Whenever I write about robots, I cannot help but think about all the horror scenarios that I’ve seen in sci-fi movies and TV shows when they become our overlords after overthrowing abusive humans. But obviously, not all robots are scary in reality or at least we haven’t reached that point yet. There are also some cute and cuddly robots out there, both in pop culture and in real life. This new innovation from Toyota belongs to that latter category but it combines both hard and soft robotics.
Designer: Toyota
Punyo is the newest robot from Toyota but instead of looking like your typical robots that carry heavy things for us, it looks more like that adorable Baymax from Disney’s Big Hero 6. It’s even wearing a “sweater” that is actually functional as it actually enhances the robot’s capability to carry various things. Normally, robots just use their hands and their claw-like “fingers” but Punyo uses its chest, hips, arms – its entire body actually) to lift objects. This means it is able to carry heavier objects since it uses whole-body manipulation.
The arms of Punyo are made of air-filled bladders that can interact with different kinds of objects. Instead of the usual grippers we see on robots’ hands, there are high-friction latex bubbles as its “paws”. There are even internal cameras that are able to estimate the force that it needs to exert to carry whatever object it is holding. Inside the “sweater”, there are the usual robotic parts like rigid arms, a torso frame, and a waist actuator.
The name Punyo actually comes from the Japanese concept of “softness, cuteness, and resilience”. Combining the soft and hard robotics, as well as using teleoperation and artificial intelligence learning processes to train the android, gives us a holistic kind of robot that will not scare us but instead will be a helpful and friendly companion when it eventually becomes mass-produced. Hopefully, they will not be cute robot overlords.
If you care to pay close attention, there’s so much more to a dram of whisky than a series of sips. There’s the richness of the color, a product of barrel aging, and viscosity, born from both distillation and maturation. There are the distinct—and distinctly personal—aromas that waft toward the nose, and the layers of flavor revealed over time on the palate. Artist and architect Suchi Reddy, an avowed whisky aficionado, was well-acquainted with all of these sensorial attributes. To couple with the ritual of tasting and reflecting upon Mortlach Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Reddy designed a complementary component: a precious object hewn from tiger’s eye and a specially crafted incense to burn atop it. Entitled RARE, the limited edition artifact and its ephemeral counterpart add even more depth to the multisensory whisky-savoring experience.
Courtesy of Braden Summers
Last year, Reddy’s practice, Reddymade Architecture and Design, celebrated a milestone 21st anniversary. Over the last decade, we’ve written extensively about her mantra—form follows feeling—and its foundation in the study of neuroaesthetics. This scientific practice—which observes the influence of art, architecture and design on our brains—informs RARE, along with a Proustian moment Reddy recalled from the novelIn Search of Lost Time, wherein the scent of a tea-soaked biscuit conjured a joyful childhood memory for the narrator.
Courtesy of Brian Bergeron
“I was very interested in exploring our sense of smell, because through neuroaesthetics I’m always looking at the human body and the way we react to everything around us. Our sense of smell brings us to a place in our memory the fastest. I knew I wanted to work with memory and amplify emotion,” Reddy told COOL HUNTING during RARE’s Frieze Los Angeles launch event at NeueHouse Venice Beach. “I decided to craft a scent to go with the experience of drinking whisky. Because I am from India and incense is such a deep part of my heritage, I made an incense paper that you burn while you drink the spirit.” As pairing scent and flavor is such a personal exercise, Reddy selected cedar, sweet tobacco, clove and “spent match” aromas to enhance the scent of Mortlach.
Courtesy of Braden Summers
In the way that Reddy’s incense weaves into the aromas of the whisky, the precious item she crafted to hold the paper also nods to the spirit, as well as the distillation process behind single malt scotch whisky. “This object was created following a conversation with Ewan Morgan, Diageo’s Luxury Ambassador, who schooled me in whisky,” Reddy told us. “It’s made out of tiger’s eye, which references the amber color of the liquid as light passes through. Laid within that stone is a copper disk, an acknowledgment of Mortlach’s stills in Scotland.” The copper develops a patina as the incense is burned.
