Hasta La Ideas

A spinning oven shaped like a giant disco ball is the centrepiece of this pizzeria in Vienna by Austrian architect Lukas Galehr (+ slideshow).

Covered in hundreds of tiny mirrored tiles, the spherical pizza oven is positioned amidst the dining area and is anchored to a central chimney that allows it pivot from its centre.

The restaurant lights are dimmed for the evenings and various coloured spotlights are directed onto the oven, causing scores of pink, green and blue dots to flood across the white walls and ceilings.

Named Disco Volante, which loosely translates as flying disc, the restaurant is otherwise modelled on an authentic Napoli pizzeria with a vaulted ceiling, smooth tiled floors and clean white walls.

Black mosaic tiles lines the walls of the pizza-making area and also cover the floor surrounding the service counter and bar.

Simple wooden chairs and benches provide rows of seating, giving most diners a clear view of the glittering central feature.

Lukas Galehr is a member of design collective MadameMohr, which includes five architects and one industrial designer.

Other pizzerias to feature on Dezeen include one surrounded by tin cans and one modelled on an Italian courtyard.

See more pizzerias on Dezeen »
See more restaurant interiors »

Here’s a short movie showing the spinning oven in action:

Photography is by Lukas Schaller.

Here’s a project description from the architect:

Disco Volante

The recently opened Pizzeria is the second of its kind hosted by Maria Fuchs, a vanguard in the recent “genuine pizza” hype in Vienna. The name “Disco Volante” brings back memories of the James Bond villain Emilio Largo’s escape vessel. Also a famous car designed in the early 50ies carried this name (there has recently been a relaunch by Alfa Romeo). But in fact does the name of the pizzeria simply refer to its original meaning “flying disc”.

According to the clients wish the restaurant should not only carry the atmosphere of a southern Italian pizzeria but also transport the lightness of the “Italo-Disco” era of the 1970s and 80s.

The heart of every pizzeria is the wood fired oven which in this case is a giant disco ball with a rotating mechanism. After the dough is run out the Pizzaioli start the engine and the oven begins to slowly turn with about 1 revolution per minute.

In charge of the design as well for most of the production of the oven was Vienna based madamemohr, a young architects and designers collaborative. Their goal is not to just design but also to fabricate where possible. In this case, the outer shell of the oven which is made from heat resistant concrete, was produced utilizing CNC-milling technology to build the spherical formwork.

The mechanism allowing the oven to rotate is hidden underneath the baking surface where the heat does not damage sensitive parts. The shell is covered with approximately 7500 special cut mirror tiles which were glued on site.

The ceiling of the former grocery store revealed an extra meter of height when removed. This additional space contributes to the canteen like feeling known from the overcrowded places in Naples drowned in neon light. Adding up to this harsh and rather uncomfortable environment are the former church benches as well as the chairs, typically found in Vienna’s city departments and the tables only leaving space for a pizza and a beverage each. These attributes might sound unusual for a restaurant but are key elements of the success of “Disco Volante”.

The waiters and waitresses are all wearing special designed overalls by fashion designer Milena Heussler & Luciano Raimondi and recall a mechanics outfit.

Responsible for the design of the Neon Sign as well as all print media are grafisches Büro, Vienna.

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Lukas Galehr appeared first on Dezeen.

Architect Julien De Smedt has launched Makers With Agendas, a new design brand with products ranging from solutions to natural disasters and humanitarian crises to coat hooks and tea sets (+ slideshow + interview).

Makers With Agendas, co-founded by De Smedt and William Ravn of JDS Architects, launches tomorrow at Maison & Objet in Paris. The first collection includes a folding wooden trestle, coloured tea set, a wooden easel for displaying paintings and a butterfly-shaped coat hook that can also be used to hold keys or small accessories.

Future projects will address bigger issues, De Smedt told Dezeen. “We’re looking at displacement situations around the globe from either natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes or political conditions leading to civil wars or genocides – and will use our research to create a product addressing it,” De Smedt said.

Makers With Agendas will also be exhibited at Design September in Brussels and later in the year at the Makers With Agendas store in Copenhagen and the New Museum Store in New York.

Prior to founding JDS Architects, De Smedt worked with OMA/Rem Koolhaas and co-founded Copenhagen architecture firm PLOT with Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.

