This synthetic biology project by designer Ai Hasegawa imagines that a woman could gestate and give birth to a baby from another species, in this case a dolphin, before eating it (+ movie).
I Wanna Deliver a Dolphin… was developed by Ai Hasegawa to tackle food shortages and satisfy maternal instincts as the human population burgeons by giving women the option to become surrogates for endangered animals hunted for food.
Hasegawa proposes synthesising a placenta that could support an animal in a human womb.
“This project approaches the problem of human reproduction in an age of overcrowding, overdevelopment and environmental crisis,” Hasegawa said. “With potential food shortages and a population of nearly seven billion people, would a woman consider incubating and giving birth to an endangered species such as a shark, tuna or dolphin?”
The designer also questions whether someone would feel differently about eating a delicacy having personally carried and nurtured it.
“Would raising this animal as a child change its value so drastically that we would be unable to consume it because it would be imbued with the love of motherhood?” asked Hasegawa.
As a case study for the concept Hasegawa chose the Maui’s dolphin, one of the world’s smallest and most rare species of dolphin that has been critically endangered as a consequence of human fishing.
A Maui’s dolphin is roughly the same size as a human baby and is regarded as highly intelligent.
For a woman to gestate a dolphin, Hasegawa proposes biologically modifying a placenta to prevent the passage of antibodies from mother to baby that attack non-human cells.
“The placenta originates from the baby’s side, which in this case is a dolphin, and not from the human side,” said Hasegawa. “This avoids the ethical and legal difficulties associated with reproductive research involving human eggs.”
The “dolp-human” placenta would be altered to distinguish between mammal and non-mammal cells, rather than human and other cells, so the foetus would escape attack from the antibodies.
After birth, the mother would have to administer fat-rich synthesised milk to the baby to build it’s immune system, which a dolphin would naturally get from its mother’s milk rather than via the placenta.
Humans are genetically predisposed to raise children as a way of passing on their genes to the next generation. For some, the struggle to raise a child in decent conditions is becoming harder due to gross overpopulation and an increasingly strained global environment.
This project approaches the problem of human reproduction in an age of overcrowding, overdevelopment and environmental crisis. With potential food shortages and a population of nearly seven billion people, would a woman consider incubating and giving birth to an endangered species such as a shark, tuna or dolphin? This project introduces the argument for giving birth to our food to satisfy our demands for nutrition and childbirth, and discusses some of the technical details of how this might be possible.
Would raising this animal as a child change its value so drastically that we would be unable to consume it because it would be imbued with the love of motherhood? The Maui’s dolphin has been chosen as the ideal “baby” for this piece. It is one of the world’s rarest and smallest dolphins, classified critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation’s Red List of Threatened Species (version 2.3) because of the side effects of fishing activity by humans, its size (which closely matches the size of a human baby), and its high intelligence level and communication abilities.
I Wanna Deliver a Dolphin… imagines a point in the future, where humans will help this species by the advanced technology of synthetic biology. A “dolp-human placenta” that allows a human female to deliver a dolphin is created, and thus humans can become a surrogate mother to endangered species. Furthermore, gourmets would be able to enjoy the luxury of eating a rare animal: an animal made by their own body, raising questions of the ownership of rare animal life, and life itself.
To make it possible for a human mother to deliver a dolphin from her womb, there is a need to synthesise “The Dolp-human Placenta”. The usual human placenta interacts to pass from mother to baby oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, hormones, antibodies (Immunoglobulin Gamma, IgG) and so on. The Dolp-human placenta blocks the delivery of IgG to the baby.
The placenta originates from the baby’s side, which in this case is a dolphin, and not from the human side. This avoids the ethical and legal difficulties associated with reproductive research involving human eggs.
The decidua is formed by implantation of the egg. Usually, foreign cells in the body (for example from other individuals) are attacked by the immune system, but inside the decidua they are tolerated. However, even though the decidua accepts cells from other individuals, non-human cells would still be attacked. In the dolp-human placenta case, it has been modified to distinguish mammal from non-mammal cells, making it even more tolerant.
News:robots could soon be operating on beating human hearts while a surgeon based in a different part of the world directs the procedure remotely, according to a designer working on a new generation of medical equipment.
