Hasta La Ideas

Fashion designer Thom Browne has presented his collaboration with Italian textile brand Frette as part of a sleep-themed performance during Milan design week 2024.

Browne‘s Time to Sleep performance took place inside the neoclassical Palazzina Appiani in Milan’s Parco Sempione on Tuesday 16 April.

The 19th-century Napoleonic building’s upper-level salon provided the setting for the show, which revolved around six identical beds made with fine cotton sateen sheets from the American designer’s Frette collection.

“Browne has identified Palazzina Appiani, a succinct representation of neoclassicism, as an unlikely venue for a nap,” said the artist’s statement. “An immediate dialogue emerges between the generous proportions of the hall of honour and six simple mid-century cots.”

The beds were placed in a row in the highly decorative but otherwise empty room, until a bell chimed and six models in underwear entered one by one and took their spots beside their respective beds.

Another bell signaled them to begin dressing in grey Thom Browne uniforms, before two more models fixed their ties and straightened their shirts.

Once properly dressed, the six sat on their beds, had custom eye masks placed over their heads, then laid down for a nap.

The soundtrack included music that referenced sleeping, including Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty and Johannes Brahms’ Wiegenlied (Lullaby).

“The performance brings to life the collaboration and serves as a continuation of Thom’s interest in the intersection of art, fashion design and storytelling,” said the artist’s statement.

Browne’s partner collection with 160-year-old brand Frette includes duvet and sheet sets and towels, all embroidered with the brand’s recognisable four-bar insignia.

Grey wool-cashmere blankets, throws and cushions feature the same trademark stripes, while a light grey, yarn-dyed cotton velour bath robe is based on the silhouette of a Thom Browne trench coat.

Also available are gym towels and a beach bag made from soft terry cotton in white.

Browne began his eponymous brand in 2001, and Time to Sleep marked his debut event during Milan’s annual design week.

It follows a long tradition of art performances that the company has staged at architecturally significant locations, including London’s V&A Museum and New York’s Cooper Hewitt, MoMA and Met museums.

“Browne’s past works have included performance art and hand-made sculptures; architecture and proportion are often a key element in his fashion practice,” the statement said.

The designer also hosted a “teddy talk” for his toy-inspired Autumn Winter 2022 collection in New York, while mid-century offices formed a reference for his first store in San Francisco by ASA Studio Albanese.

The photography is courtesy of Thom Browne.

The post Models nap on Thom Browne bedding during Milan design week performance appeared first on Dezeen.

Walls of exposed concrete define this skinny house in Saitama, Japan, which local studio IGArchitects designed with a width of just 2.7 metres.

Named 2700, the home is designed for a young couple on a long and thin site left over following a road expansion in the city, which is close to Tokyo.

To maximise usable space, IGArchitects created a series of layered living spaces across two storeys, with flexible spaces on the ground floor and private spaces on the first floor.

“Land in Tokyo and surrounding cities is very expensive,” IGArchitects founder Masato Igarashi told Dezeen.

“We thought we could shape the possibility of living in the city by directly forming the idea of living in Tokyo with the readiness to live on a small piece of land that most people would not even look at,” he continued.

IGArchitects described 2700 as a “concrete box” with eight chunky concrete columns rising through it to support the upper storey.

The site is open to the north, south and west. Taking advantage of this, IGArchitects placed windows on all four facades of the home, allowing natural light to pour in.

On the ground floor, windows are placed at a clerestory height to provide privacy. Upstairs, smaller slot windows punctuate the concrete to provide light to the bedroom, bathroom and hallway.

“[The] building is composed of simple geometry, yet with a floating heavy-looking mass that creates a seemingly uneasy appearance,” said Igarashi.

“The intention was to create a state in which these two spaces correspond and complement each other,” he explained.

Wooden double doors lead into the home’s open-plan living space, where wooden platforms step up and down to define different areas. A small kitchenette is followed by a dining area, with a seating area to the rear.

A compact staircase at the centre of the plan leads from the dining room up to the first-floor landing, connecting the bathroom and bedroom that are positioned to the north and south respectively.

“The space feels like the inside of a cave, with tall walls and large pillars,” explained Igarashi. “However, as it goes further inside, windows get closer, and the space feels closer to outside.”

The interior spaces of 2700 are finished in a pared-back palette of just four materials, allowing the client’s furniture and belongings space to take centre stage.

Many residential projects by IGArchitects have focused on creating similarly flexible and deliberately simple living spaces.

Previous examples include a pair of family homes with open-plan living spaces framed by slender timber columns and a lantern-like dwelling with translucent windows.

The photography is by Ooki Jingu.

