Milan 2014: designer Alvaro Catalan de Ocon has created a range of wicker lamp shades woven with old plastic bottles by artisans in Chile for his PET Lamps project (+ slideshow).
Alvaro Catalan de Ocon and the PET Lamps team combined reused plastic bottles with traditional craft to create a second range of lighting called Chimbarongo, which hung from vines in the courtyard of Spazio Rossana Orlandi for Milan design week.
Named after the Chilean city close to Santiago in which the craftspeople who made them live and work, the lamps combine strips of recycled plastic bottles with local artisanal wicker weaving skills.
“The whole city is involved in working with wicker,” said Catalan de Ocon. “They normally do traditional and not very nice things but we went there and worked together for one month.”
Discarded plastic drinks bottles are adapted by chopping off the bottoms, then cutting the sides into thin strips up to the neck.
These strips are then woven with the wicker to form the lamp shades, mixing the coloured plastic with natural fibres to create patterns.
The idea was based on traditional Japanese stirrers made from bamboo in a similar way, said Catalan de Ocon.
“We got the inspiration from a Japanese bamboo piece from the tea ceremony,” he explained.
The old bottle necks provide structure and support for the lightweight material. A bulb is suspended below the neck and the electrical cord threads through the top.
The PET Lamp project originally began as a collaboration with weavers in Colombia, who created the first lamp collections that have simpler shapes but use more colours and patterns in the design of the shades.
“It’s the same concept but the result is quite different,” said Catalan de Ocon. “It is always dependent on the local craftsmanship.”
The Chimbarongo range has a loose weave and some feature two or three woven tiers, using the wicker in its natural hue.
“We decided to keep the original colour because they never tint it,” Catalan de Ocon explained.
The lights are available as sets, which can be strung up together from a single source, or as individual lamps.
Following the project’s debut at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in 2013, the new collection was on display in the gallerist’s courtyard for Milan design week earlier this month.
News: Danish firm 3XN has been selected as preferred architect to design a new headquarters for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
3XN was chosen ahead of 11 competing architects, including OMA, Toyo Ito and Amanda Levete, to develop its design for a new administrative home for the organisation governing the Olympic Games, to be built on a 24,000-square-metre site on the banks of Lake Geneva.
The new campus would consolidate the IOC‘s existing operations around Lausanne, creating offices for up to 500 employees.
The brief called for “a building that clearly reflects the values of IOC” and that could “serve as a catalyst for collaboration and interaction for the IOC Staff and Olympic Movement Stakeholders”.
“This is an incredible honour for our studio,” said 3XN principal Kim Herforth Nielsen. “The Olympic Movement has many expressions that are about people coming together in the best possible way.”
“We have designed the new IOC Headquarters as a physical expression of the Olympic Movement and its values expressed through architecture,” he added.
The design will be revealed after the IOC has made a final decision on the plans, following negotiations with the Swiss authorities.
Photograph of Lausanne, Switzerland, is courtesy of Shutterstock.
This school building in Bath, England, by local architects Mitchell Taylor Workshop features stone walls recalling the city’s historic architecture, alongside contrasting dark grey brickwork and window surrounds (+ slideshow).
The design by Mitchell Taylor Workshop was the winning entry in a competition for a humanities building at Kingswood School, to be built on the school’s picturesque Lansdown Road grounds.
Located within a designated conservation area and World Heritage Site, the materials used for the facility’s exterior had to meet strict planning regulations.
The use of stone references Bath’s historic buildings and the architects chose to add contrast by introducing a grey brick that resembles slate, a materials that is also part of the area’s architectural heritage.
“The choice of materials evolved from the desire to create a playful front and back tectonic narrative,” the architects explained. “After the planners had requested that stone be used, we then identified another heavily used material in Bath, slate, and argued that a long dark brick had the quality of a slate block, which they accepted.”
One of the two-storey building’s facades is angled towards an open grassy area and features gables clad in pale stone, contrasting with the tall grey windows that echo the front of the adjacent Ferens Building, built in 1924.
