Milan 2014: a patchwork of panels on Doshi Levien‘s Shanty cabinet for Spanish furniture company BD Barcelona references the temporary housing found in cities across Africa, Asia and South America (+ slideshow).
The Shanty cabinet hides a rational storage system behind a seemingly random series of panels that is inspired by the design variation found in informal settlements, where corrugated iron is used to create unique dwellings and colour combinations that change as they fade over time.
“A lot of people think that these improvised structures are ugly, that they have negative connotations,” Nipa Doshi told Dezeen. “We really like the beauty of the improvised.”
Corrugated iron is often seen as a cheap material in the west, but takes on a new value to residents in these homes said the designers. “To [the people who build these homes] this is a prestigious material,” explained Doshi.
The lacquered MDF cabinet features extruded aluminium legs and is set to be the first piece from a bigger collection that BD Barcelona will produce in the next year.
It is available in two different configurations – one with three shallow drawers on the right hand side which can be finished in multiple colours or shade of grey. The other has a concertina-opening cabinet.
The collection is a continuation of Doshi Levien‘s aesthetic, which seeks to combine a European approach to industrial design with a strong interest in handcraft and a “way of looking at the world that is not so pure,” said Doshi.
“It’s not a one-sided European design approach,” she explained. “There’s another world out there and there are many other ingredients we can use in design that are beautiful. It’s finding beauty in everything.”
A wall clad in slabs of red volcanic stone conceals the entrance to this otherwise minimal white house in a suburb of Reykjavík, Iceland, by local office PK Arkitektar (+ slideshow).
The private home was designed by PK Arkitektar with a simple and solid facade that restricts views of the interior from the street, providing privacy in a busy suburban neighbourhood.
“The house was conceived to be viewed from the street as a singular solid mass, and its entrance is hidden from the street,” the architects pointed out.
A recessed surface of red rhyolite stone is framed by a white wall that forms the front of the building and shelters a doorway incorporated into the stone surface.
A vertical glass section interrupts the front facade and permits views through the central circulation spaces of the home.
This glazed void helps to separate the private spaces from shared areas inside the house and allows daylight to permeate both floors of the property.
The facade at the northeast corner is separated from the glazed wall and floats above the ground, creating a small gap that lets light reach all the way to the basement level.
From the entrance at the level of the adjacent road, the site slopes down towards a sheltered garden and the home’s lower storey is partly submerged in the slope.
The rear of the house is more open, with both levels featuring expansive windows that look out onto the garden.
“The sloping plot allows for the basement to be hidden and provides magnificent views of the surrounding nature of the Alftanes peninsula,” the architects added.
Staircases on either side of the building descend to the basement level and a door on one facade is set into a
Sliding doors lead from the kitchen to a large balcony for outdoor dining that ends in a staircase connecting this space with the garden below.
Gravel surfaces surrounding the house reference the barren landscape of the local countryside, with a lawn containing a single tree at the rear providing the only area of greenery.
This private residence is located in a compact suburban neighbourhood and the plot slopes down from street level towards its southwest corner.
The house was conceived to be viewed from the street as a singular solid mass and its entrance is hidden from the street. By contrast, the rear aspect, with private outdoor areas, has a sense of openness and permeability. The monolithic mass conceals a recess, which hides the front door.
The front volume is lightened by an incision, which represents the interior boundary between private and public areas. A light well behind the front façade permits daylight into both floors in the northeast part of the house. The sloping plot allows for the basement to be hidden and provides magnificent views of the surrounding nature of the Alftanes peninsula.
Red Rhyolite is employed here as cladding on the recessed surfaces of the otherwise white monolith. The front yard is a minimal desert of gravel and stone, greenery being restricted to a patch at the rear where a single tree stands. In stark contrast with the green walls and lush gardens common to Arnarnes, the arid treatment of the front yard applied here is more in line with the country’s nature and landscapes.
Garments are suspended in front of draped fabric above a steel parquet floor in the new womenswear floor that design studio JamesPlumb has created for east London fashion boutique Hostem (+ slideshow).
James Russell and Hannah Plumb of London-based JamesPlumb were influenced by the grainy textural appearance of old photographic plates, which they interpreted in the Hostem store’s palette of textured industrial materials.
