The Sims has been allowing players to act out their architecture and interior design fantasies for more than two decades. Jane Englefield finds out how the makers of the iconic life-simulation video game keep up with shifting trends.

"People laugh when I mention playing The Sims, but it was hugely significant in terms of spatial planning and was a key part of how and why I have ended up in the line of interior design work that I have," interiors stylist and editor Rory Robertson told Dezeen.

"The Sims offered people the opportunity to get a feel for design," he reflected. "You could be as extravagant and outrageous, or as briefed and restricted as you liked."

Created in 2000 by American game designer Will Wright, The Sims is a video game where players make human characters – or "sims" – and build their virtual houses and lives from scratch, catering to their needs and desires.

With four iterations of the main game and dozens of themed expansion packs focussing on topics such as university, parenthood and cottage living, The Sims is one of the best-selling video-game franchises of all time.

"It's really accessible"

Architecture and interior design has been a major part of The Sims experience from the very beginning.

Having previously created the city-building game SimCity in 1989 – which itself has been credited with inspiring a generation of urban planners – Wright was originally motivated to develop The Sims after losing his home in the Oakland firestorm of 1991 in California.

In fact, early designs were for an architecture game, with the shift to focus on people a relatively late addition to the concept, according to one of the game's first art directors, Charles London.

Design remained a core part of the offering, however, and the interface features tools that allow players to instantly build structures and decorate and furnish them from an extensive inventory of items.

"It's really accessible, so I think a lot of people get into it without even realising that they're playing with architecture and playing with space," said video-games expert and historian Holly Nielsen.

"While it was like catnip for design budding minds, it was also just a wonderful opportunity for procrastination and frivolity for people who aren't particularly confident or tuned in to interiors or architecture," echoed Robertson.

Since the original The Sims, a broad set of options has been available for players to suit their tastes and imaginations.

Possibilities have ranged from minimalist bungalows filled with neutral furniture to more outlandish dwellings, such as castles defined by Dalmatian-print wallpaper or hot tubs parked in the middle of multiple living rooms.

"We'll take any source"

The team behind these possibilities described how they ensure that the architecture and interior design options stay feeling fresh and contemporary with each new game in the series.

"Since we're a game about real life, anytime we step outside our door we have inspiration by just looking at what's in our immediate environment," game designer Jessica Croft told Dezeen.

Art director Mike O'Connor added that he and his team scour the real world and the web for up-to-date references.

"We'll take any source," he said. "We're looking for patterns. If we start to see round furniture, or bouclé, or whatever the trend is, [we ask] has it already gone?"

"The internet doesn't scrub old ideas. So you know, it's seeing if there's a trend, is it sticking, does it apply to what we're doing now?"

Furniture and appliances within the game are regularly revised over time to reflect cultural and technological progression in the real world, Croft explained.

"In Sims 2 [released in 2004] I would not be surprised if there was a landline phone – and there definitely isn't a landline phone in my own house, or Sims 4," she said.

"Even things like VR [virtual reality] didn't really exist back in The Sims 2 days, so things like VR consoles, computers – we just added dual-monitor computers, and LEDs are now in most households," she continued.

That in turn sees the team take a surprisingly deep dive into how interiors are changing, O'Connor acknowledged.

"Over the life of this game, you see an evolution," he said. "Electronics are probably the biggest category [of change]. Even just how people use TVs, how they place them, has changed."

The idea, says Croft, is to ensure that The Sims players feel a close connection to the world they are building for their sims.

"The most fun thing for me is being able to allow players to craft stories that are relatable to them," she said. "So, looking for opportunities to make players feel seen."

"An element of freedom and fantasy-building"

But, as Nielsen points out, there is an additional aspect to the game's architecture and design possibilities that is central to its appeal.

"In one sense, it's reflective of society, but in another way, it's aspirational," she said.

"There's an element of freedom and fantasy-building to playing The Sims," she continued. "Homeownership is a thing that a lot of us will not get to do."

As in real life, everything you build or buy in The Sims has a cost.

However, unlike in real life, punching "motherlode" into The Sims cheat-code bar will immediately add a healthy 50,000 simoleons to your sim's bank account, putting that luxury sofa easily within reach.

That possibility remains central to Robertson's nostalgia for playing The Sims as a young would-be interior designer.

"Once you double-clicked The Sims graphic on your Microsoft desktop, a multi-roomed mansion cost nothing to design," he said.

This aspirational element has become an increasingly large part of The Sims' commercial model over the years.

The Sims 4, as an example, is accompanied by 19 purchasable "Stuff Packs" that expand the options of items available to buy, including "Perfect Patio", "Cool Kitchen" and one based on the products of Milan fashion label Moschino.

And the latest of the more extensive expansion packs is For Rent, which allows players to build rental houses where some sims are landlords and others are tenants.

Within the game, landlords encounter various true-to-life issues, including the potential for toxic mould build-up in their properties – although, unlike in the real world, the mould feature can be toggled on and off.

Inclusivity has also become an increasing focus of The Sims, with integral features now including options to choose sims' sexual orientation, for instance.

For Nielsen, that traces back to a significant foundational element of the game's widespread appeal – as well as being one of the reasons it has had such strong interior-design influence.

"It didn't feel like it was aiming for anyone," she explained. "One of the things that people bring up a lot is that it has a very female player base."

"For me, it was a big turning point – it was getting to create the spaces but also play around with the people inside them. It felt like a socially acceptable way to play dollhouses."

The images are courtesy of Electronic Arts.

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Dutch studio AMO emphasised the "paradoxical dichotomy" between office interiors and the natural world for the Prada Autumn Winter 2024 menswear show, which featured a plexiglass runway above grass and streams.

AMO, the research and creative studio of architecture office OMA, created the scenography for the 14 January show at the Rem Koolhaas-designed Fondazione Prada during Milan Fashion Week.

The arts centre's Deposito space was covered with forest-like swathes of real grass interspersed with rocks, pebbles, leaves and running water to emulate natural streams.

In stark contrast, AMO constructed a clear plexiglass runway mounted onto a gridded structure that was positioned above the unmanicured grass.

"The studio created a set design juxtaposing an office interior with a natural landscape," said Prada, which is headquartered in Milan.

Uniform rows of familiar black swivel chairs snaked across the geometric runway, providing seating for the guests and creating pathways for the models.

Embedded in the ceiling, office-style strip lighting was reflected across the plexiglass in rigid patterns, while mist was released into the space for an atmospheric effect.

On the edges of the set, AMO installed walls formed from recognisably corporate blue panels, often found in office environments.

One section, where guests entered the runway, featured whole booths created with the panels, complete with large desks, swivel chairs and desktop computers emblazoned with the Prada logo on their otherwise blank screens.

Presented by the fashion house's co-creative directors, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, the show's looks echoed the contrasting scenography.

Classic suit-and-tie pairings finished in neutral textiles were combined with more vibrant pieces such as swimming caps and goggle-like sunglasses crafted as a nod to the outdoors.

"This collection is about something basic – the emotional instinct to remain attached to something we know, the cycles of nature," said Prada.

"There is a simple assertion, of a deep and essential human need to connect with the world around us," continued the brand.

"Demonstrating the paradoxical dichotomy between two coexisting worlds [offices and nature], this show explores fundamental truths of humanity, our natural instincts and our emotional needs."

Longtime-collaborators AMO and Prada have been creating catwalks together at Fondazione Prada since 2004, including the brand's previous Autumn Winter menswear show, which took place below a retractable ceiling that moved to reveal a series of art deco chandeliers.

More recently, the studio also designed the scenography for Prada's Spring Summer 2024 menswear show – an aluminium-clad space with slime falling from the ceiling to form liquid walls.

The photography and video are courtesy of Prada.

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Local architecture studio RA! took cues from Latin American art deco design when creating the tiny interior of Los Alexis, a small taqueria in Mexico City's Roma Norte neighbourhood.

Los Alexis is a taco eatery – or taqueria – in Roma, a famed district in Mexico City, which features examples of art deco architecture.

RA! drew on the "vibrant personality" of the area when designing the single 15-square-metre room restaurant, housed within a former beer depository.

"One of the most important requests of our client was for this tiny space to shine among the rest of the retail premises on the street," said studio co-founder and designer Pedro Ramírez de Aguilar.

RA! clad the walls and floors in a distinctive mosaic of broken ceramic tiles with green joints as an ode to Barcelona, where chef Alexis Ayala spent time training, the designer told Dezeen.

A curved bar finished in slabs of ribbed green material fronts the open kitchen, which is positioned on the right of the small open space.

Utilitarian materials, including the tiles, were chosen throughout the restaurant for their "endurance and fast cleaning processes".

White-painted steel breakfast-style stools line the bar, which has a top made of steel – selected for its resistance to grease, according to Ramírez de Aguilar.

The studio decided to preserve the space's original, peeling ceiling "to create a wider contrast [within the eatery] and to remember the old premises".

Informal seating lines the pavement just outside of the taqueria where customers can eat and socialise.

Other than a small bathroom at the back of Los Alexis, the one-room restaurant is purposefully defined by its bar and open kitchen.

"Typical 'changarros' [small shops] in Mexico City are all about the conversation with the cookers, so we tried to have this interaction between people as a main objective," explained Ramírez de Aguilar.

Founded in 2017, RA! previously created the interiors for a restaurant in the city's Polanco neighbourhood with a bar counter shaped like an inverted ziggurat.

DOT Coffee Station is another hole-in-the-wall cafe in Kyiv, Ukraine, which YOD Group designed with a similar floor-to-ceiling mosaic of tiles.

The photography is courtesy of RA!

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As Zaha Hadid Architects' The Henderson skyscraper nears completion on the world's most expensive site in Hong Kong, we take a look at 10 other skyscrapers in the works by the studio.

Founded by the late Zaha Hadid in 1980, the studio has designed many well-known buildings ranging from the MAXXI in Rome to London's Aquatic Centre.

Zaha Hadid Architects' portfolio already includes several distinctive skyscrapers around the world, such as One Thousand Museum in Miami and Morpheus hotel in Macau, with many more on the way.

Read on for 10 upcoming skyscrapers by the studio.

The Henderson office, Hong Kong

Zaha Hadid Architects' 36-storey The Henderson in Hong Kong, which has a curved glass facade informed by the buds of an orchid, was recently photographed nearing completion.

The site at 2 Murray Road was widely reported as the world's most expensive plot when it was purchased for the project in 2017.

Find out more about The Henderson office ›

OPPO headquarters, Shenzhen, China

Slated to be completed by 2025, the OPPO Shenzhen headquarters will consist of four interconnected towers designed to house open-plan offices for the Chinese smartphone manufacturer.

Each tower will be characterised by sinuous glass forms that taper inwards toward ground level, despite their varying heights.

Find out more about OPPO headquarters ›

Tower C, Shenzhen, China

Tower C is another skyscraper planned for Shenzhen, which Zaha Hadid Architects designed as a pair of supertalls linked by a multi-storey podium of curved green terraces and aquaponic gardens.

Expected to be finished by 2027, the mixed-use development will reach nearly 400 metres in height and become one of the city's tallest buildings.

Find out more about Tower C ›

Mercury Tower, Paceville, Malta

Currently under construction, Mercury Tower has been the tallest building in Malta since it topped out in 2020.

Reaching 122 metres in height, the skyscraper features a distinctive twist in its structure, which divides the building's residential apartments and hotel rooms.

Find out more about Mercury Tower ›

Discovery Tower, Sarawat Mountains, Saudi Arabia

Discovery Tower is a shard-shaped crystalline skyscraper, which is planned for the Trojena ski resort as part of Neom in Saudi Arabia.

Visuals recently released by Neom show a supertall structure defined by numerous columns that taper toward the peak and will house observation decks and restaurants.

Find out more about Discovery Tower ›

Vauxhall Cross Island towers, London, UK

Construction has reportedly begun on Vauxhall Cross Island towers – a duo of buildings in south London that will be connected by a shared podium and feature 53 and 42 storeys respectively.

Plans for the mixed-use development previously caused a stir when opponents of the scheme were angered by the heights originally proposed for the towers.

Find out more about Vauxhall Cross Island towers ›

Bora Residential Tower, Mexico City, Mexico

Located in the Santa Fe business district in Mexico City, the Bora Residential Tower is currently being constructed with a completion date yet to be confirmed.

When complete, the six-tower building will be over 50-storeys tall, making it the "highest residential tower" in the city, according to Zaha Hadid Architects.

Find out more about The Bora Residential Tower ›

Daxia Tower, Xi'an, China

Planned for China's Xi'an business district, Daxia Tower will reach 210 metres tall when complete.

The mixed-use building will feature a curved form and planted interior terraces that "echo mountainside waterfalls", according to the tower's architects.

Find out more about Daxia Tower ›

The Mayfair, Melbourne, Australia

The Mayfair is an upcoming tower in Melbourne with a completion date yet to be confirmed.

The 64-metre-high apartment block will be defined by facades covered in angular balconies and a roof crowned by a pair of swimming pools.

Find out more about The Mayfair ›

CECEP Shanghai Campus, Shanghai, China

Developed for Chinese renewable energy company CECEP, this mixed-use building will utilise renewable energy technologies and recycled materials when constructed, according to its architects.

Planned for north-east Shanghai beside the Huangpu River, the campus will consist of three interlinked towers when complete.

Find out more about CECEP Shanghai Campus ›

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Electronics brand LG has unveiled the Signature OLED T, a television with a transparent screen that was on display at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

LG has described the Signature OLED T as "the world's first wireless transparent OLED TV".

The television features a 77-inch OLED screen, which stands for organic light-emitting diode and is a technology used in lighting. It facilitates digital displays on products including televisions and smartphones.

