Hasta La Ideas

Gabled concrete forms surround a planted courtyard at Samuel Paty School in Béziers, France, created by local studios Ateliers O-S and NAS Architecture.

Located in the city’s Devèze district, the single-storey school is designed by Ateliers O-S and NAS Architecture to balance well-lit, navigable spaces with a feeling of enclosure and privacy for those inside.

This was achieved by creating a “double-walled” structure, where a concrete exterior and corridor create a buffer from the city outside and the interiors look inwards at the central courtyard through full-height windows.

“The project is characterised by a double structure, which is mineral and thick on the city side on the outside and lighter and scalable metal on the inside,” explained Ateliers O-S.

“The result is a hybrid building that offers a strong contrast based on an opening to the interior landscape, composed of playgrounds, learning gardens and relaxation areas,” it continued.

Samuel Paty School’s entrance to the northwest is covered by a section of roof with circular openings. This allows the site’s existing trees to continue to grow while providing a sheltered space for children and parents to gather.

Once inside, two entrance halls lead to the separate nursery and primary school wings that form the school’s O-shaped plan.

A corridor on each side acts as an “internal street”, lined with storage spaces, narrow windows looking out to the city and circular openings into the classrooms.

“The school’s corridor winds around the school as a second protection to the classrooms,” explained the studio.

“Considered as external but sheltered, this space of distribution and exchange has a non-insulated external concrete facade that leaves the tinted concrete of the facades visible on both sides.”

Full-height, sliding glass doors allow each classroom to open onto the courtyard, which is divided in two by stepped concrete seating.

Alongside the main school building, separate structures house the medical centre and canteen, with a delivery entrance to the south. At the far eastern end, a small two-storey building contains offices and an independent entrance for staff from the neighbouring Place Rosa Park.

Ateliers O-S was founded in 2007 by Vincent Baur, Guillaume Colboc and Gaël Le Nouëne. Previous projects by the studio include a performing arts school and library in the suburbs of Paris which is clad in strips of golden aluminium.

Other recent schools in France include Eugénie Brazier, which Vurpas Architectes created from a converted market, and Auguste Benedict School by Amelia Tavella Architectes, which has a textured stone facade.

The photography is by Cyrille Weiner, Ateliers O-S and NAS Architecture. 

Project credits:

Architect: Ateliers O-S and NAS Architecture
Structural work steel framework: Fondeville
Exterior carpentry: Sonzogni
Metalwork: Solatrag
Interior carpentry arrangement: Carayon
Dry lining: Cuartero
Hard floor-coverings parquet: Vassileo
Flexible floor coverings: Carrillo
Painting: Escriva
Plumbing, Ventilation And Heating: Axima Equans
Electricity: Ineo Equans
Elevator: Otis
Kitchen: Thermasud
Espaces verts/green spaces: Id Verde
External works: Eurovia

The post Ateliers O-S and NAS Architecture organise French school around planted courtyard appeared first on Dezeen.

Design festivals DW! Sao Paulo Design Week and Perth Design Week are among the architecture and design events featured in Dezeen Events Guide this March.

Other events taking place during the month include SXSW, Collect, Design Shenzhen and Luleåbiennalen.

Collect
1 to 3 March, UK

Collect is a London-based fair dedicated to crafts and contemporary art, celebrating its 20th anniversary in Somerset House in 2024.

This year’s edition displays more than 400 global artists, who have utilised materials such as metal, ceramics, textiles, wood, paper, fibres, resin and plastics.

The three-day event is organised by UK charity Crafts Council.

Luleåbiennalen
2 to 26 March, Sweden

Art festival Luleåbiennalen, which this year focuses on the dynamic between architecture and art, especially resilience and empowerment in times of great change.

The festival – which is directed by curators Aude Christel Mgba and Bruno Alves de Almeida – is located across four cities and towns in Sweden‘s Norrbotten region: Luleå, Boden, Kiruna, and Messaure.

The exhibitions on display spotlight the natural and built environments of the four host locations.

SXSW
8 to 16 March, USA

The latest edition of cultural conference South by South West (SXSW) spotlights creativity within the technology, film, music, comedy, art and sports industries.

The conference presents a programme of fringe events, including screenings, performances, exhibitions, installations, talks and networking opportunities.