“There is a strong emphasis on an honesty and truth to materials, which are predominantly used in their natural state, with subtle embellishments,” explained the designers.
A steel parquet floor used throughout the space comprises over 4500 individual tiles that were laid by hand in a herringbone pattern.
“The natural beauty of the steel, with its colour variations and imperfections, is accentuated by the herringbone pattern that highlights the uniqueness of each tile,” the designers added.
Free-standing steel display units create robust yet transparent vitrines and are inlaid with natural felt to add a textural dimension.
Steel is also used for a runner on the staircase that ascends to the second floor space and mezzanine level above.
Fabric panels suspended from the five-metre-high ceiling act as a backdrop for individual garments, which are displayed on custom-made clothes hangers.
Concrete shelves are supported by round steel pegs, while heavy concrete planks lean against the walls providing a counterbalance for the clothes rails that project from their surfaces.
The concrete was cast in timber moulds so it takes on the unique knots and grain of the wood.
Floor lamps shrouded with crumbled lead sheets focus the light and evoke the appearance of the aluminium cinquefoil that is used to mask photographers’ lights.
The designers sent us the following press release:
Hostem Womenswear
The collaboration that has seen JamesPlumb produce award winning designs for Hostem menswear, and bespoke service ‘The Chalk Room’ has continued and expanded. A brand new upper floor welcomes the arrival of a dedicated womenswear level – and a new environment to host it.
Connected, whilst fundamentally distinct from the store below, the new interior has an evolution that matches the store’s development. It has been led by a sense of privacy and remoteness from street level that required a feeling of calm and elevation to match. The space is informed and inspired by the warm monochromatic graininess and ‘noise’ found in old photographic plates. There is a strong emphasis on an honesty and truth to materials, which are predominantly used in their natural state, with subtle embellishments. Every element has been custom designed, and the majority made in house, by hand, in JamesPlumb’s studio.
The artistic duo have again demonstrated their ability to innovate materials with a lightness of touch that is timeless, whilst being full of surprising details. A unique steel parquet floor has been designed and developed, with over 4500 individual tiles laid by hand. The natural beauty of the steel, with its colour variations and imperfections are accentuated by the herringbone pattern that highlights the uniqueness of each tile. The white plastered walls have simply been sealed and polished with wax, and both surfaces offer a balance of unfinished rawness with a jewel like reflective surface.
Tranquility and simplicity pervades, but with depth and richness derived from texture and detail. A warmth has skillfully been created despite the connotations of materials commonly associated with an industrial look. Steel displays are inlaid with natural felt. Concrete shelves and planks support refined clothes rails. They have been cast in individual wooden moulds carefully chosen for their imperfections – the unique knots and deep wood grain of each are the antithesis of a manufactured finish. There is a playful contrast between these simple forms that reference basic building techniques and the precision steel works of the floor. The ungainly heaviness of concrete is avoided by both cheating gravity and embracing it. The shelves float on steel pegs in the wall, whilst the planks press themselves against the walls – effortlessly counterbalancing their rails full of product.
The stairs have a simple yet beautiful steel runner to guide you to the second floor and the mezzanine of the double height space. Fabric panels drape dramatically five metres from ceiling to floor, each framing an individual piece as if being captured for posterity in front of an infinity wall. There is an unusual and indulgent amount of space afforded to one garment. It is as if the items have fast tracked to a museum – a feeling of archival preciousness – and yet they are accessible and very much to be touched, explored, and worn. The lighting too, references the photographer’s studio. Custom designed lights inspired by cine-foil are in fact beautifully patinated lead sheets – crumpled, shaped and formed to direct the light.
This veneration to the clothing and attention to detail extends to the clothes hangers themselves that are entirely bespoke, each having been hand-formed from four pieces of steel. They are a line drawing made physical – the essence of a clothes hanger. The result – as with the store itself – is a beautiful tension between simple elegance, and raw materiality.
Jagged shelving units and scored surfaces were designed to evoke the look of food crates and packaging at this London butcher and delicatessen by local office Fraher Architects (+ slideshow).
The client asked Fraher Architects to design an interior for The Quality Chop Shop in London’s Farringdon that promotes the quality ingredients used in its neighbouring restaurant.
