These white hexagonal ceramic speakers by Finnish company Unmonday can connect to each other wirelessly by being rolled onto different sides.
The minimal casing of the Unmonday Model 4.3 is made from vitro ceramic and features a single power button, handmade grille and a charge point at the back.
By rotating the device, the user can toggle between different modes. When the power button is facing up, Mono mode is activated and the speaker plays normally.
If there is more than one speaker present, rotating the device will synchronise the set to play the same song. Up to five units can be combined to become an impromptu surround sound system when connected to a TV or computer.
To mute the speaker, simply tip it on its head and the sound will cut out.
“We wanted to create something truly wireless and flexible, but also something that did not compromise on sound quality or on good design sensibility,” said Jukka Nieminen from Unmonday.
“We also wanted to remove all the usual hassles associated with wireless speakers, from the set up process, to running wires, to pairing wireless equipment.”
The speaker can stream music from an iPhone, iPad or Mac computer using AirPlay, Apple’s native streaming technology. Alternatively, there is a 3.5-millimetre jack in the rear to allow connection with non-compatible devices.
Inside the casing is a single 10.3-inch driver capable of generating 20 watts of power along with a router, amplifier and a series of motion sensors that can detect the orientation of the speaker.
The battery can provide up to eight hours worth of wireless music or it can be connected to the mains.
The Model 4.3’s front grille is interchangeable and comes in a range of colours. There is also a bespoke leather carry case that the 4.3 snugly fits inside for transportation.
The project began as a Kickstarter campaign in 2012, and was launched in December 2013. The Model 4.3 is available to buy in Apple stores in Europe and Asia.
Milan 2014: Swiss studio Big-Game will present a combined coat rack and picture ledge for Danish brand Hay during Milan’s design week (+ slideshow).
The BEAM coat rack by Big-Game allows the user to slide as many coat hooks onto the profile as needed and display thin items at the same time.
“We found it useful to be able to slide the hooks on the metal beam wherever you need them,” the designers told Dezeen. “If it is on the right or on the left side of a door for instance, or depending on what you want to hang on it.”
Solid ash hooks are cut to shape and slide directly onto the metal H-shaped profile, which attaches to the wall.
“We were always fascinated by the peg rails found in American Shaker houses,” said the designers. “Instead of hiding the mess, they somehow make it manageable.
“When we were asked to think about something that could be in entrances, we readapted this idea with a metal profile,” they added.
The aluminium profile is available in 60 or 90-centimetre lengths. Colours include grey, red and green, and extra hooks can be purchased in natural ash.
BEAM will be shown at the former printing house Spazio Ciovassino in Milan’s Brera district from 8-13 April.
Madrid studio Adam Bresnick Architects has revived the sixteenth-century interior of a chapel in Spain by reinstating a vaulted ceiling and building a timber-clad box that hovers above the floor.
Located in the small town of Brihuega, the former chapel was redesigned by American-born architect Adam Bresnick for use as a multi-purpose events space that can accommodate different community activities, or function as a wedding venue.
The main intervention is the addition of the new two-storey timber volume, which cantilevers into the space above the entrance lobby to create a modern alternative to the chapel’s former choir box.
The structure only makes contact with one original wall, as the design team didn’t want it to overpower the existing architecture. “The philosophy guiding the intervention was to respect time’s passing,” they said.
Glass balustrades surround the two suspended floors, but the entire volume is also clad with vertical pine slats that define its outline whilst allowing sound and light to pass between.
An original vaulted ceiling above had crumbled away, so was replaced with a matching construction of timber slats.
The chapel’s former nave is the building’s largest space. It sits below a domed ceiling, and is lit by a suspended fixture that mimics the ceiling’s size and circular shape.
On the opposite side of the lobby, a new four-storey structure was inserted to accommodate ancillary functions including toilets, staff areas, a kitchen and an elevator. A staircase also extends back into this space.
A beige marble floor runs through the interior. The team also restored the building’s exterior by repointing the stone walls, repairing tiled eaves and retaining original stone mouldings.
