French-Brazilian architecture studio Triptyque has completed an 85-metre-tall residential tower in São Paulo that offers its occupants indoor-outdoor living.

The 24-storey building is part of the Onze22 development, which includes a smaller adjacent structure. In the residential tower, balconies wrap the building on three sides, allowing apartments to extend outdoors.

Triptyque aimed to offer "total fluidity between exterior and interior", a quality that is not typical in high-rise homes.

It did this by combining floor-to-ceiling glazing with concrete floorplates that project out from the building volume.

This means apartments can be completely opened up on at least one side, allowing living spaces to merge with covered balconies that range from widths of seven to 22 metres.

The balconies are interspersed with sv vertical semi-opaque shading screens and some of these balconies integrate planting along the edges.

"Each point on the balcony invites you to observe São Paulo, providing endless views and, at the corners, the possibility of letting your gaze go in different directions," said Triptyque co-founder Gui Sibaud.

Onze22 is the fourth project that the Paris- and São Paulo-based studio has designed for Brazilian housing developer Idea!Zarvos.

Known for its innovative approach, the developer often works with well-known architects. Previous schemes include the 360º Building designed by Isay Weinfeld and Ourânia designed by Studio MK27.

This project is located in Vila Madalena, an affluent, bohemian neighbourhood in the west of São Paulo.

It provides 243 homes, with 88 studio apartments in the smaller of the two blocks and a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments in the 85-metre tower.

The entire building has a sense of visual lightness, thanks to the slender concrete floorplates. These are supported by concrete columns that extend through the structure from top to bottom, becoming pilotis where they meet the ground.

"Pilotis allow for a smooth and diffused transition between the public – the street – and the private," added Triptyque co-founder Olivier Raffaëlli.

The two blocks are linked by a four-storey podium, although the scale of the smaller block is largely hidden due to it being partially sunken into the sloping ground.

A landscape scheme by garden designer Rodrigo Oliveira surrounds the base of the building in tropical greenery.

The aim was for it to "emerge from a green belt as if it were a dominant living tree", according to Triptyque.

Triptyque is responsible for many buildings in São Paulo, with other notable examples including the Red Bull Station cultural centre and the Leitão 653 creative studios.

Other recent additions to the São Paulo skyline include the Platina 220 skyscraper, which recently became the Brazilian city's tallest building, and the MN15 Ibirapuera residential tower.

The photography is by Maíra Acayaba and Edu Castello.

Project credits

Client: Idea!Zarvos
Architecture: Triptyque Architecture
Project team: Gui Sibaud, Olivier Raffaëlli, Carol Bueno, Greg Bousquet, João Vieira, Renata Cupini, Julio Prieto, Larissa Higa, Victor Hertel, Marina Olivi, Natália Shiroma
Landscaping: Rodrigo Oliveira

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Double-height balconies and outdoor teaching spaces enliven the facades of The British School in Tokyo, which architecture practice Heatherwick Studio has completed in Japan.

The school is located in the south of Azabudai Hills, a mixed-use district designed by Heatherwick Studio, which is made up of various timber buildings defined by curving roofs and greenery.

Heatherwick Studio's and Japanese developer Mori Building Company's ambition for the school was to be visually distinct yet complementary to these neighbouring structures.

"The client wanted the school to have a different but complementary character to the rest of the Azabudai Hills scheme," the studio told Dezeen.

"As such, it nestles within the pavilion and landscape scheme we've created, overlooking the central garden plaza to the north," it continued.

"The client also wanted it to have a strong individual presence on the street that didn't feel commercial or business-like. They wanted it to feel friendly and approachable, like a school!"

According to Heatherwick Studio, the presence of the school within the district references the impact of Stanton Williams' placement of the arts college Central Saint Martins in the heart of King's Cross in London.

"We felt that – as seen with Central Saint Martins at the centre of the King's Cross development – having a school can be a key anchor to a project, bringing life and activity to the scheme from different angles," the studio explained.

To achieve its distinct identity, the studio animated the building's facades with a mix of outdoor play spaces and double-height balconies.

Curved brick details and fluted columns were also designed visually soften the blocky form of the building, which was dictated by the given site's boundaries and the client's programme requirements.

"The plot boundary and programme were already fixed, which resulted in an, approximately, 100-metre-long building of seven storeys," the studio explained.

"Because of the block-like form, we worked hard to adjust its character for its three main elevations, using the required outdoor learning spaces and playgrounds to bring variety to the building's appearance."

The balconies can be seen along the eastern facade, arranged in a cascading formation and overlooking a garden at the centre of Azabudai Hills. Meanwhile, the stepped columns can be found all around the building.

"The stepped columns both push through and blend open to create fluting ceilings under the main outdoor terraces, drawing the eye up along its elevations," the studio explained.

Inside, The British School in Tokyo has 40 classrooms, alongside music rooms, libraries, a laboratory and a roof garden with a vegetable patch.

Each year group also has a common area, which opens onto the adjoining outdoor spaces. They can also be connected to the classrooms through sliding timber screens.

A range of sports facilities, including an indoor hall, gymnasium and swimming pool, alongside two outdoor pitches, complete the building.

Elsewhere in the district, Heatherwick Studio has created residential buildings, retail and restaurant spaces, two temples, art galleries and offices, which collectively replaced more than 200 existing structures on the site.

The British School in Tokyo's brickwork and columns are intended as a reference to the facade of the old Azabu Post Office that previously occupied a neighbouring plot.

Heatherwick Studio is a London architecture and design studio founded by British designer Thomas Heatherwick in 1994.

Its other recent architectural projects include proposals for a public library in Columbia and an exhibition hall in Shanghai.

The photography is by Raquel Diniz and the video is courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.

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In this video produced by the Royal British Institute of Architects, Ghanaian-Scottish architect and educator Lesley Lokko reflects on her career and Royal Gold Medal win, which was announced today.

"There's been a lot of talk about how what I do isn't architecture," reflected Lokko.

"It was always very clear to me that there was a difference between the profession of architecture and the discipline of architecture. I think in the last 10 years, we're beginning to see those two things come slightly closer together," she continued.

"I very much hope that this medal demonstrates that it's worth it to think differently. It's worth it to go off-piste or to go off the beaten track."

Lokko is the first African woman to receive the prestigious Royal Gold Medal from the Royal British Institute of Architects (RIBA) since it was established in 1848.

She is also the third woman to win it in her own right – rather than as part of a team – following in the footsteps of architects Zaha Hadid and Yasmeen Lari.

In the RIBA film, the organisation's president Muyiwa Oki said Lokko was selected as the 2024 recipient for her "groundbreaking work as an educator, curator and as an author".

He is among several interviewees who also feature in the video, with others including architect Lanre Gbolade, Lokko's Royal Gold Medal nominator.

"In professor Lokko, with her progressive teaching methods to both present and future practitioners, as well as transformative and influential leadership capabilities spanning well over 30 years and counting, we truly do have a once-in-a-generation agent of change," said Gbolade.

Lokko is best known as the founder of the African Futures Institute (AFI), a school of architecture in Accra, and for her written work including the White Papers Black Marks essays.

More recently, she was the curator of the 18th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, which explored decarbonisation and decolonisation through the lens of Africa.

She will be formally presented with the 2024 Royal Gold Medal on 2 May 2024.

The video is courtesy of RIBA.

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Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Yoojin Chung pokes fun at the western approach to feng shui with a trio of digital devices that offer a quick-fix approach to positive qi.

Chung's graduation project, Capturing Qi, turns three of the most well-known feng-shui objects into smart-home devices that can be controlled via an app.

The crystal ball, the wind chime and the water fountain were all reimagined as dynamic devices that users can actively monitor and control.

Chung intended the designs to be satirical, highlighting how this ancient practice has been packaged up into consumer products with the promise of good health and fortune.

"The project is a criticism of the commodification of Feng Shui, of how people just buy objects because it's the easiest way to practice," said the designer, who grew up in South Korea.

Feng shui is an ancient Chinese practice that has existed for millennia. It centres around promoting the flow of positive energy, known as qi, believed to increase wellbeing and prosperity.

The practice became popular in western countries in the late 20th century, which fuelled a huge global market for feng shui objects for the home.

"People just buy these objects, place them in their homes and forget about them," Chung told Dezeen.

Chung's project suggests how this trend could evolve in response to the growing market for smart-home devices.

Her electronic devices use motion to create a visual illusion of energy flow, in the form of a spinning crystal, flowing water and chimes that look like they are swaying the breeze.

All three are fitted with Arduino circuit boards, allowing this motion to be fully controlled by Bluetooth.

Users activate the devices using an accompanying smartphone app, with the understanding that they are releasing qi in the process.

"The more you activate it, the more success you have," suggested Chung.

"The reason why feng shui is gaining popularity is because we're all striving for success," she added. "Feng shui offers you a little bit of hope that is beyond your control, but it is also human nature to want control."

All three devices were intended to resemble scientific equipment. Chung drew on the vacuum chambers used by 18th-century scientists to prove the existence of invisible gases.

The wind chime is a hanging device while the other two are mounted on castors, allowing them to all be easily moved into different positions around the home.

"This interaction makes you think about what type of success you want," said Chung, pointing out how different types of object placement have different meanings in feng shui.

The designer graduated from the MA Contextual Design programme at Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE).

Other DAE graduates from 2023 include Ziyi Lian, who created a mobile street-food stall for offal, and Eric Treillard, who designed a mobile kit for turning unused plots into playgrounds.

The photography is by Marie Kang unless otherwise indicated.

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Continuing our review of 2023, we round up the top 10 Dezeen videos of the year, which include exclusive interviews with Ai Weiwei and Sou Fujimoto, as well as collaborations with the Barbican Centre and the Serpentine Galleries.

Ai Weiwei: Making Sense

In our first selected video, Dezeen hosted an exclusive interview between Chinese artist and political activist Ai Weiwei and Design Museum curator Justin McGuirk.

The conversation marked the opening of Weiwei's first design-focussed exhibition to date, which ran at the Design Museum in London from April to July this year.

During the interview, Weiwei told McGuirk that the exhibition explores design in a multifaceted way.

The exhibition, he explained, is about "how humans make definitions about our life, our memories and how our design acts relate to our past, our history and also [how they] relate to current personal issues or political issues".

Find out more about Ai Wei Wei: Making Sense ›

Lina Ghotmeh's Serpentine Pavilion 2023

In this exclusive video produced by Dezeen in partnership with the Serpentine Galleries, architect Lina Ghotmeh unveiled her 2023 Serpentine Pavilion titled À table.

Ghotmeh told Dezeen how she aimed to create a space where people could connect with one another. She noted how she took inspiration from cultural gathering spaces from across the world, such as Malian togunas, when designing the structure.

Ghotmeh is a Lebanese-born architect, now based in Paris. Her recent work includes the Hermès Manufacture in Normandy, and the Stone Garden tower in Beirut, for which she was awarded the architecture project of the year at Dezeen Awards 2021.

Find out more about Ghotmeh's pavilion ›

Concrete Icons video series with Holcim

This year Dezeen continued our six-part Concrete Icons video series in partnership with building materials company Holcim. In this instalment, Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto told Dezeen how his stacked-cube learning centre was one of the most significant projects of his career.

Named The Square, the building is a higher-education learning centre for the University of St Gallen in Switzerland.

The exterior of the building is made of a series of cubic volumes contained within a lattice of white frames. The stacked cubes, which form both the facade and interior walls, were made from floor-to-ceiling glass designed to blend in with the surrounding residential area.

Watch more of the Concrete Icons video series with Holcim ›

Resolve Collective at the Barbican

Dezeen teamed up with the Barbican Centre in London early in the year to create a video series showcasing the work of interdisciplinary design studio Resolve Collective.

Created and led by Melissa Haniff and brothers Seth and Akil Scafe-Smith, Resolve Collective created an architectural installation in the Barbican's Curve Gallery that aimed to reimagine the traditional role of institutions.

Visitors were encouraged to sit, play and climb on the reclaimed materials that made up the piece. Materials were later given away to the public in a "closing-down sale", in order for local communities to use them to create their own artworks and meeting spaces.

The installation was accompanied by a programme split into four seasons, which gathered a series of artists, musicians and local organisers to reflect on the themes of infrastructural practice, knowledge sharing, and joy.

Find out more about Resolve Collective ›

Dezeen Awards China architecture project of the year 

To celebrate the launch of this year's Dezeen Awards China, Dezeen created a series of videos profiling the winners of the architecture and interiors categories. The first video interviewed Hua Li, founder of Trace Architecture Office (TAO), which won the overall category prize for the Haikou Jiangdong Huandao Experimental School.

TAO aimed to create a "a miniature pastoral city" that stimulates creativity and interaction, in a departure from conventional exam-oriented learning.

The high school also includes a student dormitory and an 18-class kindergarten, with a total construction area of 64,700 square metres.

Find out more about the Dezeen Awards China winners ›

Dezeen Awards China interiors project of the year

In the second of our Dezeen Award China series, Dezeen spoke to designer Zhan Di from FOG Architecture. The design studio was named the winner of the interiors project of the year category.

A 280-year-old courtyard house in Beijing was transformed into an open-to-the-public commercial space that connects the surrounding neighbourhoods.

To showcase the traditional structure of the building, the studio replaced the street-facing facade with glass, opening up the building to pedestrians. The original triangular timber roof trusses and wooden columns were uncovered to give character to the space.

Find out more about the Dezeen Awards China winners ›

Dezeen and Bentley's Future Luxury Retail Design Competition

In this video, judges and winners discuss highlights from Dezeen and Bentley's Future Luxury Retail Competition, which was filmed at Bentley's headquarters in Crewe, UK.

Dezeen teamed up with Bentley to host a global design competition that challenged architects and designers to define the future of luxury retail.

The first-placed winner of the competition was Finnish design agency Ultra for its proposal called Bentley Intercontinental Pavilion. The proposal imagined a series of temporary pavilions which would house an exclusive range of Bentley cars.

Second and third place were awarded to designers Daniel Czyszczoń and Meredith O'Shaughnessy respectively.

Find out more about Dezeen and Bentley's Future Luxury Retail Design Competition ›

Dutch Design Week 2023

Dezeen filmed a series of four videos at this year's Dutch Design Week, the largest design event in northern Europe, featuring highlights of the various events, exhibitions and installations taking place throughout the week.

The first video in the series featured the Design Academy Eindhoven student graduate show, and showcased projects such as a running shoe designed for use on Mars and a sensory water-based installation.

Other videos in the series took in an exhibition exploring the future of space farming, biotechnology at the Jalila Essaïdi- founded BioArt Laboratories and futuristic wearable technology.

Watch more of the Dutch Design Week series › 

Chatsworth House: Mirror Mirror 

The next video on the list saw the Dezeen team film at Chatsworth House, a 17th-century stately home in Derbyshire.

The video explored the institution's exhibition Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth, which brought together a collection of contemporary furniture and objects intended to respond to Chatsworth House and its gardens.

The exhibition featured works including a throne-like seat made from musical instruments by Korean designer Jay Sae Jung Oh and an installation of monolithic furniture made from bronze and stone by British designer Faye Toogood.

Find out more about Mirror Mirror › 

The (W)rapper 

The last video in our top 10 roundup showcases the (W)rapper, an unusual office tower in Los Angeles.

"The core is pulled out of the building," explained Eric Owen Moss, the architect behind the building. "What holds the building up and prevents it from falling down are the steel ribbons."

"The technical aspect of the welds alone, because of the unusual shapes and so forth, was a real science in itself," said MATT Construction CEO Steve Matt, who also spoke to Dezeen for the film.

