Breville’s Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro is a high-powered convection oven with six quartz heating elements that can toast, dehydrate and even turn out pizza—plus an included rack crisps up fries exceedingly well. An integrated app provides recipes and allows you to get reminders for when your food is done or when it’s time to rotate trays. Go for its sibling, the Smart Oven Air Fryer, for many of the same features in a smaller footprint; it comes in nine different colors for $350.
Dirty Projectors and Björk’s seven-song collaborative EP from 2010, Mount Wittenberg Orca, will return to vinyl as a Record Store Day exclusive double LP featuring 13 never-before-released tracks. Accompanying the announcement, the previously unreleased “On and Ever Onward (Live from Housing Works 2009)” finds the Icelandic recording artist singing with—and in correlation to the enchanting three-part harmonies of—Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian and Haley Dekle.
Deeming Xbox Series S as the best gaming console of all time will raise eyebrows of PlayStation 5 fanatics, but for cool futuristic looks, the latter is a better bet, I’ve to admit. The plain rectangular shape of the Xbox gaming console, missing any aerodynamic curves could do with some design upgrades, but we’ve to live with it.
The next best thing is to use Microsoft’s latest and greatest gaming console as the canvas for some LEGO magic. Yes, the flat surface of the Series S is the perfect base for etching those LEGO bricks artistically for cool graphical art if you’re a creative gamer.
The design studio has mustered up an Xbox console with one side completely dedicated to showcasing one’s custom LEGO art. This can be a pixelated face, landscape silhouette, album art or brand logo. For reference, Nak Studio has showcased the classic LEGO logo, rainbow, and a smiling face to give one’s imagination wings. For an artistic mind, the possibilities are endless with the pallet of LEGO bricks to create custom artwork.
This adds a bit of spice to your gaming sessions, rather than just looking at the monochrome console during short gaming breaks. A nerdy esports gamer would surely want to display his/her avatar to add zing to things. When it get boring, the bricks can be taken off and replaced with a completely different theme. Match this with the usually themed gaming controllers by Microsoft, ones by custom builders or third-party accessory makers, and you’ve got a rocking gaming setup to brag about.
DIY pros will already be looking at this mock-up Xbox console with keen interest, oozing out with ideas to customize an Xbox Series S, Series X, or even the Xbox 360 to have this LEGO building base. After all, this should not be a difficult thing to emulate for a seasoned builder.
Italian architect and designer Cristina Celestino has temporarily refitted a historic Milan tennis club with furniture that references nets, courts and rackets.
For Milan design week, Celestino has taken over the headquarters of the Tennis Club Milano Bonacossa, a building designed by renowned Milanese architect Giovanni Muzio and constructed in 1930.
Her installation, Clay Court Club, sees the building updated with furniture and fittings that feature playful references to tennis.
Cristina Celestino presents Clay Court Club at Milan design week
These include chairs with interwoven details akin to traditional tennis rackets, a bench that takes cues from courtside seating, and carpet that matches the colour of a clay court.
The exhibition marks the fourth time that Milan-based Celestino has staged an exhibition in an “iconic yet hidden” location in the city. As with those before, the installation doesn’t prevent the space from functioning as normal.
“I always look for significant but lesser-known places in Milan, as a way to unveil the city to foreigners,” the designer told Dezeen.
“My interest is to both establish a relationship with the existing architecture and explore the function of those who use the space.”
The installation is located in the historic Tennis Club Milano Bonacossa building
The works on show are a mix of new designs, custom pieces and existing products.
The most eye-catching piece is the Parasol bench, created under Celestino’s own label, Attico Design, in collaboration with local studio Skillmax.
This curved bench features a wooden seat and padded backrest, and is topped by a textile sunshade that Celestino describes as “an oversized hat”.
Like many of the works on display, the design combines linear and curved geometries. According to the designer, this is based on Muzio’s interest in combining lines with semi-circles in his architecture.
Furniture pieces include chairs with woven sides and a gridded coffee table
Similar geometries feature on the fabrics, supplied by Italian brand Dedar. Different textiles were selected for indoor and outdoor, riffing on the architectural details of the building.