The architects chose utilitarian materials and raw finishes to reference the packing materials used to transport food to the shops and eateries that surround London’s historic Smithfields and Exmouth markets.
“The most unusual aspect of the response to the brief was to focus on the packaging aspect of produce used within the restaurant and the cooking profession as a whole,” architect Lizzie Webster told Dezeen.
“To continue this wrapped packaging theme through the layout of the display shelves, the joinery and lighting itself was a challenge,” she added.
Food is displayed on shelves and counters made from plywood, which were stained black in reference to the charred or sprayed labels commonly found on wooden packing crates.
The edges of the shelves expose the raw plywood to create a contrast with the blackened surfaces and give the impression of packaging that has been sliced open.
Each of the wall-mounted shelves has a jagged profile, creating an effect that appears to thrust the product forward, and items are framed against a dark background by the edges of the shelves.
Exposed light bulbs suspended from simple black cords were chosen to reinforce the rough-and-ready aesthetic.
Black cord also creates a criss-crossing pattern in front of the windows that recurs in an inverted form around the edge of the central display and sales point.
Original black and white tiles behind the butcher’s counter were retained and continue the basic palette used throughout the space.
Here’s a project description from Fraher Architects:
Quality Chop Shop, Farringdon
We have just finished working on the design and fabrication for the Quality Chop Shop in Farringdon, London. The shop sits next door to the Quality Chop House which has a reputation for excellent cooking and good quality ingredients. The Client approached us to consider design proposals for the refurbishment of the adjacent shop unit that had recently become available.
The food had to be displayed in a clear and simple manner, but pay reference to the utilitarian aesthetic of the food units surrounding Smithfields meat market and Exmouth Market.
The fit out elements such as the counter, produce display and lighting deserved to portray a textured and slightly rough finish, hence the display of end grain to all the plywood joinery.
The deep black stain contrasts sharply with the timber core of the units, reflecting the blackened character of timber food crates. The blackened stain plywood is reinforced by the use of cable lighting that represents the packaging and the wrapping of the food produced. The use of exposed bulbs reflects the raw nature of the food preparation that relies on exceptional raw ingredients.
Access to the working kitchen of the Quality Chop House restaurant was important to ensure that the fresh food and cake trays are constantly re-stocked with baked good throughout the day.
Dutch designers including Piet Hein Eek and Roderick Vos are brought together with workshops for makers with disabilities in a new initiative called Social Label (+ slideshow).
The Social Label scheme was created by designers Petra Janssen of Studio Boot and Simone Kramer of C-mone, plus Geert van Kempen of healthcare organisation Amarant.
The initiative links up with existing workshops that provide activities and jobs to makers with mental disabilities, psychiatric problems or addictions, and enables them to produce and sell pieces by well-known designers.
“By making, presenting and selling these meaningful products we create new possibilities for those who have difficulties to participate in society and in the labour market,” Janssen told Dezeen. “That’s what we call socio-economics.”
The first collection, called Hoot, was created in a collaboration with Piet Hein Eek and Woodworks, a woodworking shop in Tilburg Noord that teaches people with disabilities how to make furniture.
The result is a range of furniture made from chunky sections of scrap wood, painted in four shades of grey that were selected by Eek. The pieces include a dining table and bench, a cabinet with sliding doors, a console and a lectern.
“The idea is that it is not only occupational therapy but hopefully a structured way to raise funds with the products that I created, but only for a good cause,” said Piet Hein Eek.
Autistic artist Oswin with some of the pots he has shaped
The second product line is a vase, pairing Roderick Vos with Artenzo, a centre for visual arts that works with people who have mental disabilities. The collaboration produces hand-made earthenware pots turned in a variety of shapes by Oswin, an autistic artist.
Each is topped with an identical plastic crown designed by Vos, so although every pot is unique the circumference of the top needs to be the same.
The aim of the Social Label project is to connect healthcare providers, social enterprises and local businesses to create solutions that bring communities closer together. It is also bringing paid work to groups who traditionally found entering the workforce difficult.
The benefits of the project work for the designer too, as the team explained. “The designer enlarges his or her portfolio with a special cooperation, moving a value-based approach centre stage to address human dignity, slow design, attention and time.”