“The new design evolved to be a contemporary interpretation of both the Ferens Building and the local context of the world heritage site,” said the architects. “The form and proportion of the roof structure and openings is a response to the rhythm of the Ferens building’s facade, with the tall windows and perforated panels.”
Grey brick was used to clad the rear portion of the classroom facility, including a large gable end that combines with an angled wall to frame a tall glazed entrance.
An overhanging canopy on the opposite side of the building covers the main entrance, which leads to a central circulation area used as a conference, exhibition and social space.
Eight classrooms and three staff rooms are housed over two storeys in a pair of blocks arranged on either side of the circulation and display area.
The grey window frames that project from the southern facade provide solar shading and incorporate perforated panels covering windows that can be opened to provide ventilation in any weather.
Pupils in the upper-floor classrooms can look out across the lawn towards the surrounding countryside.
Mitchell Taylor Workshop were invited by Kingswood School to submit a proposal for a limited competition for the design a new humanities building in May 2012. The site is located on the school’s Lansdown Road grounds in Bath within both the Conservation Area and with a World Heritage designation. The winning scheme was to house eight new classrooms and three departmental resource areas and a flexible circulation space that could be used for exhibiting work and for external academic and conference functions.
The form and orientation of the building was generated from site constraints in maximising the natural daylight and ventilation into the classroom spaces whilst controlling solar gain. The building is aligned along Fonthill Road to the north-east and is effectively divided into two blocks with the southern elevation orientated to the immediate open space and the extraordinary views beyond. The internal spaces unfold from a large overhang which provides a covered canopy and connects to an internal triangular plan shaped circulation area which allows for the pupils to display and exhibit their work and as breakout and social space.
Adjacent to the new classroom site is the existing Ferens Building, built in 1924. The new design evolved to be a contemporary interpretation of both the Ferens Building and the language of the heritage buildings of Bath with defined fronts and backs. The form and proportion of the roof structure and openings is a response to the rhythm of Ferens building facade with the tall windows and perforate panels.
The choice of materials evolved from the desire to create a playful front and back tectonic narrative. After the planners had requested that stone be used, we then identified another heavily used material in Bath, slate, and argued that a long dark brick had the quality of a slate block which they accepted. The proposal evolved to incorporate the stone on the south with the dark brick on the north façade creating a unique architectural composition.
Our experience of working with independent schools has brought about an expertise in a variety of building types from libraries, to boarding houses, theatres to classrooms, sports halls to energy centres. The Independent Schools have a strong identity and aspire to reflect this within the built environment. Budgets and time constraints are also well defined but this should not restrict the aspiration to produce interesting and relevant architectural buildings and places.
Mitchell Taylor workshop developed their proposal working very closely with the staff and pupils of the school. The school wanted to occupy their new building at the start of the 2013/14 academic year which meant a design and construction period of little over 12 months. The budget resulted in a construction value of £1,700/sq.m which meant that both the design and construction needed to well considered, co-ordinated and efficient as well as making a positive contribution to the built and academic aspirations of the school.
Gross Internal Floor Area – 632m² Form of Contract or Procurement Route– JCD ICD 2011 Cconstruction Cost Per m2 – £1640/m2 Architect – Mitchell Taylor Workshop Client – Kingswood School
Structural Engineer – Mann Williams M&E Consultant – King Shaw Associates Ltd QS – Bishopston Stephens Project Manager – Bishopston Stephens CDM Coordinator – Anderson FM Consulting Ltd Approved Building Inspector – Bath & North East Somerset Council Main Contractor – Beard
Australian firm Henry Wilson Studio has transformed a former Sydney bakery into a retail space for skincare brand Aesop, exposing the original sandstone walls (+ slideshow).
Henry Wilson Studio removed the space’s former fit out, revealing the stone walls, fireplaces and previously hidden doorways.
Designer Henry Wilson told Dezeen the brief was quite open, and they tried to retain and expose as much of the existing building as possible in an attempt to reference the history of the area and of the building.
“My self-assigned brief and discussions with founder Dennis Paphitis were about reworking ‘off the shelf’ components [that are] Australian-made wherever possible,” Wilson explained.
