The cheekily named 101 Fornications Shirt from playful Paris-based Carne Bollente (helmed by Hijiri Endo, Théodore Famery and Agoston Palinko) continues the brand’s sex-positive manifesto. The green garment has been embroidered with figures reminiscent of Renaissance sculptures, lining up in somewhat provocative poses. Playful without being pornographic, it’s a lighthearted, eye-catching design. Made in Portugal from 97% cotton and 3% elastane, this garment is intended for all genders and is available in XS to XL.
Dezeen Showroom: office furniture brand Herman Miller has created the Passport work table, a compact and mobile height-adjustable desk to suit home and hybrid work environments.
The Passport work table is a laptop desk with a pneumatic lifting mechanism, allowing the user to raise or lower the work surface using an under-desk lever and without needing to be plugged into power.
The untethered and lightweight design can be moved around easily on casters or glides. It is intended to create an instant workspace option in small homes or to support flexible working in the office, where it can serve as a “touchdown” area for seated or standing work or for meetings.
“For Herman Miller, the convergence of work, life and play has always been central to how we design our products,” said Herman Miller president Ben Watson.
“Passport is the next addition to our portfolio that seeks to bring forth solutions that are agile, efficient and fit for a variety of environments,” he added.
The Passport work table is available in two sizes and can be accessorised with bag hooks or privacy screens.
Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.
Mass timber could become a key tool in reducing waste from the construction industry, GXN partner Lasse Lind tells Dezeen in this interview for our Timber Revolution series.
GXN was founded in 2007 as the research arm of Copenhagen-based architecture studio 3XN.
GXN looks at circular and low-carbon design, behavioural design – including the social aspect of buildings – and technologies that can help the industry transition to a more sustainable future.
Use of timber “exploded”
Its use of timber has “exploded” recently, with around half of its buildings now having a significant element of wood in their structure, up from almost none five years ago, Lind said.
“We’ve always been very interested in materials and material technology,” Lind told Dezeen.
“Our material focus has evolved to change over the years and now we’re extremely focused on recyclability, recycled content, low-carbon, natural biogenic materials – that is our absolute focus.”
The majority of the studio’s work at the moment is in mass timber, which Lind says has many advantages over other building materials.
“The first one is obviously lower carbon, which is a big advantage, and the fact that it’s kind of regenerative as a material,” he said.
“There are other aspects as well, which are related to build-ability,” he added. “Timber tends to be lighter than, for example, concrete construction. So you need less transport and, in principle, fewer crane lifts.”
Timber helps you “close the loop on waste”
The fact that everything is prefabricated when it comes to mass-timber construction also means it is possible to work with more precise tolerances and cut down on waste, according to Lind.
“You don’t have a lot of waste, potentially, in the production,” he said. “Especially if you think about it like we did in the prototype on Bornholm, where we used all the offcuts for furniture – you can actually close the loop on waste in the production chain a bit.”
As part of its research in this area, GXN is also experimenting with using offcuts from CLT boards as slabs in its buildings.
“You would have to live with the fact that it’s different thicknesses and you would have to look at the grid because if it’s offcut materials, you cannot get everything in eight metres,” he said.
“You have to have some substructure to accommodate a variety of sizes, so you need to spend a little bit more energy on the substructure but then you can actually use these offcuts as actual slabs.”
At the moment, the addition of concrete to the slabs is one of the things that makes it hard to design fully reversible timber buildings.
“In larger timber structures, where you have slabs, the standard practice is to cast everything out due to sound and vibration,” Lind explained.
“So essentially, if you have a timber slab, you cast a screed of concrete on top, and that actually messes up the reversibility of a lot of the structure,” he added.
GXN has attempted to create buildings that use alternatives to concrete slabs, including a version that saw the studio use egg crates filled with sand instead of the slabs.
“What we tried to do on the project on Bornholm is to have these crates and fill them with granite dust, waste production from granite, but the engineers wouldn’t sign off on it, unfortunately, so we weren’t able to do that for that project,” Lind said.
“But we are doing a building right now where we are getting rid of that concrete screed,” he continued.
