A brass table with a gently rippled surface provides the reading area of this Japanese library dedicated to the sea and designed by Swedish studio ETAT arkitekter (+ slideshow).
Architects Erik Törnkvist and Malin Belfrage of ETAT inserted the small library inside a 1920s schoolhouse on Awashima Island – one of the 12 islands within Japan’s Seto Inland Sea that is hosting the Setouchi Triennale 2013.
As one of a series of projects organised for the art exhibition, the Sea Library is a place where visitors are invited to donate any books containing history or stories of the ocean.
The rectangular brass table fills the centre of the space, allowing enough space for eight people to sit and read together. The architects have also added a rippled brass screen in front of one wall, creating wavy reflections of the interior that are reminiscent of water.
“[The] refurbishment is designed to highlight the material and spatial qualities of the existing wooden building and to enhance its relationship to the sea,” said Törnkvist and Belfrage.
Brass brackets support wooden shelves along the edges of the room, providing storage areas for books that have been collected in various languages.
Here’s a project description from ETAT Arkitekter:
Library in Awashima
ETAT arkitekter/ETAT Architects has been commissioned by Art Setouchi to design a library located on Awashima Island in the Seto Inland Sea, Japan.
The new library is housed in an existing heritage-classified building from the 1920’s located on the port’s sea front. ETAT’s refurbishment is designed to highlight the material and spatial qualities of the existing wooden building and to enhance it’s relationship to the sea. For new additions the predominant material is brass, which is used as wall surface, for fittings and for the 3.6 x 3.6 meters reading table.
The library is a regional development project in order to revitalise Awashima and the project is part of the art and architecture triennale Setouchi International Triennale 2013.
The library was opened in early October 2013 and has since attracted more than 1,000 visitors.
To drive the vehicle, users wear an electroencephalography (EEG) headset that measures electrical activity within the neurones of the brain and converts these fluctuations into signals that control the toy car. “As you try to focus, the increased light intensity of the vehicle indicates the level of attention you have reached,” explained Bernal. “Once the maximum level is achieved and retained for seven seconds, the vehicle starts moving forward.”
Bernal developed his project to help users train themselves in overcoming concentration problems associated with attention deficit disorders. “This project helps users to develop deeper, longer concentration by exercising the brain,” the designer told Dezeen. “It is possible for people to train or treat their minds through their own effort, and not necessarily using strong medicines such as ritalin.”
His design uses the fluctuating light levels to visualise the level of attention a user achieves in real time and rewards above-average concentration when the car moves. “I call this an empiric neuro-feedback exercise that people can do at home,” he says. “The user can’t feel anything tactile, but he will be able to visualise the behaviour of the brain.”
As part of his research for the project, Bernal visited the Dutch Neurofeedback Institute, where EEG is already used for the treatment of attention disorders, and found that “they tend to use software and digital interfaces as feedback, even-though ADHD patients are the most likely individuals to develop addictions to TV, video games and computers.”
“My project is basically a new way of employing the EEG technology in an analog way because from my personal experience, that’s more relevant for the people who can actually benefit from this technology,” he added.
The working prototype comprises a commercially available headset developed by American firm Neurosky, which has one dry electrode on the forehead and a ground on the earlobe, and the toy car that he developed and designed himself.
“The headsets are available to the public for €100 and I find the accessibility very positive, but at the moment the only way to work with them is by using a computer and performing a digital task or game,” he said.
The toy car itself is made of aluminium with a body in semi-transparent acrylic so the lights show through from the inside. “The shape is inspired by a brain synapse,” said Bernal. “I wanted to achieve a fragile-looking toy, something you have to take care of that’s complex but understandable. At the end of the day it’s not a toy but a tool to train your brain.”
Bernal has just graduated from the Man and Leisure department at Design Academy Eindhoven and showed his project at the graduation show as part of Dutch Design Week this month.
This railway station in the Netherlands by Dutch studio NL Architects comprises a cross formation of shipping containers that frame a transparent waiting room and cafe (+ slideshow).
NL Architects designed the Barneveld Noord station for Dutch national railway service ProRail, which is upgrading 20 stations across the country as part of a campaign called Prettig Wachten, or Pleasant Waiting. The aim is to make waiting for trains a more comfortable experience for passengers.
“One of the keys to the success of Prettig Wachten is to introduce human presence on these stations, to create some sort of informal supervision,” said the architects, explaining the concept to add features such as WIFI and artwork to stations.
The architects used shipping containers to create a temporary structure that could easily be relocated.