Other stories about Julien De Smedt include a stacked shelving system and a harbour-side housing development that looks like a cluster of icebergs. See all our features about JDS Architects »

See more homeware »
See more product design »

Photography is by Nikolaj Møller.

Here’s a transcript of the interview with Julien De Smedt:

Marcus Fairs: Why have you decided to launch Makers With Agendas?

Julien De Smedt: Makers’ comes for me at the confluence of three flows of needs and desires – to have a recipient for experiments, to address societal issues and to realise things exactly as I want them to be, rather than being a necessary compromise, however successful this compromise might be.

Marcus Fairs: What does the name mean?

Julien De Smedt: We’re a capacity. We’re designers, thinkers and producers. And since ultimately what matters is the result of our ideas, we put the emphasis on the act, the making. But it is not a random action, it’s intentional. We have agendas. Each of our projects tackles issues, provide answers and creates new meaning.

Marcus Fairs: What products you are launching and why? What’s different about them?

Julien De Smedt: We’re launching six products and have another six in the pipeline. Our first set is focusing on issues of transport, compactness and domestic needs. It sets the tone: even in casual settings we bring a different approach.

Our trestle, Accordion, folds into a single stick making it the most compact of its kind. T.4.2 is a tea set for two people where the cups embrace the teapot. It is our homage to conversation. Stilt gives people a new, nomadic, relationship to their interiors: with it you can move your paintings around the house. No nails are necessary to hang artworks. Butterfly is a coat hook that doubles as key and wallet holder. Who hasn’t run around the house trying to find his or her keys? Swing is a serving tray that allows you to carry full glasses, single handed and without spilling – even if you swing it over your head!

Finally, SMLXL is our first venture in fashion accessories: as one can expect from its name it is four different sized bags in a single design. From a woman stylish purse to a shoulder bag, a backpack and even a big shopper. This last design was also brought into the launch to make a statement and to show that we’re not confined to product design. We’re also working with other designers such as fashion designer Prisca Vilsbøl who was commissioned for this project.

Marcus Fairs: What else is different about the company, apart from the products?

Julien De Smedt: We’re organising ourselves and deciding our designs from another angle: we first take topics that we find relevant, interesting or urgent and we analyse them. From this analysis we extract objects. We’re now looking at displacement situations around the globe from either natural disasters (tsunamis, earthquakes, .etc) or political conditions (leading to civil wars, genocides etc) and will use our research to create a product addressing it.

We’re also working to create awareness of the different aspects of society where design plays a role, whether good or bad. In our poster campaign ‘Design Is…’ we’re discussing issues such as the relationship of the use of Coltan in mobile phones and the biggest death count since World War II, currently occurring in Congo. In a very similar way as Benetton did with [Oliviero] Toscani in the 1980s, we are working with a photographer, Nikolaj Møller, on the concept, message and its physical presence. We’re actually also the only retailer stocking COLORS magazine in our first store in Copenhagen.

Marcus Fairs: Who are your partners in the brand?

Julien De Smedt: We’re two founders: William Ravn and myself. William comes from a more business angle. At age 22 he has already been running multiple successful businesses. He interned at JDS when he was 15! Wouter Dons is the third partner. He has been working for JDS for over 6 years on all my product designs. It felt natural and necessary to have him on the Makers’ team.

Marcus Fairs: What do you plan to do in the future with the brand?

Julien De Smedt: Makers’ is a recipient for ideas for change. We’re not sure where it will go because we thought of it as a capacity rather than a company with a single business plan. For us, we see Makers With Agendas as the platform we use to discuss matters that interest us. So if we stay curious and creative it can go anywhere.

Marcus Fairs: What can architects bring to the design of furniture, tableware etc that can’t already be done by other designers?

Julien De Smedt: I don’t think being an architect grants you anymore skills to do anything better than a designer can. There are good and bad architects just like there are good and bad designers. The difference is in the impact of the crime committed. Architecture is somewhat local only and even if the impact is long lasting, the location is unique. With design the damages go further. It spreads like a virus.

I can only speak for ourselves, as Makers With Agendas: our design orientation is one of ingenuity over beauty, of content rather than looks. Which is why our style is in fact very minimal. We’d like the focus to be on the function and its idea rather than a taste judgment. I function in a very similar way with my architecture. Which is why I often call it ‘performative architecture’. Maker’ projects follow that mantra.