“It’s something we’re always aware of when we’re building with timber – if we can get away from that detail, we’d like to, because it’s a small detail but it messes up the reversibility of the whole structure.”
Carbon budget “structures the discussion”
Lind believes that in the future, we will see a lot of hybrid timber systems as the industry figures out when wood is best to use.
“We [need to] figure out what timber is really good for, what concrete is really good for and what steel is really good for,” he said.
“The approach should be to minimise the use of concrete and steel, but there are just parts of a building where [those materials] makes more sense,” he added.
“I’m very interested that we use materials where they are best, and I think there are a lot of places where we could easily replace concrete or steel with timber.”
To help minimise carbon emissions, GXN sets carbon budgets for each of its projects that vary depending on the type of project and country it’s built in.
“The one thing we always try to do is bring a carbon budget, because it puts carbon up for discussion with every material choice and in that sense, it structures the discussion, like a financial budget does,” Lind said.
As timber buildings become more popular, Lind believes that as well as having an impact on carbon emissions, the material will also impact the way that buildings look, behave and feel.
“I think we will begin to explore, as designers, the vocabulary of what we can do, which I think will be very interesting,” he said.
“I don’t think it will be the same as architecture was 50 years ago when we kind of discovered the computer, but if you think about it, there are a lot of really creative half-timber buildings in Europe that have all kinds of weird ornaments and shapes and forms,” he added.
But though the use of timber and mass-timber is becoming more popular, there are still challenges facing architects when designing timber buildings. One of these is conveying the safety of the buildings to insurance companies.
“What we’re seeing as a challenge for timber buildings right now is generally insurance, because it’s a different material from what people usually use,” Lind said.
“We often find that insurers need to get on board and understand that it’s different. Because you can secure timber buildings, you can build them in a way where they are safe to operate and they’re safe as an asset, but there is a degree of scepticism from insurers.”
Designers should love timber’s “natural patina”
There are also sometimes regulatory difficulties as fire safety rules are often based on buildings made from steel or concrete.
“Inherently timber structures burn in a different way than steel or concrete does,” Lind said.
“And you can build safely with timber, but the way that you measure and regulate it needs to be different because it’s not steel,” he continued.
“Steel gets extremely hot and then it snaps, timber burns very slowly. It’s just a different strategy, fire-wise, that you need to apply.”
Architects and clients also need to get used to the fact that timber is a living material, which means it will change in ways that concrete and steel buildings might not, he argued.
“There’s a certain degree of natural patina that you should love as a designer,” Lind said.
“You should love the fact that it’s a material that changes over time – it’ll change colour, maybe have some cracks, it’s not going to look the same forever,” he added.
“So there’s some aesthetical considerations that you should be able to take your client through and understand that this is a living material and performs in a different way than an inorganic material.”
The architect believes that we’re only at the beginning of seeing the possibilities of timber and mass timber.
“There are loads of things that you could do even with fairly simple timber construction; there’s a whole field of investigation that we’re getting into which will be very interesting,” Lind concluded.
Timber Revolution
This article is part of Dezeen’s Timber Revolution series, which explores the potential of mass timber and asks whether going back to wood as our primary construction material can lead the world to a more sustainable future.
Specialist toilet designer Junko Kobayashi has created a public toilet within a series of weathering steel cylinders as her contribution to the Tokyo Toilet project.
Set under the Sasazuka Station metro station in central Tokyo, Kobayashi‘s toilet was designed to be fun and distinctive, while having a civic presence.
“Like the stubborn old man in the town, I wanted to create a toilet that would have a strong presence and brightly watch over the people in the neighborhood, while at the same time providing a sense of fun,” said Kobayashi.
“The opening is wide, and the toilet is solid yet open, and the inside is bright, clean, and safe.”
From the street, the toilet block appears to be a series of cylindrical blocks built from weathering steel topped by a bright yellow disc supported on the central cylinder.
This central space contains a disabled toilet along with baby-changing facilities.
It is flanked by entrances to the men’s toilets on the left and women’s on the right, which wrap around the central cylinder.
