Hasta La Ideas

German studios Dorschner Kahl Architects and Heine Mildner Architects have collaborated on Andreasgärten, a multi-generational housing scheme in Erfurt that integrates assisted living for the elderly with the wider community.

Situated next to the fortress town of Zitadelle Petersberg in the city of Erfurt, Germany, the Andreasgärten housing development consists of a trio of three-storey rectangular buildings arranged around a communal garden.

Social-welfare organisation Johanniter Unfallhilfe commissioned Dorschner Kahl Architects and Heine Mildner Architects to design a housing project with living arrangements that would suit people of all ages.

Andreasgärten includes 65 one-bedroom, 24 two-bedroom and three three-bedroom apartments spread evenly across the three buildings, as well as two assisted living communities on the ground floors of two buildings and a kindergarten in an existing building.

The studios also added a therapy centre that provides social and medical services, a multipurpose community room and a chapel to encourage interaction between the residents.

“The neighbourhood provides spatial and programmatic conditions for coexistence and social exchange among people of different ages and social backgrounds,” Dorschner Kahl Architects co-founder Adrian Dorschner told Dezeen.

“The kindergarten and assisted living community cover a whole life span – essentially, it is possible to live in the Andreasgärten at all stages of life, from childhood to old age.”

Entrances to the buildings were placed on the elevations facing the communal garden to promote communication between residents, while covered walkways wrap the perimeter of each floor level.

“The veranda defines the architectural expression of the three residential buildings and serves as a link between private living spaces and the semi-public courtyard of the multigenerational neighbourhood,” said Dorschner Kahl Architects and Heine Mildner Architects.

“It also acts as a communication space between the buildings across the courtyard, extending the interior space outward.”

The assisted living communities contain 10 rooms designed as private retreats for the residents, which they can personalise with their own choice of furnishings.

Communal spaces, a shared kitchen and an assigned outdoor area for the assisted living communities provide space for socialising.

“Assisted living and elderly individuals no longer have to live alone,” said Dorschner. “In these communities, several people of similar age live together in a shared setting, requiring care but still valuing privacy and independence.”

“As part of the larger Andreasgärten project, the assisted living communities are integrated into the community’s everyday life, rather than being isolated, making them an integral part of living and thriving in Andreasgärten,” he added.

Built on top of an underground car park, the three residential buildings have a hybrid construction of reinforced concrete cores with masonry on the ground floor and cross-laminated timber walls.

“Only the areas necessary for fire safety and structural reasons, such as the ground floors and staircases, were designed with solid materials, while the upper floors were constructed using wood,” Dorschner said.

“This led to a significant reduction in weight, allowing for substantial material savings in the floor slab above the underground garage on which the buildings are situated.”

The architecture studios also transformed a former carriage house next to the Zitadelle Petersberg fortress wall into a kindergarten for 111 children.

The brick building was given a wooden extension, with a veranda designed as an “architectural mediator” between the existing structure and the new residential buildings.

“The adaptive reuse of the historic building honours both the sustainable approach of the new neighbourhood and the history of the location,” said Dorschner.

Dorschner Kahl Architects and Heine Mildner Architects worked with landscape architect Michael Simonsen on the project’s landscaping.

The communal garden at the centre of the housing scheme is connected to existing pedestrian paths, creating a semi-public space planted with fruit trees, large shrubs and perennials.

According to Dorschner, since the residents have moved into the development the verandas and the communal garden have become popular meeting spaces for neighbours.

“I noticed many interactions among the residents in the garden and between the houses through the loggias, which were intentionally designed without physical barriers between the apartments,” he said.

“It’s heartwarming to witness how the residents of the assisted living communities actively participate in social life despite limited mobility,” Dorschner added.

“Their ground-floor living spaces directly connect to the garden through floor-to-ceiling windows, where they sit and engage in conversations with other residents or passersby.”

Other social housing projects featured on Dezeen include a low-cost housing project in Los Angeles with scalloped facades and social housing in Amsterdam with stepped balconies overlooking the waterfront.