“Before Aesop took over the space it was a bakery,” he added. “Prior to that, locals in the area tell me that it was once one of Balmain’s first pubs and even a brothel at some point.”
The designers chose a pale colour palette for the interior to compliment the yellow of the original sandstone walls and make the most of the natural light that floods in from the street front and rear windows.
“The stone walls are typical for buildings of the area, and of that era,” said Wilson. “Sydney sandstone is unique in its yellow colour and grey veins. It’s soft and easy to work and the evidence of the primitive tools and unskilled labour can be seen in all the original blockwork.”
A series of industrial metal shelving units have been added to display Aesop’s products and line one wall of the store. Smaller versions are used elsewhere, with some of the shelves replaced by sheets of bottle green glass.
A row of sinks and mirrors are set against the opposite wall, along with the cash register which is also fixed on top of a newer slab of locally-sourced sandstone.
Hanging plant baskets, cane furniture and exposed copper pipes also feature in the interior.
Here’s a project description from Henry Wilson Studio:
Aesop Balmain
The concept for the design of the Balmain Aesop store came from an understanding of the suburb, the existing materials and the context of the address. The aim was to present a space that was as familiar and utilitarian as the backyard shed, with a contrast that is the sophistication of the Aesop product and brand.
The history of Balmain and the neighbouring Cockatoo island is one of work, grit and industry. Much of this has moved on now, though, the legacy still resides in the buildings and foreshore.
The design of the Aesop store draws from these materials, colours and shapes. Removing the former fit out revealed raw sandstone walls, fireplaces and hidden doorways which have been retained and exposed as reference to this building history and place.
Detailing of the Balmain store centred around durability both visually and physically.’Off the shelf’ industrial components presented in an alternative way than that of their original purpose, provide solutions for interior fittings such as shelving and sink frames.
This ‘reworking’ extends to the vintage furniture and customised lighting. Tinted concrete terrazzo references the foyers of apartment buildings built in Sydney in the middle of the century. Pale Australian timbers and a light colour pallet has been chosen to emphasise the natural light from both directions.
Greek designer Yiannis Ghikas has created a 3D-printedvase with a ribbed surface decoration inspired by science fiction special effects that show creatures moving under a person’s skin.
Starting with the outline of an archetypal vase, Athens-based designer Ghikas added a three-dimensional decoration to one side to create the impression of something pushing through the surface from inside.
“I was always impressed while watching science fiction movies when a foreign organism or a parasite was moving underneath the skin of a human being, altering its smooth surface with its own form,” said Ghikas.
The use of 3D printing enabled the designer to create a shape that transitions from a smooth to a ribbed surface.
Ghikas added that the shape also references the metallic blades that emerge from beneath the skin on the hands of comic book character Wolverine.
“I wanted to incorporate these striking movie images discreetly in this specific object, adding a ‘mutation’ that gradually appears and disappears and aesthetically disturbs its smooth surface,” the designer explained.
The ridges increase in depth towards the middle of the vase, enhancing the sense of its surface being stretched from within.
The vase is printed from ABS plastic by 3D printing firm Shapeways.
The interior of this east London cafe by local firm TwistInArchitecture features copper tubes, timber boards and metal light fittings, designed to reference the area’s trade history (+ slideshow).
TwistInArchitecture converted a run-down space on Commercial Street in east London for a cafe called Trade, retaining three separate zones from the original layout to use for display, coffee and food preparation and customer seating.
The firm’s designer and co-founder Andreja Beric said the philosophy for the build was to create a “contextually responsive environment” by re-using materials that were once traded by builder’s merchants along the street.
Copper tubes are used in different arrangements to create a screen in the centre of the cafe and clad the base of the plywood counter. They are also implemented as a staircase balustrade and to construct a grid that hangs from the ceiling, used to suspend low-hanging lamps.
“The space is kind of strange, it had three different areas that were quite different in feel so we wanted to have a common thread that combined it all,” Beric told Dezeen, referring to the lighting grid.
“Lighting was something that was quite important for the shop and we wanted to achieve rhythm with this, it made sense and visually it was quite good to repeat the element at a high point,” Beric explained.