Courtesy of Braden Summers
250 RARE pieces were produced, each unique because of the naturally formed silken luster of the stone. “It was very important to me that we made a beautiful object—something that felt rare because that’s how I felt about the spirit,” Reddy concluded.
Alongside RARE’s release, Mortlach 30 Year Old Midnight Malt made its attention-grabbing debut. Limited to 350 bottles worldwide, the liquid has been finished in Bordeaux wine, Calvados and Guatemalan rum barrels. It’s an apt pairing with Reddy’s wondrous creation, and a highly covetable limited edition by one of the most expressive single malt scotch whisky makers.
Dezeen Showroom: French designer Pierre Paulin’s iconic Pumpkin chair designed in the 1970s has been rereleased by furniture company Ligne Roset.
The Pumpkin chair was originally designed in 1971 for French president Georges Pompido’s private apartment at the Elysée Palace, after the statesman sought an untraditional refurbishment that would invigorate the country’s design industry.
The Pumpkin chair has a rounded shape reminiscent of the titular vegetable
The chair – characterised by its rounded shape created by moulded strips of wood wrapped in foam, reminiscent of the shape of a pumpkin – became the star of the fitout.
While originals of the chair are rare, French company Ligne Roset has been producing a reissued version since 2008 and says its organic, round shape makes for the “ultimate lounging experience”.
Ligne Roset also produces the design in a sofa, loveseat and ottoman
“Easy on the eye with its round contours and expressive personality, it beckons one to sink into it and linger,” said Ligne Roset.
The brand’s Pumpkin series includes a swivelling armchair, loveseat, sofa and ottoman. The furniture is available upholstered in fabric or leather, with coloured wool considered the ideal fit for its playful form.
Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.
The long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum by Dublin studio Heneghan Peng Architects has been captured ahead of its scheduled opening in Giza, Egypt, later this year.
In the photos shared by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the colossal building, also known as the Giza Museum, is framed against the Pyramids of Giza.
The world’s largest museum has been captured ahead of opening in Egypt
Heneghan Peng Architects‘ design for the museum encompasses 90,000 square metres of a 50-hectare site, making it the world’s biggest museum.
It is being built for the Egyptian Ministry of Culture to house more than 100,000 pharaonic artefacts from Ancient Egypt and, alongside exhibition space, there will be a children’s museum, conference centre, auditorium, conservation spaces and gardens.
Plans for long-awaited museum began in 1992
Plans for the Grand Egyptian Museum were first revealed in 1992 when former president Hosni Mubarak set aside a site approximately two kilometres from the three Giza pyramids for the project.
It wasn’t until 2012 that construction began, nine years after Dublin studio Heneghan Peng Architects won an international competition to design the building with engineering by UK firms Arup and Buro Happold.
The current estimated opening is late spring 2024, according to a third-party site documenting the museum’s progress.
The colossal atrium has a sculpture of Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II
The photos have been released by IFC, a private sector branch of the World Bank, following the building’s receipt of IFC EDGE Advanced Green Building Certification.
It is the first museum in Africa to receive certification from the award programme, which celebrates buildings designed to ensure resource efficiency.
According to IFC, the Grand Egyptian Museum received it for its “resource-efficient and climate-smart design and construction”.
“The project was designed to meet green building specifications, resulting in over 60 per cent energy cost savings and 34 per cent water use reduction compared to a conventional building of the same size and type,” said IFC.
“The museum, which has a site area of half a million square meters, has taken sustainability measures including a reflective roof, external shading for thermal comfort, resource-efficient lighting, and water fixtures, in addition to the use of smart meters for energy consumption.”
Museum will contain over 100,000 antiquities
In the photos, the wedge-shaped structure and limestone cladding of the Grand Egyptian Museum is visible. Triangular openings and wall panels can also be seen – a motif expected to feature throughout the building.
