Hasta La Ideas

German architecture firm Henn and the Technical University of Dresden have completed the world’s first building made of carbon concrete — a lower-emissions form of concrete reinforced with carbon fibre instead of steel.

Called the Cube, the 243-square-metre building was constructed as a test of the new material and will provide a laboratory and event space for the university campus.

Its distinctive feature is a thin, twisting facade that both visually references the textile quality of carbon fibre and is formally enabled by the material, which is lighter and stronger than traditional concrete.

Henn describes the design as one where the wall and ceiling are not separate components but merge together into one organic continuum.

The architects wanted to embody a vision for the future with the design, marrying environmental responsibility with a new-found formal freedom.

According to researchers at the Institute of Concrete Structures at TU Dresden, the slim line of the Cube’s facade was made possible by the use of carbon fibre reinforcement, which is rust-proof and so doesn’t need to be covered in as much concrete.

“Carbon fibre is four times lighter and six times stronger than steel and is not subject to corrosion,” the group told Dezeen.

“This means that the reinforcement does not have to be encapsulated in as much concrete to protect it from water and a same-sized section will be able to carry a higher load.”

“Components and structures can be designed thinner, with material savings of 50 per cent or more. This reduces CO2 emissions and the consumption of other valuable resources, like water and sand — there is a global sand shortage and the stories on concrete sand mafias around the world are wild and fascinating.”

The design of the Cube is completed with ample glazing on both sides as well as across the top of the building, where a skylight cuts diagonally across the volume. The undulating shapes of the glazing mirror the building’s twisted form, while framing views of the surrounding garden.

The Cube also takes advantage of another property of carbon fibre: its conductivity. The concrete walls of the building are equipped with insulation pads, heatable textiles and interactive touch surfaces.

“Carbon fibre is conductive and running a light current through it can generate heat,” said the researchers. “This can also be used to monitor structural integrity and create interactive surfaces.”

The Cube’s concrete elements were made using two methods of fabrication: the light-coloured twisted facade was made using shotcrete that was sprayed onto carbon fibre sheets overlaid on a plywood formwork, while the smaller dark grey box was made from prefabricated concrete panels, also containing layers of carbon sheets.

The Cube was announced in 2021 and developed as part of the Carbon Concrete Composite (CCC) research programme, a government-funded research project that is currently the largest in German construction. This is where the building’s name originates; CCC can also be thought of as C³, or C cubed.

Carbon concrete was developed at TU Dresden along with several other universities worldwide. According to the researchers, studies have shown that for a comparable bridge design, carbon concrete has about 30 per cent less global warming potential (GWP) than conventional construction.

This is despite the fact that carbon fibre by itself has a high carbon footprint — it is about eight times more carbon intensive than steel per unit weight. But because of its strength, less material is needed as reinforcement.

The rust-proof nature of carbon fibre will also give the concrete a lifespan that the researchers say is “significantly increased” compared to traditional concrete buildings, further reducing the carbon cost over time.

There is also current research into the recycling and potential of bio-based carbon fibres.

Concrete is among the world’s most consumed materials, second only to water, and is estimated to account for around four to eight per cent of global carbon emissions.

To keep up with the demand for construction while meeting climate targets, the race is on to come up with a scalable environmentally friendly concrete solution. Examples include Seratech’s carbon-neutral concrete, made using carbon dioxide captured directly from factory flues, and the University of Colorado’s algae concrete.

The post Henn and TU Dresden complete world’s first carbon concrete building appeared first on Dezeen.

Knitted jumpers that block facial recognition software and clothing that detects when its wearer is anxious are among the high-tech garments featured in this roundup.

The past few years have seen an increasing trend for designers to test the limits of clothing by incorporating both new and established technologies into garments in order to make them move, change colour and conceal hidden messages.

From expandable pieces that grow with their wearer to jackets laced with solar panels, here are eight high-tech clothing projects from Dezeen’s archive:

Manifesto Collection by Cap_able

Manifesto Collection is a selection of knitted garments designed to block facial recognition software and protect the wearer’s biometric data without them having to cover their face.

Italian startup Cap_able added arrangements of special patterns to the clothing that were developed by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to identify the wearers as animals in order to protect their facial identity.

Find out more about Manifesto Collection ›

Emotional Clothing by Iga Węglińska

Polish fashion designer Iga Węglińska created a pair of polysensory garments that respond to their wearers’ stress levels by changing colour or emitting flashing lights to detect shifts in mood.

The two tops react to their wearers’ temperature, heart rate and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) via in-built sensors, which trigger visual changes that indicate heightened anxiety.

