Hasta La Ideas

As if we haven’t had our fill of buzz-worthy terms like “eXtended Reality” or the “Metaverse,” Apple came out with a new product that pushed yet another old concept into the spotlight. Although the theory behind spatial computing has been around for almost two decades now, it’s one of those technologies that needed a more solid implementation from a well-known brand to actually hit mainstream consciousness. While VR and AR have the likes of Meta pushing the technologies forward, Apple is banking more heavily on mixed reality, particularly spatial computing, as the next wave of computing. We’ve already explained what Spatial Computing is and even took a stab at comparing the Meta Quest Pro with the new kid on the block, the Apple Vision Pro. And while it does seem that Spatial Computing has a lot of potential in finally moving the needle forward in terms of personal computing, there are still some not-so-minor details that need to be ironed out first before Apple can claim complete victory.

Designer: Apple

Spatial Computing is the Future

As a special application of mixed reality, Spatial Computing blurs the boundaries between the physical world and the applications that we use for work and play. But rather than just having virtual windows floating in mid-air the way VR and AR experiences do it, Apple’s special blend of spatial computing lets the real world directly affect the way these programs behave. It definitely sounds futuristic enough, but it’s a future that is more than just fantasy and is actually well-grounded in reality. Here are five reasons Spatial Computing, especially Apple’s visionOS, is set to become the next big thing in computing.

Best of Both Realities

Spatial computing combines the best of VR and AR into a seamless experience that will make you feel as if the world is truly your computer. It doesn’t have the limitations of VR and lets you still see the world around you through your own eyes rather than through a camera. At the same time, it still allows you to experience a more encapsulated view of the virtual world by effectively dimming and darkening everything except your active application. It’s almost like having self-tinting glasses, except it only affects specific areas rather than your whole view.

More importantly, spatial computing doesn’t just hang around your vision the way AR stickers would. Ambient lighting affects the accents on windows, while physical objects can change the way audio sounds to your ears. Virtual objects cast shadows as if they’re physically there, even though you’re the only one that can see them. Given this interaction between physical and virtual realms, it’s possible to have more nuanced controls and devices in the future that will further blur the boundaries and make using these spatial apps feel more natural.

Clear Focus

The term “metaverse” has been thrown around a lot in the past years, in no small part thanks to the former Facebook company’s marketing, but few people can actually give a solid definition of the term, at least one that most people will be able to understand. To some extent, this metaverse is the highest point of virtual reality technologies, a digital world where physical objects can have some influence and effect. Unfortunately, the metaverse is also too wild and too amorphous, and everyone has their own idea or interpretation of what it can or should be.

In contrast, spatial computing has a narrower and more focused scope, one that adds a literal third dimension to computing. Apple’s implementation, in particular, is more interested in taking personal computing to the next level by freeing digital experiences from the confines of flat screens. Unlike the metaverse, which almost feels like the Wild West of eXtended reality (XR) these days, spatial computing is more content on doing one thing: turning the world into your desktop.

Relatable Uses

As a consequence of its clearer focus, spatial computing has more well-defined use cases for these futuristic-sounding features. Apple’s demo may have some remembering scenes from the Minority Report film, but the applications used are more mundane and more familiar. There are no mysterious and expensive NFTs, or fantastic walks around Mars, though the latter is definitely possible. Instead, you’re greeted by familiar software and experiences from macOS and iOS, along with the photos, files, and data that you hold dear every day.

It’s easy enough to take this kind of familiarity for granted, but it’s a factor that sells better over a longer period of time. When the novelty of VR and the metaverse wear off, people are left wondering what place these technologies will have in their lives. Sure, there will always be room for games and virtual experiences that would be impossible in the physical world, but we don’t live in those virtual worlds most of the time. Spatial computing, on the other hand, will almost always have a use for you, whether it’s entertainment or productivity because it brings the all-familiar personal computing to the three-dimensional physical world.

