News: tech giant Google and eyewear company Luxottica have announced a partnership to develop Google Glass wearable headsets into consumer-friendly products.
“We have come to a point where we now have both a technology push and a consumer pull for wearable technology products and applications,” said Luxottica CEO Andrea Guerra.
Google Glass lets users send and receive messages, take pictures and search the web hands-free – this collaboration will put this technology in the hands of designers at Luxottica, which produces eyewear for brands including Ray-Ban and Oakley.
“We live in a world where technological innovation has dramatically changed the way in which we communicate and interact in everything that we do,” said Guerra.
High street fashion chain American Apparel has launched a 43-piece collection of clothing featuring graphic prints by Memphis Group designer Nathalie Du Pasquier (+ movie).
The Nathalie Du Pasquier for American Apparel collection includes womenswear, menswear and accessories in minimalistic shapes covered in colourful, graphic prints.
Du Pasquier was a core member of the Milan-based Memphis Group that pioneered post-modern furniture and fabric design in the 1980s, but has since nurtured a career as an artist.
She was approached by American Apparel creative director Iris Alonzo who asked her to create prints similar to those she designed during the Memphis era.
“It was the first collaboration with a fashion company in many, many years actually because I am a painter,” Du Pasquier told the New York Times. “I have not done that kind of work in a long time.”
The collection marks a departure from American Apparel’s signature style of single-colour staples, with its womenswear often produced in skin tight stretch jersey.
Prints by Du Pasquier also feature in the Wrong for Hay collection launched last year, which is expanding due to popularity.
News: football star David Beckham has unveiled proposals to build a 25,000-seat stadium for his new Major League Soccer (MLS) team on the waterfront in Miami.
Designed by Miami firms Arquitectonica and 360 Architecture, the bowl-shaped stadium is planned for a 14.5-hectare site in PortMiami, home to the world’s busiest cruise ship terminal, and would offer spectators an impressive view of the Downtown Miami skyline.
“When people think of Miami, they immediately think about being near or on the water. I asked my team to develop ideas for a stadium that embraces the best of the destination,” said Beckham in a statement.
The former Manchester United and LA Galaxy footballer, who retired as a player last May, will fund the stadium privately. He also plans to open a series of accompanying facilities that would include shops, restaurants, a nightclub, an outdoor screening venue and a possible football museum.
If Miami-Dade county agrees to give the site to Beckham, the building could be up and running as soon as 2018.
According to Beckham’s real estate advisor John Alschuler, a bridge would also be added to connect the site with the mainland.
“The port of Miami is the right place because it will create a great stadium, it will energise downtown, it will create jobs and economic value,” he said.
Ahead of the opening of the Designs of the Year 2014 exhibition tomorrow, here’s a look back at one of the standout projects – a floating school on a Nigerian lagoon by architecture studio NLÉ (+ slideshow).
NLÉ, the studio founded by Nigerian-born architect Kunlé Adeyemi, developed the Makoko Floating School as a prototype for building in African regions that have little or no permanent infrastructure, thanks to unpredictable water levels that cause regular flooding.
Half-building, half-boat, the floating structure provides teaching facilities for the slum district of Makoko, a former fishing village in Lagos where over 100,000 people live in houses on stilts. Prior to this the community had just one English-speaking primary school that regularly found itself under water.
“In many ways, Makoko epitomises the most critical challenges posed by urbanisation and climate change in coastal Africa. At the same time, it also inspires possible solutions and alternatives to the invasive culture of land reclamation,” said the architects.
NLÉ developed a structure that can accommodate up to 100 adults, even in bad weather conditions. It is primarily used as a school, but can also function as an events space, a clinic or a market, depending on the needs of the community.
Built by a team of local residents, the structure was put together using wooden offcuts from a nearby sawmill and locally grown bamboo.