“We selected durable fabrics with punctual patterns, recalling how the tennis club building is decorated with geometric motives made up of precise graphic signs,” Celestino said.
The Parasol bench features “an oversized hat” of patterned fabric
The new Raquette sofa and armchair – a collaboration with Italian brand Billiani – combines woven wooden slats with clean white upholstery, while the Ace table from Attico Design features a metal grid that resembles a net.
Other key pieces include a reinterpretation of a 1960s floor lamp and a modular seating system that frames large tropical plants.
Underfoot, the clay-coloured carpet features precise cutaways that highlight details in the existing floor.
“The new carpet flooring becomes a quotation of the red clay court, emphasising Muzio’s rich original marble decorations,” said Celestino.
The installation includes a pop-up restaurant designed with a garden feel
The installation extends to a pop-up restaurant, We Are Ona, located in a circular room in one of the building’s two wings.
This space has more of a garden feel, with green carpet, hanging flower arrangements, custom curved tables and green versions of Celestino’s Frisée dining chair for Billiani.
It is the only room where the furniture composition is symmetrical. The designer’s intention was to respect “Muzio’s long yearn for asymmetry” as much as possible.
“Furniture elements are arranged according to an out-of-scale logic, creating a new perspective order that seeks to generate new identities and focus,” she said.
Clay Court Club is on show at Viale Romagna 58 in Milan until 23 April 2023. See our Milan design week 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.
On show at Euroluce at Salone del Mobile, the Symbioosa floor and table lamps feature a domed lampshade that nods to the shape of mushroom caps.
The lampshade made by blowing glass into forms made of mycelium, giving it a unique, irregular and textured organic shape.
The Symbioosa lighting collection has an organically textured lampshade created by blowing glass into a mycelium mould
The collection builds on LLEV and Lasvit‘s previous collaboration, Symboll, which used the same technique.
For Symbioosa, the studios added a bulb with a changeable light temperature that varies throughout the day to support people’s natural rhythms.
Users can dim the light or change the colour between a spectrum of white and yellow light.
The lighting temperature can be changed to support natural rhythms at different times of the day
The Symbioosa lighting is intended to help the inhabitants of an interior connect with nature and exist “in symbiosis” with users.
“We didn’t intend to replicate the round shape of a mushroom cap but rather opted for an asymmetrical oval shape which changes based on where you look at it from,” said LLEV founders Eva and Marcel Mochal.
“In this case, imperfection is actually a form of perfection.”
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Dutch architecture studio Mecanoo has unveiled its design for Amstel Design District, a development in Amsterdam that will include housing, public outdoor spaces and a museum.
Six buildings are designed for the 80,000-square-metre project. While each one will be different in appearance, they will all have staggered forms that create pockets for outdoor “green retreats”.
Amstel Design District is made up of six buildings connected by public outdoor space
Some structures will be constructed entirely from wood and others will be built from a combination of steel and wood, or concrete and wood.
Planted areas, pocket parks and rooftop terraces will be added throughout the project, transforming the district into “a green artery” that provides space for people to relax and play, said Mecanoo.
Mecanoo designed “green retreats” for the project
“It’s an open structure system,” the studio told Dezeen. “We used a hybrid system in the construction and tried to use wood as much as possible.”
“There is also a big input of green throughout the masterplan, including water reuse, green roofs, solar panels integrated on the roof and the use of prefab elements.”
Described by Mecanoo as “future-oriented”, Amstel Design District will accommodate a mix of rental properties, social housing, flexible office and co-working space, commercial units, workshops and an 800-square-metre design museum.
Office spaces will have adjacent planted outdoor areas to give occupants a connection with nature, while green roofs throughout the project will be designed for water retention and as a space for biodiversity to flourish.
Timber will be used for some of the structures
Mecanoo designed the project with Dutch architecture studio KettingHuls for the real estate company Connecting Concepts, which wanted a development that “aspires to become significant for the whole city of Amsterdam”.
