Barcelona studio Hidalgo Hartmann Arquitectura has completed a concrete house with a triangular profile in the rural outskirts of Girona, Spain (+ slideshow).
Casa Montfullà is located on a hillside overlooking the plains, but the house’s plot itself is approximately level, so Hidalgo Hartmann Arquitectura added sloping walls to create a building that appears to grow out of the ground.
“We placed a silent, hermetic volume that emerges from the site and adopts the original profile of the hill, like a fortress that visually dominates the landscape,” explain the architects.
Laid out in three horizontal bands, the building contains both a two-storey house and a terrace behind its triangular concrete walls.
A two-storey entrance area at one end accommodates bedrooms, bathrooms and a parking garage, while the middle section is a double-height living and dining room with a glazed elevation offering a view towards the fields.
During warmer months residents can slide open the glass to make use of the split-level terrace and swimming pool at the far end of the structure.
Here’s a project description from Hidalgo Hartmann Arquitectura:
Casa Montfullà
We find ourselves on a horizontal ground, a corner plot raised on two large slopes like a vantage point from which to enjoy superb views towards the agricultural plain that stretches at his feet until reaching Salt and the city of Girona.
It is thus an exceptional setting that claims for an intervention that recognizes the attributes of the site and put them in value.
We placed a silent, hermetic volume that emerges from the site and adopts the original profile of the hill, like a fortress that visually dominates the landscape.
The volume encloses itself from the outside and is protected from the mediocre constructions that surround it by using the broken geometry of two thick walls. These walls comprise a continuous space from the inside out that creates in form of a terrace, a world of its own, which turns our attention to the distance.
The section shows the continuity of its spaces from the outdoor space to the studio on the top floor across the living room and the courtyard that separates and unites at the same time. The use of concrete for the construction of the house gives the object weight, mass and texture which is needed to provide coherence to the idea.
Dutch firm MVRDV has won a design competition for a new business district in Shanghai, which is already under construction near the city’s Hongqiao Airport.
MVRDV‘s masterplan covers a 4.5 hectare site at the intersection of Shenhai Express Way and Shenbin Road. Straddling two sides of the junction, the new Central Business District will comprise a large southern plot and a smaller northern plot, which together will accommodate ten office towers and an underground shopping centre designed by architecture firm Aedas.
Sunken plazas are proposed for both sites, creating pedestrian zones that are sheltered from the busy roads. Wide stairs will be added to create informal seating areas, plus the larger of the two plazas will be surrounded by the windows of the new shopping centre.
Entrances to the shopping centre will also be added at ground level in the form of two giant glass cubes.
Nine of the office buildings will be located on the southern plot. Each will be between five and nine storeys in height and will feature rounded edges to create streamlined shapes.
The tenth office block is planned for the northern plot and is conceived as a cluster of four connected towers that the architects describe as “flower shaped”. A series of cultural facilities will be housed in the lowest floors of this building.
MVRDV will use indigenous plants to give every building a green roof, while the flower building will feature a rooftop jogging track.
The Central Business District is set to complete in 2015.
MVRDV start construction of business district at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport after winning competition
Sincere Property, MVRDV and Aedas have started construction on a Central Business District at Shanghai’s mostly domestic airport Hongqiao. The 4.5ha site is located near Hongqiao Airport train station at the corner of Shenhai Express Way and Shenbin Road. The plan comprises ten office towers, an underground shopping centre, cultural program, parking and a sunken plaza which will bring a more intimate form of urban life into an area currently dominated by large boulevards and urban expressways. The project’s completion is planned for 2015.
Just weeks after winning the competition, construction has already started on this urban masterplan for an office and retail centre near the fourth busiest airport in mainland China. The 4.5ha site is divided into a small northern plot of 8,409 m2 and a larger southern plot. The team won the competition with highly energy-efficient architecture combined with an intimate urban plan which allows for pedestrian-friendly spaces.
The 110,000m2 offices are divided into ten towers in total: nine office towers on the southern plot ranging from five to nine floors, facilitating rental to different sized companies. The towers are flexibly designed to contain one or more companies. On the northern plot, the tops of four towers will merge into one building, forming a flower shaped landmark of four floors, cantilevered high above the ground.
