Fashion designer Christopher Kane’s Autumn Winter 2014 collection shown at London Fashion Week features outlined layers of fabric that overlap like fluttering sheets of paper.
London-based designer Christopher Kane used multiple sections of translucent silk to create patterns on dresses in his latest collection.
Black fabric was outlined with white stitching and vice versa, while a peach-coloured cloth was also defined by black edges.
The outlines created ripples across the outfits when layers flapped as models walked down the runway.
This effect was applied to thigh-length dresses with various shoulder straps and necklines.
A grey top with triangular black pieces that rippled across the front was paired with a skirt with light grey layers that splayed from one hip.
In a rectangle-shaped design, a black sheet covered white pieces that resembled pages of a book.
The collection also included dresses with ribbon-like sleeves that folded back and forth down the arms.
Kane graduated from London’s Central Saint Martins in 2006 and his eponymous label is now owned by French company Kering.
He presented the collection yesterday as part of London Fashion Week, which wraps up today.
Prizes include an invitation to the exclusive gala night in Italy, a copy of a yearbook that features all winning projects and a 3D-printed metal trophy.
Eva Tea Set by Maia Ming Fong
Selected winners will be published on Dezeen in April, with a link to the full list of successful projects. Images in this post show previous winning projects.
There are only ten days left to take part in the A’ Design Award and Competition. Industrial Design, Spatial Design, Service Design, Communication Design and Interaction Design entries are now being accepted for the Annual Juried International A’ Design Award & Competition till February 28, 2014.
The Ring by Marwan Zgheib
A’ Design Award and Competition is one of the world’s most diffused and prestigious international juried design competition where entries are peer-reviewed and blind-voted by an international 50-person experienced jury panel of outstanding scholars, established professionals and influential press members.
The A’ Design Accolades are organised in a wide range of creative fields to highlight the very best designers, architects and companies from all countries in all disciplines. A’ Design Award and Competition promises fame, prestige, publicity and international recognition to all A’ Design Award Winners through the A’ Design Prize which is given to celebrate the awarded designs.
The Ring by Marwan Zgheib
The A’ Design Prize is a coveted and comprehensive winners’ kit for awarded designs. A’ Design Prize includes but not limited to: international design excellence certificate in metal frame, invitation to the exclusive gala-night in Italy, online and offline exhibition of awarded projects, A2 poster of awarded projects, hardcover printed best projects yearbook publication, special 3D-printed metal award trophy in luxury black box, project translation to 20-plus languages in order to truly reach international audiences, an exclusive interview with the winner, press release preparation and distribution, license to use A’ Design Award Winner Logo in your communication, promotion of awarded works to thousands of other publications, media appearances through our press partners, inclusion in World Design Rankings as well as access to further marketing and PR tools.
Since 2009, the competition attracted over 30,000 Participants from 150 Countries. Last year, the A’ Design Accolades awarded entries from 70 Countries and hosted 400 guests (Designers, Press Members, as well as Ambassadors and Consul Generals of five countries) in their Gala-Night in Italy.
Town calendar 2014 by Katsumi Tamura
Not only established architects, professional designers and famous companies but also world’s top brands were successfully highlighted in the accolades, and the A’ Design Award Winner Logo reached more than a billion impressions worldwide thanks to appearances in national televisions, newspapers, traditional and digital publications. World Design Rankings, published by A’ Design Award & Competition, has become a resource for academics and media members to discuss creative developments in countries.
Every year, thousands of projects that focus on innovation, technology, design and creativity are awarded with the A’ Design Award. Entries are accepted annually till 28 February 2014 and results are announced every year on April 15. Designers, creative agencies, product manufacturers, architects and real estate developers worldwide are called to take part in the accolades by entering their best works, projects and products. Entries are accepted as long as they were designed in the last 10 years.
