This collapsible table by Berlin-based designer Jakob Timpe is made from nine pieces of wood that simply slot together with no screws, glue or tools (+ slideshow).
Frustrated by having to handle a large drawing table every time the designer moved, Timpe created an easy-to-assemble trestle-style frame that can be taken apart in seconds and flat-packed for easy storage.
The underframe of the STAND table consists of four horizontal bars that pierce right through slots in the tops of the four legs. The structure is jammed together when pressure is applied by the weight of a tabletop.
“The appearance can be determined by sliding the legs along the frame,” said the designer. “The table permits the legs to protrude from under the top or to disappear beneath it.”
The basic STAND comes without a surface, but the designer has produced a white table top made of particle board and coated with melamin resin available.
The kit weighs just 7.5 kilograms and can support a table top between 170 by 80 centimetres and 240 by 100 centimetres.
To transport the pieces, the STAND comes with a sewn cotton case inspired by brush bags used for the storage of art supplies.
“It works as a wooden dining table, as constructional working table or as a conference table which can be set up and taken down in seconds,” explained Timpe.
The trestle is made in Berlin from solid ash sourced from local forests. Each piece has not been surface treated to emphasise the natural variation in grain and colour in the wood.
“Over time, the wood will take on a natural patina,” said Timpe. However, there is also a white stain finish option available.
The table is available through the young Berlin-based design brand vondingen.
News: French studio LAN has won a competition to revamp the Grand Palais exhibition centre in Paris with plans to restore galleries around the Grand Nave and insert a new entrance court.
LAN proposes to restructure and restore the “original coherence and sense of transparency” of the grand Beaux Arts building, which was constructed for the World’s Fair of 1900 at the eastern end of the Champs-Elysées, and which features a barrel-vaulted glass and iron roof.
The first intervention will be to adapt entrances on the northern and southern facades. A pair of gentle ramps will follow the curvature of the existing fountain to lead visitors to the main access on Avenue du Général-Eisenhower, while the riverside entrance will serve as a dedicated arrival point for special exhibitions and the restaurant.
Both entrances will lead through to a new two-storey ambulatory between the Grand Nave and the rotunda of the adjoining Palais d’Antin. Voids in the floorplates will create double-height ceilings and stairwells, allowing the space to function as the connecting area between all exhibitions.
Existing galleries will be re-planned to allow greater flexibility, while a new exhibition space for contemporary art and live performance will be created within the Palais d’Antin.
Old bay windows and passageways will be opened up throughout the building, plus visitors will be given the opportunity to explore the roof.
“These interventions represent a unique opportunity to rediscover the traces and ways in which the Grand Palais has withstood the test of time,” said the architects. “Our credo for the New Grand Palais is to complete and strengthen its formal logic through interventions that return a sense of modernity to its whole, all the while respecting its traditional identity.”
LAN will also add spaces for logistics and car parking within a new basement storey, install a climate-control system and modernise existing systems to bring the whole building in line with current building regulations.
Here’s a more detailed project description from LAN:
Grand-Palais
The new Grand Palais: an example of modernity
To our contemporary eyes, the Grand Palais is both an idea and a symbol of modernity. It is a hybrid building in terms of its architecture, its usage and its history. Neither a museum nor a simple monument, its architecture has an identity all its own, centred around the notion of a “culture machine”, a spatial means for hosting a vast diversity of events and audiences that exponentially exalts the site’s “universal” and “republican” vocation. The restoration and restructuring of the entire monument affords us the chance to reinforce this aspiration.
The coming restructuring foresees the implementation of a new circulation mechanism centred around the middle building, the restoration of the galleries surrounding the Grand Nave, the installation of a climate control system, the creation of a logistics centre, bringing the entire building up to code, and opening the large bay windows and passageways in order to restore the building’s original coherence and sense of transparency. These interventions represent a unique opportunity to re-discover the traces and ways in which the Grand Palais has withstood the test of time, survived changes in its function, to assert architecture as a point of departure, and the space as nurturing life and society.