Project credits:

Architect: IGArchitects
Lead architect: Masato Igarashi
Engineering: Yousuke Misaki, EQSD
Collaborators: Susumu Murata, Kamo Craft
Construction: Toru Inagaki, Yasugoro Inagaki Inc.

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Architect Amos Goldreich has launched a furniture brand that spotlights the design legacy of his mother, interior architect Tamar de Shalit, ahead of his more famous father, designer and activist Arthur Goldreich.

Launched during Milan design week, Tamart’s inaugural collection features 10 furniture objects based on the archive of the late couple, a collection of more than 10,000 drawings, photographs, documents and prototypes.

South African-born Arthur Goldreich is more well-known than his Israeli wife, particularly because of his role in the anti-apartheid movement. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1963 after helping Nelson Mandela to hide from police.

Goldreich also founded the architecture and design faculty at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem.

By naming the brand Tamart, an amalgamation of Tamar and Arthur, Amos Goldreich has deliberately put De Shalit in the spotlight as the driving force behind the creative partnership.

“In some aspects, she was the better designer,” explained the London-based architect, speaking to Dezeen ahead of the launch.

“They worked on projects together, but my father was very involved in academia so he had less time to spend on architecture. In some projects you see more of her, others are more him, then there are some with an overlap.”

Goldreich is keen to highlight his mother’s non-nonsense attitude. This, combined with her attention to detail, led De Shalit to design interiors for a series of major projects.

She designed a courtroom to host the trial of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961 and worked on numerous projects in collaboration with architect Nahum Zolotov, described by Goldreich as “the Israeli Niemeyer”.

“My father liked attention – he was always the centre of the room – while my mother was the quiet one. She didn’t look for the limelight,” Goldreich told Dezeen.

“But she was a tough cookie,” he added. “You can see it from the letters she wrote to clients.”

Goldreich only discovered the wealth of projects in his parents’ archive when he inherited it after they died, De Shalit in 2009 and Goldreich in 2011.

“I knew of maybe 10 important projects growing up, but I uncovered dozens more,” he said. “I was blown away.”

“It was the start of an emotional journey of rediscovering my parents and learning things I didn’t know about them.”

After staging an exhibition in 2018, at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art in Jerusalem, the architect decided to redevelop some of the furniture designs for a contemporary market.

The results were presented in the show Tamart: Powered by Love, which was on show as part of the Milan design week exhibition Design Variations by Mosca Partners.

A significant piece in the launch collection is the Central Stool, which is based on a design that De Shalit produced as a student at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts

De Shalit and Goldreich first met while studying here in the 1950s, although they didn’t marry for another decade. It wasn’t until after Goldreich escaped from police custody in Johannesburg in 1963 and fled to Israel as a political refugee.

The Central Stool features three angular, tapered legs and a semi-circular seat. It can double as a small side table if leaned against a wall or paired with a second.

The collection also includes various pieces that were originally designed for a prestigious commission for the penthouse of entrepreneur and philanthropist Charles Clore, including a curved lounge chair and a geometric coffee table.

One of the more playful designs in the collection is the Red Rock Club Chair, designed for a Las Vegas club. The backrest of this chair is topped by a pair of spherical handles, giving people standing nearby something to hold.

The Highgate Chair is the most reworked of the designs. It is based on archive photos but has some new features, including a tilted, pill-shaped backrest and a leather seat that can be re-tensioned.

Goldreich worked with furniture designer Adrian Weidmann to adapt the designs for modern manufacturing techniques and sustainability standards. For instance, they have avoided using any upholstery foam.

Fabric options include Contrast, a woven wool textile based on a patterned scarf that De Shalit designed.

The architect sees the project as a collaboration between himself and his parents.

“These things were designed in the 1960s and things have evolved since then, so some dimensions had to be adjusted,” he said. “We also had to rely on photographs and do a lot of guesswork.

“It’s like I’m working with my parents and I have an opportunity to put my own stamp on it,” he said.

He believes his father would be thrilled with the project, while his mother would bring a more critical eye. “She was always the more pragmatic one,” he noted.

Tamart: Powered by Love takes place from 15 to 21 April 2024 as part of the Design Variations exhibition at Milan design week. See Dezeen Events Guide to discover our Milan design week guide.

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Flowers are things of beauty, whether it’s a single stem or a dozen heads. They have a naturally enchanting appearance that almost makes them feel like they come from a different world, one that’s filled with color, magic, and dreams. Those are the things that fairy tales are made of, so it’s not surprising that flowers often play an important role in these literally fantastic stories, even if just to create that mystical atmosphere. It may just be fiction, but you can bring a bit of that magic to your home with this elegant book that transforms into an enchanting pop-up vase that makes it look like your flowers are magically growing from the book, creating an atmosphere of awe and wonder at every turn of the page.