Designs by painter Marc Mulders, product designer Dick van Hoff and visual artist Sigrid Calon are also in the pipeline, and Janssen expects there will be three new collaborations each year.
To discover and develop the individual qualities are important policy themes for the government and institutes in health. Art and culture are able to contribute. Creating something of special value, creating products that matter, products that are valued for their functional and aesthetic value is important to all of us, especially to people with a distance to the labour market. That’s what we call: ‘Socio economics’.
Members of the Piet Hein Eek and Woodworks workshop group
Our world is changing rapidly. In our own environment, lets say The Netherlands, you can’t miss the signals given by the government. Budget cuts, decentralisation to local or regional government, accompanied by decreased budgets. Of course: people are not waiting for something to happen. The Dutch initiate new opportunities. One of them is really new and can be found in Brabant: Social Label.
Members of the woodwork group with furniture they’ve created
What is ‘Social Label’?
Social Label is a new concept for work and daily activities for people with a ‘distance to the labour market’. Art and care are combined in this initiative in order to create new product lines. In each of the lines the social welfare workers will have an exclusive bond with a renowned designer. These products will be produced, presented and sold by workers in different social workforce centres.
Makers of the Roderick Vos and Artenzo earthenware pots
The designer enlarges his or her portfolio with a very special cooperation, moving a value based approach centre stage addressing human dignity, slow design, attention and time. Social Label is an initiative of Amarant Group, Studio Boot and C-mone (Articipate!). They explicitly invite others to contribute and cooperate in order to bridge the gap of some of us to the labour market.
Chris Dyson Architects has added a soot-washed brick extension with a curved wall to a Georgian terraced house and former nunnery in east London (+ slideshow).
London-based Chris Dyson Architects was asked to replace an old two-storey extension, creating a new family living space that would be more in-keeping with the traditional nineteenth-century style of the property located at Wapping Pierhead.
“The curved end of the extension was inspired by the banks of the Thames elevation that rises on either side of the property and has curved bay windows overlooking the river,” Chris Dyson told Dezeen.
“It was an interesting local vernacular that we wanted to include and the curved extension bookends the environment well,” he said.
The architects worked with London bricklaying company Beckwith Tuckpointing to ensure the brickwork remained authentic. Locally sourced Coleridge yellow bricks were stained using an eighteenth-century soot-wash technique and an old penny was rolled between the brick joints, leaving an indent in the mortar.
“The use of brick helped to achieve a balance between the contemporary and the original period style of the house,” said Dyson.
Slate copings protect the gauged brick arches and bronze casements that have been added to the windows, helping to distinguish between the old and new.
An original listed dock wall offers privacy for a sheltered garden, while the curved wall at the back of the extension completes the terrace.
The garden offers another route into the basement and ground floor level of the extension, where a minimal dining room, library and kitchen offer living space for the family.
Built by British architect Daniel Asher Alexander in 1810, the Grade II listed building formerly housed a dock authority officer, before being repurposed as a nunnery in the 1940s.
Many of the period features have been restored, including the original staircase, architraves, floorboards and fireplace surrounds.
“The original property was very run down and hadn’t had much spent on it. This meant much of the house was preserved and we were able to bring back many of the period features,” Dyson explained.
Upstairs, the master bedroom and bathroom continue with the Georgian style, with pastel green panels concealing extra storage space and a large antique-style bathtub.
A rainwater-harvesting system and improved insulation have also been added to make the property more environmentally friendly.
Chris Dyson Architects recently won the AJ Small Projects Award for its extension of Wapping Pierhead. The award celebrates architectural projects built with a budget of less than £250,000.
Each piece in the Folk candle holder range is different but shares the same characteristics, creating a family of objects which work together or individually (+ slideshow).
The inspiration for the collection of holders came from the idea that humans all share the same basic characteristics, but have different body shapes.
“People all share the same basic characters, but it is the details and proportions that set them apart,” Simon Legald told Dezeen.
“Each candle holder has its own expression but share the same DNA,” he said. “It was important for the different pieces to be able to function by themselves as well as together with the other family members.”
