Zen Mood House by Francisco Eduardo Sa and Felipe Savassi

The Zen Mood House’s front view resembles the silhouette of the quintessential cottage, with its cozy roofed design and the chimney popping out the side. In reality though, while the Zen Mood House is just as quaint, it’s also a contemporary take on housing, with its minimalist appeal. The house is quite literally an outline, with glass on the front and the back, offering shelter along with a cascading panoramic view of the greenery around you. Moreover, the house’s design is modular too, and can be shipped entirely within one truck and assembled in a day.

06. Hill Wind Hotel and Resort by Huafang Wang

Acting as an abstract representation of the landscape around it, the Hill Wind Hotel and Resort boasts of a design that uses the hilly terrain as inspiration, but in a way that allows the building to stand out amidst the green hillocks on the outskirts of Anji, a city in the Hebei province. The edgy low-poly facade surrounds the entire building, almost making it look like a massive cloud among the hills.

07. Courtyard NO.1 by Qun Wen

Courtyard NO.1’s appeal lies majorly in the way it uses the water below it to complete its form. The sales office building comes with a design that gets mirrored by the water it sits above, giving it the appearance of floating in the skies. It all comes alive especially at night, when the building lights up, looking like a floating jewel.

08. Starry Town of Fuxian Lake by MadeMake Architects

Located on the edge of the Fuxian Lake, Starry Town is an exhibition center that celebrates the diversity of the area while also being a visual representation of the flora of the surrounding area. The exhibition center is spread across two buildings, connected by a large roof that resembles a leaf, making for a very interesting birds-eye view.

09. Wenjiang Shouan Flower Exhibition Center by Yun Lu – MUDA Architects

Yet another exhibition center, the Wenjiang Shouan Flower showcases the traditional roofing style of the Sichuan people, even using the same materials to echo authenticity. The fluid brick wall is punctuated by glass facades that not only give the building an interesting exterior, but also help illuminate the interiors during the day. The building will serve as a natural ecological exhibition space, a flower planting exhibition center, a business conference center, and a township training center.

10. Hanoi Doji Tower by Do Minh Phu and NKB Archi Vietnam

If the Hanoi Doji Tower reminds you of a diamond, it’s purely intentional. The design brief for this building was to resemble a shining gem, symbolic of the fact that the building serves as a gold and gemstone trading center. The lower floors of the building are made from a combination of glass and marble, while the upper floors come with pristine glass paneling that literally looks like a well-cut gemstone. The building was first opened in a monumental and impressive inauguration ceremony on September 6, 2019. Doji Tower is situated in a location of historic importance, acting as a standing symbol of progress and prosperity. Now that’s sure to become a landmark!

Register to participate in the A’ Design Awards now. Hurry! The regular deadline ends on September 30th, 2020.

Concept designs will always fascinate me, I don’t think any concept design is bad because they are all born out of the need to solve a problem – sure some are feasible and some are fantasy, but if we can passionately support Iron Man then we can passionately support design ideas too! On that note, I love this conceptual Playstation design which integrates the functions of a CD player so that you can play multiple games with ease. Simple and effective.

Gaming enthusiasts will always have a large collection of games and most people will alternate between games throughout the day. When you play on Playstation and want to switch to another game, you have to insert another CD and wait for it to load. What this concept design does it combine a CD player with a Playstation so you can change the game CDs like changing tracks in a playlist and you also don’t need to put CDs into individual cases. It reduces the steps in a process which makes gaming a smoother experience and also helps you organize your collection/playing time a little better.

“It has a different appearance from a typical Playstation; it is more angular to be shown as a CD player and I wanted to express its analog sensibility. Unlike the usual method, when you insert a CD, the hidden speaker comes out to make a sound out of the main body. Its back has a simple design to make it easy to change HDD. It is designed to keep dust out of the console while you are changing the CD,” explains Yeo. Personally, I like the console a lot more than the ones that exist – it is less router-box-like and more on the lines of a modern audio setup. The Playstation x CD player is sleek and efficient, it has the potential to be the next big console upgrade ever!

