American studio Qastic has created an inflatable pavilion with a floating roof held down by fabric veils (+ slideshow).
Called Floatastic, the structure was designed by Connecticut firm Qastic for a wedding ceremony. They intended to create a temporary shelter without imposing any loads on the ground.
A giant horizontal white balloon is filled with helium. As it rises upwards, a series of fixed fabric veils keep the inflatable overhead and appear to dangle like jellyfish tentacles. “Buoyancy is achieved through the efficient harnessing of a noble gas,” said Qastic.
The designers said that the floating pavillion is the result of research into buoyancy and structures that are made by reversing the position of the load.
“Since the surrounding environment and microclimate fluctuate in every 24-hour cycle, our studies found that the floating pavilion will experience many buoyant conditions which are unique but steady,” said the firm.
Here’s a film featuring the structure floating in the wind:
Balance Through Buoyancy is a research base pavilion called “Floatastic” by QASTIC Lab, which was designed and built for a private client to serve as a temporary shade pavilion for a wedding ceremony in Edgerton Park, in New Haven Connecticut – an Olmsted planned landscape.
This deployable structure aims to create a floated shelter which avoids imposing any loads to the ground, which traditional structures require. Instead it proposes a well-fabricated balloon, which is filled with Helium to raise the imposed loads of fabric veils and any possible dynamic environmental loads toward the sky.
Buoyancy is achieved through the efficient harnessing of a noble gas. The idea of ‘flesh’ is explored through the pavilions possible functions and effects, by which an abstracted mass can impose on fabric surfaces in both relaxation and tension.
It is within this dialogue of the helium container and the loads that we can test possible architectural and spatial effects, with articulation between Balloon edges and fabric veils exploring the possibilities in which the complex surface veils are relaxed or in tension in double curvature configurations.
Making use of the method of reversing load bearing systems, the form of the pavilion is defined by geometrically precise formwork that is then fabricated with randomly varying edges both for the horizontal balloon and the PVC pipes on the ground to allow for varied functions at different heights, climates and locations.
Since the surrounding environment and microclimate fluctuate in every 24 hours cycle, our studies found that the floating pavilion will experience many buoyant conditions which are unique however steady.
Metaphorically, Floatastic envisioned to be a surrealistic and breathtaking imitation of the Jellyfish that appear alive and tries to swim against the external forces in the water. However, rather than being in the water, Floatastic questions its audiences to unconsciously know if they are floating in the sea or on the ground.
Architects: QASTIC Lab Location: Edgerton Park, New Haven, Connecticut. USA Constructor: QASTIC Lab Client: Jahangir Mohamadzadeh Designer & Team Leader: Mahdi Alibakhshian Design and fabrication Team: Ali Sadeghian, Reza Zia, Ahmad Jamei, Carlos Bugatti, Delara Zarrinabadi, Lili Saliani Design & Fabrication Consultant: Nathaniel Hadley, Mohamad Reza Mojahedi Conceptual & Visualization Consultant: Gregory Hurcomb Exhibition Period: July 2013
The compendium is packed with innovative and experimental projects undertaken or completed this side of the millennium.
Fairs first compiled 21st Century Design in 2006 to feature everything from iconic architecture, such as Foster + Partners’ “Gherkin” tower in London, to stylish mass-produced furniture – see a selection of extracts here.
21st Century Design is published by Carlton Books and designed by Mabel Chan, with a foreword written by Dutch designer Marcel Wanders.
It can be purchased from the Carlton Books website and other online stockists, plus bookstores worldwide from 10 October.
To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “21st Century Design third edition” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers. Read our privacy policy here.
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Competition closes 24 September 2013. 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.
Vietnamese architects Sanuki + Nishizawa have adapted the prototypical Vietnamese tube house to create a tall, narrow residence that lets daylight penetrate its walls and floors (+ slideshow).
Located in Ho Chi Minh City, the four-storey family residence is 21 metres deep but just four metres wide, typical of the tube houses that are common throughout Vietnam’s cities.
These proportions make it difficult to bring natural light and ventilation through the buildings, which have no side windows, so Sanuki + Nishizawa introduced light wells, exposed staircases and flexible partitions to the interior spaces of ANH House.