Alongside the main block, a pair of cylinders contain children’s toilets, while a water fountain is located nearby.
Kobayashi choose to build the structure from weathering steel due to its durability and strength along with its texture.
To add whimsy to the project, a series of round holes cut into the weathering steel contain graphics of bunnies.
The toilet is the latest in the Tokyo Toilet project, which has seen 16 toilets designed by leading architects and designers built in central Tokyo.
Specialist toilet designer Kobayashi contributed to the project as she believes that public toilets are needed within cities.
“The reason why I participated in the project is because I thought that this project would be a challenge to solve the problems that I have had for a long time, and that it would have great social significance,” said Kobayashi.
“Over the past 37 years, we have been involved in the design of more than 250 public toilets, and we believe that public toilets are the most difficult and meaningful toilets,” she continued.
“This project is trying to create an opportunity to reconsider once again that ‘public toilets are the property of all citizens’.”
In this video produced by Dezeen, US material manufacturer 3form unveils its latest colour palette for its partitions and architectural features, adding muted colours informed by the changing seasons.
The 2023 Color Collection contains 10 pastel colours, including warm yellows, cool blues and subtle lavenders, offering a softer alternative to the brand’s typical saturated tones.
Each colour was selected to emulate one of the four seasons and to explore the feelings and emotions that each hue evokes.
“Colour is at the core of what we do,” said 3form chief creative officer Ryan Smith. “This collection allowed us to be more introspective about the meaning of colour in our lives.”
“We see colour as a main ingredient in creating welcoming gathering spaces,” he continued.
The tones include a light blue named Comet, which was designed to evoke the feeling of a winter day, as well as a pastel purple called Lavish, which was designed to echo the vitality of spring.
“This palette sets the design tone for 2023, but its timeless, classic hues are relevant beyond the calendar year,” Smith said.
“We take that into deep consideration when creating any palette.”
3form’s translucent partitions, which can be used for interior features and installations, are available in glass or resin.
Due to the semi-transparent quality of the material, each colour interacts with natural light differently depending on its environment, creating different moods throughout the day.
Partnership content
This video was produced by Dezeen for 3form as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen’s partnership content here.
More information on 3form’s collection can be found on the brand’s website.
Following the death of Rafael Viñoly, directors and employees of his studio are working hard to continue the Uruguayan architect’s work, says his son Román Viñoly in this exclusive interview.
Speaking to Dezeen from his New York office, Román Viñoly, who is a director at Rafael Viñoly Architects, explained how the studio is continuing his father’s commitment to socially conscious architecture since his death earlier this month.
“Our employees, partners and clients have really taken on the mantle of his work and his passion for the social contribution architecture can make and they are really driving the work forward,” he told Dezeen.
“And that is something that is important for me to do – to support them and make sure his legacy doesn’t end on March 2,” he continued. “Every single person here is working like I am to extend and honour his legacy.”
“We have a lot of work to do for him”
Uruguayan Rafael Viñoly was one of the world’s best-known architects. He designed hundreds of projects around the world including skyscrapers 432 Park Avenue in New York and the Walkie Talkie in London.
Román Viñoly explained how he and the studio’s staff, some of which have been working with his father for 40 years, now feel a responsibility to extend his legacy.
“There is a feeling of responsibility that everyone here shares and we are all perfectly aligned on,” said Román Viñoly.
“It really was amazing because he died on Thursday at a quarter to six in New York and, obviously, I called my mother and my brothers and my wife first, but then I called the partners and every single one of them said the same thing – ‘we have a lot of work to do for him’.”
“I feel, like everyone here, a great responsibility to extend his legacy past March 2.”
“There is a realignment of energies”
According to Román Viñoly, the studio is already adapting to life without its founder and leader, who established Rafael Viñoly Architects over 30 years ago.
“Obviously, like any firm that has a very strong founder, when that energy suddenly disappears, there is there is a vacuum, right?” he said. “There is a realignment of energies and that’s happening very fluidly.”
He sees his role now and for the future evolution of the studio as providing an emotional connection to his father.