Designer: Jaewon Yeo

The Breeze face-mask’s backstory has a very “necessity is the mother of invention” drift to it. Imagine, for one second, the kind of risk a journalist or reporter has to take to cover a potentially dangerous story. Whether it’s reporting from a protest site, a war-zone, or even an area struck by a pandemic, these reporters and their crews really put their life on the line to cover the news, and it’s something the cofounder of Artech (a videographer by profession), saw himself doing often. Realizing once the pandemic hit that this was the new normal, he brought together the talent and expertise behind his company Artech, and began working on the Breeze… a mask that he felt would work incredibly in every scenario… be it an area with bad air quality, a dust-and-smoke-filled war zone, or just having to step out during a pandemic. The Breeze’s revolutionary design comes with a few unusual features unique to this one mask. For starters, it’s crafted from an outer fabric that’s naturally cooling, allowing you to breathe easy without the warm breath making the lower half of your face uncomfortable, but its most notable feature is the presence of an inner layer made from silver and 24-karat gold. Coupled together with an N95 filter to trap particulate matter, this unique lining made from precious metals is inherently anti-microbial and instantly destroys any germs that come in contact with it. This allows the Breeze face-mask to actively auto-sterilize itself, keeping it germ-free and allowing it to give you clean, pure, and healthy air.

Designed by a videographer who often had to wear masks for hours while working, the Breeze was first and foremost crafted to fit comfortably around your face, letting you wear it for a long time. Its wraparound style allows you to wear it around your head (instead of around your ears), and a velcro fastening system gives you the freedom of wearing it around caps, ponytails, hair-buns, and even turbans. The comfortable fit allows the Breeze to sit on your face almost like a second skin, giving you hours of use without any “mask fatigue”. The mask uses an 80-20 blend of polyester and polyamide to help it regulate temperature. A simple spritz of water on the outside of the mask helps bring its temperature down as you breathe, giving it a cooling effect. The mask comes in variants with and without air-valves. The air-valves direct the flow of air as you breathe, filtering in the air from one side, and out the other, thanks to replaceable N99 filter inserts. This double filtration system makes the mask safe for you as well as the people around you. Both valve and valve-less versions of the mask come with the unique silver+gold mesh layer along with a standard N95 filter lining to trap microparticles and kill microorganisms.

Any air you breathe passes through the Breeze’s gold and silver-plated bactericide filters. Designed to instantly neutralize a host of bacteria, fungi, and even certain viruses, the 24K gold in Breeze triggers a galvanic reaction resulting in the emission of silver ions that can go on to disinfect and actively sterilize the mask and the air. The N95 filter performs a second round of cleaning, trapping particulate matter to bring the air’s purity to 99.8%. The mask is both washable and reusable, and the gold+silver filters can simply be cleaned by rinsing them under running water. Other pretty clever features include an outward-facing valve design that directs your voice sideways, letting you talk on the phone right through the mask, a secure, ergonomic nose-arch that ensures a tight fit (preventing ‘foggy spectacle syndrome’), and an optional magnetic face-shield that snaps onto the top of the mask, effectively covering your eyes with a clear visor. Combine all these features and you get a mask that is greater than the sum of its parts. The Breeze face mask filters and disinfects air while also being able to cool your face. Its secure fit prevents your glasses from fogging up, while the zero-pressure adjustable velcro straps work on every face-type, giving you a comfortable fit that can see you through hours of usage. Plus, its flexible fabric construction means you can easily carry the Breeze with you in your pocket wherever you go, no matter whether you’re in a polluted city, on a busy intersection with cars, a factory with emissions, a grocery store with barely any ventilation, or just anywhere you’d need to have a mask on you.

Designer: Artech

Click Here to Buy Now: $39 $59 (34% off). Hurry, less than 12 hours to go! Raised over $400,000.

Breeze – The Face Mask with Gold & Silver Filters

The Breeze is equipped with inherently antimicrobial silver galvanic filters, face cooling technology, exhaled air filtration, and “clear sound” valves for phone calls. An optional magnetic eye shield & a no-valve design is available.

The Breeze with no valves.

12 Unique Features

Made from a special cooling material, sprinkle Breeze with water and it’ll keep your face cool during the summer heat.

Silver has been used for millennia to kill harmful bacteria, viruses, and fungi. But it is the positively charged silver ions (Ag+) that possess the antimicrobial effect. Pure 24K gold in Breeze triggers a galvanic reaction and an intensive emission of silver ions.

The Breeze is windproof and shaped to direct the sound of your voice directly to your phone in case you need to take a call while wearing a face mask.

Breeze mask is created with “human engineering” in mind. They implemented zero-pressure ear-saving adjustable straps and an ergonomic nose arch.

Breeze is equipped with N99 exhalation filters, paired with gold / silver reusable galvanic filters. They filter the air you exhale in case you worry about your family and friends.