Even though the initial reason for building the Grand Palais was to provide a site for presenting and promoting French artistic culture during the World’s Fair of 1900, the plan nevertheless envisioned durability and flexibility from the outset. Even though these many adaptations progressively complicated and depreciated certain parts of the Grand Palais, the intelligence of its general form and its original spatial intent have helped it survive these episodes and change with the times.
Our credo for the New Grand Palais is to complete and strengthen its formal logic through interventions that return a sense of modernity to its whole, all the while respecting its traditional identity.
The Jean Perrin Square and the ‘Jardin de la Reine’
The logical consequence of revamping the northern and southern access points, one of the challenges of the project, is that the middle building lies at the heart of our intervention. Our wish is to reinforce the sense of unity between the Grand Palais and the Palais d’Antin and to make the middle building the meeting point between the two. This approach respects the architects’ original intentions, namely to render the spaces and their development highly legible to users, such that they implicitly signify the building’s function.
The pure geometry of the rediscovered circle creates a new symbol and marker at the urban level for the entrance to the New Grand Palais. It will become a veritable place of its own that can host planned or spontaneous activities. Two ramps, designed on the basis of the geometric matrix provided by the steps and the fountain, will lead visitors from the level of the square at the base of the building towards the entrance. Facing the Seine there will be the entrance for specific audience and the independent access to the restaurant. The latter takes advantage of a large terrace orientated to the south, located below the Jardin de la Reine.
By creating a progressive transition from the urban space to that of the galleries, the first two floors of the middle building contain the ambulatory. It is a majestic, open volume with multiple levels that will allow the public to embrace the Grand Nave and the rotunda of the Palais d’Antin at the same time. In fact, it emphasizes the original east-west axis of the composition. Situated along the lower main level, ‘La Grande Rue des Palais’ organizes the different entrance phases in a clear sequence before leading the public to the various activities offered. The ambulatory will become the connecting platform for all exhibitions at the new Grand Palais. The materials chosen for la Grande Rue des Palais will link the exterior to the interior, the existing to the new. The dichotomy between the building’s foundation wall and the piano nobile, perceptible on the outside because of the change in stone colour, will continue inside the building.
Section C – click for larger image
The exhibition spaces
The restructuring of the National Galleries seeks to take into account the interdependence between comprehending a work and its formal and conceptual presentation. This becomes a unique opportunity to develop a vast range of diverse “situations” in terms of volumes, light, materials, and their relationship to the outside. It’s not simply a question of making the volumes flexible, but of giving them the ability to become an event in and of themselves. This process is not confined to the galleries; it can happen anywhere in the building, wherever the structure allows for it. By integrating innovative museographic concepts into the institution, the museum will be able to host works that, until now, have only been seen in alternative spaces for brief periods of time, and which have in fact not been commented on or valued enough.
The Palais de la Découverte will expose the public to other forms of culture, such as exhibitions, contemporary art, or high-quality live performances. Conversely, the public visiting the Grand Nave and the galleries will be exposed to new experiences upon visiting the Palais de la Découverte. The new temporary gallery in the Palais de la Découverte has been conceived with this in mind, as its central location concretises the link between these two realities.
For this project to become an effective way to hosting very diverse events and publics, it first of all demands a clear, flexible, and adaptable structuring of the spaces at hand. More than simply managing current needs, our proposal opens the door to the future evolutions of these needs. What is at stake is formulating a vision that in the long term can accept new parameters, evolutions in technology, and paradigm shifts.
The program led us to create an underground level, which will host the logistics spaces and the associated parking and loading spaces. These technical works will permit an increase in visitor capacity to the Grand Palais. The Grand Nave will thus be able to accommodate more than 11,000 persons compared to the current 5,200, and this will increase its total visitor capacity from the current 16,500 to more than 21,900 persons.
From the Grand Palais to the city – the flow of tourists and the observatory
The movement of visitors within the Grand Palais represents an opportunity for “showing off” the architecture. By drawing the visitor’s attention, these views will frame “details” in the architecture and the landscape, thereby giving them emphasis. These views reveal themselves progressively as one walks through the space. They disclose the connection of the spaces that allow visitors to locate themselves within the building and in relation to the city. The internal tourist itinerary continues outside, along the rooftop of the Grand Palais, allowing visitors to discover the roof, and it will provide them with unobstructed, totally new vistas of Paris.