The Miro Surge system: a surgeon controls three robots at the operating table
The surgeon would see a static heart on a 3D screen and the robots would attune themselves to the heart’s movement, overcoming many of the risks of existing heart surgery techniques.
“Our ultimate ambition is robot-supported surgery on the beating heart,” said Tilo Wüsthoff, an industrial designer at German national aeronautics and space research centre DLR. “For the surgeon this means that he will see a virtually stabilised video picture of the beating heart. He can focus on his task while the robot follows the motion of the beating heart.”
The MiroSurge system with three Miro robot arms mounted at the operating table
Surgeons sitting at a remote console would use telemanipulation to control the robot arms, allowing sophisticated operations to be carried out using minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques that require minimal incisions in the patient’s skin.
Telemanipulation techniques would also allow surgeons on earth to operate on astronauts in space, Wüsthoff said. “Ensuring medical assistance for astronauts with telemanipulated robots is part of different visions for long-term space missions to remote locations such as Mars,” he said.
Miro instruments for minimal invasive surgery
MiroSurge, the surgery-performing robots developed by Wüsthoff, appear in the science fiction movie Ender’s Game, which was released this month.The robots carry out a remote operation on Ender, the lead character, who is an astronaut fighting off an alien invasion of earth. “The robot removes an implant from [lead character] Ender’s neck,” said Wüsthoff.
Minimally invasive surgery is preferable to open surgery because there is less risk of infection and quicker recovery times. However complex operations such as heart surgery are difficult to carry out using MIS techniques, because the surgeon cannot see what is happening and because the of the movement of the beating heart.
Miro instruments for minimal invasive surgery
Surgeons today use a heart-lung machine to take over the functions of the heart during surgery, but this is traumatic and risky to the patient. MicroSurge techniques would allow the patient’s heart to continue beating normally while the surgeon would watch the operation on a 3D screen via an endoscope within the patient’s body, which would show an apparently static heart.
“[It] allows the surgeon to focus on his medical skills,” said Wüsthoff. “He can get back to being a surgeon instead of an operator of a complex technical system.”
The MicroSurge robot arms would control slender surgical implements that would be inserted through small openings in the patient’s skin. Several robots mounted around the operating table would work together to carry out surgery.
Here’s a short interview with Tilo Wüsthoff:
Rose Etherington: How does MiroSurge feature in the Ender’s Game movie?
Tilo Wüsthoff: MiroSurge is part of a key sequence at the beginning of the film where the robot removes an implant from [lead character] Ender’s neck that is part of the military training/observation programme.
Rose Etherington: How realistic is this? How will robot-assisted surgery will develop next?
Tilo Wüsthoff: The DLR is working on a telesurgery scenario called MiroSurge that consists of a master console (input) and three robots that are tele-operated by a surgeon. Our aim is to provide a truly versatile system for robot assisted minimal invasive surgery. On that we are working together with surgeons and their teams.
These people are creative minds too and in the future it will be the users, it will be the medical staff that will come up with ideas and concepts for novel surgical procedures in the operating room.
Rose Etherington: What kind of advances in procedures or machinery could we see in five or ten years’ time?
Tilo Wüsthoff: The key objective of the DLR MiroSurge system is to overcome the drawbacks of conventional minimal invasive surgery: the surgeon virtually regains direct access to the operating field by having 3D endoscopic sight, force feedback, and restored hand-eye-coordination. So it is actually the technical complexity of the system that allows the surgeon to focus on his medical skills. He can get back to being a surgeon instead of an operator of a complex technical system.
Our ultimate ambition is robot-supported surgery on the beating heart. The application of the heart-lung machine would become obsolete for a whole variety of procedures that way. Collaterally, the very traumatizing effects of the heart-lung machine on the patient could be avoided (eg blood contact with extrinsic surfaces, inevitable blood clotting attenuation, typical generalized inflammation reaction).
For the surgeon this means that he will see a virtually stabilized video picture of the beating heart. He can focus on his task while the robot follows the motion of the beating heart.
Rose Etherington: Would the surgeon still need to be in the operating theatre?