“Containers seemed a cheap and light material that can easily be put together and taken apart, ” the architects told Dezeen. “These huge building blocks allowed us to create a large sculpture with minimal effort.”
Three of the containers form a roof above the glazed waiting room. One has an open bottom, creating a double-height space, while the other two are sealed to provide overhead storage.
A fourth container has been flipped on its side to form a clock tower in the middle of the structure. A toilet is located inside, with a skylight overhead to let in natural light.
A gilded chicken sits on the top of the tower, as a reference to the local egg farming industry that earned the route its nickname “chicken line”.
Photography is by Marcel van der Burg, apart from where otherwise indicated.
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Barneveld Noord
ProRail, responsible for the railway network in the Netherlands, together with the so-called spoorbouwmeester Koen van Velsen (the national supervisor for railway architecture) started a campaign to make waiting more comfortable: Prettig Wachten.
Photograph by Bart van Hoek
Travellers experience waiting on a station as much longer then waiting within a vehicle. Surveys have indicated that waiting time is experienced as three times longer than it actually is. In this respect especially small and medium sized stations proof a big challenge. These smaller stations are usually unmanned, desolate, often creating a sense un-safety. What can we do to improve them?
The waiting areas of in total twenty stations throughout the country will be upgraded, both functionally and cosmetically: introduction of washrooms, wifi, floor heating, railway TV. Or art! One of the keys to the success of Prettig Wachten is to introduce human presence on these stations, to create some sort of informal supervision.
Photograph by Bart van Hoek
An effort is made to create small multifunctional shops. In Wolvega for instance a flower shop will be opened, the florist will also be serving coffee and will even be cleaning the restrooms.
Photograph by Bart van Hoek
In Barneveld Noord a bike-repair shop will be included run by people that are ‘differently able’. They will contribute to the maintenance and hopefully prevent the broken window syndrome. In Barneveld Noord a new station will be build. Well station, perhaps more a bus-stop. But then again, quite an intriguing bus stop. It is supposed to be a temporary structure. Hence the station will be build out of shipping containers. The containers contain space, but also form space. They will be combined into an explicit arrangement. Together they form an ambiguous but strong sign. Minimum effort, maximum output.
Long section
Three containers are ‘suspended’ in the air. Together they form a ‘roof’. One contains the installations, the other storage. The third will be opened at the bottom. It forms the headroom for the enclosed but fully transparent waiting area, creating a double high space.
Cross section
The fourth container is flipped to an upright position. It makes an instant tower. The tower contains a clock. And a wind vane. Since Barneveld is the egg capital of the Netherlands – the station is located on the so-called Chicken Line – not the typical rooster will be mounted, but a gilded chicken. The tower holds a lavatory, 11.998mm high, topped by a glass roof. Royal Flush.
Front elevation
Project: train station in the framework of Prettig Wachten, 2011, Completion: 2013 Initiative ‘Prettig Wachten’ and Supervision: Spoorbouwmeester Koen van Velsen / ProRail Client: ProRail NL Architects: Pieter Bannenberg, Walter van Dijk, Kamiel Klaasse Project Architect: Gerbrand van Oostveen Team: Kirsten Hüsig, Barbara Luns, Gert Jan Machiels and Gen Yamamoto with Aude Robert and Christian Asbo Consultant: Movares Contractor: Strukton
Yesterday Motorola revealed on its blog that it has been working for a year on a scheme named Project Ara, a “free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones,” which will allow users to develop, swap and replace modules for their phones to create customised handsets.
“We want to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software: create a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers to entry, increase the pace of innovation, and substantially compress development timelines,” Motorola Advanced Technology and Projects group leader Paul Eremenko said.
The phones will comprise a structural base frame and modules that lock on to it, which could include an extra battery, additional screen or keyboard.
“My idea succeeded from day one; I got a lot of responses to it,” Hakkens told Dezeen at the preview of the academy graduate show during Dutch Design Week earlier this month. “I’ve got a lot of people interested in developing it: engineers, technicians and companies.”
Hakkens’ video demonstrating his concept received over 16 million views on Youtube and Phoneblocks has almost a million supporters online.
“We’ve done deep technical work. Dave created a community. The power of open requires both,” said Eremenko.
Motorola hopes to share its technical development work with Hakkens’ widespread social media communities and will be releasing a developers’ kit this winter, so people can begin designing their own components for the phones.
Using volunteers known as Project Ara research scouts, Motorola will continue to develop the idea in a similar way to how Google trialled its voice-controlled wearable Google Glass technology, where the public was asked to try out the headset then offer feedback on the hardware and its features.
