Measuring up to 10 feet long and weighing 450 pounds, the pirarucu is one of the world’s largest freshwater fish and used to permeate the Amazon river before overfishing dwindled their population. Now, sustainable fishing programs have helped revive the species so that in some areas along the river the population has come back tenfold. At Brazil’s Mamirauá nature reserve, fishing is carefully monitored and tracked so that only 30% of the total population are allowed to be harvested and only adults can be caught. Noticing the success of these rules, locals have organized their own boat patrols to ensure no illegal fishing takes place. As exploitation and deforestation continues to threaten the Amazon, this news comes as not only a rare environmental victory but also a testament to how climate organizing can suceed. Learn more at NPR.
With “Garden of Reflections,” a pop-up gallery by day transforms into a high dining epicenter by night
Phillip K Smith III has created some of the most visually striking installations across the world—from installations at Coachella to Desert X and even his collaboration with the Faena Hotel. During Miami Art Week this year, thanks to support from American Express and Resy, the illustrious artist was able to bring to life “Garden of Reflections,” the focal point at their week-long culinary pop-up in the Design District. A sculptural wonder at the intersection of food, art and culture, Smith’s immersive, evocative pop-up installation hosted a rotating array of dinners from culinary greats (including Massimo Bottura and Missy Robbins) all of whom were brought together to enjoy a week of conversation and dining.
We spoke with Smith about “Garden of Reflections” and what it was like putting together the centerpiece for an ephemeral restaurant.
How was the sculpture meant to complement the American Express and Resy experience?
After hearing the vision to integrate art, architecture and dining, I was immediately interested in creating an immersive installation for the Resy and American Express Design District pop-up. I was commissioned to create an installation that would operate as a gallery by day and a restaurant by night, which was a unique challenge. “Garden of Reflections” is a series of reflective columnar sculptures that react to the immediate surroundings: the sun, clouds, treetops and architecture during the day, and the action of the dining experience at night. For the dining experience, I knew that I had a captive audience that would view the artwork from one location: their dining table. That block of time would acclimate their perception and amplify their experience of the movement and light of the space as seen across the artwork’s surface. The connection between the conditions of the site and the experience of the artwork would be established during a meal.
A lot of your work is outdoors in public or semi-public spaces. What was it like creating a piece that was going to be inside a pop-up restaurant?
I was very interested in the commission because it was intended from the beginning to be an original site-specific art installation for the Design District pop-up. The third-floor space at Paradise Plaza offered an open, modern framework from which to work. The south-facing wall of glass running the entire length of the space would allow light, the surrounding landscaping and views to Miami to enter into the space.
It was less about creating a “restaurant” and more about a dining experience within the space of an art installation
Creating work in the public realm is all about interaction and this project is no different. American Express and Resy’s intent was that the art installation would establish the visual experience of the dining experience. It was less about creating a “restaurant” and more about a dining experience within the space of an art installation. The dining experience informed the art and the art informed the dining experience.
Tell us about your approach and process for this project.
I wanted to create an installation that was equally powerful and quiet, completely immersive and changing at all times, no matter day or night. I wanted an artwork to be highly present, but composed of the architecture and the surroundings itself—you could say camouflaged and present at the same time.
By using the light, colors and movement of the space, the viewer would be more aware of the overall experience itself. Through the use of reflection, the light, movement and colors of the space, the food, and the people would become artistic material collaged across the mirror polished stainless steel surface of the installation.
Courtesy of Lance Gerber
What did you want guests to take away from the experience?
That the artwork is composed of the light, space, people and food within the space and because of that, all of those elements are constantly in movement and the artwork itself is constantly in a state of change. Viewing the artwork during the day for the Gallery Day was entirely different from viewing it in the evening for the dining experience. And that was precisely the intent. Everyone would have a unique experience with “Garden of Reflections,” depending on where they were seated.
Located in rural Dorset, the two-storey family home is distinguished by its playful yet restrained exterior that juxtaposes patterned red brickwork with bright green details.
The Red House is the RIBA House of the Year for 2022
Red House by David Kohn Architects was selected by the jury as the winner for 2022 in recognition of the way that it “confronts our expectations of a house in a beautiful setting”.