Here’s a project description from the architect:
Restoration and adaptation of a 16th century chapel in Brihuega, Spain
The chapel rehabilitation is for a new typology – a multi-purpose space for events ranging from a formal wedding to the mellow ambiance of a yoga retreat. The reconstruction involved resolving the complex pathologies suffered by the original structure since being abandoned in 1969.
Adam Bresnick Architects studied and restored the existing architecture as well as inserting new uses. The philosophy guiding the intervention was to respect time’s passing. From the exterior the stone facades were repointed, traditional tile eaves restored and stone mouldings left with their worn faults, including the original scarred Serlian entrance. In the interior three distinct areas are articulated, the refurbished dome where the original space is restored, the entrance into the nave is a mix of archaeological remains and new construction cantilevered over the space, minimally touching the original.
The fallen vaults that once covered this space are recalled by a new vaulted ceiling of pine slats. Plaster mouldings cutout over the bare masonry of the original wall also mark the shapes of the original vaults. The last third occupying the old choir area houses all modern uses, from the elevator allowing for handicapped access to all levels, to restrooms, kitchen, staff and storage areas. This four-story structure is inserted within the stone walls, a skylight in the stair accentuating its conceptual separation from the original container.
The materials used are the same as the original; beige marble main floor, white paint on the plaster mouldings, pine slats on the ceiling and to enclose the modern choir that floats within the volume of the nave.
The creation of new uses for historical spaces, and new employment possibilities in the context of rural Spain is an outstanding contribution to European culture. The innovation of the initiative has been recognised by the FADETA (Federación de Asociaciones para el Desarrollo Territorial del Tajo-Tajuña), a local program forming part of European Union FEADER (Fonds Européen Agricole pour le Développement Rural) program. The total construction cost is €852,000, and is privately funded. Nevertheless the quality of the intervention and its novelty has been awarded a subsidy of €200,000 by FADETA.
Principal architect: Adam Bresnick Team architects: Miguel Peña Martínez-Conde & Antonio Romeo Donlo Structural engineers: Juan F. de la Torre Calvo & Ana Fernández-Cuartero Paramio
Archaeologist: Olga Vallespín Gómez Construction coordinator: Joaquín Fernández González Clerk of the works: Federico Vega Ortega Industrial engineering: José de Andres Abad Contractor: José Lucas Hernández Foreman: Alberto Martínez Gamboa
Steel structure: Mariano del Olmo Marble: Incom Pastor Carpentry: Hermanos Esteban Electricity: Tabernero de Andres Circular chandelier: Ecoaneva
Milan 2014: a bracelet made from pencil leads and a stool designed to collect dust are among pieces that Danish designers will exhibit at this year’s Mindcraft exhibition in Milan (+ slideshow).
Completely Dusty by benandsebastian
Curated by Danish designer Nina Tolstrup, this year’s Mindcraft exhibition includes work by 12 Danish designers who were all asked to create pieces under the theme Materialising Beliefs.
Iskos-Berlin.
Tolstrup aims to highlight the craft element of Danish design and she selected designers from a range of disciplines to showcase their handcraft skills.
Flower Arrangement by Marianne Neilsen
Projects displayed will include a bracelet by Katrine Borup, made from mechanical pencil leads woven together into a ribbon and rolled up. Borup poked the leads up to create an embossed message around the top of the coil. Titled iLoveLetters, it was created to highlight the fact that few people write letters to each other now.
iLoveLetters by Katrine Borup
The wooden chair by benandsebastian won’t be complete until dust has settled onto the intricate walnut latticework that forms the back. The chair is so fragile that attempting to clean it with a feather duster would cause it to collapse.
Suspension I by Pipaluk Lake
Pipaluk Lake formed her Suspension I piece by melting panes of glass over twisted wires in a giant kiln. She then hung the piece from a metal frame so the glass appears to be dripping from the wires.
Street Print by Anne Fabricius Møller
A ten-metre-long textile print was made by Anne Fabricius Møller with objects she found on the street. The print is arranged in an almost symmetrical pattern, with colours matching the hues of the original objects where possible.
