Microsoft Flight Simulator has finally arrived for the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles today for gamers who can’t wait to fly high on this highly acclaimed sim. However, for those who tend to take their compact Xbox Series S along on the next planned trip, there’s a better way, at least if you are lucky enough! Microsoft has collaborated with high-end luggage manufacturing company July to create a limited-edition Xbox Series S suitcase for lucky fans.

While the simulator offers players to fly around the world from the cozy confines of their living room, the Xbox Series S suitcase does allow them to go on a holiday and carry their kit safely. Coming on to this gorgeous July suitcase, it has a pure white exterior matching the color theme of the gaming console. On the inside is where all the goodies are there. It has the Microsoft Series S console, a pair of wireless controllers, and a portable ASUS ROG Strix XG17 display for immersive gaming on the go. Of course, all the connecting cables and other accessories are also a part of this package.

This terrific accessory is up for grabs via social media content exclusively for Australian and New Zealand residents older than 13 years of age. Ones under the age of 18 require parental/guardian approval to enter the contest. This fantastic promotion will run through till 11:59 pm AEST on August 2, 2021, and already some influencers have been sent over this cool Xbox Series S suitcase!

This is the best thing to own right now for a hardcore gamer, and I hope it is up for purchase for eager buyers later. That said, the whole package is evaluated to be around a steep $3,282. The beautiful display alone is estimated to be somewhere around $490! While I’m already daydreaming about owning one, I’ll have to find solace as it is just limited to the two nations for now! Microsoft has been no stranger to such creations as earlier they revealed the Xbox Mini Fridge coming this holiday season – and while we wait, we hope they drop some more fun designs to keep us on our toes!

Designer: July for Microsoft

In our cramped modern-day apartments, storage space is always an issue! Hence, I’m always looking for innovative storage solutions, to amp up the storage quota of my home. And one kind of furniture that I love to invest in is – cabinets! Cabinets have come a long way from their quintessential and classic counterparts. Nowadays cabinet designs are fun, funky, and full of twists. And, we’ve curated some of our absolute favorites. From a slim wall cabinet that opens into a modern workplace to a cabinet that opens by tilting forward – these creative cabinet designs are the best storage solutions to invest in!

Turns out dreams do come true because Nils Holger Moorman has designed ‘der Vorstand’ – a slim wall cabinet that hides a functional home office! The black slender cabinet opens into a multifunctional work setup that creates a space for productivity while respecting your interior layout. The minimal structure features a back wall on wheels that rolls out with a simple pull and just like a pop-up book you get a work desk that comes with integrated bookshelves and top light. The convenient workstation maximizes your floor space and minimizes distractions. The fold-out ceiling creates a sense of a private cabin with essentials.

The Pivot rightfully uses gravity as a design feature! Instead of sliding drawers, a nifty little pivot joint at the base of this cabinet allows individual drawers to open by tilting forward. It’s clever, fun, and makes it easy to access your belongings without having to dig around! Just don’t expect it to be hyper-organized though!

In 1964, IBM released the 2401 Magnetic Tape Unit. It was designed to be used with IBM’s celebrated System/ 360 family of computers! Though this Magnetic Tape Unit is an icon in archives, it’s still a major source of inspiration! Love Hulten designed a commissioned storage cabinet called ‘MTC’, which is inspired specifically by the IBM 2401 Magnetic Tape Unit. Almost 57 years later, and this mesmerizing unit has still got it! Showcasing white, and the primary colors red and blue, the cabinet is a quirky piece of furniture perfect for storing all sorts of items.

The ROOM Collection of furniture by Erik Olovsson and Kyuhyung Cho is like IKEA but with a twist! Fundamentally, the ROOM Collection is a series of wooden blocks with geometric negative spaces that you can store things in. The blocks are modular, which means you can stack them on top of each other to build shelves or cabinets… but what’s different about them is their storage spaces which are represented by a variety of geometric cutouts, from your conventional squares and rectangles to the unconventional circles and ellipses, to even the bizarre triangles and hexagons!