Thanks to its transparency, the TV does not need to be placed against the wall like a traditional screen.

Rather, the Signature OLED T can be used as a subtle room divider while switched off, or positioned against a window without compromising its view.

"Practically invisible when turned off, the TV blends into the environment and frees users from the long-standing problem of what to do with the 'big black screen'," said the brand.

The model uses wireless video and audio transmission technology, which is facilitated by LG's Zero Connect Box.

This box sends 4K images and sounds to the TV, allowing users more freedom to place the model anywhere without having to depend on electrical outlets, according to LG.

An artificial intelligence (AI) processor powers the screen's picture quality. Users can pivot between two settings – transparent and opaque – depending on how they would like content to appear on the screen.

"Content displayed on the transparent screen appears to float in the air, yet simultaneously fuses with the surrounding space to create a compelling and atmospheric visual effect," said LG.

Custom widgets were also integrated into the design, including an "info-ticker" on the lower part of the screen that displays information such as weather updates and news alerts, as well as the option to transform the entire screen into an animated fish tank.

The Signature OLED T will be available as a standalone TV or in against-the-wall and wall-mounted options.

Held in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics Show is an annual trade show of the latest technology.

This year, LG is also showcasing a two-legged house robot on wheels that uses AI to operate. Previous editions of the event have seen brands present products ranging from a voice-absorbing facemask by PriestmanGoode to a Hyundai concept for a flying car.

The images are courtesy of LG.

CES 2024 takes place at various locations in Las Vegas from 9 to 12 January 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Industrial designer Mary Lempres has created a bio-cement structure developed to mimic naturally occurring oyster reefs that tackle coastal flooding, filter seawater and promote biodiversity.

Called Reef Rocket, the structure comprises a duo of bio-cement modules with ridged surfaces that can be stacked in two directions and create a rocket-like shape when assembled.

Norwegian-American designer Lempres drew on biomimicry for the project, a practice that looks to nature to solve human design challenges.

The ridged modules were created to be placed underwater and emulate coastal oyster reefs, which naturally filter algae from seawater as well as attract and provide shelter for other aquatic organisms.

Oyster reefs also dissipate wave energy, mitigate storm surges and manage eroding coastlines, explained the designer.

Lempres collaborated with bio-geotechnical specialist Ahmed Miftah to develop a method for growing plant-derived cement that makes up the modules, which she described as "similar to the irrigation systems required for growing a plant".

The pair poured a bio-based, non-toxic solution containing a crude extract from globally grown plants over crushed aggregate.

Sourced in New York City, the aggregate was created from crushed glass and oyster shells salvaged from local restaurants and New York Harbour.

"The packed substrate grows similarly to a plant," Lempres told Dezeen.

Saturated for three to nine days, the substance becomes natural concrete after the extracted biocatalyst causes minerals to form "mineral bridges" between the glass and shell waste.

"The resulting product is water-resistant, durable and comparable with standard concrete containing the same amount of aggregate," explained the designer.

"It can be grown in any environment without heat or otherwise burning fossil fuels and is derived from waste products, making it an affordable and scalable alternative to cement," she continued.

"Bio-concrete is chemically identical to the material oysters produce to grow their reefs. The key difference is the bio-concrete we've developed grows in just several days, while oyster reefs take millennia to grow."

This process closely mimics the natural processes that occur when oyster shells and coral reefs are grown, according to the designer.

"I was inspired by the ability of this reef-growing material to withstand extreme wave energy and corrosive saltwater," she said.

When creating the modules, Lempres and her team made "hundreds" of prototypes.

Eventually, they settled on prefabricated moulds, which the bio-cement can be packed into and set – "like sand" – without the need for heat or chemicals.

Reef Rocket was deliberately developed to be small in size, lightweight and easy to assemble, making the design accessible to as many people as possible, according to the designer.

"Nature has the incredible ability to grow intricate and durable material, like shells and coral, without polluting its surrounding environment," said Lempres.

"Reef Rocket harnesses the natural process of growing durable minerals to re-grow vital reef structures, benefiting humans and our ecology from the worsening effects of climate change," she added.

"This paves the way for a future where hard and durable material can be grown like a crop, regenerating waste rather than polluting our environment."

Previously, US design workshop Objects and Ideograms conducted a research project that involves 3D printing with calcium carbonate to create sustainable underwater "houses" for coral reefs and marine life to grow. Chinese materials company Yi Design developed a porous brick made from recycled ceramic waste that could be used to prevent flooding in urban areas.

The photography is courtesy of Mary Lempres. 

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Electronics brand LG has unveiled a two-legged artificial intelligence robot on wheels to help around the house, which will be presented at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show.

Designed as "an all-round home manager and companion rolled into one", the AI-powered robot will do household tasks and verbally interact with users, according to LG.

"The smart home AI agent boasts robotic, AI and multi-modal technologies that enable it to move, learn, comprehend and engage in complex conversations," said the brand.

The white robot has a rounded body displaying simple animated eyes on a built-in screen and two legs with articulated joints, which are attached to wheels.

Its multi-modal technology combines voice and image recognition as well as natural language processing, while the robot can also connect with and control smart home appliances and household IoT devices.

Thanks to its integrated camera, speaker and various sensors, the robot can gather and relay real-time environmental data such as indoor air quality, temperature and humidity.

Continuously learning through AI, the robot analyses this data to provide its users with up-to-date information about their homes, according to the brand.

Among the robot's features is the ability to monitor pets or unattended children, act as a home security guard and conserve energy by connecting with a smart outlet and turning off unnecessary devices around the house.

The robot can also detect its users' emotions by analysing their voice and facial expressions after greeting them by the front door.

Selecting music to suit users' moods, assisting with transport and weather updates as well as setting personal reminders are all part of the robot's interpersonal skills, explained LG.

"LG's smart life solution enhances users' daily lives and showcases the company's commitment to realising its 'zero labour home' vision," said the brand.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is an annual technology trade show held in January in Las Vegas, where brands showcase new products.

Last year's CES featured a range of technologies – from a pram that uses AI to push and rock itself to an electric car by Hyundai with wheels that can rotate up to 90 degrees so that it can "crab" drive sideways.

The images are courtesy of LG.

CES 2024 takes place at various locations in Las Vegas from 9 to 12 January 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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A curvilinear thatched hut has been paired with terracotta-hued tiles at the Amsterdam store for homeware brand Polspotten, which was designed by local studio Space Projects.

The studio created the store to straddle a shop and an office for Polspotten, a furniture and home accessories brand headquartered in the Dutch capital.

Characterised by bold angles and arches, the outlet features distinctive terracotta-coloured walls and flooring that nod to traditional pots, Space Projects founder Pepijn Smit told Dezeen.

"The terracotta-inspired colours and materials refer to the brand's first product, 'potten' – or pots," said Smit, alluding to the first Spanish pots imported by Erik Pol when he founded Polspotten in the Netherlands in 1986.

Located in Amsterdam's Jordaan neighbourhood, the store was arranged across a series of open-plan rooms, interconnected by individual geometric entryways.

Visitors enter at a triangular opening, which was cut away from gridded timber shelving lined with multicoloured pots that mimic totemic artefacts in a gallery.

The next space features a similar layout, as well as a plump cream sofa with rounded modules and sculptural pots stacked in a striking tower formation.

Travelling further through the store, molten-style candle holders and Polspotten furniture pieces were positioned next to chunky illuminated plinths, which exhibit amorphously shaped vases finished in various coral-like hues.

Accessed through a rectilinear, terracotta-tiled opening, the final space features a bulbous indoor hut covered in thatch and fitted with a light pink opening.

The hut provides a meeting space for colleagues, according to the studio founder.

"The thatch, as a natural material, absorbs sound as well," explained Smit.

Next to the hut, Space Projects created an acoustic wall illustrated with "hieroglyphics" of Polspotten products, which references the gallery-like theme that runs throughout the outlet.

"The store was inspired by Polspotten's use of traditional techniques combined with a collage of their reinterpreted archetypes," said Smit.

Elsewhere in Amsterdam, Dutch practice Studio RAP used 3D printing and algorithmic design to create a "wave-like" facade for a boutique store while interior designer Linda Bergroth created the interiors for the city's Cover Story paint shop to streamline the redecorating process for customers.

The photography is by Kasia Gatkowska.

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Schiaparelli gowns with faux taxidermied animal heads and a microscopic Louis Vuitton handbag feature in this year's top 10 fashion moments, which continues our 2023 review.

In an era that rewards viral trends and prominent brand collaborations, designers have continued to push the boundaries of fashion this year.

From striking clothing and footwear to memorable bags and store installations, here are Dezeen's top 10 fashion moments of 2023:

Plasticine clothes by JW Anderson

British fashion house JW Anderson presented hoodies and tailored shorts crafted entirely out of plasticine as part of its Spring Summer 2024 womenswear show during London Fashion Week.

Sculpted and hardened into rigid but wearable forms, the clay clothes were designed to put "playfulness in pragmatism and pragmatism in playfulness", according to the brand.

Find out more about these clothes ›

Microscopic Louis Vuitton handbag by MSCHF

Art collective MSCHF caused a stir by unveiling a 3D-printed Louis Vuitton bag that it called "smaller than a grain of salt", created to critique luxury fashion.

Made of neon-green photopolymer resin, the miniature bag was designed to question the functionality of increasingly small handbags produced by the fashion industry.

Find out more about this bag ›

Faux taxidermied gowns by Schiaparelli 

French fashion house Schiaparelli kicked off Paris Couture Week with a collection defined by three gowns, which looked as if they had been taxidermied from the bodies of a lion, a snow leopard and a black wolf.

Despite their hyper-realistic appearance, the brand used hand-sculpted foam, silk faux fur, resin and wool to create the much-discussed hand-painted dresses.

Find out more about these gowns ›

Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton

To mark a capsule collection created in collaboration with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, Louis Vuitton positioned an oversized inflatable sculpture of Kusama atop its Champs-Élysées store in Paris.

Select Louis Vuitton outlets across the world featured similar installations including life-like and human-scale animatronics of the artist, which were placed in window displays with the robotic replica of Kusama repeatedly painting her trademark polka-dots onto the surface of the glass.

Find out more about these installations ›

BioSequin jumpsuit by Stella McCartney

This skin-tight all-in-one by Stella McCartney was embellished with hundreds of shimmering discs called BioSequins, an alternative to the petroleum-based plastic options on the market.

Developed by biomaterials company Radiant Matter, the iridescent sequins were created from renewable polymer cellulose extracted from trees, which naturally reflects light and makes the sequins sparkle.

Find out more about this jumpsuit ›

Big Red Boots (Yellow) by MSCHF and Crocs

MSCHF teamed up with footwear brand Crocs to design a pair of jumbo yellow boots punctuated by the recognisable holes that define Crocs' Classic Clogs.

Called Big Red Boots (Yellow), the shoes are the latest iteration of oversized boots by the art collective, which previously created a similar pair of red boots modelled on those worn by the manga character Astro Boy.

Find out more about Big Red Boots (Yellow) ›

Rotated gowns by Viktor & Rolf

Tulle ballgowns characterised by "surreal" sideways and upside-down silhouettes were presented by Dutch fashion house Viktor & Rolf as part of its Haute Couture Spring Summer 2023 show during Paris Couture Week.

Called Late Stage Capitalism Waltz, the 18 ballgowns were 3D-printed and designed to invert "a singular and narrowly defined 'fashion ideal'," according to the fashion house.

Find out more about these gowns ›

Rewild the Run by Kiki Grammatopoulos

Rewild the Run is a project by Central Saint Martins graduate Kiki Grammatopoulous, who created chunky, bristly outsoles for trainers that help to spread plants and seeds in cities.

Densely covered in tiny hooks that grip onto dirt and plant matter as the wearer treads, the shoes mimic the natural phenomenon of epizoochory, where seeds are transported by becoming attached to an animal's fur.

Find out more about Rewild the Run ›

Architecture-informed handbags by Frank Gehry for Louis Vuitton

Last week's design fair Art Basel Miami Beach saw Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry release 11 limited-edition handbags for Louis Vuitton.

Gehry designed a trio of sculptural bags, which he designed based on the form and finish of three of his best-known buildings – the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Find out more about these handbags ›

Uno bra by Katy Marks

Breast-cancer survivor and architect Katy Marks of Citizens Design Bureau created a collection of one-cup bras and bikinis after her own single mastectomy.

Designed for women to feel "confidently asymmetric", Uno fills a distinct gap in the market for one-cup bras that do not compromise on comfort or style, according to Marks.

Find out more about Uno bra ›

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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Scandinavian and Japanese influences come together at Studio Frantzén, a restaurant in London's Harrods department store designed by Joyn Studio.

Stockholm-based Joyn Studio created the sleek interiors for Studio Frantzén – the latest restaurant opened by chef Björn Frantzén.

The two-storey eatery is arranged across a main restaurant and bar on the fifth floor, as well as on an additional mezzanine and rooftop terrace on the sixth floor of Harrods.

In stark contrast to the department store's famed Edwardian baroque terracotta facade, Studio Frantzén features a contemporary palette that takes cues from both Scandinavian and Japanese design – a trend known as Japandi.

Visitors enter the restaurant at a domed reception area, which references Scandinavian churches and forest chapels, according to the studio.

The curved walls were clad with blocky cherry wood while illustrations of Nordic animals by Ragnar Persson decorate the ceiling and a Swedish wooden Dala horse was perched on the welcome desk.

"Undoubtedly, wood takes centre stage in this restaurant," Joyn Studio founding partner Ida Wanler told Dezeen.