The photography is by Philip Heckhausen.

The post Dorschner Kahl and Heine Mildner arrange multi-generational housing around communal garden appeared first on Dezeen.

Spanish interiors studio Viruta Lab has renovated a compact house in El Cabanyal, Valencia‘s traditional fishing neighbourhood, using geometric blue-and-white tiling for an understated nautical aesthetic.

Built in 1946, the humble two-storey building once belonged to the grandparents of the current owner but had been boarded up for many years.

Viruta Lab was brought on board to transform the small 85-square-metre home into a modern holiday residence while respecting its great sentimental value to the family.

“Emotion was a very important starting point,” the studio told Dezeen.

“The house is a family legacy and the image they have of it is very deep, so it was necessary for any intervention to be as respectful as possible and with a language that they understood and took as their own,” Viruta Lab continued.

“We understood that the architecture already had a value, that we only had to beautify it, preserve it.”

Viruta Lab uncovered the building’s original brick walls from under layers of peeling paint and carefully repaired the pre-existing mouldings “to give height and nostalgic value to the interior design”.

Liberal chequerboard tiling provides a contrast to these traditional design details, featured throughout all the rooms from the kitchen to the sleeping quarters.

In a suitably nautical palette of navy and off-white, the tiles reference the great variety of tiled facades found in the El Cabanyal neighbourhood.

“The dominant colours on the facades of the Cabanyal are white, blue and green, which are associated with a lifestyle linked to the resources offered by the sea,” the studio said.

“It was clear that we had to respect the local traditions, the architecture and the essence of the house and give it a maritime aesthetic, reinterpreting the Mediterranean style to adapt it to the tradition of the neighbourhood using its own materials.”

Green shows up throughout the interior in the form of simple upholstered furniture – including a sofa, pouffe, benches and stools – all custom-designed by Viruta Lab for this compact space.

The interior woodwork in European oak was stained to resemble Canaletto walnut, matching the tones of the two remaining original interior doors that were painstakingly restored and repurposed as sliding doors.

“We wanted the woodwork to provide a quality counterpoint to the cold tones of the blues and greens, with an imprint and weight,” the studio said.

Another key local material – esparto grass fibre – is less noticeable than the tiles but pops up throughout the house to add textural interest.

Traditionally used to make ropes, baskets, mats and espadrille sandals, the flexible natural material was repurposed to form headboards and backrests, and even clad the suspended ceilings in the bathrooms.

“This material has been used because of its roots in the traditions and life in the Mediterranean area, especially in the Valencian community,” the studio said.

“For Viruta Lab, the legacy comes from its use by men of the countryside and the sea, by the original residents of the Cabanyal, those men who used to wear espadrilles.”

As well as a clay-tiled roof terrace with a shaded outdoor dining area, the house also features a sensitively restored inner courtyard, complete with a stone water trough where the owner’s grandfather once dried his fishing nets at the end of a day’s work.

Other projects that celebrate Valencia’s historic architecture include a 1920s penthouse that was renovated to celebrate its original mosaic floors and an octogenarian home in El Cabanyal that was updated using traditional construction techniques and local materials.

The photography is by David Zarzoso.

The post Viruta Lab blankets former fisherman’s house in Valencia with chequerboard tiles appeared first on Dezeen.

I find it hilarious when I walk into a grocery shop and I see the term ‘fresh’ put before fruits or vegetables. Chances are, this ‘fresh’ produce was harvested a week ago, stored in a warehouse where it was probably artificially ripened with ethylene gas, and then shipped to a grocery shop where the term “organic” or “farm fresh” was slapped onto it. Your fresh food isn’t fresh unless it was plucked off a tree or harvested right in front of you… and owning a farm or going to a farmer’s market every alternate day isn’t particularly feasible, maintaining a self-sustaining kitchen garden is increasingly becoming easier and easier. Meet Nutraponics, a vertical garden that autonomously grows all your food for you, so you always have access to the “freshest” ingredients!