Węglińska designed the collection as part of her doctoral dissertation at Krakow’s Academy of Fine Arts in order to “broaden the experience of clothing”.

Find out more about Emotional Clothing ›

Soft Assembly by Pola Demianiuk

Soft Assembly is a collection of kinetic garments designed to curl around their wearer’s body using built-in inflatable elements that expand into dynamic forms.

The clothing owes its movement to soft robotics – a type of robotics focused on technologies that mimic living organisms, also known as biomimicry.

Swedish School of Textiles graduate Pola Demianiuk, who created the designs as part of her postgraduate degree, believes the concept could be used to assist people with mobility issues in getting dressed.

Find out more about Soft Assembly ›

The Last Statement T-shirt by Virtue for Carlings

These T-shirts appear almost blank to the naked eye but reveal topical political messages when viewed through a smartphone using Facebook’s augmented-reality platform Spark AR.

Creative agency Virtue designed the shirts for Swedish retailer Carlings, which claims that their digital element makes the garments longer-lasting and more versatile.

Find out more about The Last Statement T-shirt ›

Expandable clothes by Petit Pli

Wearable technology company Petit Pli launched a unisex collection of mono-fibre polyester clothes that expand to fit their wearer thanks to their stretchy material.

The garments were made with pregnant women in mind, while their adaptability was also informed by reducing the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

London-based Petit Pli previously designed a children’s line of expandable clothes that stretch to fit kids as they grow.

Find out more about these expandable clothes ›

Flowing Water, Standing Time by Ying Gao

Flowing Water, Standing Time is a pair of robotic dresses made from silicone, organza and glass elements that respond to their environment by rippling, expanding and contracting as if they were living creatures.

Montreal-based fashion designer Ying Gao designed the dresses to react to colours in their immediate surroundings using sensors. Tiny cameras are also linked to an in-built Raspberry Pi computer, which collects data that activates actuators and magnets that cause the garments to move.

Gao has previously created other autonomous clothing collections, including dresses that become animated “in the presence of strangers”.

Find out more Flowing Water, Standing Time ›

Sun-Powered Textiles by Aalto University researchers

Design and physics researchers at Finland’s Aalto University hid solar panels within the fabric of this prototype jacket, which was created to harvest energy from the sun while concealing the jacket’s technology.

Called The Sun-Powered Textile Project, the clothing is machine-washable and aims to provide an energy-autonomous product that can power wearable devices including humidity- or temperature-measuring sensors.

Find out more about Sun-Powered Textiles ›

The Healing Imprint by Laura Deschl

Designer Laura Deschl was informed by the benefits of acupressure and yoga-like movement when creating The Healing Imprint – her graduate project completed while studying at Design Academy Eindhoven.

Deschl produced custom-knit garments that look like sportswear but are stitched with a grid so that small massage balls can be inserted into the fabric and placed onto specific acupressure points on the body, feet, hands and head.

The Healing Imprint was designed as an exploration of how physical therapies can help people dealing with psychological trauma.

Find out more about The Healing Imprint ›

The post Eight high-tech garments that are more than just clothing appeared first on Dezeen.

With an easy-to-assemble and easy-to-ignite design, the WARMBOND BondStove Fire Pit is perfect for people new to firepits. It’s compact, portable, has a dual-air system that eliminates smoke, has its own temperature indicator, and even features accessories that let you do activities like grilling or just warming your hands and body.

Look at the BondStove Fire Pit’s design and assembly and it’s difficult to shake off the feeling that it was clearly envisioned to be the high-end Mac Studio of fire pits. It has a similar rounded-square body that’s more compact than its competition, with a metallic design and an interior construction that’s just incredibly clever in how it promotes airflow with sheer efficiency. The square-shaped design gives you a larger fire pit than a conventional circular one, with a combustion chamber area of 58 liters. Inner and outer layers cleverly create an airflow pattern that helps the BondStove dissipate smoke in a way that keeps your fire pit clean and clear, eliminating excessive smoke and pollution, and that oddly smoky flavor while you’re grilling your steaks.

Designer: WARMBOND Design

Click Here to Buy Now: $280 $401 (30% off). Hurry, only 50 left!

The BondStove’s design has an almost LEGO-like assembly that makes it easy to put together outdoors, and disassemble at the end of the day. It comes with its own carrying case that lets you wheel it around, and takes minutes to assemble. Starting the fire is rather simple too, with WARMBOND’s patented easy-to-ignite jute fire-starting rings that you can simply light and chuck into the wood pit. In a mere handful of moments, the fire pit comes to life, with a burning time of 12 full minutes. The firepit’s 16.5-inch height also helps dissipate heat in both a radial and vertical direction, warming as many as 9 people from head to toe.