This timeless-looking piece is crafted from solid wood finished off with rounded corners that give it an organic form. “We got the three elements from deconstructing traditional wooden cabinets and immovable system furniture,” says award-winning furniture designer Chuang. MOON allows the user to have a flexible lifestyle as this one cabinet serves many different purposes thanks to its modular build. You can combine, assemble, and deconstruct it to fit your space or transform it from storage to seating. Just like the phases of the moon, the shape of this cabinet changes to fit different needs – in fact, it has a little circular cutout detail to symbolize that. I love that you can stack it up or take it apart to change the height of the piece as a whole.

Designed by Mustafa Basaran for Gliese Design, The Mesh Sideboard is made up of an intersection of holed metals in different colors! The cute and quirky cabinet offers a spacious and protective space to store your important belongings.

Designed to look like furniture that meets Hollywood Squares, the Display Away cabinet is a reinterpretation of the traditional glass-faced cabinets often seen in homes, used to store trophies or chinaware. Designed by Stine Aas, the Display Away cabinet comes with a frosted glass front and individually backlit cabinet compartments that provide new aesthetic value to your belongings by showcasing them yet obscuring them from view. The silhouette art helps you appreciate your belongings literally from a different perspective, while also filling your room with a hauntingly beautiful diffused light that forms a halo around your personal belongings and objets d’art.

Designed as a series of silicone forms (that almost look like an enlarged picture of Velcro), the Geco Hub allows you to store your items in it by just pushing them right in. In a parallel universe without gravity, we’d probably be surrounded by storage units like the Geco Hub. You see, gravity allows us to simply place items on a horizontal surface, which is almost the fundamental aspect of a cabinet. The Geco Hub, on the other hand, grabs items almost like a pair of hands. Its silicone ‘fingers’ let you store everything from your keys to sunglasses, and from wallets to even post-it notes.

Storing wine in your bourgeois refrigerator is like eating gourmet food with your hands if you know what I mean. So here’s a cooling unit fit for your red and whites. Styled to look like a grand piano, the Samsung Zipel Wine Refrigerator by Lee Yongwoo truly looks grand. It comes with a flat top and also a small counter to keep your drinks. Four individual compartments have dedicated cooling units so that each compartment can have its own temperature. It’s a Cabernet cabinet!

The Fan Cabinet by Sebastian Errazuriz, is exactly what it sounds like! Inspired by a fan, this little wooden cabinet looks more like a piece of art than furniture. An origami-inspired fan takes over most of the left section of the cabinet, and it looks stunning!

Adding extensions to your home is always a delicate job. Since it’s an extension, it should only complement the rest of your home like a pair of shoes that tie your whole outfit together. Finding balance in geometric, angular framing and exterior metal ribbing, architecture firm Reddymade collaborated with contemporary artist Ai Weiwei to build an artfully understated hexagonal extension on a Salt Point home in upstate New York.

The six-sided extension connects to and extrudes from an enclosed, glass corridor, perching above a green, hilly lawn to overlook the home’s rural landscape. The project’s metal ribbing and optic white exterior offer contemporary flairs to the extension’s farmhouse style layout and rustic setting. Setting the tone for the interior’s airy, white, open spaces, the extension’s bright exterior feels right at home. Inside the home’s extension, Reddymade and Ai Weiwei made room for two bedrooms and living space.

Adorning the walls with a curated collection of framed artworks, Ai Weiwei and Reddymade hit a collaborative sweet spot in their shared love for poetry and visual art. The extension’s gleaming inside walls provide a white canvas for furniture and a collection of artworks to take center stage. Similarly, the spotless white metal exterior merges seamlessly with the glass facades and white framing of the pre-existing home, bringing attention to and brightening the property’s rolling green hills.

“The extension was designed to be strikingly simple and minimal, which is reflected not only in its graphic language but also in its materiality. The metal rib exterior allows for a crisp edge and ensures project longevity. Through its materiality, it also has a relationship with the previously completed Artfarm on the property,” describes Reddymade founder, Suchi Reddy.

Designers: Ai Weiwei & Reddymade

Perched atop a rolling hill in Upstate New York, this minimalist home extension adds a rustic twist to a midcentury modern home.

The hexagonal add-on extrudes from a glass corridor, attaching the extension to the pre-existing home.

20th-century Italian interior design elements and glazed glass facades are brightened with optic white walls.

“Its simplicity and clarity of concept make it special. It is about adding an object to the property, on which the clients have installed sculptural artworks,” explains Suchi Reddy

Antique furnishings and modern touches tie up each room with balance in design.

