Hasta La Ideas

Buffing bars, balms, scrubs and serums to combat the effects of cold weather

While certainly not the most diabolical of weather-related woes, skin and hair issues brought on by icy winds, snowstorms, indoor heating and more can be bothersome, uncomfortable and unsightly. First and foremost, it’s crucial to hydrate from the inside (drinking enough water cannot be overstated); using humidifiers and avoiding super-hot showers can also help. There are also countless lotions and potions—some of which we list here—that can be applied directly to the body and hair for support in the colder months.

Rich Bitch Cactus + Vitamin C Moisturizer

Made for dehydrated skin, Freck Beauty’s Rich Bitch Cactus + Vitamin C Moisturizer ($32) lives up to its name. With a super-rich texture, the cream provides intense hydration via prickly pear seed oil and jojoba seed oil, while vitamin C helps to brighten skin and reduce hyperpigmentation. Additionally, kelp extract offers protection from pollution and decreases redness, and rosemary leaf acts as an anti-inflammatory. This lush, potent moisturizer penetrates skin, leaving it feeling soft, smooth and nourished without greasiness.

CEDELLA Papaya Enzyme Toner

From BAO (aka The Black Apothecary Office Inc), an accelerator for Black and Latinx creators in the beauty and wellness space founded by Jae Joseph and Brianna Wise, comes the refreshing and alcohol-free “CEDELLA” Papaya Enzyme Toner ($65). For all skins types, the 5.8-oz toner utilizes geranium, sage and cucumber extract, in addition to the papaya extract enzymes, to tone and stimulate beautifully.

Tinted Serum

For those who want light coverage, Typology’s Tinted Serum ($35) provide just that—without a dry or chalky result. Made with vitamin C, squalane and aloe vera, it brightens and hydrates the skin, and it’s available in six shades.

Moroccan Neroli Post-Shave Lotion

Intended for all-genders, this botanical-infused Post-Shave Lotion ($50) works as a hydrator that will prevent irritation and give newly shaven skin a bit of a boost. With soothing notes of sandalwood and neroli blossom, this lotion would also do well in a morning or evening routine, even if it’s not post-shave.

Buffing Bar

Packed with micro-crystals (evenly ground magnesium oxide particles), Soft Services’ bright blue Buffing Bar ($28 for two) physically exfoliates the body and provides immediate results. This utilitarian creation (which comes in simple recycled packaging) feels like a hybrid of the humble bar of soap and pumice stone. The tiny crystals are ideal for keratosis pilaris, rough and dry skin, as well as areas that are prone to ingrown hairs. Use once a week for soft, smooth and fresh-feeling skin.

Superdose Vitamin C Hand Cream

With a fresh, citrus-forward fragrance, Beauty Pie’s new Superdose Vitamin C Hand Cream ($13) is built on a moisturizing base of shea butter, sweet almond oil, coconut oil and vitamin E. These nourishing ingredients are complemented by vitamin C and tranexamic acid, which both aid skin rejuvenation, making it brighter and fresher looking.

Rasa Restorative Potion Body Balm

Thanks to hemp seed butter, Rasa Restorative Potion Body Balm ($88) from KHUS+KHUS is more than a moisturizer; it also promotes a sense of calm and wellbeing. With prickly pear butter, arnica butter, squalane, reishi and more, the ingredients within are packed full of antioxidants that nourish and soothe irritated and inflamed skin. This balm goes on thick and stays active for hours.

Scalp Balancing Bar

Before purchasing any Gemmist products, customers take a hair quiz that includes prompts beyond the standard questions about color treatments, thickness and texture. In addition to shampoo and conditioner, the women-owned brand has a Scalp Balancing Bar ($25) on offer. Intended for use once a week, this paraben-free soap exfoliates and stimulates the scalp—removing build-up and invigorating hair follicles. Though sulfate-free, the bar works up a satisfying lather and smells delicious. It also comes packaged in a little cardboard box, reducing your use of single-use plastic bottles.

