Coronavirus has forced the creative industry to adapt overnight, but does that extend to pitching, or is it as wasteful and stress-inducing as ever? CR investigates what might change post-Covid
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Kvadrat‘s Knit! exhibition, which forms part of 3 Days of Design, sees 28 designers create a variety of objects upholstered in its Febrik textile range, from sofas and dining tables to a giant squishy ball and whimsical flight suits.
Debuting in Copenhagen during 3 Days of Design as both a physical and digital show, the Knit! project aims to explore the potential of the knitted textiles in Kvadrat‘s Febrik collection.
Curators Anniina Koivu, Jeffrey Bernett, Johanna Agerman Ross, Njusja de Gier and Renee Merckx selected 28 designers to take part who have demonstrated “curiosity in experimenting with materials, form and colour”.
This includes London-based designer Yinka Ilori, Dutch design firm Studio Truly Truly and Swedish design collective Malmö Upcycling Service.
Ilori’s creation is a seating system called A Trifle of Colour, which looks at the chair as a “social tool”. Made from multiple-layered sheets of ply-board that are individually upholstered in Kvadrat Febrik’s Sprinkles textile, the chair-bench hybrid features removable and adjustable backrests.
Other designers who opted for seating design include Ana Kraš, who created the Ofset Chair from six quadrilateral planes, and Ania Jaworska, who designed structured chairs intercepted with geometric cushions.
Some creatives, such as Australian designer Adam Goodrum and New York-based practice Visibility, made circular seating systems.
While Goodrum’s interlocking sofas take cues from Victorian love seats, Visibility created a circular seating structure positioned around a central table based on traditional Middle Eastern dining.
Other figures went for more unconventional designs, including Lebanese designer Paola Sakr, who made a series of tableware from textile moulds, and Venice-based design practice Zaven, which used the textiles to create a series of utopian “flight suits”.
Zaven’s suit designs are informed by the image of a squirrel jumping from trees, an airplane flying through the sky and an astronaut floating in space.
Various designers used the Febrik textiles to make fashion garments. Ayzit Bostan, for example, used the fabric to make long dresses, cropped hoodies, kimono coats and layered skirts.
Copenhagen-based Marie Sloth Rousing, on the other hand, created conceptual garments that combine the elements of both a chair cover and a shirt, and can be worn by both objects and people.
New York- and Thessaloniki-based studio Objects of Common Interest designed a series of fabric-clad fluted columns, which are informed by industrial circular knitting machines.
Each pillar is comprised of stacked textile sections that start to spin independently at varying speeds in different directions when approached by viewers.
A giant, squishy ball by Swiss industrial designer Michel Charlot was also created as part of the show, as well as a room divider by Malmö Upcycling Service (MUS) and a reclined seat by Studio Truly Truly that features a bulbous cushion supported by a clear glass base.
Fabric surrealism-inspired characters by Benja Harney also feature in the exhibition, alongside a series of blankets by Studio Bertjan Pot that have been hemmed using coloured duct tape and a padded bag strap by Giulia Chéhab.
Other participating designers and studios include Studio Akane Moriyama, Bahraini Danish, Camille Blatrix, The Fabrick Lab, Faysal Tabarrah, Studio Fonta Fonta, Julie Richoz, Kumano, Lim + Lu, Studio Maria Blaisse, Studio Paperform, Raw Color and Shigeki Fujishiro Design.
The Copenhagen festival, 3 Days of Design, is taking place in the Danish capital from 3 to 5 September 2020. The event was initially due to take place in March this year, but was postponed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Kvadrat recently enlisted fashion designer Raf Simons to create two upholstery fabrics, called Helia and Silas, that boast unusual textures from natural materials including linen, wool and viscose.
The post Designers make furniture and fashion products from textiles for Kvadrat’s Knit! exhibition appeared first on Dezeen.
The humble road trip has become a tempting option as we navigate travel in the current climate. With the open road and a bag of snacks, the main task for the passenger is to not fall asleep in order to keep the driver focused and entertained. But sometimes the hum of the engine and the blurring green landscape lulls any good companion into one of the most uncomfortable naps ever had. Tapping into this idea is Škoda France for its latest campaign, which has captured these contorted positions in a series of OOH ads to promote a new package its created.