Tools by Jakob Jørgensen
Usually known for working in wood, Jakob Jørgensen has tried his hand as a blacksmith and forged a set of steel woodworking tools.
Untitled study between three points in six directions by Kristine Tillge Lund
Kristine Tillge Lund has extruded 600 tall white porcelain rods, which she will lean up against two walls in the exhibition and observe how people act in the space.
Horror Vacui by Morten Løbner Espersen
Martin Løbner Espersen’s glazed ceramic vases with growths and tumours sprouting from their Grecian form will be displayed alongside his tub-like containers patterned with layers of colour.
Elements by Line Depping
The Elements clothes rail by Line Depping is constructed from modules of steam-bent wood. Starting with three rails that fix together at each side, extra pieces can be added to create more storage space.
The Dance of the Deaf and Dumb Eye by Nikoline Liv Andersen
Nikoline Liv Andersens‘s Rococo-inspired wigs each have one of the Three Wise Monkeys – see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil – integrated into the top.
The exhibition will take place in the Ventura Lambrate design district at Via Venture 6 from 8 to 13 April, during Milan’s design week.
Here’s more information from the designers:
Mindcraft14: Danish Craft and Design at Milan Design Week 2014
A fragile bracelet woven of mechanical pencil lead, a delicate dust-collecting stool and a lamp shade that looks like a skirt that is picked up by the wind. 12 Danish craftspeople focus on the experimental and the tangible in Mindcraft14 at Fuori Salone from 8 through 13 April in Milan.
Anne Fabricius Møller
When 12 Danish craftspeople and designers present their works at the major design event Fuori Salone in Milan, the exhibits include both experiments and near-finished prototypes.
Kristine Tillge Lund
This year’s Danish Mindcraft exhibition focuses on the artistic process that unfolds in the workshop when craftspeople produce their unique works.
Nikoline Liv Andersen
“Danish craft draws on a strong tradition, where the workshop is the setting for basic research and experimentation – and for materialising extraordinary ideas,” says Nina Tolstrup, the curator of this year’s Mindcraft.
Katrine Borup
The Danish exhibition showcases the high level of design quality, the firm knowledge of materials and the innovative approaches that have helped make Danish design world-renowned. Another goal is to help the individual participant break through on the international scene.
Line Depping
According to Nina Tolstrup, both the maker’s role and the experimental workshop processes have taken on growing relevance in recent years:
“Global industrial manufacturing is becoming increasingly uniform, simplified and thus also more vulnerable to plagiarism. Craft is a powerful response – as well as an important source of inspiration for renewal and development in industrial manufacturing,” she says.
Jakob Jørgensen
Under the heading Materialising Beliefs, which addresses the link between artistic experimentation and the tangible contribution to the world, the exhibition includes Katrine Borup’s iLoveLetters: a ribbon woven of mechanical pencil lead, which reflects how the computer has virtually made hand-writing extinct. Iskos-Berlin have created a series of lamp shades that float down from the ceiling like skirts lifted by the wind.
Marianne Neilsen
At a distance, benandsebastian’s work Completely Dusty looks like a simple stool; close up, however, one discovers the overwhelmingly complex construction made of tiny elements carved in wood. The work is a comment on modern furniture design with its smooth, clean surfaces – Completely Dusty welcomes and virtually defends the dust that we work so hard to eliminate, in this fragile form that would most likely collapse if it were subjected to a feather duster.
Morten Løbner Espersen
Mindcraft14 is on display from 8 through 13 April at the design week in Milan’s Ventura Lambrate at 6 Via Ventura.
The craftspeople selected to participate in Mindcraft14 are:
» Nikoline Liv Andersen » benandsebastian » Iskos-Berlin » Katrine Borup » Line Depping » Morten Løbner Espersen » Marie Torbensdatter Hermann » Jakob Jørgensen » Pipaluk Lake » Kristine Tillge Lund » Anne Fabricius Møller » Marianne Nielsen
Marie Torbensdatter Hermann
Facts about Mindcraft14
Mindcraft is an internationally recognized and award-winning annual exhibition with varying participants, put together by external curators, that presents the finest examples of Danish craft and design at the world’s leading design scene during the Milan design week. From 2014, the MINDCRAFT exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation with the Danish Agency for Culture serving as the secretariat.
