I sometimes stare at my kitchen, thinking of whether to throw away all the knick-knacks like bottles, containers, and every other thing that I seem to have collected over the past few months. It would of course be easier to throw them away but that is not so kind to mother earth. Products that will help me upcycle these items are always welcome, especially if these products are recycled or upcycled themselves. If we don’t have a recycling center near, it’s a good idea to try and reuse all the waste you have lying around.

Designer: extrude.studio

3D technology has also made recycling and upcycling a bit easier, giving us even more ideas on how to repurpose materials and waste. The Upcycled Jars Collection is one such project that gives us different kinds of jar tops or covers so you can reuse the glass bottles or containers that are just lying around. All you do is screw the top you need on your bottle, use it, clean it, then use a different top the next time. The covers are made from used bioplastic packaging waste collected in Europe and then 3D printed in the Parisian region.

For plant parents, there’s a self-watering pot cover that has a wick that will send the water up to the plant’s soil. Artists can use the paintbrush holder that has a thin wall on the side that will drain the excess water for when they’re painting. For those working or studying, there is a pencil pot that has space to hold pens, scissors, erasers, and other office supplies. If you just want to use the bottle as a regular container, there’s a regular cover.

There are also several covers for self-care and other related hobbies. There’s a candle holder, incense holder, and a knock box to store your spent coffee grounds. There’s also a soap holder that makes it easier for you to grab your soap and it is also able to collect the dripping water. If you’re saving up money, you can use the piggy bank cover. And if you want to waste money by smoking, there’s also an ashtray cover. They have also made some of these designs available in a library for 3D files so users can print them on their own.

The post 3D-printed covers can help you re-use bottles and jars first appeared on Yanko Design.

American architecture studio Kohn Pedersen Fox has revealed images of Waterline, a supertall skyscraper to be built in Austin that will be the tallest structure in the state of Texas once completed.

Construction has begun on Waterline, which will be located along Waller Creek, a small waterway that feeds into the Red River in Austin.

Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) announced that the structure will be 1,022 feet tall (312 metres) and hold apartments, a hotel and office space.

With its 74 storeys, Waterline will unseat Houston’s JPMorgan Chase Tower – measuring 1,002 feet tall (305 metres) – as the tallest building in the state of Texas, and will be the third supertall skyscraper to be built in the state.

Renderings show a staggering tower with glass facades and a variety of thin transoms that crisscross the face. With a sloped top, the skyscraper will have three distinct sections separated by columns that leave room for semi-open spaces.

“The facades of the building express this collection of functions as a collage of varied patterns,” said KPF president James von Klemperer. “The project promises to become an icon for Texas’ capital city, expressing its spirit of quirky innovation.”

The first and lowest section of the building will be a pavilion that stretches along the length of the 3.3-acre site, which will hold 24,000 square feet (7,315 square metres) of publically accessible retail and restaurants.

Separated from the river by a preserved floodplain, much of the base level will be lifted 30 feet (9 metres) above the ground by structural pillars.

“Sculptural columns draw inspiration from sacred species of trees in Austin, while native stones and landscaping speak to the character of the creek across the site to Red River Street,” said KPF design director Andrew Klare.

A canopy created between the columns and the envelope of the pavilion will hold entrances to the residential and office areas of the tower, while the landscaping from the park will be extended to create a more natural environment under the skyscraper.

Above the base, a tower, rotated from the base to face the river directly, will have two distinct vertical parts separated by similar columns that create more canopies in the higher parts of the tower.

The section directly above the base will hold 13 storeys, making up the 1 Hotel Austin. Above this section will be a rooftop pool.

Offices will be spread over the next 27 floors, while the top 33 floors that make up the final section of the building will be reserved for residences.

KPF said that the team is targeting LEED Gold certification on the project.

“Downtown Austin offers one of the most dynamic markets and skylines in the nation, and we’re excited to help drive its ongoing transformation,” said Seth Johnston senior vice president of Lincoln Property Company, who, along with Kairoi Residential, is the developer on the project.