The monument to the dawn of sustainable development
We made use of a philosophy based on five main design values: Effectiveness, Sobriety, Strengthening Cultural Heritage, Minimal and Passive Intervention, and Remaining at the Service of Users. By analysing what is already there, the project is able to resolve and transform the challenges into strengths while at the same time identifying and preserving the quality of the inherited resources. Users (and future uses) have been placed at the heart of the design process by attempting to understand the many activities exercised and also by taking into account comfort and environmental requirements, be they climatic, acoustic, lighting-related, hygrothermic, and so forth. This intersection of situations, inherited resources, practices and activities, comfort and environmental requirements constitute the multi-faceted basis for this intervention. To reveal what is already there means to draw on the inherited resources to construct micro-contextual responses. One must in the end be hyper-contextual.
Brazilian architect Paulo Kobylka has designed sofas with cantilevered cushions that look like long concrete slabs stacked on top of one another (+ slideshow).
Paulo Kobylka created two sofa, PK1 and PK2, which have offset cushions and bases respectively that slot together to form an L-shaped design.
Both designs are upholstered in grey canvas and are separated it into three main sections: a horizontal base and seat, plus a low vertical back.
The two sofas are arranged so the cushion of the PK2 model fits over the corner of the PK1 so they form a continuous seat.
“The two parts can be used together when jointed at their ends, coming up with an L-shaped single unit,” Kobylka explained. “The sofas received a grey canvas finishing that refers to structural parts of exposed concrete of buildings.”
PK1 sofa
“The mismatches between the pieces generate small spaces to house furnishings,” he added.
PK2 sofa
The sofa cushions are rigid enough to support a person’s weight when they sit on the overhanging sections.
Photography is by Renan Klippel.
Here’s a short description from Paulo Kobylka:
PK1 and PK2 sofa
The PK1 and PK2 sofas were designed by Brazilian architect Paulo Kobylka.
The inspiration comes from structural elements in concrete, found in architecture of buildings. The sofas are designed with simple lines, purely structural: the structure is exactly what shapes it.
Diagram showing the two sofas fitted together
As well as a suspended slab of a building, the PK1 sofa has part of its seat cantilevered. The sofas are basically assembled by three main volumes: base, seat and back. The “mismatches” between the pieces generate small spaces to house furnishings.
The two parts can be used together when jointed at their ends, coming up with an “L” shaped single unit. The sofas received a grey canvas finishing that refers to structural parts of exposed concrete of buildings.
This railway service facility in Zurich by local architects EM2N features a three-dimensional patterned facade made from zigzagging cement modules (+ slideshow).
EM2N was asked by Swiss national rail company SBB to develop its 13,000-square-metre maintenance facility, which is designed to accommodate trains of up to 400 metres in length so they can be cleaned and serviced without being uncoupled.
Located at a yard visible to passengers arriving into Zurich’s central station, the building is intended to offer an engaging visual presence whilst responding to strict functional requirements.
“The brief was very technical and our job was to lend a face to the big shapeless monster of a huge technical facility landed in the middle of a central European city,” the architects told Dezeen.
EM2N chose to focus most of the project’s resources and design detailing on the building’s more exposed southern facade, creating a textural pattern by using a system of modular elements made from fibre cement.
“We approached the job basically as a cladding issue,” the architects explained. “Our cladding responds to the incredible size of the facility by operating with huge elements that add up to create even bigger forms which correspond to the size of the entire building.”
At the base of the building, the curvature and cantilever of the modules is limited to maintain a route for fire engines.
From a height of four metres above the ground the bulging surfaces become more pronounced, increasing the effect of the pillowed pattern.
Enormous doors at either end of the facility are framed by the concrete structure, with the undulating edges of the facade exposed as if the building has been sliced through to reveal its section.
Inside the service hall, the architects job was limited by the client’s detailed specification which determined the dimensions, layout and materials required to meet practical requirements including safety regulations, access and other logistical issues.