Working with Paris-based agency Rosapark, the car brand aims to combat this classic car journey trope by introducing its Sleep Package, a unique add-on for its vehicles, which consists of two adjustable headrests so that snoozing passengers can get some comfortable sleep.
The images have been shot by photographer Sophie Ebrard. “The brief was to create a campaign that would be as genuine and real as possible, and to make it funny,” says Ebrard. “The insight of this campaign is so strong, anyone can recognise themselves, or someone they know, I certainly can!”
“I think this kind of advertising only works if you really believe that the person is really asleep,” Ebrard continues. “When you can sense that it’s made for advertising, that’s when you lose your audience.” To capture that authenticity, the creative referenced pictures of herself asleep, with her mouth open, that her partner had taken over the years. “I was a very strong candidate for the casting!”
Alongside this, a classic campaign by the photographer Frank Budgen for luxury lingerie and erotic shop Coco de Mer, where subjects were caught supposedly mid-orgasm, also proved inspiring. “How you fake someone mid-orgasm is to me as hard as faking someone who is asleep. That’s a real fine line. It can look instantly fake as an image,” explains Ebrard. “Frank Budgen’s images look real. That’s what I was looking for.”
The campaign was shot at the beginning of July when Covid-19 restrictions and regulations lifted enough to allow creative working environments more flexibility. “Of course, we all wore masks and disinfected areas, and our hands multiple times a day,” says the photographer. “And we wanted to create a safe environment for them to feel comfortable and at ease so they could pretend to be asleep.”
“I like to create a fun environment for people,” she adds. “There needs to be a chemistry between the talent and myself when I shoot. Having fun is always the best way.”
Škoda has become known for creating memorable ad campaigns that feel a little offbeat, with its Cake Car spot by Fallon being the most remembered in the UK. In France, the car brand has worked with the agency Rosapark for the last three years and has created several award-winning and highly praised pieces of work including its Ugly in the 90s campaign, Doug the Dog and more recently Will & Chuck.
Though there’s been some recent controversy about Rosapark’s name (the agency has announced it will be changing it), with Sleep Package, the team have proved once again that images of a flashy car whizzing around don’t always need to be used to advertise a car brand. In fact, Ebrard’s imagery proves that well-crafted photography that taps into our everyday lives can be just as powerful.
rosapark.fr; sophieebrard.com; skoda.fr
The post Škoda’s latest ad captures the awkwardness of falling asleep in a car appeared first on Creative Review.
Camille Walala and local art collective Wood Street Walls raised a total of £40k to install the piece – including a £25k donation from the Mayor of London – which stretches across several shops in Leyton. As well as contributing money to support the piece, Londoners were able to vote on their favourite design online, before the artwork was painted – using recycled and carbon-absorbing paint.
The final piece is classic Walala, with its bright colours, Memphis-style graphics, and general air of exuberance. It feels a particularly fitting addition to the high street right now, when many shops are struggling to recover from the after-effects of lockdown, and many are understandably nervous about getting back out into the world again.
“Art and colour have an amazing power to spread positivity, especially at the scale of the street,” says the artist. “It’s wonderful to have an opportunity to have such a significant impact on the look and feel of an entire neighbourhood and inspiring to be part of such a community-driven initiative.”
Walala’s approach has been much in demand in recent years, which has seen the artist’s distinctive supergraphics applied to everything from a Lego house installation and pedestrian crossing, to an inflatable castle.
Photography by Tim Crocker and Wood Street Walls, camillewalala.com; woodstreetwalls.co.uk
The post Camille Walala has brightened up a dull east London high street appeared first on Creative Review.
The pandemic has prompted cities around the world to reconsider everything from parks and public transport to the way high streets work. Emma Tucker explores why good design is the way forward for greener, more sustainable spaces that keep us all happy and healthy
The post Can creativity build a better post-Covid city? appeared first on Creative Review.