The reception area gives way to a "glowing" bar composed of stacks of glass bricks bathed in amber light, which is mirrored by a ceiling of gridded copper.

Informed by traditional Japanese izakaya – a type of casual watering hole serving snacks – the large main restaurant is composed of two dining halls with bespoke geometric terrazzo and marble flooring.

One hall features an open kitchen and Joyn Studio-designed chunky seating booths and sofas carved out of end-grain wood. This was sourced from a large Hungarian pine tree, cut into cubes and then glued together piece by piece.

This double-height space is illuminated by a spindly oversized chandelier by Swedish studio Front.

The other dining hall, tucked around the corner and connected to a wine cellar, follows the same geometry as the bar.

Sliding timber doors and a gridded wooden ceiling are interrupted by ultramarine benches in booths and delicate, ribbed paper lampshades.

"To create a distinctive Nordic dining experience with Asian influences within a historic London building, we delved into the architectural and design legacy of the early 20th century," explained Wanler.

"Inspired by the journeys of our predecessors to the far east, where they assimilated influences and pioneered a style known as Swedish Grace, we embraced the resonances between traditional Japanese and Nordic architecture and craftsmanship," she continued.

On the upper floor, the mezzanine includes three intimate dining booths accentuated by a burnt orange carpet and a wall-mounted Psychedelic Mirror by designer Caia Leifsdotter.

Characterised by marble, rattan and wooden accents, the rooftop terrace offers expansive city views.

"Aiming to infuse creativity into the traditional luxury context of Harrods, we envisioned a relaxed and comfortable ambiance with sparks of richness created in unexpected ways," said Wanler.

In 2022, Joyn Studio was longlisted for the title of emerging interior design studio of the year at the Dezeen Awards.

Elsewhere at Harrods, fashion house Prada recently opened a green-hued pop-up cafe that referenced one of Milan's oldest patisseries.

The photography is by Åsa Liffner.

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Interior designer Tara Bernerd worked with local artisans when dressing the cavernous rooms at the Maroma hotel in Riviera Maya, Mexico, which were renovated to reflect hacienda-style living.

Housed within white stucco volumes arranged on a coastal plot between lush jungle and the Caribbean sea, the longstanding Maroma, A Belmond Hotel was renovated earlier this year but retained much of its traditional-style architecture.

Bernerd and a team of local artisans conceived the eclectic interiors to reflect the palapa-topped structures, creating a range of bespoke curved furniture and ornaments.

"The buildings themselves are organic in shape and form and were originally positioned in response to the sacred Mayan geometry," she told Dezeen.

"We sought to retain and enhance the beauty of the hotel's original character."

Among the custom pieces are over 700,000 tiles hand-painted and crafted by ceramicist José Noé Suro using clay from Mexico's Jalisco region.

The tiles cover the floors in all of the 72 guest rooms, which are characterised by rattan wardrobes and amorphous timber furniture pieces – 80 per cent of which were hand-carved.

Artisan Max Kublailan blew bulbous glass sconce lights, which feature throughout the rooms and are reminiscent of glowing gemstones.

"It was a joy working with the local artisans who brought our designs to life and the process was more like a conversation between artisan and designer, with each inspiring and on occasion challenging the other," reflected Bernerd.

The entrance to each guest room also features individual ceramic, painted signs informed by traditional Lotería cards, which are used to play a similar game to bingo in Mexico.

"We built up the layers of design within the spaces, with rich pops of colour being brought in through the tiled or mosaic floors, the use of decorative tiles in the walls and dado rail as well as cushions and fabrics," explained Bernerd.

Maroma's two restaurants follow a similar design, with accents such as rattan pendant lights and tables featuring textured legs that give the appearance of tree trunks.

An open kitchen clad entirely in caramel-hued glazed ceramic tiles was tucked into a corner of the Woodend eatery while Casa Mayor includes clusters of hand-painted plant pots.

Throughout the hotel, cavernous alcoves were also dressed with custom interiors made up of stone, clay, wood and natural fibres.

"Location and layout were key and I am especially proud of how we have managed to reimagine previously under-utilised areas and have created a balance between unique, dramatic spaces and cosier, slightly hidden areas," said Bernerd.

Traditional Yucatán doors with dense timber frames and chandeliers made from clusters of seashells were chosen to respond to Maroma's setting.

The hotel's central swimming pool was renovated with Sukabumi turquoise tiles handmade from volcanic stone to emulate the cenotes – water-filled sinkholes formed by the collapse of limestone – found in the Yucatán Peninsula.

"In essence, we wanted to create something that was effortlessly serene and had the feeling of a chic home," said the designer.

"So we also drew inspiration from traditional hacienda-style living to create a relaxed, almost residential vibe throughout the resort and evoke a sense of connection, unity and flow between all of the public area buildings," she concluded.

The British designer is the founder of the London-based architecture and interiors office Tara Bernerd & Partners.

Elsewhere in Mexico, local firms Productora and Esrawe Studio designed a San Miguel de Allende hotel with planes of green tile. Architect Alberto Kalach added a series of vaulted, brick arches to a resort in Oaxaca.

The photography is courtesy of Belmond. 

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Cake Architecture has renovated A Bar with Shapes for a Name, an east London cocktail bar featuring "utilitarian" interiors.

A Bar with Shapes for a Name owes its title to the yellow triangle, red square and blue circle that are emblazoned on its facade in a nod to the primary colours and understated geometry commonly associated with the Bauhaus.

When creating the bar's minimalist interiors, Dalston-based Cake Architecture took cues from the influential German art and design school that was established in 1919 and advocated for an emphasis on functionality, among other similar principles.

Located at 232 Kingsland Road in Hoxton, the cocktail bar was renovated by the studio to serve as a multipurpose venue.

Cake Architecture doubled the bar's capacity by adding a basement, which acts as a "kitchen-bar" room, and refurbished the ground floor's existing seating area as well as a classroom-style space that offers a location for rotating events or workshops.

"These spaces have specific functional requirements and we selected colours and materials to suit," studio director Hugh Scott Moncrieff told Dezeen.

Upon entering the bar, visitors are greeted by the main seating area or "showroom", which was designed to be warm and inviting.

Tall tubular chairs finished with neutral rattan were positioned around chunky geometric tables made from birch ply stained to a rich, reddish-brown hue.

The team also used the same timber to create the space's curving bar, which is illuminated by a squat, cordless table lamp by lighting brand Flos.

Opposite the bar, a glowing rectilinear light installation by photographer Steve Braiden was fitted to the wall underneath bench-style seating reminiscent of early Bauhaus furniture designs.

"We looked in particular at projects by the Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius," reflected Scott Moncrieff.

"Gropius is a master of this elegant zoning through the application of colour and form," he added.

Downstairs, the low-lit basement was created to house additional seating as well as "all of the crazy machinery they use to prepare the drinks," the designer said.

The basement is characterised by a bespoke central table by Cake Architecture and furniture designer Eddie Olin.

Consisting of a steel frame that "floats" over a central leg, the table was topped with a glass surface and its base was clad in phenolic-coated plywood to match the floor and walls.

"This new basement is predominantly a production space – so the palette reflects this with hardwearing, utilitarian and industrial materials," said Scott Moncrieff.

A thick, felt curtain in ultramarine adds a pop of colour to the otherwise pared-back space.

With its pale blue walls and Valchromat-topped, steel-framed tables, the ground-floor "classroom" pays homage to the Bauhaus as an educational institution.

Brighter blue vinyl covers the floors while a sculptural lamp featuring red, yellow and blue circles echoes the bar's logo.

A tall blackboard and overhead strip lighting add to the classroom feel of the space, which is used for various group events.

Cake Architecture worked closely with the bar's founders Remy Savage and Paul Lougrat when creating the interiors, which were primarily informed by the duo's way of working.

"The team has a conceptually driven ethos drawn from the theory and practice of Bauhaus embedded in everything they are doing. We found that incredibly exciting," explained Scott Moncrieff.

"The Bauhaus phrase 'party, work, play' was pertinent to some early ideas and this carried through all our design discussions," noted the designer.

"The space enables these three things. Separately as individual functions and simultaneously as a representation of the overall atmosphere of a bar!"

Cake Architecture previously worked with interior designer Max Radford to create a curtain-wrapped speakeasy in London's Soho. The studio also designed a workspace for London agency Ask Us For Ideas in the same part of the city.

The photography is by Felix Speller. 

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Colour specialist Pantone has announced Peach Fuzz as its 2024 colour of the year, a subtle orangey hue that was chosen to express a yearning for community and cosiness during uncertain times.

Pantone 13-1023 Peach Fuzz was described by the Pantone Colour Institute as "softly nestled between pink and orange".

"Peach Fuzz is a compassionate and nurturing soft peach shade whose heartfelt kindness and all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body and soul," said the institute's vice president Laurie Pressman.

"At a time of turmoil in many aspects of our lives, the Pantone Colour of the Year 2024 expresses our need for nurturing, empathy and compassion as well as our imaginings and desire for a more peaceful future," she told Dezeen.

The warm and subtle shade was also chosen for its ability to "bring beauty to the digital world".

The Pantone Colour Institute is the trend-forecasting arm of the Pantone company. Since 1999, the institute has chosen an annual colour that it feels best represents both the current mood and looks towards the year ahead.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the programme, the gentle Peach Fuzz was based on a culmination of research conducted throughout 2023.

As well as "all areas of design", the institute team monitored the entertainment industry and films currently in production, as well as travelling art collections, emerging artists and the fashion world, Pressman said.

"Aspirational travel destinations, new lifestyles, playstyles, or enjoyable escapes and socio-economic conditions," are all considered, according to the vice president.

"Influences may also stem from new technologies, materials, textures and effects that impact colour, and also relevant social media platforms and even upcoming sporting events that capture worldwide attention," she added.

"Most of all, we keep our eyes and ears open to the hopes and aspirations that many people share with us and which help us to provide the symbolic colour that best represents those feelings," noted Pressman.

Pantone Viva Magenta 18-1750 was named colour of the year for 2023. According to the company, Peach Fuzz is a natural progression from last year's vibrant reddish-pink shade, which was described as "brave and fearless".

"Our colour of the year for 2024 reflects an evolution from last year's colour, rather than a sharp break," explained Pressman.

The vice president said that during a moment in time when a focus on our collective physical and mental wellbeing is paramount, Peach Fuzz encapsulates a need for a strong sense of community.

"It is a colour whose nurturing and cosy sensibility brings people together and elicits a feeling of tactility," she said.

"The Pantone Colour of the Year is a colour we see crossing all areas of design – a colour that serves as an expression of a mood and an attitude on the part of the consumers, a colour that will resonate around the world, a colour that reflects what people are looking for and what they feel they need that colour can hope to answer," concluded Pressman.

The colour Veri Peri won the title for 2022 – a Pantone hue that was informed by the rise of the metaverse as well as the impact of coronavirus lockdowns.

Shortly afterwards, interiors expert Michelle Ogundehin criticised the choice, claiming in a Dezeen opinion piece that "it's time to reconsider the whole colour of the year carnival".

The images are courtesy of Pantone unless otherwise stated.

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Continuing our 2023 review, we have selected 10 striking staircases published on Dezeen this year, from prefabricated plywood steps at a Cornish home to a colourful set for an opera in a Swiss theatre.

Architects and designers have continued to find clever solutions to travelling on foot from one storey to another in 2023 by creating staircases that are both beautiful and functional.

Ranging from the spectacular to the space-saving, here are Dezeen's top 10 staircases of 2023:

Ribbon House, India, by Studio Ardete

An angular balustrade with tilting black rails twists around sweeping concrete steps to form the staircase at Ribbon House, a home in Punjab with an equally sculptural exterior.

Architecture office Studio Ardete placed open living spaces next to the staircase on each floor to create lobby-like communal areas on the house's different levels.

Find out more about Ribbon House ›

House by the Sea, UK, by Of Architecture

House by the Sea is the home of a surfer-and-artist couple in Newquay, Cornwall, that was designed to be "simple, robust and utilitarian".

For the interior, London studio Of Architecture inserted prefabricated plywood steps leading to a cosy mezzanine level tucked beneath the dwelling's sloping roof.

Find out more about House by the Sea ›

Haus 1, Germany, by MVRDV and Hirschmüller Schindele Architekten

A bright yellow, zigzagging staircase juts out from the facade of the Haus 1 building in Berlin, creating the appearance of a striking crane and providing a beacon for approaching visitors.

Dutch studio MVRDV worked with local studio Hirschmüller Schindele Architekten to design Haus 1, which forms part of the city's Atelier Gardens redevelopment.

Find out more about Haus 1 ›

Luna House, Chile, by Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen

Brutalist-style spiral staircases connect the storeys of Luna House, an expansive geometric complex in Chile comprised of 12 individual buildings.

Chilean studio Pezo von Ellrichshausen designed the stairs and the majority of the structure in reinforced concrete, which is highly textured thanks to imprints left behind by wooden formwork.

Find out more about Luna House ›

Rigoletto set design, Switzerland, by Pierre Yovanovitch

French interior designer Pierre Yovanovitch embedded moving, curved walls within an undulating staircase that stretched the full width of the stage for a production of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto at Theatre Basel.

Bathed in coloured light, the flexible walls created a neutral set for the performers to balance the play's complex plot, according to the designer.

Find out more about this staircase ›

Hairpin House, USA, by Studio J Jih and Figure

This Boston house was renovated to revolve around a sculptural "hairpin" staircase informed by the twists and turns of mountain roads.

Designed by American firms Studio J Jih and Figure, the white oak stairs were created to increase the home's useable floor area by 20 per cent.