Extension of the Railway Service Facility Zürich-Herdern, Switzerland
The new maintenance facility being built at Zurich-Herdern will allow SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) to handle future trains of up to 400 metres in length with ease. SBB will be able to clean and repair entire intercity train compositions without disassembling them, since the entire train can enter the facility.
Through its central position next to the rapidly developing new neighbourhood of Zurich-West and by virtue of its sheer size, the new building acquires great urbanistic significance. It shapes the edge of the city towards the great emptiness of the railway tracks and greets visitors entering the city by train, signalling that they have arrived close to the city centre.
At the start of the competition many design decisions had already been taken by SBB or were predefined by the site next to an existing service facility and its limitations: Size, placement on the site, the functional layout, structural grid and so on were all given. The competition task was to find an economically feasible and at the same time architecturally satisfying solution to a huge technical infrastructure landed in the middle of a city. The competition team was headed by engineers, and the architect’s job was limited to “giving the monster a face”, i.e. to come up with a facade that would be more than just a technical cladding.
We decided to concentrate on the southern façade and concentrate design effort and money there. The repetitiveness of the inner structure led us to work with modular elements. Due to the sheer size of the building and the danger of it looking like a featureless stretched box, we arrived at the idea of a three dimensional modulation of the façade. The curvature of the fibre cement elements frees the endless façade from its flat monotony and renders a play of light and shadow.
The modulation extends across several elements to form a pattern that fits the enormous size of the building. The curvature and cantilever of the rounded elements is limited at ground level due to restrictions given by the fire truck lane. At 4 m above ground, both curvature and cantilever increases to produce an increased three dimensional cushion effect.
Both ends of the service hall with their huge entrance doors are treated as cuts, where the spatial façade is cut flat. The less northern façade is clad with regular undulating fibre concrete cladding elements.
Huge sliding doors at the front and rear of this weekend house in rural Hiroshima allow residents to open out their timber-lined living spaces to the scenic mountain landscape (+ slideshow).
Designed by Japanese studios DYGSA and Koura Architects, Hinanai Village House was constructed from wood and positioned at the peak of its hilly site to take advantage of the panoramic scenery.
A concrete driveway leads up to the house from the adjacent road, arriving at an door within a timber panel. Not only does the door hinge open to create a simple entrance, but the entire panel slides across to reveal that the concrete surface extends right through the building.
“When you open the front door you get the feeling as if the inside space is the continuation of the outside one, and that makes it possible to bring the outdoor activities inside,” explained DYGSA principal Dominik Yoshiya Setoguchi.
The single-storey house has a square-shaped plan and is separated into two sections by a split level. The concrete floor runs along one side to create an entrance lobby and a living room, while a wooden platform creates a step up for kitchen and dining areas.
Floor-to-ceiling windows along the rear elevation open all of these spaces out to the landscape. “The glass doors’ frame acts as a picture frame with the natural landscape in it,” added the architect.
A partition wall runs diagonally through the building, screening bedroom and bathroom spaces along one wall, but also helping to widen views through the rear windows.
Views of the countryside can also be enjoyed from the bath, which has been placed in a corner room with two glass walls.
Timber walls and ceilings are left exposed throughout the interior, while the four outer walls are each treated different differently, displaying a mixture of black, white and exposed timber surfaces.
This is a house in Hiroshima, Japan. The house is ideally suited for the client’s family of four – parents and two kids – with the purpose of spending weekends in the natural environment. It is situated on the top of a hill with the spectacular view over the surrounding area.
The one-storey house is in the shape of a square with sides that are 9.5m long. It stands on the front edge of the lot of about 2000 square metres, so the facade of the house shuts out the sight of the garden from the side of the road.
The main partition wall meets the ends at angles 80 and 100 degrees, which widens the view from the inside into the outside and raises awareness about the natural surroundings.
The path made of concrete and leading to the front wooden sliding door stretches to the inside space and reaches the glass sliding doors on the opposite side of the house. So when you open the front door, you get the feeling as if the inside space is the continuation of the outside one, and that makes it possible to bring the outdoor activities inside.