Breeze is a glasses-friendly mask. Filtered exhaled air substantially reduces fogging up.

Travel ban may be lifted soon, but wearing face masks became a new normal. While Breeze is not a medical device, it is inherently antimicrobial and designed to filter air more effectively than most existing masks. According to the CDC, masks significantly reduce the risk of infection.

All silver and gold filters in Breeze are washable and made to last. The outside shell is also washable and made from very durable polyester and polyamide blend.

Breeze is compatible with widely available and inexpensive standard N95 filters.

Compact and Weightless.

Click Here to Buy Now: $39 $59 (34% off). Hurry, less than 12 hours to go! Raised over $400,000.

Krushi Bhawanin is a government building in Odisha, India, designed by architecture practice Studio Lotus and featuring an elaborate brick facade.

New Delhi-based Studio Lotus built the facility for the state government of Odisha in the city of Bhubaneshwar.

The complex houses administrative offices for the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment around courtyards filled with ponds and trees.

The brickwork elements that wrap the upper floor create a pattern designed to emulate Odisha Ikat, a traditional dyeing technique from the eponymous Indian state.

Studio Lotus recreated the patterns with bricks using three different colours of clay sourced from the surrounding area. The perforations in the facade help to naturally cool the building.

Regional materials and techniques feature all over Krushi Bhawanin. Its pedestal and part of the north wing are made from laterite and khondalite stone from nearby mines.

The khondalite was carved by hand to create lattices around the central courtyard, which has a stone inlay floor that displays a yearly calendar according to the crops. Odisha is the third-largest supplier of grain in India.

Bas reliefs carved into the laterite on the complex’s public plaza illustrate rice paddies in the style of Odisha Pattachitra scroll paintings, a traditional, cloth-based scroll painting.

Dhokra, a type of metalwork perfected in India over 4,000 years, appears on screens along the building’s corridors and the light fixtures on columns.

Along with being a workplace for 600 staff, the site also houses spaces for education and community engagement.

Studio Lotus pitched these additional facilities to the client after they looked into German architect and planners Otto Königsberger’s original plans to make Bhubaneshwar’s government offices a focal point for city life.

“This attempt to include the building into the public domain has been achieved by designing the ground floor as a free-flowing public space that opens out into a plaza, which is an extension of the street,” said Studio Lotus.

The plaza has an amphitheatre, and a garden with a pond to naturally cool the space. Entrance is via a pathway lined with trees and stone colonnades, which doubles as a shady place for employees to eat their lunches.

A learning centre, gallery, auditorium, library and training rooms are also located on the ground floor.

Government offices are located on the first, second and third floors, where access can be restricted.

“This allows the offices to be secured off, making it possible to keep most of the other facilities open to the public even on holidays,” said Studio Lotus.

“Through exhibitions, workshops, weekly markets, lectures and school visits, these public spaces become a hub for imparting skills and sharing knowledge that engages diverse sections of the city’s population.”

On the rooftop, there are urban farms that can be used to demonstrate the best agricultural practices.

Odisha’s climate is hot in the day but cooler at night, so Studio Lotus used a night-purging system to pull cool air in through the northern facade after dark, lowering the building’s temperature before the hotter daytime hours.

The courtyard design, along with recessed windows, also features brick louvres that create shade and airflow.

Using local materials lowered the building’s carbon footprint and Studio Lotus also installed solar panels on the roof.

“Krushi Bhawan thus seeks to embody the idea of truly inclusive architecture – created for the people, built by the people, and expressive of their collective cultural identity,” said Studio Lotus.

Studio Lotus was founded in 2002 by Ambrish Arora, Ankur Choksi and Sidhartha Talwar.

Shaded walkways and corridors also feature in this school in Rajasthan by Sanjay Puri Architects.

Photography is by Sergio Ghetti and Andre Fanthome.

Project credits:

Architect: Studio Lotus
Design team: Ambrish Arora, Sidhartha Talwar, Raman Vig, Sachin Dabas
Client: State Government of Odisha (Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment)
Structural consultant: NNC Design International
Mechanical and electrical consultant: Sterling India Consulting Engineers
Civil consultant: M/S AVR Infratech
Landscape design: ROHA Landscape Architects
HVAC: Sterling India Consulting Engineers
Plumbing: Sterling India Consulting Engineers
PMC: Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation
Crafts: Collective Craft (crafted jaalis & folk art)

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