British firm John McAslan + Partners has converted a stone barn into a library and added a contrasting stained timber extension, as part of its redevelopment of a university campus in Cumbria, England (+ slideshow).
During the first stage of a masterplan for updating the University of Cumbria‘s Ambleside Campus, John McAslan + Partners refurbished the traditional Cumbrian barn, which was constructed in 1929 and had until recently been used as a student union.
Informed by the campus’s setting in a National Park, the architects endeavoured to minimise alterations to the existing barn’s stone exterior and added an extension with a pitched roof and large windows overlooking a new courtyard.
“The reconfiguration, a contemporary interpretation of Cumbrian vernacular, respects the original stone fabric of the building while enhancing the character and quality of the space,” said the architects.
Timber beams supporting the roof of the barn were exposed to increase the interior volume and contribute to a spacious upper storey that is filled with light from the redesigned windows.
The single-storey addition with its steeply sloping roof is clad in black-stained timber that provides a contrast to the stone barn and surrounding buildings.
“John McAslan + Partners’ design for the new library and student hub respects the original stone fabric of the building, while enhancing the character and quality of the space,” said the university’s head of facilities management, Stephen Bloye.
Full-height windows brighten the interior of the cafeteria and allow views across the landscaped courtyard towards the rest of the campus.
New stone floors used throughout the ground floor of the library and the cafeteria unite the interiors of the two spaces.
Pale wood covering the walls and ceiling of the cafeteria recurs in fitted furniture including rounded booths on the library’s ground floor and the cladding of the circulation areas.
As part of the ongoing masterplan the architects will continue to repair and refurbish other buildings around the university campus and improve landscaping and connections around the site.
Library and student hub, Ambleside Campus, University of Cumbria
A newly opened library and student hub marks the completion of the first phase of the practice’s masterplan for the Ambleside Campus at the University of Cumbria.
Stephen Bloye, Head of Facilities Management, University of Cumbria, comments: “John McAslan + Partners’ design for the new library and student hub respects the original stone fabric of the building, while enhancing the character and quality of the space.”
The existing timber roof structure has been exposed, greatly increasing the building’s overall volume. In addition, new stone floors have been installed and windows redesigned to maximise natural light, creating an attractive working environment and improve energy use.
Generous glazing provides views out onto the adjacent courtyard space, one of the new landscape spaces created as part of the campus redevelopment, and beyond over the mature landscape of the campus.
The reanimated university campus will comprise Business Enterprise and Development, Outdoor Studies, Environmental Sciences and the National School of Forestry, creating a 21st-century university campus within the National Park.
Phase One of the masterplan has also delivered improved access and services infrastructure across the campus, including disability access for 75% of all teaching accommodation, induction loop systems, illuminated pedestrian routes, disabled parking provision and level access into and within all buildings where possible.
The University’s revitalised buildings will accommodate community events and lectures out of hours, enhancing the opportunities for adult learning in the community.
Competition: Dezeen has teamed up with the Future Everything conference to give two readers the chance to win a guest-list pass for two days of talks and lectures in Manchester next week.
The Future Everything event will explore the theme of Tools for an Unknown Future. “The conference debates our fascination with tools as the most natural path towards social change, and open up new ways to question, imagine and make the strange troubled thing called the future,” explains Future Everything founder and CEO Drew Hemment.
A programme of talks and panel discussions will explore themes including: How to Create a Tool, Superfictions: Design for Social Dreaming and Mapping the Digital Public Space.
The programme also features the Apps for Europe Awards, where ten teams will pitch their ideas for open-data start ups, from apps that find the most bike-friendly routes across a city to finding the nearest and cheapest parking.