A’ Design Award & Competition is especially calling Dezeen readers to submit their Spatial Designs ie Interior Designs, Architectural Projects, Building Designs, Landscape Designs, Lighting Projects and Urban Designs. In addition to the Spatial Design Categories, furniture designs, decorative items, and interior design objects including lighting products are welcome to participate. Selected winners will be published on Dezeen together with a link to other winners on 15 April 2014.
News: construction is set to begin later this year on a new six-storey home for Mexican design and architecture gallery Archivo, designed by emerging studio Zeller & Moye and overseen by Mexican architect and gallery founder Fernando Romero.
Conceived as a “raw exoskeleton” of splayed concrete floorplates, the new gallery in Mexico City will provide extensive exhibition and events space for Archivo, which was launched two years ago by FR-EE principal Fernando Romero to promote industrial design from the twentieth century up to the present.
Zeller & Moye planned the building as a stack of irregular floors that will project in different directions, creating a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces amongst the surrounding jungle-like greenery.
Staircases will spiral around the perimeter of the floors, connecting the various balconies and terraces, while transparent glass walls will be set back from the facade to enclose the spine of the structure.
“Our design for Archivo represents a new building typology in Mexico City,” said Christoph Zeller and Ingrid Moye, whose practice is based in both Mexico City and Berlin.
They continued: “The vertically stacked open floors full of life and activity connect the building with its surroundings, thereby challenging the trend for enclosed facades and stimulating an upcoming neighbourhood through culture and design.”
The new building will accommodate galleries for both permanent collections and temporary exhibitions, as well as a section dedicated to the history of Mexico City, a library, a restaurant and bar, and a number of workshop and events rooms.
Romero explained: “We are aiming to create the premier forum for contemporary design in Latin America, giving voice to young designers, creating dialogue and awareness about architecture and design in the region.”
“Building upon how we approach projects at FR-EE and in Archivo’s collaborative spirit, I wanted the new building to be designed in collaboration with other architects to create the ultimate platform and infrastructure around the collection’s activities,” he added.
Archivo will relocate to the new building from a space it has outgrown at the former home and studio of celebrated architect Luis Barragan.
“After two years, the thought of a new ground-up facility in which to create and design new shows is thrilling,” said gallery director Regina Pozo.
Green spaces surrounding the building will be open to the local community and are expected to be used for activities such as dance classes and urban gardening.
Here’s a project description from the design team:
Archivo by Zeller & Moye in collaboration with FR-EE
‘Archivo’ is a new space for Mexico City offering an exciting mixture of manifold programs, that aims to further enrich the cultural and social life of the metropolis.
Located in the heart of Mexico City, the new cultural hub is comprised of spaces for temporary exhibitions and a permanent collection of design pieces as well as room for educational and communal activities, social events and commercial use. ‘Archivo’ will attract both locals and first-time visitors, and will thus bring new life and regenerative energy into an undiscovered part of central Mexico City.
The building is designed as a raw exoskeleton that opens up to the surrounding jungle-like greenery. Like a tree, the open structure consists of vertical spines and floor plates that branch out horizontally to offer terraces at different levels with views into the green as well as over the city. Its six floors, orientated according to the irregular city grid, can be explored via a generous spiralled route that wraps along the building’s perimeter and meanders up through various functions at each level. Each function is partially located inside, with a portion situated on covered terraces in an unusual semi-open condition benefitting from Mexico’s year-long moderate climate.
Large open stairs connect the terraces, creating a continuous open territory that can be programmed and appropriated by its users as a stage, exhibition display, for social events or to meet and socialise. These activities animate the elevations of the building, clearly visible from the street, and from the inside of the park. The pure structure is completed by glazed facades set back from the slab edge to provide shade and privacy, whilst the more public functions occur along the active edges. A truly transparent and lively building is achieved that emanates outwards to the surrounding city.