HoliRoots Hair Oil

Empowered by the Indian tradition of hair oiling, Nikita and Akash Mehta’s haircare brand Fable & Mane is bolstered by potent roots from India. Fable & Mane’s HoliRoots hair oil ($34) features ashwagandha (aka Indian ginseng, an adaptogen that promotes regeneration and restful sleep), dashmool (a traditional blend of ten herbs, used for nourishing and calming) and castor oil (a fatty acid-rich oil to promote blood flow). Put together, the HoliRoots Hair Oil restores dry hair and strengthens and nourishes roots.

Mohave Ghost Leave-In Conditioner

LA-based haircare company OUAI and Stockholm-based fragrance brand BYREDO teamed up for a leave-in conditioner ($26) infused with the latter’s mesmerizing Mohave Ghost scent. With a detangling formula that hydrates and protects from heat and frizz, the conditioner leaves hair feeling smooth and silky. The limited run product is available in  140ml bottles.

Amethyst Ki Bath Soak

The women-owned and sustainability-focused wellness brand leVerden debuted recently with a four-product Bamboo Forest Collection that includes a refreshing body wash, rich body lotion, fragrant refillable candle and a luxuriant bath soak ($70). All four items harness the power of bamboo salt—a traditional wellness component, created through a process where sea salt is pressed into bamboo stems and roasted for up to three years at high temperatures. All items in the collection work together seamlessly, though the nourishing Amethyst Ki Bath Soak makes for a relaxing entry point.

Images courtesy of respective brands, hero image by Josh Rubin

Architecture studio MVRDV has released visuals of Sun Rock, a self-sufficient office and operations facility it has designed in Taiwan for the government-owned power company Taipower.

Located at the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park near Taichung, the building will be covered in angled photovoltaics and used to store and maintain sustainable energy equipment.

Sun Rock will be distinguished by its rounded form, which MVRDV has developed to maximise the amount of sunlight its photovoltaic-covered facade can harness to create energy.

The southern side of the building, which faces the sun during the middle of the day, will have a large surface area that slopes gently downwards. Meanwhile, the northern edge of the building will be domed to maximise its exposure to the sun in the mornings and evenings.

MVRDV and Taipower‘s goal is for the building to generate enough electricity for it to be self-sustaining. Any excess that it generates will be sent to the energy grid.

“We cladded the entire facade with photovoltaics, maximising the energy gains to make it not only self-sustainable, for its own usage, but also allowing the building to become a tool of energy production, exporting electricity to the rest of the grid,” explained MVRDV’s co-founder Winy Maas.

“This is achieved through a maximally efficient positioning of the panels,” he continued. “As a result, our design is completely data-driven. It’s always fun to see the results when you let analysis be the determining part of the design.”

Alongside the storage and maintenance facilities, Sun Rock will contain offices, workshops and a public gallery.

According to MVRDV, it is being built in anticipation of “Taiwan’s planned transition to green energy” and is hoped to reflect the goals of energy company Taipower.

“Of course, we aim to make all of our projects as sustainable as possible,” added Maas. “Yet we see that projects can go beyond just being sustainable in themselves.”

“This project has unique and fascinating potential”, he continued. “The user is an energy company, which has allowed us to do more than usual.”

Sun Rock’s facade will be designed as a series of pleats used to support the photovoltaic panels and windows. The current iteration can support at least 4,000 square metres of solar panels.

This is expected to generate almost 1 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy per year, which MVRDV said is equivalent to the energy generated by burning 85 tonnes of crude oil and is enough to make the building is self-sufficient.

However, the studio is continuing to develop the design to add more photovoltaics so the building can generate up to 1.7 million kilowatt-hours annually, allowing it to contribute to the energy grid.

Inside, Sun Rock will feature a large atrium called the Data Room. This will be filled with real-time data displays about the amount of renewable energy that Taipower is generating.