Tilo Wüsthoff: A key aspect of robot assisted technology is that it can be used in a telepresence setup, meaning that the surgeon can operate in a remote location. For us as part of the DLR, the national aeronautics and space research centre of the Federal Republic of Germany, this is important in the context of space travel. Ensuring medical assistance for astronauts with tele-manipulated robots is part of different visions for long-term space missions to remote locations such as Mars.
Museo Jumex presents a selection of pieces from the Colección Jumex, an assemblage of over 2000 artworks by contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons, Olafur Eliasson and Tacita Dean, as well as Mexican artists including Abraham Cruzvillegas and Mario García Torres.
London firm David Chipperfield Architects collaborated with local studio TAAU on the design of the building, which features walls of concrete and locally sourced white travertine, as well as a sawtooth roof that brings natural light into the top floor galleries.
Fourteen columns raise the base of the structure, allowing the ground floor to open out to a surrounding public plaza.
According to the architects, the structure “appears as a freestanding pavilion that corresponds to the eclectic nature of the neighbouring buildings”.
The museum is also hosting a programme of educational activities and temporary exhibitions, including the first show by American artist Cy Twombly in Latin America.
Interview: with a new monograph and an exhibition in New York, Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld talks to Dezeen about his 40-year career, his love of Radiohead, and the buildings he has yet to design (+ slideshow + interview).
“I don’t like to look back, to be honest,” he told Dezeen, speaking from Espasso Gallery in New York, where the A | Z by Isay Weinfeld exhibition opened last week. “But one of the things that I am very proud of is the wide variety of work.”
Isay Weinfeld is one of Brazil’s leading contemporary architects. Born in São Paulo in 1952, he studied at the School of Architecture at the city’s Mackenzie University and launched his multidisciplinary practice in 1973.
Working predominantly in his home country, he has designed numerous private residences as well as apartment buildings, hotels, shops, banks and restaurants.
The New York exhibition also marks the launch of a new monograph by Raul A. Barreneche about Weinfeld’s commercial projects. However Weinfeld was keen not to present photos or models of his work at the show, explaining: “I am not looking for new clients!”
Instead, the gallery features films of his buildings, plus a cradle and a coffin. “This idea expresses my wish to design from the beginning of life to the end,” he says.
The exhibition, A | Z by Isay Weinfeld, is at Espasso, 38 N Moore Street, New York until 1 December. The monograph is published by BEI Editora and is also available through Espasso.
Alyn Griffiths: Do you have a particular visual language or material palette?
Isay Weinfeld: No never. I run from belonging to any school or any style, I hate to be labelled, I prefer not to have a style, I am more free. I choose materials according to the project, according to the clients, the country, the project that I am designing and I love all the materials.
Hotel Fasano Las Piedras, Punta del Este, Uruguay
Alyn Griffiths: How does it feel to look back over your career?
Isay Weinfeld: I don’t like to look back, to be honest. But one of the things that I am very proud of is the wide variety of work. I could never stay designing the same thing in my life or be specialised designing houses or hotels or restaurants. Since the first year I tried not to take jobs that were related to the last one.
Fazenda Boa Vista – Centro Equestre, Porto Feliz, Brazil
I am curious about things, I like to design things I haven’t done before, to learn more about it and this is what moved me. I remember one summer a private foundation, a family of art collectors from the south of Brazil, called me to design a very small cultural centre for their foundation. They told me they needed to have a small art gallery inside.
I said I already designed two art galleries, and they also said they needed a bar, and I said I designed some bars already. Then they said they need a restaurant inside, but I already designed this. Then I noticed I know how to manage some of my instruments of work.
Hotel Fasano Boa Vista, Porto Feliz
Alyn Griffiths: It sounds like you’ve designed everything!
Isay Weinfeld: No, not yet! I would love to design a brothel or a gas station.
Alyn Griffiths: How do you choose which projects to take on?
Isay Weinfeld: I pay a lot of respect to the people who find my telephone number and ask me to design something. This respect is maybe the most important thing in my relation with my clients. I would never design a house that I want to design, in the way that I want to design. I always try to design a house they want but through my eyes. This is a very subtle difference that is very important to me.
