The first Dezeen Mail of 2014 features Norman Foster’s “cycling utopia” and furniture that looks like line drawings (pictured), plus all the latest news, jobs and reader comments from Dezeen.
Read Dezeen Mail issue 184 | Subscribe to Dezeen Mail
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East London design brand Hulger has launched a second design for its award-winning Plumen low-energy lightbulbs.
The Plumen 002 produces a softer light than the original design that’s more suited to ambient lighting.
Like the original Plumen design, which won Design of the Year when it launched three years ago, the new product is a compact fluorescent bulb that replaces the usual prongs and whirls of a standard energy efficient bulb with a sculptural shape that means it looks attractive in light fittings where the naked bulb is left on display.
Whereas the first Plumen bulb was created by drawing with looping tubes of glass, this new design involved shaping the form of the fluorescent tube itself.
The sculpted tube takes on the profile of a traditional light bulb from some angles but the form has been cut away and pierced to leave swooping curves, straight edges when viewed from the side and a oblong void in the middle.
“The geometry of the Plumen 002 creates interesting resonances in the square and oblong spaces they will usually inhabit,” said Hulger founder, creative director and designer Nicolas Roope. “The effect is particularly strong when used in series and when played off against walls and surfaces.”
The concept was to blow the glass tube like a bottle, which still maintaing the loop required for the technology to function. “This approach hadn’t been done in any mainstream bulbs before, but the team believed it was plausible,” said the designers, who enlisted the help of Texan neon sculptor Tony Greer to advise on the different lighting effects and intensities that various shapes would achieve.
“We looked for the right balance between an integrated and disintegrated construction, between organic and geometric form, something that would present a certain dynamic while remaining gentle,” said designer Bertrand Clerc.
“The work of modern sculptor Barbara Hepworth really helped us in creating an interesting relation between this hollow space and the surface of the outer body,” he added. “The transfer between these two elements also establishes an elegant connection between the rather contemporary inner silhouette, and the more traditional appearance of the outer silhouette.”
The new design is a 7W bulb giving off the equivalent of a 30W incandescent light source and the low brightness means it doesn’t need shading.
The company has launched the Plumen 002 design on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter today in the hope that its community of supporters who rallied round the original design will help to put the new bulb into production.
They also hinted that an LED Plumen bulb could be on the way.
Hulger created its first series of sculptural low-energy bulb prototypes in 2007, coinciding with the phasing out of inefficient incandescent light bulbs and aiming to reinvent the ugly compact fluorescent lamps as a beautiful product.
The Plumen 001 bulb designed by Samuel Wilkinson was released in 2010 and hailed as the world’s first low-energy designer light bulb, winning the Design of the Year award in 2011. It uses 80 percent less energy than a traditional bulb and lasts up to eight times longer.
A smaller version called the Baby Plumen was launched during the London Design Festival 2012.
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designer low-energy light bulb appeared first on Dezeen.
News: following the announcement last month that London architecture studio FAT is to disband this year, founding member Sean Griffiths has been appointed professor of Architecture at the University of Westminster.
Griffiths is an alumnus of the University of Westminster and has recently held posts there as a teacher and researcher at the Department of Architecture.
“In my new role I want to highlight alternative forms of practice, exemplified by firms such as FAT, which emerged from the University of Westminster, as well as draw attention to the huge variety of activities in fields such as fine art, journalism, property development, social activism and arts consultancy that a number of prominent former students currently undertake,” said Griffiths. “This is particularly important in light of the ongoing debate about the value of architectural education.”
“I’m particularly pleased that the Professorship is at the University of Westminster, which was the springboard for the formation of FAT and has been a fantastic workshop for ideas that have found their way into my practice work, a process that will no doubt continue,” he added.
Alongside his position at University of Westminster, Griffiths will continue his current work as an architect, designer, artist, writer and teacher.
The appointment follows the news that London studio FAT, which Griffiths co-founded in 1995 with Charles Holland and Sam Jacob, will close down this summer.
