Hasta La Ideas

This week’s job of the week on Dezeen Jobs is a position for an assistant furniture designer at Paul Smith, whose furnishings for Maggie’s Centre in Nottingham are pictured. Visit the ad for full details or browse other architecture and design opportunities on Dezeen Jobs.

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designer at Paul Smith appeared first on Dezeen.

Berlin studio J. Mayer H. has designed a temporary pavilion comprising a wonky grid of criss-crossing timber beams to celebrate the 300th year of German city Karlsruhe (+ slideshow).

J. Mayer H. won a competition to design the Jubilee Pavilion that will be used to host events and exhibitions throughout the summer of 2015, celebrating the 300-year anniversary of the founding of Karlsruhe.

The pavilion will be constructed in Schlosspark, the castle gardens that form the heart of the city famed for its radial urban plan, which is made up of 32 circulating streets and avenues.

To reference this, the architects conceived the structure as a three-dimensional lattice where vertical members all angle towards the precise centre of the city.

“The twisted pattern of the pavilion refers to the strictly geometric-radial lay out of the Baroque-planned city of Karlsruhe with the castle as the focal point, transforming it into a spatial field of lines,” they said.

“On several layers in and on the structure, exhibition platforms, resting spaces, and viewing platforms will emerge,” they added.

An auditorium and stage will be located inside the pavilion, allowing the space to host concerts, theatre performances, talks, film screenings and exhibitions across the summer festival season.

It will also serve as an information point where locals and tourists can find out about the jubilee activities, and will contain a cafe. Construction will begin in March 2015.

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for Karlsruhe’s 300-year anniversary appeared first on Dezeen.

A portable router designed to bring constant internet connectivity to tough locations in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond was presented at the Design Indaba conference in Cape Town this week.

The BRCK device from Kenyan technology firm Ushahidi can automatically switch between Ethernet, WiFi and mobile broadband to maintain its connection. It has its own battery with an eight-hour life to cope with power-cuts and intermittent connections, plus a built-in 16 gigabyte hard drive.

“There’s a gap in the reliability of the infrastructure and this is our answer,” said co-founder of Ushahidi Juliana Rotich, speaking to Dezeen after her talk at Design Indaba.

For her, creating technology appropriate to the location is crucial: “Why do we use technology designed for London when we are using it in Lagos?”

Rotich described the BRCK as “a rugged way to stay connected,” adding that their mantra is: “If it works in Africa, it’ll work anywhere.”

The BRCK’s backup battery and multiple ways of connecting to the network mean that it will keep its users online even when internet connectivity and power is sporadic. From coders working in internet cafes in Nairobi to farmers working miles from large conurbations, the BRCK is designed to keep its users hooked up to the internet under the most difficult circumstances.

Weighing 500 grams the device is 132 milimetres by 72 milimetres by 45 milimetres, similar to the size of a Mac Mini. It’s designed to work in dusty locations, be physically robust and splash-proof. Up to 20 devices can be connected to its wireless network .

The device enjoyed a successful Kickstarter campaign last year and is currently being refined by the Kenyan-based design team.

Rotich hopes that the launch of BRCK can be used as a means of developing the manufacturing base in Africa, a path which will require political and economic changes, as she sees it.

“We’ve shown we can prototype and make, but we still have to pay more than 100 percent duty on components – we have to make a tough business choice,” said Rotich.

“Ultimately we would love for the BRCK to be conceived in Africa, designed in Africa, made in Africa, used in Africa – and used around the world,” she added.

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“designed to work anywhere” appeared first on Dezeen.

Concrete block walls with window-like apertures surround a courtyard at the front of this Melbourne house by local practice MRTN Architects, which also features an angular wooden roof (+slideshow).

MRTN Architects designed the family home, named Fairfield Hacienda, so that it would engage with neighbouring properties on its suburban street. The designers convinced the clients to downscale the building’s planned footprint by a third, making room for a courtyard that acts as an uncovered outdoor living room.

“The enclosed courtyard is located to the north of the house and creates a buffer between the street and the house, allowing the living spaces to open up to and access northern light and warmth,” the architects explained.

A path that meanders through a small garden leads from the street to the courtyard, which is level with the fronts of the adjacent houses.

The walls shelter the courtyard from the wind but contain holes that allow the residents to see their neighbours and people passing on the street.

A tree at the centre of this outdoor space provides some shade from the sun, while vines and other plants will eventually cover the concrete walls, giving it the appearance of a secret garden.

Concrete blocks enclosing the courtyard continue along the front of the house and also appear internally, where they are polished to a smooth finish.

The material is used for the front half of the house and was chosen for its high thermal mass, which reduces the need for artificial heating and cooling.

Glazed panels create a gap between the solid walls and the angular projecting roof, which is covered on the underside with red cedar.

The faceted ceiling appears to hover above the main living room and kitchen and dining space, where it complements an angular stone-clad breakfast bar.

A small courtyard at the centre of the home separates two wings occupied by the parents and children. Plants inside the glazed structure will gradually grow and increase the privacy of these areas.

The rear half of the property containing the bedrooms and bathrooms is constructed from a timber frame and clad in plywood panels.

Photography is by Peter Bennetts.

Here’s a project description from MRTN Architects:

Fairfield Hacienda

On the fringe of Melbourne’s inner suburbs, this new family home sits in an established residential street of Victorian villas and Californian bungalows. From the footpath, the Fairfield Hacienda with its angled roof fits into the landscape of single level homes, effortlessly picking up the street’s original pattern of hipped and gabled roof forms.

A closer look however, reveals that this new house sits behind a sunny, walled courtyard. This room without a roof, except for a sheltering courtyard tree, is an extension of the living and dining spaces that open onto it. The enclosed courtyard is located to the north of the house and creates a buffer between the street and the house allowing the living spaces to open up to and access northern light and warmth.