Once complete, the museum’s vast collection of pharaonic artefacts from Ancient Egypt will include antiquitie from the tomb of King Tutankhamun, displayed in full for the first time since they were discovered in 1922.
A ritual vessel or “solar barge” called the Khufu ship, which was buried next to the Great Pyramid in 2,500 BC, will also be on show.
Many artefacts will be displayed across the 4,000 square metres of permanent exhibition space, which Heneghan Peng Architects said equates to “almost four football fields in size”.
A notable feature of the project includes a colossal entrance atrium with a grand staircase and a 3,200-year-old sculpture of Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II.
Visual connections to the Pyramids of Giza will be prioritised throughout, while a two-kilometre-long and 500-metre-wide passage will lead directly to the complex.
Once complete, the museum will take the title of the world’s largest museum from The Louvre in Paris, France, which encompasses 73,000 square metres.
London studio Woo Architects will employ the principles of a circular economy for its design of the UK Pavilion at the Expo 2025 Osaka, which will have a reversible gridded structure.
The UK Pavilion will be defined by a 10-by-10-metre structural grid, which can be easily deconstructed and moved to a different location following the event in Japan next year.
It is being designed by Woo Architects alongside Japanese contractor ES Global, which has said the modular structure will also enable rapid construction.
“The fully demountable and relocatable architecture solution achieves a high structural, fire and thermal rating, will need little foundation intervention and has the advantage of being rapidly deployable compared to conventional solutions,” said ES Global.
Woo Architects has unveiled its design for the UK Pavilion
According to Woo Architects and ES Global, the UK pavilion will be developed in line with a theme named Come Build The Future.
The specific structural system that will be used is the Global Modular System. This has been developed by ES Global to optimise construction efficiency and meet the “time-critical needs of clients” while being adaptable and reusable.
“We are really excited to bring a new product to the Japanese market and see many future applications of this system in Japan, a country which has long embraced modular construction,” said co-CEO Olly Watts.
“The construction industry in Japan is going through a period of change at this very moment, and we are convinced that this Global Modular System will lead to solutions for addressing some of the infrastructure needs of the future,” added Watts.
It is designed to be demountable and relocated
Alongside the UK pavilion’s gridded structure, the floor plates and cladding are also being designed to be reusable to ensure circularity.
Details about what the pavilion will exhibit are yet to be disclosed. However, the visuals suggest the pavilion will be composed of boxy forms with flat roofs.
Woo Architects has also revealed that the structure will be designed to maximise thermal efficiency, reducing its energy consumption. Menawhile, the roofs are being developed to accommodate renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind.
British designer Samuel Ross has been named artistic director of the London Design Biennale for 2025, which will mark the fifth edition of the UK design event.
Ross, who is the founder of clothing brands A Cold Wall and SR_A SR_A, as well as the Black British Artists Grants Programme scheme, will also showcase a series of large sculptural artworks for the biennale.
The event will take place at Somerset House in central London over the course of three weeks and will include a talks and events programme as well as installations by local and international designers.
“London’s consistent spirit of experimentation and palpable artistic culture, remain a fresh forum for global thinking,” Ross said.
Above: Samuel Ross has been named artistic director of the London Design Biennale. Top: the event will take place at London’s Somerset House
“Taking part in the 2025 London Design Biennale as artistic director is an honour, I look forward to collaborating with each practitioner, ideally fuelling a spirit of experimentation, blurring the edges of where design meets art,” he added.
Under the theme of Surface Reflections, next year’s edition of the London Design Biennale will look at how external influences and internal experiences come together to create ideas.
“The elder and child versions of ourselves, in spirit, harvest experiences pooled from the same well,” Ross explained. “The time between each visit to the well does not distort the composition of the water.”