Austin has seen an influx of development over the past few years, with a number of skyscrapers adding to the skyline. Another recent addition to the city’s skyline is Rhode Partner’s The Independent, a 58-storey residential skyscraper.

KPF has designed a number of other supertall skyscrapers in the United States including the 1,401-foot-tall (427 metres) One Vanderbilt in Manhattan.

The post KPF breaks ground on supertall skyscraper set to be Texas’ tallest appeared first on Dezeen.

Across a slow-burning tempo and horns from James Mollison, Ritchie Seivwright and Sheila Maurice-Gray, British singer Yazmin Lacey’s smooth and smoky vocals seduce in her new single “Pieces.” Intimate and soulful, the track is “an open goodbye letter,” the artist says. “‘Pieces’ is bathed in a kind of blissful melancholy, a 50/50 fusion of love and loss.”

This is the main room of my old loft in NYC, which had 18 windows and got fantastic light. Too fantastic, at least when it was time to work, as bouncing light provided screen glare no matter where the monitor was.

To compensate, I hung some aluminum tubing from the ceiling and ordered these lightweight blackout curtains off of Amazon. When I need to work, I drew the curtains closed all around the desk. This solved the problem and I used this system for years, until I left the city.

My solution was admittedly extreme, and I didn’t care what it looked like. But New-Zealand-based industrial design consultancy Formworks mocked up a more elegant solution designed to appeal to normal people. During the lockdown, as working from home became a thing, they identified the key pain point: “People need separation (both physically and mentally); an area where they can escape distractions (both visible and audible), and feel like they are sitting in their office rather than their lounge.”

“We thought this sounded like a problem worth solving.”

“Early on in the process we decided to focus our efforts on a built-in solution rather than a standalone solution. Research and common sense told us that there is a trend towards high-density housing, with young professionals moving into apartments and row-houses in large cities, with many of these houses having little room for a WFH office space. This is the market we are targeting with this concept. We want to create a long-lasting, high-quality product that will really add value to its users over the long-term.”

Here’s the mechanism in action:

“We are still working on this concept and hope to take it to the next stage of prototyping and testing soon, but we would love to hear your feedback. Would a privacy screen like this suit your WFH needs? Is there something we’ve missed? Send us a DM on Instagram @formworksdesign and let us know!”

Dezeen School Shows: metaverse homes informed by Salvador Dalí‘s surrealist paintings and are included in Dezeen’s latest school show by students at AUD Center for Research, Innovation and Design.

Also included are VR design projects exploring how users connect to their mind, body and senses.

AUD Center for Research, Innovation and Design

Institution: American University in Dubai (AUD)
School: The Center for Research, Innovation and Design (CRID), School of Architecture, Art, and Design
Course: DDFT 473 – Virtual Environments
Tutor: Dr Georges Kachaamy

School statement:

“The Center for Research, Innovation and Design (CRID) is the first and only authorised VR sketch training centre and Gravity Sketch certified centre in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.

“The DDFT 473 – Virtual Environments course could not have seen the light without the virtual reality setup that was established in the centre. The course was designed and executed by Dr Georges Kachaamy, who is a certified instructor and an expert in future and virtual environments.

“One can comfortably argue looking at students’ work that the innovative nature of the course has clearly enabled students to explore new design competencies and skills that prepare them for a very competitive market.

“The course introduces students to the principles of virtual reality modelling methods. Students acquire passive and active learning techniques that allow them to 3D design in an immersive manner inside virtual reality.

“The final outcome of the course is based on the specific design brief that requires students to create virtual environments that are consistent with the objectives of each brief. The course was designed to fundamentally create projects that one can only experience inside virtual reality, rather than a project to be experienced in the real physical world.”

Lucid Convergence by Omar Allabban

“Lucid Convergence is a meta-house consisting of a collection of fragments translated into spaces that are conjoined together and intersecting with each other, mimicking the feeling of lucid dreaming with surreal scales and symbolic non-functional spaces.