“The main theme of this house is to explore the possibility of a new lifestyle in Vietnam, in which such dark and humid spaces can be improved drastically into bright and open ones,” said the architects.
The ground floor features a double-height living room sandwiched between a pair of open-tread staircases, creating a well-lit family area with a raised dining room and kitchen at one end.
Woven bamboo screens enclose bedrooms on all four floors and can be folded back when necessary.
The texture of this wood is echoed in the surface of the concrete floor plates, which were set against bamboo formwork.
Large planters allow spaces for tropical plants throughout the house, including on the three balconies that front the street-facing elevation. Meanwhile, some of the light wells double up as cooling pools of water.
“We can feel the natural wind and live comfortably without air conditioning in this house, which [offers] a lifestyle connecting to the outside natural environment,” said Sanuki + Nishizawa.
This house, designed for a thirty-year-old-women and her family, is built on the plot of 4m wide and 21m deep in Ho Chi Minh City, which is very typical for urban tube houses in Vietnam. The main request from the client was to realise a bright and open space filled with natural light and greenery.
Tube house, the most typical housing style in Vietnam, itself has a critical difficulty in getting enough natural light and ventilation firstly because there’s no opening on the two long boundary sidewalls and secondly because Vietnamese people tend to have lots of fixed partition walls for separating many bedrooms. Therefore, the main theme of this house is to explore the possibility of a new lifestyle in Vietnam, in which that such dark and humid space need to be improved drastically into a bright and open one.
The house is designed with 4 solid thick slabs and no normal fixed partition walls. Each slab, stuck in the different height, has several voids that lead natural reflection light from the top-light, façade and backside into the house. In addition, each slab is set out with several holes of terrazzo bath-tub and foot-space for sitting, especially the 15 holes for greenery with different kinds of tropical plants to make the space attractive and fresh. Furthermore normal familiar fixed partition walls are replaced into light, movable and translucent partitions for separating bed spaces, adjusting balance between the privacy for each individual space and the fluency of whole big space according to the lifestyle’s request.
These partitions are the folding or sliding doors with woven bamboo as a shade and jalousie windows system which are easily opened for the natural wind circulation to go through the whole house spaces. Briefly, all of design intents are to fulfil the tube house spaces with greenery, brightness, well-ventilations then transform the narrow, dark, humid passive residential housing into “the space connecting to the outside natural environment” – where the people can feel real outside atmosphere.
The house structure is a RC frame structure with reversal beams system. Besides, using the woven bamboo sheet as concrete work’s frames for engraving the bamboo pattern on the exposed concrete ceiling, not only emphasises the continuous slab and natural lighting effect, but also creates stronger aesthetic effect together with real woven bamboo of doors system. All these materials and techniques adopted into this house design are local and widely common in Vietnam.
We can feel the natural wind and live without air conditioner comfortably in this house that has the “lifestyle connecting to the outside natural environment”. Somehow, this sustainable and ecological proposal is considered as a re-definition of the Vietnamese traditional lifestyle connecting to the outside environment in the contemporary housing. We really hope this simple, bright and open lifestyle can be one of the effective alternatives in the modern lifestyle in Vietnam.
Upside-down plant pots, bare lightbulbs, exposed ducting and raw materials feature in this São Paulo restaurant by Suite Arquitetos (+ slideshow).
Brazilian studio Suite Arquitetos refurbished a two-storey building in the south of Brazil’s largest city Brazilian capital into a healthy-eating restaurant called Bien!
The architects used a combination of wood, metal, yellow and blue furniture and greenery and intended to create an open-plan dining environment with a raw industrial twist.
Windows wrap around the corner of the ground-floor restaurant facades, allowing the interior materials and fixtures to be seen from the outside. Filipe Troncon of Suite Arquitetos told Dezeen: “We demolished everything, creating a big glass facade to make more natural lighting and communicate with the pedestrians.”
Pine-topped tables, designed by the architects, feature yellow steel legs and look like study desks. Blue chairs and cushions were chosen to add an additional colour to the restaurant and provoke a “sustainable and healthy sensation”.