“The extension has its own sculptural quality but simultaneously doesn’t feel like a showpiece. It’s humble,” Reddy continues.

Sculptural art pieces give the home a distinct personality that hovers between midcentury and contemporary design.

Architect Marc Thorpe has unveiled renderings of a holiday retreat in Romania, comprising off-grid wooden cabins informed by rural vernacular architecture.

Called Canton House, the project is designed to extend the Tara Luanei hotel in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, with construction scheduled to begin in summer 2021.

The retreat will include three cabins clad from roof to wall in blackened, locally sourced wood, each featuring a kitchenette, bathroom, bedroom, and utility and storage rooms finished in plywood.

Subtly designed, the cabins will have slanted roofs and take cues from wood shingles often found in Romanian vernacular architecture such as rural towers and church spires.

“The low profile and dark tones of the building do not call for attention, they in fact disappear into the wilderness through the play of shadow and light on the faceted surfaces of the roofline and walls,” Thorpe told Dezeen.

The architect explained how the wooden cabins will operate off-grid. “The cabins will be outfitted with individual solar kits to be installed either on the side of the building facing south or away from the cabin on a small array field.”

“Each cabin will be unique in its energy usage so depending on the client, the solar kit will be suggested,” he added.

According to Thorpe, the design ethos that has governed the project centres on minimalism and ecological responsibility.

Canton House is based on another of his projects called Edifice, a recently designed off-grid stained cedar cabin located in Upstate New York.

As well as the designs for the Tara Luanei hotel, additional versions of the Canton House cabins are currently available to buy and construct in other locations.

American architect Thorpe founded his eponymous design practice in 2010. Since then, he has completed a virtual house with vaulted concrete arches and a conceptual installation for Mexico that resembles a spaceship landing on Earth.

The renderings are by DRVR Studio.

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A post-apocalyptic world where humankind has exhausted the planet’s natural resources and an eco learning centre and biodiversity garden are included in Dezeen’s latest school show by students at the University of Huddersfield.

Also included is a project that examines how virtual and augmented reality promise to change urban space experience and another explores how Hull might recover if submerged underwater.

University of Huddersfield

School: University of Huddersfield, School of Art, Design and Architecture
Courses: BA(Hons) Architecture RIBA Part 1 and Master of Architecture RIBA Part 2
Tutors: Caterina Benincasa-Sharman, Jonathan Bush, Hilary Chadwick, Nic Clear, Ioanni Delsante, Danilo Di Mascio, Yun Gao, Amir Gohar, Danilo Gomes, Alex Griffin, Spyros Kaprinis, Bea Martin-Gomes, Hyun Jun Park, Adrian Pitts, Vijay Taheem and Hazem Ziada.

School statement:

“The journey through the school’s architecture programmes nurtures a student’s aspirations in dialogue with crucial contemporary issues, particularly environmental and technological change. By developing their skills and knowledge, their learning experiences shape a professional with transformative skills and visions.

“In BA Arch, culture, context and place frame the scope and inspiration for students’ architectural propositions. The programme engages remote, non-western cultures stimulating students to respond to unfamiliar cultural contexts (such as Kunming, China) with propositions both appropriate and visionary.

“The M Arch programme challenges students to reimagine alternative futures and transformative environments. Here, students probe visions for the posthuman condition supported by science fiction, explore futurist technologies of fabrication and visualisation, and/or develop substitutes to capitalist exchange.

“The School of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Huddersfield, offers the full suite of RIBA-validated programmes: BA(Hons) Architecture RIBA Part 1, Master of Architecture RIBA Part 2, and Professional Practice and Management in Architecture RIBA Part 3, along with the MA Advanced Architectural Design, BSc Architecture Technology, and programmes in construction project management.”

Making Genus | Exploring Gender Roles Within Utopian Societies by Dariana Nistor

“Viewing the world through a gendered lens creates a hierarchical structure founded on binary terms, entrenching power structures and default identity expectations.

“Such social thresholds prescribe the built environment and how it operates. Concerned with the social and architectural implications of living in a post-gender world, ‘Making Genus’ is an experimental project rooted in utopian feminist science-fiction.

“It critically assesses the gendered status quo and proposes speculative alternatives. Located in the North Sea and taking the form of a utopian island, the project’s architectural language transcends the conventional rigidity of the built environment, proposing a lexis infused with utopian dreams, environmental consciousness, social equality and kinship.”