The move from Motorola follows on from its project called Sticky, where the company took a van full of hackable Motorola phones and 3D-printing equipment to top tech universities including MIT and Caltech for a series of experimental workshops.
“On that trip we saw the first signs of a new, open hardware ecosystem made possible by advances in additive manufacturing and access to the powerful computational capabilities of modern smartphones,” Eremenko said. “These included new devices and applications that we could never have imagined from inside our own labs.”
Dutch Design Week 2013: Dutch creative agency …,staat has designed the interior and branding for this alternative supermarket in Amsterdam, where ingredients are grouped together as recipes rather than food types (+ slideshow).
The interior for Bilder & De Clercq by …,staat includes a cafe area, which has a counter decorated with handmade turquoise tiles.
Wooden panels are hung across the ceiling and merge into shelves behind the bar to display bread.
Sections of the counter are cut out to accommodate freestanding wooden units with glass shelves.
Instead of traditional supermarket aisles, the store features bespoke white tiered frames with wooden surfaces for displaying food. The steel frames are grouped according to the ingredients of each dish, which is pictured and described above the produce.
The graphic identity, packaging and kitchenware for Bilder & De Clercq was also designed by …,staat.
The black, grey and turquoise colour scheme is applied to take-away coffee cups, printed recipes and store cards.
The range of kitchenware includes chopping boards, vegetables peelers and spatulas, all of which come in wood or metal.
Named Fogo Island Inn, the building is the latest edition to an ongoing arts residency programme being established on the Newfoundland isle. So far Saunders Architecture has completed four of six live-in artists’ studios and, most recently, this 29-room hotel and cultural attraction.
Photograph by Iwan Baan
The building has an X-shaped plan comprising one two-storey volume and an intersecting four-storey block, both clad in timber.
Photograph by Iwan Baan
Dozens of narrow columns support the protruding ends of the building, ensuring it has a minimal impact on the rocks, lichens and plants that make up the coastal landscape.
Photograph by Alex Fradkin
“The inn is completely tied to Fogo Island and traditional Newfoundland outport architecture by the way it sits in the landscape and the materials used throughout,” said the architects.
Photograph by Alex Fradkin
“The knowledge and skill of local carpenters and craftspeople were essential for establishing the details used throughout the buildings,” they added.
Photograph by Iwan Baan
The smallest side of the building contains a series of public facilities, including an art gallery, a library dedicated to local history, a cinema, a gym and various meeting and dining areas.
Photograph by Alex Fradkin
The four-storey structure runs parallel to the seafront and accommodates the 29 guest suites. The majority of these come with their own wood-burning stoves, plus three of the rooms feature a mezzanine floor.
Photograph by Alex Fradkin
A deck on the roof of the building offers saunas and outdoor hot tubs, while laundry facilities and storage areas occupy an extra building nearby.
Photograph by Iwan Baan
Here’s a project description from Saunders Architecture:
Fogo Island Inn
The Fogo Island Inn is a public building for Fogo Island with 29 rooms for guests. The building, located between the communities of Joe Batt’s Arm and Barr’d Islands on the Back Western Shore, is an X in plan. The two storey west to east volume contains public spaces while the four storey south-west to north-east volume contains the remaining public spaces and all the guest rooms and is parallel to the coast.
Photograph by Iwan Baan
The public areas on the first floor include an art gallery curated by Fogo Island Arts, a dining room, bar and lounge, and a library specialising in the local region. The former president of Memorial University Newfoundland, Dr. Leslie Harris, donated the foundational material for the library. The second floor includes a gym, meeting rooms, and cinema. The cinema is a partnership with the National Film Board of Canada. The fourth floor roof deck has saunas and outdoor hot tubs with views of the North Atlantic.
Photograph by Iwan Baan
All guest rooms face the ocean with the bed placed directly in front of the view of the Little Fogo Islands in the distance with the North Atlantic beyond. The room sizes vary from 350 square feet to 1,100 square feet. Guest rooms are located on all four floors with the 21 rooms on the third and fourth floors all having a wood-burning stove. The ceilings of the rooms on the fourth floor follow the slope of the roof and the three rooms on the east are double volume spaces with the sleeping area located on the mezzanine.
Photograph by Iwan Baan
An outbuilding to the south of the inn contains service functions like laundry, storage, wood fired boilers, backup generator, and solar thermal panels on the roof. The required number and orientation of the solar panels dictated the form of the outbuilding and the angle of the roof. The space between these two buildings creates an entry court and frames the main entrance. Vehicle parking is off site.