‘Archivo diseño y arquitectura’ is an exclusive and vast collection of design items that will be displayed in open galleries enclosed only by glass in clear opposition to the traditional walled exhibition space. This open condition allows visitors to enjoy views into the exhibition areas both at a distance when approaching the building as well as when passing by more closely on the vertical public route. As the final destination point, a new “City Floor” is located on the building’s top level with a publicly accessible exhibition about the history and future of Mexico City against the backdrop of magnificent skyline views.
A wide spectrum of communal life forms an integral part of the project. Inside the green park-like terrain and immediately adjacent to the building, new multi-functional spaces for workshops, dance classes and socialising, as well as outdoor areas for urban gardening, serve as new destinations for the local community.
Project type: Open archive of a design collection and spaces for cultural programs Project name: Archivo Location: Mexico City Architects: Zeller & Moye: Christoph Zeller, Ingrid Moye, Directors Team: Omar G. Muñoz, Marielle Rivero Collaborators: FR-EE: Fernando Romero, Director Program: Permanent & temporary exhibition spaces, library, multi-use space, workshops, commerce and offices Status: In development Size (m2 and ft2): 3,000 m2 / 32,300 ft2 Date: 2013 – 2016 Cost: USD $4,000,000
Opinion: fiction is essential reading for architects because it explores ideas about homes and buildings that are “normally repressed,” argues Sam Jacob in this latest column.
I’m working my way through three stories put together by Will Wiles for a Book Club at the Architectural Association. Titled Malign Interiors, the series looks at fiction and architecture, specifically stories whose protagonists are variously assailed and tormented by architecture. Wiles is author of the novels Care of Wooden Floors and The Way Inn (to be published this June) as well as an architecture and design critic – so positioned between the very real world of designed things and the imaginative world of fiction.
Wiles’ list is short and the stories are pretty short themselves – short enough even for notoriously bibliophobe architects and designers – and I’d recommend all three stories as texts that talk directly to architectural issues, as well as damn fine books on their own. First is The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1899), then H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dreams in the Witch House (1933) and finally Wiles’s own Care of Wooden Floors (2012).
Literature and design don’t often cross paths. For reasons buried deep in the mists of time, we conceive of and use these forms of cultural product for entirely different ends. In broad strokes (and in Anglo Saxon culture at least) architecture and design deal with the exterior world, while fiction deals with our interiority.
Architecture and design – the realm of physical stuff – is conceived as a matter of either practicality or taste. That is to say it’s underwritten by the deep cultural bedrock of either engineering or class.
Objects and things – spaces even more so – are described as though they have little or no psychological depth. Think of the language used as evidence of a kind of impenetrable surface presentation. Words like elegant, vibrant or iconic give a hint of design’s limited awareness of its own psychological hinterland, or perhaps its ability to repress more troubling sensations.
In fiction however, things, places and buildings often act not only as settings but as metaphors, narratives and character. Think of Manderley in Rebecca or Satis House, Miss Havisham’s dilapidated home in Great Expectations. Or, as Wiles has asked us to do, about the role of the interior in The Yellow Wallpaper, Dreams In The Witch House, and his own novel Care of Wooden Floors.
In all these examples and many more, architecture takes on a psychic interiority absent from its professional incarnation. It becomes a place we construct of multiple and simultaneous meanings, possibilities, effects and roles. As Wiles’ selection explicitly notes, these meanings and roles are often disquieting, unsettling and horrific. Especially when they deal with the idea of home.
Home is the one place that should be safe and secure. It’s a place bound up with our own status, identity and sense of belonging, but domestic space also contains the flip side of these ideals. Darker things, more mysterious. Things that creep up on you, things that torment you, things that won’t let you escape. Alongside every dream home is its nightmare twin.
Fiction gives us the space and words to describe these sensations that the real world denies us. It provides a way to safely explore feelings and ideas connected to home that are normally repressed. Forces of economics, the media or the social pressure to conform all discipline our psychological relationship to our homes. Daily Mail “dream cottage giveaways”, Grand Designs‘ individualist fantasies, the status envy of Keeping Up Appearances, the responsibility of mortgage repayments and the fluctuations in house prices that turn our homes into financial instruments are all ways our own private individual ideas of home are repressed and controlled. Under these kinds of pressure, it’s no wonder that our homes can also become places of tremendous psychological disturbance.