“Copper and wood work well together, both are warm materials and contrast with the matte and shiny surfaces,” he added.
Pieces of laminated oak wood zig-zag across the counter top in the food preparation area and continue to where customer seating is located at the rear.
Recycled boards salvaged from a timber yard form a floor-to-ceiling feature wall.
The designers also demolished the back wall and inserted bi-fold doors to open onto a wooden deck, creating more room and allowing extra light into the space.
Existing wooden floorboards throughout the cafe were stripped of their painted surface and varnished.
Sections of exposed brick wall form a backdrop to the coffee machine, while the remainder of the interior is lined with white tiles.
Here’s a project description from TwistInArchitecture:
Trade
London-based architectural practice TwistInArchitecture – founded on the principle of creating buildings with an unusual twist – today announces the opening of a unique new coffee shop in London’s East End, on Commercial Street. As well as recusing a run-down space, the philosophy for the build was to re-use a number of materials which were once traded along Commercial Street by builders’ merchants and in the material yards, to create a contextually responsive environment.
For this reason, the interior is dominated by copper tubes – which are normally hidden away within wall cavities – serving both an aesthetic and design role, but also a functional one. Indeed, hundreds of yards of copper tubing has been used to create both the internal screens of the main bar fascia, as well as being suspended from the ceiling to carry electricity to the lighting fixtures (see Figs. 1 and 2). The signature use of copper has also been applied to the staircase balustrade and handrails, creating atmosphere through muted reflections and intricate shadows.
The new venue – appropriately called ‘Trade’ – also benefits from a number of modelling changes. It has a new staircase location, new large opening to the back wall to allow natural light to enter, and a complete re-work of the basement. The unusual geometrical twists of the copper are warmed by the use existing brickwork and timber floors, while the true heroes of the shop – it’s coffee and home-made signature food are given the most prominent position.
Trade is located two minutes away from trendy Spitalfields Market, and can accommodate 60 people, spread throughout its three zones: the display section at the front, the preparation area in the middle, and the seating section at the rear. The shop front itself is open and inviting.
Andreja Beric, co-Founder of TwistInArchitecture, said: “We’re very pleased to have completed this quirky project, which brings something new and interesting to Commercial Street, while also breaking away from the ‘shabby chic norm’ of so many other sites. The three internal spaces would typically have three different interior concepts, so we decided to allow these spaces to have their individuality but be tied together by the use of copper – at a low height through the counter, and at a high level through the lighting conduit. These threads work to complete the interior with one idea. It also helps that trade looks seriously cool, has awesome food and coffee, and is in tune with its surroundings and historical significance.”
Competition: Dezeen has teamed up with publishers MIT Press to offer readers the chance to win one of five copies of a new book about developments in synthetic biology.
Human Cheese Making 2: Bottles. Photograph by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, 2010
Synthetic Aesthetics explains the emerging discipline of synthetic biology, which looks at adapting natural organisms and processes to create new products, materials and even lifeforms.
Oscillatoria sp. Photograph by Hideo Iwasaki, 2012
The first few chapters introduce the science, followed by examples of collaborative projects between artists, designers and biologists – a mix of speculative ideas and realised creations.
The Synthetic Kingdom: Carbon Monoxide Detecting Lung Tumour by Daisy, 2009. Photograph by Carole Suety
Microbial Diversity. Photograph by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, 2010
Synthetic Aesthetics is written by experts in the field: Ginsberg, Jane Calvert, Pablo Schyfter, Alistair Elfick and Drew Endy.
E.chromi: The Scatalog by Daisy and James King with University of Cambridge iGEM Team, 2009. Photograph by Asa Johannesson
Published by MIT Press, the book will launch on 25 April to coincide with an evening programme of talks, installations and workshops at London’s V&A museum, from 6:30-10pm – more details here.
Competition closes 19 May 2014. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.
Despite a conservative fashion industry, rapid changes in technology will transform the clothes we wear, says Benjamin Males, of London-based fashion and technology company Studio XO.
Early development sketches of the Anemone dress
“We believe fashion is quite antiquated,” he says. “While everything around us becomes intelligent, becomes more computational, our clothes are still very old-fashioned”.