Situational Awareness

One of the biggest problems with virtual reality is that they can’t really be used except in enclosed or safe spaces, often in private or at least with a group of trusted people. Even with newer “passthrough” technologies, the default mode of devices like the Meta Quest Pro is to put you inside a 360-degree virtual world. On the one hand, that allows for digital experiences that would be impossible to integrate into the real world without looking like mere AR stickers. On the other hand, it also means you’re shutting out other people and even the whole world once you put on the headset.

The Apple Vision Pro has a few tricks that ironically make it more social even without the company mentioning a single social network during its presentation. You can see your environment, which means you’ll be able to see not only people but even the keyboard and mouse that you need to type an email or a novel. More importantly, however, other people will also be able to see your “eyes” or at least a digital twin of them. Some might consider it gimmicky, but it shows how much care Apple gives to those subtle nuances that make human communication feel more natural.

Simpler Interactions

The holy grail of VR and AR is to be able to manipulate digital artifacts with nothing but your hands. Unfortunately, current implementations have been stuck in the world of game controllers, using variants of joysticks to move things in the virtual world. They’re just a step away from using keyboards and mice, which creates a jarring disjunct between the virtual objects that almost look real in front of our eyes and the artificial way we interact with them.

Apple’s spatial computing device simply uses hand gestures and eye tracking to do the same, practically taking the place of a touchscreen and a pointer. Although we don’t actually swipe to pan or pinch to zoom real-world objects, some of these gestures have become almost second nature thanks to the popularity of smartphones and tablets. It might get a bit of getting used to, but we are more familiar with the direct movements of our hands compared to memorizing buttons and triggers on a controller. It simplifies the vocabulary considerably, which places less burden on our minds and helps reduce anxiety when using something shiny and new.

Spatial Computing is Too Much into the Future

Apple definitely turned heads during its Vision Pro presentation and has caused many people to check their bank accounts and reconsider their planned expenses for the years ahead. As expected of the iPhone maker, it presented its spatial computing platform as the next best thing since the invention of the wheel. But while it may indeed finally usher in the next age of personal computing, it might still be just the beginning of a very long journey. As they say, the devil is in the details, and these five are those details that could see spatial computing and the Apple Vision Pro take a back seat for at least a few more years.

Missing Haptics

We have five (physical) senses, but most of our technologies are centered around visual experiences primarily, with audio coming only second. The sense of touch is often taken for granted as if we were disembodied eyes and ears that use telekinesis to control these devices. Futuristic designs that rely on “air gestures” almost make that same assumption, disregarding the human need to touch and feel, even if just a physical controller. Even touch screens, which have very low tactile feedback, are something physical that our fingers can touch, providing that necessary connection that our brains need between what we see and what we’re trying to control.

Our human brains could probably evolve to make the need for haptic feedback less important, but that’s not going to happen in time to make the Apple Vision Pro a household item. It took years for us to even get used to the absence of physical keys on our phones, so it might take even longer for us to stop looking for that physical connection with our computing devices.

Limited Tools

The Apple Vision Pro makes use of simpler hand gestures to control apps and windows, but one can also use typical keyboards and mice with no problem at all. Beyond these, however, this kind of spatial computing takes a step back to the different tools that are already available and in wide use on desktop computers and laptops. Tools that take personal computing beyond the typical office work of preparing slides, typing documents, or even editing photos. Tools that empower creators who design both physical products as well as the digital experiences that will fill this spatial computing world.

A stylus, for example, is a common tool for artists and designers, but unless you’re used to non-display drawing tablets, a spatial computing device will only get in the way of your work. While having a 3D model that floats in front of you might be easier to look at compared to a flat monitor, your fingers will be less accurate in manipulating points and edges compared to specialized tools. Rather than deal breakers, there are admittedly things that can be improved over time. But at the launch of the Apple Vision Pro, spatial computing applications might be a bit limited to those more common use cases, which makes it feel like a luxurious experiment.