Haunted houses may be entirely fictional but they describe something very real. That’s because for all the ghosts and ghouls they imagine, they are actually stories about the very real spectres of our own hopes and fears wailing in the night. That’s why stories like the ones Wiles has put together should be on every architect’s bookcase, somewhere between the Metric Handbook and the Building Regulations.
Large glowing letters spell out the Portuguese Spanish word for tea at the front of this tea house in Brazil by architects Estudio 30 51, the third cafe we’ve featured in the last seven days (+ slideshow).
Estudio 30 51 designed El Té for the ground floor of a shopping centre in Porto Alegre and installed the two huge wooden letters across the shopfront so that they frame the cafe’s entrance and serving counter.
“The fronts of the letters are backlit so at night time they work like urban lanterns illuminating the front of the store,” architect Gustavo Sbardelotto told Dezeen.
The colourful packaging of the teas provided the starting point for the shop’s interior design and create a rainbow effect along the edge of the glass-topped serving counter.
A range of 30 different teas are displayed across the sections and customers are invited to to sample and smell different types.
The rest of the space is lined with wooden panels to allow these colours to stand out. This includes the base of the counter, walls, doors and shelving.
White tables and simple wooden chairs fill the space, sitting over a floor of square paving stones.
More chairs and tables are located upstairs, or customers can choose to sit on outdoor furniture in front of the entrance.
Located in one of the most important commercial galleries in the city of Porto Alegre, El té – Casa de chás (tea house) focuses on the sale of teas and everything that involves the product.
The project concept was born from the immersion in the world of teas. All its colours, textures and aromas were the starting point for creating this environment. Wood was elected as the primary materiality of the project , acting as a neutral base where the colourful herbs are the highlight.
Due to the shop window be visually obstructed by the wall of the shop next door and be quite far from the sidewalk, the store needed a visual attraction that arouse the interest of those who passed through there. For that reason it was sought a synergy between the element of visual communication and architecture.
From the graphical representation of the words “El TE” chosen as store name, and that literally means “The Tea”, it was developed a pictogram identification of the tea house that is both visual communication and the main piece of furniture – this goes beyond the scale of a usual sign composing the facade and interior design of the shop.
On the face of “TÉ”, facing the street it was implemented a backlight that functions as an urban lantern, an exciting surprise to those who pass by the store by night. The depth of the letter “E” on the facade extends beyond the outer limit, penetrating inside the store and acts as the main design element. This element home the showcase of teas, infusions preparation desk and cashier.
The samples of 30 variations of teas are arranged in small drawers so that clients can smell the product before they decide which one they want to buy. The 30 variations of the infusions are indicated by different colours beneath each small drawer, which facilitates the identification of each tea by customers and creates a colourful scheme.
Architects: Gustavo Sbardelotto (estudio 30 51) e Mariana Bogarin Location: Porto Alegre – Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil Project Year: 2012 Area: 63,00 sqm
An orange staircase zigzags back and forth across the atrium of this science faculty building that Canadian firm Saucier + Perrotte Architectes has completed for a Quebec college (+ slideshow).
The angular staircase connects all six storeys of the Anne-Marie Edward Science Building, which was designed by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes at the heart of the John Abbott College campus near Montreal.
The building has a folded form that angles around an existing ginkgo tree. The main entrance is positioned inside the fold, while a diamond-shaped space at the rear accommodates the atrium and staircase.
The architects compare the staircase with the gingko, describing it as an “architectonic tree” that connects the departments of each floor, comprising physics, biology, chemistry, nursing, prehospital emergency care and biopharmaceuticals.