The 47,000m2 retail space will be located partly on the ground floor and partly along a sunken plaza sheltered from vehicle traffic. Two glass cubes mark the entrances to the shopping centre and are part of the neighbourhood’s pedestrian route, which meanders through the site. The shopping centre is designed by Aedas. On both plots a spacious sunken plaza features wide stairs that can be used as seating, allowing cultural events to be hosted on the site.
Facade area has been minimized by introducing round cornered towers which, together with the continuous 50,5% transparency stone façade, leads to an efficient energy consumption. The façade presents a subtle shifted grid with a delicate bamboo forest reference. The self shading shape of the flower building has lead to a façade with smaller openings on the upper floors for efficient energy consumption. Hidden hatches next to the windows allow for natural ventilation.
The ground floor of the flower building is reserved for 1.790 m2 of cultural program. A 55.000m2 parking garage is located underneath the shopping centre.
The Hongqiao CBD will reach three stars, the highest ranking of the Chinese ‘Green Building Label’. Sustainable building features that will be used include high performance insulation, optimised building forms, shaded spaces, natural ventilation, rainwater collection, permeable road surfaces, links to public transport and a reduction in the urban heat island effect. Nine office towers will feature green roofs growing local plant species and the flower building will offer a sky garden with a continuous jogging path.
MVRDV was selected from a competition with 3 competitors to design the business park. The shopping centre is designed by Aedas. Completion is planned for 2015.
In 2003 MVRDV realised the successful Unterföhring. Park Village office campus near Munich in which urban intimacy was introduced into a large, business park environment.
Six architecture studios present window installations created for stores along London’s Regent Street in this movie filmed by Dezeen.
RIBA president Angela Brady introduces this year’s Regent Street Windows Project, which pairs local architecture practices with six retailers to create displays along one of the most iconic shopping streets in Britain.
Topshop window installation by Neon
Starting at the north end of the street, George King and Mark Nixon from Neon present a rotating wheel of manequins that allows different outfits to be presented in the window of fashion brand Topshop at different times of the day.
Karen Millen window installation by Mamou-Mani
Next up, Arthur Mamou-Mani‘s installation made from sportswear fabric and cable ties flows along the 30-metre-long display of the Karen Millen store facade.
Ferrari Store window installation by Gensler
Drawing on the emotional experience of driving a Ferrari, John Tollitt and his team at Gensler crafted a heart and a brain for the windows of the car brand’s London flagship, then brought them to life using digital animations to represent the heartbeat and firing neurons.
Esprit installation by naganJohnson
Across the street, naganJohnson transformed the atrium of Esprit into a beach scene complete with a wave of chestnut paling fencing.
Jack Spade window installation by Carl Turner Architects
Carl Turner Architects referenced American artist Gordon Matta Clark’s images of cut-out buildings to create fantasy New York streetscapes on the facade, in the windows and on blackboard illustrations at Jack Spade‘s Brewer Street store, just off Regent Street.
Moss Bros window installation by AY Architects
Finally, AY Architects used interlocking panels to form freestanding screens at Moss Bros, creating a three-dimensional herringbone effect.
The installations for the Regent Street Windows Project are on display until 6 May. Photographs are by Agnese Sanvito.
This family house in Athens by Greek office Tense Architecture Network comprises a boxy concrete upper floor perched atop a glazed living room and kitchen (+ photographs by Filippo Poli).
Tense Architecture Network designed the residence with an industrial aesthetic, featuring exposed concrete walls, basalt-cobble flooring and a folded steel staircase suspended by wire cables.
The ground and first floors are offset from one another and dark-tinted concrete columns support the overhanging bedroom floor.
“The main volume is vigorously elevated – nearly four metres high – in order to liberate the ground floor,” architect Tilemachos Andrianopoulos told Dezeen. “The top floor’s austerity towards the public facade realises an intentional contrast to the receptivity of the ground-floor spaces, which open up completely to the garden through the sliding glass panels.”