The tower is part of 35-year revitalisation plan for a former industrial and manufacturing neighbourhood in central Los Angeles.

Find out more about The (W)rapper ›

2023 review

This article is part of Dezeen's roundup of the biggest and best news and projects in architecture, design, interior design and technology from 2023.

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Architect Eric Owen Moss describes the design and engineering approach to constructing the (W)rapper office building in Los Angeles in this exclusive film produced by Dezeen in collaboration with MATT Construction.

Named for the structural support system that covers its facade, the 235-foot office tower sits along the Pacific Electric light rail line, which connects downtown Los Angeles to Culver City where the site is located.

Moss, who leads Eric Owen Moss Architects, has been planning the tower for decades and came with a unique point of view when designing the high-rise structure.

"It began as a conceptual exhibition," said Moss. "What exactly constitutes a building?"

The building has a glass facade wrapped in plaster-clad steel, with an external staircase that matches the structural steel wrapping.

"The (W)rapper expresses how it's made, the structural engineering behind it and how the building performs. It's turned inside out, in a way," said project director Dolan Daggett, who also spoke to Dezeen for the film.

The building is held up by steel ribbons and features an open-floor interior aiming to give tenants the freedom to make creative choices with how they utilise the space.

"The core is pulled out of the building, including the exit stairs, elevators and so on, which gives you essentially a substantial open floor to invent or reinvent what you would like to," explained Moss.

According to the architects, the (W)rapper is the only base-isolated commercial high-rise building in the United States, and has a lifespan based on a 2,500-year response to the base-isolation system.

"We wanted a completely column-free space and because we're in the seismic zone we decided on a base-isolated structure, and what that basically means is that in an earthquake the ground moves and the building stays put," explained Daggett.

The (W)rapper has a unique floor plan for an office building, including a number of different height configurations ranging from 13-and-a-half feet (4.1-metres) all the way to 24 feet (7.3-metres).

The studio hopes this will provide alternative ways for office tenants to move, organise and think.

The project idea originated decades ago, with Eric Owen Moss Architects working to change the zoning in the area to allow for the (W)rapper to be built.

"When we started the project in 1997, the height limit in the area was 45-feet and the area was a restricted zone," said Daggett. "It took us about five years to get the city to approve it and we eventually changed the zoning in the area to allow for a high-rise."

Two additional towers on the site have been approved by Los Angeles' city council, with the combined project being dubbed The New City.

The photography is by Tom Bonner.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen in partnership with MATT Construction.

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A school with colourful volumes and sinuous curves by Trace Architecture Office won Dezeen Awards China 2023 Architecture project of the year, as seen in this movie produced by Dezeen.

The studio picked up the prize, which was sponsored by The Dalmore and V&A Dundee, at the inaugural Dezeen Awards China 2023 party earlier this week. The project was also named civic project of the year.

Called Haikou Jiangdong Huandao Experimental School, the development spans 60,000 square metres and comprises a high school, a student dormitory and a kindergarten.

Located in the coastal city of Haikou on the island of Hainan, the school sits on a sloped site and consists of a series of intersecting curved volumes and rectilinear forms. These structures are brightly coloured with vibrant hues to pique the interest and playful curiosity of students.

Envisioned as "a miniature pastoral city", the architects aimed to create a campus that stimulates creativity and interaction, departing from conventional exam-oriented learning cultures.

"School design should go beyond functionality," founder and lead architect Hua Li said in the video. "What's more important is that the space should evoke students' imagination."

The architects took cues from the site's natural surroundings, which included fields, wetlands, mangrove nature reserves and the ocean, resulting in its organic and winding forms.

It features sweeping curves that mimic meandering rivers and converge like lakes to create centripetal courtyards between buildings, as well as an undulating terrain that forms hills to host events.

Towering pillars standing at 17 metres high were incorporated to create a landscape reminiscent of forests, while the expansive roof takes on the appearance of floating clouds. Both the pillars and roof were constructed from fair-faced concrete.

The school was constructed with a radial plane, where the buildings sprawl outward from a central point, which the architects likened to "a pool of water unfolding and spreading."

The intersecting exterior and interior spaces and intertwining pathways create a maze-like environment, offering teachers and students a more exploratory and rich spatial experience.

Despite the seemingly irregular structures, the architectural form was guided by precise geometric lines tightly linked to the overall functional layout.

The layout creates a sense of symmetry and allows for efficient zoning and spatial connectivity, which, in turn, shortens distances and improves accessibility throughout the development.

"The project's spatial variety provides a fun and open forum for learning while promoting social interconnectivity among the community," the judges said.

"It breaks away from the traditional rigidity of the educational institutional typology in China and opens up new possibilities for the future."

In response to the city's subtropical climate, the campus features raised walkways, cantilevered volumes and angled pillars that create several partially covered outdoor spaces, offering respite during challenging weather spells while enabling children to play outdoors.

These semi-outdoor areas serve multiple purposes by offering shade, ventilation and shelter. The building's eaves provide ample activity zones for children to play beneath, which could also double as informal learning spaces.

To adapt to Haikou's strong sunlight, the architects employed different sunshade designs for each building facade, based on its orientation.

The south side of the campus incorporates a curtain wall system with a combination of horizontal white aluminium panels and vertical aluminium veneers with a wood grain finish, while the west-facing sections feature more tightly spaced vertical shades that are strategically optimised for the sun's incident direction during the summer solstice.

The careful consideration for the sunshade orientation and density is intended to contribute to improved energy efficiency, better control of interior lighting conditions and enhance the overall comfort of occupants during different times of the day and seasons.

"Winning the Architecture project of the year serves as a significant motivation for us," Li said. "We aim to explore different experimental forms in every project."

"We believe that this award will inspire us to continue to do so in the future," he continued.

Haikou Jiangdong Huandao Experimental School was up against six other architecture project winners to win the overall architecture project of the year award.

Entries were scored by a jury comprising German architect Ole Scheeren, MAD founder Ma Yansong, Neri&Hu co-founder Rossana Hu, UNStudio director Garett Hwang and Wutopia Lab's Yu Ting.

Launched this year, Dezeen Awards China shines a spotlight on the best Chinese architecture, interiors and design, providing international recognition from around the globe.

The photography is by Chen Hao.

Dezeen Awards China 2023

Dezeen Awards China is the first regional edition of Dezeen Awards, to celebrate the best architecture, interiors and design in China. The annual awards are in partnership with Bentley Motors, as part of a wider collaboration that will see the brand work with Dezeen to support and inspire the next generation of design talent.

The post Dezeen Awards China architecture project of the year "opens up new possibilities" appeared first on Dezeen.

A video filmed at the Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony reveals the Ceramophone, a musical instrument with keys made of porcelain tiles created by Solus Ceramics and Mirage.

The Ceramophone was designed by architect Simon Astridge and music producer James Mason.

 

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The Ceramophone was shown at the Dezeen Awards party

The instrument's keys are made of porcelain tiles that have been tuned to the pentatonic scale, with each key's pitch determined by the distance between the two rubber supports on which they sit.

The porcelain keys are arranged in a radial design atop a steamed-wood structure made by shipwright Jerry Fleming.

The Ceramophone was installed at this year's Dezeen Awards ceremony hosted in London, where percussionists Gosia Kepa and Connor Chambers performed a duet they composed for the instrument.

It was created to coincide with the launch of Sounds of the Earth, an events series hosted at UK-based tile supplier Solus Ceramics' London showroom.

This invited composers, scientists, architects, engineers, artists and musicians to experiment with the instrument and explore the relationship between sound and space.

Sounds of the Earth was a collaboration between Solus Ceramics and Italian tile producer Mirage, which contributed the porcelain tiles used to create the Ceramophone's keys.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for Solus Ceramics and Mirage as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen's partnership content here.

The post Ceramophone is a percussion instrument with keys made of porcelain tiles appeared first on Dezeen.

A courtyard house converted into a fragrance store by FOG Architecture has won Dezeen Awards China 2023 Interiors project of the year, as seen in this movie produced by Dezeen.

The studio picked up the prize, which was sponsored by Gaggenau, at the inaugural Dezeen Awards China 2023 party yesterday, which took place at the Neri&Hu-designed Sukhothai hotel in Shanghai. The project was also named retail interior of the year.

Located in Beijing, the flagship store for fragrance brand To Summer occupies a 280-year-old siheyuan – a traditional typology prevalent in the region consisting of a courtyard enclosed by residential buildings and hutongs.

Traditionally, courtyard houses were designed to provide privacy, comfort and quiet and typically reflected hierarchical family systems, in which space is delineated according to each family member's position.

The studio was tasked with converting the previously closed-off, private residence into a welcoming and open public space that connects and invites its local community while preserving its original structure.

"Commercial retail space is no longer confined to shopping malls," co-founder Zhan Di said in the video. "It has to return to its role at the centre of the community."

Instead, the practice adopted an "anti-siheyuan" approach, creating loose "sub-spaces" by removing all walls and partitions and substituting many of them with glass. This visually opened up the space while retaining distinct areas.

To highlight the structural beauty of the building, the studio replaced the street-facing facade with glass to open up views of the space to pedestrians. Decorative materials were also removed to reveal the building's original triangular timber roof trusses and wooden columns.

When natural light is filtered through the equidistant arrangement of columns, it causes an interplay of light and shadow that creates a sense of depth in the space.

Water elements, which are typical in traditional oriental gardens, were featured throughout the space. The architects fitted some areas with an acrylic ceiling with a pattern that mimics the gentle ripple of water, which interacts with light to create natural and shadow effects.

The discovery of a century-old well on the site informed the installation of a rain chain suspended from the roof to the mouth of the well, to represent "a rejuvenation of life in the courtyard."

"This project showcases how sensitive and minimal intervention can inspire and preserve our built history," the judges said.

"It demonstrates the studio's skilful hand in sensitively transforming a traditional courtyard house into a new retail experience."

Various original elements within the building were damaged or demolished by the previous owners, which consequently required careful restoration and consideration for appropriate material selection.

The interior walls were clad in clay bricks as a contemporary interpretation of the original brickwork, while white porcelain powder sourced from recycled product packaging was used for resin display stands to soften their appearance.

The courtyard roof was paved with blue brick tiles, laid in a "press six and expose four" arrangement, while cracked and damaged Yuanyang tiles were replaced.

"Winning this year's Interior project of the year is very significant for us," Di said. "This award is a motivation for us to present more of our research findings in future projects in our way."

The To Summer flagship fragrance store was up against six other interior project winners to win the overall interior project of the year award.

Entries were judged by a jury comprising renowned industry figures such as interior designer Kelly Wearstler, Linehouse co-founder Alex Mok, interior architect André Fu, British designer Ilse Crawford, and Shanghai-based Li Xiang.

Launched this year, Dezeen Awards China shines a spotlight on the best Chinese architecture, interiors and design, providing international recognition from around the globe.

The photography is by InSpace Architectural Photography.

Dezeen Awards China 2023

Dezeen Awards China is the first regional edition of Dezeen Awards, to celebrate the best architecture, interiors and design in China. The annual awards are in partnership with Bentley Motors, as part of a wider collaboration that will see the brand work with Dezeen to support and inspire the next generation of design talent.

The post Dezeen Awards China Interiors project of the year "preserves built history" appeared first on Dezeen.

Texas studio Michael Hsu Office of Architecture has designed the common areas for a 50-storey residential high-rise building in Austin, as shown in this exclusive video captured by Dezeen.

Called 44 East, the building is located east of downtown Austin in the Rainey Street Historic district. The firm designed the interiors of the building's common areas, which take cues from its natural surroundings, particularly the neighbouring Colorado River.

 

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Michael Hsu Office of Architecture has designed the interiors of 44 East

The practice enhanced the space using colour and texture, layering vintage and custom furnishings to create a relaxed and inviting ambience.

Curved surfaces and light colours are incorporated throughout the space, with poured concrete terrazzo floors incorporated to pay homage to the gravel of the nearby riverside trail.

The interior is characterised by the use of soft shapes and natural materials throughout the various spaces, including on the eleventh floor, where pastel hues complement subtle architectural details.

The outdoor swimming pool features a series of pebble-shaped islands, with a partially-covered patio inviting guests to relax outside and enjoy the views of the river.

On the thirty-seventh floor, a large moon-like pendant light is suspended above a plush circular sofa.

The higher vantage point offers scenic views of downtown Austin, and features jewel tones and darker materials intended to complement the Texas skyline at dusk.

44 East was developed by Intracorp, while the tower and unit interiors were designed by Page and landscapes designed by DWG.

The interior design of the common spaces is one of the latest projects by Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, which is based in Austin and Houston.

The company recently completed its self-designed Austin studio, which is adorned in wood-and-fabric lined walls and industrial details, to accommodate its growing team.

The photography is by Chase Daniel.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for Michael Hsu Office of Architecture as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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A green wall and a charred-timber extension define House of the Elements, a Victorian home in London renovated by local studio Neil Dusheiko Architects.

Intended to mimic a "spa-like retreat", the Peckham home was remodelled to brighten its dark, closed-off interior and help bring nature in.

While opening up its interior to the outside, Neil Dusheiko Architects added a rear extension clad in charred timber.

"We aimed to use the existing house as a found object and rework it to explore ways how we could bring the owner closer to nature through opening up the historic Victorian structure to the elements," studio founder Neil Dusheiko told Dezeen.

"We wanted to explore how the house could use natural elements to play to the senses," he continued. "We also wanted the house to feel alive by bringing the plants in as an 'occupant' of the house."

Inside, a series of skylights, voids, and openings have been added to the late-19th-century residence, including a double-height space bordered by a living wall.

"There are large open spaces which have an audible dimension, plants that play on the sense of smell, polished plaster surfaces juxtaposed with rougher brick textures dealing with the tactile and light and dark spaces that work with our visual senses," explained Dusheiko.

House of the Elements' entrance hall and front living space have been retained, with original features including plaster mouldings and a fireplace left in place.

Finished with modern furnishings, white-painted walls and wooden floors, the living room leads into a double-height void that connects the existing portion of the home to the extension.

A large living wall runs along one side of the void, which is topped with a skylight and lets light into the interior while opening it up to views of the garden.

"The client's Sri Lankan heritage, and the work of Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, informed much of the design approach – in particular the use of plants to create a green verdant environment full of visual interest and textures, and spaces that flow into each other to provide light, natural ventilation and views," said Dusheiko.

"The green wall, placed under a large glazed skylight that offers the planted space the full spectrum of sunlight, with sun-loving species placed closer to the light and plants requiring more shade towards the bottom."

Above the retained fireplace, a sculptural artwork by Italian artist Soda stretches up the wall bordering the void.

The living wall leads into the charred-timber extension, where a kitchen with charcoal-coloured plaster walls and metal surfaces opens onto the back garden.

On the upper level, the rooms and landings that border the double-height void feature balconies and openings that overlook the ground floor.

This includes a bathroom, where a wooden tub is placed alongside a window framing the green wall.

The first-floor bedrooms and bathrooms are finished with dark-coloured walls, designed to contrast the brightness of the other spaces in the house.

"We felt that as the house had a lot of skylights and an abundance of natural light, we could work with a more tonal colour palette that could be read against the crisp detailing of the Victorian house," said Dusheiko.

Above the first floor, Neil Dusheiko Architects added a loft extension, which contains a home office and features a large window that offers views of the treetops in the garden.

Other London home renovations recently featured on Dezeen include a basement apartment designed to feel like a wooden cabin and a Victorian terrace in Hackney that was refreshed with a colourful extension informed by 1950s American kitchens.

The photography is by Jim Stephenson.

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Four angular wings with steel canopies form Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Art Centre, which British studio Zaha Hadid Architects has completed on an artificial lake in China.