The conference will take place at Manchester Town Hall in England on Monday 31 March and Tuesday 1 April. Winners will be able to collect their passes on the door. You can follow the event on #futr @futureverything
Competition closes 28 March 2014. Two 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.
Images show projects to be demonstrated at Future Everything Live, taking place alongside the conference.
A tactile watch designed for blind people by a group of students has gone into production after strong demand from sighted consumers (+ interview).
The Bradley watch, which displays the time via a ball bearing that moves around the face, has also emerged as a frontrunner for the Design of the Year 2014 award, organised by the Design Museum in London.
“It’s a tactile watch that was designed with users who are blind in mind,” said David Zacher, lead designer at Eone timepieces.
“We started out thinking about what kind of watch would work for blind users and we struck upon this idea of using ball bearings rotating around a track to indicate the minutes and the hours on the dial,” Zacher told Dezeen at last night’s Designs of the Year 2014 exhibition launch:
The product was designed by Zacher and a group of fellow graduate students while studing at RISD but it will go on sale in June after a successful Kickstarter funding drive showed that non-visually impaired consumers wanted to buy the watch.
“A majority of the responses don’t have anything to do with vision impairment,” said Amanda Sim, a former RISD student who is now head of graphic design and marketing for Eone, which is manufacturing the timepiece. “People just think it’s a beautiful and eye-catching watch.”
The idea for the watch came from research showing that partially sighted and blind people were buying designer timepieces they couldn’t use and then using their phone to tell the time or relying on obtrusive talking watches.
The product is now being marketed as a “gentleman’s watch” that is “built for discretion” – since wearers can check the time without anyone noticing.
Zacher described the process of designing the watch as “the Eames model” and said his team would embark on more “inclusive design” projects in future.
“We never would have hit on this idea of using ball bearings to tell time if we hadn’t been solving [the problem of designing a watch for the visually impaired],” he said. “So I can see a broader application in products that follows that same approach, of inclusively designing something.”
The Bradley is named after Bradley Snyder, an ex-naval officer who lost his eyesight in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2011 and who went on to win gold and silver medals at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
A magnet inside the titanium watch moves a ball bearing around the track. Because the bearing is raised, wearers can feel its position with their fingers.
The watch is now available to pre-order in the UK, US and Canada. But demand has been so high that it will soon be available across Europe and in Asia as well. It will soon be available at Dezeen Watch Store.
Below is an edited transcript of the interview with David Zacher and Amanda Sim of Eone:
Marcus Fairs: Tell us what this product is and how the idea came about.
David Zacher: It’s a tactile watch that was designed with users who are blind in mind. We started out thinking about what kind of watch or time keeping device would work for blind users and we struck upon this idea of using ball bearings rotating around a track to indicate the minutes and the hours on the dial.
Marcus Fairs: I heard you saying before how blind people would buy fashionable watches and then listen to Siri reading out the time.
David Zacher: We did a tremendous amount of user research. We found users who had a talking watch which is quite loud and a little embarrassing to use in a public place like a classroom say. So that was one piece of intel that we gained and as we went further into it we found users who were wearing fashion watches, even though they couldn’t tell the time. They were using their iPhones to tell the time. So we thought about how we can make a fashionable watch that would also work for tactile users and hopefully appeal to a larger audience of everyday users.
Amanda Sim: The watch is built from solid titanium. It comes in a range of different watch bands in stainless steel as well as canvas and leather. It’s built for durability, it’s easier to clean, easier to fix, but we’re marketing it as the gentleman’s watch. So it’s built for discretion and it’s all about the modern man who needs to be couth and gentlemanly but somehow always knows where he needs to be and what time it is.
Marcus Fairs: So he can check whether he needs to leave without letting anyone know.
Amanda Sim: Exactly.
Marcus Fairs: So you developed this when you were at RISD. Is that right?
Amanda Sim: Yes in graduate school, at the Rhode Island School of Design. We were randomly approached by our founder on the MIT MBA program at the time and he’s very much interested in projects for social good. But Eone is a for-profit company because we believe the proceeds of what we make from this watch can be fed into improving innovation and products for impaired users.