Marcus Fairs: What do you think about the current state of furniture/lighting/homeware design?

Julien De Smedt: I’m not really aware of what is around and do not focus on that. At least not too much. Maybe that’s already a sign of the state of things. That said, I like a lot of products I see but not always for substantial reasons. I just like them.

Marcus Fairs: Your Stacked shelving for MUUTO has been extremely successful. How did that design come about?

Julien De Smedt: I was asked by MUUTO to make a modular shelving system. I have a wall of stacked shelves I collected here and there and from my family in my apartment. It became an immediate inspiration for Stacked. In a way it was a no-brainer: three interchangeable modules of varying capacity, linked together by a simple clip. I think the success comes from the fact that the design isn’t imposed – it’s understated and leaves space for people’s appropriation.

Marcus Fairs: How do you feel about the way Stacked has been so widely imitated?

Julien De Smedt: It’s kind of insane. Sometimes it’s really an issue we can address, but most times there’s nothing we can do. It’s also the risk one takes when one makes understated design: can you really claim to have invented a box? Of course the clip is a different story. That is really our idea.

Marcus Fairs: What architecture projects are you working on at the moment?

Julien De Smedt: I’ve just delivered a large tower project in Mexico City and an entire neighbourhood design in Istanbul, where we’re also building a 100,000 m2 development. Apart from that we’re building our first projects in Asia, in Seoul and Hangzhou.

We’re also under construction of a public project for the city of Lille, a large cultural incubator in Brussels and of course we just delivered the Iceberg in Aarhus and the Kalvebod Waves in the centre of Copenhagen.

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Julien De Smedt and William Ravn appeared first on Dezeen.

London studio Duggan Morris Architects has completed a community facility in south London that combines exposed concrete frames with raw brickwork and warm oak (+ slideshow).

Named ORTUS, the three-storey building provides an education and events centre for Maudsley, a charitable foundation that acts to promote mental healthcare and well-being, and is used to host workshops and exhibitions that involve the entire community.

Duggan Morris Architects drew inspiration from neighbouring Georgian architecture to formulate the proportions of the building’s facade.  A precast concrete framework gives each elevation a strict grid, which is then infilled with a sequence of brickwork and glass.

“The building has a simple rectilinear form, with elevations composed to compliment the Georgian principles of proportion, scale, hierarchy and materiality,” said architects Joe Morris and Mary Duggan.

The brickwork appears to fade from the base of the structure to the top, changing from a typical London stock to a lighter greyish red.

Floors inside the building are staggered to create half storeys, helping to integrate activities in different spaces. These level changes are visible on the exterior walls and all centre around a grand top-lit staircase.

A cafe located near the ground-floor entrance is intended to entice visitors into the building. The first of several events spaces is positioned on one side, separated by a wide staircase that integrates an informal seating area.

“At ground level, the landscape is envisaged as a series of connected rooms, mirroring the internal configurations thus ensuring that learning activities can spill out in a controlled manner,” said the architects.

Flexible and sub-dividable spaces fill the two storeys above, plus there’s a concealed terrace on the roof.

Other projects by Duggan Morris Architects include a brick house on the site of a former plaster-moulding workshop and a converted nineteenth century farm building.

See more architecture by Duggan Morris Architects »
See more community centres »

Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.

Read on for more information from Duggan Morris:

ORTUS, Home of Maudsley Learning

ORTUS, home of Maudsley Learning is a 1,550sqm pavilion housing learning and event facilities, cafe and exhibition spaces. The central focus of this unique project, initially coined ‘Project Learning Potential’, is to create a totally immersive learning environment generating a series of interconnecting spaces to encourage intuitive learning activities either in groups or individually and also to create possibilities for digital learning via social media.

The project was initially developed through an 18 month immersion process involving research and consultation workshops with user groups, Kings College Hospital, the Institute of Psychiatry and community groups, with Duggan Morris Architects commissioned to develop the client’s brief. This process was ultimately captured through a series of ‘Vision Statements’, which guided the wider team through the project providing a constant reference point during the design development stages.

The building is now home to Maudsley Learning, a Community Interest Company which has been set up to run the building. It’s vision is to raise knowledge and awareness of mental health and wellbeing which it intends to achieve through the building, through the development of a virtual learning environment and the creation of learning events focusing on mental health and wellbeing across a broad audience.