Find out more about Hairpin House ›

House in Pernek, Slovakia, by Ksa Studený

This home in the village of Pernek, Slovakia, was designed in the shape of an isosceles trapezoid, mirroring its longitudinal profile.

Architecture studio Ksa Studený positioned a chunky white staircase over a slanted slab of concrete to divide the interior space.

Find out more about this house ›

The Arbor House, Scotland, by Brown & Brown

A spiral staircase made from birch plywood winds into the dining area at The Arbor House by Brown & Brown, located in a conservation area in Aberdeen.

The studio assembled the stairs over three weeks, with timber treads individually cut and hand-layered to form a smooth curve.

Find out more about The Arbor House ›

SNN Clermont residential tower, India, by FADD Studio

Indian practice FADD Studio renovated two apartments within the SNN Clermont residential tower in Bangalore to create a fused multi-generational home.

The studio took cues from the curves of caterpillars when creating a swooping staircase, which connects the two flats and features deep red marble risers.

Find out more about these apartments ›

The Conran Shop, Japan, by Keiji Ashizawa 

Japanese designer Keiji Ashizawa created interiors for The Conran Shop in Tokyo to reflect the inside of someone's home.

The store's mezzanine floor is accessible by a minimalist geometric staircase featuring a handrail made from black paper cords.

Find out more about The Conran Shop ›

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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Copenhagen-based Natural Material Studio has handcrafted swirly panels made of spent grain salvaged from beer production for a restaurant opened by the local ÅBEN brewery.

Led by designer Bonnie Hvillum, Natural Material Studio created the thick, semi-translucent and semi-rigid rectilinear panels out of surplus beer sourced from the ÅBEN brewery in Copenhagen.

The first step involved processing the 'mask' – the Danish term for small grains leftover from the beer production process.

Initially extracted as a wet pulp, the mask then needed to be dried.

"From the very start of the process, it was important for us not to force the waste material, so we let it dry naturally," explained Hvillum.

"It takes a few days, during which time the grains become lighter in colour – beige, or even a bit golden," she told Dezeen.

Once the grains had dried, the studio ground them into various particle sizes, which was crucial not only for the technical qualities of the final material but also its swirly appearance, according to Hvillum.

"The smaller particles, in powder form, colour the material. The coarser ones create the pattern and give a visual indication of what the material is made with," explained the designer, referring to the neutral-hued, beer bubble-style streaks that characterise the panels.

After treating the dried grains in this way, the team combined them with Procel – a home-compostable, protein-based bioplastic of natural softener and chalk developed by Natural Material Studio.

Hvillum and her team hand-cast the mask and Procel mixture into straight sheets of up to three metres in length, forming the final panels.

"This hand-crafted technique allows you to apply the mask almost like paint, while leaving space for the organic material motions that happen during the casting," acknowledged the designer.

"The balance between our human gestures and the material's own way of flowing is visible in the final sheets," she added.

Hvillum explained that the team had to take great care to ensure that the mask did not ferment during the natural drying process.

"We were dealing with something that had already been processed once in the beer production. We needed to be very careful around the reheating of the mask grains," said the designer. "If the mask fermented again, the panels would have never dried out."

The team also had to slim down the panels, which were originally meant to be five millimetres thick, to ensure that enough excess water could escape the mask while it was being cast.

"For us, it was a game of getting the panels to set as fast as possible without the mask starting to ferment," explained Hvillum.

"By casting thinner sheets we were able to contour the process more and extract the water from the material faster," added the designer.

The beer-based panels have been installed as decorative space dividers at Copenhagen Airport's ÅBEN restaurant and bar, which features interiors designed by local studio Spacon & X.

"We think the panels work well in the space because of their strength and expression, and really materialise the brewery's beers," said Hvillum.

The designer was named as winner of the inaugural Bentley Lighthouse Award at last week's Dezeen Awards for her studio's "uncompromising" work in bio-based material development.

Natural Material Studio's previous projects include reusable biomaterial gift wrap designed for fashion brand Calvin Klein last Christmas and crockery created out of powdered seafood seashells for Danish restaurant Noma.

The photography is by Jonas Pryner and Natural Material Studio. 

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Qatari art and culture institution Qatar Museums has announced the first edition of Design Doha, a biennial event that will feature over 100 designers from the Middle East and North African region.

The inaugural Design Doha will take place from 24 – 28 February 2024 across the existing Doha Design District in the Qatari capital's Msheireb neighbourhood.

Launched by Qatar Museum's chairperson Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the first edition of the biennial will showcase work from more than 100 designers from the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.

The participating designers' practices range from architecture, urbanism and landscape design to graphic design, textiles, woodwork, glass and ceramics.

The biennial will also feature work by international designers. Among these projects will be a site-specific commission by South Korea-based designer Choi Byung Hoon, which will be permanently exhibited at the National Museum of Qatar.

Dutch designer Joris Laarman will also create a piece called Doha Dragon, which will be installed in the Doha Design District.

According to the biennial organisers, the programme will be anchored by Arab Design Now, a "regional survey" of over 70 Arab designers that will be held at the design district's M7 centre.

The exhibition will be curated by Amman Design Week founder Rana Beiruti and will examine "how local and regional designers balance contemporary design with traditional methods derived from the region's heritage," according to Design Doha.

Various other exhibitions will take place at M7 during the biennial, including a display of 100 Arabic posters and another show focusing on a century of architecture in Doha.

As well as these exhibitions, Design Doha will bring together a series of talks and other events including the Design Doha Forum – a discussion platform created to "position Doha's design sector within a global context, with a particular emphasis on the design of inclusive and equitable cities".

The biennial will also publish two open calls for submissions for the event, "celebrating Arab creatives across disciplines," said its organisers.

One competition will invite emerging creatives from the MENA region to showcase their work, while the other will consider graphic design students, recent graduates and established graphic designers based in Qatar for the opportunity to work with UNESCO's Creative Cities Network to create the official logo for Doha Design City.

"Recognising that there are far too few platforms in our region for designers to present their work, the inauguration of Design Doha is a testament to the excellence and innovation of our region's design community," said Sheikha Al Mayassa.

During this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, Dutch architecture office UNStudio revealed its designs for the Dadu, Children's Museum of Qatar. French designer Philippe Starck unveiled plans for the Qatar Preparatory School, also commissioned by Qatar Museums, at the same event.

While the official event will run from 24 to 28 February, various exhibitions will be on display in Doha until 5 August.

The photography is courtesy of Design Doha.

Design Doha takes place from 24 to 28 February 2024 in Doha, Qatar. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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American interior designer Kelly Wearstler has paired a towering tree with speckled burl wood panelling and vintage furniture by Carlo Scarpa at the Ulla Johnson flagship store in West Hollywood.

Wearstler created the light-filled, two-storey shop as the flagship Los Angeles location for Johnson's eponymous clothing brand.

The duo worked together to envisage the sandy-hued interiors, which Wearstler described as "something that really speaks to LA".

"A priority for me and Ulla was to ensure that the showroom encapsulated the quintessence of the West Coast, firmly grounded in both the surrounding environment and local community," the designer told Dezeen.

Visitors enter the store via a "secret" patio garden lined with desert trees and shrubs rather than on Beverly Boulevard, where the original entrance was.

"This Californian idea of merging indoor and outdoor is evident from the moment you approach the store," said Wearstler, who explained that her designs tend to nod to the "natural world".

Inside, three interconnected, open-plan spaces on the ground floor were dressed with textured interiors that mirror Johnson's similarly rich collections, which hang from delicate clothing rails throughout the store.

Standalone jewellery display cases by Canadian artist Jeff Martin feature in the cavernous accessories space. Clad with peeling ribbons of grooved, caramel-coloured tiles, the cases echo floor-to-ceiling speckled burl wood panels.

The other living room-style area was designed as a sunroom with a pair of boxy 1970s Cornaro armchairs by modernist Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, as well as parquet flooring with Rosa Corallo stone inlay.

"Vintage pieces are infused into all of my projects and I enjoy experimenting with the dialogues created by placing these alongside contemporary commissions," explained Wearstler.

The largest of the three spaces, the mezzanine is illuminated by skylights and houses a double-height Brachychiton – a tree that also features in the designer's own Malibu home.

A chunky timber staircase leads to the upper level, where another lounge was finished in burnt orange and cream-coloured accents including a lumpy marbelised resin coffee table by LA-based designer Ross Hansen.

"We collaborated with a variety of local artisans to imbue the spirit of southern California into every facet of the project," said Wearstler.

Ribbed plaster walls and textured flooring line a fitting room close by, which was created to evoke a residential feeling, according to the designer.

"We wanted people to feel at home in the store so we prioritised warm and inviting elements," she said.

Another striking display cabinet made from "wavy" burl wood evokes "a touch of 1970s California nostalgia".

The Ulla Johnson store is also used as a community space, which hosts rotating art installations, talks with guest speakers and other events.

Wearstler recently designed an eclectic cocktail bar at the Downtown LA Proper hotel, which she previously created the wider interiors for. Her portfolio also features a 1950s beachfront cottage renovation in Malibu.

The photography is by Adrian Gaut. 

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Architect Katy Marks of Citizens Design Bureau has created Uno, a one-cup bra for women who have undergone mastectomies, to empower and celebrate post-surgery bodies.

Breast cancer survivor Marks designed the Uno collection after her own single mastectomy when she found herself struggling to find bras that offered support to one breast without requiring prosthetics.

"When you have a mastectomy, you come home and suddenly your whole underwear drawer is obsolete – which is pretty depressing," said the architect, who is the founder of London-based office Citizens Design Bureau.

"I cut a lot of bras in half and started adding flat straps on the side, but then, as an architect, I felt compelled to start sketching," she told Dezeen.

Made to order in small batches to eliminate unnecessary waste, the Uno collection features asymmetrical bras and swimwear in a variety of colours that were designed not to compromise comfort or appearance.

Each piece features a single contoured cup and strap for either left or right breasts, supported by a wide band of fabric that is flat on one side and wraps around the chest.

The bras' thinner straps are adjustable while the bikini top can be tied into a decorative bow at the back.

When designing the collection, Marks explained that one of the main challenges was preventing the asymmetry from causing the bra to twist or sag on the body while avoiding tight elastic on the band that could irritate scar tissue and tender skin following radiotherapy.

Marks and her team trialled prototypes on a range of women "of different shapes and sizes" – many of whom are in active treatment – to find the best solution.

"The fact that there are no asymmetric mannequins was also an obstacle," acknowledged the architect.

The underwear is made from a combination of stretch satin and Lenzing modal – a material created from sawdust as a by-product of the European timber industry.

For the swimwear, the team chose Econyl, which is a fabric made of reconstituted ocean plastics.

"I was determined that Uno should not become part of a fast fashion, disposable, high-waste culture that is really destructive," said Marks.

"Lenzing modal is also sumptuously soft on the skin," she added.

Accessibility and affordability were also important priorities for Marks, who plans to publish open-source, simplified versions of some of the garment patterns.

"There is a growing movement of women wanting [asymmetrical bras] and doing it themselves in frustration at not being able to find anything," said the architect.

While Marks highlighted that women with cancer have countless different experiences and might understandably choose to undergo post-surgery breast reconstruction, 69 per cent of women who have mastectomies decide to remain flat after breast removal and deserve appropriate underwear, according to the architect.

"After my surgery, I felt real anxiety and hated that I felt compelled to wear these prosthetics, which felt to me like a kind of cartoonish costume I had to put on in order to feel like a real woman," she said.

"I have two young sons, and I felt really strongly that I didn't want them to see me feeling inhibited by my body and my scars. I wanted to show my kids that it's okay to look a bit different and that it doesn't change who I am."

Marks designed the Uno logo with a hyphen in front of the letter U, which is crowned with an illustrative dot to symbolise a breast.

"I saw the graphic opportunities of using the U and a hyphen in front of the word, to suggest a breast and a scar as a motif," she explained.

"So, it was a little bit of graphic fun, with a logo that I've painted many times, again playfully reflecting all the different shapes and sizes of breasts."

"Uno was about being confidently asymmetric, designing something that looks like a really beautiful thing to wear in its own right – which just happens to be asymmetric and have only one cup," reflected Marks.

"It is up to women themselves to decide what makes them feel feminine or not – nobody else. If you have confidence in who you are, you can find a way for it to shine through."

"Of course, it's easy to say and it took me a while to get there – but I stared at myself in the mirror and really felt that I had to learn to like myself," continued the architect.

"My experience is that many people don't even notice, but when they do, they accept it, and why shouldn't they? Why should we feel ashamed or try to hide our bodies after we have had cancer, as though the only way to be feminine is to be a 'normal woman'?

"We need to shift into the 21st century and recognise that the diversity of our bodies is the norm. The more we see it, the more we can be it."

Designer Lisa Marks previously made Algorithmic Lace, a bra for people who have had mastectomies, which features no underwire and can create the illusion of symmetry and curves. Sportswear brand Adidas recently collaborated with designer Stella McCartney to create a sports bra that allows its wearers to breastfeed more easily.

The photography is by Tara Darby.

Project credits:

Designer: Katy Marks
Models: Anna Versteeg, Claudia Manchanda, Gemma Fish and Jenny Skinner

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Bespoke scalloped edges and a Verner Panton S-Chair feature at the Pops holiday apartment in Kraków, which Furora Studio designed to be more playful than a permanent home.

Named Pops after lollipops, the dwelling was conceived by Diana Żurek and Gutek Girek of Polish firm Furora Studio.

"The project is a temporary apartment for anyone who wants to spend time in an attractive and very sugary interior," said the designers.

Spread across one level of a multi-storey building in central Kraków, the rental home includes an open-plan kitchen and living room.