The collection consists of a tray, candlestick tray, two different styles of candlestick, a candle holder and a tea light holder. The smaller objects fit perfectly into the trays to create a variety of use and display options.
Each piece comes in two different colours from a palette that includes a pale blue, burgundy, three shades of grey and a bright yellow.
“The colours were chosen to provide a classic feel, said Legald. “These colours make the series easy to combine and create one’s own style and feeling.”
“I have learned more about design the last year than have the past six years,” said Legald. “Co-founder and CEO Jan Normann Andersen is a mentor for me, he knows so much about design and production, and helps me become better at what I do.”
Here’s some information from the designer:
Normann Copenhagen presents the Folk range of candle holders
Danish designer Simon Legald has designed a range of timeless candle holders for Normann Copenhagen made to be combined in many ways. The range consists of four different candle holders and a tray with a simple, minimalistic feel. The silhouettes, which are neither round nor square, give the Folk range their character and own unique expression.
Simon Legald’s design is, among other things, characterised by his carefully thought out attention to detail. He has worked on the shapes, sizes and edges of Folk, so that the small candle holders fit perfectly into the trays. The asymmetric positioning of the sticks on the base is a discreet detail that makes the design more dynamic to look at.
Simon Legald explains: “I wanted to create a little family of cohesive products. Each candle holder should have its own expression but share the same DNA. It was important for the different pieces to be able to function by themselves as well as together with the other candle holders in the set.”
The Folk range consists of five different pieces, each in two different colours. The colours in this series range from three classic shades of grey to light blue, burgundy and yellow. The colours have been chosen to make the range interesting and make it easy to combine the candle holders according to one’s taste and decor.
Colours: Light grey, grey, dark grey, light blue, burgundy, yellow Material: Zinc Dimensions: Tray: H: 1 cm x L: 21,7 cm x D: 9,8 cm, 17,5 GBP Candlestick Tray: H: 16,5 cm x L: 18,8 cm x D: 9,8 cm Candlestick: H: 12,6 cm x L: 10,5 cm x D: 9,3 cm Candle Holder: H: 3 cm x L: 10,5 cm x D: 9,3 cm Tealight Candle Holder: H: 2,6 cm x L: 10,5 cm x D: 9,3 cm, 12 GBP
Pathways slice through the grounds of this hotel and health farm in Portugal‘s Penafiel region, leading to the entrances of partly submerged buildings designed by Porto firm AND-RÉ (+ slideshow).
The owners of the White Wolf Hotel asked AND-RÉ to design new accommodation that reflects the values of holistic health and integration with nature that are promoted by the resort.
The architects responded by designing a series of all-white dwellings that are scattered around the site, rather than grouping rooms and facilities into one dominant building.
Each of the new buildings has a simple gabled profile and is surrounded by a raised lawn. This ground surface lines up with the base of translucent windows that surround the ground-floor storey of each building.
“The buildings are meant to be neutral in the landscape, in a gesture that avoids an aggressive architecture imposition, but at the same time with a strong relation with the site,” explained the architects.
“The buildings dive in the ground, in a unification process that enhances the relation of proximity between the user and the site, between man and nature,” they added.
Gravel pathways defined by white retaining walls lead to the entrances of the buildings, which are arranged around a salt-water swimming pool.
The minimalist aesthetic continues through the interiors, which feature white walls, glossy floors and ethnic furnishings sparsely arranged within rooms and corridors.
Open-plan spaces accommodate living, cooking and dining areas on the ground floor of each residence. These spaces receive plenty of light from the glazed walls, while the bedrooms upstairs are deliberately darker and more intimate.
Windows adjacent to the stairwells ensure circulation spaces are filled with natural light, and skylights in the bedrooms enable guests to gaze at the stars from their beds.
Photography is by João Soares.
Here’s some more information from the architects:
White Wolf Hotel
Completed in 2013 and recently open to the public, White Wolf Hotel is a series of buildings intimately related with the surrounding rich natural environment. The built architecture is a realization of the holistic pretensions of the client. The built architecture objects, profoundly integrated in the natural context, provide holistic and spiritual experiences of calm, intimacy, meditation and retreat.
Holistic Approach
“…emphasising the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its parts. (…) Relating to or concerned with complete systems rather than with individual parts.”