A system of wires is strung up around the house, intended to encourage climbing plants around the building. “The industrial material character of the house is advantageously complemented by the greenery,” explained Andrianopoulos.
A pivoting door provides the entrance and leads through to the living room and kitchen, which are divided on split levels. The steel staircase ascends towards three bedrooms on the top floor, while a concrete staircase descends to the basement.
Here are a few words from Tense Architecture Network:
Residence in Kato Kifissia, Athens
The residence’s plot is small and an adjacent building almost blocks the southern sun. The complete “colonization” of the suburb has almost eliminated the previously exuberant vegetation in the rush to meet individualistic private housing.
As a first act, the desire to reside defines an area and makes a house, in it: a cubic shell of plants creates a limit for the residence, as area. In order to reside, one withdraws inward.
Ground floor plan
The residential space claims the whole field, as well as the sun; two parallelepiped volumes, one small and attached to the north, the other cantilevered and central, free the ground and enable the sun to enter.
First floor plan
When the plants are fully grown the green facade will be penetrated only by the black, central column of the shelter by exposed concrete. The basalt-watery surface on which it is anchored reflects the light in the interior.
News: Danish firm Henning Larsen Architects has designed a headquarters for software giant Microsoft as part of plans for a new university and business district north of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Commissioned by the council of Lyngby-Taarbæk, the project will see Henning Larsen Architects develop a 40,000-square-metre cluster of buildings containing student residences and shops alongside the Microsoft offices.
The software firm also plans to make its facilities available to the community. “The citizens can use our open cafe and technology area, students can use our allocated study area, and we will regularly host different events that will connect us even closer to the local area and Denmark,” said Niels Soelberg, CEO for Microsoft Denmark.
Located in the area of Kanalvejsgrunden in Lyngby, the buildings will form part of the council’s vision for the Lyngby-Taarbæk City of Knowledge and Urban Development 2020, an initiative to promote the district as a leading university town and centre of creative business.
“The project reflects an interesting urban development strategy. Knowledge-intensive businesses are connected to urban life and the local study community,” said Lyngby-Tarbæk’s mayor Søren P. Rasmussen. “The building will create a lot of new jobs and provide a welcoming, dynamic urban space where city centre and green areas meet.”
The architects will collaborate on the project with financial firm Danica Pension, engineering consultants COWI and project managers Alectia.
Construction work is expected to begin later in 2013.
In the heart of Lyngby situated north of Copenhagen, Danica Pension in collaboration with Henning Larsen Architects, COWI and Alectia have developed the area of Kanalvejsgrunden with a new building that will comprise student residences, retail and Microsoft’s new Danish headquarters. The project will create a new unique urban space accessible to everyone and will bring citizens, students and businesses closer together.
The municipal council of Lyngby-Taarbæk looks forward to seeing an open, innovative building rising in the city centre. The project marks an important step in the realisation of the municipality’s visions for Lyngby-Taarbæk City of Knowledge and Urban Development 2020 – a locally developed initiative aiming at making Lyngby one of the leading university cities and centres of knowledge and creativity in Northern Europe.
Microsoft offices
Mayor Søren P. Rasmussen says: “The project reflects an interesting urban development strategy. Knowledge-intensive businesses are connected to urban life and the local study community. In addition, the building will create a lot of new jobs and provide a welcoming, dynamic urban space where city centre and green areas meet.”
Microsoft’s new headquarters forms part of the organisation’s overall vision to create the workplace of the future – where employees are supported in their different ways of thinking, working and collaborating through a flexible interior layout, based on state-of-the-art technologies. Henning Larsen Architects has had a close dialogue with Microsoft in the space planning process.
Plaza
The municipality’s ambition of positioning itself as a leading knowledge city has been a determining factor for Microsoft’s decision to consolidate its activities and employees from their two companies in Denmark in Lyngby.
“Microsoft is already well-established in Denmark with our 900 employees and more than 3,700 partner companies, and we also look forward to becoming an active part of the knowledge and university centre of Lyngby-Taarbæk. The citizens can use our open café and technology area, students can use our allocated study area, and we will regularly host different events that will connect us even closer to the local area and Denmark,” says Niels Soelberg, CEO for Microsoft Denmark.