More Fire, Less Smoke – The unique dual-air system allows you to relish in fireside experiences without smoky flame.

Warm from Head to Toe – The perfect height (16.5 inches) for ultimate fireside experience. And with multi-layer insulation design, is suitable for all surfaces, be it grass, deck, or ground, without harming the surfaces.

Unlike other fire pits that have you MacGyvering solutions together for when you want to cook food or stay warm, the BondStove pretty much has you sorted with its set of modular accessories that allow the fire to play multiple roles and serve different purposes. A fire-viewing glass ring helps accentuate the flames while creating a protective shield between you and the fire, and also making it wind-proof. Want to warm yourself instead? Swap it out for a heat deflector disc that maximizes heat distribution, creating a fire that radiates warmth with much more efficiency. A final grilling accessory lets you turn your fire pit into a barbecue, complete with all the accessories you need like a lid, fire-safe gloves, temperature gauge, and your very own barbecue kit with tongs, skewers, and a basting brush.

Built to last generations, the BondStove Fire Pit comes crafted from stainless steel, with composite polymer and water-based nano ceramic coatings on the outside that are heat-resistant and easy to clean, while also letting you customize your fire pit with multiple color options. Its state-of-the-art construction makes it resistant to corrosion while being both water and wind-proof during operation. Each BondStove comes with an add-on storage carrier case with a waterproof cover, and an optional set of add-on caster wheels that let you pull your fire pit around instead of lifting it. You’re even supplied with WARMBOND’s sustainable, patented jute firestarter rings, with the option of buying extra packs for just a $12 upgrade. The BondStove Fire Pit starts at $279 for just the fire pit, or $399 if you want a fire pit in a custom color of your choice. Modular accessories like the fire viewing ring, grilling rig, and warming station are all available as individual modules, so you can add them to your pledge based on whether you need them or not.

Each WARMBOND BondStove Fire Pit ships with a lifetime warranty and in sustainable, eco-friendly packaging. In fact, WARMBOND is even partnering up with One Tree Planted to grow forests using profits from their BondStove campaign. “We all know that fire pits burn wood, so we aim to keep planting trees for a 100% circular ecosystem”, the folks at WARMBOND rightfully say.

Click Here to Buy Now: $280 $401 (30% off). Hurry, only 50 left!

The post All-in-one smokeless portable fire pit lets you do everything from warm your hands to grill steaks first appeared on Yanko Design.

Artificial Intelligence is the current fad affecting virtually all walks of life, and how one can employ it to do things smartly, determines how productive one will be. While there are countless ways to get things done with the help of current AI tools, some really cool ones have been making people go crazy.

Moss and Fog have done something along these lines by using the AI generator tool “Midjourney” to bring together two very contrasting industries. They’ve managed to produce never seen cars in the style of famous architectural designers of the 20^th century. The exercise in digital exploration is both magnificent and mesmerizing.

Designer: Moss and Fog

They’ve used the AI-image generator to reimagine how a set of four wheels will have the essence of each of these designers’ famous architectural wonders. The initial curiosity of the design studio was to comprehend “What if the most famous architects designed cars? Would they be as recognizable as his buildings?” Next, they set certain parameters to fit the style, and time period of the designer’s famous works in the application to give a head start. For those who don’t know, Midjourney can create digital art from any text, voice, or video prompts.

So, let’s have a look at these intriguing AI designs of renowned architects and what kind of cars they could have mustered up in their imagination.

Acclaimed as the “greatest American architect of all time” by the American Institute of Architects, Frank Llyod has reshaped the way we perceive modern structures. With over 1,114 architectural marvels under his name, Frank realized only 532 of them, and all of them were stupendous in their own rights. These off-beat classic car design was generated by the AI platform.

This futuristic car adopts the shapes of Zaha Hadid’s signature design language. The series of modular steel panels reimagined in abstracted layers is something that the AI algorithm has very immaculately incorporated in the render.

Canadian-born American designer Frank Owen Gehry is well renowned for some of the most famous world attractions. The architecture world swears by his contemporary view of designs, and in the year 2010 he deservedly got the acclaimed title of “the most important architect of our age” from leading Vanity Fair.

Antoni Gaudi i Cornet from Spain was a proponent of Catalan Modernism exhibited in his highly personalized creations in the sui generis theme. His creations are mostly based in Barcelona, the prime one being, the Sagrada Familia church.

Another Spanish designer who has amazed the world with his living organism-like sculptures has now got a four-wheeler design to his name. Yes, I’m talking about Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava Valls who is also acclaimed for his structural engineering, sculptor and a painter. Santiago is especially popular for his bridges supported by single-leaning pylons.