The first floor of the building will contain the public gallery, which will look into Sun Rock’s workshop spaces adjacent to it.  These workshops will be used for the maintenance of green energy equipment, such as solar panels and wind turbine blades.

Sun Rock will be complete with exhibition space on the top floor of the building, alongside a tree-lined roof terrace for visitors and Taipower employees.

By incorporating gallery spaces into the building, MVRDV hopes Sun Rock will become “more than simply an operations and maintenance facility”.

“The building is thus also an important communication tool for Taipower to publicly show their ambitions for a greener future,” the studio concluded.

Rotterdam-based MVRDV was founded by Maas alongside Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries 1991. Elsewhere, the studio is currently developing the terraced LAD headquarters in Shanghai that will also be clad in photovoltaics.

Other buildings that feature large quantities of photovoltaics include Snøhetta’s carbon-negative Powerhouse Telemark office in Norway and the Kendeda Building designed by Miller Hull Partnership and Lord Aeck Sargent for Georgia Tech university the USA.

The imagery is courtesy of MVRDV.

Project credits:

Architect: MVRDV
Founding partner in charge: Winy Maas
Partner: Wenchian Shi
Design team: Hui-Hsin Liao, Daniel Diez, Mirco Facchinelli, Carolina Martin Peñuela, Chi-Yi Liao, Tseng-Hsuan Wei
MVRDV next: Yayun Liu
Visualisations: Antonio Coco, Pavlos Ventouris, Jaroslaw Jeda, Emanuele Fortunati
Co-architect: Y.C. Hsu Architect & Associates
Contractor: Reiju Construction Co., Ltd.
Structural engineer: Chih-Hung Kao Structural Engineer & Associates
MEP: Chia Feng Mechanical & Electrical Corp

The post MVRDV designs photovoltaic-covered office for Taipower in Taiwan appeared first on Dezeen.

There’s a new trend in architecture, and honestly, we completely approve of it  – it’s DIY! Imagine building up and creating your own home or holiday cabin! How awesome would it be to lounge about and live in the fruit of your own efforts? And don’t worry these architectural designs don’t require too much of an effort either! These simple DIY structures are often flat-packed or come with a complete kit that helps you with the entire step-by-step process. This collection of DIY architecture proves not only how simple and economical this technique is, but also how much construction waste and unnecessary materials it cuts down on! From a DIY tiny home on wheels that is inspired by desert architecture to a DIY A-frame garage – I hope these innovative structures inspire you to take on your own DIY architectural project!

1. Lola

Lola is a tiny home on wheels that’s part of designer Mariah Hoffman’s larger multi-disciplinary design studio and brand Micro Modula, one that explores “home, place, and the self.” Over the span of five years, Hoffman gradually transformed an old utility trailer into a 156-square-foot mobile tiny home. Born out of a daydream to build her own home, Hoffman built Lola to “learn all the necessary skills for [her] personal and creative survival.” Particularly spurred by the essentialist edge of desert modernism, Hoffman turned to construction materials that aesthetically met the bill and also provided some functional elements for the home to brace the seasons as well as the local critters.

2. AirCrete Home

In the quest to find the perfect substitute many alternatives like foamcrete, papercrete, and hempcrete were created. Now we’ve got aircrete – a foamy mixture of air bubbles and cement which is cost-effective to produce, DIY-friendly, and has the essential safeguarding properties needed for construction. Hajjar Gibran had the idea to create AirCrete homes and DomeGaia brought it to life. The aircrete mixture is a lightweight and low-cost building block that is fireproof, water-resistant, insect-proof, and serves to insulate the structure. AirCrete reduces construction costs by 10 times and is an easy material to work with for single-story homes.

3. The Den Garage

The Den Garage is a DIY garage floor plan from Den Outdoors that allows owners to build their own garage while following Den Outdoors’s blueprints. Presented in three different packages, Den Outdoors has available floor plans for two-car and three-car garages. The two-car garage spans 650 square feet while the three-car garage stretches a little further, covering a total of 950 square feet. Similar to the company’s collection of cabin designs, the garages maintain that same classic A-frame structure that exudes rustic energy without compromising the structure’s geometric, contemporary appeal. Adding to the garage’s modern look, Den Outdoors outfitted each garage floor plan with weather-resistant, floor-to-ceiling windows for owners to show off their cars without fear of the elements getting to them.