Fitness centre
The new building will be located on a 16,350 m2 plot in the centre of Lyngby, in the street of Kanalvej between Klampenborgvej and Toftebæksvej. The building will cover a total of 40,000 m2. The first sod is expected to be cut already later in 2013.
Fashion designer and 3D printing pioneer Iris van Herpen tells us how printing and scanning technologies could transform the fashion industry in an exclusive interview for our print-on-demand publication Print Shift (+ transcript).
Advances in material and printing technology mean that flexible, washable clothes are now possible, says Dutch designer Van Herpen, whose latest ready-to-wear collection includes printed garments.
“I’m really happy that 3D prints finally act with the movement of the body,” she said. “[My] last show was really a big step forward because it was totally flexible and the jacket we created, for example, you could put in the washing machine.”
Dress from the Voltage collection, designed with Neri Oxman and printed by Stratasys
Van Herpen is one of the first fashion designers to investigate the potential of 3D printing to create clothes and accessories. Her 2010 Crystallisation collection featured dramatic printed items resembling body armour while her more recent Voltage collection features more delicate and wearable items.
“I always collaborate with architects or someone that specialises in 3D modelling because I don’t specialise in it myself,” she says. “I know a little bit, but not as much as the people I work with.”
She also ponders how 3D scanners could revolutionise the way we order our clothes in the future. “Everybody could have their own body scanned and just order clothes that fit perfectly.” See all our stories about Iris van Herpen.
Dress from the Voltage collection, designed with Julia Koerner and printed by Materialise
Print Shift, a one-off, print-on-demand magazine, was created by the Dezeen editorial team and produced with print-on-demand publisher Blurb. For more information about Print Shift and to see additional content, visit www.dezeen.com/printshift.
Here’s an edited version of the interview with van Herpen, conducted by Claire Barrett:
Claire Barrett: What was it about 3D printing that first interested you?
Iris van Herpen: With 3D printing, it was the first time I could translate the 3D image I had in my mind immediately to the 3D model in the computer and then the 3D printer.
With hand work or with the usual fashion designing I have something in my head that’s three dimensional, which first has to be translated into something two dimensional, like a drawing, then it goes to three dimensionality again, so it feels really, really old-school. It’s a strange way of working – you have a step in between.
The things I have 3D printed I could never do by hand. It would just be impossible. The beauty of handwork is that it’s always a bit different and you can never have something totally symmetrical. At the same time, I think that’s the beauty of 3D printing – it is one hundred percent symmetrical in the smallest details, even the printing layers. That’s the fingerprints of the technique.
Claire Barrett: Was the use of digital technology something that you were exposed to in college?
Iris van Herpen: No, it’s actually really funny. When I was young I was raised without television and we didn’t have a computer. I think we were the last people to have the internet and when I was at the academy I didn’t have a computer myself. I actually had computer lessons but I didn’t like the computer at all. I had discussions with my computer teacher and he said “you can’t work without a computer,” and then I was really stubborn and I thought “I can, watch me”. I did everything by hand all the time.
With 3D printing I suddenly saw how many possibilities it would give me in terms of three dimensionality, which convinced me to start working with technology.
Claire Barrett: Did your collaborations start from wanting to work in a more digital way?
Iris van Herpen: With 3D printing I always collaborate with architects or someone that specialises in 3D modelling because I don’t specialise in it myself. I know a little bit, but not as much as the people I work with. If you start from the beginning with something that someone else is already experienced in, I think that’s a waste of time.
Even if it wasn’t necessary, I would still do it because I don’t want to start to walk in circles, like being in my own mind all the time. For this collection, for example, we worked with Neri Oxman, Julia Koerner and Philip Beesley. It’s really bringing two worlds together because I think fashion is super interesting, but the architects who are bringing other things are just as important to me.
Claire Barrett: Why do you largely seem to be alone in pushing the use of 3D printing technology within fashion?
Iris van Herpen: I’m really open to sharing ideas and working with somebody, but I feel in fashion it’s quite a locked industry. Fashion designers are used to collaborating but usually with musicians they dress or an artist that makes a print for them. Working with scientists, architects or people that have different knowledge is just not a part of fashion and that’s something that surprises me.