Student: Dariana Nistor
Course: Master of Architecture RIBA Part 2
Tutors: Nic Clear and Hyun Jun Park
Email: nistordariana[at]gmail.com

Typological Hybridity | The Integrated Urban Stadium by Jordan Halliday

“A speculative deconstruction of the typology of stadia utilising constructs of hybridity to reimagine the future stadium, beyond mono functionality, as an adaptive venue orientated towards urban socioeconomic processes.

“Stoke-on-Trent is a city with poor socioeconomic conditions limiting future growth. Building on the city’s rich industrial heritage, the project proposes a hybrid stadium at the hub of a regional advanced ceramics network, encompassing a ceramic factory, technical college, and sports centre while also uniting disjointed residential communities along an axial route towards the train station.

“Internally, vertical spatial arrangements engender cross experiences among the hybrid sub typologies. Besides their complexity dependent configurations, modularised accommodations enable adaptive responses to live urban conditions, whether a specific event or longer-term socio-economic adjustments.”

Student: Jordan Halliday
Course: Master of Architecture RIBA Part 2
Tutors: Ioanni Delsante and Hazem Ziada
Email: jordan.halliday[at]aol.com



The Huddersfield Virtual Blueprint by Adam Ownsworth

“In 2019, Kirklees Council launched ‘The Huddersfield Blueprint’, a ‘ten-year vision’ to ‘create a thriving, modern-day town centre, to address the noticeable decline in retail, business and tourism within Huddersfield’s town centre. However, the council’s plans remain unambitious and not future-proof.

“Virtual and augmented reality promise to change urban space experience. The Huddersfield Virtual Blueprint critically complements Kirklees Council’s strategy. The project explores how the installation of powerful, real-time virtual and augmented reality technologies offer consumers interactive and unique experiences for their town centre visit.

“The Virtual Blueprint has no limits and will generate an exciting, unique USP for Huddersfield, thrusting it into the technological forefront and setting a precedent for cities awaiting the inevitable transition.”

Student: Adam Ownsworth
Course: Master of Architecture RIBA Part 2
Tutors: Nic Clear and Hyun Jun Park
Email: adamownsworth[at]outlook.com

Dirtbag Cathedral by Rebecca Jane Smith

“The Dirtbag Cathedral is a speculative project, combining philosophical posthumanism, rock climbing and notation. The proposed structure provides space where the posthuman subject can experience the extreme bodily act of climbing.

“Dirtbag Cathedral is an axiomatic structure, neither building nor landscape yet both sculpture and architectural structure. It is a sculptural-architectural hybrid.

“The thesis highlights the challenges of representing phenomenological experiences through two-dimensional drawings and the posthuman means of communicating such experiences.

“The human species’ journey through the ‘philosophical cartography’ of the Posthuman state has directly impacted the environment. In a world in which posthumans possess advanced collective consciousness that every object is equal, the Dirtbag Cathedral acts as a memoir of the human.”

Student: Rebecca Jane Smith
Course: Master of Architecture RIBA Part 2
Tutors: Nic Clear and Hyun Jun Park
Email: becca.smith96[at]hotmail.co.uk

New Life, Neo Hull by Yu Min Teoh

“Architecture as a living archipelago in Hull: a new home and hope to save wildlife, restoring and rewilding them after flooding. An artificial 3D-printed modular self-grows from the estuary bottom upwards through years of tuning and monitoring.

“It uses a composite material: a ceramics-coral cell mimicking coral-reef growth that extracts carbon and nutrition from seawater to self-grow and self-repair into a strong structure. Nanotechnology boosts the sprouting structure far faster than average reef growth.

“The underwater foundation will attract the local marine ecology and juvenile coral. Above water, the ground level mimics different habitats for rewilding and attracts visitors to grow Hull’s new economy. The upper-floor level shelters nesting birds, while the top-level monorail facilitates travel across the island and connects it to the mainland.”

Student: Yu Min Teoh
Course: Master of Architecture RIBA Part 2
Tutors: Nic Clear and Hyun Jun Park
Email: 427.yumin[at]gmail.com

Recovering Submerged City | Commons Of Community Value by Kamila Kudlata

“In a worst-case scenario of global warming in coming decades, where floods become more persistent and recurrent, Hull will be submerged. This project formulates a governance model addressing this environmental crisis, building on the ongoing devaluation of land and incoming flood water as resources for a new commons.