Base of the building during construction
A triangular profile allows the building to accommodate three storeys whilst remaining stable over the water. “It is an ideal shape for a floating object on water due to its relatively low centre of gravity, which provides stability and balance even in heavy winds,” said the designers.
Structural framework
The lower level houses a space for play, while a sub-dividable space on the middle floor accommodates up to four classrooms and the upper level contains a small group workshop. A staircase on one side connects the three levels.
Community gathers to test the building
Here’s the project description from NLE:
Makoko Floating School
Makoko Floating School is a prototype structure that addresses physical and social needs in view of the growing challenges of climate change in an urbanising African context. It is a movable ‘building’ or ‘watercraft’ currently located in the aquatic community of Makoko in the lagoon heart of Africa’s second most populous city – Lagos, Nigeria. It is a floating structure that adapts to the tidal changes and varying water levels, making it invulnerable to flooding and storm surges. It is designed to use renewable energy, to recycle organic waste and to harvest rainwater.
An estimated 100,000 people reside in Makoko in housing units built on stilts. Yet the community has no roads, no land and no formal infrastructure to support its day-to-day survival. In many ways, Makoko epitomises the most critical challenges posed by urbanisation and climate change in coastal Africa. At the same time, it also inspires possible solutions and alternatives to the invasive culture of land reclamation.
Until now Makoko has been served by one English-speaking primary school, built on uneven reclaimed land, surrounded by constantly changing waters. Like many homes in Makoko, this has rendered the primary school building structurally precarious and susceptible to recurrent flooding. Sadly, the inability of the building to effectively withstand the impact of increased rainfall and flooding has frequently threatened local children’s access to their basic need – the opportunity of education.
Vision for a cluster of four structures
In response to this and in close collaboration with the Makoko community, NLÉ has developed a prototype floating structure that will serve primarily as a school, whilst being scalable and adaptable for other uses, such as a community hub, health clinic, market, entertainment centre or housing. The prototype’s versatile structure is a safe and economical floating triangular frame that allows flexibility for customisation and completion based on specific needs and capacities.
Vision for a community of floating buildings
The 220m A-frame or pyramid building is 10m high with a 10m x 10m base. It is an ideal shape for a floating object on water due to its relatively low centre of gravity, which provides stability and balance even in heavy winds. It also has a total capacity to safely support a hundred adults, even in extreme weather conditions.
The building has three levels. The 1st level is an open play area for school breaks and assembly, which also serves as a community space during after hours. The 2nd level is an enclosed space for two to four classrooms, providing enough space for sixty to a hundred pupils. A staircase on the side connects the open play area, the classrooms and a semi enclosed workshop space on the 3rd level.
The simple yet innovative structure adheres to ideal standards of sustainable development with its inclusive technologies for renewable energy, waste reduction, water and sewage treatment as well as the promotion of low-carbon transport. Furthermore a team of eight Makoko-based builders constructed it using eco-friendly, locally sourced bamboo and wood procured from a local sawmill.
Construction began in September 2012 with floatation mock-ups and testing. Recycled empty plastic barrels found abundantly in Lagos were used for the building’s buoyancy system, which consists of 16 wooden modules, each containing 16 barrels. The modules were assembled on the water, creating the platform that provides buoyancy for the building and its users. Once this was assembled, construction of the A-frame followed and was completed by March 2013. Makoko Floating School is now in regular use by the community as a social, cultural and economic centre and will soon welcome its first pupils for use as a primary school.
Concept diagram
The project was initiated, designed and built by NLÉ in collaboration with the Makoko Waterfront Community, in Lagos State. The project was initially self-funded by NLÉ and later received research funds from Heinrich Boll Stiftung as well as funds for its construction from the UNDP/Federal Ministry of Environment Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP).
Makoko Floating School is a ‘prototype’ building structure for NLÉ’s proposed ‘Lagos Water Communities Project’ and its ‘African Water Cities’ research project.