David Zacher: And we worked really hard to try and keep the price-point of it as low as possible. To keep it as accessible as we possibly can. That’s where we see the social bit.
Marcus Fairs: Where is it at in terms of development? Is it a product that is available and ready for order?
David Zacher: We recently finished fulfilment on our Kickstarter orders so it’s in production and it’s currently available for preorder in the UK, US and Canada with delivery in June.
Amanda Sim: But in June it will be available in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, South Korea, the US, Canada and throughout Europe.
Marcus Fairs: And what has been the response so far from blind people and non-blind people?
David Zacher: Oh it’s been wonderful. We’ve gotten great response from all over the world from our Kickstarter funders and the community that has come to support us has been amazing.
Amanda Sim: And a majority of the responses don’t have anything to do with vision impairment. People just think it’s a beautiful and eye-catching watch.
Marcus Fairs: Do you think this is a kind of philosophy that could be expanded, designing things for people with some kind of impairment but aimed at a wider market?
David Zacher: Definitely, we never would have hit on this idea of using ball bearings to tell time if we hadn’t been solving for that problem, so I can see a broader application in products that follows that same approach, of inclusively designing something.
If you respect the user group you are designing for and you are keeping in mind that you are trying to design something that is superb not just for that user group but for mainstream use, I think that the result is exemplary design and the key word that always comes around in our design critiques is ‘inclusive design’. It’s all about the best, for the most, for the least. It’s the Eames model.
A watch that uses ball bearings to create a face that can be read by the visually impaired is one of the front-runners for Designs of the Year 2014, but has also proven popular with a broader market (+ interview).
Built from solid titanium, the Bradley Timepiece was designed by the team at new watch company Eone. It creates a tactile experience with ball bearings that rotate around the face on two tracks instead of hands, creating a braille-like experience for reading hours and minutes.
The idea for the watch came out of research showing that partially sighted and blind people were buying designer timepieces that they couldn’t use and then using their phone to tell the time or relying on obtrusive talking watches.
“We thought about how we could make a fashionable watch that would also work for tactile users and hopefully appeal to a larger audience of everyday users,” lead designer David Zacher told Dezeen at last night’s Designs of the Year 2014 exhibition launch.
“If you respect the user group you are designing for and keep in mind that you are trying to design something that is superb, not just for that user group but for mainstream use, I think that the result is exemplary design,” he said.
Although the watch was originally designed with the visually impaired in mind, the majority of responses the designers have received don’t have anything to do with vision impairment, according to Amanda Sim, head of graphic design and marketing for Eone.
“People just think it’s a beautiful and eye catching watch,” she said.
Having fulfilled the orders from the watch’s original Kickstarter funding drive, it is now available to pre-order in the UK, US and Canada. But demand has been so high that it will also soon be available across Europe and in Asia as well.
Below is an edited transcript of the interview with David Sacher and Amanda Sim of Eone:
Marcus Fairs: So tell us what this product is and how the idea came about.
David Zacher: It’s a tactile watch that was designed with users who are blind in mind. We started out thinking about what kind of watch or time keeping device would work for blind users and we struck upon this idea of using ball bearings rotating around a track to indicate the minutes and the hours on the dial.
Marcus Fairs: I heard you saying before how blind people would buy fashionable watches and then listen to their SIRI reading out the time.
David Zacher: We did a tremendous amount of user research. We found users who had a talking watch which is quite loud and a little embarrassing to use in a public place like a classroom say. So that was one piece of intel that we gained and as we went further into it we found users who were wearing fashion watches, even though they couldn’t tell the time. They were using their iphones to tell the time. So we thought about how we can make a fashionable watch that would also work for tactile users and hopefully appeal to a larger audience of everyday users.
Amanda Sim: The watch is built from solid titanium, it comes in a range of different watch bands in stainless steel as well as canvas and leather. It’s built for durability, its easier to clean, easier to fix, but we’re marketing it as the gentleman’s watch. So it’s built for discretion and it’s all about the modern man who needs to be couth and gentlemanly but somehow always knows where he needs to be and what time it is.