“Each room in the house is a geometric translation of its symbolic meaning in dreams. This design principle creates a house in the metaverse that serves as an artistic statement to its owner in the virtual world, rather than serving as a conventional functional home.”

Student: Omar Allabban
Course: DDFT 473 – Virtual Environments
Tutor: Dr Georges Kachaamy

Centauraus Æ by Bandar Alkayyal

“The house is a virtual space for human habitation. The metaverse is the new home where technology and people meet.

“Centauraus Æ is derived from having different realities meeting in one. The design of the house is based on Salvador Dalí’s surrealist expression in terms of randomness and unpredictability.

“Spaces are designed based on his art to unsettle and transgress boundaries with the liberation of thought and language.”

Student: Bandar Alkayyal
Course: DDFT 473 – Virtual Environments
Tutor: Dr Georges Kachaamy

Deus Ex Machina by Sahar Nami

“The Metahaus Deus Ex Machina is inspired by The Elephant painting by Salvador Dalí, where large spaces are placed on thin structures to provide a spatial experience for its visitors.

“Visitors are guided by the pathway through a forest of thin structures that lead up to the interior spaces, such as the living room and bedroom, which then lead to the main central exhibition space.

“The virtual exhibition space is designed as a gallery that allows visitors to experience the space.”

Student: Sahar Nami
Course: DDFT 473 – Virtual Environments
Tutor: Dr Georges Kachaamy

D-K 22 by Mariam Haddad

“The concept of D-K 22 revolves around decay, which is one of the main themes in Salvador Dalí’s work.

“The more one goes into the house, the more the house breaks down into small and more fractured particles and into the process of decay.

“As one reaches the final destination the space becomes a dark room that is punctured and broken down in a way that showcases the whole journey and structure as a final overview.”

Student: Mariam Haddad
Course: DDFT 473 – Virtual Environments
Tutor: Dr Georges Kachaamy

Casa de Telaraña by Nour Al Kilani

“Casa de Telaraña is inspired by Salvador Dalí’s darkest yet most recurring theme – death. While the surrealist artist typically represents death by painting ants, here, we are the ants.

“As we enter the unconventional home through a large, web-like structure (the social hub), it mirrors an ant getting trapped in a spiderweb.

“Another repetitive concept often found in Dalí’s work is the depiction of heavy objects as weightless, such as elephants with long thin legs.

“Casa de Telaraña portrays this theme by using extremely thin wires to suspend massive heavy objects and link all the different areas in the VR space.”

Student: Nour Al Kilani
Course: DDFT 473 – Virtual Environments
Tutor: Dr Georges Kachaamy

The Unconscious House by Jumana Yasser

“The unconscious mind gathers and collects bits and pieces of our everyday life and stores them.

“This Metahaus project shows how the unconscious mind relates to the body as a whole.

“The rooms in the house show the powerful aspects of our unconscious mind and once one enters a room, it unlocks a segment in our mind from our daily life.”

Student: Jumana Yasser
Course: DDFT 473 – Virtual Environments
Tutor: Dr Georges Kachaamy

Rove by Naya Aslan

“The project is a journey of non-traditional explorations of the senses into an abstract linear space that paves the way for the user to navigate the soulless world around.”

Student: Naya Aslan
Course: DDFT 473 – Virtual Environments
Tutor: Dr Georges Kachaamy

Solicitude by Reem Tawfik

“Solicitude is an intimidating space that desires to explore three of the human senses differently – touching, hearing, and seeing.

“It takes the human body into a journey that feels uncomfortable. However, after exploring the entire space, one can finally take a breath and be grateful for the senses.”

Student: Reem Tawfik
Course: DDFT 473 – Virtual Environments
Tutor: Dr Georges Kachaamy

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and AUD Center for Research, Innovation, and Design. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

The post AUD Center for Research, Innovation and Design spotlights eight virtual design projects appeared first on Dezeen.