The walls and pillars are covered with wood panelling and the bar area is lined with steel sheets that compliment exposed air-conditioning ducts overhead.
White plant pots and greenery dangle above the tables, interspersed with exposed bulbs and angled yellow lamps.
A large metal box formed by perforated metal plates houses the first floor and contains a kitchen, storage areas, office and bathrooms.
“The first floor exterior material is a laser perforated metallic plate, that the pedestrians can not see inside, but the cooks and the manager can see out,” Troncon told Dezeen.
The architecture of Bien! Restaurant is oriented toward the street and toward the City of São Paulo.
Ground floor plan
The small two floor building occupies a discrete corner in the middle of itaim, in the capital’s South Zone, and was refurbished to receive a natural food restaurant, opened only during the day, in which the light enhances the colours and emphasises the movements.
First floor plan
The joining of these two factors, light and city, defined for the space and almost industrial, but comfortable, design and contemporary concern for the environment.
Young architects Carolina Mauro, Daniela Frugiuele and Filipe Troncon, from Suite arquitetos, had, as a starting point, the expansion of the possible limit.
In the ground floor a transparent glass box surrounds the area of the dinning-room and gives it continuity while revealing to passerby the raw materialness of the tables, chairs and coatings.
One floor up, a detached metal box, formed by perforated metal plates protects the kitchen’s volume, closets, bathrooms and office, and allow the light and air in without revealing the traditional framework of doors and windows.
Danish designer Trine Kjaer has created a chair with a backrest and seat wrapped in thick lengths of cord intertwined with thin strands of copper.
Trine Kjaer upholstered the Haptic chair with foam under the threads on the seat and backrest. The oak arms and legs resembe slender tree branches.
Kjaer is based in Værløse north of Copenhagen and said the project is the result of an extensive process of analysing, experimenting and interpreting tactile surfaces in nature. “The project focuses on the haptic processes of the sense of touch as well as how we are drawn towards the object wanting to explore it by hand, activating the sense of touch and feeling the tactile differences of the chair,” said the designer.
“The chair is designed to stimulate the hands with fine and detailed craftsmanship, while the areas touching the back and the seat have a rougher and more tactile character,” she said.
Dutch architects Jetty and Maarten Min have completed their own house and studio in North Holland with an arched rooftop, tiled walls and exposed tree-trunk columns (+ slideshow).
Jetty and Maarten Min, of Bergen office Min2, designed the three-storey Dune House on a coastal dune in Bergen and used unfinished timber, clay tiles and curved profiles to help the building fit in with its rural setting.
“An important design topic was to connect the form and the materialisation of the house with the place where it is situated,” they explained. “The high tall form had to fit in the dune landscape. During the design process this form became one of a dune or of a windswept group of trees sloping along with the worn landscape near the sea.”
Offering a twist on the traditional mansard roof, the house is wrapped on three sides by a skin of clay tiles, which were designed by Jetty Min with bespoke dimensions.
“These tiles give the impression of pot-lid shelves,” said the architects. “The brown/purple appearance of the British clay with its rough finish has to visually match the bark of the surrounding firs.”
Horizontal slices through this skin create a series of sea-facing windows on the north elevation, while a double-height window frames a view of the dune landscape to the south.
Inside, the house contains studio spaces on its ground floor, while the living areas comprise a two-storey loft above.
“One of [our] wishes has always been to live on the upper storeys because of the marvellous views of the sea and the dune area,” said the architects.
Kitchen, living and dining areas occupy a larger open-plan space on the first floor, surrounded by the chunky Douglas fir columns. Arched wooden joists are visible overhead, plus a boxy poplar staircase leads up to a mezzanine bedroom.
A similar staircase links the house with the studio below, which features a generous workspace, a meeting and conference room and a library. The houses’s bathroom is also located on this floor.
Poured concrete was used for the flooring on the two main levels, while the uppermost floor is covered with a carpet made from seaweed.
Here’s a project description from Jetty and Maarten Min:
The Dune House of the architects Jetty and Maarten Min, Bergen aan Zee
Min2 bouw-kunst is a Dutch architecture office, located in Bergen, in the north of Holland, at the sea. The work of the office is a co-design between architecture and art.