Shigeru Ban has been experimenting with cardboard structures ever since he established his Tokyo studio in 1985. He has since used them in disaster relief projects around the world, from the Paper Log House and Paper Church (1995) built for Vietnamese refugees in Japan, to the Paper Refugee Shelters (1999) designed for Rwanda and the Cardboard Cathedral completed after the Christchurch earthquake (2013).
The architect is also well known for his inventive use of materials such as timber, bamboo, fabric and plastic, inspired by a childhood spent observing traditional Japanese carpenters. The roof of the Centre Pompidou-Metz in France (2010) features an undulating lattice of wooden strips, while Naked House (2000) has been praised for the way clear corrugated plastic clads its timber frame.
Shigeru Ban
“When I started working this way, almost thirty years ago, nobody was talking about the environment. But this way of working came naturally to me. I was always interested in low cost, local, reusable materials,” said Ban.
Other houses designed by Ban include House of Double-Roof (1993), which is raised up on stilts, Wall-Less House (1997), which is surrounded by sliding panels, and the sub-dividable Nine-Square Grid House (1997).
The architect was announced as the Pritzker Prize laureate last night, and will receive the $100,000 prize and a bronze medallion in a ceremony on 13 June in Amsterdam.
Milan 2014: Designer Tom Dixon will present a range of furniture and metallic lighting that references British members’ clubs in Milan next month.
Flood lighting collection
Tom Dixon describes his Club series as a modern take on old gentlemen’s clubs found in the UK. “A misspent youth spent in the London warehouse club scene and a series of experimental private club interiors are the reasons why we have chosen to reinvigorate the fabled British members’ club into a futuristic social environment,” said the designer.
Grey Beat pendant light for The Beat Collection
The series features a wide pendant light called Flood, which has been created using injection-moulded polymers commonly used in the automotive industry. The designer’s well-known metallic Beat pendant lights have been recoloured in a matte grey with an internal silver plate.
Table and floor lights additions The Beat Collection
Other additions to the Beat collection include table and floor lights with shades based on water vessels used in India.
High backed chair from The Pivot Collection
The new Pivot collection consists of three rotating pieces of furniture, including a high-backed chair, a curved low-backed chair and a bar stool. These are constructed using an internal metal frame and covered with foam upholstery. Each piece sits on a die-cast aluminium base.
Low backed chair for The Pivot Collection
The Y table has a plain black plastic top and comes in two sizes. A coloured enamel insert can be added.
Japanese studio NI&Co. Architects has built a small sound-proofed cabin in Nagoya where its owners can retreat to play the piano.
Nestled amongst a number of taller buildings in a residential area of the city, Piano House was designed by NI&Co. Architects as a simple structure with a purple brickwork exterior and a timber-lined interior.
An asymmetric roof angles up into a point above the entrance, creating enough height for a sheltered door with a window above.
This leads through to a corridor, created by a partition wall that gradually angles further away from the ceiling. This wall folds halfway along, leading through to a space accommodating both a grand piano and an upright piano.
“The spiral shape wall is extended to the inside, so you can feel the continuity of internal and external space,” said architect and studio co-founder Nina Funahashi.
The partition is punctured by a large rectangular opening that suggests an informal spectator spot.
As well as basic plywood panels, the interior walls feature several patches of pegboard that help to improve the internal acoustics of the space.
“We designed an acoustic layer and sound insulation layer by combining the general-purpose materials, so the soundproof chamber can have acoustic and echo function with a low budget,” said the architect.
A cluster of globe-shaped pendant lamps hang from the ceiling, diffusing light through translucent surfaces.
Photography is by Hiroshi Tanigawa.
Here’s a short description from NI&Co. Architects:
Piano House K.448
This house with a spiral shape plan is for playing the piano. The site is 7m width and 15m depth, and surrounding area is a quiet residential quarter. The blanks are created by rotating the house 10 degrees against the site, and it brought the soundproof effect as a buffer zone for surrounding area.