Claire Barrett: Do you foresee a time when you might work with a material scientist to try and create something different?
Iris van Herpen: I always get inspired by materials, but I feel that I’m choosing them, not designing them. Of course it takes a long time so you can’t design materials for every season, but if you’re at least able to create something new every one or two years then I think you have more control over your design process.
Claire Barrett: Do you agree that your pieces are becoming less like sculpture or armour and more like garments?
Iris van Herpen: Yeah, I’m really happy that 3D prints finally act with the movement of the body. Now a girl can even dance in it. This last show was really a big step forward because it was totally flexible and the jacket we created, for example, you could put in the washing machine. You could sit on it. It’s really a garment now.
With [the Voltage collection] I really tried to make that step away from sculpture and find a field in between traditional weaving fabrics and 3D printing. With 3D printing you can decide how much flexibility you want in millimetres or centimetres on a specific part, for example the knees or the shoulders, and you can just include that on the file.
Also, something that’s really interesting is that they can include colours in the 3D prints. The colouring is in the file, it’s not something that they add later on. That’s a big step. If we continue with that you can create 2D prints within the 3D prints and then it feels like you’re creating something 4D.
Claire Barrett: How long do you think it will be before 3D-printed clothing becomes mainstream?
Iris van Herpen: I would love to be the first to include 3D printing in ready-to-wear. The flexibility is there, I think now the focus is on developing the materials, the long-term quality and size, because there are no printers that can print a whole dress yet.
But fashion is a super big industry. You have all the factories with the traditional sewing machines, so I can imagine maybe the industry will not be ready for such a big change because you need technical people with knowledge of 3D printing, 3D printers and software, instead of people that know how to sew a seam. I can imagine the technology is there but the industry is not ready for it or the change is too big.
Claire Barrett: Can you foresee a time when people will be able to download and print out an Iris van Herpen dress at home?
Iris van Herpen: Yeah, I can really imagine everybody has their own 3D skin and you can just order something online, but I don’t know if people will print it out at home. I can imagine you could have printing factories, order your dress and maybe the customer gets a little bit of a say in it as well. They could say “well, I want this one but with longer sleeves”.
Everybody could have their own body scanned and just order clothes that fit perfectly. I think it’s super old-fashioned that it’s only the 100 richest women in the world who have clothes that actually fit them and I think 3D printing can really fill up a gap there.
Milan 2013: leafy forests and palatial interiors become visible under different coloured lights in the latest series of wallpapers and screens by Milan design studio Carnovsky (+ slideshow).
The RGB Fabulous Landscapes installation at the Fondazione Adolfo Pini in Milan this month included a wallpaper that reveals various scenes depending on the colour of the LEDs shining on it.
The combination of red, blue or green light reveals the interior of a grand building, a dense forest or a marching crowd.
On the upper floor of the building, Carnovsky showed lacquered wooden screens and a handmade carpet decorated with animals and anatomical drawings, all limited editions produced by design brand Artep Italia.
In the courtyard outside, the designers installed the Atmospherics series of 20 screens depicting landscapes and meteorological phenomena, such as a sun bursting through the clouds.
Created in collaboration with Italian graphics and printing company Graphic Report, the scenes on each screen take on a different mood depending on the colour of the light.
Carnovsky was founded by designers Silvia Quintanilla and Francesco Rugi in 2007.
Carnovsky – RGB Fabulous Landscapes Fondazione Adolfo Pini, Corso Garibaldi 2, Milan Milan Design Week 9-14 April 2013
Curator: Dalia Gallico Printing and Set Construction: GraphicReport Design Limited Edition: Artep Italia
For Milan Design Week 2013, Carnovsky continues its RGB project experimenting with new designs, new materials and new technologies, continuing the journey begun in 2010 on the interaction between printed and light colours. The main theme is the landscape in its different meanings. Atmospheric landscapes, architectonic and perspective landscapes, emotional landscapes, ephemeral landscapes in continuous movement.