Designer: Tilden Cooper (Assoc. AIA)

Click Here to Buy Now: $799 $1,599 ($800 off). Hurry, exclusive deal for YD readers.

Built around the very idea of letting you grow the freshest produce right in the comfort of your home, Nutraponics is an advanced vertical gardening system that lets you grow as many as 100 fruits, vegetables, and herbs at home. No larger than a mid-size refrigerator, the 3 or 5-tiered tower is an autonomous garden that cultivates seeds into plants with little to no effort. Each tier holds as many as 20 different plants, giving you a miniature farm in the smallest form factor.

The built-in hydroponics system waters and supplies nutrients to each plant, while internal sensors monitor temperature, pH levels, and your plant’s nutrient absorption and requirements. Self-regulating LED lights also mimic the power of the sun, catalyzing the process of photosynthesis so your plants blossom perfectly no matter what their growing conditions are. All you really need to do is place your Nutraponics tower in your kitchen or living room, plug it in, and fill the reservoir with water and nutrients and the self-sustaining vertical garden does the rest.

While the idea of cultivating a kitchen garden isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, Nutraponics makes the endeavor easy by drastically reducing the pain-points involved in the process. The tower stands vertically, occupying a fraction of the space it would otherwise take to grow 100s of plants, but it’s also designed to be self-sustaining, all the way down from watering to even illuminating itself so that your Nutraponics tower doesn’t need access to natural sunlight.

The Nutraponics device operates on the concept of hydroponics or aquaponics, which uses water as a growth medium instead of soil. Nutrient-rich water is periodically sprayed on the plant’s roots through a patent-pending water delivery system, helping it grow fast while reducing chances of bugs and diseases. All you have to do is fill up the Nutraponics’ water reservoir and add the nutrients to it and the tower does the rest. It monitors the water levels, the nutrient pH, and the nutrient mix temperatures, ensuring the perfect growth conditions for each plant. A set of LED ring lights surround the tower, providing full-spectrum light to your plants just like the sun would. Built-in sensors monitor each plant’s needs, automatically activating the water supply or toggling the lights to ensure the plant grows perfectly. All you do is watch and then harvest!

The vertical tower system comes in 3 and 5-tier formats, depending on how many plants you want to cultivate. Although designed for fruits, veggies, and herbs, you can pretty much use Nutraponics to cultivate anything including even flowers, ferns, and other kinds of plants. Just add the seeds to the pod and adjust the settings accordingly based on the plant’s sun and water requirements. A touch-sensitive panel on the Nutraponics lets you toggle its features, but the tower is best controlled using its companion smartphone app, which lets you remotely set parameters and monitor your plant’s progress… and when it’s time to harvest your yield, either trim or pluck parts of the plant off, or remove the pod from its tier and begin cooking with the ‘freshest’ ingredients you can ever get your hands on!

Click Here to Buy Now: $799 $1,599 ($800 off). Hurry, exclusive deal for YD readers.

The post How To Build A Self-Sustaining Kitchen Garden Without Any Space Or Effort first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sony’s PlayStation Portable became a huge hit when it was released way back in 2004. Although it saw just a decade of lifecycle, the handheld portable revolutionized the mobile gaming landscape and perhaps the console gaming era too!

With more demanding games requiring huge reserves of portable battery power, Sony tilted in favor of a full-size console compared to a handheld gaming device. But De-ja-vu could happen again as rumors of a PSP resurrection is on the cards. Codenamed “Project Q Lite” the streaming PSP handheld capable of PlayStation Remote Play is expected to make an appearance by the end of this year.

Designer: Thiago Goulart

Since the remote play gadget will not be a standalone gaming device, not even a cloud gaming handheld gadget for that matter. Rather a platform to stream your PS5 games. That part, of course, we don’t vouch for as of now. A standalone device gives the users much more freedom and whatever Sony has up its sleeve. The gadget will be better served if the next-gen PSP has those capabilities.