“The landscape flows into the foyer, becoming an interior topography, which transforms at the fulcrum of the building into a light-filled, vertical circulation space connecting the sciences,” they said.
The vibrant orange provides the only colour in an otherwise monochrome interior. Ground-floor seating areas are finished in the same colour, while a weathered steel facade at the northern end of the building echoes similar tones.
“The grand staircase and seating elements comprising the interior ‘tree’ weave these orange hues throughout the building, just as the weathered steel of the north facade and the ruddy masonry courtyard surfaces relate back to the historic campus tiles and brick,” said the architects.
Other facades are glazed with varying transparency, revealing the staircase to the rest of the campus whilst maintaining the privacy of the laboratories.
Here’s a more comprehensive description of the building from Saucier + Perrotte Architectes:
Anne-Marie Edward Science Building at John Abbott College
Located on a campus designed along Lac St-Louis in the first decade of the twentieth century, John Abbott College is home to more than 5000 post-secondary students, faculty and staff members. Its new Science Building, designed by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes, is a state-of-the-art facility intended to foster the interdisciplinary nature of science, collaborative study and experiments, and the need for formal and informal learning. Designed as a showcase for sustainability, the singular, iconic form promotes a variety of pedagogical approaches through flexible classrooms, laboratories, learning centres, and informal spaces where ideas can be exchanged and creative interaction can unfold.
The new building houses the College’s sciences – Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Nursing, Prehospital Emergency Care, (Paramedic), and Biopharmaceutical departments – positioning the sciences and health technologies at the heart of the John Abbott campus. Sited carefully to preserve the logic of the radial organisation that drove the initial campus planning, the new architecture becomes a node of activity on the campus.
The architecture stems from the landscape, taking cues from its context. On the site is a majestic gingko tree that was envisioned as a centrepiece for a beautiful, collegial, outdoor gathering space. The building’s form first extends from the campus centre, then folds to frame a public courtyard around this tree. The landscape flows into the foyer, becoming an interior topography, which transforms at the fulcrum of the building into a light-filled, vertical circulation space connecting the sciences. An architectonic tree, analogous to that of the adjacent gingko, this atrium space contains the grand staircase and branches that extend through the building as built-in way-finding elements and benches. The vertical link thus becomes a public interior garden, emphasising the connection between the natural environment and the type of learning that takes place within the building.
The permeable ground floor of the building permits the landscape and users to flow into and through it with ease. The project thereby functions as a hub and a passage to various parts of campus. The volume above frames views to the lake, landscape, and the town of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. Together with the labs and student spaces along the east and west facades, the learning centres situated along the south facade – directed toward the centre of campus – give students a feeling of inhabiting a virtual balcony overlooking the verdure and lake below.
The building is composed of a glass material palette – vividly reflecting the sky, landscape, and adjacent historic buildings – its angled surfaces giving new, unexpected perspectives toward various parts of the campus. Each of the long facades is predominantly composed of a single glass tone of opalescent white, light grey, or dark grey. The result is a subtle, perceptual play between the hues of the juxtaposed facades, especially as the sunlight changes throughout the day or depending where one is standing in relation to the building. The slight shifts in glass tones add to a heightened perception of the architecture; under varying lighting and shadow conditions, for instance, the facade contrasts may be accentuated or, conversely, take on a uniform tonal appearance that would be impossible if the surfaces had been the same hue.
In certain circulation zones, the building skin gradually changes from translucent to transparent, allowing the building to be perceived as continuously changing – even dematerialising – within the campus. Programmatic functions (offices, learning centres and laboratories) are given clear expression as they come into contact with the building skin so that those outside can readily identify the functions showcasing the sciences. The north and south facades of the pristine glazed form appear suddenly sliced or truncated, given over to the elements, and weathered so as to evoke the colours and textures found throughout the college. The grand staircase and seating elements comprising the interior “tree” also weave these orange hues throughout the building, just as the weathered steel of the north facade and the ruddy masonry courtyard surfaces relate back to the historic campus tiles and brick. Through its dialectic with the existing architecture, the new project is both contemporary in form and harmonious with the historic campus.