Physical Strain

Just as our minds are not used to it, our bodies are even more alien to the idea of wearing headsets for long periods of time. Apple has made the Vision Pro as light and as comfortable as it can, but unless it’s the size and weight of slightly large eyeglasses, they’ll never really be that comfortable. Companies have been trying to design such eyewear with little success, and we can’t really expect them to make a sudden leap in just a year’s time.

Other parts of our bodies might also feel the strain over time. Our hands might get sore from all the hand-waving, and our eyes could feel even more tired with the high-resolution display so close to our retinas. These health problems might not be so different from what we have today with monitors and keyboards, but the ease of use of something like the Vision Pro could encourage longer periods of exposure and unhealthy lifestyles.

Accessibility

As great as spatial computing might sound for most of us, it is clearly made for the majority of able-bodied and clear-seeing people. Over the years, personal computing has become more inclusive, with features that enable people with different disabilities to still have an acceptable experience, despite some limitations. Although spatial computing devices like the Vision Pro do make it easier to use other input devices such as accessibility controllers, the very design of headsets makes them less accessible by nature.

Affordability

The biggest drawback of the first commercial spatial computing implementation is that very few people will be able to afford it. The prohibitive price of the Apple Vision Pro marks it as a luxury item, and its high-quality design definitely helps cement that image even further. This is nothing new for Apple, of course, but it does severely limit how spatial computing will grow. Compared to more affordable platforms like the Meta Quest, it might be seen as something that benefits only the elite, despite the technology having even more implications for the masses. That, in turn, is going to make people question whether the Vision Pro would be such a wise investment, or whether they should just wait it out until prices become more approachable.

The post 5 Ways Spatial Computing Will Succeed and 5 Ways It Will Flop first appeared on Yanko Design.

With Pride Month drawing to a close, Dezeen spoke with LGBTQ+ designers and researchers about the evolution of queer spaces and how architects can help protect them.

Designers are calling for the protection of venues used by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) community as safe spaces for people to express their identities.

“There has been an uptick in attacks on queer spaces, through direct violence as well as through zoning laws and economic disenfranchisement that result in physical queer and trans spaces shutting down at a rapid rate,” Canadian designer and researcher Lucas LaRochelle told Dezeen.

“Policy, governmental and economic support is needed for keeping physical queer and trans spaces alive and sustained.”

Bartlett School of Architecture professor of urbanism and urban history Ben Campkin said that a series of closures made the remaining queer venues more important than ever.

“In London in the 2010s there was a crisis of venue closures, which led to an assertion of what was valuable about those spaces, including how they were linked to the history of LGBT social movements, but also their provision of important resources in the present,” he explained.

“Recently, in many cities, there’s been a surge of public interest and activism, which has been driven by a sense of threat to certain LGBTQ+-associated neighbourhoods and spaces, including long-standing venues which facilitated earlier liberation movements.”

A report co-written by Campkin, who recently wrote the book Queer Premises: LGBTQ+ Venues in London Since the 1980s, found that between 2006 and 2017 the number of LGBTQ+ venues in London had decreased from 125 to 53. And many of the remaining spaces remain under threat.

He believes that heritage recognition initiatives such as Historic England’s Pride of Place, which highlights venues in the country that have historically welcomed the queer community, can help protect LGBTQ+ spaces.

Designer Adam Nathaniel Furman agreed that LGBTQ+ spaces have become increasingly important in the UK in recent years.

“For a few years after 2014, when same-sex marriage in the UK came in, it looked like queer spaces might end up becoming obsolete, but very rapidly it’s come back to the point where they are absolutely necessary because we’re not safe,” Furman said.

Police figures obtained by Vice News pointed to dramatic increases in reports of homophobic and transphobic hate crimes between 2016 and 2021.

Furman recently co-edited the book Queer Space, which documents 90 LGBTQ+ venues and buildings from around the world.

Types of queer spaces are broadening, trending away from bars and nightclubs to spaces that focus on community connections.

“A lot of people have been talking about queer spaces over the past decade or so as specifically nightclubs and bars,” Furman said.

“That’s a very historically specific queer space type that was needed at the time, but there are many, many other types of spaces which are suitable and necessary for contemporary society,” they continued.