The site is located beside a canal and between a main road and a metro line, meaning the studio had to consider noise pollution in its design.
It will include residential, work and retail spaces
Mecanoo was founded in 1984 by Dutch architect Francine Houben. According to the studio, Amstel Design District is still under development and does not yet have a starting date for construction.
The Triennale Milano has reopened its permanent exhibition the Museo del Design Italiano, featuring key works of Italian design alongside new objects and immersive interiors, during Milan design week.
First opened in 2019, the Museo del Design Italiano presents significant and influential works of Italian design collected by the Triennale Milano since the founding of the institution 100 years ago.
To coincide with the art and design museum’s centenary celebrations, the exhibition has been reimagined by its new director Marco Sammicheli, who said he has aimed to tell the story of 100 years “in which new materials, new techniques and new aesthetic codes have revolutionised both the home and society”.
The Museo del Design Italiano has reopened with a new exhibition curated by director Marco Sammicheli
Two changes are most visible in the Curva, the curved gallery space on the ground floor of the Palazzo dell’Arte that is home to the Museo del Design Italiano, which features the exhibition designed by Paolo Giacomazzi Design Studio.
First, installations that recreate real interior environments are now interspersed through the gallery, and second, a new display area called the Design Platform ends the exhibition with a contemporary focus.
The installations are meant to illustrate some of the most significant cultural changes that have involved Milan and Italy, and to add depth by breaking out of the exhibition’s otherwise chronological structure.
One of the key additions is installations that capture six real and significant interior settings
They include the professional studio of Swiss-born, Milan-residing mid-century graphic designer Walter Ballmer, a new acquisition that illuminates the contribution of a foreigner who had a strong connection to the city.
“We did not want to construct a path that was just chronological,” Sammicheli told Dezeen.
“Instead we took into consideration the generative logic of interiors. The exhibits are not merely linked to each other chronologically, but they build a narration though six different environments, where interiors build a more vertical insight into the history of Italian design.”
The recreations of interior environments are meant to immerse audiences in the real lives and impacts of Italian design
He also said the approach would invite audiences to go beyond the typical reactions of “I like it/I don’t like it”.
“Rather, it is inviting people to have a more participatory and open approach,” he said. “They help visitors consider design as a tangible discipline, accessible to everyone, made of actual people and lifetime stories.”
Sammicheli’s second key intervention was to introduce the Design Platform, located at the end of the Curva and dedicated to temporary displays focusing on new developments in design.
The first exhibit in this space, Text, runs from 15 April to 17 September, 2023, and looks at approaches by stylists and designers when creating texts, interfaces and fabrics.
The Text temporary display is located at the end of the exhibition
Works on display come from designers including Giorgio Armani, Humberto and Fernando Campana, Vico Magistretti, Ottavio Missoni and Gaetano Pesce, with three commissions coming from Lupo Borgonovo, Pierre Charpin and Henrik Tjaerby.
“The main goal of this project is to intend the contemporary as a part of a general discourse, and not as something separate, combining thematic or monographic exhibitions with the history of our institution,” said Sammicheli.
Overall, the reimagined Museo del Design Italiano features more than 300 works, either drawn from the Triennale’s own 1,600-strong collection or on loan from private collections.
Among the new acquisitions on display are Lambretta E 125 and Vespa 125 Mod.51 scooters, which join the existing Fiat 500 car and according to Sammicheli, speak of the economic boom that followed the war and allowed the public’s new-found purchasing power to drive the creation of many colourful new lifestyle objects.
There are more than 300 objects on display spanning a 100-year history
The new graphic works include 1956 and 1960 Olympics posters by Franco Rondinelli and Armando Testa, and the furniture includes Cesare Leonardi’s 1983 Sedia chair from the Solidi series, which Sammicheli says embodies a moment in time when designers overcame the form/function dichotomy and “entrusted the object with a comforting power made of large volumes, graphic textures, and cultural provocations”.
Sammicheli was appointed the director of the Museo del Design in 2020 and is also the Triennale’s curator of Design, Fashion and Crafts.