Square Nine Hotel, Belgrade, Serbia
It’s very common to hear an architect saying that clients ruin their work and it’s never happened [with me] – the client always adds to my work because I always choose them very carefully. I select not because I am arrogant, but because I’m honest. Maybe I’m not the right architect to do your work, maybe I’m not capable.
If you are a good client for me, and I am a good architect for you, we for sure will be happy together. But we need to have respect. The client also adds, mainly in a private house, because it’s their house, not my house. The client is giving you an opportunity, so to make your own masterpiece is disrespectful in my opinion.
Alyn Griffiths: Is that an unusual approach?
Isay Weinfeld: Yes, it’s a big problem. At least in my profession, it’s all about yourself and I am just a servant, I am hired to serve somebody with pleasure.
Alyn Griffiths: Are there any other architects whose work inspires you?
Isay Weinfeld: No. I have three or four architects that I love but I’m not inspired by them. If I love arts and music and theatre, I am much more inspired by the other arts than architecture.
Alyn Griffiths: How do those translate into your work?
Isay Weinfeld: Oh I don’t know, I don’t know how but it’s very clear and very present. Because I see a lot of relation between all this art. One day I designed a disco that was completely dark but very colourful inside. The sink and the restrooms, the tiles, some furniture, the whole thing was black. But certainly we had these colours all over like a rainbow.
Then I heard a track by my favourite band Radiohead called Motion Picture Soundtrack and it was unbelievable – the translation of that work. It was not the music that inspired my work but it was exactly the same, it was music that started completely black and then turned into a rainbow of colours at the end and I put this music in my office for the rest of the team to hear and to see if they felt like me.
I always see relations between all the visual arts – you have now at the Tate Modern a wonderful exhibition by a Brazilian artist called Mira Schendel. She’s my favourite artist and she died many years ago but I am always trying to do what she achieved in her life; very strong and minimal work. She is a great influence in my work also.
Alyn Griffiths: What do you think about current contemporary Brazilian culture?
Isay Weinfeld: I think many things are happening but maybe these were happening before. It has waves, I think that the world is paying more attention because now it’s Brazil and in a year it’ll be the Philippines. But in Brazil, São Paolo is always an energetic city with a very creative feeling, many movements of architecture and music are always booming. I can see, as a Brazilian, many interesting movements, all over Brazil.
Alyn Griffiths: There seems to be a renewed interest in Brazilian architects such as Lina Bo Bardi.
Isay Weinfeld: Yes, it’s a pity that people are only now knowing who Lina Bo Bardi is. She is my favourite Brazilian architect and her work is amazing and I am very glad that the world is paying attention to her work. It is a mix of very strong Brazilian soul with pure lines and she worked very intensively in Bahia and with the people of the state. She was Italian and they have a very strong relation with the culture of Brazil.
Alyn Griffiths: There seems to be such a disparity between wealth and poverty in Brazil – can architecture help bridge that gap and address some of the other social issues in Brazil’s cities?
Isay Weinfeld: It’s difficult, but maybe yes. I don’t believe that architecture has this power. We know that very young people are redesigning some very poor villas and I know that the poor people, when they see a new building ready, they want to move to the new one, not because it’s new but because it has a better space and a better way to live. This is why I think architecture helps to create better places for people to live in.
Alyn Griffiths: Your 360º Building tries to provide more outdoor space for people in urban areas – how could that be applied to the rest of Brazil’s overcrowded cities?
Isay Weinfeld: This is just a small example, we have also the problem with security so it was a way to have your house above in a building, with a garden or a courtyard the same size as the space inside but open and more protected. This is something that is missing in Brazil because of security; to have your own small house with a garden, so this offers an answer to people who want spaces like this.
Alyn Griffiths: Why did you choose to get involved with that project?
Isay Weinfeld: With a building, when you first have some ideas and for commercial business, it’s difficult to have a real estate guy with something good in mind that is not just to earn more money. I am working now for a company who think about doing something interesting in the city for people to change the relation with the city again so buildings don’t have so many fences, so many guards.
They want this and they are trying to do things better. It moves me to work and to do something that is much more than a private house, where I can interfere in the city and try to make new ways of living and help people live better.