The owners of the office designed their own house in the dune area of Bergen aan Zee (NH). An important design topic was to connect the form and the materialisation of the house with the place where it is situated.
Design
The building enjoys a dominant position on a dune crest, alongside a local road, but it is almost invisible because of altitude differences and of tall pine trees, guarding the house closely. The house faces on the other side of the dune a drinking water treatment area. From here it marks the landscape, even from a large distance. They therefore have chosen for a strong “object-quality”.
Handling the building plan as a starting point within the zoning plan and the existing building regulations was also a challenge.The admissible constructing surface was 20 x 8 metres, with a gutter height of 3 metres. The ridge height was not indicated and therefore a ridge height of max. 15 metres was possible. These proportions made it possible to build the house vertically, an opportunity achieved by realising three high storey.
Because of the positive reactions from the local government they succeeded quite well in such vertical design. By solving this and other similar problems, the plan became more and more exciting.
One of the main concerns was that, in its appearance, the high tall form had to fit in the dune landscape. During the design process this form became one of a dune or of a windswept group of trees sloping along with the worn landscape near the sea.
The openings in the roof surface of the storey were designed from within: at the sea side as horizontal window strips and at the dune side as a huge window, where it is possible to imagine oneself in the midst of the dune landscape. The flat facade on the eastside eventually allows for a lift and balconies.
Materialisation
For quite some time they have been looking for the appropriate materials on the outside. Because the house is only 300 metres from the sea, they took the logical decision to choose for natural, sustainable and low maintenance materials. They called this approach a low-tech approach.
For the oblique facade and roof skin they thoroughly searched for an existing material that would fit into the rough romantic scenery. In the end, Jetty came up with the idea to design herself a tile that would fit the desired agenda. Following the remarkable Kolumba brick (Petersen Tegl) which was to be used for the dressing of concrete columns, a long ceramic flat tile was developed of 53 centimetres long, 17 centimetres high and 4 centimetres thick.
These tiles give the impression of pot lid shelves, but ones which are much more low maintenance. The brown/purple appearance of the British clay with its rough finish has to visually match the bark of the surrounding firs. Thanks to all these characteristics, the building perfectly fits into its surrounding environment.
This developing process took one and a half year. It has also been helped by the excellent cooperation of the professionals of Petersen. The roof tile, now called “Athene Noctua” (in German: Steinkauz), has now been included in the collection of Petersen.
The finishing of the eaves has been carried out in zinc and has been pre-treated against ionisation, which beautifully matches the tiles. The untreated wooden frames are made of Iroko, FSC approved and carefully handpicked to have the longest parts, in order to avoid gluing as much as possible. The reason to make use of untreated wood at this location stems from its low maintenance aspect, which also fits into the natural surroundings.
Where, if necessary, a lift can be build, the concrete stabilisation drives have been closed with untreated western red cedar parts.
The building facade has a timber frame with a high insulation value. Because of this starting point they could easily design the bent and beveled forms as a basis. The basis of these elements consists of whitewood collar beams with multiplex sheets. These are built in several prefab parts, made in the workshop, for a smooth progression of the building process and to generate as less disturbance in the protected green area as possible.
The low-tech approach continues also on the inside of the house. They wanted the two floors as one big, rudimentary finished space, which can then be used as a flexible living space, a new loft.
One of the wishes has always been to live on these upper storey because of the marvellous views of the sea and the dune area. In the penultimate version the starting point was a house with columns to be built above an existing bungalow: a second house above the first. After deliberation with the constructional engineer, it was finally decided to demolish the existing house because of the poor condition of its foundation. The carrying grid with its column structure emerged from this history.
They were also inspired by warehouses, by the farmhouses in the north of Holland, and by translating the Maison Domino by Le Corbusier into a handy craft level.
By applying Douglas firs with bark, they wanted to bring the effect of windswept trees around the house also into the interior, but in an abstract way. The floor of the first storey has been made as a wooden prefabricated element, hanging between the Douglas firs. Galvanised steel coupling agents have been designed. The concrete elements in sight are untreated.