“Living with water is an opportunity for the recovery of a submerged city. It explores the use of underground spaces in devalued sites for public use and the occupation of air space with private living spaces. The project presents Queen’s Gardens as an advanced technology hub that optimises the use of floodwater for energy generation and water-sufficiency filtered using nanotechnology. It becomes a pilot site for other Hull neighbourhoods and serves the surrounding region.”

Student: Kamila Kudlata
Course: Master of Architecture RIBA Part 2
Tutors: Ioanni Delsante and Hazem Ziada
Email: kamila_kudlata[at]hotmail.com

Perceptions of Sublimity by Wajid Khan

“The project explores our perceptions of the sublime encounter in a post-apocalyptic world, a future where humankind has exhausted the planet’s natural resources.

“Drawing on cognitive science and science fiction, the thesis explores the sublime, its modern-day representation and its catastrophic future equivalent.

“The project is positioned between the legible and illegible, between reading and un-reading. It considers the relationship between humans and intrigue, catastrophe and the sublime, or rather the sublimity of a cataclysmic event; in other words, the seduction of Armageddon.

“Hidden within the unconscious, there is an insatiable desire for the unknown. The desire to journey beyond the sensible given, towards the oncoming storm, and the dread of night.”

Student: Wajid Khan
Course: Master of Architecture RIBA Part 2
Tutors: Nic Clear and Hyun Jun Park
Email: wajiidkhan[at]gmail.com

Eco Learning Centre and Biodiversity Garden by Fidelia Florentia

“Kunming is known as the ‘City of Perpetual Spring’ and famous for its biodiversity. The site is located in the ‘Wenming Block’, one of two remaining heritage blocks where Confucius Temple sits.

“The Eco Learning Centre and Biodiversity Garden are concentrated in the idea of harmony, hierarchy and symmetry inspired by Fengshui and Chinese architecture.

“With the main design goals to promote biodiversity, preserve history and attract visitors. There are five separate buildings: a game pavilion to play mahjong, an outdoor theatre for taichi and dance, a library, a cafe, and a museum.”

Student: Fidelia Florentia
Course: BA(Hons) Architecture RIBA Part 1
Tutors: Hilary Chadwick, Yun Gao, Danilo Gomes, Spyros Kaprinis, Bea Martin-Gomes and Vijay Taheem.
Email: fideliaflorentia[at]yahoo.co.id

Haiyang Village Aquatic Heritage Centre by Alex Costea

“Located at the Southern edge of Haiyan Village, the project proposes a cultural heritage centre that will explore the region’s history while teaching locals and tourists alike the importance of Dian Lake.

“As a response to the clean water scarcity in the village and the surrounding region, a water purification plant was integrated into the design.

“The proposal is built around the five water basins, each representing a stage of the water purification process; their scale contributed to the dramatic entrance, enriched by the interior courtyard and the double-height atrium behind the reception.”

Student: Alex Costea
Course: BA(Hons) Architecture RIBA Part 1
Tutors: Hilary Chadwick, Yun Gao, Danilo Gomes, Spyros Kaprinis, Bea Martin-Gomes and Vijay Taheem
Email: acostea249[at]gmail.com



Wulong Village Cultural Heritage Centre by Adriana Negrila

“Located at the heart of the Wulong village, the Cultural Heritage Centre welcomes its visitors into an open space, dictated by a game of light and shadow, vertical circulation and fluid atmosphere.

“The interior spatial arrangement is divided by a ramp that leads the guests to the underground level, where controlled artificial light transforms the exhibitions into walk-through, interactive art installations.

“The ancient ‘shadow trickery’ Chinese technique has been used to produce a transcendental experience, taking the visitors back in time, being paired with sounds, perfumes and fluctuating temperatures.”

Student: Adriana Negrila
Course: BA(Hons) Architecture RIBA Part 1
Tutors: Hilary Chadwick, Yun Gao, Danilo Gomes, Spyros Kaprinis, Bea Martin-Gomes and Vijay Taheem
Email: anegrila54[at]yahoo.com

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and The University of Huddersfield. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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