Graduate shows 2016: headpieces made from moulded plastic and knitwear inspired by “takeaway culture” are included in our design reporter Alice Morby’s pick of the best collections from this year’s London College of Fashion graduate presentation (+ slideshow). (more…)
Design Miami/Basel 2016: an interactive wave of tiles and a crystallophone are among the 2016 Swarovski Designers of the Future Award commissions, revealed yesterday at Design Miami/Basel (+ slideshow). (more…)
In this video, Jesús Granada takes us inside the Austrian Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale. The exhibition, titled Orte Für Menschen (Places for People), focuses on the creation of innovative housing solutions required to handle Austria’s current refugee crisis. The pavilion displays three projects currently underway in Vienna, where three architect teams have been paired with NGOs to convert abandoned buildings into temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, and later, into long-term residences.
Designed by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, the exhibition consists of three elements of equal size and proportion: a concrete platform in front of the pavilion, 20 stacks of posters depicting refugees in their current housing situation, and a long desk displaying the three housing projects.
According to the pavilion’s curators, “the objectives of these interventions are to subject the social responsibility of architecture to a reality check, to provide humane places to live for those affected and to present the results in Venice to a broader public.”
This video is part of a partnership between ArchDaily and the Spanish photographer Jesús Granada. These videos have been filmed in 4K, a level of quality that allows viewers to perceive details that don’t come across in standard video formats. Granada’s stock images of the Biennale can be obtained on his website, here; ArchDaily’s complete coverage of the 2016 Biennale can be found here.
A rare empty lot in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco served as the site for this ground-up residence. The design goal of the project was to harness natural light throughout the day, capture views of a wind-swept park, and to make a strong visual connection to the split-level road at the front of the property. At the main living level, a continuous wall of rift-sawn oak veneer cabinetry runs the full length of the building tying the living area, kitchen, and dining area into one cohesive space. Floor-to-ceiling glass at the master suite and dining area opens the interior spaces to a dramatic view of downtown San Francisco.
The living/kitchen/dining floor is located one level above the street to provide easy access from the sidewalk and garage. This places the three bedrooms on the top floor, perched above the city for inspirational views at the beginning and end of each day. A guest bedroom is located at the lower level with a direct connection to the rear yard via floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors. Given the narrow site, a simple straight-run stair is located along the north property line wall, allowing for an open floor plate and the ability to look through the building from the split-level street at the front of the property. Traditional notions of privacy between the public and residential realms are therefore challenged.
London and St Louis-based design studio Kiku Obata & Company is overseeing the redevelopment of an ageing downtown district in the US heartland, in a rural town where big-box stores have taken over (+ slideshow). (more…)
Johanna Agerman Ross is leaving her post as editor of quarterly design journal Disegno to join the V&A as curator of 20th century and contemporary furniture and 20th century product design. (more…)
Comments update: architect Kunlé Adeyemi’s award-winning Makoko Floating School collapsed earlier this week, sparking a debate about the project’s credentials and the media’s previously flattering coverage of its design. But does the floating-school concept still have a future? (more…)
From the architect. The old farmhouse was rebuilt and expanded for several times in the last decades.
At the beginning of the design the architects had to check which parts of the building are original and worth to preserve.
Only the oldest part of the farmhouse which its region typical simple typology was preserved. The existing extensions were broken off or adapted.
All newer parts of the farmhouse were covered homogeneous with roughly sawn spruces so it¥s clearly visually separated from the original farmhouse.
The folded roof construction takes respect to the different heights of the existing building
Benjamin Hubert‘s design studio Layer has created a collection of slip-cast ceramic trays with an integrated charging system that allows tablets and mobile phones to be powered wirelessly. (more…)
Architecture competition organizers Bee Breeders have announced the winners of the London Internet Museum competition. This speculative project challenged architects to design a museum for “something historically profound and typologically unprecedented — the internet.” Given a site at the former Great Eastern Railway terminal station building, designers were tasked with creating a location that would “connect visitors to both the history of the internet and open them to the possibilities of the future.” Submissions took a wide variety of approaches, and prizes were awarded to projects that rejected the typical associations and precedents that the internet calls to mind.
Continue reading to see the winning entries with brief descriptions.
First Prize Winner: 404: NOT FOUND / Shaun McCallum and Aleksandra Belitskaja
404: NOT FOUND questions the traditional authorial nature of architecture, instead placing the building’s design into the hands of internet users themselves. Using a specifically developed app, users can create blocks of the museum with tools such as push, pull, slice, color and material selection. The images are then shared to a social media platform where they can be liked and commented on. The final assemblage of the pieces is also up to app users, as they are given the opportunity to manipulate the placement of blocks, battling for position until a time limit is reached. The end result will be a reflection of the internet itself – a piece of architecture that is both chaotic and hilarious.
Second Prize Winner: Transistor / Ryan Anthony Ball
Lauded by the jury for its “indifference to the contemporary digital discourse in architecture,” Transistor draws inspiration from the history of the internet and the functionality of its components, as well as the historical context of the given site. Located in an industrial site full of shipping infrastructure, Ball noted the similarities between rail car switches and the most basic element of a computer, the transistor switch. Just as the transistor correctly aligns the circulation of information, the museum is designed with distinct linear circulation converging at specific and intentional exchange points. These paths are articulated in the structure’s sawtooth roof, reminiscent of the area’s many rail yards.
Third Prize Winner: Unlimited Possibilities / Michal Daniszewski
Third Prize was awarded to Unlimited Possibilities for its expression of the internet museum as a digital monument. Attempting to create a physical manifestation of the internet, the piece’s polyhedral structure houses a projected hologram that transforms into various patterns and shapes. The rest of the museum is located beneath ground, allowing the monument to stand alone in the above ground plaza. Within the museum, spaces are organized around the particular devices through which one engages the internet.