“A different reflection, or means of extraction, may occur over time due to the compound’s characteristics,” he added. “Generations of design-thinkers portray similar behaviours.”
London Design Biennale director Victoria Broackes said the biennale would look to showcase global creativity and innovation.
“2025 will be an important year for design in the UK,” Broackes said. “We are absolutely delighted to be working with Samuel Ross as artistic director for London Design Biennale 5th edition, combining his vision with creativity and innovation from all over the world.”
“London Design Biennale 2025 will present an international showground for original and imaginative ideas, solutions and thrilling opportunities for enriching exchanges,” she added.
In a recent interview with Dezeen, Ross explained that he aims to focus more on art and design than fashion going forward.
“Of course, I’ve still got time for fashion but I feel like there’s more of an urgency to speak in the design remit and within the fine art remit,” he said.
If you’re hosting an exhibition or event during 3 Days of Design, you can feature in Dezeen Events Guide‘s digital guide to the Danish festival.
Taking place in Copenhagen from 12 to 14 June 2024, the festival includes a programme of exhibitions, product launches, open showrooms, talks and other events.
This year, the 11th iteration of the festival focuses on the theme Dare to Dream and presents furniture, accessories, textiles, surfaces, workplace design, outdoor products and material innovations.
Dezeen’s digital guide will spotlight the key events and brands taking place across the festival’s 13 design districts.
Get listed in Dezeen’s digital guide to 3 Days of Design
Get in touch with the Dezeen Events Guide team at eventsguide@dezeen.com to book your listing or to discuss a wider partnership with Dezeen.
There are three types of listings:
Standard listings cost £100 and include the event name, date and location details plus a website link. These listings will also feature up to 50 words of text about the event.
Enhanced listings cost £175 and include all of the above plus an image at the top of the listing’s page and an image in the listing preview on the Dezeen Events Guide homepage. These listings will also feature up to 100 words of text about the event.
Featured listings cost £350 and include all elements of an enhanced listing plus a post on Dezeen’s Threads channel, inclusion in the featured events carousel on the right hand of the homepage for up to two weeks and 150 words of text about the event. This text can include commercial information such as ticket prices and offers and can feature additional links to website pages such as ticket sales, newsletter signups etc.
For more information about partnering with us to help amplify your event, contact the team at eventsguide@dezeen.com.
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.
For more details on inclusion in Dezeen Events Guide, including in our guide to 3 Days of Design, email eventsguide@dezeen.com.
There are just two weeks left to save 20 per cent on entry fees for Dezeen Awards 2024. Enter your project now from just £100 per category entry.
Now in its seventh year, Dezeen Awards celebrates the world’s best architecture, interiors and design and has become the benchmark for international design excellence.
Early entry ends at midnight London time on Wednesday 27 March. Entries are open until 30 May with late entries accepted until 6 June at a higher fee. Submit your entry now so you don’t miss out on the special offer.
Enter by 27 March
Our low entry prices are designed to make Dezeen Awards accessible to everyone and to give smaller studios an equal chance of success.
Companies with less than 10 employees pay just £100 per category entry up until 27 March, with larger companies paying £200.
Between 28 March and 30 May, these fees will go up to £120 and £240 respectively.
This year we have 41 project categories to enter across architecture, interiors, design and sustainability.
This includes four new awards, one of which is for landscape and urban design. The other three are within our design category and will reward seating design, textile design and surface design.
Remember, we also have six sustainability categories that reward sustainable new builds, retrofits and interiors, as well as products that do their bit for the environment.
Last year, we introduced our Designers of the Year awards, which celebrate the leading emerging and established names across architecture, interiors and design. This year we will ask Dezeen readers to nominate designers, which will then be shortlisted by Dezeen’s editorial team.