Alyn Griffiths: What else are you working on at the moment?
Isay Weinfeld: I think some eight or ten houses. We are doing more than ten buildings. One is starting now: its a competition that we won in Monaco for a residential building for the Royal family. It was a private competition between ten offices that we won one and a half years ago. They are now starting to build it. Another building in Montevideo in Uruguay, it’s also a residential building. Three hotels, one in Brasilia and two in the state of Bahia, one in city of Salvador, the other one in Trancoso.
Restaurante Fasano, São Paulo
The client in Brasilia is private client that I designed a house for twelve years ago. They are lawyers but they love architecture. In the city of of Brasilia, it’s divided in the main axis of the city, and there’s a place just for hotels and they have the last lot for a hotel in Brasilia. They called me to design a huge executive hotel that’s very well designed, that we are doing. It’s 300 rooms and will be ready next year. There are many other things including two houses in Miami and a house in the Carribbean, and I’m starting something here in New York also.
Alyn Griffiths: Are you involved in any projects related to next year’s World Cup?
Isay Weinfeld: No but I’m trying to see my idol Neymar – he’s a genius! When he was playing in Brazil, I used to go to Santos where he played. I saw Pele many times in my life but after Pele, this is the guy.
Livraria de Vila, São Paulo
Alyn Griffiths: Tell me about the scope of this exhibition at Espasso in New York.
Isay Weinfeld: I don’t know if its an exhibition but its the launch of my new book in New York that is a selection of commercial works. The previous one was just residential and this one is commercial. We have here in New York a big space, to make this launch of the book, they suggested to me to show all forty years of my work, showing photos, drawings, models, everything about my whole life designing. But this is not me in this way and I’m not this kind of guy who wants to come to New York or London to show myself in this very obvious way and I am not looking for new clients! I don’t have any interest to show my work like this. Then I decided to think about something more certain and concise about my view of my profession.
So I made a small pavilion with two rooms inside a white box, and it has two pieces inside that express exactly what I think about life and my profession. I designed a cradle made with Brazilian wood and some fabric inside and placed it in a square, completely black room with a very subtle light above it. Then you have a black corridor that opens suddenly to a very bright white room where there is a coffin, using the same fabric as the cradle.
Apart from these exhibits, we are also showing a part of a new project that we are doing, mixing architecture, cinema and music that is my great passion. It’s a very short film, about my works, but there’s no commentary because it’s very short, it’s two minutes maximum, showing my view of my works. There are now 40 films ready, there will be between 80 and 100. But we have 40 ready and we are showing 14 of these films on a loop here in the exhibition. This project will launch in December in Brazil and we are also designing an app. Every two weeks it will upload a new film in your iPhone.
Crib at Espasso Gallery
Alyn Griffiths: What is the significance of the crib and the coffin in the Espasso gallery?
Isay Weinfeld: I always try to design everything in my profession: if I design a house, I design the interiors, the bell, everything. I see architecture as a whole thing, as if I was an art director. This idea expresses my wish to design from the beginning of life to the end.
Volcanic soil was mixed with cement to create the building blocks of this house in south-west Japan by Tokyo studio Aray Architecture (+ slideshow).
Located in Kagoshima Prefecture, the two-storey residence accommodates a family of six, who requested an energy-efficient home that incorporates natural systems of heating and cooling.
Architect Asei Suzuki of Aray Architecture specified locally produced bricks for the walls of the house, which were made by combining volcanic ash soil with cement. These bricks were used for the both the inner and outer layers of the walls, and are left exposed throughout.
“The spaces between bricks form an insulating layer to reduce the thermal load from the outside. It plays the role of an aerated zone to prevent condensation,” Suzuki told Dezeen.
A skylight in the centre of the roof helps to draw air up through the building. “The form of the house promotes the airflow stack effect,” added Suzuki.
The family dining room and kitchen are positioned in the middle of the house, while a double-height living room occupies a triangular space on one side and opens out to a decked terrace.
A timber and steel staircase leads up to the first floor, which contains a children’s room and a study. There’s also a small enclosed terrace, which is fronted by perforated brickwork to allow views down to the street.