4. The Zome Building Kit

You don’t have to be an architect to want to build a bamboo structure of your own thank to the ‘Zome building kit’ by Giant Grass! The studio has made a DIY kit that is basically a larger-than-life LEGO project which can live in your backyard or be scaled up to create a community space. The ‘zome’ is a flexible space that can be used by children to hang out in the backyard, like a gazebo for you to entertain guests in, a greenhouse for seedlings, a creative space in the office, a quiet space for yoga at home, or a glamping tent – it can be anything you want it to be. This DIY kit is perfect for those who want to live sustainability and enjoy working on projects which result in a productive reward. The kit comes with all accessories needed – 350 precision-made bamboo strips, nuts, bolts, and an installation guide to make the 3m x 3m ‘zome’.

5. System 00

Backcountry Hut Company released a collection of DIY A-frame cabin kits that allows buyers to build their own cabins without construction permits and little to no heavy machinery. Each cabin ‘system,’ comes prefabricated in a flat-pack layout that can be assembled either by amateur or professional builders depending on the model. System 00 is described as Backcountry’s “essentialist A-frame shelter.” Stocked with only the essentials, System 00 measures 10’x10’ and was designed to welcome living spaces such as a single bedroom with room for one sleeping bunk, a meditation studio for yoga, or an open space for working on art.

6. EconOdome

Dubbed as EconOdome, each structure’s frame and triangle panel kits come pre-cut and partially assembled with detailed instructions – so better than IKEA and you get a whole home instead of just a couch! EconOdome homes are built similarly to conventional homes involving a foundation and the main floor. Once that is in place, the vertical walls and roof is added in. There are 130 triangular roofing elements that connect to form the dome which has 10 equal sides. To minimize waste, parts in the DIY kit are cut to fit precisely with no additional work required on that end. The wood also comes with pre-drilled holes for stainless steel screws and caps to make assembling it super easy.

7. Nathalie and Greg Kupfer’s Micro-cabin

Nathalie and Greg Kupfer’s micro-cabin is built from repurposed waste findings and secondhand furnishings, outfitted with rainwater collection sites and solar systems for off-grid living. Retired industrial designer and former paramedic, Nathalie and Greg Kupfer began work on their off-grid micro-cabin in Canmore, Alberta after receiving a plot of ranch land and a decrepit shed from two neighbors. Following the cabin’s fortuitous beginnings, the Kupfer’s conceived a layout for their snug, solar-powered, 97-square-foot micro cabin built from recycled and repurposed outfittings, amounting to a total net cost of only $50.

8. The Kabinka Cabin

A Hungarian company called Hello Wood has designed a tiny minimalist cabin that you can assemble yourself for creative space solutions or just an escape from your living room. The prefabricated cabins start at $10,200 and have been crafted in a way that anyone can put together, it is truly the ultimate DIY project. With the tiny home market ‘growing’ rapidly, the Kabinka cabin is positioned to be like IKEA furniture – easy to assemble with an aesthetic that is loved by most. The Kabinka cabin comes in four sizes that range between 129 and 215 square feet.

9. Den

Setting up camp has never looked so good and it setting up a minimal glamping cabin just got a whole lot easier thanks to Den! The cabin design studio has a range of flat-packed DIY-style kits that let you assemble your own A-frame cabin in a few days. The average size is 115-square-foot (10.68-square-meter) with models that are larger and smaller depending on what you are looking for. Once assembled, you can see the slanted wooden walls and a floor-to-ceiling triangular window just like how we drew a picture of a cabin as children. The space is minimal and can be transformed into a cozy getaway, a yoga studio, or a creative retreat! The prefab pieces for the cabin are made in New York and come with pre-drilled holes, all wooden structural parts that lock together, bolts, and even door hardware.