“Nightclubs and bars are on the way out and we’re seeing a rise in bookshops and cultural centres.”

Furman believes that these LGBTQ+ spaces are also changing to become more inclusive towards non-binary and trans people.

“The fact that we’re using the word queer shows that the care and concern within the community have very much broadened to accommodate people who are genuinely queer – there’s less of an emphasis on sexuality and more focus on people who are gender non-conforming and trans,” explained Furman.

“The traditional spaces didn’t necessarily very easily accommodate that. They tended to be focused more on the binary of lesbian and gay, and I think now there is so much more interest in being supportive to everyone who identifies as queer.”

What constitutes a queer space is up for debate. LGBTQ+ activists began to reclaim the term “queer” from its derogatory connotations in the 1980s, and some still consider the concept of queer spaces to be inherently political.

But Campkin explained that this is not always the case.

“The term ‘queer space’ encompasses many things,” he said. “It can refer to politically radical spaces – or occupations of space – that are anti-normative, which work against oppressive cis-heteronormative or homonormative, patriarchal and racist structures – which are reproduced through property dynamics and urban development under capitalism.”

“Not all LGBT venues are queer in the political sense,” he continued. “Some are highly commercial and are not looking to change the status quo.”

LaRochelle, who founded the community-generated counter-mapping online platform Queering the Map to archive the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in relation to physical space, also questioned what is considered a queer space.

“I was really interested in the question of what constituted queer space and how we might think about queer space as something that is fluid and moving and itinerant rather than something that’s fixed,” said LaRochelle.

“The roles of archives that document the way in which queer and trans people experience and build space are really important in terms of imagining and prototyping the kinds of futures that we need and that we want.”

As well as providing a safe place where LGBTQ+ people can feel a sense of community, queer spaces can also act as a model for how other public spaces can be more inclusive. An example is the growing number of gender-neutral public bathrooms.

“Attention has grown immensely on gendered spaces such as bathrooms and changing rooms, which underscores the importance of queer and trans spaces as places to prototype the infrastructures we need and want,” said LaRochelle.

“Gender-neutral bathrooms – and generally not policing who goes into which bathroom – is something that emerged in queer and trans DIY spaces and has expanded into public spaces.”

LaRochelle emphasised that inclusive design in the built environment is just one of the ways that LGBTQ+ people can be made to feel safer.

“Architecture is not enough to solve the problem, but it’s a starting point in how spatial design can create new kinds of possibilities for how people move through an access space differently,” they added.

“Any experts, whether researchers like myself or city authorities, planners, architects or designers, can listen to and learn from the ways that grassroots community organisations articulate the value, purpose and changing need for LGBT spaces,” echoed Campkin.

“In a practical way, this could include inclusive design approaches that are intersectionally aware, attentive in planning processes to the limited spaces and resources of minorities, and which apply architectural skills to upgrade facilities to make them better suited to the present and future needs and to a wider spectrum of people,” he said.

For Mary Holmes, co-founder of LGBTQ+ architecture support network Queer Aided Design, inclusive architecture comes from minority groups being included in the design process.

Although queer issues are now being discussed more openly in the architecture profession, she argues this is not always adopted in practice.

“We can show up at the table, but we don’t necessarily have the room to move,” said Holmes.

“Queer rights right now are under attack from so many directions,” she added. “We don’t live in a world that’s safe for us as a community and to have the space to be together to imagine and practice an alternative reality where we do have freedom, where we can be together, is the most powerful thing – you can’t do that in a room full of people who don’t understand your identity.”

“Practices are not going to be able to design spaces that are more sensitive and understanding to minority groups unless they actually allow those minority groups to bring in their knowledge or taste cultures into the design profession itself,” agreed Furman.

Architect Sarah Habershon, who volunteers for the UK organisation Architecture LGBT+, commented that architecture practices need to make their work environments safer and more welcoming for queer people, as the number of LGBTQ+ people who qualify as architects is small.

“We are fighting against something much bigger and more systemic,” said Habershon.