On the ground floor are storage, studio, bathing room, library, working room and conference room. The inner walls and doors on the ground floor are non bearing, so to be as flexible as possible, and made of ecoplex and mdf. Sometimes a book cast is also acting as the separating wall between spaces.
The stairs have been placed into the space as loose elements. They are made of fast growing poplar, so as to be as environmentally friendly as possible. This kind of wood is soft but very dense, and has no knots. The beautiful light colour does not turn yellow, so it can remain untainted. Only the stair steps can use some extra protection.
The floor finishing consists of poured concrete and the hanging wooden floor slab between the trees has been covered with sea weed carpet.
They aimed to achieve as high as possible value of the materials and the goal was to reach a Rc of 5,0. The choice was made for superior insulating glass with as less as possible colour fading taken into account. For the studio we choose for colourless glass, in order not to have our work with colours influenced by the green radiation of glass.
The ventilation system is on demand controlled and offers smart solutions for the intake of fresh air. A vacuum cleaning system has been installed for a better interior environment. The domestic system is a basic one, but can be enlarged in future. The electricity supplies are provided in floor ducts.
In relation to the energy supply they do not make use of a natural gas installation. They use an air pump (because of the location on a dune), and glass vacuum tubes providing the heating – or cooling – of the floors and hot water. The next step which is in preparation is the installation of an Energy Ball (wind energy) for the generation of electrical power.
They very closely follow the evolution of sustainable power generation and very soon interesting products will emerge on the market which also will be aesthetically interesting. Those new products can be added in the present layout.
At this moment they monitor their power consumption to see which amendments will be necessary in order to reach the best values.
They carefully searched for the parties best suited to build specific parts. In this way is was quite natural to be working with wood and consult specialists as boat builders and woodworkers. They experienced that, with this attitude, they could inspire and stimulate other people. This is the basis for further developments.
They now live in the house and decisions concerning the interior, functions and forms are just starting to emerge. Piece by piece they handle the interior the same way as they handled the building process.
Designer Ron Arad compares the overuse of 3D printing today to how musicians “abused” synthesisers in this movie made by Alice Masters for London’s Design Museum.
Ron Arad was interviewed about his use of rapid-prototyping technology to coincide with the Design Museum‘s The Future is Here exhibition, currently displaying some of his pioneering and more recent 3D-printed work.
“I discovered [3D printing] when it was called rapid prototyping… and I thought ‘here’s another way of making things’,” he says. “Things are very fast, you can draw something in the morning and print it in the evening.”
Currently exhibited at the museum, Arad’s Not Made by Hand, Not Made in China collection of spiralling, flexible 3D-printed designs was launched during Milan design week in 2000.
“I remember showing it to [designer] Achille Castiglioni when he came to see it,” says Arad. “I remember taking the time and explaining to him what it is, and I thought ‘this is great, I have something new to teach one of my heroes’.”
He reminisces about how exciting it was to experiment with the new materials and machinery, but says over time it was overused just as synthesisers were in music.
“The technology completely took over the studio and it was the most interesting thing we were dealing with, and predictably it became commonplace,” he remembers. “Synthesisers were abused completely and so is this technology we’re talking about.”
“Usually when you make eyewear it has a lot of components and a lot of tedious work with little things, screws, hinges,” he says. “We have the whole collection that is monolithic, just one material.”
Finally, he ponders everyday uses for the technology in the future: “Maybe in the future the plumber will have a machine in his van that will just print the S-pipe according to his needs in the van.”
The FRAC (Fond Regional D’art Contemporain) Marseille was designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates as a local art centre for the Provence Alpes Cotes d’Azur (PACA) region of France and it joins buildings by Boeri Studio and Rudy Ricciotti in the city’s harbour-side district.
Photograph by Roland Halbe
Hundreds of opaque glass rectangles create a chequerboard of solid and void across the glazed exterior of the six-storey-high building and are arranged at opposing angles to create a variation between light and shadow.
Photograph by Roland Halbe
“By this treatment, the building is given openness and transparency that are hard to gain from a conventional glass box,” said the architects.