Photograph by Iwan Baan
The inn is a fully contemporary structure, built using modern methods. Ecological and self-sustaining systems were subtly integrated from the beginning of the project, incorporating the latest technologies to reduce and conserve energy and water usage. It is a highly insulated steel frame building and the windows have the equivalent rating of triple pane glazing. Rainwater from the roof is collected into two cisterns in the basement, filtered, and used for the toilet water and also to be used as a heat sink. The solar thermal on the outbuilding panels provide hot water for in-floor heating, laundry and kitchen equipment.
Photograph by Iwan Baan
The inn is completely tied to Fogo Island and traditional Newfoundland outport architecture by the way it sits in the landscape and the materials used throughout. The building hits the land directly without impacting the adjacent rocks, lichens and berries. The exterior cladding is locally sourced and milled Black Spruce. The knowledge and skill of local carpenters and craftspeople were essential for establishing the details used throughout the buildings.
Photograph by Alex Fradkin
The interiors of the inn continue the incorporation of the traditional with the contemporary. The materials, history, craft techniques and aesthetic of outport Newfoundland are the starting point for what has become a long term and ongoing collaborative project between contemporary designers from North America and Europe and the men and women makers and builders of Fogo Island and Change Islands. The furniture, textiles and interior surfaces throughout the inn are reminders that you are on the Back Western Shore of Fogo Island.
Photograph by Iwan Baan
The Fogo Island Inn is owned by the Shorefast Foundation, a Canadian charitable organisation established by Zita Cobb and her brothers with the aim of fostering cultural and economic resilience for this traditional fishing community. The project has been a collaborative effort now lasting over 7 years starting with the relationship between the Fogo Island based Shorefast Foundation and the Newfoundland born and Norway based architect Todd Saunders. This atypical collaboration continues to be a happy adventure and is a kind of miracle considering the typical client-architect relationship on a project of this scale and duration.
A spiral staircase made from Brazilian ironwood links two floors inside this São Paulo house, which was designed by Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld as a private gallery and guest house for two art collectors (+ slideshow).
Isay Weinfeld was commissioned by the couple to create a house they could use to present exhibitions, host parties and house guests during events such as the São Paulo Art Biennial.
Located on the same street as both the client’s own home and the Isay Weinfeld-designed Yucatan House, Casa Cubo is a three-storey building in São Paulo’s Jardins district.
A double-height living room on the ground floor is the largest space in the house. With white walls and a poured concrete floor, it offers a blank canvas for displaying pantings, sculptures and a selection of designer furniture pieces.
Two staircases are visible inside the room. On one wall a folded steel staircase leads up to a first-floor mezzanine accommodating a library, while on the opposite side a wooden staircase ascends from the first floor to three bedrooms at the top of the house.
Both staircases are suspended from above and appear to be floating just above the floor.
Furniture chosen for the living room includes pieces by Alvar Aalto, Pierre Jeanneret, Gio Ponti and Lina Bo Bardi. Glass doors run along one edge and open the space out to a terrace, garden and lily pond.
The exterior of the house is primarily clad with cement panels, apart from a section near the top that is covered with wood.
Casa Cubo, the initiative of a couple of art collectors, was conceived to house a lodging and support center to artists and the development of the arts, but with all necessary facilities to serve as a home. The program was solved within a cubic block, split vertically into three levels and a mezzanine, whose façades are treated graphically as a combination of lines defined by the cladding cement plaques, by the glass strip on the mezzanine, and the striped wood composition that changes as the bedroom windows are opened and closed.
The service nucleus is located at the front of the ground level, comprising a kitchen, a restroom, a dining room and an entrance hall giving way to the wide room with double ceiling height and polished concrete floor, intended to host events, exhibitions or even work as a lounge that opens onto the backyard.
The mezzanine of the lounge, standing on the slab topping the service nucleus on the ground floor, houses the library, which is marked by three strong elements: a shelving unit extending the whole back wall, a strip of fixed glass next to the floor and a spiral staircase covered in wood that leads to the private quarters upstairs.
Private quarters consist of 3 bedrooms and a living room thoroughly lit through a floor-to-ceiling opening. The garage and service areas are located in the basement.