“Architects need to start thinking intersectionality within their practice,” she continued. “If they’re going to go out to clients and they’re going to be having these conversations, they also need to make sure that they’re supporting their staff in the first place.”

The post “Support is needed to keep queer and trans spaces alive” say LGBTQ+ designers and researchers appeared first on Dezeen.

In this week’s comments update, readers are discussing a colourful secondary school in China, which Trace Architecture Office has designed as a “celebration of creativity”.

Defined by its brightly coloured volumes and sweeping curves, the Haikou Jiangdong Huandao Experimental School was created as a retreat from traditional forms of education.

“The spaces created stimulate imagination and surprise, instead of simply following the rules and regulations,” Beijing-based Trace Architecture Office told Dezeen.

“Le Corbusier is alive and well”

Commenters were captivated by the school, with Archill hailing it as “an education in gorgeous design”.

“Love, love, love everything about this!” agreed Louise Smith, while Thithyphuth was reminded of great projects past, commenting “Le Corbusier is alive and well in China”.

Ken Robertson received the most upvotes for his comment, which branded the school “so confident, so fluid, so good”.

But not all readers were quite so smitten. Jb thought the building looked a little old-fashioned, calling it “a celebration of creativity circa 1980”.

Idracula, meanwhile, thought the design looked a little too much like the kids were left in charge. “Designed by the pupils or the architects?” they wondered.

Do you think the project passes the test? Join the discussion ›

“I doubt Ferruccio Lamborghini would approve”

Also stoking plenty of debate in the comments section this week was Lamborghini’s first residential project in Europe. Named Tierra Viva, Lamborghini said that the development’s design “is directly inspired” by its supercars.

But commenters weren’t racing to sing its praises.

Zee called the villas “soulless and bleak”, while Pa Varreon branded them “ridiculous and vain”.

“Would be way cooler if all the doors open the Lamborghini way,” posited Claus, while Albia400 quipped “would be great if these never got built”.

“As with Bugatti, Lamborghini should stick to what they know,” argued Alfred Hitchcock. “They make beautiful cars. Looking at this project, they don’t make beautiful architecture. I doubt Ferruccio Lamborghini would approve.”

Other commenters weren’t convinced the villas were very in keeping with Lamborghini’s aesthetic. “Looks rather Audi to me,” joked Shepherd, while Seb thought the project was more akin to “the Toyota Corolla of villa design”.

What are your thoughts on Tierra Viva? Join the discussion ›

“Has the whiff of hubris about it”

Scandinavian studios Henning Larsen and White Arkitekter are designing Stockholm Wood City, a mass-timber development in the Swedish capital that’s set to become the “world’s largest wooden city”.

According to its developer Atrium Ljungberg, the city will use more timber than any other project in development and is designed to have the “serenity of a forest”.

Commenters criticised the development for failing to see the wood for the trees.

“Serenity of a forest?” disputed AJ. “That can be achieved by planting trees in the same space [rather than] building this folly to serve the egos of the self-righteous and vapid architects and developers.”

Nick De St Croix was on the same page, asking “can this possibly be sustainable? Maybe when judged in isolation but aggregated together with all other wood projects across the planet? I doubt it. This has the whiff of hubris about it.”

Other commenters questioned its practicality. “This better be coming with the world’s biggest fire station,” said Stefanos S, while A Haig offered a more light-hearted concern and wanted to know “will there be bears?”

Have commenters been too quick to dismiss Stockholm Wood City? Join the discussion ›

“How and why is this special?”

Readers were also left unimpressed this week by a 24-storey mixed-use building that US studio Hickok Cole designed using ChatGPT.

The building, which features a green roof and a swimming pool, was designed for an unspecified urban site and contains retail, office, residential, hotel and library space.

Responding to project architect Jack Lynch’s prediction that specialised AI chatbots will start to be integrated into software commonly used by architects, Tim commented “great, because if Revit wasn’t already annoying to use as is, now it’s going to be suggesting the way the design should be done”.