The objective was, from the starting point, holistic. Since the first moment we knew this was going to be a special project. The challenge to create a place that eulogies nature, a special place dedicated to the body and spirit, accordingly to the clients alternative ways of living, and even the perception of life itself.
A place where the visitor is involved in the positive thinking spirit and embraces the related humanistic values, far away from the stress paradigms of contemporary lives. A place where one can feel the time slowly passing by, were it can hear the wind caressing whisper and spend long days enjoying the birds sing in the surrounding forest trees and the water running in the creek that crosses the site.
Due to the unorthodox motto of the project, the spirit and expectations from the clients were an inspiration and, at the same time, a profound challenge. One not only related with architecture, but also a challenge to us has human beings, forcing ourselves to question our practice common ground and our posture towards life. This was the only way – and what a good privileged way it is – to fulfil the client expectations.
The result is a place to live or visit, with joy, happiness and peace (so rare these days) with your own body and in with nature. It was very positive to remember that simple values. We now hope that architecture itself can trigger and provoke that same positive feeling in the users.
Instead of a single construction condensing the entire program, the adopted strategy aimed to spread the facilities through separated buildings along the site, adapting itself to the existing natural conditions, respecting and enhancing its values. Thus providing a more rich living experience, full of distinct moments and sensations.
The architecture shape, achieved by basic, clear, direct geometric forms, naturally understood and interpreted; try to provide a natural non-aggressive sensation and a natural visual relation between the user and the buildings. The buildings are meant to be neutral in the landscape, in a gesture that avoids an aggressive architecture imposition, but at the same time with a strong relation with the site. The buildings dive in the ground, in a unification process that enhances the relation of proximity between the user and the site, between man and nature.
The buildings provide two distinct inner environments/atmospheres, related with night and day periods. The lower floors, dedicated to common daily uses, are totally permeable to light, promoting bright spaces and an awakened atmosphere. The upper bedroom floors provide a more private and cosy spaces, with controlled natural lighting, opening to the exterior in generous skylights above the bed, allowing star watching before sleep.
Scope: Hotel and Housing Status: Completed (2013) Location: Penafiel, Portugal Promoter: Quinta do Lobo Branco – Turismo Rural, Lda. Architecture Team: Partners in charge: Bruno André, Francisco Salgado Ré. Collaborators: Adalgisa Lopes, Ana Matias, João Fernandes, Pedro Costa, Sandra Paulo, Sofia Mota Silva
Set to open on 9 August, the new Aspen Art Museum will be a four-storey building containing six separate galleries, more than tripling the amount of exhibition space in the museum’s current facility.
Shigeru Ban designed the 3000 square-metre building for a site at the corner of East Hyman Avenue in downtown Aspen. Its primary feature will be a basket-weave cladding that wraps around two elevations.
A grand staircase will be slotted between this woven exterior and the interior structure. There will also be a glass elevator dubbed the “moving room” that will connect galleries at the northeast corner.
Glass floors will allow visitors to see between storeys, while a sculpture garden located on the roof will offer views towards Ajax Mountain.
The inaugural exhibition will feature the work of artists Yves Klein and David Hammons, but the museum also plans to host an exhibition dedicated to Shigeru Ban’s humanitarian housing projects.
Here’s some more information about the gallery from Aspen Art Museum:
The New Aspen Art Museum
Located on the corner of South Spring Street and East Hyman Avenue in Aspen’s downtown core a few blocks from Aspen’s main skiing/snowboarding mountain, Ajax Mountain, the new AAM is Shigeru Ban’s first U.S. museum. Of its design, Ban states: “Designing the Aspen Art Museum presented a very exciting opportunity to create a harmony between architecture and Aspen’s surrounding beauty while also responding to the need for the dialogue between artwork, audience, and the space itself.”
Proposed view from Hyman Street
Ban’s vision for the new AAM is based on transparency and open view planes—inviting those outside to engage with the building’s interior, and providing those within the opportunity to see their exterior surroundings as part of a uniquely Aspen Art Museum experience. The new Museum features 12,500 square feet of flexible exhibition space in six primary gallery spaces spread over the museum’s four levels – more than tripling the amount of exhibition space in the museum’s current facility. The galleries have a ceiling height of fourteen feet, most infused with natural light.