The spiral shape wall is extended to the inside, so you can feel the continuity of internal and external space by the wall. We designed an acoustic layer and sound insulation layer by combining the general-purpose materials, so the soundproof chamber can have acoustic and echo function with a low budget.
A sound wave can reach ears through air encircled with the spiral shape wall. The spiral shape wall extending to the inside is customisable for adjusting convey of piano’s sound, so the wall can bring about changes in the sound environment. It becomes the space for ‘sonata for two pianos’.
Designer Tom Evans has developed a range of parenting gadgets that look like collectable toys.
Calling the collection Bleep Bleeps, Evans took normally sterile objects such as a baby monitor, thermometer and fertility tester, and styled them with details resembling faces, bright colours and fun names in a bid to make them more family-friendly.
“There’s a bunch of gadgets and devices out there to help parents, but most of them are dull and uninspiring,” Evans told Dezeen. “I want to make parenting easier for myself but I also care what things look like too.”
The parenting devices all sync with a smartphone app that provides alerts, tracks data to help identify patterns and offers advice.
“More and more things in life have the potential to be controlled by our smartphones,” said Evans. “The whole Internet Of Things scene was exploding and I saw an opportunity in uniting three very disparate worlds: parenting, connected devices and great design.”
The first prototyped device was a thermometer called Tony Tempa (after rapper Tinie Tempah). It comes with a bow tie and takes an in-ear reading that is immediately displayed via an LED display on the back, and relayed to the app to track changing temperature during an illness.
The first product to be available though will be Sammy Screamer, a motion device that sends a push notification to the parent’s phone if it is moved.
With a Bluetooth range of 30 metres, Sammy is designed to be attached on any item the user wants to monitor – a door, buggy or the lid of a biscuit tin. The device also has an audible alarm with volume and sensitivity controlled via the app, and attaches using a magnet or loop.
Other products in the pipeline include a male fertility tester called Master Bates, an ovulation tester called Olivia P Sticks and a baby monitor called David Camera.
Canadian studios Dan Hanganu Architectes and Côté Leahy Cardas Architectes have revamped the tent-like structure of a church in Quebec to create a modern library featuring coloured glazing, spiral staircases and lofty ceilings.
Completed in 1964 by Canadian architect Jean-Marie Roy, the St. Denys-du-Plateau Church already boasted a dramatically pointed structure that appears to float just above the ground. Dan Hanganu Architectes and Côté Leahy Cardas Architectes left this structure intact but added a pair of glazed blocks, one at either end.
Renamed as the Monique-Corriveau Library, in memory of a local author, the building now houses a public library and local community centre spread across two overground storeys and a large basement level.
Visitors enter the building through a grand atrium that reveals the full internal height of the roof. This is located within the former church nave, and leads through to shelving stacks, reading areas and study desks.
The largest of the two extensions sits over the footprint of the demolished former presbytery to accommodate staff offices and community event spaces.
“This separation of functions means that the community hall can be kept open outside library opening hours, while the spectacular and monumental volume of the nave is preserved,” said the designers.
The walls of this block feature an assortment of clear, silk-screened and coloured glass panels. The roof drops in height for a small section before meeting the old church, allowing the two volumes to appear visually separate.
The small front extension satisfies a requirement for an emergency escape staircase and is finished in the same tinted glass.
Monique-Corriveau Library, enlargement and conversion of the St-Denys-du-Plateau Church
The Monique-Corriveau Library, housed in the Saint-Denys-du-Plateau church, is an exception, and in a rather unusual way. It is a tribute to the career – exceptional for her time – of the Quebec writer whose name it honours. This mother of 10 children, to each of whom she dedicated a book, was the author of numerous children’s books and winner of several literary awards.
The St. Denys-du-Plateau Church, a remarkable creation of the late architect Jean-Marie Roy erected in 1964, was part of this renewal (second Vatican Consul), at once architectural and religious.