Renowned for its playful, postmodern approach to architecture, FAT announced in December that it would disband following the completion of two major projects – the curation of the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2014 and a fairytale house it designed in collaboration with artist Grayson Perry for the Living Architecture series of holiday homes.
Photograph by Tim Soar.
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Sean Griffiths as Professor of Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.
News: the Williams and Tsien-designed former American Folk Art Museum in New York will be demolished just 13 years after it was built to make room for an extension to the neighbouring Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), despite an outcry from architects, conservationists and critics.
In a statement last night, MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry said the museum will move forward with designs by Diller Scofidio + Renfro to extend its existing building over the site of the former folk art museum designed by American architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien and completed in 2001.
The decision follows a six-month study that investigated options for its retention. “The plans approved today are the result of a recommendation from the architects after a diligent and thoughtful six-month study and design process that explored all options for the site,” said Lowry.
“The analysis that we undertook was lengthy and rigorous, and ultimately led us to the determination that creating a new building on the site of the former American Folk Art Museum is the only way to achieve a fully integrated campus.”
Williams and Tsien have described the move as “a missed opportunity to find new life and purpose for a building that is meaningful to so many”.
“The Folk Art building was designed to respond to the fabric of the neighbourhood and create a building that felt both appropriate and yet also extraordinary,” they said.
“Demolishing this human-scaled, uniquely crafted building is a loss to the city of New York in terms of respecting the size, diversity and texture of buildings in a midtown neighbourhood that is at risk of becoming increasingly homogenised.”
The bronze-clad museum first opened its doors in 2001 to exhibit a collection of paintings, sculptures and crafts by self-taught and outsider artists, but relocated to a smaller site on Lincoln Square, further north in Manhattan, after the building was sold to MoMA in 2011 to pay off a $32 million loan.
However, Williams and Tsien believe the building already holds a “powerful architectural legacy”.
“The inability to experience the building firsthand and to appreciate its meaning from an historical perspective will be profoundly felt,” they said.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro‘s expansion will add approximately 3700 square metres (40,000 square feet) of new galleries and public spaces to the museum.
It will extend across two sites west of the museum’s midtown Manhattan building, including both the folk art museum site at 45 West 53rd Street and three floors of a new residential tower underway next door, allowing the existing lobby and ground-floor areas to be transformed into a large public space.
Scroll down for the full statement from Glenn D. Lowry:
Message from Glenn D. Lowry
Director, The Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art’s Board of Trustees today approved initial details of a major building project that will expand the Museum’s public spaces and galleries to provide greater public accessibility and allow the Museum to reconceive the presentation of its collection and exhibitions. Working with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the renowned interdisciplinary studio based in New York City, the Museum has developed a plan to integrate its current building with two sites to the west of the Museum’s midtown Manhattan campus into which it will expand: three floors of a residential tower being developed by Hines, at 53 West 53rd Street; and the site of the former American Folk Art Museum, at 45 West 53rd Street. The plans include new gallery space on three floors within the tower, and a new building on the site of the former museum.
The plans approved today are the result of a recommendation from the architects after a diligent and thoughtful six-month study and design process that explored all options for the site. The analysis that we undertook was lengthy and rigorous, and ultimately led us to the determination that creating a new building on the site of the former American Folk Art Museum is the only way to achieve a fully integrated campus.
As a major component of the Museum’s desire for greater public access and a more welcoming street presence, the preliminary concepts approved today will transform the current lobby and ground-floor areas into an expansive public gathering space, open to the public and spanning the entire street level of the Museum, including The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. In advance of these plans, the Museum will increase free public access to the Sculpture Garden later this year.
The extension of MoMA’s galleries to the west on its second, fourth, and fifth floors will add a variety of spaces and allow the Museum to present an integrated display of its collection across all disciplines—photography, architecture, design, film, media, prints, drawings, performance, painting, and sculpture. These carefully choreographed sequences will highlight the creative frictions and influences that spring from seeing these mediums together.