Visitor entrance
Visitors will enter the new AAM through a main public entry on the north side of the building along East Hyman Avenue, which allows access to the main reception area, as well as the new AAM’s two ground floor galleries. From there, visitors may choose their path through museum spaces -ascending to upper levels either via Ban’s “moving room” glass elevator in the northeast corner of the new facility, or the grand staircase on the east side of the facility perpendicular to South Spring Street. The grand staircase – an interstitial three-level passageway situated between the building’s woven composite exterior grid and interior structure – is intersected by a glass wall dividing the stairway into a ten-foot-wide exterior space, and a six-foot-wide interior space. The unique passage allows for the natural blending of outdoor and indoor spaces and will feature mobile pedestals where art will be exhibited.
Grand staircase
After climbing the grand staircase to the roof deck sculpture garden, visitors will enjoy unparalleled, sweeping vistas of Aspen’s internationally recognised environment. This will be the only unobstructed public rooftop view anywhere in town of the iconic Ajax Mountain. The roof deck will also be an activated exhibition and event space, with a café and bar and outdoor screening space. Shigeru Ban envisioned that visitors would navigate the new AAM the way a mountain is navigated when skiing or snowboarding – by proceeding to the very top of the building and descending from floor to floor.
Entrance lobby
Other features of the museum’s architecture include: “walkable” skylights that will assist in illuminating the single main gallery on the second level; two galleries, an education space, bookstore/museum shop and on-site artist apartment on the ground floor; and, on the new AAM’s lower level, three galleries, art storage, and art preparation spaces.
Milan 2014: the intricate embroidery of this rug collection, by London studio Doshi Levien for Spanish rug maker Nanimarquina, combines traditional techniques with spontaneous compositions (+ slideshow).
The Rabari Collection features three carpets made from 100 percent New Zealand wool. Each one has been handmade in India using traditional hand-knotted and hand-woven Sumak techniques – a method that produces finely woven, durable material.
“At the very beginning of the project, we decided to create a series of rugs that evoke the sensual and shiny world of the tribal folk embroidery of India,” explained Nipa Doshi from Doshi Levien.
“We already had in mind intricately hand crafted embroideries made by the Nomadic community of the Rabaris from the Kutch region,” Doshi told Dezeen.
The collection was designed in partnership with Barcelona based Nanimarquina, who specialises in manufacturing rugs in countries with long-standing traditions of craftsmanship including Nepal, Pakistan and Morocco.
An embroidery workshop in Ahmedabad, a town in Gujarat, India that is owned by one of Doshi’s relatives was given the task of creating the carpets, employing 25 highly skilled craftswomen.
“They were all experts in hand embroidery, working with glistening mirrors, silk and cotton thread and metallic sequins amongst other non-precious materials,” said Doshi.
The result is three different styles of rug – two beige and one black – that feature a combination of straight lines, spots and different colours. They come in three sizes, ranging from 170 by 240 centimetres to 300 centimetres by 400 centimetres.
The black variant features a series of lines criss-crossing across the surface. At some of the junctions between the horizontal and vertical lines, multicoloured discs are attached and swirling lines of fabric trace their way across the surface at random.
Rugs made using traditional Sumak techniques
One of the beige rugs features a lattice of darker colour fabric with rows of dots. In the middle of the design, a series of diamond, teardrop and rectangular shapes are arranged next to a streak of blue and a spade symbol with an S-shaped trail woven into the fabric.
One of the rugs in progress
The second of the beige carpets features a grid that creates a series of rows and columns, which occasionally include coloured dots.
Marking out the grid
“We wanted our collection for Nanimarquina to reference the unfinished embroideries like studies of different techniques in progress, as they gradually emerge over time,” said Doshi.
“The spontaneous compositions of the rugs embody the serendipity and freedom to improvise inherent in each step of a handmade piece; joyful, irreverent and unique.”
The Rabari Collection is due to go on show at Salone del Mobile in Milan next month. Doshi Levien will also be showing the Shanty for BD Barcelona, a cabinet designed to resemble the eclectic range of materials found in shanty houses.
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