The home in southwest England was designed by David Kohn Architects
“Ordinary yet quirky, extravagant although utilitarian, the Red House confronts our expectations of a house in a beautiful setting that never wants to settle into being one way or another,” said head of the jury and architect Taro Tsuruta.
“An aesthetic and sustainable building with future-proof functionality, it draws on architectural references from [William] Morris to [James] Stirling – with many surprises throughout which were applauded by all the jury members.”
It has a redbrick exterior with green details
Created for a couple and their young daughter, the two-storey Red House was intended to be as an eccentric interpretation of traditional British housing.
In an interview with Dezeen earlier this year, David Kohn Architects’ founder David Kohn said that the home “appeals to the image of an ordinary house, but is built with the material and constructional integrity of a building designed to endure and age well”.
It was praised by the jury as “ordinary yet quirky”
Reflecting on the win, Kohn said that he “could not be more delighted”.
“The jury have chosen to support architecture that is intimate, playful, colourful, and engages both with its context and history,” Kohn continued.
The home was designed for a couple with a young daughter
Behind its patterned red brickwork, green details and oversized eaves, the home has bright and spacious interiors organised around six “storage towers” containing closets, bathrooms and utility spaces.
A showpiece of the interior is a grand sculptural staircase, which sweeps up to the first floor past a projecting bay window.
It contains bright and spacious interiors
The interiors were designed to be future-proof, meaning they are suited to future accessibility needs.
These accessibility measures include the presence of a lift, rounded corners on built-in furniture and grab rails on cupboards.
Furnishings have curved edges
The Red House was revealed as this year’s winner during the final episode of the Channel 4 television series Grand Designs: House of the Year.
Over the four weeks, the series has seen the 20-strong longlist whittled down to just seven projects.
This year’s winner was selected by a jury consisting of chair Tsuruta, founder of Tsuruta Architects, and architect Alison Brooks, the founder of last year’s winning studio Alison Brooks Architects.
It was revealed as the winner in the final episode Grand Designs: House of the Year
Last year’s winner was House on the Hill by Alison Brooks Architects – a home in Gloustershire comprising an art-filled black extension and a Georgian farmhouse that now contains a gallery.
Whether preparing a meditation space, getting ready for yoga or simply looking to cultivate more mindfulness, Intuition Spray’s earthy notes and light citrus scents help awaken the senses for more empowering rituals. Like all of Sage and Salt’s sprays, the blend is made with responsibly harvested herbs.
Architecture studio Studio Gang has completed the 11 Hoyt residential skyscraper in downtown Brooklyn with a scalloped concrete facade and an elevated park.
Named 11 Hoyt, the 620-foot-tall (189 metres) skyscraper was clad with precast concrete panels that are positioned at different angles in order to give it an undulating effect.
Studio Gang completed a concrete-panelled skyscraper in downtown Brooklyn. Above and top photos by Tom Harris
According to the studio, the panels were positioned in order to create an “inhabitable facade” – a designation given because of the extra interior spaces created where the panels extrude from the interior envelopes.
The position of the angled windows in some of the precast panels was based on the “classic bay windows found among Brooklyn’s iconic brownstones”.
It was clad in precast concrete panels set at different angles. Photo by Colin Miller
“We designed 11 Hoyt from the inside out, looking to give residents great natural light, views, and spacious interiors, even in dense Downtown Brooklyn,” said Studio Gang founder Jeanne Gang.
“The design reinterprets them as projecting bays sweeping diagonally up and down the facade like gently cresting waves,” added the team.
A private park sits on top of the podium. Photo by Colin Miller
The 57-storey tower rises up from a podium that surrounds the building, on top of which was installed a 27,000 square foot (2,508 metres) private park, with landscape design by New York-based Hollander Design.
“We looked for ways to bring green spaces and biodiverse nature to the neighborhood, which it has traditionally lacked,” said Gang.
“New plantings at street level add green to the public way, and the elevated garden landscape atop the podium provides a place where residents can build community and enjoy the outdoors, as well as habitat for wildlife and rainwater retention.”
The skyscraper has a fitness deck that connects the park and interior. Photo by Lauren Randall
The park is connected to the main stricture via a semi-enclosed fitness deck where large concrete trusses were left exposed.