General contractor: Fernando Leirner – Bona Engenharia Structural engineering: Benedictis Engenharia Ltda Staircase mettallic structure engineering: Inner Engenharia e Gerenciamento Ltda Electrical and plumbing engineering: Tesis Engenharia Ltda Air conditioning: CHD Sistemas De Ar Condicionado e Instalações Ltda Landscape design: Isabel Duprat Paisagismo
Graphic designer Peter Saville has created the prints and typography on these shoes by fashion brand Y-3 for sports label Adidas (+ slideshow).
Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto’s Y-3 line produced by Adidas includes a range of colourful casual footwear.
For Spring Summer 2014, Y-3 used colourful prints created by Peter Saville, who “found inspiration in the vastness of the internet, culling images and words from online forums, social media, and personal blogging platforms” to use for the Meaningless Excitement collection.
Saville warped and distorted the images taken from various corners of the internet to create the acid-coloured graphics printed onto high-tops and trainers.
He also designed the typography for chunky platform sandals that says “Hi! My name is Yohji” on the side.
More platforms have speckled bases in a bright yellow-green colour, paired with brown leather straps.
Silver-coloured foil is used on sections of black and white trainers.
On one pair, orange elastic cord ties the shoe to the extra upper section that sits above the ankle.
Purple netted fabric and rounded soles are also common details through the collection.
This season, Y-3 gets graphic with renowned art director Peter Saville, whose hyper-colourful designs form the basis of a collection inspired by digital noise and named Meaningless Excitement.
The title is both a critique and celebration of internet culture – its heights and depths – as well as the relentless pursuit of the next big thing. On the runway, this was clearly seen in acid-bright prints and distorted slogans, which swirled across sleek, paired-down clothing for men and women.
This collection served as testament to the irreverent brilliance of Peter Saville, who found inspiration in the vastness of the internet, culling images and words from online forums, social media, and personal blogging platforms.
He then cropped and warped these materials into an author less and strangely beautiful pulp, which found its war across classically American styles deconstructed through Japanese tailoring.
The collection pushed the limits of authentic American sportswear by elongating its shapes and subverting the codes of its style.
The show closed with a trio of breathtaking couture-style gowns in Yohji Yamamoto’s classic style, serving as a beautiful palate cleanser and reminder of beauty’s possibility.
German design studio Ding3000 has created a high-tech version of the first pedalled bicycle, introducing electric power and plastics to the 148-year-old invention (+ slideshow).
Ding3000 collaborated with chemical company BASF to create the Concept 1865 prototype bike, combining various plastics into a contemporary interpretation of an early bicycle.
BASF was founded in 1865, the year pedals were added to German inventor Karl Drais’ wooden Dandy Horse velocipede bicycle, so this provided the starting point for the new design.
Pedals attach directly to the centre of the front wheel, which is much larger than the supporting back wheel.
The electric motor is concealed beneath a blue disk on the back wheel, designed to protect it from water, dirt and stone chips.
An angular seat protrudes from the long part of the frame, which connects the handlebars to the rear wheel.
The battery is located in the seat, which can be detached and carried away with a handle so no one can ride off on the bike when its left unattended.
The same graphic pattern used over the seat padding is found on the tyre treads and handlebar grips.
Other details include pedals without bearings and LEDs integrated into the sections of frame located either side of both wheels.
Here’s some more text from the designers:
Concept 1865
Ding3000 designs an E-Velocipede made of high-performance plastics.
Conspicuous with its wheels of different sizes, the velocipede was the first pedal-powered cycle in history. Ding3000 and the chemical company BASF have now rebuilt the 19th-century bike as a modern e-bike. But why?
With the Concept 1865, we are taking a trip back to the year 1865, when BASF was founded. This was also the point in time when Karl Drais’ wooden Dandy Horse was given its first pedals, which launched the bicycle on the road to global success. As a tribute to this era of enthusiasm for technology and invention, Ding3000 and BASF have embarked on an unparalleled thought experiment and asked: How would the first pedal cycle have looked if the pioneers of the bike had had today’s advanced materials to work with?
In cooperation with BASF, Ding3000 has developed the E-Velocipede Concept 1865. It is a ready-to-ride prototype with an electric drive and 24 polymer applications, some of which are highly innovative like the bearingless all-plastic pedals made of Ultrason or the light and puncture-proof tires made of Infinergy.
By implementing this design study Ding3000 obviously does not intend to reinvent the bicycle, let alone the wheel. Under the slogan “Rethinking Materials”, the unusual e-bike is in fact an invitation to customers to join the company in developing new applications and product ideas utilising advanced plastics. It is an invitation to question the status quo and create something new – just as the pioneers of cycling did in their time.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