This space was dressed with a velvety salmon-pink curtain, which stretches the length of one of two of the walls, and a central display cabinet finished in pistachio green and "crowned with frills".

Much of the furniture and other design elements were custom-made by Furora Studio and follow the same toy-like geometry as the cabinet – a combination of round and wavy motifs created in pastel pinks, greens and creams.

For example, a white and turquoise pendant light with scalloped edges was suspended above a circular dining table, while a ribbed half-moon alcove was created as a backdrop for the wall-mounted television.

"First and foremost, we aimed to find suitable forms," said Żurek, describing the studio's starting point for the project.

"Most of the elements were custom-made because we wanted to maintain the coherence of the interior while ensuring proper functional arrangement," she told Dezeen.

"Essentially, each element was its own small project. The selection of shapes, milling, small details, and perfecting the form – all of these were important considerations."

An olive-hued, L-shaped sofa was tucked into one corner of the living space and echoed by the kitchen splashback, finished in the same green colour.

Żurek described the apartment's double bedroom as "a pink box with a whimsical headboard and an abundance of pillows".

In one corner, a light green built-in desk was positioned in front of a sculptural Verner Panton chair.

The iconic S-shaped seating was originally designed by Panton in the early 1960s and recently influenced the furniture created for the Dreamhouse at the centre of the set design in this year's Barbie film.

"We rarely have the opportunity to be in interiors that evoke memories of earlier years, when as children, we had few responsibilities and sought joy and playfulness," noted Żurek.

"But this is not about returning to preschool or infantilising the space," stressed the designer.

"It's about positive energy. We sought solutions that would more literally create a colorful space, full of rounded patterns, light colours and a sense of relief," she added.

The bathroom is also awash with pattern, featuring a jumbo scalloped-edged cabinet and pink and brown terrazzo tiles.

Bulbous pendant lighting illuminates the space, which contains a walk-in shower.

Summarising the holiday apartment, Żurek called it a place to "have fun and cuddle".

"Certainly, there are many enthusiasts of such candy-like solutions, but this interior may not be for everyone, especially for long-term use, such as in the case of a private home," reflected the designer.

"For short-term rentals, I believe most people would be tempted to experience how it feels to be in such a vibrant interior," she added.

"These projects allow for the use of [design] solutions that might be somewhat tiring on a daily basis, but spending a brief moment in such a place opens us up to new experiences, feelings of peace and relaxation."

Elsewhere in Kraków, London-based office Studio Mills transformed an apartment at a converted monastery into a family home. Polish practice Projekt Praga created a bar with a self-service beer fountain within the taproom of a centuries-old brewery just outside of the city.

The photography is by ONI Studio. 

The post Furora Studio designs Kraków rental apartment Pops with "very sugary interior" appeared first on Dezeen.

Design studio Kin has created the Edinburgh office interior for global law firm Dentons, featuring a communal rotunda with no doors and an open-plan bar.

Manchester-based Kin designed the office at 9 Haymarket Square – a mixed-use development in Edinburgh.

The studio sought to "challenge the conventional approach to design for legal practices" when creating the interior, which includes a central rotunda designed as a casual place to gather.

Built from Scottish oak, the round structure features a circular footprint to counterbalance the existing building's angles and straight lines.

"We wanted it to have a homely familiar feeling with no physical doors, just a series of connected spaces," Kin director Matt Holmes told Dezeen.

The rotunda was also partially clad with acoustic panels made from recycled plastic bottles, which were fitted to absorb sound and reduce ambient reverberation from around the rest of the office.

Illuminated, amphitheatre-style seating was positioned in the middle of the rotunda, while individual meeting booths were placed on its perimeter.

The welcome desk was framed by oversized statement arches set within a boxy timber shelving unit.

Elsewhere, Kin added an open-plan bar to the office, made from bespoke wooden rods and solid terrazzo.

"The bar was designed to act as a focal point for the client space – somewhere for people to gravitate around as they leave the concierge desk," said Holmes.

"A visit [to Dentons] is not just a business meeting, but an experience," he added.

Throughout the office, the studio opted for orange and green hues for working areas and used both smooth geometric tiles and more tactile surfaces.

"The materiality draws inspiration from Scotland's abundant natural landscape through warm timbers and rich and textured fabrics," said Holmes.

"Whilst balancing them against the warm tonal colour palette and strong geometry of Edinburgh's built environment, the rooftops and tenement tile patterns provided so much inspiration."

Kin worked with local craftspeople when building the project.

Other offices designed to make their occupants feel at home include a real estate office in Tokyo created by Flooat to be "as stress-free as possible" and Mason Studio's self-designed office in Toronto that also doubles as a space for community programming such as exhibitions and other events.

The photography is by Amy Heycock.

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Interior designer Linda Bergroth has added colourful beams to the Amsterdam concept store for plastic-free paint brand Cover Story, which was designed to streamline the redecorating process for shoppers.

The "paint studio" is the second iteration of Cover Story outlets designed by Bergroth, who also created the interiors for the Finnish brand's flagship Helsinki store.

Shortlisted in the small retail interiors category of this year's Dezeen Awards, the paint shop features oversized colourful beams. These were informed by cranes in the port city, as well as the decorative vignettes that top many of Amsterdam buildings' facades, according to the brand.

"The design playfully explores the use of colour, incorporating three-dimensionality through roof bars and considering how light interacts with colour to influence perception," said Cover Story.

Following a similar format to the Helsinki outlet, the Amsterdam shop also serves as a showroom, office and events space, despite its small size.

A large colour chart made from hand-painted swatches in 47 different shades, designed to make choosing colours easier for customers, was attached to the wall.

Chunky painted plinths were positioned in the shop window, as well as smaller colourful blocks on a central silvery table, to emphasise the different ways in which light and shadow respond to various paint options.

Cover Story explained that Bergroth chose to highlight the old building's "unique characteristics", rather than introduce new furniture, including its sloping walls and the metal supports that adorn its structural pillars.

"Despite the significant influence that wall colour holds in shaping the atmosphere of a room and influencing interior design, paint is often perceived merely as a renovation accessory," said the brand.

"Cover Story's mission is to position paint as a design product, which is why the Amsterdam paint studio is strategically located on a bustling shopping street alongside other concept stores where interior design products are sold," it added.

"Every aspect is thoughtfully crafted to promote a sustainable and user-centric experience."

Founded in 2020 by Anssi Jokinen and Tommi Saarnio, the brand produces 100 per cent plastic-free paint, which is also odourless.

Finnish designer Bergroth has completed a number of colour-infused projects including Durat's Helsinki showroom and a blue pop-up restaurant in New York built from recycled food packaging.

The photography is by Paavo Lehtonen. 

The post Linda Bergroth designs "user-centric" Cover Story paint shop in Amsterdam appeared first on Dezeen.

Gradated lava stone flooring and suspended planet-like orbs feature at the Cafe Nuances coffee shop in Paris, which was created by Dezeen Awards-nominated studio Uchronia.

Located on the city's Rue de la Tremoille, the coffee shop is the third Uchronia-designed branch for Parisian coffee roaster Cafe Nuances.

The one-room shop is fronted by a bright white facade in stark contrast to its vivid-hued interior.

Studio founder Julien Sebban was informed by the landscapes he experienced on a recent trip to Tunisia when creating the cafe's walls and lava stone flooring, which are decorated in ombre swathes of red, orange and blue.

"They reminded him of the sunsets in the Tunisian desert – a veritable ode to the gentleness of summer days," said the studio, known for its playfully eclectic designs and shortlisted in the emerging interior designer category at this year's upcoming Dezeen Awards.

The coffee shop's entrance is flanked by two bright red benches topped with metallic-effect fabric – one curved, and the other straight.

Low-slung interlocking tables, which can double as stools, can be reconfigured to suit customers' needs.

Uchronia placed a chunky stainless steel counter at the back of the intimate cafe, which is overlooked by deep orange lacquered shelving – a design element found in the other two Cafe Nuances outlets.

"This new address picks up on the codes present in the second shop, accentuating the [coffee] brand's colourful, futuristic retro universe," explained the studio.

A cluster of striking, spherical objects were finished in the same colours as the rest of the space and suspended from the reflective ceiling.

"Unlike [this branch's] two big sisters, whose interiors feature striated shapes, here, the poly mirror tiles are complemented by half-spheres in saturated colours, accentuating the dreamlike feel of the coffee shop," continued Uchronia.

"They create the illusion of floating balls, which could be mistaken for Saturn."

The studio previously livened up a Haussman-era Paris apartment for a pair of jewellery designers with furniture crafted to nod to the appearance of precious stones.

Elsewhere, Canadian design duo Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster created a sky-blue coffee shop in a century-old house in Buffalo, New York, with an optical illusion staircase.

The photography is by Félix Dol Maillot.

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A floating sauna and a cavernous coastal grotto feature in our latest lookbook, which collects eight sauna interiors that provide a warming antidote to colder months.

Usually contained within a single room, a sauna is a sealed place where visitors experience dry or wet heat produced through a variety of mechanisms that are designed to clean and refresh the body – a ritual that is reported to date back to as early as 4000 BC.

Saunas are typically made of wood due to the material's ability to absorb heat but remain cool to the touch. The following projects demonstrate how architects and designers have interpreted this longstanding practice in contemporary settings.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring cosy living rooms, retro eateries and dining rooms with built-in seating.

Big Branzino, Sweden, by Sandellsandberg 

The Big Branzino is a floating sauna by Swedish studio Sandellsandberg that was topped with a distinctive bow-shaped roof.

Designed to drift against the shifting backdrop of the Stockholm archipelago, the sauna features a red cedar-clad interior including a bespoke stove flanked by two-tiered seating.

Find out more about Big Branzino ›

Grotto, Canada, by Partisans

Canadian studio Partisans designed a cavernous cedar interior for a private burnt-timber sauna that was created to emulate a seaside grotto.

Situated on a craggy spot on the shore of Lake Huron, north of Toronto, the structure features skewed porthole windows and a curvy alternative to traditional geometric stepped sauna seating.

Find out more about Grotto ›

The Bands, Norway, by Oslo School of Architecture and Design students

A trio of staggered timber bands forms this student-designed sauna, which also functions as a picnic terrace and has a sunken hot tub on its exterior.

The building has three different gabled roof profiles, as well as glass and translucent polycarbonate plastic windows that illuminate the larch-clad interior.

Find out more about The Bands ›

Sauna, UK, by Haeckels

Skincare brand Haeckels took cues from traditional Victorian bathing machines – wooden carts that provided privacy for people to change clothes at the seaside – when creating this sauna on the beach of southeast England's Margate.

The brand used materials that were as close as possible to those that would have been used to design original bathing machines. A wood-burning stove features inside, while timber benches provide seating with a sea view framed by an external wax-cloth awning.

Find out more about this sauna ›

Tullin, Finland, by Studio Puisto

Finnish practice Studio Puisto paid tribute to the concept of the late nineteenth-century korttelisauna, or neighbourhood sauna, when designing this communal complex in the city of Tampere.

Throughout the complex, the interior is characterised by rough concrete finishes layered with warm local pine – a material used in saunas all over Finland.

Find out more about Tullin ›

Löyly, Switzerland, by Trolle Rudebeck Haar

Designer Trolle Rudebeck Haar built a prefabricated floating sauna on Lake Geneva while studying at the Lausanne University of Art and Design.

Created to explore the concept of micro-architecture, Löyly spans 2.2 square metres and features a Japanese sliding door – known as a shōji – made from ribbed translucent glass.

Find out more about Löyly ›

Gothenburg Public Sauna, Sweden, by Raumlabor

German studio Raumlabor worked with local residents in Gothenburg to design this public sauna, which is raised over the water in the Swedish city's Frihamnen port and accessed via a wooden bridge.

Thin larch strips line the interior and create texture across the curved and angular surfaces of the ceiling and walls.

Find out more about Gothenburg Public Sauna ›

Saunaravintola Kiulu, Findland, by Studio Puisto

Studio Puisto designed the Saunaravintola Kiulu wellness centre to combine a duo of saunas and a restaurant.

Characterised by dark wood cladding and red epoxy flooring, the smaller of the two saunas is contained within its own independent timber cabin.

Find out more about Saunaravintola Kiulu ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring cosy living rooms, retro eateries and dining rooms with built-in seating.

The post Eight immersive saunas in peaceful settings appeared first on Dezeen.

An exposed raw concrete facade fronts the Trunk Hotel Yoyogi Park, which Japanese studio Keiji Ashizawa Design and Danish firm Norm Architects conceived as a minimalist retreat in the heart of the city.

Marking the third location in a trio of Trunk hotels in Tokyo, the design of the boutique hotel was rooted in the concept of "urban recharge", according to Trunk chief creative officer Masayuki Kinoshita.

The hotel group said the idea was to balance the opposing elements of tradition and modernity as well as nature and the city and the melding of both Japanese and European craft.

Keiji Ashizawa Design created a textured concrete aggregate facade for the seven-storey building, which is punctuated with steel-lined balconies and overlooks Yoyogi Park's lush treetops.

The studio worked with Norm Architects to design the minimalist interior, accessed via a copper-clad entrance.

A total of 20 guest rooms and five suites were dressed in a muted colour and material palette featuring hardwood flooring and plush Hotta Carpet-designed rugs informed by traditional Japanese architecture.

Delicate rattan partition walls delineate spaces within the rooms, which open out onto the building's balconies that were fitted with slanted ceilings in order to encourage sunlight into each room "as if mimicking the gentle transitions of a day".

"It's been an interesting journey for us to find the right balance between a space that is relaxed and vibrant at the same time," said Norm Architects co-founder Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.

