Hasta La Ideas

Milan 2013: bamboo trees sprouted up around a topographical landscape of stone and water at this installation created by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma in Milan last month.

As one of three architect-designed installations for the Urban Stories exhibition of contemporary living, Kengo Kuma‘s Stonescape was designed as an interpretation of a traditional Japanese Zen garden.

Cascading stone strata formed a series of undulating curves around the room. Pools of water formed at some of the lowest levels, while others contained clusters of bamboo trees planted in gravel.

“The clean and pure Pietra Serena stone is used so as to recreate a topography that, as in real landscapes, moulds the shape of water, guides our walking and gives a context to the objects to better admire them,” says Kengo Kuma and Associates.

The installation was located in one of the buildings of the Porta Nuova Varesine complex, a new skyscraper district designed by architects including Cesar Pelli, Stefano Boeri and Nicholas Grimshaw. It was used as a showroom for furniture between 9 and 14 April, alongside spaces designed by Michele de Lucchi and Diego Grandi.

Other recent projects by Kengo Kuma include an experimental house in Japan and a fashion boutique in China. See more architecture by Kengo Kuma.

See more projects from Milan 2013, including offices of the future imagined by Jean Nouvel and a courtyard installation of rotating cork platforms by the Bouroullecs.

Photography is by Giovanni Desandre, apart from otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from the exhibition organisers:

In the spectacular skyline of Porta Nuova Varesine in Milan, on the occasion of the Fuorisalone collateral event, three exceptional architects are ‘staging’ three extraordinary suggestions of contemporary living.

Michele De Lucchi, Diego Grandi and Kengo Kuma, ‘tell’ their Urban Stories, through unique and thrilling installations, for an eagerly-awaited event, which supplements the busy schedule of Fuorisalone events.

Urban Stories, organised by MoscaPartners, with the collaboration of Hines, is a spin-off from the extraordinary success of Bologna Water Design 2012, the exclusive event dedicated to water design, which involved the city’s most prestigious venues during the Cersaie show in September.

The limelight is therefore cast on Urban Stories and its stars, who thanks to the enthusiastic participation of major leading companies in a variety of industries will give rise to charming captivating set-ups.

The focus of Urban Stories is the Porta Nuova Varesine complex, which is the result of an ambitious urban and architectural replanning project involving large areas of the Isola, Varesine and Garibaldi districts, developed and implemented by famous architects, including Cesar Pelli, Stefano Boeri and Nicholas Grimshaw, under the direction of Hines Italia Sgr, promoter and investor.

The original installations created by Michele De Lucchi, Diego Grandi and Kengo Kuma will transform the important display spaces of the ‘new centre of Milan’ into an exceptional cultural box, ready to welcome the curious multifarious public who animates the most important and eagerly-awaited international design event every year.

Urban Stories are therefore not just simple installations, but proper ‘seductions’, resulting from a sensitive way of designing to imagine the landscape within our cities and outside them.

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by Kengo Kuma appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2013: Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola has created a family of chairs influenced by the shape of a hood for Italian brand Moroso.

Designed by Patricia Urquiola for furniture brand Moroso, the Clarissa Hood armchair and chair have faceted outer shells with seat backs designed to partially wrap around the sitter like the hood of garment.

The chairs are composed of a metal tubular frame with a thermoformed polyester fibre shell encasing a generously padded seat in a contrasting colour.

The collection is available in a wide variety of colours and was presented at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan last month.

Patricia Urquiola unveiled another two chairs for Moroso in Milan this year including one with a backrest wrapped in rush, and a collection of armchairs with wavy backs and seats made from rigid felt. See more designs by Patricia Urquiola »

Moroso also presented a chair inspired by the spike heels on a pair of stilettos and a collection of brightly coloured furniture by Berlin-based designer Werner Aisslinger in Milan.

See more furniture by Moroso »
See all our stories about chair design »
See all our coverage of Milan 2013 »

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by Patricia Urquiola for Moroso appeared first on Dezeen.

Huge terracotta wine vaults are concealed beneath a vineyard at this winery outside Florence by Italian firm Archea Associati (+ slideshow).

Completed at the end of 2012, the 50,000-square-metre Antinori Winery was conceived as an invisible building whose body merges with the folds of the hillside. The tiered roof is entirely covered with farmland and a pair of sliced openings infilled with glass are all that reveal the presence of the structure.

