Hasta La Ideas

Czech architecture studio ORA has renovated a Renaissance-era house in the town of Český Krumlov, preserving original features like its carved wooden beams while adding free-standing contemporary furniture.

Local entrepreneurs Petra Hanáková and Radek Techlovský purchased the dilapidated house in the town centre in 2016 and asked ORA to oversee a modernisation process that retains the interior’s historical character.

The 500-year-old building, now called Masná 130, had been neglected for decades and was not even connected to the town’s sewage system. It also had flood-damaged foundations and a roof in need of major repairs.

Despite its issues, the owners saw potential in the property and spent two years transforming its ground floor into a cafe that has become a gathering place for the local community.

The latest phase of the project involved renovating the first-floor living spaces. The original intention was to redevelop them as rental flats, but Hanáková and Techlovský eventually decided to create a single apartment that they could occupy themselves.

ORA’s design for the apartment reveals aspects of the building’s past while introducing modern features that reflect the owners’ love for contemporary design and minimalist style.

“We did not want to create a historical ‘museum’ interior, nor a design showroom,” said Hanáková and Techlovský. “We wanted to organically connect the historical and contemporary layers.”

The architects began by removing an existing partition wall in the main living space and reinstating the original open layout. This created a large salon that reveals the full splendour of the Renaissance-era wooden ceiling.

The restoration process also uncovered original stone walls that were painted a deep crimson colour. Together with the wooden rafters, this informed a material palette that complements these dark, saturated tones and creates a cosy atmosphere.

The apartment’s bedroom features a small remnant of the original ceiling fresco. The rest of the room is painted a cream colour to lend the space a calm and relaxing feel.

In the bathroom, ORA chose to combine cool colours with white tiles and large mirrors to brighten the space. Playful details such as the irregularly shaped bathtub, curved sinks and tiles with rounded edges help to soften the overall aesthetic.

Throughout the apartment, the architects added bespoke freestanding furniture that performs the necessary functions without disturbing or concealing the existing heritage features.

“The interior design is approached as a collage of motifs,” said ORA. “The furniture is inserted into the historical space in the form of separate objects that create distance from the historical elements.”

The kitchen, for example, was designed as a standalone unit that is raised above the floor and stops well short of the ceiling. Its sink, hob and countertop occupy a central void, with all other functions concealed within the cabinetry.

The bed features an oversized headboard that connects with a wardrobe on its reverse side. It is placed in the centre of the bedroom and is angled to provide the best view of the window and the original painted ceiling.

Custom-made furniture is built from dark-stained birch plywood with contrasting brass legs that help to enhance the sense of separation from the existing spaces.

Lighting is either freestanding or integrated into furniture such as the kitchen unit and bed. An overhead light above the dining table is mounted on a bracket so it does not touch the historical ceiling.

ORA, which stands for Original Regional Architecture, was founded in 2014 by Jan Veisser, Jan Hora and Barbora Hora. The studio is based in the small town of Znojmo, with previous projects including the conversion of a 16th-century home in Mikulov to create a modern guesthouse.

Other recent attempts at revamping the historical residences of the Czech Republic include a 1920s villa in Prague that was renovated by No Architects and a 100-year-old apartment in Karlovy Vary, where Plus One Architects uncovered the building’s original paintwork.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

The post ORA creates modern home in 500-year-old Czech Renaissance building appeared first on Dezeen.

While I’m basically a digital person, I turn analog when it comes to my journaling habit. This means I have a lot of tools like notebooks, stickers, washi tapes, and other ephemera to help me journal. But probably my most important “weapons” are my pens. As someone who likes colorful things, I collect different colored (both ink and the pen’s actual color) pens that I can use when I write in my various journals. So whenever I see a new kind of pen, whether it’s the design or the features, I pay attention.

Designer: Seung-Wan Nam

This concept for a pen called Bloomstick is based on the idea that writing down your dreams is an important part in making them come true. So the pen can metaphorically help your dreams to “bloom like flowers” when you write them down on paper using it. The tagline of the product is “click to bloom your dream”. It is basically a pen with a silicone-covered button that when you press it opens to a flower-like shape and turns it into a blooming instrument.

The product renders show different colors available for the pens like green, blue, and pink. The flower part of the pen is white while the “bud” part seems to be of a different color that matches the main, silicone part of the pen. When closed, it looks like just any ordinary pen and you’ll still be able to use it of course but it’s without its blooming design. There doesn’t seem to be any other function that it can do aside from write and look pretty.

As someone who collects pens and who likes flowery, pretty things, this is something I’d probably buy if I see it in a stationery store. Now if it can actually make my handwriting look nicer or make my dreams come true, I’d order it as soon as it hits the market.

The post Pen blooms when pressed as you write down your dreams first appeared on Yanko Design.

