Hasta La Ideas

Tables are important pieces of furniture in any human space, whether it’s the dining table at home or a meeting table at the office. That said, we don’t always use these flat horizontal surfaces all the time, and there will be times when they’re just taking up precious space. Yes, more aesthetic tables do provide some visual value, but it doesn’t outweigh the cost of their presence. Foldable tables are practical, but few actually look good even when unfolded and the hassle of moving the folded table out of the way makes them less compelling. But what if you didn’t need to put the table away because it not only becomes more compact but also serves a different purpose? That’s the kind of multi-functional design that this concept proposes, turning a table into a lamp.

Designer: Sonakshi Gupta

The Japanese art of folding paper has inspired many designs because of its beauty, simplicity, and space efficiency. A large and flat sheet of paper can suddenly become a geometric flower or swan with a few folds, significantly reducing the area that the piece of paper once occupied. This art doesn’t involve removing or adding parts, which makes each piece an independent and standalone unit.

LightUP is a concept that takes inspiration from origami and kirigami (which does involve cutting away and gluing pieces together) to design a table that not only saves space but also provides a completely different functionality or two. The squarish wooden tabletop folds up into a shape that’s like a flower bud, freeing up the space around the table for use. Thanks to ingenious invisible hinges, not only do you have a clean and flat table surface but moving only one or two corners is enough to fold and unfold the table. The easier you can perform this action, the more frequently you’re willing to do it.

Of course, that’s not where it all ends. The design’s name comes from the fact that wide LED light strips from the pyramidal base of the table to each of the four corners. Thus, the table becomes a room-wide lamp at night but can also remain as a space-saving art object when the lights are off.

Admittedly, the design’s implementation is actually more complicated than it looks thanks to the moving parts and hinges involved. Those may become points of failure over time due to wear and tear. The idea, however, could give birth to a simpler design, one that takes into account aesthetics, functionality, and sustainability altogether for a truly space-saving piece of furniture.

The post Origami-inspired table concept folds into a lamp to save space first appeared on Yanko Design.

US architecture Ross Barney Architects has completed a NASA laboratory for deep-space technology testing in Cleveland, USA, which includes a tower made of pre-cast concrete panels for testing antennas.

Ross Barney Architects created the Aerospace Communications Facility at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, which originally opened as the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in 1942 to test jet propulsion.

The building forms part of a master plan for the NASA site, which has also been designed by Ross Barney Architects.

The Aerospace Communications Facility was created for the testing of deep-space technology such as radars and lasers, so the studio started from a consideration of the function when implementing its design.

This included the creation of a special concrete mixed with copper for a series of precast walls erected for a radar antenna-testing lab, which stands as a siloed element taller than the rest of the glass-clad building with a separate foundation.

The copper in the concrete allows for the building to act like a Faraday cage, completely isolating it from outside radio interference.

Etchings from the chalkboard seen in the film Hidden Figures fill the bottom edges of the precast panelling.

In the rectangular, glass-clad volume, a central core was structurally isolated from the building to create stable conditions for the testing of space lasers and other sensitive equipment.

AIA Gold Medal-winning architect and founder of RBA Carol Ross Barney said that the building is an expression of its function.

“This building is totally an expression of what is happening there,” she told Dezeen. “There is no aesthetic driver.”

“For a long time I’ve felt that the best architecture is integrated and functional,” she continued.

“The beauty is the result of the integration of those needs. This building is only about what’s in it.”

Outside of the more heavily controlled zones, other functional elements were emphasised. On the exterior, undulating metal shutters were extended from the building to control light.

On the interior, the studio exposed the metal piping on the ceiling that supplies the various labs, which Ross Barney compared to the aesthetics of spaceships.

The outer portion of the glass building has meeting spaces and work areas. The entry pavilion is a double-height space, with part of its walls made up of the etched precast concrete panels.

On the second level is a large pane of fritted glass that looks out over a treeline and a ravine.

The polished concrete flooring was painted in some areas to add brightness, and a series of meeting rooms with glass walls were pushed to the outside of the plan, flanking the simple rectangular circulation.

The building achieved a LEED Gold rating and was designed to be Net Zero Ready, with hydronic systems such as chilled beams, geothermal heating and radiant heating panels.

Ross Barney described the building and the surrounding campus as “like a machine” for research and said that hopefully it will work on more building designs as the campus expands.

Other buildings on the campus include a Research Support Center by TEN Arquitectos with a massive cantilevered walkway extending from its second level.

Project credits:

Architect: Ross Barney Architects
Safety consultant: APTIM
Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection engineer: dbHMS
Civil/ Environmental Engineer and Surveyor: Environmental Design Group
RFI/EMI mitigation designer: Field Management Services (
Security consultant: Guidepost Solutions
Laboratory planner: HERA Laboratory Planners
Geotechnical engineer: Terracon
Cost estimation: The Concord Group
Structural engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
Protective design: Thornton Tomasetti-Weidlinger Protective Design
Acoustical designer: Threshold Acoustics
Communications engineer: Waveguide Consulting

The post Ross Barney Architects encloses NASA testing facility in unique copper-concrete panels appeared first on Dezeen.