Dezeen has teamed up with Exhibit Columbus to live stream four talks exploring how architecture and design can act as catalysts in the centre of the USA, with topics including indigenous design, climate resilience and technology.
<Taking place fortnightly between 15 September and 29 October 2020, the talks form part of the Exhibit Columbus symposium titled New Middles: From Main Street to Megalopolis, What is the Future of the Middle City?
What is the future of the middle city?
Exhibit Columbus is an annual exploration of architecture, art, design, and community in the city of Columbus, Indiana. Previous editions have seen street installations by design duo Formafantasma and architect Snarkitecture, and a giant hammock by SO-IL.
The 2020-2021 edition, curated by Iker Gil and Mimi Zeiger, takes Columbus’ central location in the heart of the USA as its departure point. Speakers include designer Radha Mistry, futurist Dan Hill and designer-activist De Nichols.
All four talks will be streamed at www.dezeen.com/exhibit-columbus.
“Exhibit Columbus’ 2020 symposium New Middles, in partnership with Dezeen, gathers thinkers, designers, architects, artists, and landscape architects to discuss ‘What Is The Future of The Middle City?'” the curators said.
“This question, posed from Columbus, Indiana – in the middle of the US heartland and rooted in the Mississippi River watershed – is one important to many urban centres locally and globally.”
“The series builds on Columbus’ role as a historic host and speculative think tank on design, asking the city and sister mid-sized cities to consider the role of design and architecture as civic catalysts, especially when faced with the most pressing issues of our time: from community health to climate change impact, from equity and social justice to emergent technology.”
Thematic Conversations
The New Middles symposium will explore four topics: Futures and Technologies; Resiliency and Climate Adaptation; Arts and Community; and Indigenous Futures and Radical Thinking.
For each talk on Dezeen, referred to in the symposium programme as Thematic Conversations, there will be a corresponding Columbus Conversation talk later in the week hosted by Exhibit Columbus featuring winners of its annual prize. These conversations will be used to inform a series of public installations that will be unveiled next year.
“Each bi-weekly topic is structured as a call-and-response between Tuesday ‘Thematic Conversations’ hosted by Dezeen featuring national and international thought leaders, and Thursday ‘Columbus Conversations’ that localise the topics, bringing J Irwin and Xenia S Miller Prize recipients into discussion with local experts and community stakeholders around future-forward initiatives being undertaken in Columbus during its bicentennial year,” the curators said.
“These dialogues serve as foundational research for all New Middles participants—as a kind of Exhibition Design Brief and ‘Community Design Brief’ that identifies topics, themes, and writings for community partners while growing exhibition participants’ understanding of Columbus’ culture and context as they conceptualise their commissioned installations for the fall 2021 exhibition.”
Symposium aims to “positively move our cities forward”
The curators hope the symposium will address current local and global issues and help to shape the future of cities not only in central USA but also around the world.
“In a moment when we most need reflection, creativity, and innovation to envision new ways of being, New Middles considers Columbus a place to destabilise assumptions, and imagine new architectures and landscapes as a way to positively move our cities forward,” they said.
Read on for details of the full programme of talks on Dezeen and find out more about the Exhibit Columbus programme at exhibitcolumbus.org.
New Middles: Futures and Technologies
7:00pm, Tuesday 15 September 2020
The first live talk, called New Middles: Futures and Technologies, will take place on 15 September at 7:00pm UK time (2:00pm EST).
Moderated by Dezeen’s founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs, the talk will bring together futurists Dan Hill and Radha Mistry to discuss the uses of strategic foresight and storytelling in design. The panellists will also examine how current conditions in the Midwest might speculate the future of middle cities everywhere.
New Middles: Resiliency and Climate Adaptation
7:00pm, Tuesday 29 September 2020
Exhibit Columbus curator Iker Gil will host the second conversation, in which designer Iñaki Alday and landscape architect Kate Orff will reflect on how their practices respond to local and planetary climate crises.
The talk will focus on the Mississippi Watershed and the ecosystems and habitats of its plains. It will be broadcast on 29 September from 7:00pm UK time (2:00pm EST).