Designer: Hideaki Miyauchi

Click Here to Buy Now: $39

A vase is traditionally made of glass, ceramic, clay, or even plastic, basically any rigid material that creates a stable vessel for flowers to stand in. These are also naturally water-resistant since the plants will need water to survive longer. The last thing you’d expect is for a vase to be made out of paper, let alone one that pops out from a book like one of those kids’ fairy tale books, but that’s exactly the enchanting story that this Flowery Tale vase wants to tell.

When you turn over the cover, you’re immediately greeted by a 3D silhouette of a vase cut out from the pages of the book. Turn the page and you’ll behold yet another vase design, equally graceful and beautiful as the first. A third design awaits you on another page, giving you the power to choose how you’d like the day’s floral arrangement to be. Even better, you can turn the book upside and it will still work as a proper vase, which means you have six possible variations to choose from.

The magic behind it is actually the glass tube that you insert into the spine of the book to hold the flower and the bit of water to keep the plant alive for a few more days. The tube can be inserted right side up or upside down and it will work just fine. All vase designs, however, have a narrow silhouette on the “top” and a larger shape at the “bottom,” so you can choose which side to use depending on the volume of the flowers you intend to place.

The pages of the book are made from 100% natural pulp paper, but you don’t have to fret about accidentally splashing it with water thanks to the “OK Rain Guard” water-resistant coating applied to the material. Whether you want to highlight a single flower or impress with a bouquet, this creative Pop-up Book Vase will set the perfect stage for your design and the epic story that is your life.

Click Here to Buy Now: $39

The post 3D vases pop up from this book to add some minimal geometric designs to your home decor first appeared on Yanko Design.

Foldable phones aren’t going anywhere, at least not yet. They might not be generating much hype nowadays, but they still stir up a flurry whenever a new model launches. There’s definitely plenty of room for improvement not just in specs but also in design, and we indeed see some brands playing around with those elements a bit. Although there are now more foldable phones available, Samsung is still the undisputed leader even if by virtue of its industry clout only. Of course, its dominance is being challenged by competitors whose designs are addressing many of the flaws and limitations of the Galaxy Z Fold, which is why all eyes are on how Samsung will respond in kind this year. We might be just three months away from the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 6, so we’ve gathered in one place all the details we know so far to paint a more complete picture of what to expect from one of the pioneers of this still niche market.

Designer: Samsung (renders courtesy of Smartprix and Steve Hemmerstoffer/@OnLeaks)

Galaxy Z Fold 6: Design

The way a foldable phone works sounds almost so easy, but the reality is that it’s a hellish design to implement given the delicate balancing act that designers and engineers have to make. How do you design a smartphone that can be as big as a small tablet yet still be comfortable to use as a regular phone? To be perfectly blunt, Samsung failed to hit the mark with its first generation of foldables, but it seems to be inching closer to a better solution with each iteration.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5

Designer: Samsung

According to the accumulated leaks and rumors, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be making some rather small but significant changes to the formula. There are some disagreements on exact figures, but the consensus is that Samsung’s 2024 large foldable will have a wider external Cover Screen, a thinner and lighter frame, flatter edges, and sharper corners. These minuscule changes all add up to make the Galaxy Z Fold 6 resemble its Galaxy S cousin more.

The wider outer display will have a big impact on usability, even if the screen size itself doesn’t change. The new aspect ratio would make the phone less awkward to use as a regular phone when folded, one of the biggest and still present criticisms of Samsung’s foldable design. This does mean that the unfolded shape will be more square this time, resembling the form that other foldable phones have taken. That said, based on some of the leaked measurements, it will still not be as wide as the Google Pixel Fold or OnePlus Open which are considered to have the better design on this aspect.

Google Pixel Fold

Google Pixel Fold

Google Pixel Fold

Designer: Google

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is also expected to be thinner (5.6mm folded, 12.1mm unfolded) and lighter (239g) than any of its predecessors. This improvement is, again, based on the design of the Galaxy Z Fold before it (6.1mm folded, 13.4mm unfolded, 253g weight), but not against other brands. The recently launched Honor Magic V2 probably holds the title of thinnest and lightest foldable, but its limited availability makes that pointless for some markets. One side effect of a thinner body, however, is that there will still be no room for an integrated S Pen, something Samsung loyals have been wishing for since the Galaxy Z Fold 3.