If you’ve browsed through the internet long enough, you’ve seen videos of Taylor Swift or Coldplay concerts, with the entire audience lighting up thanks to LED wristbands that respond to the concert’s lighting and music setup. Well, Dynavisual wants to take that technology a few steps further. The company is working on a set of flexible high-visibility LED ‘billboards’ that can be worn on caps, clothes, bags, etc. The LEDs can be customized to display messages, stats, and brand logos (pretty standard stuff), but what really makes them exciting is their ability to be paired together by the thousands, potentially turning an entire crowd into a massive display. Dubbed ‘Swarm Technology’, Dynavisual paints an incredibly exciting future where massive arenas come to life at concerts or sports games, displaying images, logos, or even massive graphics – just imagine the entire stadium displaying the word ‘GOAL’ when Messi scores. The best part? These Dynavisual displays could then go back to being individual units once the game is over, with each person carrying their display back home and using it like they normally did.

Designer: Dynavisual

Flexible displays have been around for over a decade now, but calling the Dynavisual Pad a flexible display is a bit of a stretch. In theory, it passes the bar, but practically, you’re also looking at a pad that has just 512 pixels, arranged in a 16×32 array. Standard OLED displays like the ones in your phone have millions of pixels per display, but the folks at Dynavisual don’t want you to make that comparison. If looked at independently, the Dynavisual Pad is an entirely different product. It’s designed with a robust construction that can be worn across your body or on your head, has multi-directional flexibility across both X and Y axes, and those individual pixels may give the display an incredibly low resolution, but they’re exceedingly bright. For comparison, the iPhone has a peak outdoor brightness of 2000 nits – the Dynavisual Pad outputs a comfortable 6000 nits, making it up to 3x brighter than traditional phone displays. The reason is simple – the low resolution and high brightness aid visibility over distances of multiple feet, whereas a smartphone display is practically unusable beyond 6-7 feet.

Showcased at MWC 2024, the Dynavisual team is bringing attention to how capable its Pad is. Each Pad is roughly the size of a large phone, has visibility in bright daylight, and boasts a flexible design thanks to ridges in the back that allow it to easily bend in multiple directions, making it perfect for wearing on your person. The device is made to be lightweight, allowing you to wear it on a cap, in a hoodie/jacket, or even on a bag, and it has its own built-in battery. Details on the battery life were unclear, but given that the device has just over 500 LEDs to power, it’s much more power-efficient than your smartphone.

The applications for the Dynavisual Pad are perhaps the most exciting bit as far as the product goes. There’s an obvious use-case in branding/marketing, with the pad accepting logos, messages, and branding elements, but Dynavisual sees the Pad as being a great communication element beyond the narrow marketing approach. It could be used by safety personnel to help deliver messages/guidance, or it could even be used in a personal capacity, perhaps by a cyclist looking to let drivers behind know whether they’re turning left or right (or braking). To that end, the Dynavisual Pad is a pretty smart device. It packs a whole slew of sensors, including GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, Infrared, and even voice input.

The 6000-nit LEDs are bright enough to shine through thin fabrics too, allowing you to easily conceal them into clothing.

However, things get truly exciting when multiple Dynavisual Pads come together at the same venue. The company has developed a unique protocol that allows multiple Dynavisual Pads to sync together, becoming a swarm or hive-mind. The technology is best displayed within stadiums and arenas, as organizers can command multiple Dynavisual Pads together, turning them into a massive intelligent display that relies on hundreds if not thousands of pads to work as individual pixels. Imagine an entire stadium audience erupting into colors and displaying the score every time there’s a goal (or a touchdown), or lighting up with brand messages during an ad break. Unlike with current LED bands used in concerts that rely on a combination of WiFi and radio frequencies, Dynavisual’s Swarm Technology operates differently. For starters, with existing solutions, LED bands are owned by organizers, distributed to audiences at venues, and collected once the event is over. That isn’t a concern with the Dynavisual Pad, as users can bring in their own Pad devices into a venue and have it automatically sync up with the event’s light and sound system. Moreover, while current LED bands can only display swathes of colors and vague shapes, Dynavisual’s team has managed to figure out how to display images – a feat that’s incredibly tricky because organizers will need to know where every single Pad device is located, and send specific signals to them.

The application of that widespread swarm technology, however, doesn’t translate well to a hands-on demo with just one or two units on display. It’s also a challenge to explain the product to people attending the Mobile World Congress, because there’s a knee-jerk reaction to then compare it to a mobile – which the Dynavisual Pad is NOT. That being said, the swarm technology looks promising, as the visuals quite literally paint a vivid picture… although with massive concerts, tournaments, and large-scale sporting events like the Olympics, the Dynavisual Pad has an audience practically ripe for the picking!

The post Dynavisual Hands-On at MWC 2024: Flexible Displays found their most exciting application yet first appeared on Yanko Design.