Main floor levels contain individual departments to preserve continuity between professors, classrooms and laboratories for each science, favouring work, study and quiet contemplation. The central atrium space allows easy access to other levels, fostering connection, communication, and sense of community between disciplines. Movement converges at this central node of the building, which becomes an active zone throughout the day, allowing for spontaneous exchange of ideas. Exhibitions and activities take place in the foyer, permitting students and visitors to derive benefits and inspiration from cross-disciplinary ideas.
The building has been conceived with the welfare of its occupants in mind (it is currently targeting LEED Gold certification). The first priority was to provide an environment that supports active and engaged learners and nourishes enthusiasm for life-long learning. To contribute to the healthiest environment possible, important factors such as indoor air quality and levels of noise are controlled. Natural light and natural ventilation play a vital role in the life of the building, being present throughout. Furthermore, as the building privileges views outward, occupants will remain in contact with the exterior campus landscape. The central atrium space allows natural air circulation as well as the exhausting of air at the roof level. Operable and user controlled office windows also promote a healthful environment. The building takes advantage of geothermal energy – one of its signature features – to provide heating and cooling for the building, thereby reducing energy consumption, and therefore cost, over the long term.
The floors of this open-plan apartment in London by local studio Form Design Architecture are covered with timber boards salvaged from an old Welsh chapel (+ slideshow).
Named Bermondsey Warehouse Loft, the residence is located within an industrial building that was once used as a tin and zinc factory, but now houses offices and apartments.
Form Design Architecture, whose own offices are located on the building’s ground floor, was originally asked to make minor alterations to the apartment, but ended up refitting the entire space and creating a living space based on a New York loft-conversion.
As well as the pine floorboards, the interior features exposed brick walls that have been painted white.
“Having previously lived in New York, [the client] was keen for the apartment to feel more like a warehouse loft reflecting the industrial character and scale of the space,” said architect Mike Neale.
Existing partitions were removed and the space was loosely divided into different areas for sleeping, exercising, eating, relaxing and working, each with adjustable lighting.
An island of cupboards and surfaces forms the kitchen, while a sleeping area is concealed behind a sliding door.
“The client is actually someone who likes things to be quite organised, and we spent quite a lot of time with him to really work out how he would use the space, without actually physically dividing it up,” Neale told Dezeen. “Perhaps ‘zones without walls’ would describe it.”
“Obviously some of these elements are fixed, like the kitchen and the long desk across the end, but the remainder is intended to be flexible and adaptable,” Neale added.
Photography is by Charles Hosea, unless otherwise stated.
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Bermondsey warehouse loft
Fully reconfigured open-plan loft apartment within a converted warehouse with flexible zones for dining, relaxing and exercise plus washing/dressing/utility spaces concealed within a ‘floating’ white acrylic solid surface-clad block.
Our client initially approached us to carry out some minor alterations to his apartment to better meet his needs. In discussion with him, the conclusion was reached that, having already had the apartment refitted once which did not work for him, the existing fit-out should be completely stripped out and a more radical approach adopted.
Detailed discussions established how the client wanted to use the space and identified elements of the original fit-out that were not needed, such as a second bedroom and bathroom, allowing a more relaxed, flexible live/work environment tailored specifically to his requirements.
Photograph by Mike Neale
Having previously lived in New York, he was keen for the apartment to feel more like a warehouse loft reflecting the industrial character and scale of the space, which the previous 2 fit-outs had lost beneath raised floors, lowered ceilings and partition walls.
Storage, bathroom and utility functions are contained within a sharply-detailed block which appears to be ‘parked’ in the corner of the now fully revealed 17m x 6m Loft. A similarly detailed linear counter block, supplemented by the adjacent fridge/freezer and ‘coffee larder’ concealed in the end of the main block, provides the cooking area.