In response to locally evident contextual influences the building has been conceived as a free standing pavilion, regular in both plan and volume.

The building has a simple rectilinear form, with elevations composed to compliment the Georgian principles of proportion, scale, hierarchy and materiality. A 1200 mm vertical grid, of precast concrete fins, articulates the contrasting materials of brick and glass, whilst floor slabs are expressed in the same material ensuring the stagger of the floor plates is abundantly clear to even the casual passer-by. Terraces at ground, inset balconies above, and a large roof terrace further articulate the simplicity of the building, whilst creating positive connections between internal spaces and the abundant landscape which sits in and around the project.

At ground level, the landscape is envisaged as a series of connected rooms, mirroring the internal configurations thus ensuring that learning activities can spill out in a controlled manner. A cafe at the ground floor is intended as a marker near the building entrance, aiming to help de-stigmatise preconceptions of mental health and well being, by making the building more accessible to the wider community, sharing with the campus a vision which includes doctors, nurses, teachers, service users and carers in promoting an integrated learning environment; ‘Learning for anyone, anywhere, at anytime’.

Spatially, the building is planned as a series of flexible, sub-dividable spaces positioned around a central multifunctional tiered space, navigated by a grand ‘open’ staircase. In cross-section, these floor plates stagger across the section by a half storey, thus the grouping of learning spaces appears to extend from the half landing of the open stair; the aim being to create a stronger visual link between floors enhancing the ethos of an immersive learning environment. The open staircase with its shortened connections across the plan is intended to encourage a domestic scale circulation system and is set away from the lift core to encourage movement and visible activity.

The central space is key to controlling the environmental performance of the building, which is uniquely passive, by introducing abundant natural light from a glazed roof into the heart of the plan, feeding each floor plate. In turn automated glazed vents throughout the building envelope introduce cooling air as required at each level throughout day and night, feeding the central stack of the void.

The building was delivered through a PPC 2000 Partnering project, tailored for Construction Management procurement. It was delivered on time and on budget. As a highly sustainable building it is designed to BREEAM excellent standard and has an ‘A’ energy rating.

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by Duggan Morris Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Australian studio Edwards Moore has revamped a small brick house in Melbourne by adding a new storey and a translucent roof (+ slideshow).

Architects Ben Edwards and Juliet Moore were tasked with increasing the size of the single-storey terraced house, as well as improving the quality of space and light inside each of its rooms.

A new storey was added over the existing structure, with a translucent roof that diffuses light through the entire upper level. Unlike the lower walls, which are made from brick and feature peeling paintwork, the extension comes with a clean black facade created by standing-seam cladding.

The new level accommodates a living room on one side and a kitchen/dining room on the other, freeing up space on the ground floor for a reception room and two generous bedrooms.

“[We] considered the addition of the second floor not simply as the addition of horizontal plane perched atop the existing structure, but equally as a vertical room that creates a great sense of volume and unity within the dwelling as a whole,” said Edwards.

A layer of perforated metal sits above exposed wooden rafters to give a see-through floor to the living room, allowing light and views down to the spaces below.

“The translucent skin floods the spaces with natural light, and strategically placed openings create a central internal landscape,” added the architect.

Cantilevered wooden treads provide a floating staircase between the two floors, resonating with the rhythm of the exposed rafters above.

Edwards Moore also recently renovated another house in Melbourne, leaving peeling plasterwork to expose sections of brick walls.

Other residential projects by the studio include a house with a combined kitchen counter and staircase, plus an apartment with chunky chipboard lining its walls.

See more architecture by Edwards Moore »
See more houses in Australia »

Photography is by Fraser Marsden.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Lightbox House

A small single-storey terrace house, dwarfed by the surrounding urban fabric. The aim, to increase the quality and scale of the living spaces within, improve the sense of aspect/outlook and access to natural light, whilst maintaining a private and comforting oasis.

By considering the addition of the second floor not simply as the addition of horizontal plane perched atop the existing structure, but equally as a vertical room which, through its connectivity between ‘branches’, creates a great sense of volume and unity within the dwelling as a whole. The translucent skin floods the spaces with natural light, and strategically placed openings create a central internal landscape.

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Edwards Moore appeared first on Dezeen.

Robots could be sent to Mars to build caves for later habitation by humans, according to a proposal for the colonisation of the planet by German firm ZA Architects (+ slideshow).