If you have any questions or if you’re having trouble submitting your entry, please reach out to our awards team at awards@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Awards 2024 in partnership with Bentley
Dezeen Awards is the ultimate accolade for architects and designers across the globe. The seventh edition of the annual awards programme is in partnership with Bentley as part of a wider collaboration to inspire, support and champion design excellence and showcase innovation that creates a better and more sustainable world. This ambition complements Bentley’s architecture and design business initiatives, including the Bentley Home range of furnishings and real estate projects around the world.
Sculptural custom-made furniture adds artistic flourishes to this otherwise minimal showroom and head office, designed by Spanish interiors studio Isern Serra for eyewear brand Gigi Studios.
Isern Serra was tasked with creating a holistic scheme for the 900-square-metre headquarters, occupying one floor of a building in the town of Sant Cugat del Vallès just north of Barcelona.
Isern Serra has filled the Gigi Studios headquarters with custom furniture
The brief called for a design that creates a sense of spaciousness and comfort while reflecting founder Patricia Remo’s vision of Gigi Studios as a brand.
“It is also serene, warm and elegant and conceptually close to the idea of a studio and away from the concept of a traditional office, without losing the practicality and functionality,” Isern Serra explained.
Rows of desks were replaced with more intimate work areas
The building’s rectangular floor plan features a central service core housing the lifts and toilets, with the workspaces, meeting rooms, kitchen and showroom occupying the surrounding O-shaped open space.
Serra and his team positioned the kitchen and showroom at one end of the plan and placed the meeting rooms and client areas at the other, leaving the longer sides open to optimise circulation.
Concrete bases for the work tables were cast in situ
Various bespoke furniture pieces, conceived by Isern Serra as “small works of art”, bring a distinct personality to the different formal and informal spaces.
These interventions were designed to embody Gigi Studios’ design ethos while standing out against the warm and minimal backdrop.
“The project aims to experiment with the limits of the workspace and seek a new concept that goes hand in hand with the idea of domus and museum,” Isern Serra explained.
Curtains can be used to cordon off the lounge area
A large circular sofa framed in stainless steel provides a bold statement in one of the reception areas.
The sculptural piece fulfils a dual function as a seating area and a space for working, with tables and book storage integrated into the backrest around the perimeter.
Similarly, the building’s central core is wrapped in a layer of built-in storage units including circular stainless-steel niches that incorporate shelves for displaying books and materials.
Rather than a typical office layout with rows of workstations, the large open spaces are separated into more intimate zones with a more domestic scale.
A Boa Pouf by Sabine Marcelis provides informal seating
Next to the lobby is a design area featuring tables made from concrete that was cast in situ. Task seating surrounds the work table and a taller table is accompanied by stools, while lenses for the different glasses are stored in a custom-made unit.
The second workspace features a large C-shaped sofa with a concrete base that was also cast in situ. Custom-made tables and one of Sabine Marcelis’s Boa Poufs complete this lounge-style space, which can be visually separated from the rest of the office using curtains on either side.
The showroom is visible from the office through a circular window
A circular window with rounded edges provides a glimpse of the showroom, which is dominated by two sculptural tables with concrete tops supported by rough chunks of travertine stone.
A built-in tiered display is used to highlight different Gigi Studios’ eyewear. The rest of the collection is housed in a backlit cabinet, while a mirror-fronted unit conceals a large screen used for presentations.
The kitchen is located next to the showroom so that the two spaces can easily be used together for events. Here, a homely, Mediterranean feel is created via a five-metre-long sharing table, custom-made alongside the accompanying stools.
Display tables in the showroom are held up by rough chunks of travertine
The sizeable kitchen island is finished in micro-cement and features a curved base that enhances its sculptural presence.
A curved corridor incorporating a sofa niche on one wall provides access to offices and a meeting room positioned to have the best views of the surrounding countryside.
Internal columns are used to support one end of concrete tables built in each of the workspaces, furnished with classic designs including Marcel Breuer’s Wassily and Cesca chairs.
Large sharing tables allow for communal eating in the kitchen
Interior designer Isern Serra founded his self-titled studio in Barcelona in 2008 and works across architecture, interiors and industrial design.