David Zacher: So check whether he needs to leave without letting anyone know.
Amanda Sim: Exactly.
Marcus Fairs: So you developed this when you were at RISD. Is that right?
Amanda Sim: Yes in graduate school, at the Rhode Island School of Design. We were randomly approached by our founder in the MIT MEA program at the time and he’s very much interested in projects for social good. But Eone timepieces is a for profit company because we believe the proceeds of what we make from this watch can be fed into improving innovation and products for impaired users.
David Zacher: And we worked really hard to try and keep the price point of it as low as possible. To keep it as accessible as we possibly can. That’s where we see the social bit.
Marcus Fairs: Where is it out in terms of development? Is it a product that is available and ready for order?
David Zacher: We recently finished fulfilment on our Kickstarter orders so it’s in production and it’s currently available for preorder in the UK, US and Canada with delivery in June.
Amanda Sim: But in June it will be available in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, South Korea, the US, Canada and throughout Europe.
Marcus Fairs: And what has been the response so far from blind people and non blind people?
David Zacher: Oh it’s been wonderful, we’ve gotten great response from all over the world from our Kickstarter funders and the community that has come to support us has been amazing.
Amanda Sim: And a majority of the responses don’t have anything to do with vision impairment, people just think it’s a beautiful and eye catching watch.
Marcus Fairs: Do you think this is a kind of philosophy that could be expanded, designing things for people with some kind of impairment but aimed at a wider market?
David Zacher: Definitely, we never would have hit on this idea of using ball bearings to tell time if we hadn’t been solving for that problem, so I can see a broader application in products that follows that same approach, of inclusively designing something.
If you respect the user group you are designing for and you are keeping in mind that you are trying to design something that is superb not just for that user group but for mainstream use, I think that the result is exemplary design and the key word that always comes around in our design critiques is ‘inclusive design’. It’s all about the best, for the most, for the least. It’s the Eames model.
News:OMA has seen off competition from BIG and Buro Ole Scheeren to win a competition to expand the Berlin headquarters of multimedia firm Axel Springer.
The firm, led by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, triumphed with a concept for a building featuring a 30-metre-high atrium that “lavishly broadcasts” its interior to the existing Axel Springer building next door.
Tasked with developing a structure that sets new standards in terms of internal atmosphere and room layout, OMA proposes a series of tiered floors that extend out to external terraces.
Hearing about the win, Rem Koolhaas said: “It is a wonderful occasion to build in Berlin again, for a client who has mobilised architecture to help perform a radical change: a workplace in all its dimensions.”
The building will create additional space for the company’s growing business divisions, particularly its digital departments.
“Rem Koolhaas drafted a building which only on second sight reveals its secret, architecturally formulating a new kind of collaborative working at its core,” said Regula Lüscher, director of the city’s urban development department.
“The concept offers a strong symbolic force as it leads the course of the Berlin Wall diagonally through the building, thereby creating an atrium and spectacular interior, which addresses the unification of this city,” she added.
The shortlist for the competition was revealed back in December. The proposals of all three firms will go on show at the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt later this year.
Dutch firm Wiel Arets Architects applied an intricate fritting technique to the glazed facade of this office complex in Zurich to give it the appearance of onyx marble (+ slideshow).
Located within a developing commercial zone outside the city centre, the 20-storey tower and five-storey annex were designed by Wiel Arets Architects to provide a new Swiss headquarters for financial services company Allianz.
Planning guidelines stipulate that all new buildings in the area must be clad in natural stone. But the architects chose to instead create the look of onyx marble to “allow the building to blend into its context while simultaneously maintaining its distinguished stance”.
An abstracted pattern taken from the marble surfaces of Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion was used to frit the glass. This was achieved by building up composite layers of black and white dots.
“The original image of the onyx marble was rasterised, and from this two versions of the same image were created – one black and the other white,” project architect Felix Thies told Dezeen.