Speakers at the conference include software engineer Tracy Chou, designer Deonne Castaneda and CEO of podcast streaming platform Patreon Jack Conte.

Perth Design Week
14 t0 21 March, Australia

Perth Design Week hosts its second annual event with over 70 events, exploring different design mediums, such as fashion and furniture, as well as technology, architecture and photography.

With a programme of exhibitions, installations, talks, tours, workshops and film screenings, the eight-day festival is located across central Perth and the surrounding area.

The central hub of the festival is the Principles Square installation, which is a collaborative project between the festival, architecture practice OMA and furniture brand UniFor.

DW! Sao Paulo Design Week
14 to 24 March, Brazil

DW! Sao Paulo Design Week is located across seven districts in Brazil‘s largest city including Alameda Gabriel, Pinheiros, Vila Madelena and Higienopolis.

The design festival’s 13th edition features 75 participating brands across the design, architecture, art and technology industries.

Spanning 11 days, the events include product launches, exhibitions, talks, tours, workshops, fashion shows, fairs and parties.

Design Shenzhen
21 to 24 March, China

Trade show Design Shenzhen returns to the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Centre following its inaugural edition in 2023.

The sister event to Design Shanghai, the trade show presents over 250 brands across the fields of furniture, lighting, textiles and surfaces.

The event also hosts a series of talks led by architects, designers and business leaders.

About Dezeen Events Guide

Dezeen Events Guide is our guide to the best architecture and design events taking place across the world each year. The guide is updated weekly and includes virtual events, conferences, trade fairs, major exhibitions and design weeks.

Inclusion in the guide is free for basic listings, with events selected at Dezeen’s discretion. Organisers can get standard, enhanced or featured listings for their events, including images, additional text and links, by paying a modest fee.

In addition, events can ensure inclusion by partnering with Dezeen. For more details on inclusion in Dezeen Events Guide and media partnerships with Dezeen, email eventsguide@dezeen.com.

The post Six architecture and design events in March from Dezeen Events Guide appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch architecture firm UNStudio has unveiled plans for The Kyklos building, a mixed-use office building in Belval, Luxembourg, designed in collaboration with local studio HYP Architects.

Aiming to create a building with the “smallest possible carbon footprint”, the studios implemented a hybrid construction approach of concrete and 100 per cent recycled steel, using a sustainable-design framework developed by UNStudio to calculate and monitor the building’s carbon impact.

This includes the ‘carbon builder’ – a tool that allows designers to study various construction options to reduce the carbon footprint at an early stage of the design process.

“The Carbon Builder is a software tool we are developing at UNStudio that allows our designers to begin testing options for, and fixing, carbon objectives to our earliest design concepts,” studio founder Ben van Berkel told Dezeen.

“We created it because we realised how essential it is to begin measuring the embodied carbon of a design as early as possible.”

Using the tool, the studio determined that a hybrid construction solution offered a better long-term carbon performance in comparison to other methods – stating that “timber is not always the best option”.

The Kyklos building by UNStudio and HYP Architects will form the “centrepiece” of the Belval masterplan – a redevelopment project led by development company Agora that has transformed an old industrial site into an urban centre.

The urban centre contains a university and technological centre, residential and office spaces, and hotels and retail spaces, with The Kyklos building forming the last structure of the redevelopment’s Central Square District.

The 7,600-metre-square office building will host eight floors of office space along with a 2,250-metre-square basement level.

On the ground floor, a lobby will offer a reception and commercial functions that are accessible for both office users and the public.

Floor plates, which branch out from the structure’s circular core, will be suspended from steel cables to reduce the need for load-bearing columns and increase useable floor space.

In response to the geometry of the surrounding context, the building will feature a largely orthogonal shape, with one rounded corner set back to create an overhang and prevent overheating on the interior.

At this rounded corner, an internal curved staircase will wrap around the glass facade. This was designed to form visual connections with the neighbouring Place des Bassins, which is formed of two basins from the former industrial steelworks site.

According to the studios, the proposal has an embodied carbon footprint that is 8o per cent smaller than a traditional office building in Luxembourg.

Other recently completed office buildings include a geometric office block with pleated facades in Italy and a headquarters built on a renovated 1930s train terminal in the US.