Vancouver-based lighting company A-N-D has showcased two collections at Alcova during Milan design week, adapting its chandeliers to be placed on the floor to respect the historic setting.

The lights flanked the walls of a room on the ground floor of Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, a 17th-century villa outside of Milan that is one of two locations for year’s iteration of the Alcova design showcase.

The lights were presented alongside a colourful platformed rug by Italian brand CC Tapis and a blue fibreglass couch by Turkish studio Uma Objects.

Altogether, the installation of lights and furniture was designed to contrasts the historical finishes of the space, which has a domed ceiling with a fresco of the Greek myth of Daphne.

A-N-D co-founder Lukas Peet said that the location was a challenge because they could not make any interventions into the walls or ceilings.

“When you’re unable to confidently hang anything, or interact with the walls or the ceiling – that’s a major challenge as a lighting brand that mostly works with pendants,” he told Dezeen.

This led the studio pair to release new editions of two existing light collections – the Vale and Collumn light collections. Conceptualised initially as chandeliers, the lights were taken from their hanging context and set up on the floor in modular configurations.

Vale has curved glass over a thin light strip and utilises an edge-to-edge connection. The studio created large, free-standing sculptural constructions using the light, wrapping them like screens at two sides of the room.

The studio said that the Vale lights were arranged to act almost architecturally, as additional walls in the space.

The studio’s other pieces were from the Column series, which has thick multi-sided blocks of glass placed on top of each other and was informed by the classical Greek Doric column. Peet said that the lighting was arranged to be like a “forest” so that people visiting had to interact with the lights and walk around them.

“I think it works together,” said A-N-D co-founder Caine Heintzman of the modern furniture in the historic room. “The modularity of the lighting allowed us to tailor the installation to the space.”

Both designers joked that even though they had little idea of the space, the pieces ended up being in conversation with the fresco of Daphne on the ceiling, as she represents plants and the pieces were arranged as if “growing” from the floor.

Dozens of designers set up pieces throughout the manor house and grounds of Villa Bagatti Valsecchi and at Villa Borsani, a secondary Alcova location just a few minutes walk from the first.

Alcova co-founder Joseph Grima said that this year’s iteration sees the first residential locations for the showcase.

He told Dezeen that the location, around 40 kilometres from Milan city centre, was chosen to showcase the important design outside of the city – Villa Borsani was the home of Osvaldo Borsani, an important mid-century Milanese architect and designer.

“We wanted to shine a light on the fact that Milan is not just the centre – all of these spaces that we know very well – but it’s also this whole area around it.”

The photography is by A-N-D.

Alcova 2024 is on show from 15-21 April as part of Milan design week. See our Milan design week 2024 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Leif Jørgensen is the Danish architect/furniture designer who designed that Loop Stand for Hay.

While that piece involved a trio of welds, Jørgensen asks more of the welder for his more recent LJ Spider Chair, produced for his own brand:

It’s one of those pieces that’s simple and complicated at the same time.

I count no less than 34 rods! I’d love to see the jigs used in getting one of these together.

The chair is available in two finishes, Galvanized Steel and Green, and runs €504 (USD $537) and €530 (USD $565), respectively.

Czech glass-making brand Lasvit has unveiled an outdoor installation made from fused glass at Milan design week, shown in this video produced for the brand by Dezeen.

Titled Porta, the installation was created by Lasvit art director Maxim Velcovsky and forms part of the brand’s Re/Creation exhibition at Palazzo Isimbardi in Milan.


The installation is part of Lasvit’s Re/Creation exhibition in Milan

The installation encompasses a maze of large glass panels created using an artisanal fused glass method.

In this technique, glass is heated into a molten state and is then poured over a hand-crafted mould. The liquid glass naturally spreads and settles under its own weight and gravity, which determines its unique organic textures within the material.

The panels used in Velcovsky’s installation were created in Europe’s largest glass kiln. They were designed to demonstrate the brand’s technical prowess and to create a space for visitors to relax in.

“Glass becomes a ‘canvas’ for the artist and gives the opportunity to create relief surfaces and surfaces of large dimensions,” Velcovsky told Dezeen.

“When making glass, you feel like you are on a beach, where you can draw your ideas in the sand and create an infinite number of images, structures and textures. These ideas are then embedded in the glass and remain on the surface in relief,” he continued.

The exhibition also includes a new lighting collection by Swedish studio Claesson Koivisto Rune comprising table lamps and a ceiling light.

The collection, called Nebula, features a series of bulb-like table lamps in two sizes that use a diffusing glass lens to transmit light upwards.

Other pieces within the exhibition include an installation by Lasvit senior designer Maria Culenova, which uses layers of folded plywood and copper to create custom lighting modules, as well as a diluted lighting collection by Canadian design duo Yabu Pushelberg.

Re/Creation is open to the public at the Palazzo Isimbardi, Corso Monforte, 35, from 16 to 21 April at this year’s Milan design week. See our Milan design week 2024 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for Lasvit as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen’s partnership content here. 

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