The front wall of the courtyard matches the front setback of the adjacent neighbours. In holding the typical front setback of houses along the street, and setting the house to the south, a sun filled outdoor area is created that can be used as a living, dining or play area.

The courtyard space also becomes a semi-public space allowing interaction between the owners and local passerby’s; responding to the owners desire that the house engage with the established residents in the area.

The concrete block walls of the courtyard continue without interruption through the house’s main living areas. These walls remain unchanged except for the patina. Outside they are rough and weathered, but become polished and honed once inside. The design is not precious of the courtyard walls, eventually vines and creepers will take over the exterior concrete block and create a walled garden that will change by season.

The living spaces are covered with an undulating canopy of cedar, a warm blanket of timber. From the exterior the roof form relates to the neighbouring roof geometries along the street but from inside the roof dips and rises to define the dining, kitchen and living spaces below. The timber ceiling is kept clear of down lights and services, all lighting is provided by concealed perimeter uplighting, at night the roof appears to float over the masonry walls below.

Beyond the living spaces the private zones of the house are arranged as two wings, a parents wing and a children’s wing, that wrap around a small courtyard. This central planted courtyard provides light and ventilation to the centre of the house. Currently parents and young children can see each other through this void but over time planting will create greater privacy for older children.

The owners’ brief was to create a long-term family home, somewhere they could become a part of the street and its ongoing history. The Fairfield Hacienda sits comfortably within its local context while creating a contemporary light filled home that is orientated to the north and provides a variety of spaces to live in, both inside and out.

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house by MRTN Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Thom Mayne’s Los Angeles firm Morphosis has completed a new Hollywood campus for arts school Emerson College where a rectangular frame surrounds a curvaceous cluster of classrooms (+ slideshow).

Situated in the heart of the entertainment industry on Sunset Boulevard, Emerson College Los Angeles will accommodate over 200 undergraduate students from the renowned creative arts and communication school based in Boston, Massachusetts.

The building’s frame-like outer volume accommodates ten storeys of student housing, while the curving central sections contain teaching facilities and staff administration, amidst a series of terraces and connecting bridges.

“The building is designed to expand the interactive, social aspect of education,” said Thom Mayne. “We focused on creating with the broader community in mind – both in terms of public space and sustainable design.”

The east and west-facing sides of the building feature glazed curtain walls and are screened by an intelligent shading system where horizontal fins angle open or closed to suit changes in light, temperature and the angle of the sun.

Rigging and audio-visual equipment are also incorporated into the facade’s metal framework, accommodating various outdoor performances and events.

“The entire building becomes a stage set for student films, screenings and industry events, with the Hollywood sign, the city of Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean in the distance providing added scenery,” said the design team.

Teaching areas and workspaces within the facility include video-editing suites, computer laboratories, a film screening room, sound mixing suites, and live performance spaces. There’s also a green wall at the north-west corner.

Photography is by Iwan Baan.

Here’s a design statement from Morphosis:

Emerson College Los Angeles

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Emerson is renowned for its communication and arts curriculum. Located in the heart of Hollywood, Emerson College Los Angeles (ELA) defines the college’s identity in the centre of the entertainment industry and the second largest city in the United States. The new facility establishes a permanent home on Sunset Boulevard for Emerson College’s existing undergraduate internship program that will extend the ELA experience to students studying in any of the seven disciplines that are offered through the School of Communication and the School of the Arts. Additionally, ELA will offer post-graduate, certificate, and professional study programs. The new facility will also host workshops, lectures, and other events to engage with alumni and the LA community.

Bringing student housing, instructional facilities, and administrative offices to one location, ELA condenses the diversity of a college campus into an urban site. Evoking the concentrated energy of East-Coast metropolitan centres in an iconic Los Angeles setting, a rich dialogue emerges between students’ educational background and their professional futures.

Fundamental to the Emerson Los Angeles experience, student living circumstances give structure to the overall building. Housing up to 217 students, the domestic zones frame a dynamic core dedicated to creativity, learning, and social interaction. Composed of two slender residential towers connected by a helistop, the 10-storey square frame encloses a central open volume to create a flexible outdoor “room”.

A sculpted form housing classrooms and administrative offices weaves through the void, defining multi-level terraces and active interstitial spaces that foster informal social activity and creative cross-pollination. Looking out onto the multi-level terrace, exterior corridors to student suites and common rooms are shaded by an undulating, textured metal scrim spanning the full height of the towers’ interior face.

Looking to the local context, the centre finds a provocative precedent in the interiority of Hollywood film studios, where outwardly regular facades house flexible, fantastical spaces within. With rigging for screens, media connections, sound, and lighting incorporated into the facade’s metal framework, this dynamic visual backdrop also serves as a flexible armature for outdoor performances. The entire building becomes a stage set for student films, screenings, and industry events, with the Hollywood sign, the city of Los Angeles, and the Pacific Ocean in the distance providing added scenery.

Anticipated to achieve a LEED Gold rating, the new centre champions Emerson’s commitment to both sustainable design and community responsibility. Wrapping the building’s northwest corner, a green wall underscores the towers’ actively changing exterior skin. Connected to weather stations that track the local climate, temperature, and sun angle, the automated sunshade system opens and closes horizontal fins outside the high-performance glass curtain-wall to minimise heat gain while maximising daylight and views. Further green initiatives include the use of recycled and rapidly renewable building materials, installation of efficient fixtures to reduce water use by 40%, energy savings in heating and cooling through a passive valence system, and a building management and commissioning infrastructure to monitor and optimise efficiency of all systems.

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curvy classrooms within a hollow frame appeared first on Dezeen.