The expansion will add approximately 40,000 square feet of new galleries and public areas, providing 30% more space for visitors to view the collection and special exhibitions. The additional space will allow the Museum to show transformative acquisitions that have added new dimensions and voices to its holdings, drawing from entire collections of contemporary drawings, Fluxus, and Conceptual art; the archives of Frank Lloyd Wright; and major recent acquisitions by such artists as Marcel Broodthaers, Lygia Clark, Steve McQueen, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Mira Schendel, Richard Serra, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Cy Twombly, among many others.
Our vision for MoMA’s next phase will be completed over the coming years, and I look forward to updating you on our progress.
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folk art museum says MoMA director appeared first on Dezeen.
Webs of red parachute cables take the place of traditional balustrades between the two levels of this office that architects Joe Fraher and Lizzie Webster have built as an extension of their London home (+ slideshow).
Named The Green Studio, Fraher Architect‘s new two-storey workplace was designed to allow its two directors greater flexibility in balancing a growing workload with raising a young family, and it is located on a compact site in the garden of their two-storey house.
The criss-crossing cables extend from the angular double-height ceiling of a ground-floor workplace to the floor’s edge of a small mezzanine office, creating two colourful nets that the architects say are strong enough to hold a person’s weight.
We wanted to keep visual permeability and wanted something that didn’t feel like a balustrade,” Webster told Dezeen. “You can sit in it to read, and if you fell onto it, it would catch you.”
The architects ensured that gaps between cables are never wider than ten centimetres to minimise the risk that someone might slip through them by accident.
“The form of the cord stretches and bridges to visually emphasise the faceted angles of the studio walls,” added Webster.
A wooden staircase with integrated drawers and cupboards connects the two storeys and was custom-made by the architects’ joinery company Fraher + Co.
Bespoke desks and shelves were built on both floors, creating a pair of desks upstairs for the two directors and four more workspaces on the ground floor. There are also pegboards on the walls to accommodate ad-hoc fixings.
High-performance glazing and thick insulation were added so that the office needs no heating, plus natural ventilation helps to keep the building cool in summer.
The exterior of the extension is clad with stainless steel mesh, while plants and wildflowers grow across the roof.
Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.
Read on for more information from Fraher Architects:
The Green Studio
Sited opposite the Butterfly House, The Studio is a garden based creative home work space for our architectural practice. Situated in the south east of London, the building was driven by the directors need to balance a young family with an increasing workload.
The studio’s shape and orientation has resulted from a detailed sunlight analysis minimising its impact on the surrounding buildings and ensuring high levels of daylight to the garden and work spaces.
The split levels and grounded form helps to conceal its mass and facilitates the flowing groundscape transition between the garden and studio. Clad in a stainless steel mesh, the terraced planter beds and wild flower green roofs will combine to green the facade replacing the lost habitat.
Carefully orientated high performance glazing combined with super insulation and a robust natural ventilation strategy means the building requires no heating or cooling. Hot water for the kitchen and shower are provided by a large solar array and thermal store.
The project was completed in October 2013 and delivered to a tight budget and deadline.
All the joinery was designed, fabricated and installed by the practice’s sister company Fraher + Co.
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at Fraher Architects’ London studio appeared first on Dezeen.
Maritime gas lamps were used as a reference for these pendant lights created by Danish studio Space Copenhagen for design brand &tradition.
To create the Copenhagen Pendant, Space Copenhagen modernised the form of the old lamps once used to illuminate the Danish capital’s piers.
The studio’s design for Danish company &tradition consists of a lacquered metal shade, which is clamped to the cord with four arching plated steel tabs where the curving shape narrows at the top.
“The starting point was to create a design that would allow us to use various metals, but also that the design works from a purely sculptural point of view, with a monochrome finish,” said Space Copenhagen founding partner Peter Bundgaard Rützou. “Depending on the purpose and space it’s used in, the lamp can do both.”