The Mars Colonisation project by ZA Architects suggests that humans could colonise the red planet by living in underground dwellings dug out of the planet’s bedrock by an advance party of solar-powered machines.

“Curiosity sooner or later will bring human to Mars and wouldn’t it be nice to have permanent station to explore it?” said Arina Ageeva of ZA Architects. “It seems pretty logical to use caves as the main protective structure of the colony.”

Robots would be flown to Mars to carve out large voids in the basalt bedrock, choosing areas where the rock has formed into distinctive hexagonal columns, which can be removed to create cathedral-like interior spaces. The distinctive, tightly packed stone hexagonal columns, which are also found on earth, are formed where basaltic lava has cooled rapidly.

The robots would then weave web-like structures from basalt fibres to create floors within the caves. Basalt fibres, made by extruding molten basalt, are cheaper and more versatile then carbon fibres, and could replace traditional construction materials on Mars, according to Ageeva.

“We can weave minimal surfaces that will be used as floors on different levels in the cave,” she told Dezeen. “This material is already in use in the aerospace and automotive industries. It is stronger and lighter than steel, easier to operate, fireproof and it does not corrode,” she added.

The Mars colonisation project was undertaken by Dmitry Zhuikov, Arina Ageeva, Krassimir Krastev of ZA Architects as part of a research project at Dessau Institute of Architecture (DIA), HS Anhalt, in Germany.

Ageeva believes humans will be sent to live on Mars within a decade, and cited the Mars One project that plans to send volunteers to establish a colony on Mars by 2023. “Right now it is may not be possible, because such robotics do not exist, but generally we don’t see anything unrealistic in this proposition,” she said.

We’ve featured a number of space-related projects recently, including an orbiting factory that will use 3D printing and robots to fabricate giant structures in space and a concept for 3D printing buildings on the moon using lunar soil.

See more features about space »
See more robots on Dezeen »

Here’s more from the architects:

Mars Colonisation

The purpose of the project is in research of the possibility to build permanent settlements on Mars, using robotics and local materials, thus reduce the price and risks. At the moment there are several crucial restrictions, first of all unreliability, high cost and size limitation of cargoes that can be delivered there.

Further, building works that can be performed on the Mars are highly restricted due to severe conditions. Idea of this project is to split construction works on two general steps: First – creation of overall big shell that will be equipped with residential, technical and other units, which is the second.

First part is to be done by the robots using only local materials. Martian surface is primarily composed of the basalt – igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of basaltic lava. During the cooling it forms topology of the tightly packed hexagonal in section columns. Idea to use the digging robots that can hew cave system, using benefits of this topology is inspired by the Fingal’s Cave. This solution allows to avoid supply from the Earth, only robots are needed.

After cave is done, astronaut mission is sent to the Mars. Using ready-assembled compact facilities they must arrange water and oxygen supply from the soil glacier and mount basalt processing plant. Robot supply plant with the crushed rock, output – basalt wool, with which the same robots insulate the walls of the cave, and basalt roving, from which another weaving robots can make the spatial spider-like web that will be used as spaces and constructions to hold the domestic and technical facilities.

According to NASA, some martian soil appropriate for growing certain agricultures. When construction is finished and contour of the cave is enclosed it is possible to arrange agricultural processes and supply base with food.

Colonisation stages:
1. Rocket with digging robots and solar power supply units are sent to the Mars
2. Robots drop-off on the surface
3. Robots analyze basalt columns on strength value, then each chooses a weakest pillar that equidistant from the others – it is a start position
4. Robots drill basalt, moving down and increasing diameter of withdrawn rock with each step, until it reaches strong pillars that remain as columns
5. Crushed rock set aside to form network of the ramps, in order to protect skylight holes from the wind and dust
6. After caves are ready human expedition travel to Mars
7. Astronauts finish the construction and arrange technical facilities as water, oxygen, basalt processing line, etc.
8. Using generated basalt roving, robots weave spatial spider-like web, that will be used as spaces and construction to hold domestic and technical facilities

name: mars colonization
status: concept
location: Mars
function: industrial, public, residential
architects: Dmitry Zhuikov, Arina Agieieva
curator: Krassimir Krastev
year: 2013

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by ZA Architects appeared first on Dezeen.