New Middles: Arts and Community
7:00pm, Tuesday 13 October 2020
The third talk, New Middles: Arts and Community, will take place on 13 October at 7:00pm UK time (2:00pm EST). It will look at how arts spaces and cultural organisations are shaping the future of rural, urban and in-between places in response to recent calls for equitable civic space for a diversity of communities.
Hosted by Exhibit Columbus director Anne Surak, the panel discussion will feature architect and urban designer Paola Aguirre, artist-writer-researcher Matthew Fluharty and artist-cum-design strategist De Nichols.
New Middles: Indigenous Futures and Radical Thinking
7:00pm, Tuesday 27 October 2020
The final talk in the series, New Middles: Indigenous Futures and Radical Thinking, will stream on 29 October at 7:00pm UK time (2:00pm EST). It will explore time, indigenous design, landscape and how alternative perspectives might reimagine North American narratives.
The panel will feature designer Chris Cornelius, The Land Institute founder Wes Jackson, artist-architect Joar Nango and speculative artist and designer Ash Eliza Smith. Exhibit Columbus curator and Dezeen columnist Mimi Zeiger will moderate the discussion.
The post Exhibit Columbus launches online symposium to explore the future of mid-sized cities in the American heartland appeared first on Dezeen.
You’ve GOT to assume the person who designed the Buggie Huggie had some serious problems shopping with their kids. The Buggie Huggie is a universal device with a simple proposition – to keep kids occupied while you’re shopping so they don’t cry, tug at cereal boxes, or throw stuff around. By strapping itself around that kiddie-seat built into most standard shopping carts, the Buggie Huggie secures them in an enclosure they can’t voluntarily climb out of, and also gives them a fold-out table for playing with toys, eating food, or even watching stuff on your smartphone as you shop in peace.
Designed to fold down to something that’s a little thicker than your average laptop, the Buggie Huggie fits in most standard diaper bags. Its tough, durable, food-grade plastic construction works almost like a seatbelt, keeping kids in their place so they don’t fidget their way out of the seat while you’re searching for stuff in a shopping aisle. The high-rimmed table on the front is designed to hold food and toys, preventing them from spilling out, and an adjustable hinge and double-latch system allow it to securely attach to as many as 85% of shopping carts, converting it into an instant high-chair.
The Buggie Huggie makes the basic claim that an entertained/occupied child is much more cooperative than a bored one. If the child really doesn’t have much to do while you’re deciding between soy milk and half-and-half, chances are they’ll look at chocolates and throw a tantrum, or grab boxes off the shelf, or pine for your attention. The Buggie Huggie keeps them occupied as you shop – with a tray that holds food or toys, or a neat, sturdy clamp that grips your smartphone, allowing the child to watch a cartoon while you complete your quick grocery run. Designed to be compatible with most shopping carts found around grocery stores, marts, warehouses, and pharmacies, the Buggie Huggie comes with a safety certification from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and even recommendations from pediatricians, especially considering it’s child-proof, food-safe, and prevents kids from touching or interacting with any foreign, potentially infected surfaces.
Designer: Jack Clark III
Click Here to Buy Now: $39 $69 ($30 off). Hurry, only 4/130 left!
The Buggie Huggie is like a high-chair tray for your shopping cart that helps secure and entertains your kids while shopping.
FACT: It takes only 3 seconds for a toddler to be up and out of a shopping cart seat. Climbing is part of a child’s normal development, but it’s exhausting to monitor them every second of a busy shopping trip (not to mention calming their tantrums when we re-buckle them in their seat).
About 66 kids get injured every day, which means that every 22 minutes, another child is hurt badly enough to go to the ER just from a shopping cart injury.
79% of those kids (mostly under 4 years old) injure their heads by falling. That’s why they created the Buggie Huggie shopping cart tray: they want to help you keep your toddler safe and entertained while giving you back your peace of mind.
Lower risk of child falling out.
Don’t drop your phone anymore.
Durable for the strongest of kids.
Makes it hard to stand up.
No more flying snacks.
Compact enough to fit into your bag.