10. Yakafu’s flagship DIY bakery

Kostas Chatzigiannis Architecture completed a Yakafu’s flagship DIY bakery in Anji, China. The brightly colored structure is bold and instantly attracts attention! Adults and children can learn how to bake pastries and bread in the double-storey building which is highlighed by terrazo surfaces and metallic detailing. DIY has never been so graphic and intriguing!

The post Top 10 DIY architecture trends of 2022 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Dezeen Showroom: designer Paolo Cappello combines flat, curved and pointed features to highlight the tactile beauty of wood in the Plauto table, created for Miniforms.

The Plauto table is named after the Roman playwright Plautus. It is an all-wood table that sits on two leaf-shaped legs, each ending in a clean edge, with a top showcasing its rounded and flat qualities.

“The idea behind Plauto table is a sculptural but light guise, designed by a game of balance between straight and curved lines,” said Cappello.

“The result of it can only be a piece of furniture that transcends its role and becomes a measured protagonist of the space.”

The Plauto table is available in three sizes ranging from 200 to 300 centimetres. It also comes in the choice of flamed oak, heat-treated oak, Canaletto walnut, or black ash wood.

Alternatively, the wooden legs can be paired with a ceramic or marble tabletop.

Product: Plauto
Designer: Paolo Cappello
Brand: Miniforms
Contact: carolina@miniforms.com

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Dezeen has teamed up with electric vehicle company Arrival to launch a global competition for mobility solutions that reimagine the future of transportation.

The Future Mobility Competition powered by Arrival is free to enter for anyone over the age of 18 of any profession and from any country around the world.

The contest is open for entries until 14 April 2022 and features total prize money of $85,000 with a top prize of $25,000.

Full details of how to enter the competition can be found in the competition brief and rules.

Contest invites ideas that reimagine the future of mobility

The competition seeks to support emerging talent bringing ideas that reimagine the future of transportation, radically impacting our planet, creating true sustainability and empowering local communities.

Contestants are asked to identify problems with mobility in their city, or a city they are familiar with, and propose solutions – big or small, for land, sea or air – that will improve how people move around their environment.

Judges will be looking for talented individuals to present new insights into mobility challenges in cities and visionary proposals for how to solve them.

Entries will be judged on how insightful and impactful they are, while the quality of the execution of the idea will also be considered.

Proposals to draw from Arrival’s approach to vehicle design and manufacturing

Entries should look to draw from Arrival‘s unique approach to design, materials and manufacturing.

The company has pioneered a new method of the design and production of affordable electric vehicles, which is focused on the principles of sustainability, empowered communities and accessibility.

Vehicles are designed using in-house plug-and-play components, proprietary composite materials and a modular skateboard platform.

Vehicles Arrival has created to date using this approach include a delivery van, an electric bus and a ride-sharing prototype car for Uber.

Arrival vehicles are designed for robotic assembly in microfactories — smart production cells that can be set up wherever there is demand to serve individual cities, support local economies and deliver purpose-built products customised to regional needs.

The competition asks entrants to use Arrival’s approach to designing and manufacturing vehicles, which it describes as its New Method, as a starting point and inspiration for a future mobility solution for that city.

Competition closes for entries on 14 April

The Future Mobility Competition powered by Arrival closes for entries at midnight on 14 April 2022.

Ten finalists will be announced and published on Dezeen over two weeks in June 2022. Of these finalists, a winner will be selected, as well as a runner-up and third place.

The winner will win the top prize of $25,000, while the runner-up will receive $15,000 and the third-placed entrant will receive $10,000. Each of the seven remaining finalists will receive prize money of $5,000.

For more information about how to enter, including the full brief and rules, visit www.dezeen.com/arrival-future-mobility-competition.

Partnership content

The Future Mobility Competition powered by Arrival is a partnership between Dezeenn and Arrival. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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