“People look to me to know that there’s the emotional core of what my father was as I am the most closely associated person to that part of him now,” he said.
“I’m not an architect, the partners are the ones who studied at his side and are carrying his work forward in the projects.”
However, Román Viñoly conceded that the reaction to his built legacy “hasn’t all been good”, noting the criticism towards the 20 Fenchurch Street skyscraper, known widely as the Walkie Talkie, in London.
“People will say what they have to say, and it’s a complicated life with a lot of product that is not monolithic,” he said.
“So that’s fair, but I think the overwhelming affection for him as a person has been, to me, kind of shocking.”
Román Viñoly explained that the studio will continue the work of his father and complete the numerous projects that are “fully designed with his intents perfectly clear”, and will also create new works that align with his ethos.
“I see him on a continuum of great architects,” he said. “And what he believed in, and what he thought, was the right way to practice.”
“That being said, he was a very, very strong character, an incredibly talented and driven human being. People here were inspired by that, and now they can really express everything that he communicated to them in their own way.”
“Not everyone can walk around and see the work of their loved one”
He believes that as his father’s work was so aesthetically broad it will allow those still at the studio to continue Rafael Viñoly’s work without becoming stagnated, or repeating a signature style.
“It is interesting because his work didn’t look a certain way,” he explained. “You know, there are some architects who pass before their time and they have a certain thing, a certain look.”
“Then their firms just continue repeating that look,” he continued. “That is not possible here.”
Rafael Viñoly completed numerous significant buildings all across the world and to mark his death Dezeen rounded up nine of his key projects. Román Viñoly said he takes comfort from being able to see the buildings designed by his father, and added that his favourite was an office for a pharmaceutical company.
“Not everyone can walk around and see the work of their loved one all over the city and all over the world,” he said.
“Strangely my favourite is a building for a pharmaceutical company,” he continued. “It’s the building that most closely resembles the core high concept that generated its design and planning approach. It is really perfectly realised according to the original idea and that’s why it’s my favourite building.”
Dezeen Showroom: a wall light with a back panel made from angular offcuts of naturally quarried stone is among 13 new products featured on Dezeen Showroom.
New Zealand-based lighting brand Nightworks Studio has created a series of wall lights that combine a glass lightbulb with fragments of stone sourced from local suppliers.
Each Offcut wall sconce is unique thanks to the stone’s origin and the light comes in three different stone types including mojito, a stone with green coloured inclusions, and neutral coloured limestone.
Offcut was recently featured on Dezeen Showroom alongside a piece of wooden seating that is part chair and part stool, a series of large planters that recall the smooth shape of pebbles and a collection of sanitaryware that is made from woodchips.
Planter brand Indigenus and design studio Yabu Pushelberg collaborated on the release of a collection of planters informed by organic shapes found in the natural world.
Pebble planters take the form of asymmetrical, oversized pebbles and come in a range of size formats and colours, including neutrals and monochromatic colourways.
Australian studio DesignByThem and designer Daniel Tucker worked together on a seating collection that functions as both a chair and a stool.
Bobby Stools come in three heights – low, counter and bar – that all share its characteristic circular seat and curved backrest. They are made from either solid timber or powder-coated aluminium.
Helsinki-based design company Woodio has released a series of basins, bathtubs and toilets made from woodchips as opposed to the ceramic materiality of traditional sanitaryware.
The Woodio bathroom collection uses locally sourced aspen offcuts from Finnish forestry processing and each piece is available in nine finishes, from neutrals to natural hues.
Italian tile manufacturer Casalgrande Padana has released an additional colourway for its Stile collection of tiles that provides a warm neutral covering for walls and floors.
The French Grey tiles come in multiple sizes and surface textures, including mottled and striated patinas, and have natural-looking inclusions reminiscent of natural quarried rocks.
Italian furniture company Pedrali collaborated with designer Patrick Jouin to create a range of modular seating featuring backs and arms made up of lengths of taut rope.
Reva Cocoon is available in a selection of playful colourways and have removable backrests, allowing them to adapt between solo relaxing and socialising.
