Dezeen Watch Store: west London-based watch brand Freedom To Exist has launched a minimal timepiece that is designed to reference the classic detailing seen on vintage watches. (more…)
Our US job of the week on the new and improved Dezeen Jobs website is for a salesperson/office manager at the New York trend-forecasting firm Edelkoort, which recently introduced a hybrid design department at Parsons School of Design in New York. Visit the ad for full details or browse other architecture and design opportunities on Dezeen Jobs.
As real-estate prices in New York City continue to soar, Brooklyn residents are using their extra space and relaxed planning restrictions to extend their townhouses and build “quirky” garden studios, according to local architects (+ slideshow). (more…)
The latest stage of the Governors Island Park project, “The Hills,” is set to officially open to the public on this Tuesday July 19th – nearly a year ahead of schedule. Designed by internationally acclaimed urban design and landscape firm West 8, the park will feature ten acres of sloping landscapes that will provide residents and visitors with slides, art and unparalleled views of the New York Harbor.
The project consists of 4 themed hills, rising as high as 70 feet above the island to offer a unique 360-degree panoramic experience of the harbor:
The Hills have been constructed from recycled demolition debris, general fill and lightweight pumice held together with geotechnical reinforcement. To help combat erosion, shrubs, trees and grassy lawns have been organized in strategic planting patterns. More than just offering views, the dramatic topography will also improve the island’s resilience to volatile weather conditions and rising sea levels.
“Sculpted topography works in concert with winding pathways and trees to create ‘conceal and reveal’ vistas, choreographing the park experience,” said design director Adriaan Geuze, co-founder of West 8. “It maximizes the sense of anticipation, pulling a visitor through the park or signaling a place to sit and stay just a bit longer. The topography defines the very character of the area.”
The Hills are the latest addition to Governors Island Park, which has been designed by West 8 to completed over several stages and will feature buildings and landscapes from Rogers Marvel Architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Mathews Nielsen.
The first 30 acres opened to the public in 2014 and include recreational fields, food concessions, seating, a public plaza, a hammock zone, a hedge maze and more. With the opening of the Hills, visitors can now access the entire 2.2-mile promenade encircling the island and Picnic Point, which had been closed since 2012.
The Hills will be open for the season daily from July 19 – September 25, 2016, Monday-Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday/Sunday 10am-7pm. For more information, visit www.govisland.com.
Home-grown Chinese design brands will soon be selling affordable products in the west, according to Italian designer Luca Nichetto, who is creative director of Chinese startup furniture brand ZaoZuo (+ slideshow). (more…)
A young team of six architectural designers from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios won an open call competition released by the RIBA (Royal institute of British Architects) to rethink or construct community within the built environment. The team developed a proposal for the mobile installation now known as ‘Pea Soup House’.
London’s air was once described as ‘thick as pea soup’ during the industrial revolution and Londoners were known as ‘Pea Soupers’. In 1952 11,000 deaths were attributed to poor air quality. Today is not much better. The Pea Soup team aims to ‘construct communities’ by bringing them together through food whilst creating awareness of air pollution in cities, specifically London.
Pea Soup House serves daily soup that reflects the Air Quality Index (AQI) of that day – 1 being pea soup (green and good) 10 being bad (beetroot soup), and are collaborating with King’s College who monitor air pollution throughout London.
Pea Soup House is part of a much larger exhibition called ‘At Home in Britain’ and part of the London Festival of Architecture 2016. It is planned that the mobile installation will go ‘on tour’ to other locations within London to help raise awareness of poor air quality within the city.
Pea Soup House is just the first step. The team aim to develop their research into answering the question of how our built environment can help reduce air pollution and increase our health and well-being.
In this interview, curator Jingyu Liang of Approach Architecture Studio discusses the concept behind “Daily Design, Daily Tao – Back to the Ignored Front,” the theme of the Chinese Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale. Responding to 2016 Biennale director Alejandro Aravena’s overall theme of “Reporting From the Front,” the pavilion takes an introspective look at China’s own architectural front, and the impact that the country’s ongoing development boom has had on Chinese architecture.
“What I want to call people to pay attention to is our daily life, and through that daily life, you can find out the daily tao.”
Movie: in this exclusive video Dezeen produced for Nike, fashion designer Kim Jones unveils his compactable collection of clothes and shoes designed for athletes travelling to the Rio 2016 Olympics. (more…)
From the architect. Donceles Studios is a multipurpose building that defies the rules of current real estate development in Mexico, because instead of being an “exclusive” development it is an inclusive project. In this case, a building with 6 flexible units of 50m2, a commercial space on the ground floor and a terraced roof for common use, serves as a catalyst to attract new people to the area (students, young couples, singles, or older people) plus it can be used as an office or work studio.
The typology of 4 levels seems very reasonable to potentiate intra-urban lots, since it does not depend on an elevator, the structure and its foundation is simple, and can generate a high density, which remains friendly to pedestrians and respects the existing urban scale.
The ideological basis of the project is for it to be a building with walls outward and not inward, ie allowing its users and inhabitants a private space, which in turn fosters interpersonal relationships not only among project users but between them and the residents of the neighborhood. The project aims to revive the concepts of neighborhood, because it is a place that allows people to meet their individual basic needs, but also invites them to go out, to live together, socialize and interact.
For this project we determined as impact zone the Matamoros pedestrian walkway, which starts on the north facade of the property and runs through 20 neighboring houses up to an existing chapel, which was respected as a limit of the intervention zone. Once we identified the area to regenerate, we implemented a participatory community action plan, from the presentation of the project and intervention of the pedestrian corridor, to considering the neighbors’ opinion, handling complaints and holding neighborhood meetings.
Donceles Studios is a project conceived with the highest values of sustainability; encouraging reasonable consumption of natural resources and community relations, in a very particular context of urban working class, which breaks traditional rules in favor of its residents and neighbors. It is the result of using architecture as a tool applied to the highest standard of social responsibility: inclusion
Competition: Dezeen is offering readers the chance to win a copy of the fourth issue of Fiera magazine, which picks the best projects by designers exhibited at international design fairs (+ slideshow). (more…)