“The physical and intellectual construction of the winery pivots on the profound and deep-rooted ties with the land, a relationship which is so intense and suffered as to make the architectural image conceal itself and blend into it,” says Archea Associati.

The interior of the winery is divided into two main storeys. The lowest levels are dedicated to the storage and production of wine, while the upper level contains visitor facilities that include a museum, a library, an auditorium and areas for wine tasting and shopping.

Circular openings pierce the roof and floors to bring light into the depths of the building. One void contains a spiralling staircase, which connects an upper-level terrace with the vaults below.

These double-height cellars are arranged in three rows and are lined with terracotta on every side. The architects describe the rooms as “the secluded heart of the winery [that] with its darkness and the rhythmic sequence of the terracotta vaults, [conveys] the sacral dimension of a space which is hidden.”

The building uses the earth as a natural insulator to maintain a constant indoor climate and keep the wine cool during the warmer summer months.

Other wineries completed in recent years include a partially submerged sandstone winery in Spain and the rusted-steel Chateau Barde-Haut in France. See more wineries on Dezeen.

Here’s a project description from Archea Associati:

Antinori Winery
San Casciano Val di Pesa, Italia, 2004-2012

The site is surrounded by the unique hills of Chianti, covered with vineyards, half-way between Florence and Siena. A cultured and illuminated customer has made it possible to pursue, through architecture, the enhancement of the landscape and the surroundings as expression of the cultural and social valence of the place where wine is produced.

The functional aspects have therefore become an essential part of a design itinerary which centres on the geomorphological experimentation of a building understood as the most authentic expression of a desired symbiosis and merger between anthropic culture, the work of man, his work environment and the natural environment.

The physical and intellectual construction of the winery pivots on the profound and deep-rooted ties with the land, a relationship which is so intense and suffered (also in terms of economic investment) as to make the architectural image conceal itself and blend into it.

The purpose of the project has therefore been to merge the building and the rural landscape; the industrial complex appears to be a part of the latter thanks to the roof, which has been turned into a plot of farmland cultivated with vines, interrupted, along the contour lines, by two horizontal cuts which let light into the interior and provide those inside the building with a view of the landscape through the imaginary construction of a diorama. The facade, to use an expression typical of buildings, therefore extends horizontally along the natural slope, paced by the rows of vines which, along with the earth, form its “roof cover”.

The openings or cuts discreetly reveal the underground interior: the office areas, organized like a belvedere above the barricade, and the areas where the wine is produced are arranged along the lower, and the bottling and storage areas along the upper.

The secluded heart of the winery, where the wine matures in barrels, conveys, with its darkness and the rhythmic sequence of the terracotta vaults, the sacral dimension of a space which is hidden, not because of any desire to keep it out of sight but to guarantee the ideal thermo-hygrometric conditions for the slow maturing of the product.

A reading of the architectural section of the building reveals that the altimetrical arrangement follows both the production process of the grapes which descend (as if by gravity) – from the point of arrival, to the fermentation tanks to the underground barrel vault – and that of the visitors who on the contrary ascend from the parking area to the winery and the vineyards, through the production and display areas with the press, the area where vinsanto is aged, to finally reach the restaurant and the floor hosting the auditorium, the museum, the library, the wine tasting areas and the sales outlet.

The offices, the administrative areas and executive offices, located on the upper level, are paced by a sequence of internal court illuminated by circular holes scattered across the vineyard-roof. This system also serves to provide light for the guesthouse and the caretaker’s dwelling.

The materials and technologies evoke the local tradition with simplicity, coherently expressing the theme of studied naturalness, both in the use of terracotta and in the advisability of using the energy produced naturally by the earth to cool and insulate the winery, creating the ideal climatic conditions for the production of wine.

Location: Bargino, San Casciano Val di Pesa, Firenze
Programme: Winery, offices, museum, auditorium, restaurant, viability, manoeuvring and green areas, depuration
Cost: €85.052.831 (excluding winemaking plants and landscaping)

Beginning of design: 2004
Opening of building site: 2007
Completion date 25 October: 2012

Client: Marchesi Antinori srl
Architectral Design: Archea Associati (Laura Andreini, Marco Casamonti, Silvia Fabi, Giovanni Polazzi)
Artistic supervision: Marco Casamonti, Francesco Giordani
Engineering: HYDEA
Bulding site supervisor: Paolo Giustiniani
Structural design: AEI Progetti
Design of plants: M&E Management & Engineering
Oenological plants: Emex Engineering Marchesi Antinori
General contractor: Inso

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Archea Associati appeared first on Dezeen.