Architecture studio Michaelis Boyd designed the interiors for the skyscraper, including the public areas and the 481 residences.
These include the double-height lounges and exercise facilities on the third floor, adjacent to the elevated park, with a 75-foot saltwater pool framed by columns clad in deep-blue tile and floor-to-ceiling windows of the adjacent skyline.
Structural elements of the building were left exposed, like the massive columns that punctuate the interior of the coworking lounge, which Michaelis Boyd decorated with dark wood flooring.
It includes a saltwater swimming pool. Photo by Chris Coe
The residences all have 10-foot-tall (three-metre-high) ceilings and their floors are made of American oak.
Two different colour schemes – one of dark metal and stained wood and one of light wood and stainless steel – were chosen for the accents and hardware.
When you see dogs riding in cars in movies or even advertisements, you always see the head hanging out, tongue lolling, and pet smiling scenarios. But as any pet owner knows, real life is not as picturesque as that. Dogs in cars can be messy, chaotic, and sometimes even dangerous for both the pets themselves and the owners. So what you need is something that can keep them safe and secure while in a moving vehicle but also give them some sense of freedom.
Designer: Hammacher
This dog crate is meant to be a safe space for your pet while they’re riding with you on a short or long road trip. The Safer Automobile Pet Crate doesn’t really look like an actual crate but more like an enclosed baby seat for your fur babies. It is meant to be placed behind the front passenger seat and is secured with a harness to the headrest and a seatbelt for the back part. This way, even when you’re driving fast (or as fast as you’re allowed), the crate will stay in place and your pet be safe.
It is made from lightweight polyester and has a breathable mesh on both sides so your dog will not feel suffocated as it can still breathe and feel the breeze if your windows are down. That way, they can also still see the outside world but they’re kept in place if they become too excitable with all the passing vehicles and the kids waving from other cars. There are zipper doors on either side for easy access and the crate also has two storage pockets for things like food and water and hook-and-loop fasteners to hold their toys and treats.
To make your dog more comfortable, it has a fleece-covered pad. The whole thing is also easy to clean as it is washing-machine friendly. And in case you’re not bringing your pet with you on certain trips, you can just fold it flat and store it somewhere else to make space in the car. The Safer Automobile Pet Crate measures 28 x 19 x 27 inches so it may be just right for your small or medium-sized dogs. It’s also pretty affordable at just $130 and for pet lovers that love to travel with their dogs, that’s a small price to pay.
Attitudes about the workplace have shifted and changed over the past years. From cubicles to open floor plans and back again, office space often fluctuates between technical, efficient places for productivity and cozy, inspiring spaces for humans. This has become especially evident in recent months as people started going back to offices after having adjusted to the comforts and challenges of working from home. While it’s definitely not advisable to bring the entire WFH setting to a communal workspace, it might be possible to integrate some of those more favorable elements into office design. That’s exactly what this furniture collection, and especially this lounge chair tries to offer, helping people bounce back into work life while still enjoying some of the conveniences and privacy they had at home.
When people around the world were forced to start working from home instead of the office, many struggled to adjust and cope. Over time, however, workers and their families have developed strategies and tools that helped them remain productive despite all the distractions and temptations at home. Now the pendulum swings in the opposite direction, and people are trying to re-adjust to working from the office while also yearning for the positive experiences they had from working at home.
“Rebound” is a furniture collection that tries to bring those traits to the office, focusing primarily on properties like privacy and personalization, something that has almost become rare in many open floor plans today. The Kona lounge chair is the most interesting member of this group, looking like something you wouldn’t expect inside an office. It’s a design that exhibits not only flexibility but also convenience and comfort that is more associated with home furniture instead.
Kona’s base is a short, cylindrical pouf that, on its own, is already an attractive piece in any room. It combines with curved backrests of different heights that add both back support as well as an accent to the chair. That back support is covered with wool felt that acts as a sound-absorbing material to create an acoustically private space around the person sitting on the chair. The back support can also stand on its own and be placed behind any regular office chair to serve as a privacy backdrop for video calls as well.