Light is directed downward through a wide hole in the base of the shade.
“The pendant is widest in the middle and narrows at the open top and bottom to ensure that the lamp has a substantial body, while still protecting you from looking directly into the light,” said the studio’s second partner Signe Bindslev Henriksen.
The lamps are available in three sizes and five matte colours. The two smaller designs are made from steel and the larger model is formed from aluminium.
Copenhagen Pendant will be presented at imm Cologne next week, as well as at Maison & Objet in Paris at the end of this month and during Stockholm Design Week in February.
Here’s some more information for the designers:
&tradition launches the Copenhagen Pendant light by Space Copenhagen
In their second collaboration, following the success of the Fly lounge series, &tradition collaborates with Space Copenhagen on a new elegant pendant light.
“We are very pleased to be working with Space Copenhagen again,” says Martin Kornbek Hansen, the Brand Manager of &tradition. “They have an exceptional eye for detail and surface texture, and a unique way of combining the classic with the contemporary.”
An exercise in contrasts, the Copenhagen Pendant combines the classic and the modern, the maritime and the industrial. Its matte lacquered metal lampshade disperses the light in a subtle but spectacular way resembling the classic gaslight feel of the bleak Copenhagen piers.
“Over the years we have made several bespoke light pieces for our interior projects,” says Signe Bindslev Henriksen of Space Copenhagen. “So the biggest challenge in designing the Copenhagen Pendant was to meet our own expectations in making an equally sculptural and functional light.”
Originally, Space Copenhagen designed one version of the pendant, but it expanded into a series of three sizes: 200 millimetres, 350 millimetres and 600 millimetres in diameter, and five matte shades: blush, moss, slate, black and white. “The starting point was to create a design which would allow us to use various metals, but also that the design works from a purely sculptural point of view, with a monochrome finish. Depending on the purpose and space it’s used in, the lamp can do both,” says Space Copenhagen’s other founding partner, Peter Bundgaard Rützou.
The flexibility and attention to detail of the Copenhagen Pendant is a careful consideration inspired by Space Copenhagen’s experience as interior architects. Even the flow of light was carefully planned from the start. “The pendant is widest in the middle and narrows at the open top and bottom to ensure that the lamp has a substantial body, while still protecting you from looking directly into the light,” says Bindslev Henriksen. The downwards light is even and solid, while the subtle uplight is diffused, adding to the atmosphere of the ceiling.
“The Copenhagen Pendant is a perfect example of a classic typology of light reinvented in an innovative and contemporary way, qualities that we value highly at &tradition,” says Kornbek Hansen.
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lamps for &tradition appeared first on Dezeen.
A hotel in Munich is stretched, twisted, distorted and exploded in this series of 88 manipulated photographs by Spanish photographer Victor Enrich (+ movie).
Victor Enrich, who also works as a 3D architectural visualiser, based the entire series of images on one view of the Deutscher Kaiser hotel, a building he passed regularly during a two-month stay in the city.
Some images show parts of the building turned on their sides, while others show sections of it duplicated or sliced away. Some shots show it curving into different shapes and some show it pulled it apart.
Describing the manipulation process, Enrich told Dezeen: “What I basically do is create a 3D virtual environment out of a 2D photograph. The process involves capturing the perspective, then the geometry, then the materials and finally the lighting.”
“The techniques I use are often described as ‘camera matching’ or ‘perspective matching’ and several 3D software packages provide functionalities that allow you to perform this,” he explained, but added that he tends to add do a lot of the work by hand to “reach the level of detail needed to achieve high photorealism”.
“Then is just a matter of time, much time, spent working on it,” he said.
Other images in the series include one where the top of the building is transformed into a floating orb.
There’s also one where the tower features zigzagging walls, and another where the base of the building is missing and the tower is raised up on pilotis.
Enrich previously worked on a similar series of manipulated images, called City Portraits, which adapted images of other buildings in Munich as well as structures in Riga and Tel Aviv.