Our client says that he sometimes wakes up in the morning and still cannot quite believe that he is living in his ideal apartment. On Open House weekend, having initially intended to go out for the day, he delighted so much in the reactions of visitors upon entering that he found himself enthusiastically explaining the apartment’s features.
Photograph is by Mike Neale
With the exception of the unfinished Pitch Pine plank floor (not actually original, having been salvaged from a Welsh Chapel, but the type of flooring that the warehouse would originally have had), all surfaces and fittings including exposed brickwork are finished in white; the crisp machine-made quality of the HiMacs solid acrylic finished kitchen and service blocks setting them apart from the more hand-made and time-weathered surface textures of the original Industrial building.
Surface finishes within the service block are all in dark grey, accenting the idea of a fruit or jewel-case-like object with a smooth exterior skin contrasting with a darker, more sensual core. Removal of previous sub-divisions allows shafts of sunlight from the newly-exposed windows in the South and West walls to animate the space to supplement the softer light from the almost fully glazed North wall which faces the courtyard of the building.
At one end of the open Loft, a concealed sliding wall allows the sleeping area to be fully enclosed if required. At the other, a full width desk and shelf, also finished in white HiMacs, provide a work area for the photographer owner. The problem of trailing cables is removed by a continuous cable tray along the back of the desk, covered by lift up flaps.
Programmable latest-technology low energy LED lighting from Zumtobel and AlphaLED, controlled by a Lutron system, allows different settings for a range of activities (work / gym / cleaning / watching TV) at the touch of a button.
Project Team: Malcolm Crayton (director, FORM design architecture), Mike Neale (project architect, FORM design architecture)
Israeli ceramicist Michal Fargo produces these vases by ripping blocks of spongy foam into rough shapes before dipping them in porcelain and firing them (+ slideshow).
Vase from the original Else collection
Michal Fargo developed the unusual technique used to make her Else collection as a way of avoiding parting lines and pouring points that determine the conventional ceramic casting process.
Vase from the original Else collection
“The idea was to create different surfaces in ceramics, to find something interesting and diverse and in some ways more authentic,” said Fargo in a video about the project.
Detail of vase from the original Else collection
The Rock vases, which form part of the Naturelike collection developed for Spanish limited edition brand PCM, are made by tearing chunks from foam blocks until they take on the shape of vessels with a random natural appearance on their internal and external surfaces.
Else Rock Vases from the Naturelike collection
After dipping them in liquid porcelain with a coloured stain, the vases are fired in an outdoor kiln to harden the material while retaining the porous surface detail of the foam.
Foam shapes used to create the Else collection. Photograph by Sasha Flit.
“I was really bored with mould-making and having all these clear, smooth surfaces so I started sculpting in sponge and then just dipping it and firing it,” explained Fargo. “Afterwards I started trying to do some other things like casting into sponge blocks.”
Else Moss Vases from the Naturelike collection
Other pieces in the Naturelike collection are produced using rubber moulds cast inside rough foam shapes. Resin poured into the moulds preserves the bubbly texture of the foam as it sets.
Else Coral Vases from the Naturelike collection
The resin is coloured to give the Coral vases their distinct bright-red hue, and the Moss pieces their subtle green shade.
Vase from the original Else collection
As well as her hands, Fargo uses a small saw and a Japanese knife to carve out organic shapes with different textural surfaces.
Vase from the original Else collection
The Rock vases and centrepiece bowl have been produced as one-offs as the foam shapes used to create them are destroyed during the firing process, while the Coral and Moss designs are made in limited editions.
These asymmetric holiday homes with vivid yellow walls were designed by Korean office Studio Koossino to accommodate visitors travelling to a botanic garden outside Seoul (+ slideshow).
Studio Koossino‘s architects say they were influenced by the historic stone Moai statues of Easter Island in Chile when developing the design for the six vacation residences, which are located on a gentle hillside in Gapyeong County.