The Museo del Design Milano reopening is part of Milan design week 2023, which takes place from 18 to 23 April. See our Milan design week 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.
Buildings embellished by decorative brick facades are the focus of this roundup, which includes houses, a winery and a mausoleum.
Bricks are a common building material used all around the world, typically for constructing walls.
However, their small rectangular-block shape means are also an easy way to decorate a building by creating facades with colour variations, complex forms, patterns and perforations.
Read on for 10 buildings animated by their unusual brick facades:
A technology called “augmented bricklaying” developed by researchers from ETH Zürich was used to create this semi-transparent brick facade, which is intended to look like light moving across a liquid surface.
Located at Kitrvs winery, it features more than 13,000 bricks individually placed with a unique rotation and mortar height by masons using an augmented-reality optical guidance system.
Architecture studio The DHaus Company designed a series of arches covered in layers of red-brick slips to characterise the elevations of this row of townhouses in north London.
The arches, which frame pivoting glass doors and entrances to balconies, pay homage to nearby Victorian railway arches and are coloured red to echo adjacent brick buildings.
Bricks were arranged using the rat-trap bond – a technique involving laying bricks at right angles – at the Pirouette House in the Indian city of Trivandrum.
This helped Wallmakers to create curved and twisting walls that animate the facade and help to conceal structural components and service ducts.
Matte blue bricks appear to swell around the floors and windows of The Interlock, a mixed-use building that Bureau de Change slotted within a 19th-century terrace in London.
A total of 5,000 bespoke bricks made in 44 shapes and sizes were used for the project. To achieve their complex arrangement, the facade was extensively modelled and a one-to-one template was used to set out the location of each brick during construction.
Concertina-style folds and bricks arranged at different angles define the Van Steijn building at the Museum de Lakenhal, which is designed to evoke woven textiles.
The facade also serves as a reference to the “proud presence and fine details” of the fabric factory that once occupied its site at Lammermarkt, said architect Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven.
Bricks with circular glass inserts form parts of the six-storey facade of Kohan Ceram, the headquarters of a brick manufacturer in Tehran.
The bricks, which were designed by Hooba Design Group especially for the building, are used to form distinctive patterns across the facade in tandem with large portions of protruding brick blocks.
At this home in Bien Hoa by architecture studio CTA, hole-punctured bricks that appear to be haphazardly stacked line the elevations, creating a tactile and irregular surface finish.
The bricks also funnel air and sunlight into the multi-generational family home, which was designed around the “idea of a house which is able to ‘breathe’ 24/7 by itself”, according to the studio.
An elaborate brick facade marks the exterior of the Krushi Bhawan government building in Odisha, India.
Bricks made from three different colours of clay sourced from the surrounding area were used to create it, forming an arrangement that emulates Odisha Ikat, a traditional dyeing technique from the Indian state.
Six turrets crafted from red bricks define the exterior of this mausoleum in Bangladesh, which houses the graves of a local religious leader’s family.
While the turrets have solid bases, they are perforated towards the top to help naturally ventilate the building’s interior. Bricks were also used for the platform on which the mausoleum is elevated to avoid the risk of flooding.
CmDesign Atelier was commissioned to design a five-bedroom home with ample room for entertaining guests on the private island, which is known for its luxury residential developments.
Lantern House is a villa in Lagos by Tosin Oshinowo-led studio CmDesign Atelier
Overlooking a garden, pool and terrace wrapping the northeastern edge of the site, Lantern House has a mixture of openings and steel screens that ensure privacy and light throughout the building.
“The exterior of the building includes solid structural walls and glass, with patterned steel screening to create the impression of a solid and porous structure all at once,” said the studio.
The villa provides space to entertain guests
“During the day, the interiors are filled with natural light, while the sun reflects and highlights the patterned screen. At night, the interior glows outwards through the patterned screens, creating a lantern effect,” CmDesign Atelier continued.
On the ground floor, a living, dining and kitchen area opens onto the outdoor gathering spaces through sliding glass doors, with a terrace sheltered by the overhang of the first and second floors.