In the colonnaded courtyard the Atmospherics series is presented for the first time, a series of sky landscapes and meteorological phenomena. The whole series comprises more than 20 pieces. One giant sky titled Atmospheric N.1, printed with an innovative technique of digital fresco of the Italian company GraphicReport and illuminated by RGB LED lights, creates a magical show of sunrises, sunsets and storms.
Within the space on the ground floor, another large installation that uses the work titled Landscape N.1, in which the viewer is immersed in an enchanted forest, gradually turns in an architectural interior. The exterior reverses in the interior and the vanishing point of the columns and the perspective planes expands the space multiplying it to the infinite.
Finally, in the rooms on the upper floor of the Foundation, a dialogue between antique and contemporary has been created, placing some Carnovsky’s limited editions produced by the Italian company Artep Italia like the screens in lacquered wood with antique engravings of animals and anatomy and the hand made carpets in a historical Milanese building.
Carnovsky has been working on some new limited editions which include a collection of screens (UV digital printing on lacquered wood), a collection of carpets hand-knotted in India and a collection of tapestries woven in Aubusson. Some of these objects including the three screens and a carpet were presented at the first floor of the Fondazione Pini as part of the RGB Fabulous Landscapes exhibition.
Dezeen Watch Store:the most recent addition to our watch collection is Dressed by Marcel Wanders, featuring details and flourishes typical of the Dutch designer’s decorative style.
Wanders designed each watch to have two sides to it: one visible and one concealed. The outward watch face has an understated design whilst the reverse side features a secret embellished surface, a hidden detail known only to the wearer.
The watch is available in two colours: black or white. The black-strapped watch comes with a gold ticker and a matching crown. The white watch comes with subtle dotted hour and minute markers, adding an extra detail to the simple face.
The Dressed watch is part of a larger collection of products, including tableware (pictured above) that Wanders has designed for Alessi.
Timber louvres and shutters form a protective shell across the exterior of this apartment building in Istanbul by Turkish studio Alataş Architecture & Consulting.
Screening the upper levels of a glazed curtain wall, the timber cladding cloaks the facade of the six-storey-high Ipera 25 housing block, creating a system of solar shading for the nine apartments contained inside.
Alataş Architecture & Consulting divided the wall into four long vertical strips, which project forward and backwards at different points to allow slices of glass to emerge from between each of the timber panels.
“The fractures and surface variations on the facade – wider than the architectural structures in the area – not only emerge as a contemporary interpretation of the bay windows of the surrounding buildings, but also allow the facade to be perceived in a more fragmented and ergonomic manner,” architect Ahmet Alataş told Dezeen.
Two one-bedroom apartments are contained on each of the first four floors. Living rooms are positioned at the front of every home and residents can open and close different shutters independently.
“The wooden elements allow a view of the street and create a bay window effect that establishes a link between home life and life on the street,” said Alataş.
A two-storey penthouse is located on the uppermost floors of the building, beneath an angled ceiling that follows the pitch of the roof.
Here’s some more explanation from Alataş Architecture & Consulting:
The building is located on Tatarbeyi Sokak, is one of the most virginal and underdeveloped streets of the rapidly transforming Galata District under conservation. Comprised of eight 80-m2 studio flats and one 190-m2 penthouse up for sale, it has a total surface area of 1000 m2.
The building is a residential project that extends beyond the conventional codes of the already-built environment, yet manages to reproduce these codes, respecting the existing architectural fabric.
In this regard, it continues to find new solutions to the existing problems of architecture by utilizing contemporary technologies and taking into consideration the newly burgeoning socio-economic structure of the region, as well as the infrastructure, environmental conditions, climate, and solar movements.
The building is comprised of a wooden shell that covers the largely transparent living area in an uncompromising manner and set between two blind and extremely thin exposed concrete curtain walls.
The wooden components on the front elevation run parallel to the glass facade that evolves into a saddle roof and entirely cover the front and back of the building. Perceived as a gigantic blind facade from one perspective, yet appearing as a translucent veil from the other, the wooden surface also functions as a sun filter.