The line of the inside concrete path focuses on the old red pine tree in the garden. Thus, the glass doors’ frame acts as a picture frame with the natural landscape in it. Moreover, on opening the inside sliding doors separating the wooden floor space and the concrete floor space, you get one spacious room.
In this way the ordinary and extraordinary activities blend in one splendid hybrid space.
Location: Hiroshima, Japan Principal use: house Structure: wood Number of storeys: 1 above ground Site area: 2001.45 sqm Building area: 91.30 sqm Total floor area: 91.30 sqm Collaboration: Koura Architects Contractor: Fuji Construction
Danish designer Simon Legald has created a set of stacking melamine trays with softly rounded edges for design brand Normann Copenhagen (+ slideshow).
Simon Legald designed the Nabo Trays in small, medium and large variations, with raised edges and handles on each end.
“Nabo” is the Danish word for neighbour, and Legald designed the set around this idea.
“It’s a bit like neighbours in a residential neighbourhood where the houses have the same basic shape, but windows, doors, gardens and décor are different,” Legald explained, referring to how the trays fit together.
“I thought it was interesting how you could vary the few elements of an archetypal tray to retain similarity while the expression changes,” he added.
The largest tray is long and flat with low edges, and features openings at one end to allow liquids to run off if necessary.
The medium tray is smaller and deeper with more storage space, while the smallest tray is deeper still and designed to hold larger items like glasses and bowls.
The matte-finish trays come in three colour sets: dusty green, rich red and classic grey.
Here’s some information from the designer:
Normann Copenhagen presents the Nabo Trays
The Danish designer Simon Legald has created a series of trays with a softly rounded silhouette and subtle details for Normann Copenhagen. Their design is clean and minimalistic with a friendly and naive expression. Nabo comes as a set of three trays of different sizes and colours.
The carefully considered details give each Nabo Tray an individual character, and the variations among them make the series both aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. The large tray has openings at one end, letting the water run off easily when you rinse it. The medium tray is ideal for storing oils and spices, for example, while the high edges of the smallest make it an ideal serving tray for glasses and bottles.
Simon Legald says: “I got the idea for Nabo one day when I was sitting down, drawing different shapes. I like the fusion of round and square, and so I began to think about what type of product that form would be suitable for. This led me quickly to the idea of a tray. I thought it was interesting how you could vary the few elements of an archetypal tray to retain similarity while the expression changes – a bit like neighbours in a residential neighbourhood where the houses have the same basic shape, but windows, doors, gardens and décor are different.”
Nabo is made in melamine and available in three different colour combinations – a dusty green, a rich red and classic grey version. The trays are dishwasher-safe, making them practical for everyday use.
Colours: Grey, Red & Green Material: Melamine Dimensions: H: 6,8 cm x L: 43,4 cm x 23,4 cm
The lower storey of this house in Ontario by Toronto studio Williamson Chong Architects is wrapped by a concrete wall that burrows into a hillside, while the upper floor is an overhanging box clad with red-stained timber (+ slideshow).
Named House in Frogs Hollow, the residence is located on a 40-hectare rural estate on the edge of Georgian Bay, and was designed by Williamson Chong Architects for a pair of avid cyclists.
Rather than positioning the house at a vantage point atop a hill, the architects chose a site at the base of the slope, allowing them to submerge part of the ground floor into the landscape of clay earth, grasses and hawthorns.
This places the building within a network of pathways and bike trails, some of which were created by the clients, but also including routes used by native horses, or those taken by local residents on snowmobiles.
“The house is not the final destination, but a stopping place within [the clients’] network of activity,” said the architects.
One long concrete wall carves out a space for the house’s ground floor, lining the edge of an L-shaped plan that wraps and protects a terrace on the eastern side of the building.
Wooden shiplap boards are arranged vertically across the walls of the boxy upper floor and have been stained with a linseed oil-based pigment to give them a dark red tone.
“Designed as an undulating rhythm of varying widths, thin boards are CNC milled to a shallow depth while wider boards are milled with deep striations, casting long shadows that track the sun as it moves around the house,” explained the architects.