Located within the ZhongXin Lake in Zhuhai, the centre is characterised by its sweeping roofscape, which Zaha Hadid Architects modelled on the chevron-shaped flight formations of migratory birds in southern China.

Inside, Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Art Centre contains three distinct cultural venues – a science centre, an art museum and a performing arts centre.

The performing arts centre comprises the 1,200-seat venue Grand Theatre and the multifunctional Black Box that has 500 retractable seats.

"Integrating three distinct cultural institutions for the city, each venue within the Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Arts Centre incorporates unique characteristics that create differing visitor experiences, yet all are united by a coherent formal and structural logic," said Zaha Hadid Architects.

"Echoing the chevron patterns of migratory birds flying in formation over southern China, the latticed steel canopies sheltering each venue are configured through repetition, symmetry and scale variation."

Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Art Centre has been designed as the heart of Aviation New City, a neighbourhood of the Jinwan district that houses 100,000 residents. It links to the Zhuhai Airport Intercity railway and is accessible from Shenzhen and Hong Kong in less than an hour.

The building is raised on a podium, which sits within the artificial lake and is connected to its surroundings by pedestrian ramps and tunnels.

Zaha Hadid Architects divided the venues across four wings – two large and two small – which flank a central plaza. Together, they span 170 metres by 270 metres.

Doubling as a shared external foyer for all four venues, the plaza is connected to footbridges and tunnels that extend across the lake to its banks for easy access.

Each venue is crowned by a steel canopy, which is formed of prefabricated panels made from steel. Collectively, they are supported by just 22 columns.

The venues also all feature glazed walls on their plaza-facing elevations, allowing "visitors to determine the individuality and character of each venue", Zaha Hadid Architects said.

Inside, both the Grand Theatre and art museum are complete with a light material palette, while the Black Box and Science Centre have darker finishes.

The art gallery comprises exhibition spaces, alongside storage and administrative areas and a sculptural circulation space described by Zaha Hadid Architects as "a continuous white ribbon".

In the science centre, Zaha Hadid Architects has placed a lecture hall alongside several interactive exhibition areas.

The chevron design of the roofscape is used as a motif throughout the interior, such as in the Grand Theatre's sound-reflecting ceiling panels.

Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Art Centre also has several interactive outdoor areas, including an amphitheatre on the west side for outdoor performances. Meanwhile, bridges and voids animate the multi-level plaza.

The artificial lake itself was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects in line with Zhuhai’s "sponge city" goals – meaning it will help mitigate flooding, water pollution and water scarcity by storing excess water.

The lake will also incorporate aquatic flora and fauna that will naturally filter contaminants. Sponge cities are being developed in urban areas throughout China.

Finishing touches to the building include a waste-heat recovery system that will be used for the centre's hot water supply, as well as a water recycling system.

Zaha Hadid Architects is the studio of the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, which she founded in 1979. Today it is led by Patrik Schumacher.

Elsewhere in China, the studio already recently completed the Jiangxi River Bridge and it is developing a 210-metre-tall skyscraper with a curved form and planted terraces.

The video is by Kevin Zhen and the photography is by Virgile Simon Bertrand unless stated otherwise.

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A quartet of twisting office towers that are joined at the base will form the global headquarters of tech company Tencent, which architecture studio Büro Ole Scheeren is creating in Shenzhen.

Named Tencent Helix, the building will contain workspace for 23,000 employees of the Chinese company, which is best known for developing the multifaceted WeChat app.

It is being designed by Büro Ole Scheeren as part of an upcoming financial district in Qianhai Bay that the studio said "is comparable in size and shape to Midtown Manhattan".

Tencent Helix is intended to become a landmark for the neighbourhood, with its sculptural form enveloping a 14-hectare site.

"Encompassing a 14-hectare site in the prominent Qianhai Bay, Büro Ole Scheeren's Tencent Helix emerges as an iconic centrepiece at the heart of the future technology and financial district," said the studio.

"Designed to stand as both a cohesive, singular whole and a collection of distinct elements, Tencent Helix will be the global centre of the company's expanding ecosystem."

Büro Ole Scheeren's design was the winning entry of an international competition for which Tencent set an "ambitious brief".

Its design was chosen ahead of entries by architecture studios including Herzog & de Meuron, Heatherwick Studio, BIG, Snøhetta, OMA, Kengo Kuma, Zaha Hadid Architects and Foster + Partners.

The complex will comprise four towers of differing heights, arranged around landscaped terraces and flanked by five teardrop-shaped wings. The tallest tower will measure 153 metres, surpassing the height to be considered as a skyscraper by three metres.

At 500,000 square metres, the studio said it is expected to be almost twice as big as Apple Park, the Apple headquarters that Foster + Partners has created in California.

While intended to be both distinctive and iconic, Büro Ole Scheeren said its design aims to symbolise "the company's meteoric growth".

"Tencent Helix is a symbol of the synergies between technology, innovation and growth in a human-centric design," said its founder Ole Scheeren.

"Its well-structured social ecosystem is a testament to the evolving nature of global headquarters into a complex and interactive ensemble where functionality, sustainability and community come together."

Tencent Helix's facade will be clad in modular glass panels, designed to create visual interest while maximising natural daylight and views out over the city.

The landscaped areas between the towers, named Vortex Garden, are hoped to provide employees with ample green space for relaxing and recreation.

Inside, Tencent Helix will centre around the Vortex Incubator, a space with large and flexible floors that will form the heart of the complex and connect all four of the office towers.

It will include further recreational spaces and a health club, as well as a conference centre and offices, where staff from different sectors can collaborate.

Other facilities in the complex will include offices with customisable floors, a grand lobby and a publicly accessible base called the Urban Forum.

This will house restaurants and retail spaces and was designed to help tie the building into the existing urban context.

Founded by Scheeren in 2010, Büro Ole Scheeren is an international architectural studio with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, London, Berlin and Bangkok.

Elsewhere in China, the studio is currently developing an octagonal supertall skyscraper in Nanjing and a hotel made up of stacked horizontal blocks in Sanya.

The visuals are courtesy of Büro Ole Scheeren.

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London studio Pearson Lloyd has been named designer of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony.

The Designers of the Year category rewards the best emerging and established talent across architecture, interiors and design. It recognises those whose innovative work has made a notable impact on the industry.

Co-founders Luke Pearson and Tom Lloyd picked up the prize at the Dezeen Awards 2023 party last week, which was hosted in partnership with Bentley.

 

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Pearson Lloyd was named designer of the year at Dezeen Awards 2023

Established in 1997, Pearson Lloyd is a design studio based in east London specialising in industrial and product design, furniture and interiors.

The studio's work ranges from research, objects, aviation, public realm and interior design projects, with the goal to tackle global economic and environmental challenges.

The studio's cross-sector position is informed by comprehensive research and insights into the social, economic and environmental challenges related to the home, work and travel.

Its focus lies in developing products and experiences that balance the evolving needs of users, manufacturers and the planet.

The studio took home the award at the Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony last week, which was held at Shoreditch Electric Light Station in London and was attended by shortlisted studios along with past and present judges.

"Pearson Lloyd has taken a pivotal shift in recent years to shore up its design methodologies for the 21st century," the judges said. "Every new project aims to deliver maximum benefit with minimal planetary burden."

"The studio is leaning into the challenges of a rapidly changing world, clearly communicating its rigorous research, rationale and actions while inspiring positive change among its clients and peers," they continued.

Recent projects by the studio include CoLab, a furniture collection for modern classrooms geared towards Gen Z styles of learning.

The furniture is created for classroom settings that focus on active and social learning, to foster non-hierarchical interaction and engagement amongst students and educators.

The collection features hybrid furniture pieces that provide users with an array of seating and surface options, allowing them to adopt various positions such as sitting, leaning, perching or standing.

The studio worked with office brand Bene to create bFRIENDS, a collection of undulating 3D-printed desk accessories made from recycled bioplastic waste.

The accessories, which include pen pots, stands and trays, were 3D-printed from 100 per cent recycled polylactic acid (PLA) derived from food packaging by Batch.Works, which are said to have been diverted from landfills.

Pearson Lloyd chose the PLA bioplastic to align with its shift towards a more circular production, as PLA is derived from cornstarch instead of petroleum, making it a more eco-friendly alternative to conventional plastics.

The studio also created Flow X for British mobility specialists Access BDD, a stairlift designed to offer a practical and attractive aid for the home.

The stairlift, which features 180-degree folding arms, can be compactly folded away to minimise its footprint when not in use.

Pearson Lloyd was up against four other shortlisted studios in the designer of the year category, including American designer Stephen Burks and Dutch designer Marjan van Aubel.

The Designers of the Year were nominated and shortlisted by Dezeen Awards judges and Dezeen's editorial team. A total of 31 studios, spanning 14 countries including South Africa, India, Nigeria and Mexico, were shortlisted for awards in six distinct Designers of the Year categories.

Each category's winner will be showcased in an exclusive video produced by Dezeen and sponsored by Bentley. The videos will be unveiled on Dezeen from November 30 to December 7.

Dezeen Awards 2023

Dezeen Awards celebrates the world's best architecture, interiors and design. Now in its sixth year, it has become the ultimate accolade for architects and designers across the globe. The annual awards are in partnership with Bentley Motors, as part of a wider collaboration that will see the brand work with Dezeen to support and inspire the next generation of design talent.

The post Pearson Lloyd named designer of the year at Dezeen Awards 2023 appeared first on Dezeen.

French designer Audrey Large has been named emerging designer of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony.

The Designers of the Year category rewards the best emerging and established talent across architecture, interiors and design. It recognises those whose innovative work has made a notable impact on the industry.

Large was awarded the prize at the Dezeen Awards 2023 party last week, which was hosted in partnership with Bentley.

 

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Audrey Large was named emerging designer of the year at Dezeen Awards 2023

Large is a French interdisciplinary designer based in Rotterdam, who works at the intersection of digital and object design.

She completed her master's in Social Design at Design Academy Eindhoven in 2017 and later went on to join the Jan Van Eyck Academy artist residency programme in 2019.

Large is known for presenting furniture and objects with swirling organic forms that are drawn by hand before being realised using a 3D printer.

She describes her design approach as "bridging image-manipulation techniques and digital manufacturing to create otherworldly objects that challenge the perception of reality."

Large took home the award at the Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony last week, which was held at Shoreditch Electric Light Station in London and was attended by shortlisted studios along with past and present judges.

"Large has developed a unique visual language that involves 3D-printing objects based on hand drawings, which she digitally distorts," the judges said.

"Ranging from furniture and homeware to abstract sculptures, the resulting pieces blur the line between art and design, digital and handcraft," they continued.

"After putting on her biggest solo show to date at this year's Milan design week with Nilufar Gallery, the judges are excited to see what boundaries Large will push next."

Notable projects by Large include Implicit Surfaces, a series of 3D-printed sculptures informed by digital graphics that aim to explore the relationship between both the virtual and physical worlds.

The collection, which was was on show at Nilufar Gallery during this year's Milan design week, features iridescent purple, green and yellow amorphous sculptures that resemble molten lava.

Large has also designed a digitally sculpted water fountain called Dusky Waters of Dripping Disasters.

The sculpture features surfaces that evolve over time, transitioning into varying shades of blue as ink-infused water flows along its contours.

Other work includes the lighting series Moments of Transfer, in which textures from images are applied to 3D-printed lamps using water-dipping processes.

The process involves objects being dipped into water with a layer of floating ink or paint, which adheres to the object's surface to enable the application of intricate patterns or textures onto the object's surface.

Large was up against four other designers in the emerging designer of the year category, including London-based designer Rio Kobayashi and design studio Johanna Seelemann.

The Designers of the Year were nominated and shortlisted by Dezeen Awards judges and Dezeen's editorial team.

A total of 31 studios, spanning 14 countries including South Africa, India, Nigeria and Mexico, were shortlisted for awards in six distinct Designers of the Year categories.

Each category's winner will be showcased in an exclusive video produced by Dezeen and sponsored by Bentley. The videos will be unveiled on Dezeen from November 30 to December 7.

Dezeen Awards 2023

Dezeen Awards celebrates the world's best architecture, interiors and design. Now in its sixth year, it has become the ultimate accolade for architects and designers across the globe. The annual awards are in partnership with Bentley Motors, as part of a wider collaboration that will see the brand work with Dezeen to support and inspire the next generation of design talent.

The post Audrey Large named emerging designer of the year at Dezeen Awards 2023 appeared first on Dezeen.

Spanish architect and designer Patricia Urquiola has been named interior designer of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony.

The Designers of the Year category rewards the best emerging and established talent across architecture, interiors and design. It recognises creatives whose innovative work has made a notable impact on the industry.

Urquiola was awarded the prize at the Dezeen Awards 2023 party last week, which was hosted in partnership with Bentley.

 

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Patricia Urquiola was named interior designer of the year at Dezeen Awards 2023

Born in Oviedo, Spain, Urquiola pursued her architectural education at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and later at the Politecnico di Milano in Milan, where she is currently based.

Throughout her studies, she was mentored by Italian architect and designer Achille Castiglioni.

Establishing her eponymous studio in 2001, Urquiola has since assumed the role of art director at the Italian furniture manufacturer Cassina, which she has held since 2015.

Urquiola regularly collaborates with various design companies, including Moroso, Kvadrat, Boffi and Flos.

The architect describes her design approach as "merging humanistic, technological and social approaches to find unexpected connections between the familiar and the unexplored."

She took home the award at the Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony last week, which was held at Shoreditch Electric Light Station in London and attended by shortlisted studios along with past and present judges.

"Recent projects have demonstrated a sensitive response to both contemporary and heritage environments, while adding Urquiola's signature colour contradictions, rich textures, flourishes of greenery and a strong dialogue between craft and the industrial," the judges said.

"Urquiola works across furniture and products, as well as architectural projects, yet it was her studio's interior projects that attracted the judges."

Urquiola was also selected as the winner of the hotel and short stay interior of the year category for Six Senses Rome, in which Urquiola converted a historic Roman palazzo into a luxury hotel.

Originally constructed in the 15th century, the space underwent a restoration by Urquiola, which uncovered a grand central staircase and a UNESCO-listed facade.

As a nod to the city's history, the designer incorporated plasterwork crafted from an ancient Roman building material called cocciopesto in the rooms, in which fragments of earthenware or brick were blended with lime and sand.

Urquiola also recently designed an exhibition to showcase the archive of Cassina's iMaestri furniture collection to mark its 50th anniversary, which took place at the Palazzo Broggi during Milan design week.

The exhibition featured pieces from renowned designers such as Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Urquiola was up against four other shortlisted designers in the interior designer of the year category, including Copenhagen-based designer David Thulstrup and Stockholm design studio Halleroed.

The Designers of the Year were nominated and shortlisted by Dezeen Awards judges and Dezeen's editorial team.

A total of 31 studios, spanning 14 countries including South Africa, India, Nigeria and Mexico, were shortlisted for awards in six distinct Designers of the Year categories.

Each category's winner will be showcased in an exclusive video produced by Dezeen and sponsored by Bentley. The videos will be unveiled on Dezeen from November 30 to December 7.

Dezeen Awards 2023

Dezeen Awards celebrates the world's best architecture, interiors and design. Now in its sixth year, it has become the ultimate accolade for architects and designers across the globe. The annual awards are in partnership with Bentley Motors, as part of a wider collaboration that will see the brand work with Dezeen to support and inspire the next generation of design talent.

The post Patricia Urquiola named interior designer of the year at Dezeen Awards 2023 appeared first on Dezeen.

The polycarbonate-lined Green House that architecture studio Hayhurst & Co slotted into a tight site in London has been named the RIBA's House of the Year for 2023.