The rooms are also characterised by paper-cord chairs and tapered washi pendant lights as well as abstract artworks, amorphous vases and grainy floor-to-ceiling bathroom tiles.

On the ground floor, oak seating designed by Norm Architects for Karimoku features in the hotel restaurant, which includes a striking copper-clad pizza oven and the same rattan accents that can be found in the guest rooms.

"It is a very unique and gratifying experience in the sense that the architecture, interior and furniture, as well as the attention to detail, have created a space with such a strong sense of unity," said Keiji Ashizawa Design.

An open-air pool club is located on the sixth floor of the hotel.

Sand-blasted concrete flooring was paired with thin bluey-green tiles that make up the infinity swimming pool, which overlooks the park below.

A "glowing" firepit can also be set alight after dark, intended to create a soothing contrast with the bright Tokyo skyline.

The city's first Trunk Hotel opened in Shibuya in 2017, while the second location is an offbeat one-room hotel in the metropolis's Kagurazaka neighbourhood featuring its own miniature nightclub.

The photography is by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.

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London agency Blond has designed Edge Slick, a comb-style device for styling hair with a reusable handle that doubles as a hands-free applicator for hair gel.

Edge Slick is a neutral-hued edge styler created by Blond for Ruka, a UK Black women-owned business that creates hair extensions and accessories.

Edge stylers are tools specifically designed to treat baby hairs, also known as edges – shorter hairs positioned at the hairline.

The product, which has been longlisted for a Dezeen Award, features a double-sided, detachable comb with soft bristles for swooping, shaping and layering and firm bristles for combing and detangling hair.

Designed to be disassembled, the comb is clipped onto an "ergonomic" paddle-shaped reusable handle.

The reusable handle also doubles as an applicator for hair gel that can be used to apply gel to the user's wrist, saving them from using their fingers while they are styling their hair.

"When the relatively small comb reaches the end of its long lives it can be unclipped and disposed of, but crucially, the reusable handle is kept to extend the life of the product," said Blond.

A minimalist, apple-shaped stand also comes with the edge styler, as well as packaging made from 100 per cent recycled paper pulp.

Users can also store their clip-on brushes inside a translucent sanitary protective case.

"Edge Slick addresses a gap in the hair industry for a product that caters specifically to Black afro hair, in an industry that has historically and disproportionately focussed on white aesthetics," said Blond.

"It is the first refillable edge styler on the market, reducing plastic consumption by 86 per cent compared to its competitors," added the agency.

Previous hair products that were designed to push boundaries include a smart hairbrush by beauty brand L'Oréal and healthcare company Withings that tracks and scores the quality of hair.

Inventor James Dyson has created a hairdryer that is silent to human ears and controls its own temperature to protect hair from heat damage.

The photography is courtesy of Blond.

The post Blond design agency creates "first refillable" edge styler for hair brand Ruka appeared first on Dezeen.

Designers working in the film industry have spoken to Dezeen about the "huge" financial impact they are suffering as a result of ongoing strikes in Hollywood.

Set, production and costume designers described being unseen casualties in the industrial disputes that have effectively ground the movie and TV business to a halt since the spring.

"People are burning through their savings"

"Every single person who works in film has been drastically affected by the strikes," said production designer Judy Becker, who was Oscar-nominated for the 2013 film American Hustle.

"I and everyone I know have been out of work since the WGA strike began," she told Dezeen. "The financial toll has been huge."

"People are burning through their savings, downsizing, selling equipment – yet there has been almost zero public discussion of the effect the strikes have had on thousands and thousands of workers."

Members of The Writer's Guild of America (WGA) downed tools in early May over concerns about pay and studios' use of AI.

That strike recently came to an end after writers reached a deal with studio bosses, but separate industrial action involving the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which began in mid-July, continues.

Despite expressing support for the two labour unions, film creatives who belong to other departments relayed feeling both the professional and personal effects of the strikes – which are the longest to hit Hollywood in decades.

"I would imagine that there's a large quantity of the art department sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring," said production designer Grant Major, who won an Academy Award for his work on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and conceived the set for the 2021 revisionist Western film The Power of the Dog.

"So I think it's pretty tough actually. Tough for a lot of people because we support the strikes, you know, but it's not as though we've got to gain anything from it."

Most people are likely to be unaware of the strikes' impact on the large numbers of people involved in TV and film projects, he added.

"By nature, we're sort of invisible to the wider viewing public," he said of the many crew members whose task is to create film sets.

"They might not really understand that there are hundreds of people who make a movie. Our job's largely done by the time we get filming."

Bridgerton set decorator Natalie Papageorgiadis agrees. Describing the strikes as a "major crisis" for industry professionals, the UK-based designer noted the impact on not only all film departments but anyone who contributes to the making of a movie.

"Caterers, florists, people that work in security – the knock-on repercussions are massive," she said.

Impact spreading far beyond Hollywood

Papageorgiadis also pointed out that the international nature of the film industry means the effects are being felt far beyond California.

"Many people don't realise how many large-scale American productions are actually shot over here on UK soil, with UK crew members," she said.

Major, a Kiwi, said film-industry designers in New Zealand are also feeling the reverberations.

"In New Zealand there is social welfare income people can apply for but the government is pretty reluctant to pay out unemployment benefits unless you're actively looking for other work," he said.

"I heard that the social welfare department did have a lot of applicants for the benefit when we stopped [working] though."

Costume designer Ane Crabtree, whose credits include dystopian drama The Handmaid's Tale and Apple TV's The Changeling, has been keeping busy growing crops on the farm she set up at her home in rural Pennsylvania during the industry lull.

"There are people close to me in the world of costumes, very close to me, who are hardworking people who work all the time who don't have the savings to have health insurance," she said.

"They're behind on their house payments. I'm very close. All of us are very close because there's no end in sight."

Crabtree highlighted the complexity involved in fully supporting the strikes but feeling underrepresented as a costume department.

"I think the thing I focus on is if we could all just get together again," she considered. "It's one thing to support the writers' strike and SAG-AFTRA but I do feel like I don't know how much they're going to support us if and when that would ever happen again."

"As costume folks we are encouraged to support the writers and the actors, and we do, and I do, but it gets to be hard when we have no stake in the game and we're doing it out of our good graces and our real support of people not just as unions, but as human beings supporting our friends," she added.

The costume designer said that despite some support, she did not hear back from a number of writers, actors and producers when she previously invited them to be part of Naked Without Us – a campaign lobbying for pay equity within the costume department.

"That was like an 'aha' moment – like, we really aren't respected but we're expected to support them," reflected Crabtree.

"We're one-sixth of the frame, no matter how you slice it," she continued. "Along with the writer, director, actor, director of photography and production designer."

"I may need to go back to being a restaurant server"

Becker also acknowledged how – like Crabtree and her farm work – film professionals have turned to alternative industries during the strikes, often reluctantly.

"I haven't been interested in designing in another context except for my own residence since I went into this field because I love film," she said.

"If employment doesn't come back soon, however, I may need to go back to being a restaurant server, the job which sustained me while I was in school, and also working as a personal assistant," she added.

"I have seen businesses offering discounts to members of SAG-AFTRA and WGA, but I have not seen any business offering a discount to those of us in IATSE [a labour union for the entertainment industry's technicians, artisans, and craftspeople] who have been unemployed without having had any part in the decision to strike."

With the writers' dispute resolved, there are hopes that the actors' dispute may also soon come to an end, though some argue that the SAG-AFTRA negotiations are more complex and so could drag on.

Despite this, the designers were broadly largely optimistic about the future of film – as long as industry-wide working conditions improve.

Moving forward, Crabtree believes the ordeal has demonstrated that a reset is needed in the way that designers and other workers are treated by the wider movie industry.

"The one-word answer is respect," she said. "Awareness, manners, respect and empathy. You can't go wrong, and none of them cost anything."

The main image is courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

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The post Hollywood strikes having "massive knock-on repercussions" for film designers appeared first on Dezeen.

London studio Wright and Wright has completed the final phase of its redevelopment of St John's College at the University of Oxford, restoring two libraries and a 17th-century courtyard.

Carried out in three main stages, the project was conceived by Wright and Wright 10 years ago to revamp and expand facilities at St John's College, which was founded in 1555.

As well as the subtle renovation of two existing libraries and the college's historic Canterbury Quadrangle this year, the scheme saw the completion of a study centre in 2019.

Restoring the quadrangle formed the first part of the recently completed phase three. After extensive testing, Wright and Wright replaced the stone columns, originally made of local Bletchingdon marble, with carboniferous limestone.

Called Swaledale Fossil, the limestone was chosen for its durability and contains clusters of tiny fossils that "animate the columns and enrich the architecture of the historic quad", the studio said.

Renovating the college's two existing libraries, both of which overlook the Canterbury Quadrangle, formed the rest of phase three.

The Laudian Library is accessed via either a new elevator or a bronze and stone staircase, which also connects to the Study Centre.

Inside, Wright and Wright rearranged the neo-gothic bookshelves to have a more symmetrical layout and recreated their wooden finials to appear as if they had always been there. In one case, a whole shelf was recreated as a subtle replica.

The studio has also added large timber desks to cater for the use of laptops, while restoring the space's dramatic ceiling trusses. The ceiling trusses in the Old Library, which is located next to the Laudian, have also been treated.

Among the other renovations to the Old Library is the insertion of wooden-edged double glazing with internal blinds and UV filters, which have been fitted to minimise sun damage to the centuries-old collections of books.

"The refurbishment programme involved clarifying the existing arrangement of historic spaces and routes, unravelling circulation and forging physical and experiential connections between old and new parts," explained Wright and Wright.

Phase one of the redevelopment saw the architecture studio restore Otranto Passage – a corridor formerly used as storage space that links to the quad as well as the new Study Centre.

This was designed by Wright and Wright to encourage more student footfall in the quad and improve the college's general accessibility.

"Step-free access was ingeniously solved by reusing a hidden passage in a 'blind' wall in the ground floor of the cloister," said the studio.

The Study Centre formed phase two of the project. The architects chose "overlapping planes of masonry and glass" to create the structure, which offers views of the surrounding President's Garden.

Both the external and internal faces of the elevation that makes up the Study Centre's west side are adorned with a shallow carving by artist Susannah Heron cut from Clipsham stone.

These sculptural walls are designed as an alternative solution to windows but still feature dramatic shadows on their surfaces due to overhead skylights, according to St John's College.

Wright & Wright also constructed a small moat surrounding the external wall to prevent passersby from coming into contact with the stone.

In the upstairs study area, bespoke timber bookshelves are positioned in the middle while geometric desks are placed around the edges of the space to overlook the garden.

"The site in the President's Garden was chosen [for the Study Centre] as it had the least impact on existing surroundings and landscape while enabling library resources to be consolidated in a single location in strictly environmentally controlled conditions," added Wright and Wright.

No existing trees were cut down during the construction of the Study Centre, according to the architecture studio.

Since being founded in 1994 by Sandy and Clare Wright, Wright & Wright has completed various building renovations including the 18th-century Museum of the Home in London.

Elsewhere at the University of Oxford, Gort Scott recently redeveloped St Hilda's College by adding two buildings to unite the campus with lush gardens and river views.

The photography is by Hufton + Crow unless stated otherwise. 

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A tactile Amsterdam apartment and a birch plywood-lined extension feature in our latest lookbook, which collects eight loft conversions created for maximum space.

Architects and designers often open out the room located directly under the roof of a house to create extra living areas or storage space.

Whether they were renovations of an existing room or conversions of unused attic space, the following loft conversions are united by their thoughtful use of space.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring basement apartments, mid-century homes and textural kitchens.

Amsterdam apartment, the Netherlands, by Firm Architects

Local studio Firm Architects renovated this loft apartment in the De Pijp district of Amsterdam, creating a striking horizontal line formed of zinc, mirror and brick elements.

The line, which runs around the walls of the loft, was designed to make the apartment look as if it has been "visibly cut through".

"Everything above the cross-section is a new interpretation, and everything below a reflection of the old," said the studio.

Find out more about this Amsterdam loft ›

House for a Sea Dog, Italy, by Dodi Moss

House for a Sea Dog was designed for a naval engineer who is used to long periods in confined spaces and wanted their home to be as open as possible.

Contained within a 300-year-old Geona building, the multi-level loft features a mezzanine floor, which serves as a bed deck. Architecture studio Dodi Moss slotted a slender bathroom underneath to make use of the high ceilings.

Find out more about House for a Sea Dog ›

Antwerp attic, Belgium, by Van Staeyen Interieur Architecten

The formerly dark and dusty attic inside this Antwerp home was converted into a multi-functional living space characterised by bright yellow accents, arched portals and curvy built-in furniture.

Van Staeyen Interieur Architecten designed the renovation to serve as both a guest room and a zone for the clients' daughters to play and socialise in as they grow up.

Find out more about this Antwerp apartment ›

Leaf House, UK, by Szczepaniak Astridge

Szczepaniak Astridge added a rooftop extension to Leaf House – a terraced property in south London that is home to photographer Edmund Sumner and writer Yuki Sumner.

The architecture studio designed the space to be uncharacteristically sparse for a loft conversion and positioned a wooden bathtub and double bed next to a floor-to-ceiling window with views of Lettsom Gardens.

Find out more about Leaf House ›

Project Escape (to the Roof), UK, by A Small Studio

An exposed brick wall and a curved rocking chair are one of many features within three loft spaces created by A Small Studio for this southeast London home.

The firm converted the building's existing roof space into a trio of new rooms with zinc-clad dormer windows that offer views of the leafy back garden.

