Spying these in a public bathroom, I’d surely think these were fancy urinals:
And while they are, closer inspection of the silver gewgaw front and center sends a different message:
So what’s going on here? Singapore-based design consultancy Trigger explains that the design was driven by an obligatory Islamic ritual called Istinja:
“Kohler’s Struktura urinal is a thoughtful and elegant solution to the obligatory Islamic ritual cleansing of private parts after using the toilet.
“Unlike conventional urinals that have dirty or rusty pipes with a weak trickle of flush water, often necessitating the unhygienic practice of scooping water from the urinal, the Istinja urinal is designed with a dedicated spout to ensure a good supply of fresh, clean water at just the right pressure.
“A special cover helps prevent splashing and increases privacy. Participants from the user testing carried out found this product a great improvement in terms of ease of use, hygiene, and most importantly, respect for the cleansing ritual.”
Design collective Europarc has been selected to renovate the European Parliament’s Paul-Henri Spaak building in Brussels, with a design featuring a latticed framework and a rooftop botanical garden.
The proposal will see the European Parliament building renovated by the five architecture studios that form part of the design collective Europarc, in an effort to reduce the carbon emissions that would be generated by demolishing the existing building and constructing a new one.
Europarc will renovate the parliamentary building
“The current Spaak building has numerous shortcomings,” said Europarc. “However, demolishing it and replacing it with a new ‘palace’ might be the wrong approach.”
“In the building sector, over 50 per cent of the carbon footprint generated happens in constructing the raw structure of a building. If fully dismantled, all that expense is lost and needs to be spent again in a new construction. Here, the strategy should be to rigorously re-use most of the Spaak structure, its carbon expense.”
It will add botanical gardens and public paths through the building
The collective will be supported by engineering companies including UTIL and Ramboll.
Renders of the proposal show the postmodern Paul-Henri Spaak Building, which was designed in 1988 by Michel Boucquillon and Atelier Espace Léopold, without its signature arched vault and surrounded by a white-latticed framework that extends above the roof line and encloses a rooftop garden.
The parliamentary building will be modernised with digital amenities
Europarc has created a permeable design with a public passage that will lead visitors through the parliamentary building via an open-air entrance, and be connected to Brussels’ inner-city pedestrian network.
The collective will remove an existing wall-like facade at the adjoining Spinelli building to better welcome the public to the site and frame views of the pill-shaped Paul Henri Spaak building, which is named after a Belgian politician.
The new design will open up the site and strengthen the pedestrian routes and connections to the adjacent Place du Luxembourg and Parc Léopold, according to Europarc.
“The building should not be impenetrable but should be a place of openness. Therefore, a public passage could be created through the Parliament,” said Europarc.
“In a natural and intuitive way, the passage will provide a grand entrance to visitors of the Parliament and establish an actual node in the pedestrian network of Brussels.”
Renders show the building wrapped in a white lattice structure
The Hemicycle, a new chamber for the European Parliament, will be located on the upper levels of the building. It will be redesigned to integrate more modern amenities that include a number of digital features to broaden external and non-physical connections.
Floor-to-ceiling windows will connect the interior of the Hemicycle with a rooftop garden that will provide views across the city. These will also double as large screens during conferences and meetings.
A rooftop botanical garden will be located at the highest point of the building
The building will be topped with the Green Agora, a botanical garden that references ancient Grecian agoras or gathering spaces. The botanical garden will be visually connected to the below Hemicycle through an open ceiling.
This Plasma Lighter XR, by a Texas-based EDC brand called True, aims to combine the convenience of two different form factors. The rectangular flip-lid lighter fits easily into a pocket and is essentially unbreakable. A candle-lighter is convenient for getting the flame away from your fingers, but their necks are fragile. True’s design takes the form of the former, and adds an extendable, flexible neck.
It is puzzling that the brand doesn’t present a single video, nor even a series of photos, that show how the neck is deployed and stowed; do you just grab the thing and push or pull? Is there some sort of safety so that the plasma can’t be fired up as you’re grabbing the tip?
The company claims the lighter, which contains a lithium polymer battery and is USB-C rechargeable, is good for 300 sparks on a single charge.
Promotion: with the UIA World Congress of Architects taking place in Copenhagen in 2023, we take a look at some of the city’s most innovative examples of contemporary architecture and landscape design.
The 28th UIA World Congress of Architects, hosted by the International Association of Architects, takes place in Copenhagen from 2 to 6 July 2023.
The goal is to address how architecture can help to achieve the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which include climate action, affordable and clean energy, good health and wellbeing and gender equality.