US studio Page Southerland Page has added a Corten-steel addition to a museum in Texas that complements a historical structure and was designed to look like “a chunk of landscape”.

Located on an elevated site that looks down over the town of Alpine in East Texas, the extension to the Museum of the Big Bend was placed on a triangular site to the north of the original 1930s building.

The existing structure was made from local stone quarried from the nearby Trans-Pecos mountain range.

The Museum of the Big Bend focuses on art and cultural artefacts from the American West, and the Corten-steel extension was created to house a newly gained collection of paintings by American artist Tom Lee.

It was clear from the outset that Page Southerland Page wouldn’t be able to utilise stone for the addition, according to project lead Larry Speck.

This was due to both budgetary reasons and the low chance that newly quarried stone would fit well with the 1930s building.

The studio instead opted for Corten steel, both for its ability to stand up in the dry, hot climate of Alpine and for its colour, which Speck said goes well with the stone of the original building.

Conforming to the triangular site, the studio created an angular structure with a large extruded patio and a series of semi-circular cutouts in the facade, which were lined with windows to create viewpoints of the nearby mountain range.

Speck told Dezeen that his team designed the extension to complement the old building while framing views of the landscape, and that the resulting form itself resembles the mountains.

“We made a chunk of the landscape,” he said. “Rather than something that looked more literally like a traditional building.”

“They wanted a building that would look more progressive,” he added. “And so we used the Corten steel which gave us a colour very close to the colour of the stone and the ruggedness of it.”

The single-storey structure is connected to the historic building by an entry pavilion covered in heavily fritted glass. The pavilion is set back from the street so that the space in front of it and between the steel and stone structures becomes a courtyard.

Where the steel structure meets the courtyard, the studio included a patio that extends towards the street.

A central hallway connects the gallery spaces and the large event space, which has a double-height glass wall that outlines one side of the original stone building, making it resemble a framed painting.

A series of north-oriented light wells on the rooftop feed sunlight into the circulation spaces and the event space.

The character of the town and the funding process for the museum shaped the design, according to Speck.

Alpine is close to the town of Marfa, which is famous for being the headquarters of American artist Donald Judd and the home of the Prada Marfa art installation.

“Alpine is like the working horse of the group, it’s where all the ranching activity is,” said Speck.”Marfa has been the show horse.”

Funding for the Museum of the Big Bend extension was “grassroots”, relying on local donations that accumulated while Page Southerland Page worked on the project.

“The opening was just incredibly impressive,” Speck said. “How proud they were to have accomplished this for their communities there.”

“It’s just amazing to see people not depend on you know, institutions to make things happen. They just goddamn made it happen themselves.”

Other projects that see weathering steel standing up to the dry American West include a house in Arizona by The Ranch Mine with a steel-clad tower that serves as a watch tower for forest fires and a steel-shingled house in Texas by Lake Flato Architects with pyramidal hipped roofs.

The photography is by Matthew Cooper. 

The post Page Southerland Page adds weathering-steel extension to museum in Texas’s high desert appeared first on Dezeen.

American artist James Turrell has created an illuminated skylight and seating chamber at a New York City private school, which allows viewers to have “a unique and personal experience of the sky”.

The Leading Skyspace, located at Friends Seminary school, consists of a small room lined with wooden seating where viewers look out through a ceiling aperture surrounded by colour-changing LED lights.

It is one of 85 such works – called Skyspaces – distributed across the globe, including in the mountains of Colorado.

“Turrell’s Skyspaces are specifically proportioned chambers where viewers have a unique and personal experience of the sky through a knife-edged aperture in the roof,” said Turrell’s team.

The project consists of a 9 by 22 by 24 foot (3 by 6 by 7 metre) room with an angled ceiling topped with a square aperture. A metal gable roof atop the aperture slides open to expose it to the elements.

Wooden benches and panelled backing surround the perimeter of the space, while a strip of LED lighting illuminates the walls and ceilings, casting the space in a rotation of colours.

The aperture remains closed during the day and is opened at sunset, with the lighting design programmed to shift depending on the time of day.

“During the day, the aperture will be closed, and an immersive light show will be displayed, providing an artful extension of the campus,” said the team.

“During sunset, the aperture will be opened, and the space will be exposed to the unobstructed sky, with a curated internal light sequence that complements the nuances of those times.”

The project builds upon Turrell’s work, which focuses on how humans perceive light and colour. The Skyspace installations typically combine natural and artificial light to create spaces that are “one part meditative and another confounding”.

Turrell has created a number of Skyspaces on school campuses such as at Pomona College, and also created one for a Quaker meeting house in Philadelphia.

The artist recently celebrated his 80th birthday by designing a whiskey decanter informed by Egyptian art.

The photography is by John Galayda unless otherwise noted.

Project credits:

Architect of record: Kliment Halsband Architects

The post James Turrell installs illuminated skylight at New York City school appeared first on Dezeen.