The collection also includes a modular shelf that brings a level of customization you wouldn’t normally expect from office furniture. There are also acoustic panels that are designed to dampen background noise while doing video calls. These pieces of furniture represent the changing needs of office workers, particularly with the prevalence of video calls as part of regular office life. It also reflects a growing desire to create more private spaces they can personalize, something that, ironically, the old cubicle-style workplace offered to some extent.
Travel is intrinsically linked with food, and this new book from Design Hotels explores and celebrates the culinary offerings and practices at properties including Jamaica’s Rockhouse, Italy’s Rastrello, Mexico’s Círculo Mexicano and Japan’s Satoyama Jujo. Through images and words by photographers, chefs and culinary experts and writers, Taste and Place traces terroir to table settings, tradition, sustainability and beyond. The company has also promised to donate a portion of the proceeds to humanitarian aid organizations that were suggested by their two Ukrainian member hotels: 11 Mirrors and Bursa Hotel. Price is in Euros.
At Melbourne, Australia’s RMIT University, researchers have developed a magnetic powder made from recycled waste that can capture the smallest invisible fragments of microplastic—including pieces that are 1,000 times finer than hair. This in itself sets the material apart from other filters that can only capture larger fragments, but the powder also acts quickly; it’s capable of working within an hour. The powder functions because it has a nano-sized structure that allows it to catch microscopic pieces. “It’s a porous material with a special surface that can react with microplastics,” explains Nicky Eshtiaghi, a chemical engineering professor who led the research team. Once the plastic is caught, it can then be recycled and the material can easily be removed from the water using magnets. Learn more about the innovative new filter at Fast Company.
Image courtesy of Lisa Schaetzle/Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images
Arched openings create a sense of fluidity inside a holiday home by Mexican studio CO-LAB Design Office, which was designed to encourage occupants to feel connected to the lush surroundings.
Villa Petricor sits on a slender, angled site with tropical vegetation in the beach town of Tulum. The 300-square-metre house is oriented to take advantage of prevailing winds.
Villa Petricor is defined by arched openings
Named after the “earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil”, the dwelling is meant to evoke feelings of renewal and stillness.
“Villa Petricor connects us to the natural world by providing spaces that encourage us to slow down and marvel in the beauty of the present moment,” said local studio CO-LAB Design Office.
The dwelling is surrounded by lush vegetation
The concrete house was built around several clusters of trees, and windows were carefully positioned to provide “green views”. The glazing also ushers in daylight and enables shadows to dance across the walls.
“Projected shadows cast by the surrounding vegetation extend the presence of nature in all the rooms of the house,” the team said.
CO-LAB added a concrete brise-soleil made of concrete block
On the entrance facade, the team created a distinctive brise-soleil made of concrete blocks. The screen offers glimpses of within while providing privacy.
A walkway to the front door is topped with a canopy punctured with circular holes, allowing trees to grow upward.
Two bedrooms feature on the ground floor
The interior features many arched openings and niches, which create a sense of fluidity between rooms, and between the interior and exterior.
The ground level holds two bedrooms, along with an open space for lounging, cooking and dining. Large pivot doors open onto a terrace and a small swimming pool.
CO-LAB described the interior as “sculpted [and] monolithic”
Upstairs, there is a split-level main suite with a sleeping area, bathroom, lounge and terrace. A vaulted ceiling continues the language of arches found throughout the dwelling.
“Built-in furniture such as the platform bed and benches merges with the walls, floor and vaulted ceiling, creating a continuous, seamless space,” the studio said.
Floors are covered with terrazzo
Custom finishes in the home were carefully considered and contribute to the serene atmosphere and “sculpted monolithic interior”.
Pivoting windows were fabricated from rolled, stainless-steel tube frames with recessed frames.
Walls are made of polished cement, and floors are covered with terrazzo. Both materials were coloured with a mineral pigment that was mixed on-site.
Four skylights bring daylight deep within the home and accentuate the surfaces.
Four skylights illuminate interior spaces
“The washed light on the walls and floors enhances the texture of the polished cement interiors, revealing the perfectly imperfect handwork of local artisans,” the studio said.
Rooms are fitted with bespoke furnishings and lighting fixtures designed by CO-LAB Design Office.
Santo Tomás marble, which is quarried in Mexico, was used for kitchen countertops and bathroom elements. The same marble was used for a dining table designed by the architects and largely built on-site.
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