Copenhagen, which was voted the world’s most sustainable city by Time Out in 2021, features many new buildings and spaces that target these ambitions.
Dezeen has teamed up with Visitcopenhagen to compile a guide to 10 of the most interesting examples.
Mærsk Tower
This state-of-the-art research facility provides an environment for world-class health research.
Designed by CF Møller Architects, the 15-storey tower provides an extension to Panum, the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.
It boasts a facade of copper-covered shutters, helping it to become a recognisable landmark in the city.
This transformation of a historic public square turns it into a popular place for people, rather than cars.
Israels Plads was originally a vibrant market square but, in the 1950s, it became a car park. It stayed that way for several decades, until local studio COBE was set the task of redesigning it.
The project was completed in 2014 and has completely reinvigorated the plaza as a hub of sport and leisure for all, while cars are now placed in an underground garage beneath it.
Image by Photo Paul Skovbakke, courtesy of Ordrupgaard Museum
Ordrupgaard Museum
Architecture firm Snøhetta had accessibility for all in mind when adding an extension to this prestigious art museum.
Dedicated to French and Danish art from the 19th and early 20th century, Ordrupgaard Museum was previously split between a 19th century building by Danish architect Gotfred Tvede and a 2005 extension by Zaha Hadid Architects.
Snøhetta’s addition is a series of five new underground galleries that link these two buildings, while also safeguarding the surrounding park.
Ordrupgaard Museum is also the home to Danish architect Finn Juhl‘s world-famous house, which is considered “one of the most successful functionalist single-family houses in Denmark”.
This urban neighbourhood park is designed to bring together people of diverse cultures and backgrounds.
Designed through collaboration between BIG and landscape studios Superflex and Topotek 1, Superkilen is located in Nørrebro, one of the city’s most multicultural neighbourhoods.
The design incorporates elements that relate to 60 different nationalities, including benches from Brazil, fountains from Morocco and swings from Iraq.
Recycled materials played an important role in the construction of these urban townhouses.
Designed by Danish architects Lendager Group, Resource Rows consists of 20 homes that were built with a circular economy approach.
The buildings incorporate recycled concrete, repurposed wooden floor boards and windows salvaged from old buildings, along with roof gardens and solar panels, in order to reduce their carbon footprint.
“Homes for all” was the ambition behind this timber-framed social housing development.
Architecture studio BIG designed the building for Danish non-profit housing association Lejerbo. The building takes the form of a “winding wall” made up of prefabricated timber modules, which curve to frame a public plaza.
Inside, it contains 66 homes that boast 3.5-metre-high ceilings, full-height windows and south-facing balconies.
This car park in Copenhagen’s Nordhavn is equipped with a rooftop designed as a space for sport, yoga and socialising.
The rooftop is located 24 metres above ground, and is a space that provides views of the city’s horizon. Instead of concealing the car park’s structure, architecture studio JAJA’s design enhances the beauty of its structural grid.
Conceived as a “mini city”, this mixed-use building was designed by Dutch firm OMA with a civic nature.
Made up of stacked volumes that bridge across a road, BLOX is home to the Danish Architecture Center, plus co-working offices, creative studios, apartments, a gym and a restaurant.
The base of the building is open, encouraging the public to come in and explore, and there’s also a stepped playground that can double as an open-air cinema.
This pre-school consists of five buildings dotted amongst trees and gardens “like potted plants on a terrace”.
COBE designed the building, with the ambition of creating “a garden village for kids”.
A facade of vertical brick slats wraps both buildings and gardens, allowing indoor and outdoor activities to merge. Areas are also divided up into zones, so that children of different age groups can all find spaces where they feel welcome.
As the first of three projects on this list designed by Bjarke Ingels’ firm BIG, this is a power station with a difference.
As well as housing what is said to be the “cleanest waste-to-energy power plant in the world”, the building incorporates a year-round ski slope, a hiking and running trail and an 85-metre-high climbing wall.
It offers a new way to think about urban infrastructure.
A threaded collar locks your Sharpie into the barrel, and the stainless steel cap replaces the plastic cap (and has its own clip). It takes the standard Sharpie, not some special variant you have to buy.
It doesn’t appear to be sold as a standalone product, but is instead packaged with five markers. At press time I couldn’t find anyone who had these in stock, but they cost $18 per pack.
This Velo expandable suitcase was designed for trips where you expect to return with more than you brought, or vice versa.
At its smallest, the hard-sided case collapses down to smaller-than carry-on size, at 16″ tall. It can be expanded to 22″ and 26″ heights. (Note that those dimensions are actually for the case, not including the wheels.)