This will not be the case for long, says Males, who believes that advances in micro-robotics and transformable textiles will soon make their way into everyday clothing, helping create clothes that can change shape using small motors.
Lady Gaga wearing Anemone
“We believe in the next decade we’re going to see some pretty amazing things happen around transformable textiles and mechanical movement in our clothes: we are looking at introducing that in the next five years,” he says.
He points to the ubiquitous use of smartphones as evidence that people are becoming increasingly comfotable with having sophisticated technology on or very close to their bodies.
Moving up and down a clothes size may soon be possible without having to buy new clothes, predicts Males.
“We [will soon be able to] change the fit of our clothes at the push of a button, or our clothes could form new architectures around us,” he says.
Lady Gaga wearing Anemone
Males is one of the founding partners of Studio XO, whose work includes dresses for Lady Gaga: Volantis, a flying dress powered by 12 electric motor-driven rotors, and the bubble-blowing dress Anemone, which is documented in this movie.
Males describes Studio XO’s Anemone as a provocation and a commentary on the future of textiles.
Development sketches for Anemone
Anemone is a dress that blows large and small bubbles, the small ones creating a foam structure around the wearer and the large bubbles flying away.
Males calls the mechanisms that create this effect bubble factories. These are small, 3D-printed jaw mechanisms. When they open, a fan blows out large or small bubbles depending on the size of the mechanism’s aperture.
The dress was unveiled in 2013, when Lady Gaga wore it to the iTunes festival. It is the second so-called bubble dress which Lady Gaga has worn, the first one being a nude leotard with plastic transparent globes attached to it.
This office and workshop for a theatre designer in Osaka was designed by Japanese studio Mattch to look like a glazed box hovering between two solid curtains (+ slideshow).
Nagoya-based Mattch wanted to reference the profession of the client with the design of S-Office, so developed a building with an L-shaped outer structure that frames the activities of its occupants like actors on a stage.
“A curtain of the stage opens and becomes the background,” explained studio co-founder Takenaka Ryuji.
Each floor of the three-storey building has a different function, so was given a different-sized floor plate. The middle storey is the largest, so it projects ahead of the ground floor to shelter the entrance and create the impression of a floating structure.
Inside, a turquoise-painted steel staircase spans the height of the building and is lit from above by a large skylight.
This contrasts with a series of exposed steel ceiling beams that have been picked out in red, as well as other structural details highlighted in shades of blue and yellow.
The ground floor accommodates a double-height workshop for producing props, while an office for quiet work is located on the split-level first floor and the upper level contains a top-lit meeting room.
The office uses a half-landing as part of its floor space. It also features wall-mounted shelving units that follow the diagonal line of the exposed steel bracing.
These shelving units reappear on the second floor, this time in a horizontal arrangement. Here, they line a semi-circular alcove which holds the meeting area.
This space is illuminated by a cluster of colourful pendant lamps and looks out onto a glazed conservatory with a pitched roof.
Gravity keeps the aluminium and timber components of these lamp shades by industrial designer Nick Sadowsky locked together.
The pieces on the Spindent Light don’t use any screws or adhesives, instead relying on aligned component parts that slot into each other and are kept together by gravity and their own weight.
The light’s soft triangular shape features two pieces of anodised aluminium, separated by a thin strip of timber to create a minimal shade for either the home or office. A black fabric electrical cord completes the monochrome look.
“I was originally inspired by the aluminium spinning process and its capabilities,” said Australian designer Nick Sadowsky. “I looked at how I could make something both visually engaging and sustainable.”
The polished sheen of the metal is interrupted by the warm tones of the wood and its rough grain.
“I had a low-impact material and finishing process,” said Sadowsky. “It was then a matter of developing the form and I liked the idea of combining another material I really like, timber.”
The wood element connects the aluminium together, creating a small lip between the two pieces.
“Its qualities are warm and organic and could provide an interesting detail in the form and become part of the assembly, as I was trying to avoid any adhesives or screws,” explained Sadowsky.
The Spindent Lights are available in either black or silver from Sadowsky’s website.
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