Find out more about Project Escape (to the Roof) ›

R11, Germany, by Pool Leber Architekten

Pool Leber Architekten removed the reinforced concrete upper floor of this 1980s housing block in Munich to make way for two lighter cross-laminated timber structures.

The updated loft features prominent wooden features on its interior including walls, ceilings, floors and sculptural joinery.

Find out more about Project Escape (to the Roof) ›

Brighton house, UK, by Studiotwentysix

Architect Dan Gray and his wife Isabella, who are co-owners of Studiotwentysix, renovated their Brighton family home to include an angled loft extension lined with birch plywood.

The project created an additional 55 square metres of living space, which is accessed via a new staircase. A triangular snug carved into the eaves of the gable end adds a playful and cosy space for the couple's two daughters.

Find out more about this Brighton house ›

London apartment, UK, by Emil Eve

London practice Emil Eve decked out this Hackney loft extension in a pale pink hue to evoke "a sense of calm".

The renovation created a sanctuary-style bedroom featuring slatted panelling with an integrated bedhead and understated storage.

Find out more about this London apartment ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring basement apartments, mid-century homes and textural kitchens.

The post Eight airy and pared-back loft conversions appeared first on Dezeen.

Industrial designer and surfing enthusiast Marc Newson has joined forces with Australian watersports company Flite to create a carbon-fibre monobloc electric hydrofoil.

Australian native and lifelong surfer Newson has designed Flite's latest "eFoil" as a single monobloc structure in two sizes called MN Series, which he debuted at Mayfair's Gagosian Gallery during London Design Festival.

Since 2016, Byron Bay-based Flite has been creating motorised hydrofoils – water vehicles with a wing-like structure beneath the waves that lifts the vehicle up out of the water when it builds up speed. Flite's battery-powered hydrofoils, which are called Fliteboards, resemble electrically powered surfboards and are ridden in a similar way.

Newson's black-hued hydrofoil features a curved board with a combined fuselage and mast – a first for eFoils, according to Flite.

Weighing less than 20 kilograms, the design is the "world's lightest" eFoil to date, the watersports company said.

Newson created the structure from Japanese high-modulus pre-peg carbon fibre – a material commonly used in aerospace design.

"We identified reducing the mass of the eFoil system as an overall goal and achieved this using very high-quality carbon fibre, so as to streamline both manufacturing and the appearance of the board," said Newson.

"Not only is this an incredibly strong and lightweight material, but it also allows the foil and board to be moulded in single pieces in a state-of-the-art autoclave. This reduction in the number of interfacing parts eliminated various mechanical joints, and in turn, weight," he continued.

Titanium accents were also fitted to the eFoil's front wing and board due to its anticorrosive, lightweight and hardwearing properties.

The two different-sized eFoils were designed to cater to both experienced and novice riders of varying body weights, although both models are narrower than existing hydrofoils, according to Flite.

Integrated flush-mounted silicone handles and single handles for removing the battery were also included on the board, which is patterned with deck grip.

Newson also updated the Flite Controller, a hand-held device that accompanies all of the brand's hydrofoils, with a circular colour screen and improved interface that presents riders with their performance feedback and live wave data.

"A Fliteboard is a high-performance device that combines a number of incredible technologies including hydrofoils, electronics and Bluetooth into a relatively tiny package," reflected the designer.

"The opportunity to work in this space and to use specialty materials and processes in a meaningful way – that is in response to the demands of the product – was very compelling."

London Design Festival served as a platform for various product launches including a bag by fashion brand Ganni made from bacterial leather and undulating modular furniture by Zaha Hadid Design.

London Design Festival took place from 16 to 24 September 2023. See our London Design Festival 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks that took place throughout the week.

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Digitally shrink-wrapped skin, armrests salvaged from parks and "frozen" resin featured in Prototype/In Process, an exhibition of seating presented by virtual magazine Chair of Virtue during London Design Festival.

Displayed under a railway arch at Borough Yards, Prototype/In Process was made up of 1:1 scale prototypes of chairs, as well as chairs that are still works in progress, by 12 London-based designers who are either established or emerging in their field.

Sara Afonso Sternberg presented sculptural aluminium seating made of armrests salvaged from the middle of public benches in Camberwell. The armrests were originally created to make it difficult for homeless people to sleep or rest on the benches.

"These objects are given a new form and use, inviting the public to critically engage with control mechanisms such as hostile architecture that permeate the urban landscape," said Afonso Sternberg.

Another piece on display was by Jesse Butterfield. The designer used vacuum infusion, draping and papier-mâché to create a chair covered in resin that was intended to appear "frozen".

Various methods of production were showcasedthroughout the show. Daniel Widrig used 3D printing to digitally shrink-wrap a rectangular chair with polylactic acid, a starch-based bioplastic.

The result is a grey-hued chair with an undulating form, which mirrors the shared style of previous blobby stools created by the designer.

"Its contours mimic the gentle curves and natural irregularities of body tissue, forming intricate folds and wrinkles," explained Widrig.

Thomas Wheller also used aluminium by folding a single piece of the material to create his chair, while Louis Gibson experimented with "regular" construction stock materials by creating casts from disused pipes.

"I was interested in imagining how these parts could be used unconventionally," said the designer.

"With such large volumes, I was curious to create casts, and then evaluate the internal forms in a new light, and finally address the problem of reassembly," added Gibson.

"I chose plaster for the purpose of quick setting, I also felt it was in keeping with the world of builders' merchants stock supplies."

While the exhibition concluded at the end of London Design Festival (LDF), Chair of Virtue is an ongoing project curated by Adam Maryniak.

Prototype/In Process was on display on Dirty Lane as part of the annual festival's Bankside Design District.

Furniture created from the remains of a single car and a modular display system by Zaha Hadid Design were among the many other projects featured during LDF.

The photography is courtesy of Chair of Virtue. 

Prototype/In Process was on show as part of London Design Festival 2023 from 16 to 24 September 2023. See our London Design Festival 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks that took place throughout the week.

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Architect Daisuke Motogi is presenting his Hackability of the Stool exhibition featuring one hundred alternative ideas for Finnish designer Alvar Aalto's Stool 60 as part of London Design Festival.

The exhibition marks 90 years of the three-legged Stool 60, a flat-packed timber furniture piece conceived by Aalto in 1933, which has since become a design classic.

Japanese architect Motogi created one hundred different versions of the stool, including a chessboard and a loo roll holder.

The alternative furniture was arranged across the white-walled basement of furniture brand Vitra's showroom and accompanied by pinned-up sketches.

"A masterpiece of modernist design, Stool 60 was the perfect choice as being made from wood, it is easy to modify, and being stackable, it is easy to store," said Artek, the furniture brand Aalto co-founded with his wife Aino in 1935 and which is now owned by Vitra.

"The stool is also easy to disassemble and reassemble, and it can be flat-packed for efficient transportation," added the brand.

Pieces on display range from the practical to the more outlandish. There is a makeshift bar, complete with notches for wine glasses, and a spider-like stool that has been turned upside down and given added legs.

A playful pinboard, a stool fitted with two miniature spirit levels and a drying rack for dishes all feature in the show.

Motogi and his team at DDAA Lab also took advantage of the furniture piece's round seat to create a functioning vinyl record player. For another model, they removed the seat entirely, leaving a plastic-lined hole that now functions as a wastepaper bin.

While the pieces transform Stool 60 from its original design, visitors can also find nods to the Aaltos' distinctive style.

For example, a zebra-print pouch hangs from one of the stools – a pattern frequently used by Aino in her Artek projects after she discovered the Otti Berger-designed fabric during the 1930s while travelling in Europe.

The Hackability of the Stool project emerged after Motogi and his creative lab were invited to provide 150 stools for visitors attending a large event.

Instead, the designers hosted a workshop where participants were encouraged to discuss what a stool is and highlight its functions.

Various suggestions for stool designs that were proposed at the workshop became the alternative furniture pieces that form the current project.

Previously presented at Milan design week in April, the project was originally initiated in 2019.

London Design Festival is taking place in the capital until 24 September. Other highlights from the event include a handbag made of bacterial leather by fashion brand Ganni and amorphous ceramic sculptures by Abid Javed that take cues from the shape of cells.

The photography is by Taran Wilkhu.

Hackability of the Stool is on show at Vitra Tramshed in Shoreditch as part of London Design Festival 2023 from 18 September to 6 October 2023. See our London Design Festival 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Artist Abid Javed will present Soma, an exhibition of amorphous sculptures and furniture informed by molecular biology, at independent gallery Select-Works during the London Design Festival.

Soma: Design Abstractions from Within the Cell will be the debut exhibition from Javed, whose work merges ceramics with biology.

The show, which opens on Thursday, brings together sculptures, furniture and lighting designed by the Hackney-based scientist and artist.

Javed created his pieces using neutrally hued stoneware, which he handcrafted to produce asymmetrical objects that take their cues from the appearance of microscopic cells.

The designer used a combination of pinch, slab and coil techniques to create the ceramics, which were then fired in a kiln.

"My ceramic work is somehow interconnected in such a way that the more my scientific understanding develops, I think that also informs the development of my work in ceramics as well, which is really interesting," said Javed, who divides his time between designing and scientific research.

For Soma, Javed created two collections titled the Cellular Compartment and Genetic Pleomorph, respectively.

This most recent work includes blobby vases and sculptures as well as scone lights, table and floor lamps, sculptural stools and tables, mirrors and hanging mobiles.

The designer was particularly influenced by the forms of nucleosomes – protein clusters wrapped in threads of DNA.

"Much like the fluid body of a cell, the space becomes host to a microcosm of cellular and molecular networks, demonstrated as sculptural ceramic bodies existing together as one," said Select-Works.

Selected vases also feature a removable beeswax component, which houses a metal kenzan, or 'flower frog', commonly used for Ikebana flower arranging.

Abid created the component to explore the water-repellant properties of wax by using the material as a vessel to hold water, according to the gallery.

"The exhibition is both visual, textural and conceptual. I would like people to come with open minds in terms of thinking what design objects can be, and how biology can redefine design," concluded the designer.

Other projects currently on display as part of London Design Festival include a prototype modular furniture system by Zaha Hadid Design that was informed by the natural shapes made by erosion and furniture by Andu Masebo, which was crafted from a scrapped car.

The photography is courtesy of Select-Works.

Soma is on show at Select-Works as part of London Design Festival 2023 from 21 to 24 September 2023. See our London Design Festival 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Multidisciplinary designer Kustaa Saksi has unveiled In the Borderlands, an exhibition of jacquard textiles at the Helsinki Design Museum, which includes a piece featuring scenery generated by AI software.

Conceived as objects that straddle both art and design, Saksi's large-scale textiles were hung from the ceilings and arranged across various rooms within a gallery at Helsinki's Design Museum.

To create his pieces, the designer uses jacquard weaving – a technique invented in 1804 where patterns are woven with yarn using a loom to create a textile, rather than printed, embroidered or stamped onto fabric.

Ideal Fall is a single oversized tapestry featuring bright and abstract forms depicting waterfall- and plant-style forms.

Saksi created the colourful textile using AI software, which he instructed to generate images that would depict "ideal" scenes of nature. The designer then picked his favourite suggestions and used the imagery as a stimulus for the tapestry's patterns.

"The exhibition explores moments between reality and illusion, which are the starting point for many of Saksi's works," said the Design Museum.

Migraine Metamorphoses is another series of textiles featuring similarly bold designs, which Saksi created to refer to the various phases of migraines – intense headaches that the designer has suffered since the age of seven.

According to the museum, the soft texture of the textiles intends to "mitigate the painful subject matter".

Often influenced by the boundaries between dreams and imagination, Saksi's first-ever tapestry series was also on show at the Design Museum.

Called Monsters and Dreams, it is characterised by striking patterns that take cues from hallucinations experienced by one of the designer's family members. These textiles were draped across or hung from the ceiling of a single room with dark blue walls, which had been painted to enhance the pieces' dramatic theme.

Saksi has created his pieces in collaboration with Dutch studio TextileLab since 2013.

"The jacquard technique can be referred to as one of the early precursors to the computer," said the Design Museum.

"It was the first mechanised technique which enabled the transfer of information about a particular pattern to a weaving machine with the help of a punched cylinder, to eventually become a piece of textile."

Throughout the gallery, the textiles were illuminated with controlled levels of lighting in order to preserve their appearance, according to the museum.

In the Borderlands is on display until 15 October as part of the museum's 150th-anniversary programme. Elsewhere at Helsinki Design Week, designer Didi NG Wing Yin presented a series of amorphous timber furniture while last year's edition of the event featured projects including plant-based textiles.

The photography is by Paavo Lehtonen.

Helsinki Design Week takes place from 8 to 17 September 2023 in Helsinki, Finland. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Chunky misshapen stools and a lampshade made of wood shavings feature in this hand-carved timber furniture collection by emerging designer Didi Ng Wing Yin, which is on display at Helsinki Design Week.

The furniture forms part of Habitare, the annual furniture fair held during Helsinki Design Week.

Hong Kong-born designer and maker Ng crafted his amorphous pieces almost entirely out of wood as his "way of working a bit against traditional industrial design".

"That's why none of the shapes are the same," Ng told Dezeen at Habitare.

One of these designs is a neutral-toned wood veneer lampshade made of delicate shavings sliced with a Japanese hand plane. The shavings were then cross-laminated together to strengthen them.

"You want to touch wood – whenever you see the texture, you want to feel it," continued the designer, who said that tactility is at the core of his personal design process.

Another piece is a geometric slab of untreated timber, which was mounted on steel legs to create a low-slung bench and sprayed with a hot pink hue of Indian ink. Ng also coloured a lumpy fir wood stool with iridescent green ink.