Casalgrande Padana’s Pale/Beige Stile tiles set the midpoint for the wider Stile collection range, providing two neutral colourways suitable for a variety of applications.
Equally as durable as the rest of the tiles in the collection, they can be used for both public and private areas and their various size formats can be combined to create patterned effects.
The Collective Agency collaborated with designer Freyja Sewell to release a series of acoustic panels etched with curving patterns made up of shallow, grooved lines.
The Avon Collection references natural waterways in Cornwall and comes in several earthy colourways.
The Stile collection of tiles by Casalgrande Padana features a light grey shade reminiscent of the colour of pearls.
Pearl has a cool tone that can be finished in dimensional Antiqued, Antiqued Silk, Bush-Hammered, Diagonal, Grip Natural, Natural Silk and Striped finishes that are reminiscent of traditional stone carving techniques.
Nightworks Studio has created collection consisting of pendant and sconce lamps that reference the shapes used in morse code.
The aptly named Code collection has modular components including brass tubes and hand-blown glass spheres that can be connected in different combinations.
The White Smoke Stile collection tiles by Casalgrande Padana have the same thermal and acoustic properties as the other tiles in the range, in a bright white finish.
Flecked details on the tiles’ surface make for a naturalistic finish suitable for use on floors, walls and facades.
Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.
Design studio Linehouse has used natural, tactile materials for the interiors of the Coast restaurant in Shanghai for China’s casual dining brand Gaga.
The restaurant is set inside a traditional mid-century Shikumen house – a blend of Western and Chinese architecture – with a renovated interior informed by its Mediterranean menu.
“We aimed to create a deep connection with coastal elements and Mediterranean soul,” said Linehouse co-founder Alex Mok.
According to the studio, the restaurant’s aesthetic is one of “refined rusticity” – a contemporary reframing of rough-hewn vernacular styles, that creates a laid-back and tranquil atmosphere.
Throughout the scheme, Linehouse was informed by the idea of coastal terrain, including earthy and fired elements.
Linehouse chose a natural material palette, which in turn informed the colour scheme that flows throughout the interior of the three-storey restaurant.
The aim was to take the visitor on a “vertical journey” by giving each of the three floors its own unique identity.
“The colours and materials shift on each floor, telling a different part of the story,” Mok said.
On the ground floor, where a daytime cafe transitions into an evening bar, green and earthy tones link to the leafy garden beyond. Walls are wrapped in a green-glazed lava stone, with a deliberately hand-made patina, “representing the earth element”.
Custom furniture pieces designed by Linehouse were used throughout the restaurant, while lighting was chosen for its intriguing, sculptural forms from designers including Santa & Cole and Studio KAE.
Natural timbers were used for the centrepiece bar counter, while the timber-framed windows open up to the silver-grey of the olive trees outside.
Above this on the first floor is an intimate dining space lined with white-washed stone and timber panelling. Layered oak panels hung horizontally from the ceiling create intimate dining nooks, with taupe-toned banquette sofas and oak dining tables.
The focal point of this room is the parrilla – an open-hearth grill – and a chef’s table.
“The concept of the open parrilla grill captures the quintessence of Mediterranean cuisine,” Mok told Dezeen.
On this level, fire-informed red and brown tones punctuate the space including the tiles that line the kitchen, which were repurposed from used coffee grounds.
Finally, on the top floor under the exposed timber beams of the pitched roof, Linehouse created a string-wrapped wine room and a lofty private dining space.
The walls were again clad in white-washed stone. But here, it is contrasted with the intense black of yakisugi, or fire-preserved wood, which serves as a backdrop to a chef’s table.
The space also features a generously-sized balcony, providing views out across this bustling neighbourhood.
The spaces are linked by a staircase that weaves up through the centre of the building. Its chalky-white outer walls are patterned with a sculptural relief of sea creature exoskeletons, echoed by collections of shells displayed in glass jars nearby.
Panels of string, woven into simple grids, line the staircase structure, allowing natural light to flow into the heart of the building.
“We chose materials that tell the story of the coastal journey, while the exoskeleton wall is a modern representation of the sea,” said Mok.