Click Here to Buy Now: $39 $69 ($30 off). Hurry, only 4/130 left!
Danish architecture studio 3XN has revealed the aptly named Berlin Cube office block alongside the River Spree and the central railway station in German’s capital city.
Built on Washingtonplatz in central Berlin, the standalone office block is shaped like a cube with faceted glass facades. It completes a masterplan for the area drawn up by German architect OM Ungers in the mid-1990s.
“The basic idea behind the masterplan was that a solitaire building on the square should contribute with a sculptural gesture and to animate the square,” said 3XN partner-in-charge, Torben Østergaard.
“Washingtonplatz is a rather prominent location in Berlin right in front of the main railway station near the River Spree and the chancellor’s office, so a stand-alone building here should offer more than rental space for the tenants,” Østergaard told Dezeen.
Clad entirely in glass, the cube measures 42.5 metres in all directions. Its facade is faceted with a triangulated relief pattern to create outdoor balconies for the offices on every floor within the block.
“We intentionally challenged the concept of a sculpted cubic architectural body, however in respect of the initial idea; the cube remains recognizable as the overall form,” said Østergaard.
“The sculpted form is driven by the idea to add outside terraces on all floors and in all directions,” he continued.
“In the end, we hoped for a building that would enter a dialogue with the square, the terraces will do this but moreover, the relief that emerged – and the reflective glazing to emphasise the sculpted body – creates new views of the surroundings in a kaleidoscopic manner that enable totally new readings of the city and life on the square.”
The 10-storey office block contains a food market and lobby on the ground floor with nine floors of office space above and a roof terrace at the top of the building.
Although the building is entirely clad in glass, 3XN utilised a double-skin facade, cross ventilation, rooftop solar panels and an automated heating and ventilation system in a bid to prove that glazed buildings can be energy efficient.
According to the studio, Berlin Cube is 25 per cent more energy efficient than well-known green building standards require.
“Cube Berlin refutes the common conception that glazed buildings are unsustainable,” said Østergaard. “It does so by providing new answers to the traditional concept of double-skin facades.”
“Cube Berlin is pioneering the development of solar control in the outer skin rather than on the inner, this offers more positive effects – manageable temperatures in the cavity imply extended seasons for natural ventilation of the offices while doing all the same things as traditional double skins: protecting the sunscreens, offer generous daylight etc,” he continued.
3XN incorporated an intelligent system within the building to manage the internal environment, which will learn over time how to efficiently control the building.
“In Cube Berlin, all the individual systems that all come with a digital interface are all connected in a common platform; the brain,” explained Østergaard.
“The connectivity of all systems in one integrated solution enables the exchange of data between systems otherwise operating in isolation,” he continued.
“The data produced during everyday operation of access control, lift operation, ventilation systems, cooling systems etc has now been made accessible to the common platform and this is the precondition for providing meaningful feedback to users and facilities management and to generate new cross-system learnings. Over time this platform can be given new elements and features so it can grow to embrace new ideas and requirements.”
Copenhagen-based 3XN was founded by Kim Herforth Nielsen, Lars Frank Nielsen and Hans Peter Svendler Nielsen in 1986. The studio recently completed the Olympics headquarters on the shore of Lake Geneva and a large sporting and cultural arena in Copenhagen.
Cube Berlin is longlisted in the business building category of this year’s Dezeen Awards. Other buildings in that category include a reception block for Adidas designed by Behnisch Architekten, a brick office in Tehran by Hooba Design Group and a translucent house for a glass company in the Czech Republic.
Photography is by Adam Mørk.
Project credits:
Architect: 3XN
Architect – subterranean: Maedebach & Redeleit Architekten
Structural engineer: Remmel + Sattler Ingenieurgesellschaft
Facade engineering: DS-Plan
Facade maintenance consultant: TAW Weisse
Digitalisation: CA Immo, Thing-it and Drees & Sommer
Fire engineering: Hhpberlin
Mechanical & electrical engineer: DS-Plan
The post 3XN unveils cube-shaped office block in central Berlin appeared first on Dezeen.