Salamoon was similarly unmoved. “How and why is this special?” they wrote. “Looks kinda ordinary.”

“Hard to argue that it is not a result of the Shake ‘n Bake AI design process,” agreed Marius.

Don Bronkema, though, was less cynical about the development, calling it “pleasingly verdant”.

Are AI chatbots the future of architectural software? Join the discussion ›

Comments update

Dezeen is the world’s most commented architecture and design magazine, receiving thousands of comments each month from readers. Keep up to date on the latest discussions on our comments page and subscribe to our weekly Debate newsletter, where we feature the best reader comments from stories in the last seven days.

The post “So confident, so fluid, so good” says commenter appeared first on Dezeen.

At the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen, Allbirds has unveiled a woolly sock-style trainer with a bioplastic sole that effectively adds zero emissions to the atmosphere over the course of its life, the shoe brand claims.

The minimal all-grey Moonshot sneaker features an upper made using wool from a regenerative farm in New Zealand, which uses sustainable land management practices to capture more carbon than it emits.

This on-farm carbon storage offset any other emissions generated over the product’s lifecycle, Allbirds claims, making it the “world’s first net-zero carbon shoe”.

“Regenerative wool was a critical pillar of helping us reimagine how products are designed and made through the lens of carbon reduction,” co-founder Tim Brown told Dezeen.

“To me, the currently untapped opportunity for naturally derived, net-zero products is the future of fashion.”

Allbirds races to reduce trainers’ footprint

Set to launch commercially next spring, the product follows in the footsteps of the Futurecraft.Footprint trainer, which at 2.94 kilograms CO2e was reportedly the lowest-carbon trainer ever made when Allbirds and Adidas launched it in 2021.

Back then, the team focused mainly on simplifying the construction of trainers, which have an average footprint of 13.6 kilograms CO2e, and reducing the number of separate components from 65 to just seven.

This same principle was also applied to the Moonshot, which features no laces or eyelets and integrates its insole directly into the knitted upper.

But this time, the key advance came in the form of materials – primarily the merino wool upper sourced from Lake Hawea Station, a certified net-zero farm in New Zealand.

Through regenerative practices such as replanting native trees and vegetation, as well as maintaining soil carbon through rotational grazing, the farm says it sequesters almost twice as much carbon as it emits.

However, these carbon benefits of sustainable land management are generally not considered in a material’s lifecycle assessment (LCA).

“Frequently, the way that the carbon intensity of wool is looked at is just acknowledging the emissions, so completely disregarding any of the removals happening on farm,” said Allbirds sustainability manager Aileen Lerch. “And we think that that is a huge missing opportunity.”

That’s because it prevents brands, designers and architects, who are increasingly making use of biomaterials to reduce the footprint of their projects, from reliably calculating and certifying any emissions savings.

With the Moonshot project, Allbirds hopes to offer a template for how these carbon benefits could be considered within LCAs, using Lake Hawea Station’s overall carbon footprint as a basis.

From this, the Allbirds extrapolated a product-level footprint for the wool, which the company has so far failed to disclose, using its own carbon calculator.

As a result, there is a degree of uncertainty around the actual footprint of the trainer because it cannot currently be verified by a third party according to official international standards.

But Allbirds head of sustainability Hana Kajimura argues that this is a risk worth taking to help push the discussion forward and incentivise a shift towards regenerative agriculture.

“It’s about progress, not perfection,” she said. “We could spend decades debating the finer points of carbon sequestration, or we can innovate today with a common sense approach.”

Plastics still play a role for performance

Regenerative wool also cannot yet fully contend with the performance of synthetic fibres, meaning that to create the Moonshot upper, it had to be blended with some recycled nylon and polyester for durability and stretch.

For the midsole, Allbirds managed to amp up the bioplastic content from 18 per cent in 2021’s Futurecraft.Footprint trainer to 70 per cent in the Moonshot, using a process called supercritical foaming.

This involves injecting gas into the midsole, making it more durable and lightweight while reducing the need for emissions-intensive synthetic additives.