Here’s some more information from ARAY Architecture:
Shirasu
The resident did not rely on energy in South Kyushu of high temperature and humidity, and hoped for ecology life with the environment.
The wind of land is felt, rain water is saved, and it enjoys gardening. It is native life. The site is a residential quarter that extends on a Shirasu plateau near from the Kagoshima City downtown. I then thought native house (eco-house) with the soil (Shirasu) as the material that formed this plateau native by the made Shirasu block.
Shirasu has a lot of characteristics in other geological features like fireproof, adiabaticity, the humidity conditioning, thermal storage, and lightness, etc. without. Pressurising and construction it the technology of a monotonous block in Shirasu for the pavement that had begun to spread in the city was made the best use of, and production with the block for the construction of Shirasu was tried for the first time.
To secure material strength, the outside wall block changed mixing Cirrus. It inlaid with the raw ore of Cirrus to improve the adsorption and desorption of moisture to the inner wall block. At the same time, the character of this Shirasu appears as an expression of the memory accumulating to the block. The house where in all outer had been piled up on an inside and outside midair layer double wall became a space wrapped in the soil like the cave in Cirrus.
This inside and outside midair layer double wall has reduced the thermal loading to the inside. In addition, the inner wall block surrounds like finish in any room of the house, and adjusts the indoor humidity. Therefore, the inside is chilly cool, and warm summer in winter.
It is a steady throughout the year thermal environment. It proposed the energy performance of underground resources accumulated in the Shirasu plateau and it proposed the space with a new environmental circulation type to the Shirasu block by reproducing.
These metal carafes by Amsterdam-based designer Michael Schoner look as if they have been chopped to create a spout (+ slideshow).
Prototyped and welded in Istanbul by local craftsmen, Schoner‘s Chop Carafe features an angular spout that sits at a 30-degree angle to the main body of the carafe.
Schoner told Dezeen about working with small Turkish manufacturers: “Handcraft in Turkey is affordable and little workshops are very willing to work together.”
The carafes are cut from industrial aluminium pieces with circular or rectangular profiles.
A section is removed to create an edge for attaching the spout, which welded on along with a base and a piece to fill the remaining gap to create the final shape.
The welded joints are smoothed out and the product is coated for use with liquids such as wine, water or juices.
The rectangle-shaped design comes in two versions for right and left-handed use, depending on which corner the spout is attached. Photography is by the designer.
Here is some more information from Schoner:
Chop Carafe
The Chop Carafe is based on the observation that if one takes a volume it can be cut in and fold it out to create a snout. The carafes are made from standard aluminium profiles as used in the building industry. The profiles are cut in and a segment is removed. Adding a bottom- and a “V” shaped plate the parts are then welded together into the final shape.
After grinding and pearling they are anodised and coated against fruit acids. The carafes hold between 0,7 to 1,0 litres and are made for liquids like wine, water or juices. There are three different basic shapes based on round, square and rectangular aluminium profiles.
The spout folds out 30 degrees. Since on the square and rectangular carafe they fold out diagonally one ends up with an either left-handed or right-handed version. The project was born out of a foam-cutter logic that is often used in contemporary architecture and with a CNC pipe-cutter in mind. From first idea to status quo two years have passed.
First tryouts where done in Amsterdam, but on a trip to Istanbul the prototyping was solved in an pleasant ad-hoc mentality of local craftsmen in September 2012. In a team play between a local profile shop, a work-shop specialised in cutting and a old local welder in the district of Çağlayan, all found at the local bar, the prototypes were ready within 24 hours.
This Corten steel footbridge arches across a new bypass in Spain to connect the small town of Sant Pere Sacarrera with a network of woodland pathways (+ slideshow).
Spanish civil engineers Alfa Polaris designed the footbridge to link two banks that are both at different levels, creating a safe pedestrian crossing that doesn’t disrupt traffic flow.
“The client not only wanted to provide pedestrians a pleasant user experience, but also carry out an attractive design that would improve the visual experience of the drivers,” said the design team.
Formed of two truss girders, the asymmetric bridge is made from pre-weathered steel that will resist any further corrosion. The deck comprises a row of timber slats.