Converting and expanding such an eloquent example of modern Quebec architectural heritage is a very delicate operation which must be approached with respect and humility. Saint-Denys-du-Plateau Church deserves this special consideration due to its unusual, dynamic volume, which evokes a huge tent inflated by the wind and anchored to the ground with tensioners.
The nave houses the library’s public functions, with shelves and work and reading areas, while the addition contains the administration and community hall. This separation of functions means that the community hall can be kept open outside library opening hours, while the spectacular and monumental volume of the nave is preserved, since the architectural concept is to transform the space into a model of spatial appropriation as a reinterpretation of the interior.
To accentuate the fluidity of this volume, the solid soffit above the window has been replaced by glass panel which allows each beam to visually slip seamlessly to its exterior steel base, – a revelation of visual continuity.
The volume replacing the presbytery and community hall occupies the same footprint and was executed in clear, silk-screened and coloured glass panels. It is separated from the library by a void, marking the transition from old to new. At the front, extending the structure of the choir-screen and the canopy, a code-required emergency staircase is housed in a coloured glass enclosure signalling the new place, dominating a new parvis, reconfigured with street furniture, trees and other greenery. Building on transparency and reflection, the architects have made a strong statement with colour at the ends of the building, an allusion to the vibrant, bold colours of the 1960s, which contrast the whiteness and brilliance newly captured in the remarkable form of the original church.
Location: 1100 route de l’Église, Québec [Qc] G1V 3V9 Name of client: Ville de Québec, arrondissement Sainte-Foy – Sillery – Cap-Rouge Architects: Dan Hanganu + Côté Leahy Cardas Architects Architecte of the church Saint-Denys-du-Plateau (1964): Jean-Marie Roy Architect in charge: Jacques Côté, Sébastien Laberge, Design Team: Dan S. Hanganu, Gilles Prud’homme, Diana Cardas, Sébastien Laberge Team: Pascal Gobeil, Martin Girard, Marie-Andrée Goyette (CLC), Olivier Grenier, Martine Walsh, Anne-Catherine Richard, Marc Despaties (DHA)
He will become the second Japanese architect in a row to pick up the prestigious architecture prize, following on from last year’s winner Toyo Ito, and will be the seventh to receive the accolade in its 36-year history.
Hearing the news, Ban said: “Receiving this prize is a great honour, and with it, I must be careful. I must continue to listen to the people I work for, in my private residential commissions and in my disaster relief work.
“I see this prize as encouragement for me to keep doing what I am doing – not to change what I am doing, but to grow.”
He founded his own Tokyo practice in 1985 with little experience and went on to complete a number of residential projects in Japan such as Three Walls (1988), Curtain Wall House (1995) and Naked House (2000).
Naked House
His first designs for paper-tube structures were used to provide temporary homes for Vietnamese refugees after the Kobe earthquake in 1995. Since then the architect has travelled to sites of natural and man-made disasters around the world to develop low-cost, recyclable shelters for affected communities.
He has also used shipping containers as ready-made elements for permanent and temporary structures.
“Shigeru Ban is a force of nature, which is entirely appropriate in the light of his voluntary work for the homeless and dispossessed in areas that have been devastated by natural disasters,” said jury chairman Peter Palumbo.
“But he also ticks the several boxes for qualification to the Architectural Pantheon: a profound knowledge of his subject with a particular emphasis on cutting-edge materials and technology, total curiosity and commitment, endless innovation, an infallible eye, an acute sensibility, to name but a few.”
Paper Concert Hall in L’Aquila
Last year Ban completed a temporary cardboard cathedral for Christchurch (2013), after the city’s former Anglican cathedral was destroyed by an earthquake. He has also designed an art museum for Aspen, Colorado, that is set to complete this summer.
The Pritzker Prize is presented annually to a living architect in recognition of contributions to both humanity and the built environment through architecture. Ban will receive a $100,000 prize and be presented with a bronze medallion in a ceremony on 13 June at the recently renovated Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
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