“The experiment started in 2005 and I’ve done several buildings, all from cities where I’ve stayed for periods longer than a year,” he said.
“If everything goes well, there will be some new works about some American cities during 2014,” he added.
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hotel upside down and inside out appeared first on Dezeen.
Floatation devices, signalling flags and weapons are all incorporated into this apocalypse survival coat by Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Marie-Elsa Batteux Flahault.
Marie-Elsa Batteux Flahault created the On The Edge jacket after speaking to preppers, a group of people equipping themselves in case calamity strikes with little or no warning.
“I was exploring the end-of-the-world fever that expended with the 2012 Mayan prediction,” Batteux Flahault told Dezeen. “While looking into this subject, I discovered the existence of the preppers. I was interested in their approach that is more pragmatic than the religious fanaticism, which is often depicted with this kind of theme.”
She integrated a selection of potentially life-saving features into a pale camouflage jacket that might aid the wearer in the event of catastrophic disaster.
A visor and mask can fold over the face to provide protection for the eyes and respiratory system. Sections around the neck and base of the jacket inflate to create flotation devices.
A blade in the sleeve flicks out for when wearer is in need of a weapon and the hood is covered with diagrams depicting how to use the drawstring to inflict pain or create traps.
Water and food can be hoarded in pockets created in the lining, while bright orange flaps unfurl from zipped pockets at the sides for signalling to attract attention.
Gold-coloured foil unwraps from the hem to cover the legs, providing protection against the cold. Bandages for first aid are also attached to the back.
Batteux Flahault believes that other survival tools could be included in the jacket and that the functional components could be applied to other garments.
“For me the jacket is the image of a movement,” she said. “All kinds of equipment could be featured in the jacket. I chose the jacket to show this principle but the way I see it, it could be applied to a whole range of objects.”
The coat was shown during Dutch Design Week 2013, where other survival garments made from heavy-duty black tarpaulin were also exhibited. The day before the Mayan calendar ended in 2012 we published another fashion collection for surviving the end of the world.
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the end of the world appeared first on Dezeen.
French architect Paul Coudamy has converted this former butcher’s shop in suburban Paris into a private residence and included mysterious figures in the photographs (+ slideshow).
Paul Coudamy renovated the old charcuterie in Bagnolet into a home by adding a spiralling oak staircase and a bookcase with moving sections.
“Renovating professional premises to change them into living accommodation is now a frequent occurrence in Paris and its surrounding suburbs, an exercise in architecture that requires thinking of new concepts of living, interchanging private life and public life,” said the designer.
The Blur home was converted for a motorbike enthusiast, for whom Coudamy created a garage in the previous doorway to store his vehicle.
The designer also installed a tilted mirror above the bookshelf so the owner can keep an eye on his parked bike while relaxing in his armchair.
Sitting and reading areas are located behind the large shop window facing onto the street.
Alternate cubby holes in the wooden bookshelf are fitted with pivoting metal boxes, which can be tucked away to save space or pulled out to create a more interesting display.
The same wood and metal are used for the spiral staircase, which has fan-shaped treads that get smaller towards the top.
This staircase leads up to a bathroom, partitioned with screens covered in a condensation pattern.
Surfaces on the ground floor have been retained from the building’s former use, including wall and floor tiles plus large metal refrigerator doors.
Paul Coudamy has previously used figures in the photoshoots for his projects. He has also included an invisible man and woman in the images of a Paris apartment and a guy wearing a gimp mask at another residence in the French capital.
Photography is by Benjamin Boccas.
Read on for more information from the designer:
Paul Coudamy has transformed a butcher shop in Bagnolet, France, into a private home. Renovating professional premises to change them into living accommodation is now a frequent occurrence in Paris and its surrounding suburbs, an exercise in architecture that requires thinking of new concepts of living, interchanging private life and public life. Blur is therefore a transparent environment made up of spaces that never totally discloses its fragile privacy. It is formed of a continuous succession of concrete and glass symbolising a period that combines work and pleasure in a single movement.