Replacing an existing home in an alleyway in Tottenham, the plant and light-filled residence is modelled on a riad – a type of traditional Moroccan house built around a central courtyard.

It was hailed by the jury of this year's RIBA House of the Year prize as "a true oasis within the city".

"Green House, affectionately known as the 'Tottenham Riad', is a true oasis within the city," said jury chair Dido Milne, who is also director of Eton studio CSK Architects.

"It is both airy and cosy, bold yet respectful of its neighbours. Your eye is simultaneously drawn upwards to open sky and down and out across the living room to verdant greenery," she continued.

The House of the Year prize is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to the best one-off, architect-designed house in the UK.

Milne added that Green House was also chosen as the 2023 winner for the clients' and studio's joint ambition to "deliver a truly sustainable home", which "is evident in all of the design decisions and detailing" despite a tight budget.

"Nowhere do you feel the site or budget was restricted," she explained. "It feels both luxurious, homely, deeply private and relaxing. It's an extraordinary ordinary house and a remarkable collaboration."

Designed for a growing family, Green House comprises five bedrooms arranged around a skylit atrium. With views of gardens and a roof terrace, it is designed to maximise their connection to the outside and access to nature.

Standout details include the sliding polycarbonate screens across the exterior, which enable the family to adjust both the levels of privacy and ventilation.

Its material palette includes exposed cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls, reclaimed concrete blocks and recycled cork rubber flooring, while air-source heat pumps and solar panels are used for energy.

Green House came out top in a longlist of 20, whittled down to a shortlist of six that included Cowshed by David Kohn Architects – the studio that won last year's RIBA House of the Year.

Hundred Acre Wood by Denizen Works, Made of Sand by Studio Weave, Middle Avenue by Rural Office and Saltmarsh House by Niall McLaughlin Architects were also shortlisted.

This year's jury was made up of Milne alongside the co-founder of the architecture studio Coppin Dockray Architects, Bev Dockray, the co-founder of the architecture studio Al-Jawad Pike, Jessam Al-Jawad, and the co-founder of design-led estate agent The Modern House, Albert Hill.

"Built on a very tight budget, this generous five-bedroom family home in the Clyde Circus Conservation Area of Tottenham is an inspiring example of what can be achieved with a creative and ambitious approach to design," read their citation.

Previous winners of the RIBA House of the Year award include House on the Hill by Alison Brooks Architects and Caring Wood by architects James Macdonald Wright and Niall Maxwell.

The photography is by Kilian O'Sullivan.

The post "Extraordinary ordinary house" in London named UK's best new home appeared first on Dezeen.

Parisian studio Uchronia has been named emerging interior designer of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony.

The Designers of the Year category rewards the best emerging and established talent across architecture, interiors and design. It recognises those whose innovative work has made a notable impact on the industry.

Uchronia founder Julien Sebban picked up the prize at the Dezeen Awards 2023 party last week, which was hosted in partnership with Bentley.

 

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Uchronia was named emerging interior designer at Dezeen Awards 2023

Uchronia is a Paris-based multidisciplinary design collective founded by architect Sebban. The studio's work is characterised by a dynamic interplay of vibrant colours, undulating shapes and playfully eclectic designs.

It took its name from Uchronia, a term coined by 19th-century French philosopher Charles Renouvier that stands for an idealised or fictional representation of time.

The studio's choice of name was intended to mirror its work, which it says embodies the "contemplation of fictional and ephemeral time."

Uchronia specialises in transforming spaces into immersive and experiential environments and provides a range of services encompassing architecture, interior design and visual identity.

It has worked on an array of projects including restaurants, apartments and fashion shows.

Sebban took home the award at the Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony last week, which was held at Shoreditch Electric Light Station in London and was attended by shortlisted studios along with past and present judges.

"This studio has made a strong impact in the four years since it was set up," the judges said. "Its projects have a strong sense of identity, confidently mixing a contemporary design language with welcome retro touches."

"Sebban has consistently applied a playful and energetic repertoire of bold colours, striking patterns, amorphous forms and undulating lines to notable restaurant projects, as well as residential and retail spaces," they continued.

Uchronia's projects include Forest Marseille, a seafront restaurant that was designed to encapsulate the "warmth and authenticity" of the south of France.

The restaurant is steeped in a rich palette of clay, ochre and terracotta hues and is adorned with lime-dipped decor, glazed bricks, olive wood formwork and starfish-shaped wall lights.

The studio also designed a series of coffee shops for Parisian coffee roaster Café Nuances, which are characterised by their vibrant, retro-futuristic interiors.

Each coffee shop has its own distinct identity, but all share characteristics such as saturated colours, striated shapes, lacquered shelving and stainless steel counters to create a "dreamlike" ambience.

During Paris Design Week 2023, Uchronia took over the orangery and garden of Hôtel de Sully for its Think Pink installation, which showcased a collection of colourful outdoor furniture with playful silhouettes.

Uchronia was up against four other shortlisted studios in the emerging interior designer of the year category, including London studio Sella Concept and Australian interiors practice YSG.

The Designers of the Year were nominated and shortlisted by Dezeen Awards judges and Dezeen's editorial team. A total of 31 studios, spanning 14 countries including South Africa, India, Nigeria and Mexico, were shortlisted for awards in six distinct Designers of the Year categories.

Each category's winner will be showcased in an exclusive video produced by Dezeen and sponsored by Bentley. The videos will be unveiled on Dezeen from November 30 to December 7.

Dezeen Awards 2023

Dezeen Awards celebrates the world's best architecture, interiors and design. Now in its sixth year, it has become the ultimate accolade for architects and designers across the globe. The annual awards are in partnership with Bentley Motors, as part of a wider collaboration that will see the brand work with Dezeen to support and inspire the next generation of design talent.

The post Uchronia named emerging interior designer of the year at Dezeen Awards 2023 appeared first on Dezeen.

Swedish studio White Arkitekter has been named architect of the year at this week's Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony.

Designers of the Year rewards the best emerging and established talent across architecture, interiors and design. It recognises those whose innovative work has made a notable impact on the industry.

On behalf of the studio, CEO Alexandra Hagen picked up the prize at the Dezeen Awards 2023 party this week, which was hosted in partnership with Bentley.

 

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White Arkitekter was named architect of the year at Dezeen Awards 2023

White Arkitekter is an employee-owned design collective currently led by Hagen. With a tenure at the firm dating back to 2001, Hagen has held various roles, including international and regional director, before assuming the position of CEO in 2018.

Founded in 1951 by Sidney White in Gothenburg, the firm undertakes projects ranging from timber buildings to urban planning initiatives, all of which focus on sustainability, social impact and human-centric design.

Comprising over 700 employees across offices in Sweden, Norway, the UK, Canada and east Africa, the practice demonstrates its commitment to "collective thinking and participation" with 77 per cent of its workforce actively owning the organisation.

One of White Arkitekter's guiding principles is to "enable sustainable life through the art of architecture." In 2020, the firm pledged that every building it designs will be carbon neutral by 2030.

Hagen took home the award at the Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony this week, which was held at Shoreditch Electric Light Station in London and was attended by shortlisted studios along with past and present judges.

"Scandinavia's largest architecture practice has the thoughtful output that you would expect of a much smaller studio," the judges said.

"Over 70 years since it was founded, the shared-ownership studio is a leading voice in the drive towards more sustainable buildings."

Amongst its notable projects is Sara Cultural Centre, a mass-timber building in Skellefteå, Sweden. Standing at 75 metres tall, the building features the world's second-tallest wooden tower.

Constructed from a combination of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glued laminated timber (glulam), the building is powered by renewable sources including a geothermal heat pump and solar panels.

According to the firm's 50-year lifecycle analysis, the building sequesters twice as much carbon as the embodied carbon emitted during its construction and has a projected lifespan of at least 100 years.

The firm has designed a multitude of hospitals and healthcare facilities, such as the Queen Silvia Children's Hospital in Gothenburg, which features playful design elements throughout the building to support children's development.

This includes climbing sculptures, play-therapy rooms, colourful signage and vibrant artwork, which aim to reduce any sense of intimidation upon entering the hospital.

Additionally, the hospital houses a temperature-controlled winter garden intended for children not well enough to venture outside. The space features expansive glazings that enable daylight to flood the space, creating a feeling of warmth and of being outdoors.

The studio recently completed the first wooden office building in Gothenburg called Nodi, which was designed to showcase the structural possibilities of wood.

The timber-framed building was designed in an "upside-down" configuration reminiscent of an inverted ziggurat. The building incorporates a series of cantilevers, which facilitate an incremental expansion of floor plates across the five storeys.

White Arkitekter was up against four other shortlisted studios in the architect of the year category, including French-Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh and US architecture firm MASS Design Group.

The Designers of the Year were nominated and shortlisted by Dezeen Awards judges and Dezeen's editorial team. A total of 31 studios, spanning 14 countries including South Africa, India, Nigeria and Mexico, were shortlisted for awards in six distinct Designers of the Year categories.

Each category's winner will be showcased in an exclusive video produced by Dezeen and sponsored by Bentley. The videos will be unveiled on Dezeen from November 30 to December 7.

Dezeen Awards 2023

Dezeen Awards celebrates the world's best architecture, interiors and design. Now in its sixth year, it has become the ultimate accolade for architects and designers across the globe. The annual awards are in partnership with Bentley Motors, as part of a wider collaboration that will see the brand work with Dezeen to support and inspire the next generation of design talent.

The post White Arkitekter named architect of the year at Dezeen Awards 2023 appeared first on Dezeen.

South African architect Sumayya Vally has been named emerging architect of the year at this week's Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony.

The Designers of the Year rewards the best emerging and established talent across architecture, interiors and design. It recognises those whose innovative work has made a notable impact on the industry.

Vally picked up the prize at the Dezeen Awards 2023 party this week, which was hosted in partnership with Bentley.

 

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Sumayya Vally was named emerging architect of the year at Dezeen Awards 2023

Growing up in Pretoria, Vally studied architecture in Johannesburg and in 2015 founded her own interdisciplinary studio Counterspace. The studio specialises in architecture and research with offices in Johannesburg and London.

In an interview with Dezeen, Vally explained that her studio was founded out of a desire to create the type of architecture she felt was missing from her formal education.

Vally was recently named one of Time magazine's 100 leaders of the future and was appointed as artistic director of the first Islamic Arts Biennale, which took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The event aims to celebrate Islamic art and culture while exploring "spirituality in the aesthetic realm" in a bid to build an understanding of both Muslim art and the wider Muslim world.

Vally took home the award at the Dezeen Awards 2023 ceremony this week, which was held at Shoreditch Electric Light Station in London and was attended by shortlisted studios along with past and present judges.

"An emerging star, South African architect Sumayya Vally is one of the world's most exciting young architects," said the judges.

"She has gone from strength to strength, designing installations and bridges as well as being artistic director for the first Islamic Arts Biennale. Expect big things in the future."

At 30, Vally went on to become the youngest architect to be commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery to design its annual architecture pavilion in 2021.

The pavilion is made up of abstract elements and details informed by the architecture of London's migrant communities.

The structure was designed to have a minimal carbon footprint and reportedly absorbed 31 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere, according to construction consultant AECOM.

Another recent project by Vally is the Asiat-Darse bridge in Belgium, which comprises a series of boat-like forms tied together to form the bridge's undulating structure.

The pedestrian bridge, which was developed as a homage to the Congolese agriculturist Paul Panda Farnana, was informed by the sculptural form of "the water architectures of the Congo".

Vally was up against five other shortlisted studios in the emerging architect of the year category, including Niger-based Atelier Masōmī and Austrian firm Studio Precht.

The Designers of the Year were nominated and shortlisted by Dezeen Awards judges and Dezeen's editorial team.

A total of 31 studios, spanning 14 countries including South Africa, India, Nigeria and Mexico, were shortlisted for awards in six distinct Designers of the Year categories.

Each category's winner will be showcased in an exclusive video produced by Dezeen and sponsored by Bentley. The videos will be unveiled on Dezeen from November 30 to December 7.

Dezeen Awards 2023

Dezeen Awards celebrates the world's best architecture, interiors and design. Now in its sixth year, it has become the ultimate accolade for architects and designers across the globe. The annual awards are in partnership with Bentley Motors, as part of a wider collaboration that will see the brand work with Dezeen to support and inspire the next generation of design talent.

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Bathroom manufacturer Kaldewei has collaborated with artist Bethan Laura Wood to create a series of eye-catching bathroom fixtures, showcased in this video produced for the brand by Dezeen.

Titled Avocado Dreams, the collection reimagines four key fixtures from Kaldewei's catalogue of products, incorporating colourful swirling patterns.

 

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Wood created three colourways to adorn the fixture's surfaces: a blue-toned Avocado Sea, a pastel green Avocado Swirl and a vibrant multicoloured mix called Avocado Disco.

The patterns were used to decorate the brand's bathroom accessories, including the Meisterstück Centro Duo Oval free-standing bathtub, the Superplan Zero shower tray, the Miena washbasin and the Meisterstück Oyo Duo bathtub.

Each item in the collection is made from 100-per-cent recyclable steel enamel and is plastic free.

According to the brand, each piece can be returned and reprocessed at the end of its life, as part of a commitment to circular design principles.

The range continues Kaldewei's history of partnering with creatives from across the art and design world. Previous collaborations include a series of fully enamelled bathtubs designed with Sottsass Associati and a range of steel enamel bathroom objects designed with photographer and musician Bryan Adams.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen as part of a partnership with Kaldewei. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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A university building by architecture studio Page\Park, which is shortlisted for the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award, is the focus of this video produced by Stephenson&.

It is the final film in a series published by Dezeen this month with the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), spotlighting the award's 2023 shortlist ahead of the winner announcement next week.

Stephenson& guides viewers in and around the building, named Campus Central, which marries a refurbished 1970s structure with a modern extension and a landscaped forecourt.

Page\Park director Ana Teresa Cristobal, one of two interviewees in the film, explained that establishing the pedestrianised space outside was key to the project as this area was previously "a really busy roundabout" inaccessible to pedestrians.

"A part of the masterplan work that we did was, first up, to try to empty this of cars and bring this beautiful room in between these two very important buildings of the campus back into use," Cristobal explained.

"This created an external living room, in which the university could do work and programme it like they would do any other room."

Another university building on this year's four-strong shortlist is the Laidlaw Music Centre at the University of St Andrews, which Flanagan Lawrence's co-founder Jason Flanagan said is designed from "the point of view of the performer".

The pair are vying against two houses, one by Ann Nisbet Studio that incorporates a ruin and another by Denizen Work that is intended to resemble an object "eroded by the weather".

The RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award is held annually to celebrate the works of Scottish architects. This year's winner will be revealed on 30 November and receive a £10,000 cash prize.

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This exclusive video produced by Dezeen features The Perch, architect Nicole Blair's elevated house extension in Austin, which was designed to maximise living space.

As its name suggests, the structure is perched just two feet above the roof of the existing home to minimise disturbance to the residence below.

Blair clad the guesthouse in weathering-steel panels and added wood-framed windows provided by Windsor Windows & Doors. The Burnt Pumpkin colour of the windows was selected to complement the Corten-steel exterior.

 

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The structure spans 660 square feet and consists of an irregularly shaped steel volume supported by four columns.

The assembly of the steel structure took place offsite, in order to minimise disruption to the mature vegetation on the premises and reduce on-site material storage.

The architect designed the interior of the guesthouse to have a bright, airy atmosphere and adorned it with colourful accents.