“These two images were then patterned and fritted on the back side of two different layers of glass, separated by a distance of six millimetres,” he explained.”When viewing the facade from an angle, the reflections of the rasterised patterns appear ever-changing, in accordance with the angle of the sun.”
A regular grid of windows breaks up the facade and each one contains a silver curtain between two layers of glass. These are controlled by computer to vary the level of shade they provide, adapting to different weather and lighting conditions.
The building’s entrance is at the base of the tower and leads through to a central staircase that ascends from the main lobby through all 20 storeys. This is to encourage employees to interact with people on different floors.
Four enclosed bridges connect the tower with the adjoining annex. There are also voids in the floorplates to create double-height spaces between storeys.
“The Allianz Headquarters can be experienced as horizontal and vertical landscape of neighbourhoods,” said the design team in a statement.
Internal heating and ventilation is provided from behind a panelled ceiling system. These panels are made from steel and perforated with a pattern derived from Swiss chalet ornamentation.
A cafe and restaurant is located on the fifth floor, while the level below accommodates rooms for client meetings. Employees can also take time out from work on a roof terrace dotted with Japanese maple trees.
A three-level car park unites the two buildings at basement level and provides space for up to 300 vehicles.
Here’s a project description from Wiel Arets Architects:
WAA complete construction on the Allianz Headquarters in Zurich
Allianz Headquarters is a 20-storey tower and 5-storey annex, the latter capped with roof gardens of Japanese maples; these two components are interlaced by four enormous bridges
The Allianz Headquarters is a hybrid-office and the pinnacle of a masterplanned mixed-use district on the edge of Zurich’s city centre. Comprised of a 20-storey tower and a 5-storey annex, these two components are externally linked by a series of four bridges, and vertically linked by numerous interior voids and staircases; as such, the Allianz Headquarters can be experienced as horizontal and vertical landscape of neighbourhoods.
Fluidly connected to the city centre by a multitude of public transportation options, the building encourages the blossoming of twenty-first century office culture, which demands flexibility in space and its use, via its hyper-hybrid programming that amplifies ‘interiority’.
The entire lobby and ground floor are publicly accessible, ensuring a continuous animation throughout both, which compliments the adjacent public square. A central staircase rises from the lobby up and into the 20-storey tower, allowing employees to, if desired, meander throughout all levels of the office without entering its core.
A café and restaurant are located on the fifth floor, rather than within the lobby, which creates a buffer zone between public and non-public areas. A ‘business centre’ is located one floor below, and contains meeting rooms for use with external clients. This ‘business centre’ enables employees to meet with their guests, without the need for elevators.
This new district’s masterplan mandated that all building facades be composed of natural stone, yet it was chosen to frit this building’s full glass facade with an abstracted pattern of Onyx marble – from Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion – which allows the building to blend into its context while simultaneously maintaining its distinguished stance.
Each element of the facade contains a closed cavity system, in which an aluminium-coated silver curtain hangs, which fluctuates its degree of shading by responding to external environmental factors – a process administered by a computer controlled algorithm.
Interior heating and cooling occurs through a panelled ceiling system that utilises concrete core activation and concealed air ventilation. These 1.35 x 1.35 m panels are composed of ‘crumpled’ steel sheets into which a three-dimensional pattern, derived from traditional ornamentation of Swiss chalet eave, has been stamped, which introduces a larger scale to the interior office spaces by decreasing the amount of visible ceiling seams. Micro-perforations in the panels maintain ventilation, allowing for no visible interior air ducts and the placement of an acoustically absorbing sheet on the back of each.
Inhabitable volumes adorn the roof of the lower building, with several garden terraces for employees. These gardens contain a singular red Japanese maple tree, which return in the landscaping of the central courtyard below.
Both the 20-storey tower and 5-storey annex are adjoined underground by a tri-level 300 car parking garage, where most of the extensive IT and mechanical facilities are stored. Similar to a home, the Allianz Headquarters has been infused with espresso corners and lounge like spaces throughout, for instance, its four 8m wide bridges, to stimulate informal conversation within this highly formal working environment.
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