Like the statues, the Moai Pension buildings each have the same shape – a top-heavy volume with a concrete base and a faceted upper section. They are also lined up alongside one another so that each appears to be facing in the same direction.
“Various sizes of Moai have similar shapes,” architect Jae Hwan Lee told Dezeen. “This project has arranged similar mass on an inclined plane, creating a sense of place by emphasising repeating images.”
Bright yellow panels clad the cantilevered upper floors of each building so that they stand out against the green landscape, which the architect says makes them “a milestone” for tourists on their way to the Garden of Morning Calm arboretum.
The colour reappears inside the homes, where doors, staircases and furniture are picked out in yellow to stand out against the white and grey tones of the walls, lighting fixtures and upholstery.
Each residence contains a kitchen on its lower level, leading out to a small patio and pool, while bedrooms and bathrooms are located on the top floors and feature sheltered balconies.
Studio Koossino also designed a single-storey stucture at the base of the site, which facilitates reception areas, a cafe and a rooftop swimming pool.
Photography is by Jae Seong Lee.
Here’s a project description from Studio Koossino:
Sketch of MOAI Architecture
The 6000m2 site has a 10m slope. In order to make active use of the inclined plane, a horizontal mass was inserted in the core. The horizontal mass consisting of a gallery café and a pool at the upper part serves as a stylobate for the cutting area.
An atypical mass of six buildings was put on the stylobate linked to the gentle slope. The atypical mass with a motif of mysterious stone statues, Moai in Chilean Easter Island is remembered as a milestone of Mother Nature.
The outer surface was painted in yellow with a stark contrast to the natural colour while the inner atypical space was painted in homogeneous white to maximise the diffusion of light.
The light that comes through the scuttle and the side slit window induces the volume of the space in various ways. The ground floor consisted of an open deck, a stand-alone swimming pool and a kitchen. The extended upper floor linked bathroom and bedroom so as to allow a visitor to look at the surrounding landscape.
The space of Moai is a place to confess, which feels calm. It has a spacious ground in which people can assimilate with nature and walk along the light and sound of the universe and surrounding landscape.
The Moai, located in Gapyeong, an hour and a half away from Seoul, provides workers running urban life with an opportunity to take a rest in the bosom of nature.
The Moai is perceived as a milestone by people headed for the Arboretum and remains as a memorable object. The mass of the Moai located changing its course little by little along the gentle slope is emphasised as a consistent form. It sends a more obvious message by repeating a mono-typical shape rather than a dispersed image of various planes or forms.
Architect: Seung Min Koo Project team: studio KOOSSINO Site area: 3258.00 sqm Building area: 594.49 sqm Gross floor area: 559.05 sqm Building coverage ratio: 20.00% Building scope: 1-6dong – 2-storey building/ 7dong – 1-storey building Structure: reinforced concrete
Site planGround floor planFirst floor planRoof planLong sectionCross section
Stockholm 2014: Swedish design studio Front has launched a modular storage system called Tetris that’s made up of stacked blocks (+ slideshow).
The product is named after the puzzle video game where the aim is to rotate and shift falling blocks of different shapes and sizes so they slot together.
Front‘s system for Swedish brand Horreds can be layered in different configurations to allow the user to create their own piece of furniture.
The modules are available in two different sizes, one square and one rectangular, of varying depths. They can be wall-mounted or piled on top of each other in any quantity and orientation to form furniture or room dividers.
By leaving the block as an open box it becomes a bookcase, glass doors create a display cabinet or solid doors create a cupboard.
“Everything from large, convenient devices for the office to small and fun furniture for your home can be created,” said Front. “You just have to mix and build!”
The customer can choose materials such as wood, felt, copper, leather, brass and steel. Each block can be a different material and colour or the whole can be coordinated.
Details such as steel legs and leather handles can be added to further personalise the design.
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