The visualisations are courtesy of Play-Time Barcelona.

Project credits: 

Architect: UNStudio (Ben van Berkel, Arjan Dingste with Stella Nikolakaki, Bruno Peris Vila and Cristobal Ignacio Burgos Sanhueza, Laura Lopez Iglesias, Regiane Fernandes de Oliveira, Taliia Nurutdinova, Matthias Kooijman)
Local architect: HYP Architects
Client: Atenor, Ahrs Group, Agora Luxembourg​​

The post UNStudio uses ‘carbon builder’ tool to reduce footprint of Luxembourg office building appeared first on Dezeen.

Promotion: US-based philanthropic organisation the Vilcek Foundation has announced the winners of its 2024 Prizes in Design and awarded a total of $250,000 to four designers.

The Vilcek Foundation welcomed submissions from immigrant design professionals living and working in the US who specialise in graphic, industrial and product design.

The Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Design are one of a number of annual awards programmes run by the organisation.

According to the foundation, its core mission is to celebrate the contributions of immigrant artists and scientists in the United States and to raise awareness of the importance of immigration for a robust society.

The foundation also aims to foster appreciation for the arts through exhibitions and arts publications.

The 2024 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Design encompasses two awards: the Vilcek Prize in Design and the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Design.

The Vilcek Prize in Design is bestowed on an established designer by a jury of industry professionals appointed by the Vilcek Foundation.

Meanwhile, the Creative Promise Prize recipients were selected through an open-call process. Immigrant designers under the age of 40 who have lived and worked in the United States for several years were eligible to apply for the accolade. Applicants were reviewed by a jury of experts and were selected for demonstrating “outstanding early achievement” in their industry.

Ramon Tejada, assistant professor at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), is the recipient of the 2024 Vilcek Prize in Design.

“The Vilcek Prize in Design is awarded to a designer whose career and work has had a profound impact in their field – not only to their clients and constituents but to the students and mentees they inspire through their design leadership and pedagogy,” said the Vilcek Foundation.

Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York City, Tejada was awarded the 2024 Vilcek Prize in Design which includes a cash prize of $100,000 for his work, which focuses on social issues including race and the impacts of colonialism.

“Tejada’s work reframes questions about diversity, accessibility, and equity in design,” said Vilcek Foundation president Rick Kinsel.

“He describes his practice as both a designer and teacher as ‘puncturing’ – a breaking of the surface to reveal the social and political frameworks that have historically underwritten bias in design standards and practices.”

Three prizes of $50,000 – the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Design – were also awarded to Juan Carlos Noguera, Wael Morcos and Maryam Turkey.

Noguera, who was born in Guatemala, was praised for his work in product design that centres on accessibility.

Noguera is a professor of industrial design at the Rochester Institute for Technology and earned his MA in Industrial Design from RISD.

“His work on accessible wheelchairs for people living in rural areas of Guatemala and on educational tools for science and technology promotes civic engagement and builds equity for individuals and communities in need,” said the Vilcek Foundation.

A fellow RISD alumnus, Morcos was honoured with a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Design for his approach to typographic and graphic design, which “incorporates complex cultural and political histories”.

Informed by the language of his native country Lebanon, Morcos aims to utilise his graphic design skillset to develop accessible, modern Arabic typography at his Brookyn-based design studio Morcos Key.

“My aim is not only to ensure that the written form of the language is adequately represented in various digital contexts but also alive and amenable to future iterations,” Morcos explained.

The third recipient of a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Design, Turkey explores themes of war, gender norms and patriarchal constructs through sculptural forms that combine organic and industrial materials such as paper pulp, sand, metal, rebar and wood.

Turkey, who was born in Iraq, is an alumnus of the Pratt Institute and was an artist in residence with the Museum of Arts and Design in 2019. She has exhibited her work throughout the United States and internationally.

Since the establishment of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes in 2006, the foundation has awarded more than seven million dollars in prizes to immigrant artists and scientists living and working in the United States.

Read more about the 2024 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Design on the organisation’s website.

All photography is courtesy of the Vilcek Foundation.

Partnership content

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

The post Vilcek Foundation announces winners of its 2024 Prizes in Design appeared first on Dezeen.