Steel screens decorate the home’s exterior
In the more private western half of Lantern House, a separate staff entrance and study space sit alongside a parking area and services block.
A helical staircase in steel, glass and marble leads to a secondary living room on the first floor, which is wrapped by three guest bedrooms and two staff bedrooms.
On the second floor is the main bedroom and a large walk-in wardrobe, connecting to a private, decked rooftop patio sheltered between high walls and one of the home’s perforated metal screens.
“The house has layers of increased privacy as you move vertically upwards through the property, similar to the cultural requirements of a traditional Yoruba household setting and essential to multigenerational living,” said the studio.
“In keeping with this need for privacy and separate living spaces in some regions of the house, the master bedroom suite also incorporates a 58-square-metre walk-in wardrobe with two skylights that throw natural light into the space,” it continued.
The main bedroom leads to a rooftop patio
The interiors of Lantern House were completed by the client, who has a local interior design studio in Lagos.
Contrasting the pale exterior and internal walls of the building, dark wood fittings and bold furniture and artwork define the living spaces.
Lantern House is finished with dark wood accents and bold furnishing
Design gallery Galerie Philia‘s has curated the Desacralized exhibition inside an 11th-century church featuring works by American designer Rick Owens and Ukrainian studio Faina for Milan design week.
For this year’s design week, the international gallery installed sculptures, furniture and lighting design pieces in San Vittore e 40 Martiri – a desacralised church in Milan.
Galerie Philia organised Descralized in an 11th-century church in Milan
Since the 18th century, the neo-Roman structure has served as a community centre with Galerie Philia‘s Desacralized the “first major exhibition” in the space.
The exhibition includes commissioned pieces by 20 international designers that were asked to depict their “personal interpretation of the notion of desacralisation”.
The works include Rick Owen’s white chair with an arm made from moose antler
“Objects bear witness to the past – they carry memories and their function is defined by the era in which they were created,” said Galerie Philia founder Ygaël Attali.
“Sacred objects have all these qualities but they also transcend their physicality to achieve a spiritual and symbolic value.”
Studiopepe produced the Origo low table while Andrés Monnier created a marble take on a candelabra
The commissioned works were arrayed around the time-worn structure, hung from the ceiling and set directly on its multi-coloured terrazzo flooring.
Works were also placed along the edges in front of small alcoves.
Chinese studio Kar created a special edition of a chair from the Oracle Bone Script series
At the centre of the exhibition is a massive chandelier by local design duo Morghen Studio called Cascades of Light, which aims to “transcend and sublime the iconic significance of the historic chandelier”.
Morghen Studio’s work hangs near a concept chair by American fashion designer Owens, which is a variation on the designer’s Tomb chair line that utilises moose antlers and minimal shapes.
Faina created a stool from its signature Zista material
Also included in the lineup is Mexican designer Andrés Monnier, who created an interpretation of a candelabra using a circle of stepped marble pillars, each of which holds a candle.
Other lighting works include a white ceramic and plaster floor lamp in the shape of seashells – an “omnipresent motif” in Christian iconography – by French designer Elsa Foulon; and The Pagoda lamp by Australia-based Studio Henry Wilson, informed by Japanese temples.
Faina designed the Duzhyi stool, which was hand-sculpted from their trademark material called Zista made from paper, clay, hay and “other organic elements”.
Other chairs and stools include Chinese design studio Kar‘s chair, a special edition from the Bone Script series made from wood and Chinese lacquer.
While Italian-American designer Pietro Franceschini created the Trinity coffee table and local studio Studiopepe‘s contributed an architectural low table called Origo.
Elsa Foulon based her design on seashells for their ubiquity in Christian iconography
Belgians Pierre de Valck and Arno Declercq each contributed pieces to the exhibition, with Declercq using white in one of his tables for the first time in his work, which sits directly under Morghen Studio’s chandelier.
Desacralized is open from 18-23 April as part of Milan design week.See our Milan design week 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, exhibitions and talks taking place throughout the week.
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