It features wood flooring supplied and installed by local company Artisan Hardwood Floors, which was complemented with pink cabinetry and exposed plumbing fittings throughout the home.

The materials used for the wood flooring were a mix of pre-finished plain and rift-sawn white oak, excess wood recycled from a larger project by the company.

The first floor of the guesthouse encompasses an open-concept kitchen, living room and dining area with compact footprints and vaulted ceilings for an increased sense of space.

The upper level includes a room facing the street and another overlooking the backyard, designated for use as a guest bedroom and a hair salon for one of the owners who is a hairstylist.

The photography is by Casey Dunn.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for Windsor Windows & Doors and Artisan Hardwood Floors as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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This video produced by Stephenson& spotlights a rural house by Glaswegian practice Ann Nisbet Studio, which is shortlisted for this year's RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award.

It is the third short film published this month by Dezeen with the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) and Stephenson& to spotlight the award's four-strong shortlist for 2023.

In the video, the house named Cuddymoss can be seen within its context, adjoined by a former stone ruin and animated by changing shadows over the course of the day.

Over the top of the footage, Ann Nisbet Studio's founder describes the ambition for the home, which was primarily to preserve as much of the 200-year-old ruin as possible.

"It was important that we retained as much of the ruin as possible and that we didn't try and put it back to kind of romanticised version of what you might assume it would have been 200 years ago," Ann Nisbet said.

"And any extension or alteration or intervention that we did, we wanted it to sit in harmony with the ruin, we didn't want either part to be more important than the other."

The 2023 winner of the Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award will be announced on 30 November and receive a cash prize of £10,000.

Alongside Cuddymoss, another house vying to win the prize overlooks a loch and was designed by Denizen Works to resemble an object "eroded by the weather".

The other two projects on the four-strong shortlist are university buildings – one is Campus Central at the University of Stirling and the other is Laidlaw Music Centre at the University of St Andrews.

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Designer Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian has created a film, shown exclusively on Dezeen, to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the Tour de Moon touring festival, which formed part of the UK's Unboxed festival.

The film documents Tour de Moon, which took place in 2022 and was one of 10 projects commissioned as part of the government-funded Unboxed: Creativity in the UK.

Launched as a celebration of UK creativity in the wake of Brexit, the event was initially known as Festival UK* 2022 and was nicknamed the Festival of Brexit.

"It was a controversial festival in many ways – with Brexit, Covid and the overall divisive political national context at its inception," Ben Hayoun told Dezeen.

"A lot has been written about it, but we wanted to have a film that will tell it how we saw it, how it was from our perspectives – the people who made it," she continued.

"The Tour de Moon documentary documents what we did and how we did it; it celebrates new beginnings, youth countercultures and nightlife but also celebrating the multiple individuals who took part in the making of this festival."

The touring festival of free live events was created to champion nightlife and youth counterculture.

It featured numerous creatives aged between 18 to 25 who each submitted proposals to the festival and were funded by bursaries worth between £100 and £3,000. In total, £1 million worth of bursaries were distributed.

Some of the events and installations are included in the film, along with the behind-the-scenes creation process.

"You get to see some of the commissioned artworks from more than 800 artists, but also the decentralised experimental production processes, decolonial practices, experiences and creative programmes behind our travelling convoy and festival," explained Ben Hayoun.

"It is an urgent call to action, a call for plurality in time of division, it is both chaos and radical imagination – the chaos of putting such production of that scale together with such a short timeframe, but also the coexistence of thousands of people involved from contributors to participants and digital collaborators."

Creating the film also allowed Ben Hayoun to reflect on the impact of the festival, which commissioned 800 young creatives.

"For a majority of the 18 to 25-year-old contributors, this was their first paid creative commission," she said.

"But let's be real here, one million pounds of bursaries divided by 800 recipients, it doesn't add up to a massive amount – so it's not like we have resolved the situation for creatives in towns and cities throughout the UK," she continued.

"But it's a starting point to bring youths and nightlife workers to the front of national and international debates with regards to public support policies, and also to give them the platform that they deserve and frankly they own."

Looking back, she also thinks that the festival's format could have been better designed to have more of an impact.

"Possibly I would do a little less as it makes communication hard when you have such a breadth of programmes, but having said that, I think the best part of this project is also that we did a lot of various programmes and that meant something for everyone to participate," said Ben Hayoun.

"There was a true experimental value in having this as a touring festival, being always nomadic in its nature, but we could have reached more audiences by staying a little longer in each of the locations that is for sure – so maybe something for the future!"

The festival was recently longlisted in the installation design category of this year's Dezeen Awards. Ben Hayoun is currently working on a new film called Doppelgangers, which is to be released in 2024.

The film will be available on Dezeen until the end of 2024.

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This video by Stephenson& offers a glimpse inside Laidlaw Music Centre by architecture studio Flanagan Lawrence, which is in the running for this year's RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award.

The film is the second in a series of videos being published by Dezeen this month with the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) to spotlight the award's 2023 shortlist.

In the short film, Stephenson& captures how music students are using the space at the University of St Andrews while Flanagan Lawrence's co-founder Jason Flanagan tells the story behind it.

Specifically, Flanagan sheds light on how the design was developed in response to historic infrastructure and trees on the site, but also based on how it might sound to its users.

"We approached the design of the building from the inside out," said Flanagan.

"When you're designing for musical spaces, you have to start from the point of view of the performer and the audience and then design the room as much as anything about the way it's going to sound for them as how it's going to look."

Held annually by RIAS, the Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award celebrates the works of Scottish architects. The 2023 winner will be announced on 30 November and receive a cash prize of £10,000.

Laidlaw Music Centre at the University of St Andrews is one of two university buildings vying for the title. The other is Campus Central at the University of Stirling.

The other two projects on the four-strong shortlist are residential – a house that incorporates a ruin and a castle-like dwelling overlooking a loch.

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Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Felicita Gāga has turned the practice of doomscrolling into a digital outfit.

The project, called Threads of Influence, centres around "a digital dress made of social media noise, similarly uncomfortable to embrace and yet too addictive to let go of completely".

Gāga wanted to create a wearable design that embodied the sheer volume of digital content she experiences on a daily basis.

"If I am bombarded with this social media content every day without actively choosing it, why can't I incorporate these influences into something as personal as clothing?" she told Dezeen.

Using green-screen technology, Gāga has produced a film that shows a young woman wearing her digital dress. Its appearance is constantly changing, as it cycles through different visuals.

In the initial scenes, the dress takes the form of various traditional Latvian folk outfits.

As time goes on, these images are replaced by a fast-moving feed of images and videos that reflect the type of content that Gāga is typically fed on her social media feeds.

The content becomes increasingly random and noisy, featuring a vast range of YouTube DIY tutorials, music videos, television clips, memes, celebrity content and animal videos.

"I wanted to turn my research into a story that's deeply personal, one that reflects my own experiences with scrolling through digital content," the designer explained.

"My goal was to create a modern folk tale that could connect with people today, especially those who use social media."

Gāga had originally intended to design a physical fashion collection.

She planned to explore how traditional Latvian folkwear could be fused with contemporary streetwear. However, she found it difficult to detach the historic designs from their original context.

This is because the colours, patterns and shapes of these garments were not just aesthetic choices, but designed according to the resources that were readily available from the surrounding landscape.

She decided to adopt the same approach, but instead of drawing from the physical landscape, she used the digital world as the source for her dress design.

"I came to realise that my phone is an integral part of my immediate reality," she said. "I wanted to be honest about that and showcase the 'new digital nature' that I live in."

She hopes the design will draw attention to the way that social-media culture shapes the way people experience the world.

"The rapid editing of the scrolling evokes empathy for the young woman, as she is constantly bombarded with new information that she must carry with her," she said.

Threads of Influence is Gāga's graduation project from the Bachelor programme at Design Academy Eindhoven and was on show as part of the school's exhibition during Dutch Design Week.

The designer created the visuals for the dress by manually stitching together visuals and clips, but she is interested in exploring whether the design could be automatically generated from a live feed.

With digital fashion now a fast-growing industry – with its very own fashion week – she believes the design could be replicated in a video game or metaverse environment.

"I can imagine people dressing up in my digital dress at metaverse rave parties," Gāga added. "And if Mark Zuckerberg were to extend an invitation for a metaverse meeting, you can be certain that I'd proudly wear this dress."

Another Design Academy Eindhoven graduate, Hsin Min Chan, has designed a dress that aims to make its wearer unapproachable.

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A castle-like house by London studio Denizen Works that is vying for the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award is the focus of this video, produced by Stephenson&.

The short film is the first in a series being published by Dezeen this month with the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) to spotlight the award's 2023 shortlist.

Stephenson& captured the monolithic, sculpted form of Hundred Acre Wood and how it sits within its dramatic surroundings while also offering a glimpse of its spacious interior.

Throughout, Denizen Works founder Murray Kerr explained how his studio came to develop "the language of the building" from a blank canvas by following sun and wind patterns.

"We started to talk about, well, what if the house is almost a kind of found solid and then gets eroded by the weather," he said.

"Which is why the west elevation that faces the prevailing winds is much more kind of broken down and the rest of the house."

The Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award is held annually by RIAS to celebrate the works of Scottish architects. This year's winner will be announced on 30 November and receive a £10,000 cash prize.

Two university buildings – Campus Central at the University of Stirling and Laidlaw Music Centre at the University of St Andrews – are also vying for the title of Scotland's best building for 2023.

The final project on the four-strong shortlist is a house that incorporates a ruin, which was longlisted in the rural house category of the Dezeen Awards 2023.

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Reef structures made from human ashes and accessories created from fermented vegan leather feature in this video by Dezeen for Dutch Design Week of the BioArt Laboratories exhibition.

Taking place in Eindhoven, the exhibition brought together a diverse range of projects exploring biotechnology, sustainability and human's relationship with nature.

 

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The video showcases projects at BioArt Laboratories

Projects featured in the exhibition include Resting Reef by Aura Murillo and Louise Skajem. Described as "a sustainable death care service", Resting Reef would see loved one's ashes transformed into oceanic reef structures.

The design start-up created a method in which human ashes are combined with crushed shells to create an organic material base.

This formula would then be 3D-printed into a custom reef culture, which would be installed in a selected marine site to encourage new growth of marine life and habitats.

Designers Murillo and Skajem wanted to address the unsustainable nature of modern Western burial practices, which often use highly toxic chemicals that leach into earth and water sources.

Another project in the exhibition was MycoPunk by designers Poorva Shrivastava and Clara Degez, who introduced a vegan leather alternative created from fermented bacteria.

The duo created a material and method that could be easily shared and reproduced, envisioning a future where people can create what they need themselves, rather than relying on consumer culture.

The fabric was made of a sheet of fermented bacterial cellulose, which was coloured with natural dyes and coated with plant oils to give it water-repellent properties. The plant leather was used by the designers to create wallets, purses and lampshades.

Visitors could take samples of the fermented culturing liquid used in the process to conduct their own experiments at home.

Environmental artist Theo Rekelhof created a kinetic art installation called Soil Symphony, which investigated the damaging effects of monoculture.

The installation was created in response to the increasing issue of soil degradation, where there is a decline in soil quality and nutrients usually caused by harmful agriculture practices.

According to the UN, all of the world's topsoil could become unproductive within 60 years if current rates of loss were to continue.

The kinetic sculpture was made up of spinning records that were topped with wooden cut-outs of plants, while broken pieces of speaker equipment were suspended by wires from a supporting frame.

Segments of the record's music were stuck in repetition and became more distorted as the record scratch deepened.

Using the metaphor of scratched records stuck on repeat, Rekelhof wanted to show the absurd and damaging effects of modern agriculture practices on the landscape.

The BioArts Laboratories exhibition is open to the public until 29 October as part of Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.

This video is part of a series of reels Dezeen is producing during the design week, highlighting the best projects from the design fair.

Dutch Design Week 2023 takes place from 21 to 29 October in Eindhoven. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for Dutch Design Foundation as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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A stainless steel cow that produces vegan milk and a vertical farm designed for space feature in this video of the Spacefarming exhibition created by Dezeen for Dutch Design Week.

The exhibition, which was created by Next Nature and Embassy of Food, explored farms of the future and how designers can respond to the growing need for more food.

Taking place at the Evoluon museum in Eindhoven, the exhibition explored the role designers can play in creating the food industry of the future, along with how to create new agricultural resources and viable food chains on Earth and in space.

 

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The show featured work from designers and experts hailing from multidisciplinary backgrounds, including scientists and farmers, who reflected on the existing food industry and proposed new social and sustainable ways of designing for the future.

Belgian food-tech company Those Vegan Cowboys introduced a lifesize stainless steel cow that produces vegan milk and cheese six times more efficiently than livestock.

The exhibit explained how cow's stomachs contain microbes which, through the process of fermentation, turn grass into dairy without the need for a real animal.

The Lighthouse by Dutch design duo 4F Studio is a bioreactor that makes use of the light pollution caused by streetlights to grow algae and, in turn, grow plant food rich in fats and protein.

The designers proposed that the "residual light" of city streetlights would mimic photosynthesis and enable cyanobacteria to thrive and continue their production throughout the night.

According to the designers, the bioreactor would be capable of producing the equivalent of two lettuces-worth of nutrition in one night alone, which could accelerate the rate at which food is produced in the future.

IKEA's design innovation lab Space10 created a vertical farm designed for use in space, which grew microgreens and young vegetable plants intended to be eaten when they first began to produce leaves.

The greens would be easy and quick to grow and would contain a high concentration of nutrients, vitamins and antioxidants.

Designer Laila Snevele's Sensetopia concept imagined a future in which we are able to design our senses according to specific health concerns, such as being able to sense UV light or air pollution.

Focussed on food and health, the project explored the future of sensory wearable technology that would enable users to detect unhealthy ingredients and sugar levels in the food we consume.

This video is the second in a series of reels Dezeen is producing during the design week, highlighting the best projects from the design fair.

Dutch Design Week 2023 takes place from 21 to 29 October in Eindhoven. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

Top image courtesy of Dutch Design Week. 

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for Dutch Design Foundation as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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A running shoe designed for use on Mars and a meditative water installation feature in this video by Dezeen, which showcases student projects from Design Academy Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week.

The graduation show brought together over 200 projects from bachelor's and master's students, which were exhibited in the Heuvel shopping centre in Eindhoven.

Projects featured in the show spanned diverse themes, ranging from futuristic product designs to speculative proposals and community-focussed work.

 

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Bachelor's graduate Nolan Le Goff created a running shoe designed to be used on Mars called Red Comet, which was designed to respond to the environmental challenges of the planet.

The shoe was fitted with weights to counteract the detrimental effects of Mars' low-gravity atmosphere, which is only 38 per cent as strong as the Earth's gravitational pull.

The weighted design was intended to simulate the same physical exertion as a user exercising on Earth feels.

Postgraduate student Ankit Kumar Singh's Its Delivery Time project aimed to address the often dehumanising struggles that delivery food drivers experience.

Singh created a portable, hand-pushed cart, which offers refreshments and acts as a service point for delivery drivers throughout the city.

The concept aimed to open up a dialogue between drivers and the wider public, who often are alienated from one another. Singh worked with local drivers and restaurants to create a service tailored to their needs.

The show also included large-scale installations, such as Dace Sūna's Cosmic Dancer concept. The immersive installation took the form of a large hanging lamp placed over a sensory water pool, around which visitors were seated.

Sūna invited viewers to focus on the the changing water drop cycles at the centre of the piece, which created a meditative experience intended to provoke viewers into contemplating the cycles of creation, preservation, destruction and rebirth.

Other exhibited projects included a card game designed to raise awareness about burnout, a video installation exploring cognitive tension around pornography and erotica, as well as a display showcasing traditional Ugandan methods of creating cloth from tree bark.