Linehouse was founded by Mok and Briar Hickling in 2013 and the duo went on to win emerging interior designer of the year at the 2019 Dezeen Awards.
What do speakers and wine have in common? Not much, but they definitely have their own groups of snobbish enthusiasts! Say hello to Dream Echo a rather eclectic-looking Bluetooth speaker beautiful enough to keep on that decorative minibar or wine rack at home. Made from oak wood and styled like a wine bottle, the Dream Echo isn’t your average wireless speaker. It definitely has a niche audience and is meant for people who obsess over their music the way people obsess over their wine. Just like a well-aged fine wine has just the right notes and flavors, the Dream Echo creates the perfect balance between lows, mids, and highs, and that wooden enclosure helps give the speaker an earthy, natural sound that just pairs incredibly well with a glass of your favorite red, white, or rosé!
A refreshing take on an already saturated category, the Dream Echo has an incredibly retro-inspired look when placed vertically. Tilt it over and pop its kickstand out, and you instantly go from retro to retro-punk, with a 15W front-firing speaker that fills your room with rich, balanced audio. The speaker comes with Bluetooth 5.0 (and support for 5.1), connecting to your phone or any other wireless device to play tunes from your favorite streaming service, or your laptop to watch movies with a cinematic twist, and Dream Echo even has its own built-in 8GB storage for locally storing and playing files.
The beauty of the Dream Echo is truly its eclectic design. You don’t really see Bluetooth speakers looking too different from the standard template, barring the high-end expensive ones from companies like Bang & Olufsen. The Dream Echo does something unabashedly different, and the fun part is that it actually works. The speaker simultaneously looks vintage but sounds very contemporary and cutting-edge. The oak wood construction is complemented with brass detailing, including a brass label, cap, and even buttons on the side for power and volume control. A USB-C port on the bottom charges the Dream Echo’s 8000mAh battery, which gives the speaker 3 hours of usage.
Moreover, you can even pair two Dream Echo speakers together to create a stereo setup. The speaker comes in regular and pro versions, with the only difference being audio output (the pro has an upgraded driver for louder, clearer sound), and starts at $92 and $126 respectively. Each speaker also ships with a 12-track audio collection from the Dream Winery Music Album tuned to give you the full Dream Echo experience!
This beautiful 16-foot-long tiny home in Byron Bay, Australia was designed and is home to a lovely couple Samara and James. Frank Macchia, a holistic designer, and Samara’s father helped them to design the home. All the design ideas and moves you wouldn’t execute in a small space were implemented in this tiny home. For example – its interior and exterior feature a dark theme, and there aren’t a lot of windows in the home. Despite these details, the house manages to have an air of spaciousness and balance to it, while retaining a harmonious connection with the site it is situated on!
Designer: Samara and James
The wood-clad home is inspired by Japanese design, especially by shou sugi ban, a method of charring wood to make it more fire and pest resistant. The home was designed similarly to Samara’s parents’ home which is also located on the property. So, a theme of consistency and continuity was maintained. The house includes three modules, consisting of a bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. They can be moved and reconfigured if the home ever needs to be expanded in the future. The home’s noteworthy modular configuration creates space for little interstitial decks. The home is surrounded by potted plants and greenery, adding a chunk of green to the space.
You enter the home through a screened alcove, which creates a connection between the bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen includes a sink and an induction stovetop, as well as cabinets and open shelving. LED lighting strips have been placed underneath the cabinets. There’s also a handy wooden frame installed to store James’ DIY cold brew coffee tower. Once you exit the kitchen, you enter a cozy transitional space, which holds Samara’s closet. The closet is hidden beneath a skinny door.
You enter the bedroom by sliding open a door of wooden slats. A comfy bed, a small nook, and James’ closet occupy the space in the bedroom. A huge window in the room allows natural light to stream in. The window can be covered with a roller blind, which enables it to transform into a movie screen, with the help of a projector that is placed in James’ closet. The home also features a cool outdoor shower. A door separates the outdoor shower from the rest of the bathroom where the toilet and sink are located.
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