Don’t be surprised if you walk into Melissa’s flagship store in New York and you find yourself trying on less shoes and taking more pictures with the massive lighting structure hanging from the ceiling. Meet Crystalline, a lighting installation created by SOFTlab for the shoe brand’s New York outlet. Inspired by the Winter line of shoes, the lighting design looks almost like you’re inside a crystal cave, with geode formations around you.
The installation hangs from the ceiling, with multiple bulbs sitting laid out in an asymmetric fashion. A thin metal frame provides the ideal framework for pearlescent acrylic panels to mounted on, making the structure look like a crystalline formation emitting a steady glow. 50 unique cells and over 400 pieces of custom cut aluminum help bring the lighting unit together, and the dichroic acrylic panels help allow the chandelier to change color as you change your viewing angle. It also casts a rainbow spectrum of colorful swatches across the store, truly making the retail experience ‘magical’!
Designer: SOFTlab for Melissa
Tent-topped timber platforms form guest rooms in this eco-resort in Costa Rica, which Paris-based studio AW2 completed “without cutting down a single tree and without the use of concrete and nails”.
AW2 designed the resort called Kasiiya Papagayo so as not to disturb or damage its site of tree-covered, rocky peninsular overlooking the Gulf of Papagayo.
“From the very beginning, the conservation of the tropical forest has been paramount,” AW2 explained. “Our intention throughout the project was not to have minimal impact on the environment, but zero.”
To achieve this, the resort is fragmented into 14 guest rooms arranged in clusters across the 123-acre (49-hectare) resort, which the studio likens to a village.
“It is composed on the scale of a village, made up of clusters of tents, densifying the habitat in some areas and then letting nature take full rein in others,” it added.
“By having small pockets of life, the healthy interdependency with the ecosystem was prioritised, maintaining the exclusivity/community balance.”
Guest rooms are elevated above the ground and designed to be demountable as part of the resort’s construction strategy.
“We designed the project in a way that allows us to dismount, remove, pack and leave with no visible trace of any construction,” the studio continued.
Locally sourced timber forms the frames and platforms, which are secured to the ground with screw piles that can be removed with little impact to the ground.
Canvas forms the tented roof on top along with the exterior and interior walls.
“Kasiiya Papagayo was completed without cutting down a single tree and without the use of concrete and nails,” it added.
The project is completely solar-powered, while other environmental strategies are an on site well that provides water, and the use of electric vehicles.
Each guest suite is accessed by a private pathway and decorated with a series of custom-made furnishings designed by AW2 and manufactured by Colonial in neutral tones to complement the surrounds.
“Inside the tents, the camping mindset continues,” the studio said. “The demountable character, both fragile and impermanent, is affirmed everywhere. In terms of materials, local wood was sourced for the structures and interiors.”
Large expanses of glazing wrap around the bedrooms are covered by roll-up blinds – reminiscent of a tent – with glass doors that open onto a wood deck offering views of the exterior.
Woodwork features prominently inside, including exposed timber structure, and bed and chair frames paired with neutral textiles.
Bathrooms have wooden mirror frames and washstands, with stone basins, and a free-standing metallic tub.
AW2 also designed a beach bar, restaurant, spa and communal spaces for the resort, which encompasses a total of 2,000 square metres.
Completed in November 2018, Kasiiya Papagayo has been longlisted in the hospitality building category of Dezeen Awards 2020.
Other holiday resorts in Costa Rica include a retreat designed by Laboratory Sustaining Design, which includes a waterfall between the outdoor pools stepped down its steep site, and a hotel by Studio Saxe, which is composed of pavilion-like guest rooms stepped down a slope facing the Pacific Ocean.
Photography is by Pucci, unless stated otherwise.
Project credits:
Architect and interior designer: AW2
Structural engineer: LCM
Tent fabric: Canvas and Tent Manufacturing
Tent structures and fixed furniture: procurement of wood from local Costa Rican wood trading companies
Platforms: timber frame coated in red Brazilian cherry wood
The post Kasiiya Papagayo has tented guest rooms that peek from a tropical forest in Costa Rica appeared first on Dezeen.
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