The northern end of the bridge is positioned higher and features a zig-zagging ramp to make up for the slope, while the southern side is a square platform.
“[This] creates a sort of balcony piazza that provides users great views over the town and its surroundings,” said the engineers, who previously designed a similar Corten steel footbridge elsewhere Spain.
Low-maintenance LED lamps light the bridge at night.
Photography is by Xavier Font.
Here’s some more information from the designers:
Sant Pere Sacarrera Footbridge
This footbridge over the new bypass of Sant Pere Sacarrera is part of an Y-shaped itinerary that links the town centre with two footpaths that give access to a forest area and were interrupted by the new road.
The client not only wanted to provide pedestrians a pleasant user experience, but also carry out an attractive design that would improve the visual experience of the drivers, avoiding, however, luxurious solutions.
The aim was to get a proposal with reduced whole life cost and environmental burdens. For this reason the design team proposed a Corten steel truss girder structure – very efficient from the structural point of view and whose rusted skin protects itself from further corrosion – for the deck; the use of LED lamps – with long life span and energy efficiency – for the street lighting over the footbridge; and polymeric timber – with almost no maintenance – for the decking over the structure.
The design of the new footbridge was strongly conditioned by the asymmetric shape of the cross section of the road trench, marked by the different level of the two banks. A footbridge composed by two elements was proposed. The main one is a two span continuous deck formed by two Warren truss girders with variable depth, linked together at bottom flanges by transversal beams. The latter, in turn, give support to the variable wide polymeric timber decking through longitudinal joists.
The main span of this element crosses the road, while the second one remains integrated to the north abutment, where a zig-zag ramp raise its level and therefore helps reduce the longitudinal slope of this element.
The second element is a square platform integrated to the south abutment, which creates a sort of balcony piazza that provides users great views over the town and its surroundings.
The main girders have a slight curved shape in elevation and their depth varies, being maximum at the north end – where the deck width is minimum – and minimum at its south end – where the deck width is maximum.
Since the upper chord of the truss has no bracing, in order to prevent it from lateral buckling, the designer improved the torsional stiffness of the bottom chord by giving it a hollow box shape, reinforced the lateral stiffness of the web members and increased the width of the top chord, to which an inverted U shape was given. This allows enough room for the lights to be embedded in it.
High efficiency low maintenance LED technology lamps were installed on each of the bays of the truss. This solution not only provides an agreeable street lighting along the crossing, but, by means of the combination of light and shadows, in the night it highlights the beauty of the structure.
Australian studio Tony Hobba Architects sourced weathered steel piles that had previously been used as flood barriers to build this kiosk beside a surfers’ beach in Torquay, Australia (+ slideshow).
Entitled Third Wave Kiosk, the small structure was designed by Tony Hobba Architects to provide changing rooms, toilets, a cafe, and a meeting point for the popular beach, and it is positioned in a prominent spot between the car park and the seafront.
The self-supporting sheet piles, which are typically used for constructing seawalls and piers, slotted together without any additional fixings to create large corrugated walls around the kiosk.
“The height and profile of the building has been designed to respond to the prevailing coastline undulations and windswept vegetation, and uses these natural inflections to inform its final folded appearance,” say the architects.
The rusted surface of the metal forms a weather-proof coating around the building that will protect it against erosion.
“These sheet piles have intentionally been left in their original condition to emphasise the reddish brown and yellow oxides of weathered steel and harmonise with the colour of the surrounding cliffs,” added the architects.
Although intended as a permanent facility, the structure has no fixed footings, so it could be easily dismantled and re-erected in a different location.
It is accompanied by an outdoor seating area and elevated lookout point, which features retaining walls made from the same sheet metal.
Here’s a project description from Tony Hobba Architects:
Third Wave Kiosk – The Esplanade, Torquay VIC
Central to the design of the Third Wave Kiosk is reverence for its environmental setting; engagement with beach culture; resilience to natural forces and energetic youths; and attention to modest and elegant simplicity.
The brief was to design a new public facility at Torquay Surf Beach that contained a new kiosk, toilets and change rooms that would be open year round, service an assortment of recreation users and provide an important beachside destination.