That gives us one more reason to feature another PlayStation portable handheld that’s good enough to be fancied by finicky gamers who like everything 100 percent to their preference. This concept render goes for a more contoured body form as compared to the original PSP’s edgy character. The button placement to the upper proximity is great for large-handed gamers but might be a bit uncomfortable for small-handed ones. Those curvy trigger buttons should however be ergonomically comfy for both I must say.

The PSP was a powerful handheld console for its time, but it would be nice to see a new PSP Pro with even more power. This would allow games to look and play better, and it would also make the console more future-proof. The new PSP will benefit from a higher-resolution display, 1080p or even more, so that games look even better. A new PSP Pro would ideally have a battery life that allows you to play for several hours without having to recharge. Backward compatibility with PSP and PS Vita games will also come in handy if there’s an option. This would be a great way to let people enjoy their old PSP and PS Vita games on a new console.

The post PSP Pro concept is what Sony’s Project Q Lite should aspire to be first appeared on Yanko Design.

The hospitality industry, known for its opulence and luxury, has often been criticized for its unsustainable practices and excessive waste generation. From daily toiletry replacements to the use of single-use plastics, the industry’s environmental impact is significant. However, a revolutionary product called the Promo Toothbrush, developed by Asahi Industries Co. Ltd., is set to transform the industry’s approach to sustainability.

Designer: Doogdesign. Inc.

In the quest for providing premium service, hotels often replace toiletries daily, even though guests typically stay for no more than a week. This results in a tremendous amount of waste, particularly when it comes to items like plastic toothbrushes. Designed for two months of use, these toothbrushes are needlessly discarded every day or every two days, depleting valuable resources.

The Promo Toothbrush offers a sustainable alternative. This hybrid reusable toothbrush is crafted with 50% less petroleum-based plastic compared to conventional products. Its lightweight design and utilization of naturally derived materials, such as rice husks, contribute to a significant reduction in petroleum-derived plastics. Guests can now take the toothbrush home for reuse, promoting a more mindful and sustainable approach.

Rice husks, often seen as byproducts of rice processing, have found a valuable application in the creation of the Promo Toothbrush. These hard coverings of rice grains have versatile uses, ranging from fertilizers and insulation materials to fuel and even building materials. Incorporating rice husks into the toothbrush’s design not only reduces plastic waste but also taps into the potential of this abundant and renewable resource. As great a breakthrough as it is to explore new material in the sphere of sustainability, toothbrushes made out of cornstarch can be considered too, as they are 100% biodegradable and contain no amount of plastic at all.

Hotels often prefer to brand the items they provide to their customers. The Promo Toothbrush offers an excellent platform for hotel branding, as its surface can easily accommodate custom printing to personalize and enhance luxury. However, the capacity of the material to sustain print can be explored, as its texture is moist. While white has traditionally been favored for a cleaner look, the emerging trend of sustainability allows for a broader color palette that can make a powerful statement on behalf of the hotel’s commitment to eco-conscious practices. The chamfered edges of the toothbrush ergonomically aid the grip and make your morning brushing experience satisfying and easy. The toothbrush can be easily stored or hung by the cavity at the bottom.

In a lesser-known practice, hair transplantation has been used historically in toothbrushes and hairbrushes. This cultural approach provides a sustainable alternative to conventional products. By utilizing hair as a natural bristle material, the Promo Toothbrush aligns itself with traditional, eco-friendly practices while maintaining a high aesthetic value.

The Promo Toothbrush represents a significant step forward in promoting sustainability within the hospitality industry. By offering a reusable solution and incorporating environmentally friendly materials like rice husks, this toothbrush aims to reduce plastic waste and raise awareness of more sustainable alternatives. Additionally, its customizable branding options and nod to the traditional use of hair bristles enhance its appeal in both aesthetic and ecological realms. As hotels adopt such innovative products, they demonstrate a commitment to mindful consumption and pave the way for a more sustainable future.

The post This Hybrid Reusable Toothbrush is Paving the Way for Sustainability in Hospitality first appeared on Yanko Design.