This video is the first in a series of reels Dezeen is producing during the design week, highlighting the best projects from the design fair.

Dutch Design Week 2023 takes place from 21 to 29 October in Eindhoven. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for Dutch Design Foundation as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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A hotel overlooking a Japanese castle and a neurodiversity-friendly office building are among the winners of Shaw Contract's 2023 Design Awards, revealed in this video produced for the brand by Dezeen.

Global flooring company Shaw Contract recognised five winners in the 18th edition of its Design Awards, which celebrate impactful living, working, learning and healing interior spaces around the world.

 

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In total, five Best of Globe winners were chosen by a panel of design professionals from 39 regional winners, which had been narrowed down from over 650 project submissions from 40 countries.

The winners include architecture studio Tatsuro Sasaki, which won an award for its OMO5 Kumamoto by Hoshino Resorts hotel built on Mount Chausu in Kumamoto City, Japan.

The hotel is located in the city centre overlooking Kumamoto Castle and is nestled in amongst the landscape to blend in with its surroundings.

Four workplace designs were also recognised, including Boston Consulting Group's headquarters in Toronto designed by HOK.

The office features ample open spaces to flood it with natural light and is equipped with circadian lighting to follow people's natural rhythms and improve productivity.

Another winner was the 345 North Morgan office design by Eckenhoff Saunders, which is located adjacent to Chicago's metro tracks. The design of the office was informed by classic railway stations and draws from the neighbourhood's rich industrial history.

Other winners include Swot Design Group's Naelofar Office in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, which was designed to foster relationships and collaboration in the workplace.

It features meeting rooms with operable glass panels that can be rearranged to open up spaces for functions such as training sessions or events.

Rezen Studio's Newmont office in Subiaco, Australia also received an award, which Shaw Contract described as an example of "the rapidly evolving office typology which responds to the changes in which businesses are operating".

"We believe that design has the power to shape the world around us and create a better future for both people and the planet," said Shaw Contract.

"That's why the Shaw Contract Design Awards programme is so important to us. It allows celebration of the designers who share our commitment to creating a positive impact in all interior spaces."

Each winner was awarded a $2,000 USD charitable donation in the name of their studio to an organisation of their choice. They also received a trophy designed by Singapore-based artist Kelly Limerick using recyclable Shaw Contract's recycled yarn.

Find out more about all of the winners on the Shaw Contract Design Awards website.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for Shaw Contract as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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Design and fabrication firm Madera has unveiled its latest showroom in Los Angeles, which was designed to showcase wood flooring and millwork products and has been captured in this exclusive video produced by Dezeen.

The West Coast hub, which is Madera's second showroom, is located in the Arts District of Los Angeles while its flagship showroom is in New York City.

 

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The showroom features a selection of wood products ranging from the brand's signature wide-plank Thrasher flooring to custom cabinetry and benches.

The space, which was converted from a former metal foundry into a showroom, aims to encourage clients to embrace wood and view it as an essential and natural element in design.

The entryway features bespoke Douglas fir tables and benches, while the living room space has made-to-order Thrasher cabinetry showcasing the various finishes the brand offers.

The kitchen displays a large custom island combining Madera's Dogwood Ash and Travertine finishes, while a nearby conference room houses the brand's Abechi Façade cladding in black.

Madera's mission is to bring the natural beauty of wood into the spaces their clients inhabit to "redefine its place in the modern home", according to the brand.

Its Los Angeles wood shop, where custom stair parts and millwork elements are produced, is located only a short distance from its showroom.

The brand recently launched its Seamless Wood Design system, which aims to ensure wooden products in an interior all complement each other.

The system was created to offer designers and homeowners a customisable option that enables them to retain the character of wood throughout an interior.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for Madera as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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Norwegian designer Lars Beller Fjetland explains how his fully recyclable Bello! bench created for Hydro aims to showcase the possibilities of extruded aluminium in this exclusive video produced by Dezeen.

Designed in collaboration with Shapes by Hydro – a knowledge hub created by aluminium producer Hydro – the bench is made from nearly 90 per cent recycled and 100 per cent recyclable aluminium, according to the designer.

"I wanted to make something that was extremely robust, and for me, aluminium was the answer," Beller Fjetland told Dezeen. "It has all these amazing properties that make it a super durable material, especially when you introduce it in an anodised finish."

Beller Fjetland and Hydro recently presented the latest colourway of the bench in forest green during the Material Matters Fair during London Design Festival, where Beller Fjetland spoke to Dezeen about the collaboration.

He cited forest landscapes as a source of inspiration when creating the vibrant green seat.

"I was just walking in the forest and contemplating aluminium as a material, and I was thinking about having a light impact or a low footprint in nature," Beller Fjetland said.

"Green just felt really fitting. It can also be a cliche, in a way, to think about green, but I think for us it really works."

The bench is characterised by its ridged surface, which Beller Fjetland explained was informed by the shape of penne rigate pasta.

"One of the things we discussed was how can we make the concept of extrusions accessible for as many people as possible," Beller Fjetland explained in the video.

"That's where I started to think about the analogy with the pasta, because the manufacturing technique is surprisingly similar."

The bench is manufactured using a similar extrusion process to how dried pasta shapes are formed. For the Bello! bench, molten metal is poured through a moulded opening to create a ridged surface.

"You're pushing the material through a die, which creates a form and, visually, it looks like a penne rigate or a rigatoni pasta," Beller Fjetland explained.

The bench, which was designed for both inside and outdoor use, features a hard-wearing finish making it suitable for high-traffic settings such as public transportation hubs.

"What is interesting with aluminium is that it is a material that has an inherent value in itself, which kind of makes circularity way easier," Beller Fjetland said. "There's an incentive there to actually recycle the material, because it has a monetary value."

"The beautiful thing is that the energy needed to recycle aluminium to make new material is very low. It makes me believe that recycled material doesn't have to be a compromise," he continued.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for Shapes by Hydro as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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Samsung's flagship experience store in New York City, which has been captured in this exclusive video produced by Dezeen, has been designed to enable visitors to envision living in a smart home.

Located in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, the Samsung 837 store is described by the brand as an "interactive playground" and allows visitors to interact with Samsung's latest connected home devices.

 

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Located on the second floor, the SmartThings Home section allows visitors to test its connected products in a simulated smart home environment.

The section features a connected kitchen where products, such as Samsung's Bespoke Refrigerator, are on display, allowing users to test its touchscreen capabilities.

The store also features a gaming lounge in which visitors can use consoles to play games in real-time.

Additionally, the SmartThings Home section includes a children's bedroom, which features a projector where visitors can experience watching movies in bed.

Samsung customers can download its SmartThings app to connect and monitor all of their smart home devices in one place. Users can monitor their energy consumption in a bid to reduce their energy bills using the SmartThings Energy activation within the app.

Also exhibited in the space is Samsung's Bespoke service, which allows visitors to customise Samsung products to suit their individual style, including custom colour combinations and finishes.

Samsung uses the flagship experience store to host a variety of talks and events throughout the year. Recently, Dezeen partnered with Samsung to host a live panel discussion in the flagship store, exploring the topics of technology and sustainability.

The talk was moderated by Dezeen's US editor Ben Dreith and featured a panel including Barent Roth, Matthew Spencer and Claudia Santos, who discussed how connected homes can enable more sustainable lifestyles.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Samsung as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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German brand Neff's new range of built-in home appliances was designed to offer users greater flexibility in their kitchens, says head of design Ralf Grobleben in this exclusive video produced by Dezeen for the brand.

The Neff Collection can be customised to let users tailor the appearance of their appliances according to personal tastes, as well as allowing them to select the way in which they operate and interact with them.

"The kitchen is the most individual room in your home," Grobleben said in the video. "With our new solution Flex, the idea was to give people the opportunity to choose how to operate their appliance and to choose the colours in their kitchen."

The Flex Control feature offers users the option to operate their appliances either via touchscreen controls or via a new device called Twist Pad Flex, a pocket-sized dial that provides a haptic experience when cooking with the brand's appliances.

The magnetic dial can be placed onto the appliances in the collection, such as ovens, hobs and coffee machines, which instantly recognise its presence and respond to its movements.

When the dial is not in use or is removed, the appliances automatically revert to touchscreen control, making them easier to clean than an appliance with buttons and dials.

Flex Control allows different residents of the same home to control their appliances in various ways according to personal preferences.

"You can decide if you use it via a touch, via one knob or two knobs, on the left or on the right-hand side," Grobleben explained.

Flex Design is a selection of trims and panels for Neff appliances that come in a variety of colours including Brushed Bronze, Deep Black, Metallic Silver and Anthracite Grey.

The trims and panels can be changed without the need to reinstall the appliance and can be easily swapped to offer maximum customisation.

"Often design is made just for one person or just one target group in the kitchen," Grobleben said. "And we said no, there are different people inside of a household and we want to give these people the ability to choose."

Flex Design is compatible with Neff's signature Slide & Hide oven, a space-saving oven with a door that can be fully hidden underneath the appliance when open.

The oven, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, is known for being used by contestants on The Great British Bake Off television show.

"We try to find solutions that always give some kind of positive surprise to people," Grobleben said.

With the Neff Collection, the brand aims to expand the lifecycle of its products to enable users to update their appearance and functionality in line with changing tastes.

"We are doing design in a different way. We are doing it for the long term," Grobleben explained. "With Flex Design, you don't have to throw away the whole appliance, you can just change the colour if you want."

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen as part of a partnership with Neff. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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In this exclusive video for Dezeen, filmmaker and architect Liam Young talks about his latest exhibition, Planetary Redesign, which explores solutions for climate change.

"My job as a designer and a filmmaker is one of science visualization," explains Young in the video. "I tell stories about the global, urban and architectural implications of new technologies."

The exhibition features two films, The Great Endeavor and Planet City, which focus on two separate speculative solutions for climate change.

The Great Endeavor depicts a future where people are building massive-scale wind farms in the ocean and solar farms in the desert to help cut carbon emissions.

It looks at "the design and creation of a planetary network of carbon removal machines. And this really represents our generation's moon landing," Young said.

Planet City, meanwhile, envisions a city that could house the entire population of Earth in 2050. It would be surrounded by a "global-scale national Park."

Both films are on show as part of the Planetary Redesign exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), for which Young spoke to Dezeen's China editor Christina Yao about how he is "filled with dread" over climate change.

Liam Young: Planetary Redesign is on show until 11 February 2024 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Fed Square, Melbourne, Australia. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Electronics company Sony introduces its HT-AX7 portable home theatre speaker system in this exclusive video produced for the brand by Dezeen.

HT-AX7 is a Bluetooth speaker system that can be configured to easily create surround sound wherever the user wants.

The battery-powered and wire-free system comprises a base unit, which functions as a soundbar, and two smaller portable speakers that can be positioned around the listener to immerse them in sound.

When the product's sound field mode is switched on, Sony's 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology responds to the positioning of the speakers to create the effect of numerous 'phantom' speakers surrounding the user. The function even transforms stereo audio to feel more immersive.

"Today, people are demanding more versatility from technology than ever before, and we are consuming content on portable devices in more diverse environments," said Sony product specialist Janhvi Sehgal.

"Sony's new speaker system is a response to this – it allows you to experience truly cinematic sound, anywhere."

Mazumi Osawa, part of Sony's design team, explained how the speaker's minimal geometric form was designed to blend seamlessly with the home of any user.

"The design challenge was to create immersive sound within a portable and powerful speaker that can elevate any interior space," he said.

The disk-shaped satellite speakers connect magnetically to the base to charge when not in use. All elements are wrapped in a grey fabric, while the base unit features a soft grey silicone upper.

According to Osawa, sustainability was a key consideration when designing the system.

"Conscious of the ecological impact, we've incorporated a specially-developed recycled plastic, and a fabric that is made from PET bottles."

"We've done this without compromising on the understated aesthetic and elevated viewing experience."

The HT-AX7's packaging was made of Sony's Original Blended Material, which is derived from bamboo, sugarcane, and recycled paper.

The speaker system was primarily designed for consuming video content on devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones, but also allows users to spread the speakers throughout a space to listen to music and other audio content.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for Sony as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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COS architectural creative lead Marcus Cole explains how more sustainable design principles were used in its recently opened concept stores, in this exclusive video produced by Dezeen for the brand.

The brand recently opened two stores, located in Stockholm and Mexico City, which according to COS exemplify its commitment to sustainable building and circular design. Cole talked to Dezeen about the brand's approach when creating the new retail spaces.

"This flagship store in Stockholm is the first in Europe to adopt the most sustainable store concept from COS to date," he said.

At 566 metres square and spread over two floors, the store, located on Biblioteksgatan, is also the brand's largest concept store.

When creating the space, COS wanted to address their existing waste flows, finding ways in which byproducts that would traditionally be categorised as waste could be reused and repurposed.

"The design focuses on circularity in both our material selection and our design strategy," explained Cole.

"The floor throughout our sales area is a terrazzo tile that has been made from 90 per cent quarry waste from our own suppliers' production line. The majority of the rugs are a collaboration using waste yarn from our suppliers' chain, each bespoke in their own way."

"We prioritised materials that can be easily repaired, and are designed for disassembly by avoiding mixing materials that are hard to decouple later down the line," Cole added.

The brand also took the same approach when creating the furniture and fixtures used in the store, choosing to prioritise more sustainable and recycled materials.

"Our vitrines and wardrobes are made from a combination of recycled acrylic and bamboo," said Cole.

"Bamboo is a more renewable choice than traditional hardwoods, because of the speed at which it grows, its carbon storage capacity, and also its durability," he continued.

"If we look to our fitting rooms and some of the softer fixtures in our stores, the panels are made from 60 per cent recycled plastic bottles that have been spun into felt, [and] the floor consists of a PVC free linoleum, which is made from a mixture of recycled and natural materials."

Other changes include 30 per cent recycled aluminium rails, 100 per cent recycled mannequins and the removal of all concrete fittings.

The brand also found it important to make use of the existing building where possible to reduce unnecessary CO2 emissions and to give new life to unused materials.

"This concept store is actually a rebuild of an existing store," Cole explained. "We were able to reallocate and reuse 50 per cent of our interior elsewhere in our portfolio, making sure we have as much emphasis on what we're taking out of the store as what we're putting in it as well."

Following on from the Stockholm store, the brand also unveiled another sustainable concept store in Mexico City. The store is located in the Polanco neighbourhood, and the interior references Mexico's artisan craft traditions.

In addition to operating as a fashion store, the shop also exhibits artworks by local creators, such as Caralarga, a female-led enterprise which focuses on sustainability and female empowerment.

"We have very ambitious plans to bring this sustainable approach and all of our learnings from it to more stores in the future," Cole said.

"The stores that have adopted our new concept now have an average of 68 per cent recycled materials. And this is a percentage that we're both really proud of because of how far we've come, but also challenged by because of where we want to get to," he continued.

"Whether it's a flagship store or a smaller activation, we worked hard to embed agility into the core of our interiors so that we're not wasteful in the future."

COS is a London-based fashion brand. The brand has 252 stores, spanning 47 physical markets.

Partnership content

This video is produced by Dezeen for COS as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen's partnership content here.

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Football club Real Madrid has played its first game in the remodelled Santiago Bernabéu stadium, which is nearing completion following a revamp by architecture studios L35, Ribas & Ribas and GMP Architecten.

A video released by the club ahead of the first match in the renovated stadium showed the structure with its new wrap-around facade largely complete and its retractable roof in place.

Real Madrid returned to the stadium to play fellow Spanish team Getafe on 2 September in the club's first game since the renovation began. The retractable roof was closed for the game.