Due to the site’s high level of local, regional and international use throughout the year, together with its visual prominence along this section of coastline, the design of the project recognised the need to adequately service community, recreation and tourist requirements whilst sensitively integrating and respecting the local coastal environment and adhering to the Victorian Coastal Strategy.
The building is positioned adjacent to the nexus of pedestrian circulation, between the main car park and beach access path, to guarantee maximum foot traffic; and is visible from the beach and water’s edge as it gently emerges from the primary dune.
In order to engage beach goers, an elevated lookout and alfresco seating area (65m2) has been provided adjacent to the Kiosk which not only overlooks the beach but doubles as an easily identifiable landmark and meeting point. At only 20m2, the compact kiosk kitchen and servery caters for 1-3 staff depending on seasonal demand. A 25m2 service court out the back caters for additional storage, deliveries and a few empty milk crates keenly commandeered during smoko.
The height and profile of the building has been designed to respond to the prevailing coastline undulations and windswept vegetation, and uses these natural inflections to inform its final folded appearance. The form therefore takes on a sculptural quality which blends in with the surrounding environment and shrouds the utilitarian function of the working core.
This is accentuated through its use of coastally identifiable materials and colours by using recycled sheet piles typically used for seawall, bridge and pier construction to be the predominant exoskeleton and expression of the building. These sheet piles have intentionally been left in their original condition to emphasise the reddish brown and yellow oxides of weathered steel and harmonise with the colour of the surrounding cliffs.
This system of construction proved extremely efficient, both structurally and financially, as the sheet piles were used as permanent retaining walls for the alfresco terrace and lookout; provided permanent formwork for the building slab; and extended up as the primary structure and facade of the building. It appears that this is the first building in Australia to utilise the material in such a way, with the added bonus of reducing the projects embodied energy.
With sustainability and re-use integral to the outcome, the recycled sheet piles were procured from the 2010/2011 Victorian floods where they were last used for flood protection works along the Murray River to assist in mitigating the devastating water damage experienced by the local river communities during this extreme rain event.
Environmentally, the use of sheet piles for the project allowed for a system of construction which was extremely efficient, both structurally and financially, as they are self-supporting components which are linked together with no mechanical fixings and require no permanent footings. This allows the building to touch the ground lightly and be very easily dismantled and or re-erected if required.
The flexibility of the system also enabled the project to utilise the sheet piles as permanent retaining walls for the alfresco terrace and lookout; permanent formwork for the building slab; and as the primary structure and facade of the building; thus eliminating the need for a traditional two component sub-frame and cladding system.
With sustainability and re-use integral to the projects outcome, these recycled sheet piles procured from the 2010/2011 Victorian floods came with the added bonus of reducing the projects embodied energy.
Section A
Socially, the kiosk provides an important landmark and meeting point for the local community and services the growing number of tourists and recreational users that not only swarm to the coast during summertime, but right throughout the year due to its year round appeal.
Section B
Economically, the structural efficiency of the sheet pile system allowed for a project with a limited budget to be appropriately and innovatively completed, on time and on budget, and in the manner befitting such a unique location. It also provides employment for 1-3 staff and has a tenancy dedicated to sourcing regional produce in order to reduce its food miles.
Section C
Consultant Team Details Architectural Practice: Tony Hobba Architects Project Team: Michael Lucas, Tony Hobba, Jordan Wright Client: GORCC (Great Ocean Road Coastal Committee) Builder: Philip Jessen Structural Engineer: Harrington Gumienik & Partners Hydraulic Engineer: Peter Tibballs & Associates Electrical Engineer: Dick Twentyman & Associates
Dezeen Music Project: French artist Bertrand Lanthiez created this audiovisual installation by projecting white light along criss-crossing woollen threads (+ movie).
Called Sounds of Threads, the installation comprises strands of wool stretched between four wooden stands, with beams of white light projected across them in time to a piece of music.
“I was interested in questions of how sight can enhance hearing, or also disturb our balance in perceiving a multimedia-based bodily experience,” said Lanthiez.
“I tried to demonstrate the power of our senses when they interact simultaneously,” he added.
Lanthiez composed an original piece of music to use in the installation, which he exhibited earlier this year in Reykjavik.
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