The company lists the attendant capacities as follows:
I like the concept, and don’t doubt that the designers had to overcome multiple challenges to get the thing to work. That being said, I wouldn’t gamble on one of these until reviews started coming in; the object is being Kickstarted by a startup also called Velo. How durable is this thing? What recourse do you have if the mechanism(s) break? Will the company last long enough to honor a warranty claim?
Over 3,000 backers do not share my skepticism. At press time the Velo suitcase had been successfully Kickstarted, with over $820,000 in pledges on a $10,000 goal and five days left in the campaign. Buy-in starts at $239.
From the Oakland and Los Angeles art gallery Good Mother comes this unstructured, six-panel, low-profile hat. Featuring the gallery’s logo and LA address, the cotton twill cap comes in an array of colors, including black, navy, green and camouflage.
The number of black ice-induced accidents has significantly spiked in the last five years owing to the perils of climate change. Rapid urbanization has also played its part in extreme weather events, and more instances of black ice forming on curved roads and bridges, thereby increasing the risk of fatalities when there’s no grip for vehicles to drive properly.
Unlike snow roads which are visible to the naked eye, black ice is indistinguishable from normal road conditions which makes it laden with danger at every corner. The only solution, to stay away from harm’s way is to put on a set of tires with spikes or put on tire chains. CONQUEROR tire designed in collaboration with the Nexen Tire Corporation (a world-leading South Korean tire maker) wants to change this, reducing the danger element to negligible.
Designer: Yuchan Ahn, HoChul Shin, Eunseok Seo and Korea Design Membership
The concept winter smart tire adapts to road conditions thanks to the embedded sensors. When slippery black ice or icy conditions are detected, the spikes are engaged for better grip without the riders needing to worry about anything. The design motivation for the tire’s shape comes from the snowflake crystals, and it’s not a mere penned concept. There are a number of deformation cylinders (shaped like crystals) on the surface of the tire giving way to the traditional air-injected mechanism of a normal tire.
Top of these little cylinders house the spikes and the rubber tread – with the spike controlling mechanism built into the casing to set into action, as soon as traces of icy conditions are detected. The bottom section of these cylinders has shock absorbers to absorb the impact of uneven road surfaces. The winter-optimized CONQUEROR tire is a very useful innovation that’s all set to hit the tarmac to prevent all the road chaos, and most importantly fatalities.
Tiny home builder Base Cabin collaborated with Matt Goodman Architecture Office to create this super minimalistic tiny home on wheels inspired by the simplicity of livestock sheds. The clean and simple home was designed to beautifully merge with farms, vineyards, or even the Australian bush. The aim was to ensure that the residents feel one with the surroundings and that there is no sense of separation between the home and the landscape,
“The design doesn’t detract from the actual picturesque landscape, but provides shelter for the humans to occupy,” said Matt Goodman. You enter the home via a glass sliding door, that seamlessly disappears into a wall cavity, and also allows generous amounts of light and air to enter the home. Although the home occupies a tiny footprint, it is made to feel more spacious than it is, owing to the placement of operable windows, that provide lovely views, irrespective of where you are standing.
The steel-framed tiny home features a durable exterior clad with white ColorBond, while the interiors are covered with limewash plywood, providing a soft and warm finish to the entire space. It also ensures that the place looks less cluttered and more open. By integrating a lot of the functional storage requirements into the walls, they were able to maximize the floor space. By adding a pull-down bed, as well as a pull-up table, they ensured that residents would be able to make the utmost use of the small footprint of the home – through the day and the night.
The Murphy bed occupies the maximum space in the home, on which two people can sleep. There is also a full wall of storage cabinets, which allow for a large number of items to be securely tucked away out of sight. During the day, when the bed is fitted into the wall, you can use the space as a home office or dining area, by simply pulling out the rounded table that is locked into place with a detachable leg. Two stools, which are stored under the cabin’s built-in bench, can be removed and placed with the table, to create a nifty seating area to work or eat in.
The tiny home also features a kitchenette at one end, which has been equipped with a small sink under a large operable window, an integrated refrigerator, and a sleek countertop for cooking. A handy integrated daybed with a cushion is positioned next to the kitchen. There is a large window above the daybed, which lets an ample amount of light and air stream in, making this a cozy spot to read or lounge about in.
The bathroom is extremely well-designed. It features a toilet, a rainfall shower with a skylight, an oval mirror, and a wall-hung sink with a faucet built into the wall. Overall, the cabin is a modern, minimal, and compact living space that is priced at $68000. You also have the option of adding solar power, and composting toilets, if you want to go down the sustainable route!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
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