Alongside the addition of a retractable roof and a steel facade, the renovation has seen the addition of a terrace surrounding the stadium on top of the stands and a new pitch removal and storage system.

Designed to allow the stadium to be used for large-scale events, the retractable pitch will be housed in six underground levels and feature an underground irrigation system and ultraviolet lighting to maintain the quality of the grass.

The renovation will also see the stadium's capacity raised from around 81,000 to 85,000, although only just over 66,000 watched the opening match.

Beginning in 2019, the revamp was designed by Spanish studios L35 and Ribas & Ribas as well as German studio GMP Architecten.

One of the world's best-known stadiums, the Santiago Bernabéu was originally built in 1947 and designed by architects Manuel Muñoz Monasterio and Luis Alemany Soler. It has seen several additions and renovations since.

L35 and Ribas & Ribas and GMP Architecten aimed to give the stadium a unified appearance with the new louvred steel facade.

In other recent stadium news at Europe's top football clubs the San Siro, which is home to Inter and AC Milan, was saved from demolition and Manchester City announced plans to add a hotel to its Etihad Stadium.

The video is courtesy of Real Madrid.

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British film and animation studio Factory Fifteen has produced a CGI video exploring a freeze-frame moment of a city on the brink of apocalypse.

Factory Fifteen created the one-minute sequence to showcase a new sample library from Spitfire Audio, a sound-effects company whose clients include composer Hans Zimmer.

The studio's background in architecture is evident in the one-shot sequence, which creates a cinematic impression of a city facing destruction.

Combining references from across film, television and video games, the fast-paced video sees the city under siege through bank robbery, biological destruction and fire-breathing monsters.

Factory Fifteen co-founder Paul Nicholls describes it as "a CGI extravaganza".

"We proposed an idea where the world unexpectedly freezes, and the camera goes on a journey where around every corner there is a different moment in epic cinema," he said.

The video is a showcase of Spitfire Audio's Albion Colossus library, a collection of orchestral sounds created with action movies in mind.

The drama begins with a view of a man falling from a skyscraper resembling New York's Empire State Building.

Time freezes just before he hits the ground. It is at this point that the camera begins to move and new scenes unfold, each revealing a different dimension to the action.

One scene shows buildings and streetscapes overtaken by nature in homage to the post-apocalyptic TV series The Last of Us, while the final scene references movies like Godzilla, where monsters wreak havoc across the city.

As time is frozen, the soundtrack was vital in bringing the scenes to life. "The music brings drama and tension," said Nicholls.

Factory Fifteen's work often features striking visions of buildings and cityscapes.

The studio directed the BBC's BAFTA-winning Tokyo 2020 promotion video, which wove a story of British athletes in the streetscapes of Japan's capital.

The Colossus video was produced in a similar way.

"It's to do with the clever camera transitions," revealed Nicholls. "It feels like it's one really big space but it's actually one very strange assembly of lots of different spaces."

"Over the course of the animation, they get smaller and smaller. You're not creating miniature sets, but you're putting things abnormally close together to produce the conceptual effects."

Nicholls and former classmates Jonathan Gales and Kibwe Tavares co-founded Factory Fifteen in 2011 after studying architecture together at The Bartlett School of Architecture in London.

They first earned renown for a series of dystopian films including Robots of Brixton and Megalomania.

Nicholls described Colossus as "a homage to our past with a more lighthearted tone".

The video release follows the tragic death of Gales, who was hit by a suspected drunk driver in downtown Los Angeles in late 2022.

Since then, Factory Fifteen has rebranded itself with a new logo, website and showreel, and relocated to a self-designed studio in southeast London.

"I'm hoping Jono would be proud of the new direction," said Nicholls.

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This drone video reveals construction progress on the Red Sea International Airport, which British studio Foster + Partners is designing in Saudi Arabia.

Shared by developer Red Sea Global (RSG), the video offers a construction update on the airport, which forms part of The Red Sea Project tourist destination.

Red Sea International Airport began construction in 2021, 15 kilometres inland from the coast of the Red Sea.

It is being designed by Foster + Partners in collaboration with architecture studio Jacobs as a gateway to the wider development.

Its curved form and plan are intended to emulate the desert landscape and will be characterised by five dune-like pods arranged around a central drop-off and pick-up space.

By 2030, it is expected to reach a capacity of one million passengers a year, the majority of which will be tourists visiting The Red Sea Project.

Red Sea Global has also shared a video of the wider development

"The Red Sea International Airport has been envisaged as a gateway to one of the most unique resorts in the world and an integral part of the visitor experience," said Foster + Partners head of studio Gerard Evenden when the project was first revealed.

"Inspired by the colours and textures of the desert landscape, the design seeks to create a calm and luxurious journey through the terminal and will become a transit hub for visitors coming in by both land and air."

RSG has also shared another video capturing the wider tourist development taking shape, which includes a ring-shaped hotel on stilts and a resort built among the sand dunes that are also designed by Foster + Partners.

In the video, the project's head of construction Andrew Tyson said the team is making "incredible progress" on The Red Sea Project with "a lot of the structures now in place".

There will be a total of 50 resorts and more than 1,000 homes across 22 islands and six inland sites. The first three hotels in The Red Sea are on track to open later this year, alongside phase one of the international airport, which will start receiving domestic flights.

Foster + Partners was criticised for its work on another Saudi Arabian airport, the Amaala airport, by climate activist group Architects Climate Action Network which called on the studio to withdraw from the project over climate concerns.

The Red Sea Project is among several tourist sites currently being developed in Saudi Arabia. In the AlUla desert French architect Jean Nouvel has designed a subterranean hotel and architecture studio AW2 has created a glamping resort.

The country has also unveiled plans for megacity The Line, which will be designed by architects including Morphosis, and an octagonal port city that will be created by Danish studio BIG.

These are both part of the country's Neom megaproject, which has been criticised by UN experts as three people have reportedly been sentenced to death for opposing the project.

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The vertical Future Car Park in China by Daniel Statham Studio is the focus of this video, which shows vehicles being lifted and stacked via a fully automated lift system.

Named Future Car Park, the sculptural building in Hangzhou's central business district is designed to store 500 vehicles within a series of tree-like towers that make up its organic form.

It utilises an advanced automated system, which Daniel Statham Studio designed to cover the entire parking process – all the way from drop off to pick up.

Cars enter the building in the basement, where they are separated from their drivers. From here, cars are taken to parking spaces selected by the automated system, which continuously adjusts these arrangements over the day depending on the owners' estimated pick-up times.

Three of the curving towers are solely dedicated to stacking cars, and one can be seen in the film as several cars are elevated and lowered through its core.

Future Car Park is complete with towers for fire escapes and elevators for drivers, along with an exterior of metal louvres that offer glimpses inside while helping to expel car fumes.

Find out more about the Future Car Park here ›

The video is by Rawvision Studio.

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An intricate screen designed to encourage plant growth wraps around the walls of Woven House, which British practice Giles Miller Studio has raised above a sloped site in Kent.

Located 100 metres away from Broadstairs coastline, the house is designed by Giles Miller Studio to be taken over by nature as plants grow up its perforated-steel facade.

"The design approach for Woven House has been to question the relationship between the inside and outside spaces of the building, to try to enrich the experience of being in both," studio founder Giles Miller told Dezeen.

"The house breaks down barriers between the building's internal spaces and the glade of natural planting and trees that surround it, through a unique sculptural facade which invites nature to grow up the outside of the house whilst also being visible from within it."

Giles Miller Studio created a repeating pattern of twisting, diamond-shaped modules for the steel facade, which is informed by rattan weavings.

The screen wraps around all four walls of the home and offers shading to the interior spaces.

Plants including jasmine and clematis grow up the intricate facade, which is connected to the building by a support structure made from recycled acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic sourced from the production of electric components.

The placement of the screen on a deep support structure offsets it from the main walls of the home and gives the plants more space to grow.

"The depth of the sculptural modules allows for increased visual permeability as well as a greater surface for the climbing plants which adorn the building to weave through," said the studio.

Behind the screen are large portions of glazing, intended to enhance the home's connection to nature by maximising the views of the surrounding plants.

Woven House's structure is made from glued-laminated timber and cross-laminated timber (CLT), and clad in timber with a matte-black finish chosen to reflect the industrial character of the steel facade.

"The use of such extensive glazing in combination with our sculptural facade design defines the architectural approach to this building," said Miller.

"We wanted to purify and celebrate those details with a timeless black finish which would sit in quiet contrast with the natural timber and planting that lives alongside it," Miller continued.

"There is also an industrial feel to the facade framework which feels comfortable in a matt black industrial finish."

A steel staircase running to an opening in the screen leads inside the home, which is raised slightly above the sloping site on stilts. Each room has been lined with light timber panels.

The staircase guides visitors into an open living and dining space decorated with lightly-toned furnishings and hanging light fixtures.

In the kitchen, black-coloured timber joinery draws on the tones of the home's exterior, while quartz countertops and a white kitchen island help to brighten the space.

The ground floor spaces, which are organised around a central CLT core, are designed to be fully integrated but separable by floor-to-ceiling grey curtains.

"The floor and ceilings are supported on a central utilitarian CLT structure on the ground floor which accommodates the kitchen, WC and steel staircase," said Miller.

"This central cluster is combined with external vertical pillars to create a cantilevered structure that allows the ground floor perimeter to be 90 per cent glazed and creates a free-flowing open space that runs around the whole ground floor."

From the living space, a black-coloured timber staircase leads upstairs, where four bedrooms have been nestled into the corners of the building, giving each space maximal views of the surrounding trees.

Timber walls and ceilings help to bring a natural feel to the bedrooms, alongside floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the treetops.

Two bathrooms branch off the central corridor, which runs between the bedrooms on either side of the building. Two of the bedrooms are also connected to ensuite bathrooms.

While Woven House marks its first residential project, British practice Giles Miller Studio has worked on a range of sculptural architectural projects since it was founded in 2011, including a recyclable two-storey pavilion designed for BBC Studios and a plywood installation presented as part of London Design Festival.

The photography is by Rachel Ferriman.

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A network of staircases, bridges and galleries are designed to foster collaboration and social interaction at the headquarters of website Booking.com in Amsterdam, which was designed by UN Studio.

The design of the 65,000-square-metre City Campus, which was awarded to UN Studio following an invited competition in 2015, unites several separate offices across the city under one roof.

Located alongside the central station, the campus was designed to be a "reflection of Amsterdam", overlooking the harbour through an almost fully glazed exterior which wraps a full-height, skylit atrium at the building's centre.

"We wanted the overall concept for the building to serve as a reflection of Amsterdam – its location and the Dutch travel company's base since its inception," UN Studio co-founder Ben van Berkel explained.

"The architecture therefore combines the robust qualities and the industrial history of the harbour, with glazed detailing that reduces the overall immenseness of the building and gently reflects the glistening of the water and sky."

"The organisation of the interior meanwhile, is designed to charcterise the vibrancy of Amsterdam's lively central neigbourhoods,” he continued.

Entering from the lower harbour-side entrance, escalators and lifts lead up into the central atrium of the campus, which sits above a plinth containing four basement levels of car parking, storage and meeting spaces.

The interior design of the project, which was led by local architecture and interiors studio HofmanDujardin, drew on the informality and chance encounters of town squares.

The atrium was dotted with several amenity spaces for employees, including break-out spaces themed around holiday destinations and a cafe, overlooked by glazed balconies that wrap each floor above.

As well as providing a focal point and social space for employees, this atrium ensures that the surrounding office floor plates are all well-lit and ventilated.

"The architecture nudges employees to move by fostering engaging environments and by encouraging physical movement by use of stairs, bridges and galleries across all levels, including the rooftop," explained UN Studio.

"Even the emergency staircases become part of this concept, as untypically these are glazed along the atrium side, which not only encourages daily use, but also offers light views from the stairs and visibility from the other spaces in the building."

Pale wood cladding and areas of planting define the social spaces of the campus, organised around the large white columns of the building's structure.

Nearby, Dutch studio Werk recently completed an underwater bicycle parking garage next to Amsterdam's central station, providing space for 7,000 bikes submerged nine metres below the ground.

The photography is by Hufton + Crow.

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A repurposed glasshouse, a red raft and a huge green washing machine are among the pavilions installed around the Danish capital for the UIA World Congress of Architects. Here's a look at all 15.

The SDG Pavilions are experimental architecture projects exploring themes relating to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, a list of actions for global peace and prosperity.

They include a mix of pop-up installations, temporary structures and permanent additions to the Copenhagen cityscape, with some due to be moved to new, long-term locations in the coming weeks.

Some of the designs explore radical materials and construction techniques, while others are intended to provoke a rethink about current building practices.

Many of the SDG pavilions also hosted events as part of the programme for the UIA World Congress of Architects, which took place in Copenhagen from 2 to 6 July and for which Dezeen was a media partner.

With the theme Sustainable Futures – Leave No One Behind, it brought together architects and built environment professionals from around the world to explore how the industry can help shape a more sustainable future for the planet.

Read on for a guide to all 15 SDG Pavilions exhibited:

Living Places Copenhagen
Architect: EFFEKT
Design partners: Velux, Artelia
Location: Otto Busses Vej 27

The largest of all the pavilion projects, this is a series of full-scale prototypes for how homes could be constructed with a carbon footprint three times lower than is stipulated by Danish building regulations.

Built on a former railyard site, these seven timber structures – two houses and five open pavilions – target a CO2 footprint of 3.8 kilogrammes of CO2 per square metre per year, which the project team says is lower than other buildings in Denmark.

EFFEKT designed the structures to be cost-efficient, so they can be built for the same price as a typical house, and to feature materials and fittings that offer well-being benefits.

Bricks in Common
Architects: AART, Mangor & Nagel, NOAA
Design partners: OJ Consulting Engineers, Copenhagen Mason's Guild, NEXT Kbh
Location: Havnegade 37

Bricks are the key focus of this pavilion made up of three intersecting arches.

The design aims to highlight how this traditional Danish building material has a long lifespan while being highly energy intensive to produce, meaning it is only sustainable if used in the right way.

Each arch in the installation is a different size, but has the same CO2 footprint. This was achieved by using different types of brick – the first uses traditional bricks, the second features the most eco-friendly brick on the market, and the third showcases recycled bricks.

The Greenhouse
Architects: Forma
Design partners: BaneGaarden, Re:Arc Institute
Location: Otto Busses Vej 45

Instigated by entrepreneur and activist Søren Ejlersen, this project sees a century-old glasshouse from Copenhagen Botanical Gardens rescued from the brink of demolition.

Under guidance from Copenhagen architecture studio Forma, the structure was painstakingly taken apart and reassembled over a new substructure and floor, all created using recycled materials.

Filled with plants as well as furniture, the greenhouse will provide a long-term community events and education space for the climate-conscious BaneGaarden.

The Raft
Architects: Studio Coquille, Tan & Blixenkrone
Design partners: Kvadrat, CLT Denmark
Location: Christians Brygge 28

Red is the colour of this SDG Pavilion, which addresses issues around land availability, accessibility and underwater biodiversity.

Even though the structure extends out into the canal, it is designed by emerging studios Studio Coquille and Tan & Blixenkrone to be equally accessible and welcoming to those with limited mobility.

Combining a CLT platform with a roof made from reusable Kvadrat textiles, The Raft invites visitors to come and observe the ecology within Copenhagen's waters.

Obel Award: Unpavilion
Architects: MAST
Design partners: Obel Award, Das Boot Naval Engineers
Location: Ved Lille Langebro

The Obel Award, one of the world's richest architectural prizes, decided to use the UIA platform to make a statement about the problem of greenwashing in the construction industry.