Norwegian studio Snøhetta has teamed up with lighting brand Ateljé Lyktan to create Superdupertube, an office lamp made from extruded hemp and sugarcane bioplastic.
The design is a contemporary update of Ateljé Lyktan‘s Supertube – an office light from the 1970s made from extruded aluminium.
The Superdupertube is a modern take on the Supertube lamp
“[The Supertube] had finished production in 2010 or something like that, so it was iconic but sort of forgotten,” Snøhetta partner Jenny B Osuldsen told Dezeen. “And it’s a tube. It’s not rocket science but it is what you need for a smart lamp in an office.”
“We really loved it and think it has a lot of possibilities, so we wanted to upgrade it to a new level,” she added.
It is made from hemp and can be industrially composted. Photo by Ateljé Lyktan
The extrusion technique for the original lamp was developed in the 1960s, and Snøhetta and Ateljé Lyktan decided to create a lamp that would nod to the original design.
However, the aim was to lower the carbon footprint of the lamp by choosing the most sustainable material possible.
Snøhetta and Ateljé Lyktan chose to use hemp as the material is renewable and durable
The studios played around with multiple different materials before settling on the hemp bioplastic, which was used to form Snøhetta’s first office lighting design.
The lighting features twisted louvres. Photo by Ateljé Lyktan
“When we were doing The 7th Room project up in northern Sweden, everything was in pine and there were lots of pine cones,” Osuldsen said.
“We wanted to find a product or material that isn’t used for anything else, so we started testing the use of pine cones by grinding them, but it didn’t work.”
“The fibres in the cones are too short,” said Ateljé Lyktan product director Malin Gadd. “We also tried using coffee grounds but they are even shorter, so we realised quite quickly that we needed fibres that are long and strong.”
“That’s where the hemp fibres come into the picture,” she added.
Snøhetta and Ateljé Lyktan sourced the hemp used for the lights from the Netherlands, as the quality of the hemp from Swedish farmers “wasn’t quite there yet”, according to Gadd.
Its shape is both extruded and injection-moulded
The hemp is mixed with a polylactic acid (PLA) bioplastic derived from sugarcane, alongside wood cellulose and different minerals to create a fossil- and gas-free composite.
The material is then extruded to create the main body of the lamp, which also comprises injection-moulded louvres and side covers. To add to the organic feel of the light, its electric cables are covered with linen fabric.
“Hemp is an old cultural plant and it’s very easy to renew [by growing more],” Osuldsen said. “And it’s very durable.”
Linen fabric covers the electric cable. Photo by Ateljé Lyktan
The Superdupertube can be composted in an industrial composter or recycled and ground down into pellets to create more lamps.
However, this currently requires owners to send the lamps back to the producer, as the material cannot be processed in regular recycling centres.
Using the hemp bioplastic reduces the lamp’s carbon footprint by over 50 per cent compared to traditional aluminium variants, according to Snøhetta and Ateljé Lyktan.
The Superdupertube comes in a natural colour. Photo by Ateljé Lyktan
The dimmable Superdupertube features twisted louvres – an architectural detail that helps the light feel softer by angling the glare away.
“That’s why it’s a perfect workspace luminaire, it’s adapted to be better for the person sitting working and it’s also totally unique – it doesn’t exist on the market,” Gadd said.
The Superdupertube, which comes in four different lengths, has an organic beige colour with a natural pattern from the hemp and other ingredients.
It is the first time Snøhetta has designed an office lamp
“We didn’t really know how it would look,” Osuldsen said. “The material is the colour of the hemp. And, of course, there’s probably something from the sugarcane because it’s heated up. It’s burnt sugar in a way.”
“So we get this specific colour and that also means that all of them will be a little bit different,” she added. “It’s all about the crops; if it’s a wet year or a dry year, the humidity in the material will be a little bit different. That’s why it’s sort of alive.”
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