Inside the house, a staircase is screened behind an undulating timber wall, leading up from a family living room and kitchen to three bedrooms on the top floor. The living room is also located upstairs and features three glazed walls.
During the cold winter months the house is warmed throughout by underfloor heating and makes the most of solar gain with a series of large south-facing windows. A passive ventilation system helps to keep the house cool in summer without the need for air conditioning.
Photography is by Bob Gundu.
Here’s some information from Williamson Chong Architects:
House in Frogs Hollow
The House in Frogs Hollow, a 2000sf country retreat, is located on a long slope of the Niagara Escarpment overlooking Georgian Bay. The property is a collection of eroded clay hills and protected watershed zones blanketed with a dense field of hawthorn and native grasses. It is not picturesque, but tough and impenetrable.
The clients, who gather at the property throughout the year, are avid cyclists who spent months on the 100 acre property prior to construction cutting in discreet mountain biking trails and learning the paths of the horses and snowmobiles as they emerge from the community over the seasons. Because of their connection to the landscape, a primary site strategy was to resist the inclination to build on top of the hills where one could survey the property in its entirety and instead carve out a building area at the base of the hillside. The house is not the final destination, but a stopping place within their network of activity.
Carved into the landscape, the muscular tectonic of the long concrete wall figuratively clears the site for building while bridging the natural and tempered environments. The concrete has a toughness that mirrors the landscape, providing protection from the prevailing winter winds. During the summer months the wall provides patio shade, creating pools of cooler air that are passively drawn through the house.
Entry is at the west end of the concrete wall and into a service bar containing the stair, kitchen, office, bike workshop, storage room, and mechanical room. This functional zone serves as a backdrop to the glassed in living area that opens on three sides to an extended view of the rolling landscape.
The second level hovers above the concrete wall and living space. It contains the bedrooms, bathrooms, and family room in a tight wrapper of customised shiplap siding. Designed as an undulating rhythm of varying widths, thin boards are CNC milled to a shallow depth while wider boards are milled with deep striations, casting long shadows that track the sun as it moves around the house. The siding is stained with a linseed oil based iron oxide pigment that requires reapplication only once every 15 years.
The first and second floors are connected by a figured stair enclosure. This digitally fabricated element is designed to filter light from the clerestory volume above. At the ground floor it carves into the area below its upper run to gather more space at the entry and allow for a seating area.
The house’s connection to the land is reinforced not only in its architectural form, but also in its environmental footprint. The house is heated with radiant floor loops that supplement the passive winter heat gain from south-facing windows. In addition, there is no mechanical cooling. Instead, the stair tower and operable windows facilitate passive ventilation that draws cool air through the house from shaded exterior areas. Natural materials and pigments were used throughout and a small square footage was maintained to further reduce construction costs and keep future energy consumption to a minimum.
Total Floor Area: 2000 sqft Design Team: Betsy Williamson, Partner Shane Williamson, Partner Donald Chong, Partner Kelly Doran, Maya Przybylski Structural Engineering: Blackwell Bowick Partnership Ltd. Construction Management: Wilson Project Management Inc. Millwork: Speke Klein Inc. Siding Fabrication: Tomek Bartczak, Gavin Berman, Peter Odegaard, Taryn Sheppard, Byron White Stair Fabrication: Byron White, Jeff Powers
The low-rise building was dug into the landscape and features full-height glazing that wraps around the end of the building facing the runway. Tourists will be taking off from Foster’s spaceport terminal later this year.
2: London Britania Airport by Gensler
As the UK government continues to look at ways to increase airport capacity in southeast England, various conceptual proposals have been unveiled – including a floating airport.
Architecture firm Gensler’s proposal included four floating runways that would be tethered to the seabed.
Departure concourses would lead to underwater rail tunnels, which would connect to central London as well as European rail networks.
3: Thames Hub by Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners also unveiled a proposal for an airport and transport hub on the Thames Estuary in southeast England.