To do this, it has created an installation in the form of a huge green washing machine.

This is positioned on a salvaged concrete barge, allowing it to be moved to different locations on the city's waterways.

From 4 to 1 Planet: Natural Pavilion
Architects: ReVærk
Design partners: Smith Innovation
Location: Søren Kierkegaards Plads

From 4 to 1 Planet presents three pavilions created by winners of its Next Generation Architecture competition, which called for ideas into how housing construction could be climate-friendly.

The first, designed by ReVærk, focuses on alternative materials. The structure features rammed earth walls, made using locally sourced clay soil, combined with a timber structure and biogenic insulation cassettes made from wood fibre.

The design aims to show how these materials can enhance the sensory value of the home.

From 4 to 1 Planet: Quarter Pie Pavilion
Architects: Tegnestuen LOKAL
Design partners: Aaen Engineering, Smith Innovation
Location: Søren Kierkegaards Plads

For the second of the From 4 to 1 Planet pavilions, Tegnestuen LOKAL has designed a structure that highlights 10 key principles for reducing the carbon footprints of homes.

The Quarter Pie Pavilion offers an example of a mass housing concept that aims to combine alternative approaches to construction with new approaches to living.

The architects hope to show how future homes need to be more compact and flexible, while incorporating circular design.

From 4 to 1 Planet: Thatched Brick Pavilion
Architects: Leth & Gori, Rønnow
Design partners: CINARK, Smith Innovation
Location: Søren Kierkegaards Plads

The third From 4 to 1 Planet pavilion is made up of two main components: a thatched exterior and roof made of straw and an interior formed of porous clay blocks.

The design – developed by architects Leth & Gori and Rønnow with CINARK, a research centre at the Royal Danish Academy – aims to show how combining these two biobased materials can create high levels of insulation and fire safety.

Bio-Center
Architects: Architects Without Borders
Design partners: National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda, ACTogether Uganda
Location: Ved Lille Langebro

The Danish arm of non-profit organisation Architects Without Borders presents a version of a sanitation project it has already built in Uganda and plans to install in other locations across Sub-Saharan Africa.

With millions in this region living in slums, the project explores how a simple and scaleable architectural structure can provide toilets, showers and access to clean water, as well as facilities for cooking and socialising.

Utilising a method developed by UN-Habitat, it turns faeces into biogas, providing a more eco-friendly fuel for cooking than the more commonly used charcoal.

(P)recast
Architects: GXN
Design partners: Teknologisk Institut, Aarhus Universitet
Location: Refshalevej 173

This project is a result of ongoing research by GXN, the innovation arm of Danish architecture firm 3XN, into how precast concrete elements can be reused to create load-bearing structures.

A common component in buildings from the 1950s onwards, the slabs are highly carbon-intensive to produce and offer a long lifespan. So if a building is demolished too soon, it results in a huge environmental impact.

This SDG Pavilion is built from concrete slabs sourced from demolition projects around Copenhagen, set into frames made from salvaged wood that is more than 150 years old.

Feed-Back
Architects: Schmidt Hammer Lassen
Design partners: BLOXHub, Roskilde Festival
Location: Bryghusgade 10

This installation at the entrance to BLOX is part of an ongoing project by architecture firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen exploring how shared meals and other food-related activities can help to build multi-generational communities.

Here, it takes the form of a circular table made out of post-consumer plastic, topped by an umbrella-like canopy, and filled with edible flowers, herbs and vegetables.

Described as a "community activation device", the table hosted events during UIA. Next, it will travel to nearby Roskilde to be presented at music festivals.

Plastic Pavilion
Architects: Terroir
Design partners: The Danish Plastics Federation, Nordiq Group

Under the theme Building Sustainable Societies, this SDG Pavilion explores how plastic can be utilised without negative implications for the planet.

Designed by architects Terroir, the dismantable structure is framed by I-beams that are made from recycled plastic rather than steel, which sit on 3D-printed "feet" weighed down by stones.

Inside is an exhibition showcasing innovative uses of plastic in healthcare, construction, and water, electricity and heating systems. The showpiece is a structure made from recycled pipes, which offer growing spaces for plant life.

Reflections in Common
Design: Municipality of Copenhagen, Urgent Agency
Location: Kongens Nytorv

Copenhagen's city architect Camilla Van Deurs spearheaded the design of this "mirror cabinet" in Copenhagen's central plaza, Kongens Nytorv.

Combining mirrored panels with plants, it offers passersby a moment of reflection.

The design serves as an example of circularity, with all components set to be recycled when the pavilion is dismantled at the end of the year. The plants will meanwhile find permanent homes in other locations around the city.

Tower of Wind
Architects: Atenastudio, Henning Frederiksen, Christian Fogh, Simone Aaberg Kærn
Design partners: DMI, CLT Danmark, Standard System Engineering
Location: Kvæsthusbroen

Taking cues from the Tower of Wind in Athens, Greece, said to be the world's first meteorological observation station, this mini tower offers a place for learning about the climate.

Built from CLT, the octagonal structure presents a series of instruments that measure the movements of the sun, wind and water.

By taking visitors on a journey through the history of meteorology, it aims to offer insight into how future technology might be used to overcome climate challenges.

Poetic Daylight
Architects: Royal Danish Academy, Claus Pryds Architects
Design partners: AAU Build, Holst Engineering, Aaen Engineering
Location: Gråbrødretorv

A team from the Royal Danish Academy's Institute of Architecture and Design created this SDG Pavilion to highlight the importance of natural daylight in enhancing architectural spaces and supporting wellbeing.

With daylight extremely scarce in the Nordic region during the winter months, the pavilion shows how to make the most of the sun's rays rather than relying on artificial lighting.

The wooden structure features three spaces that exploit daylight in different ways.

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Visuals of fireworks and the moon were among those to illuminate the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas as it was lit up to celebrate the Fourth of July.

The 54,000-square-metre LED screen, the largest of its kind, was emblazoned as part of a special show before its official opening in September.

Described as "living architecture", the MSG Sphere is designed by the architecture studio Populous for the company behind New York's Madison Square Garden (MSG).

Once complete, it will host live entertainment and concerts while showcasing a wide range of visual content across its exterior. While breaking records for its vast LED screen, which is named the Exosphere, it is also the world's largest spherical building.

"The Exosphere is more than a screen or a billboard – it is living architecture, and unlike anything that exists anywhere in the world," said MSG Sphere senior vice president Guy Barnett.

"Last night's show provided a glimpse of the Exosphere's captivating power, and the possibilities for artists, partners, and brands to create compelling and impactful stories to connect with audiences in new ways.”

The special Independence Day show began with a graphic reading Hello World, which had been captured by passersby earlier this week when tests were run on the screen.

This was followed by a variety of striking animations ranging from colourful fireworks and underwater scenes to visuals of stars and lunar surfaces.

"Sphere's Exosphere is a 360-degree canvas for brand storytelling that will be seen around the world," reflected MSG Sports COO David Hopkinson.

"The extraordinary experiences we can create are only limited by imagination, and we're thrilled to finally share with the world the spectacular potential of the Exosphere.”

The Exosphere is formed of approximately 1.2 million pucks, which each contain 48 individual LEDs that can display 256 million different colours.

It will have a capacity of 20,000 people, including 17,600 seats and a further 2,400 standing spaces. U2 is set to be the first band to play there when it opens in September.

While the building is designed by Populous, its screen has been developed by immersive content studio Sphere Studio with LED specialist SACO Technologies. The Fourth of July display was developed by Sphere Studios' in-house creative team.

It is one of two sphere-shaped venues designed by Populous, with the second planned for Stratford in east London. However, this venue has proven to be controversial and was placed on hold by UK housing secretary Michael Gove earlier this year.

Other spherical buildings featured on Dezeen include a proposal for a moon-shaped resort in Dubai and a theatre that forms part of the Taipei Performing Arts Center by OMA.

The photography and videography is by Sphere Entertainment.

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This exclusive video shot by Dezeen features some of the best installations featured at this year's Glastonbury festival, including outlandish stages and a mushroom mycelium pavilion.

Glastonbury represents a huge exercise in production design and temporary architecture structures from across different disciplines, with over 100 stages, installations and sculptures for visitors to discover.

 

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Top image: Block9's NYC Downlow club at Glastonbury. Photo by Block9. Above: Glastonbury was packed with installations

This year, many installations were themed around sustainability, including a spiralling pavilion made from salvaged timber and mycelium in the Silver Hayes district.

Created by set designer Simon Carroll, the structure demonstrated how mushroom mycelium could challenge wider industry practices by replacing harmful materials often used in stage design such as polystyrene.

At the Block9 field, which is built at each instalment of Glastonbury by the London-based creative partnership of the same name, many immersive stages hosted the festival's nighttime partygoers.

Visitors could see the return of Block9's monolithic IICON stage, a giant head bisected by a visitor-like DJ booth, as well as the NYC Downlow, a raucous queer club referencing a 1980s meatpacking district warehouse.

Other designs at this year's festival included an outdoor club called The Levels, a canopy formed by tensegrity structures used at Extinction Rebellion's protests, and the iconic Pyramid Stage.

Glastonbury is the UK's largest music festival, equivalent to the size of a city with a population of over 210,000 people.

Glastonbury took place from 21 to 25 June in Somerset, UK. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

The post Architecture and design highlights from Glastonbury 2023 captured in Dezeen video appeared first on Dezeen.

A film featuring projects that emphasise the Future is Rural theme of the Japan Pavilion at the London Design Biennale, which was curated by Yuki Sumner.

Yuki Sumner aimed to highlight projects by artists, designers and activists tackling issues such as depopulation and an ageing society in rural Japan, in both the pavilion and the film.

"The core concept was to showcase some of the transformative grassroots interventions in rural Japan – a country that has faced rural depopulation and ageing population since the 1970s," Yuki Sumner told Dezeen.

"I started thinking about rural Japan when I attended the lecture on Zoom given by Atelier Bow Wow for the Royal Academy of Arts in 2021," she continued. "Yoshiharu Tsukamoto talked about how the practice's focus had shifted to rural areas in more recent years and his weekly engagement with the Small Earth Community in rural Chiba set up by Yoshiki Hayashi."

Named The Future is Rural, the film was shot by Yuki Sumner and her photographer husband Edmund Sumner in Mount Gassan, Yamagata, northern Japan.

It includes interviews and footage of those working in the region, including Small Earth Community founder Yoshiki Hayashi. Throughout the film, Yuki Sumner was keen not to show a stereotypical version of rural Japan.

"I didn't want to present a romantic vision of the countryside in Japan," she said. "I wanted to show people working hard to preserve the traditional farming landscape in rural Chiba. I wanted to show people collecting rubbish along a river in the countryside."

"I wanted to show people observing an ancient ritual, chanting together to welcome ancestral spirits on the day of the dead and together helping the spirits find their way home safely," she continued.

Along with showcasing how people are tackling issues faced in rural areas in Japan, Yuki Sumner believes that the film will demonstrate how much can be learned from those based in the countryside.

"The knowledge and wisdom passed down through the generations can be forever lost if we don't connect with them properly," she said.

"If design is about caring about other people and art is about imagination, then with a little bit of care and imagination, we can begin to tackle issues like isolation and loneliness more effectively," she continued.

"We can learn a lot from people in the countryside, from the elderly locals especially. Artists such as Ayuko Inaba and Katsunobu Yoshida, who appear in the film, choose to live in the countryside as they are inspired by local customs and traditions to make their artworks."

The film was created for the Japanese Pavilion at the London Design Biennale 2023. Alongside the film, the pavilion contained items designed or informed by the countryside.

It included sheep-shaped chairs made by artists Katsunobu Yoshida and Tatsuhiro Ara with Mauro Dell'Orco and a painting by Katsunobu Yoshida and Ayuko Inaba, made using ink from coal and cheese.

There were also glow-in-the-dark Rubbish Rabbit mascots made from waste material by Ryo Okamoto along with a picture book about the Rubbish Rabbits.

The Japan Pavilion was one of many installations at the London Design Biennale. To mark the opening, Dezeen rounded up ten standout pavilions from the exhibition including a giant wind chime and touch-sensing bio-textiles.

The photography is by Edmund Sumner.

The 2023 London Design Biennale is on show at London's Somerset House from Melbourne from 1-25 June 2023. For more information about events, exhibitions and talks, visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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Architecture practice Studio RAP has combined algorithmic design and 3D printing to create a pair of archways informed by Delft Blue porcelain at the PoortMeesters housing in the Netherlands.

Named New Delft Blue, the archways were designed to frame entrances to a courtyard garden at the centre of the housing development in Delft designed by The Hague-based VY Architects.

They were constructed using 3,000 unique tiles that were 3D-printed and arranged in a pattern determined by an algorithm created by Studio RAP.

Informed by the colour of traditional Delft Blue porcelain, which gives the project its name, the tiled portals were designed to reference the city's history and demonstrate current technological advances.

"The project embodies the unique identity of Delft in a contemporary way, by referring to its history," said Studio RAP.

"It's algorithmically designed, nature-inspired patterns in blue refer to Delft of today as the city of knowledge by using cutting-edge design and 3D-printing technology."

The patterns on each of the archways, which cover concrete stairs, were designed to have leaf-like forms based on the patterns of Delft Blue porcelain.

In total 3,000 unique tiles that measure around 40 centimetres by 30 centimetres were 3D-printed by Studio RAP and coloured using a transparent blue glaze.

"After studying different nature-inspired patterns on Delft Blue plates, we developed an algorithm that generated a leaf pattern that grows from one side to the other side that guides people over the staircase between two different public spaces," explained Studio RAP co-founder Lucas ter Hall.

"We strived to design a pattern that's not too figurative and not to abstract, this field of tension makes the design to our opinion more timeless," he continued.

"All tiles are unique, all leaves are unique, every time you walk through the gates one experiences something different."

Along with the nature and patterns of Delft Blue porcelain, the shapes of the tiles were determined by the constraints of 3D printing.

"Together with the manufacturing constraints of the 3D printing technology – such as maximum overhang, width, height and depth, material behaviour, shrinkage and internal support structure – the tiles were formed," explained Ter Hall.

"This iterative process between stylistic and fabrication variables made this gate a thorough masterpiece showcasing digital craftsmanship in optima forma!"

According to the studio, the capacities of 3D printing allowed it to have full control over the complex design.

"To have the possibility to 3D print ceramics in-house gives us superpowers as architects," continued Ter Hall. "We establish a complete digital workflow from design to realisation, maximising our design ambition and guarantee high quality architectural designs."

"We gain more control over the final design, time planning and building costs, what brought us in a unique kind of 'master builder' role," he added.

Studio RAP hopes that the gateways will enliven and enhance the residential development and be embraced by the residents.

"With every project we design, we strive to make the world more exciting and diverse," said Ter Hall. "New Delft Blue is such statement to enrich the world with a new architectural language, one that breaks barriers by innovating the way the world is envisioned, built, and experienced."

"New Delft Blue gives the building a unique identity and we hope that the residents will embrace it," he continued.

Rotterdam-based Studio RAP was founded by Ter Hall along with Wessel van Beerendonk and Léon Spikker. It previously created the "first robotically fabricated building in the Netherlands".

The photography is by Riccardo De Vecchi and film by Oculus Film.

Project credits:

Client: BPD (Bouwfonds Property Development), Ballast Nedam Development, Ballast Nedam Bouw West
Architect New Delft Blue: Studio RAP
Contractor and 3D ceramic printing: Studio RAP
Glazing and firing: Koninklijke Tichelaar
Architect PoortMeesters: VY Architects

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