Anyone who even vaguely remembers the late 2000s remembers Aerogel, the ‘wonder material’ that was 99% air, and had the incredible ability to insulate against high heat or cold because of its thermal absorption properties. Aerogel got all the press back in the day, but didn’t really see much consumer application because of how difficult it was to produce. Cut to the year 2024 and a Tokyo-based company has managed to find a fitting application for Aerogel. Meet SpacePeak, an outdoor jacket that sits on the bleeding edge of technology with its own aerogel insulation layer that can protect you in temperatures as extreme as -40°C (-40°F). What’s more, it has a 3-in-1 design with removable inner layers, allowing you to wear it in regular weather too, and it has over 20 pockets for all your EDC and essentials.

Designer: Tatsuya Dobashi

Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $479 ($180 off). Hurry, only 8/170 left! Raised over $115,000.

SpacePeak has perfected aerogel technology to retain the most heat from your body. From there, heat circulates throughout your whole jacket keeping you warm and dry even in the harshest conditions.

The SpacePeak comes with a two-part design that gives you 3 jackets in one. On the inside, it features a functional puffer jacket, insulated with Aerogel and a thermal layer that helps keep you warm and snug in pretty much any weather. The outer jacket is a waterproof wind-breaker with a hood that helps ensure you stay dry in the rain or during a blizzard. Wear them individually based on what the weather is, or combine them together to give you a jacket powerful enough to brave all the elements. The outer layer is rated 20,000mm waterproof and keeps you from succumbing to rain, storm, sleet, and snow, while the inner aerogel jacket helps build an impermeable barrier between your body temperature and outer temperature.

You can finally ditch your puffy jacket and start wearing something that keeps you warmer with less weight and fluff.

The jacket is rated to protect you in temperatures as low as -40°C (also -40°F), although lab tests show the SpacePeak can easily endure temperatures as low as -196°C (-320°F). While there’s really no place on Earth where humans would endure those temperatures, it’s good knowing that the jacket can handle pretty much the coldest weather possible without giving up. That being said, it’s worth noting that the aerogel doesn’t physically warm you – it creates a thermal barrier between the cold environment and your warm body, so you don’t lose any body heat to the cold outdoors.

Store your laptop or tablet in the back pocket to carry your valuables safely and efficiently.

Chances are that places that hit -40°C aren’t the kinds of places you want to be carrying massive backpacks to either, which is why the SpacePeak packs more than 20 pockets for pretty much all your gear. Strategically placed all across the jacket’s inner and outer surfaces, the SpacePeak has every slot imaginable, with large pockets big enough for iPads, protected pockets for gadgets like cameras and phones, waterproof pockets for bottles and food, and quick-access pockets for keys and money. The 20+ tactical pockets turn your jacket into a backpack of sorts, without all the bulkiness associated with backpacks. Your belongings are strategically placed across the jacket, making them A. accessible, but more importantly B. less likely to weigh your shoulders down because of the distributed weight. Besides, who wants to rummage through a backpack in sub-zero temperatures, right?!

The enhanced 20,000 mm waterproofing doesn’t just stop the rain from getting to you, Its waterproofing makes it wind resistant, and it easier to brush dirt, snow, mud and other muck off your jacket.

That being said, you’d expect a jacket with this laundry-list of features to be extremely bulky, but the implementation of aerogel allows the SpacePeak to be thinner and lighter than your average down jacket. Down (or feathers) works exactly like aerogel, using trapped air to create a thermal barrier – however, what down does with an inch of thickness, the Aerogel does with 1/10th the amount, giving you an extreme-weather jacket that doesn’t turn you into the Michelin man or a human marshmallow because of all that padding.

The aerogel used within the SpacePeak was developed by S. Kistler, a company founded after the American scientist and chemical engineer credited with inventing the material in the first place. The aerogel, despite being highly insulating, is breathable, durable, and will retain its thermal properties even after a 100 washes (even with regular use the jacket can probably use a wash once a year). The SpacePeak comes in 4 sizes, ranging from M to 4XL, with a starting price of $299 and global shipping – just in case you want your jacket dispatched to the Arctic Circle!

Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $479 ($180 off). Hurry, only 8/170 left! Raised over $115,000.

The post Remember Aerogel? This insulated outdoor jacket has an aerogel layer, giving you -40°F protection first appeared on Yanko Design.