Angular textured garments are accessorised with concrete cuffs in the Autumn Winter 2013 collection by Ukrainian fashion brand DZHUS.

DZHUS founder Irina Dzhus created geometric shapes from stiff materials to exaggerate silhouettes across the shoulders.

“I analysed shapes and structures of monumental constructions and tried my best to embody their principles in the silhouettes and cut of my designs,” Dzhus told Dezeen.

A floor-length white dress with a high neck is detailed with two pleats at the front, which soften as they flare out down the length of the garment.

Other dresses in metallic fabric have straight profiles, though can be cinched at the waist by a wide grey belt in the same material.

Crinkled paper-like material is folded into shapes to create an effect similar to origami.

“I chose textiles that show strong association with building materials and atmosphere,” said Dzhus. “I used wrinkled and metallic fabrics, net, glimmering coppery silk, smoky chiffon and other peculiarly textured surfaces.”

One triangular top has a structured collar and waistband but loose sleeves so movement isn’t restricted. It is worn with a long blue pleated skirt.

A light grey tunic with a flat collar is cut into by darker diamond-shaped shoulder pieces and has gap in the front of the skirt.

Colours range from shades of rust and grey to deep orange and blue. Zips and square buttons provide details.

The square and round chunky concrete bracelets were made in collaboration with MEL Design.

Named Overground, the collection is intended to reference urban forms and industrial objects.

“This word makes an ironic analogy with ‘underground’ as a creative conception, and at the same time it is an eloquent statement about the grandiose idea of the collection glorifying sublime industrial objects,” said Dzhus.

The range was shown at Ukrainian Fashion Week and Kiev Fashion Days Showroom earlier this year. Photography is by Olga Nepravda.

Our coverage of Autumn Winter 2013 fashion collections includes Aina Beck’s foil-printed attire and Jaimee McKenna’s pleated blue garments.

See more collections from Autumn Winter 2013 »
See all our stories about fashion »

Here is some more information from the designer:

DZHUS conceptual wear brand was founded in 2010 by a Ukrainian designer Irina Dzhus who had graduated from Kiev National University of Technologies and Design and had already worked as a fashion stylist for apparel, accessories and cosmetics campaigns as well as collaborated with celebrities.

The brand’s design concept is based on interaction and transformation of construction modules in order to create new aesthetics of the form – avant-garde and virtually archetypical at the same time, categoric but variable.

An urbanistic Autumn Winter 2013 collection, Overground, was demonstrated at Ukrainian Fashion Week New Names Show and Mercedes-Benz Kiev Fashion Days Showroom.

Architectonical design of the collection interprets monumental structure of industrial objects. Style of the garments glorifies sublime technocratic aesthetics and functionalist utilitarian constructions.

High quality of specifically textured fabrics equalises commercial aspect of the pieces with their grandiose idea.

DZHUS advertising campaign is created by fashion photographer Olga Nepravda. Monolithic concrete cuffs were manufactured in collaboration with MEL Design.

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by DZHUS appeared first on Dezeen.

News: a tiny robotic insect that hovers in the air like a fly has been built by scientists at Harvard University (+ movies).

The robot, which weighs just 80 milligrams and is the size of a small coin, can hover in the air for up to 20 seconds.

Its Harvard University developers modelled the robot’s movement on real flies, which flap their wings around 120 times per second.

The researchers made the wings with piezoelectric material, which contracts when a small electrical charge is passed through it.

Switching the voltage on and off at high speeds produces a rapid contracting effect that mimics the movement of a fly’s tiny wing muscles.

For now, the robots have to be tethered to thin copper wires that provide electric power and navigation information, but the researchers hope that a battery will one day be lightweight enough to be attached to the robot itself.

The team suggests the robots could be used for search-and-rescue operations, monitoring environmental damage, tracing chemicals or pollinating crops, while their discreet size could also make them suitable for military surveillance.

The RoboBee project was reported in the journal Science this week by Dr Robert Wood and his team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

Last year we reported on robot helicopters programmed to lift and stack polystyrene bricks into a six metre-high tower, while other machines we’ve featured include a duo of robotic bartenders and a robotic 3D printer that builds architecture from sand  – see all robots.

Photographs are by Kevin Ma and Pakpong Chirarattananon.

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takes flight appeared first on Dezeen.