On the ground floor the former boutique fronted by a shop window has been turned into a sitting-room/library with a storefront, directly connected to the specifically created garage: the owner is devoted to his motorbike, it is therefore no surprise that he has placed a mirror above his books to be able to keep an eye on his pride and joy from the comfort of his armchair!
The bookshelves designed by Paul Coudamy are based on a wooden structure into which the architect has fitted pivoting metal boxes. The principle enables greater storage capacity and the façade is permanently redefined as books are sought out. There is a set of suspended boxes levitating between the ground and the ceiling, some inside and some outside.
Metal and wood are repeated for the oak staircase connecting the ground floor and the first floor in an open-sided bespoke spiral, a natural upward surge into space. It forms a beautifully designed raw metal backbone to the building cutting a contrast with the vernacular tone.
Lastly, the bathroom upstairs that Paul Coudamy has created combines both dry and wet areas. He has used a composite trompe l’œil partition in a permanent state of condensation as a border that will always be dry/wet. It is again continuity between two functions, spaces and visual impressions.
During the last Furniture Fair in Milan, Jean Nouvel made an appeal to reconvert and to make work premises and residential accommodation more inseparable: the natural movement of urban aesthetics exploding with vitality to adapt to new space constraints.
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a home by Paul Coudamy appeared first on Dezeen.
Walls of dark brick connect the exterior and interior of this mews house in the north London borough of Hackney (+ slideshow).
Located next to the studio of its designers Form_art Architects in a traditional mews street, Blackbox house references the style of its archetypal brick neighbours but introduces light through a glazed courtyard and skylight.
“In contrast to the traditional mews architecture of solid brick enclosures with tiny windows and little daylight, this design is filled with light, but still respects the contextual language of a ‘solid box’,” explained the architects.
From the street, the house appears as a dark facade of slim Belgian brick punctuated with narrow horizontal and vertical windows, with the entrance concealed in an adjoining black wooden wall.
A lattice of wooden battens above the door enables daylight to reach a small brick-paved courtyard containing a birch tree and the entrance to the house.
The masonry that covers two sides of the courtyard continues across the wall that reaches into the open plan ground floor area and can be seen through the double-height glass screen that links the internal and external spaces.
A central staircase with a skylight above it allows light to spill down into the ground floor and divides the main living space and kitchen on one side from the dining room on the other.
A small landing at the top of the stairs leads to bedrooms on either side, the smaller of which is contained in a white box that projects over the dining area.
White walls and a further skylight at the far end of the living room enhance the brightness of the interior, which is intended to act as a gallery space as well as a home.
Photography is by Timothy Soar.
Form_art Architects sent us the following description:
BLACKBOX: Culford Mews London
The idea of the mews served as the starting point for Blackbox in more ways than just its physical location. In contrast to the traditional mews architecture of solid brick enclosures with tiny windows and little daylight, this design is filled with light, but still respects the contextual language of a ‘solid box’.
The design features of the entrance courtyard and staircase in this instance are key for the purpose of generating light into the heart of the house. As a result of the physical area given over to the courtyard, the ephemeral qualities created are ‘borrowed’ back so to speak.
This essentially refers to the light and views, with the staircase serving as a journey up Blackbox right through to the skylight. This can best be described as the layering of views and the ‘bouncing’ of light within the house.
Simultaneously developed as a house gallery and vice versa, the design is a continuation of Form_art’s work with artists and galleries, namely their current engagement with the Tate. The volume of space carved out by expressing the brickwork enclosure enables the inside to hold a pure white ‘floating’ box, suspended to further express the interior’s language of ‘objects’.
The project serves as a testimony to Form_art’s working ethos of generating work to test and develop ideas. This process provides Form_art with complete artistic freedom as designer and client and hence, there is an uncompromised approach from initial design through to completion.
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has brick walls inside and out appeared first on Dezeen.
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