Photograph by Roland Halbe
This uniform facade is punctured in just two places. The first opening is for a street-level window, while the second is an upper-level terrace that can be used for exhibitions, events or meetings.
“What we wanted was not a closed gallery but an elevated street that could work as an exhibition space and a workshop,” added the architects. “In this way inside and outside can be effectively linked, and this is what FRAC has aimed for since its inception.”
Photograph by Nicolas Waltefaugle
The building occupies a triangular site alongside Rue Vincent Leblanc. The larger southern section of the building accommodates the exhibition galleries, a research centre and offices, while the taller northern end contains an auditorium and children’s workshop.
The project description below is from Kengo Kuma and Associates:
Fonds Regional d’Art Contemporain Marseille, France 2007-2013
The project of the contemporary art centre (FRAC) for the region Provence Alpes Cotes d’Azur (PACA) is the 3D version of the “museum without walls” invented by André Malraux, famous French writer and politician. It is a museum without a museum, a living and moving place, where the art pieces are in a constant movement and join the logic of diffusion and interaction with the visitors.
Axonometric diagram
KKAA thought the FRAC as a signal in the city, which allows a better visibility to contemporary art.
Site plan
The building stands up as a landmark which identity is clearly asserted.
It is composed with two recognisable parts: » The main body along the street Vincent Leblanc contains the exhibition spaces and documentation centre » A small tower with auditorium and children’s workshop, offers an upper terrace on the main boulevard.
These two clearly identified entities are connected between them by a set of footbridges and are unified by the envelope made by a glass skin, composed with panels with changing opacity.
The building explores the theme of the windows and openings on different scales. KKAA wishes to create a particular space of creation and life, which action and effect is bounded to the entire city, as well as the surrounding district and neighbourhood (cafe-terrace…).
Architect Carles Enrich converted an old laundry space in Barcelona into an apartment that has a bookshelf merged with the staircase (+ slideshow).
Carles Enrich slotted three levels into the single-storey space to turn the dilapidated basement into a studio apartment for a young family, located in the Gràcia neighbourhood of the Catalan capital.
“[The project] is a fantastic opportunity to rethink the use of an unused place and optimise the conditions of the space,” said Enrich.
To create enough floor area, the south west portion of the long narrow plot was excavated to form a study and nursery.
Above this, a raised bedroom is supported on rows of black I-beams fixed to the wall on one side.
The other ends connect to vertical sections along the edge of the mezzanine, housing bookshelves in between that create low partitions.
The tops of the columns attach to more horizontal beams bolted to the opposite wall, high enough for people to walk underneath.
Steps up to the bedroom are suspended from the last two beams using thinner black metal elements. On the ground floor is the dining, kitchen and seating area.
A pergola-covered courtyard sits between this main building and a smaller single-storey volume containing more living space, with a terrace on its roof.
This outdoor living area can be seen from all spaces apart from the enclosed bathroom.
Original masonry walls and the small ceramic ceiling vaults between wooden beams were retained and exposed where possible. Brick and plasterwork have been painted white on most other walls.
The floor of the middle level is finished in a layer of polished concrete screed, while furniture and flooring downstairs are made from light wood.
Refurbishment of a studio-apartment in Gracia, Barcelona
The reconversion of an old laundry in the Gracia neighbourhood in a studio-apartment for a young family is a fantastic opportunity to rethink the use of an unused place and optimise the conditions of the space.
We propose to live in an open space, with the exception of the bathroom that is the only enclosed room. All the activities take place in a single space with visual contact of the interior patio. To achieve this, all the partitions that surrounded small rooms without natural light or ventilation where eliminated and the openings to the patio were extended.
The lower excavation enables the incorporation of a loft made of metallic beams and a three-centimetre wood board, which works as an independent living area inside another bigger area, without being never enclosed room. This small loft is meant more like a suspended furniture than a room.
An old storage room at the back of the plot is converted into a satellite studio that operates independently from the main space. This fragmentation of the program makes the patio an intermediate space that can be used as an outdoor room most part of the year.
A pergola made of metal beams and a cane network provides privacy and climate control. The progressive growth of plants and trees generate a natural environment within the dense urban area.
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