“In the industry right now, most midsoles have no bio content or quite a minimal one,” Lerch explained. “So it’s really a large step change in what’s possible because of this supercritical foaming process.”

Stuck to the front of the sneaker is a bioplastic smiley face badge by California company Mango Materials, which is made using captured methane emissions from a wastewater treatment facility that is then digested by bacteria and turned into a biopolyester called PHA.

The shoe itself will be vacuum-packed in bioplastic polyethylene to save space and weight during transport, which Allbirds plans to conduct via electric trucks and biofuel-powered container ships.

There is no “perfect solution” for end of life

Another area that will need further development is the end of life, meaning how the shoe’s packaging and its various plastic and bioplastic composite components can be responsibly disposed of given that they are notoriously hard – if not impossible – to recycle.

“We don’t yet have a perfect solution of what will happen at its end of life,” Lerch said. “We don’t want to make a promise of: send it back, don’t worry, buy your next shoe and move on.”

“We acknowledge though, that the answer isn’t just to keep making more products that end up in landfill or incinerated. So we’re continuously looking at what those solutions can be.”

In a bid to overcome challenges like this and encourage collaboration across the industry, Allbirds is open-sourcing the toolkit it used to create Moonshot and encouraging other companies to adapt, expand and improve on it.

“It is also about ushering in a new age of ‘hyper-collaboration’ across brands and industries to share best practice, build scale for all parts of the supply chain, to reward growers and lower costs,” Brown said.

Allbirds became the first fashion brand to provide carbon labelling for all of its products in 2020.

Since then, the company has committed itself to reducing the carbon footprint of its products to below one kilogram and its overall footprint to “near zero” by 2030.

The post Allbirds creates “world’s first net-zero carbon shoe” using regenerative wool appeared first on Dezeen.

Promotion: the interior of One Za’abeel The Residences, a soon-to-complete skyscraper in Dubai, has been fitted out with ceramic surfaces from Italian brand Fiandre Architectural Surfaces.

Calacatta Statuario, a ceramic surface from Fiandre’s Marble Lab collection, provides flooring, countertops and bathroom surfaces throughout the interior of the 330-metre-high tower.

This ceramic surface, characterised by its ivory-white colour and light grey markings, is used in both the 264 apartments and in the common areas, offering a sense of continuity throughout the scheme.

One Za’abeel The Residences is one of two towers that form the One Za’abeel development, which is designed by Japanese architecture firm Nikken Sekkei.

Combining residential spaces with offices, restaurants, hotels and wellness facilities, the 300-metre-high development consists of two skyscrapers that are connected 100 metres up by a horizontal volume called The Link.

Fiandre’s Calacatta Statuario has been used in different ways throughout the interior of the residential tower.

In the reception lobby, corridors and lifts, large-format tiles provide floor surfaces. Measuring 120 by 60 centimetres and with a polished finish, these tiles are embellished with leaf-shaped brass inlays.

Inside the apartments, the ceramic surfaces have been used in different ways. As well as covering walls and floors in the bathrooms, they have been used to create counters that look like solid marble blocks. The showers are meanwhile lined with small tiles in a herringbone pattern.

The technical surfaces were supplied through a partnership with distributor Arteco Ceramics.

Calacatta Statuario is one of 16 varieties in Fiandre’s Marble Lab, the brand’s most refined collection of ceramic surfaces, which boast either very light or very intense veins.

The other options in the range are: Alpi Chiaro Venato, Arabescato Orobico, Bardiglio Sublime, Breccia Mirabile, Calacatta Bellissimo, Calacatta Dorato, Dark Marquina, Glam Bronze, Lepanto Rubino, Pietra Grey, Premium White, Royal Marfil, Taxos, Travertino and White Beauty.

The surfaces are available in a range of sizes, with either a polished, semi-polished, satin or matt anti-slip finish. As with other Iris Ceramica Group brands, Fiandre’s products are Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver.

For more information, visit the Fiandre website.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Fiandre as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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