The post From Zaha Hadid to Frank Llyod, AI generated these eye-popping cars in the design style of famous architects first appeared on Yanko Design.

Artworks made from found materials, incorporating talismans, using the Pua Kumbu weaving technique and more

Mexico’s capital city has always been a melting pot of art and design—a Haussmanian street kisses a Brutalist structure before melting into Luis Barragán’s mid-century modernism on the way to Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul in colonial Coyoacan. Navigate the CDMX subway system thanks to Lance Wyman’s wayfinding pictographs, and then visit one of Diego Rivera’s murals to honor the public servants who built it. But in the shadows of all this modernity remain the pre-Hispanic artifacts that tell the story of a Mexico before its conquest, whether by ruin or by place-name.

CDMX is home to an estimated one million Indigenous-identifying citizens who speak 55 of 68 recognized native languages, despite portions of the city yielding to English as more expats descend on the capital than ever before. This duality is reflected at this year’s ZONA MACO; while definitively an international contemporary art fair, non-Western influences are not to be overlooked. Here, we highlight five artists featured at the festival who explore art beyond the European affair, from celebrations of cross-continental multiculturalism to critiques of technology driven neo-colonialism.

Kojo Marfo

In his newest series of portraits, entitled Strangers, Kojo Marfo brings forth the beauty that can flourish when various cultures are encouraged to cross-pollinate. The London-based Ghanaian artist weaves together his Akan heritage with recognizably Western influences, using his own struggle with identity to dream of “a society where we all feel responsible for one another.” With titles such as “Beloved” and “Devotion,” these paintings encompass universal virtues as a way to break down the constructs that hold us apart from each other, while recognizing the divinity of our union as humans with nature. “Each figure is meant to be a stranger, yet someone we all might recognize,” JD Malat gallery manager Annie Pereira tells us, “maybe even seeing ourselves in any one of them.”

Moris (Israel Meza Moreno)

There is no mercy in Moris’ world, neither in his art nor in the cartel-run barrio the artist grew up in. Instead, the artist (represented by Marc Straus Gallery and Arroníz Contemporary Art Gallery) finds solace in translating into his work the means of survival and methods of maintaining dignity that spring forth from those who navigate such precarity. This is no plea for pity, but instead an honoring of the creativity necessary to endure. The subject matter is clearly brutal, yet presented in an aesthetic similar to the wheat paste art collages that manifest in the streets of Mexico, often as sites of popular politics. Moris also codifies the deep ancestral wounds that continue to manifest in today’s violence. From his paintings hang objects of jade and steel, which are respectively Indigenous and European materials, a reminder that genocidal conquest has a long history here.

Kazuki Takakura

Osaka-based YOD Gallery was established to promote classic Japanese aesthetic culture through the lens of emergent media technology, a mission perfectly expressed within the work of Kazuki Takakura. A physical manifestation of his NFT collection Buddha Verse, Takakura presented a mandala of nine prints using AI interpretations of his original pixel art NFTs. Each print represents one of the Buddhist evils (such as greed, envy and lust) which are the root of all suffering in this world. There is an irony in exhibiting this work at one of the wealthiest art fairs in the world, but the belief that artistic merit should manifest as value that fundamentally supports the creator rings true throughout.

Simon Vega

In 2021 El Salvador became the first country in the world to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. El Salvadorian artist Simon Vega clearly has an opinion about this move, presenting two recent pieces entitled “Ku Cool Crypto Klan” and “Crypto-Maya Mask” at this year’s ZONA MACO with MAIA Contemporary. Recreating elements from Maya frieze sculptures out of rubber litter found on the beaches of El Salvador, Vega critiques the invasion of technologically-driven colonialism and the destruction of Indigenous cultures therein. “The transformations of the area where I live and the development of the coastal area is dominated by a strong presence of cryptocurrency even though some of these places are very primitive in a sense, without electricity, let alone smartphones,” Vega tells us. Rubber, too, is Indigenous to South America, making the use of its discarded commoditized form for his artwork even more insidious.

Anne Samat

More idolatry than sculpture, Anne Samat’s work brings sacred myths to everyday items such as kitchenware, plastic toys and trinkets obtained at dollar stores. Each totem is created in the tradition of a Pua Kumbu weaving technique native to Samat’s homeland of Malaysia. It’s a demanding, meticulous process that uses textile design to write folklore into cloth as a way of keeping legends alive. Samat (represented by Marc Straus Gallery) uses this combination of ancient ritual and found object to lift her own biography into the realm of legend that transcends time, making evident that all which has inspired her art is clearly worthy of worship.

Hero image, detail of Anne Samat’s work, by Gabriella Garcia