Honor Magic V2 RSR Porsche Design

Honor Magic V2 RSR Porsche Design

Honor Magic V2 RSR Porsche Design

Designer: Honor

There are rumors of an “ultra” model for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 where Samsung will pull out most of the stops. If true, this could be a titanium-clad model, in line with the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the general trend in the industry. Of course, this would also raise prices higher, especially if the so-called Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra will include other upgrades as well.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5

Galaxy Z Fold 6: Specs and Software

Samsung always gives its flagship products the best specs available in the market, and the Galaxy Z Fold 6 won’t be any different. The question, however, is whether Samsung’s idea of “best” matches the expectations of buyers. This year, we’ll be looking at another iterative upgrade, and some consumers might not be that amused.

The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is a no-brainer for a 2024 flagship, and we haven’t heard any whispers of a special version custom-made for Samsung or the foldable. What might not see a big jump, however, is the memory that comes with the phone. RAM will be capped at 12GB yet again, with storage coming in 256GB and 512GB capacities. It’s probably high time that we get a 16GB RAM, 1TB storage Galaxy Z Fold, but that might not be on the table unless those “Ultra” model rumors pan out.

The battery is yet another aspect that is unlikely to see any changes. Although a 4,600mAh battery was earlier rumored, a thinner and lighter design would probably make more sense if Samsung sticks to the same 4,400mAh pack. Unfortunately, charging technologies aren’t expected to change either and new owners will be stuck with the same 25W wired and 15W wireless charging speeds.

Given the expected timing of the launch, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be launching with the latest One UI 6.1 version that will still be based on the current Android 14 release. It will mostly be the same user experience on the Galaxy S24, just with some foldable-specific features mixed in. Do expect that Samsung will heavily advertise AI features as well, especially those that it wasn’t able to focus on earlier this year.

Galaxy Z Fold 6: Cameras

While the incremental upgrades to specs can be forgiven, the biggest Achilles’ heel of this year’s Samsung foldable will be its cameras. Contrary to expectations and wishes, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is now believed to use the exact same set of cameras that came with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 last year. That means a 50MP main camera, a 10MP 3x zoom telephoto, and a 12MP ultra-wide. The under-display camera under the foldable screen is expected to see performance improvements but still have the same 4MP sensor.

While it’s true that you can squeeze out impressive images from such sensors using software and algorithms, you can only go so far with relatively weaker hardware. The bigger question is why Samsung is unable to use better cameras when almost all its competitors can. Thickness is definitely not an issue and it’s not like Samsung’s foldables are less expensive than other foldables, so one can only wonder about the company’s reasons.

OPPO Find N3

OPPO Find N3

OPPO Find N3

Designer: OPPO

That said, it could be setting the stage for the rumored Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra that’s said to resemble the Galaxy S24 Ultra in some ways. In addition to a titanium frame, this Ultra foldable might borrow the 200MP camera of Samsung’s early 2024 flagship. That, however, might mean changing the foldable phone’s dimensions, particularly its thickness, so there’s a very slim chance that will be the case.

Galaxy Z Fold 6: Price and Launch Date

Samsung seems to be holding its second Galaxy Unboxed event earlier each year, especially now that it has retired the Galaxy Note line. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 was announced in late July last year, with the actual shipments starting around August. This year might follow the same pattern with the announcement happening around the second week of July. This earlier date might also be due to Samsung trying to avoid clashing with the 2024 Summer Olympics, where it could be a major sponsor and advertise the Galaxy Z Fold 6 heavily during the event.

We’re not expecting any price changes this year at least, especially since there aren’t any big changes happening. The past few foldable flagships launched at $1,800, and that could still be the same starting price for a 12GB RAM, 256GB storage configuration. That said, if there is an Ultra model, the pricing scheme could shift a bit and be a bit more complicated. The base Galaxy Z Fold 6 could start at $1,700 instead, while the Ultra model with its titanium design and higher specs might hit $2,000.

Galaxy Z Fold 6: Final Thoughts

It looks like Samsung fans will be facing another iterative cycle this year as far as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is concerned. While there will be marked improvements in terms of performance and design, some of the pain points current owners have remained unaddressed. Hopefully, the wider Cover Screen aspect ratio will indeed improve the phone’s overall usability, the change might be a bit too subtle to matter. Photography is where the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will hurt the most, and Samsung has to prove that it can pull out a rabbit from its hat using these aging camera sensors.

Although Samsung leads the smartphone industry because of its wide reach and prestige, it is risking that advantage by sitting on its laurels for too long in the foldable market. Although some of its competitors aren’t available in major markets where Samsung plays, they do drive home the flaws in Samsung’s design. If these brands can achieve something that a giant like Samsung can’t, then people will start losing confidence in the brand’s products, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of weaker sales for the Galaxy Z Fold line.

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