The Thames Hub would include a four-runway airport, a freight port and an Orbital Rail link around London connected to the north of Britain and Europe. The architects claim it would cost £50 billion to implement and would generate £150 billion in economic benefits.
One corner of the airport is coloured bright red to aid passenger orientation.
Inside the terminal, a large structure covered in a web of wooden beams descends from the ceiling and creates a central hub around which passengers circulate.
The structure comprises two branches that curve up towards the sky and serves the local ski resort. Both terminals were built as part of a major regeneration project in Georgia, which is investing in architecture to rebrand itself.
7: Queen Alia International Airport by Foster + Partners
The concrete canopy spanning the terminal is supported by 30 tapered columns that are punctured with recesses, creating a decorative pattern of openings that are infilled with coloured glazing to allow light to filter through the space.
Shimmering golden panels clad the folded ceilings inside the terminal, which is expected to bring 12 million passengers in and out of the Russian city each year.
Hidden at the bottom of a London garden, this glowing shed by British studio Weston, Surman & Deane was designed as a writing retreat for an author (+ slideshow).
Weston, Surman & Dean was asked to build a studio that reflected the client’s passion for children’s literature and mythology, and responded by creating a whimsical cabin that features a back-lit facade.
The inner facade of the Writer’s Shed is shingle-clad with a glazed sliding door that opens out to a covered veranda facing back towards the house. A cedar screen fronts the veranda and gaps between the narrow slats allow light to shine out at night.
The architects said that the wood was chosen for its reliance and sensitivity to ageing, “complimenting the role of the shed as a place of changing ideas and production.”
Tucked away behind the cedar frame are logs to be used in the wood burning stove that heats the shed, which sits on concrete paving slabs and leans against the gable wall. Oiled chipboard bookcases for the writer’s library fill the space around it and painted pine boards cover the floor.
A reclaimed sink with garden taps and a brass splash back sits on one of the shelves.
A large skylight in the asymmetric pitch roof above fills the workspace with natural light.
Weston, Surman & Deane, also known as WSD Architecture, was launched by three Royal College of Art architecture graduates after they completed their first project, the Royal College of Art Student Union Cafe.
The Writer’s Shed is one of 24 projects shortlisted for the AJ Small Projects Award 2014. The winner will be announced next month.
Here’s a project description from Weston, Surman & Deane:
Writer’s Shed
WSD Architecture were commissioned by an author and illustrator to design & build a ‘writer’s shed’. Capitalising on their multi-disciplinary backgrounds WSD acted as designers, project managers, and lead contractors.
The design responds to the client’s passion for children’s literature and mythologies.The space is conceived as a haven in the city; a fairy-tale hut at the bottom of the garden where the client can retreat and immerse himself in his work.
Externally, the glowing cedar facade, shingle cladding, log store and chimney all play a part in creating this world. Inside, a large north-facing skylight floods the workspace with natural light. On the gable wall, a bookcase meanders around the wood burning stove, providing a centre piece for the client to store his library of books. Looking back out over the garden, the glazed sliding door gives onto a covered verandah – a space perfect to enjoy the very worst of the British weather.
“We came up with the idea based on the title and lyric ‘we are explorers’,” PARTY creative director and founder Masashi Kawamura told Dezeen. “We wanted to create a story of explorers but wanted create the journey in a never seen before way, so we decided to create 200 figurines using 3D printing and film them as stop-motion animation.”
The video for Cut Copy follows the tiny characters as they navigate the streets: encountering litter, scaling mail boxes and collecting objects found along their journey.
For the stop-motion sequence, the two hundred figurines were created on a Stratasys 1200es printer with UV reactive filament.
The team used handheld black lights to create the luminosity during the seven days of filming in Los Angeles, then exaggerated the brightness slightly during post production.
“We used UV reactive filament to print the figurines on the 3D printer, so they glowed under the black light,” said Kawamura.
Once they had finished, PARTY made the files used to create the video open source so others could try it out.
“We wanted to create an experience bigger than just the video,” explained Kawamura, “so we decided to release all the 3D data and storyboard for free on Bit Torrent, so the people can actually recreate the whole video if they want to.”
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