Comprised of parallel horizontal laths that angle at various points, the wooden element divides the facade into four as the middle segments expand outwards, towards the street; leaving the sides exposed, the wooden elements thus allow a view of the street and create a bay window effect that establishes a link between home life and life on the street.
While the building almost disregards the relationship with the street by refusing to repeat the conventional window spans in the neighborhood, it nonetheless revives its place within the context by reinterpreting the traditional bay window structure on the street.
Behind its impressive presence on the street, the building displays a plain and statuesque appearance that simultaneously blends into and stands out against the context without competing with the neighboring historic buildings in its critical approach.
As the design is concretized, the concept of the transparent surface of the wooden veil covering the two facades and the roof between two walls is maintained throughout without any qualms. The dilapidated appearance of the neighbouring building at arm’s length is perceived as part of the view and the transparent surface is not even partially compromised.
While this attitude and the spatial relationship of the interior and the exterior expands the interior volumes of the 80-m2 flats – born out of the new lifestyle needs and culture – towards the facade of the buildings across the street, the translucent nature of the building’s shell allows the street to feel broader and more spacious.
Architects: Alataş Architecture & Consulting Location: Galata, İstanbul, Turkey Design Team: Ahmet Alataş, Emre Açar
Milan 2013:wingback armchairs by Spanish designer Jaime Hayón for Danish brand Republic of Fritz Hansen were unveiled in Milan earlier this month (+ slideshow).
Ro, meaning “tranquility” in Danish, features a curved seat shell that swoops out on both sides to form armrests and dips inward at the neck to follow the shape of the user’s body.
Separate rounded cushions for the headrest, back and seat are covered in a slightly different texture to the shell they sit in.
Two small buttons at chest height provide small details on the otherwise uninterrupted surfaces.
The chair is supported on four smooth, rounded legs that can be chosen in different coloured woods or metals.
Nine different fabric colour options and a variety of materials including leather and velvet are available.
Read on for more information from Republic of Fritz Hansen:
Ro – the new comfort zone
The world-renowned Spanish designer Jaime Hayon has worked together with Republic of Fritz Hansen to create today’s answer to tomorrow’s easy chair. A chair where you can find room for your inner space and take a break from the hectic bustle of everyday life. The chair is called Ro and will be launched at Salone del Mobile 2013 in Milan.
Time for reflection is a luxury in today’s world. We are all busy and always short of time to create a moment for quiet contemplation. The new easy chair springs from a desire to create a piece of furniture that offers an opportunity for reflection in our busy lives.
However, Ro is much more than an easy chair. It’s a 11⁄2-seater where you can relax, change positions and have your newspaper, computer or child next to you and create a new comfort zone.
The design of the shell is elegant and simple, pleasing to both the eye and the body and offers the promise of tranquility in both its visual expression and its comfortable functionality. Furthermore, the form of the shell gives you the choice of being part of what goes on in the room or relaxing in your own private space.
Fritz Hansen’s design brief to Jaime Hayon was “… to create a comfortable seat for one person”. “We put a great deal of effort into the form of the chair, which is inspired by the human body. We wanted a chair that was comfortable as well as beautiful. My goal was to create a slim and elegant chair that encourages reflection and comfort,” says Jaime Hayon.
“Ro” means tranquility in Danish. The name was chosen because it captures the point of the chair in just two letters, thus reflecting the Nordic approach and concept of beauty.
Ro is made with great craftsmanship and in the highest sustainable quality. Combined with the sculptural and elegant design, the result is a functional and aesthetic chair that fascinates its surroundings. One seems to fall in love with it. Ro does not compromise on either comfort or aesthetics.
The easy chair is available in nine colours: three traditional options (black, grey and taupe), three bright colours (violet, blue and yellow) and three soft colours (light pink, sage-green and sand). For a more vibrant look, the chair features two different textures: one for the seat shell and one for the cushions, which supports the contrasted expression of the hard shell and the warm and soft interior.
Ro is launched in the Republic of Fritz Hansen’s showroom in Milan during Salone Internazionale del Mobile in April 2013. The easy chair will be available from Republic of Fritz Hansen and authorized retailers from September 2013.
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