"The idea isn't to make wood not look like wood, but it's to make sure that it doesn't look ordinary," he explained.

Based in Helsinki, the designer said that he mainly uses locally available softwood to create his furniture, such as spruce and pine.

"I like that it doesn't use fancy hardwoods like oak or mahogany," he said. [The softwoods] are more kind of down to earth, I think."

Three seemingly identical chunky black stools also feature in the collection, all with subtly different textural designs.

Organically shaped, intricately pleated vases were positioned atop an angular wood chip plinth while Ng also created monolithic sculptures carved from single pieces of light wood.

Ng recently turned his focus to designing furniture after working as an interior designer in Hong Kong, after which he studied for a master's degree in interior architecture at Helsinki's Aalto University.

As the city's design week continues in Finland's capital, take a look at projects showcased at previous editions of the event, including textile filling created from plants and essential furniture specifically designed for people affected by natural disasters and the ongoing refugee crisis.

The photography is by Didi NG Wing Yin.

Helsinki Design Week takes place from 8 to 17 September 2023 in Helsinki, Finland. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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From an east London canal boat with an onboard chapel to a concrete high-rise in Taiwan, our latest roundup explores eight churches with untraditional architecture.

Historically, churches built for public Christian worship have featured recognisable details such as high domed ceilings, stained-glass windows and towering spires.

Architects and designers are increasingly challenging these traditions and creating more modern churches to increase the buildings' inclusivity or simply create visual interest.

Read on for eight unorthodox churches from Dezeen's archive:

Genesis, UK, by Denizen Works

London architecture studio Denizen Works has designed Genesis, an alternative church on a canal boat in east London.

The floating chapel is crowned by a luminous pop-up roof that references the bellows of an organ. The expandable structure was also informed by Volkswagen camper vans.

Find out more about Genesis ›

Chamber Church, China, by Büro Ziyu Zhuang

The design of this church in Qingdao borrows from traditional ecclesiastical architecture, but was created with simplified forms made up of vertical ribs.

According to architect studio Büro Ziya Zhuang, the building combines a religious experience with secular attitudes. The studio said that the church "aims to create a spatial container that both respects the past and looks towards the future".

Find out more about Chamber Church ›

Church of the Holy Family, Brazil, by ARQBR

Brasilía's Church of the Holy Family features a round concrete volume that lifts off the land with 360-degree ground-level windows.

It is positioned next to a free-standing, monolithic concrete steeple, which forms part of the four-building complex.

Find out more about Church of the Holy Family ›

Alhambra Cross, Colombia, by Colab-19

Colombian architecture studio Colab-19 designed this temporary cross-shaped church in Bogotá (above and main image) to allow a local congregation to worship safely during the coronavirus pandemic.

Alhambra Cross was built from was created from materials including steel formwork, corrugated panels and mosquito nets, while the church's overall shape referenced Christian iconography.

Find out more about Alhambra Cross ›

Tamkang Church, Taiwan, by Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten

Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten took cues from local residential tower blocks when creating this high-rise concrete church in New Tapei City, Taiwan, which blends in with its surroundings.

The ambiguous church features cruciform skylights and a cross on its roof as well as a subtle cruciform window, which serve as the only visual suggestions of the building's religious purpose.

Find out more about Tamkang Church ›

The Church of Pope John Paul II, Hungary, by Robert Gutowski Architects

The Church of Pope John Paul II in Páty, Hungary, has an elliptical layout featuring a crescent-shaped building of worship that wraps around an adjoining oval-shaped outdoor space.

Local studio Robert Gutowski Architects designed the church with a minimal interior characterised by whitewashed concrete and skewed angles, which was conceived in response to changes in modern worship, according to the firm.

Find out more about The Church of Pope John Paul II ›

Santa Maria Goretti Church, Italy, by Mario Cucinella Architects

The Santa Maria Goretti Church is an undulating volume that Mario Cucinella Architects built at the edge of the hilltop town of Mormanno, southern Italy.

Visitors enter the church through a cross-shaped incision that is illuminated at night and provides a clue to the building's purpose despite its alternative architecture.

Find out more about Santa Maria Goretti Church ›

San Giacomo Apostolo, Italy, by EMBT

Spanish architecture studio EMBT referenced hot air balloons when designing the bulging brick-and-plaster-clad exterior of the San Giacomo Apostolo church in the Italian city of Ferrara.

The interior was created to be a modern take on primitive churches and features an altar made from a rough block of white Travi stone that was left almost totally untreated.

Find out more about San Giacomo Apostolo ›

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The inaugural Kyiv Design Week is currently on display in Zurich as part of the Swiss city's own design week, with a selection of events also taking place in Ukraine.

Titled Kyiv: City of Changes, the first Kyiv Design Week is being hosted by Zurich Design Week due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The event marks the first time that Zurich Design Week has invited another country to join forces during the city-wide programme that takes place in various locations.

Presented by the Design4Ukraine association, Kyiv Design Week brings together graphic, object, collectible and industrial design, as well as cyber fashion and arts and crafts.

The wide-ranging event spans exhibitions, presentations, documentary screenings and performances as well as a light show.

While the majority of the programme is taking place in Zurich, a number of public events are also taking place in Kyiv itself this week.

"Design4Ukraine has been planning this event for quite a long time but unfortunately, due to the pandemic first and now the full-scale war, we were unable to implement all the ideas developed," said Kyiv Design Week co-founders Anastasia Biletska and Yaroslav Belinskiy.

"However, launching Kyiv Design Week in the format it is now is important for our country as it will help communicate the role of the Ukrainian capital in a global conversation in the creative community," they added.

"Kyiv has always been the centre of the crossroads of different cultures remaining the foundation of freedom for self-expression. Despite the war, Kyiv keeps inspiring us to dream, create and change even in difficult times like now."

Participating designers include Ukrainian studio Donna, which is showing colourful furniture pieces, and a collection called The Roots of the Future by the Ukrainian Fashion Education Group.

The design week is funded by the German government's ReACT4UA programme.

Other recent projects by Ukrainian creatives include Zikzak Architects' design for the first Ronald McDonald House in Ukraine and a log cabin-style house renovation by Balbek Bureau.

The images are courtesy of Kyiv Design Week. 

Kyiv Design Week is on display in Zurich and Kyiv in various locations from 31 August to 19 September 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Sculptures crafted from recycled BMW airbags and oak railway sleepers feature in artist Frederik Molenschot's Atlas 2000 exhibition, which is on display at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Paris.

Marking the Dutch artist's first solo exhibition, Atlas 2000 features hand-sculpted works that are directly influenced by natural landscapes, Molenschot said.

The show's title refers to the visual diary the artist has created since his studies at Design Academy Eindhoven in 2000.

Spread across the minimalist ground floor at the Paris branch of Carpenters Workshop Gallery, the sculptures were crafted from various materials and range from functional to abstract.

Buoy Airbag is an amorphous, pale blue-hued hanging sculpture created from recycled airbags sourced from BMW vehicles.

"The piece delves into the intricate connection between cargo transport and climate change, with recycled airbags symbolising a melting arctic ice rock floating in the sea," the artist told Dezeen.

"I want to explore how luxury materials are used and how they become what they are," he added. "[So] I processed the used airbags in a 'couture' way, to get a very high-quality finish."

Molenschot also designed Gingerblimp, a bulbous bronze LED light sculpture characterised by a silver patina and a gold-brushed interior.

The artist explained that the sculpture is a playful take on ginger root from the natural world and also nods to the manmade blimps that form part of New York City's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Recycled oak railway sleepers were salvaged to create a chunky dining table and chair, which were named Bridge Beat to "pay homage to the captivating structure of bridges".

Also part of this series is a black bronze desk and chairs formed from gridded lines arranged in triangular formations.

"Each material was selected purposefully, offering unique properties and textures that complement the conceptual aspects of the artworks," explained Molenschot.

"Every piece is hand-sculpted in our studio."

According to Molenschot, the pieces' forms vary as much as their material palettes. In one corner of the gallery, a bobbly bronze glove was positioned underneath a branch-shaped textured lamp while oversized clothing also features in the exhibition.

"This solo show holds a special place in my heart, as it represents my entire artistic journey since my time at the Academy," reflected Molenschot.

"It's an invitation to explore my vision of our world. My 'atlas' is a compendium of research, pictures, designs, and sketches that have shaped me as an artist."

Known for his large-scale bronze sculptures, Molenschot has been represented by Carpenters Workshop Gallery since 2008. The galley, which also has locations in London and the US, previously exhibited an all-denim furniture show by designer Harry Nuriev.

The late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld also debuted his first sculpture exhibition at the Paris branch.

Atlas 2000 is on display at Carpenters Workshop Gallery from 1 June to 16 September 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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This week on Dezeen, we reported that Saudi Arabia has begun planning its bid to host the 2034 football World Cup in venues including Neom, the mega-development currently under construction in the country.

Saudi Arabia has been touted to host the tournament within Neom, possibly in the Trojeana ski resort – a location that has already won the rights to host the upcoming 2029 Winter Games.

The move follows reports that the country has abandoned its original plans to co-host the 2030 World Cup with Egypt and Greece, instead focussing on hosting the tournament solo in 2034.

The Santiago Bernabéu stadium revamp is nearly complete

In other architecture news, football club Real Madrid revealed its design for the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, which is nearing the end of its renovation.

Remodelled by architecture studios L35, Ribas & Ribas and GMP Architecten, the stadium features a striking wrap-around facade and a fully retractable roof.

In the US, prominent Silicon Valley investors have unveiled a controversial concept for a new city in Solano county, California, which would require over 50,000 acres of farmland.

Named Flannery Associates, the investors have released a collection of colourful illustrations depicting the city as a series of walkable neighbourhoods that will offer "a chance for a new community".

The Royal Institute of British Architects has revealed its shortlist of six contenders vying for the annual Stirling Prize, with the majority of projects located in London.

Dezeen reporter Amy Peacock also interviewed Muyiwa Oki, the youngest-ever and first Black president of the RIBA, about his plans for his term.

In design news, Manchester studio Lazerian has built Recover-E, a replica racing car entirely out of electronic waste.

The vehicle's parts are comprised of discarded vapes, iPhones, a flyswatter and a 1950s radio.

Popular projects this week included a biotechnology office complex in China with a decorative facade by OLI Architecture and a Swedish holiday home by Olson Kundig.

Our latest lookbook featured eight textural kitchens that combine stone and wood surfaces.

This week on Dezeen

This week on Dezeen is our regular roundup of the week's top news stories. Subscribe to our newsletters to be sure you don't miss anything.

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Skincare brand Aesop has collaborated with designer Samuso Hyojadong to create a store in Seochon, Seoul, that features an open facade and an oversized stone plinth.

Positioned in one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Seoul's Jongno-gu district, the Seochon outlet was created to "fit harmoniously within its local context", according to Aesop's design team.

When designing the store, Aesop and Hyojadong took cues from the architecture of jeongjas – traditional Korean pavilions with no walls, which serve as spaces for resting and taking in the surrounding views.

The street-facing facade was created with mesh metal screens that can open out entirely to create a storefront with no walls. Once closed, the woven metal backing creates translucent windows through which passersby observe the softly lit silhouettes of uniform rows of bottles.

"Samuso extended the floorplate outwards to create a threshold that conveys a generous sense of hospitality," the Aesop design team told Dezeen.

"One [jeongja] in particular that inspired us was the Soswaewon in the Damyang region, which was built in the sixteenth century and is surrounded by a verdant garden."

For the store's material palette, the designers referenced the timber and stone that are typically used to build traditional Korean houses known as hanoks.

A large, rough-edged stone plinth displaying clusters of products was positioned at the entrance while various wooden accents were created with timber reclaimed from salvage yards and an abandoned house.

The store was also built on a raised stone platform, which nods to the traditional architecture.

Hanji paper created from mulberry tree bark sourced from South Korea's Gyeongnam province features on the store's walls, which frame central geometric cabinetry and sleek taps made of locally produced aged copper.

The designers were restrained in their use of sanding, sealants and coatings when treating the materials, opting to embrace their "natural imperfections".

"Sensitivity to texture in this store is superlative," reflected the design team. "Samuso wanted each material to express itself directly, without too much human intervention," it continued, referencing the roughness of the stone and the reclaimed timber's undulating texture.

Rosewood was used to create the store's signature fragrance armoire, which is hidden from view until opened out and was conceived as a traditional Korean jewellery box, according to the design team.

"Throughout the store, we were compelled by a desire to dissolve the boundaries between inside and outside, between the naturally occurring and the human-made," concluded the designers.

Known for stores that pay homage to their varied locations, Aesop has an outlet in Cambridge defined by handwoven bulrush shelves that nod to the nearby River Cam and a Sydney store furnished with domestic items to evoke 1960s Australian homes.

The photography is courtesy of Aesop.

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Triangular slabs of terrazzo and a vintage chandelier frame Sydney's Koda hair salon, which local studio Arent & Pyke has conceived as an eclectic mishmash of old and new.

Located on the upper mezzanine level of the city's George McRae-designed Queen Victoria Building, the salon was created for Australian hairdresser Koda.

Arent & Pyke created the interiors to "be best appreciated from seated height", placing wide quartzite-rimmed mirrors at angles in front of the curved black styling chairs to offer a contrast with the salon's tall ceilings.

The move was made "given that clients are accustomed to looking up and down" when getting their hair done, the studio explained.

Triangular slabs of dusty pink and forest green terrazzo line Koda's floors, which Arent & Pyke chose to mimic the marble flooring of Villa Planchart – a house in Caracas, Venezuela, completed by architect Gio Ponti in 1956.

Ceilings were painted an "energising" shade of gold and fitted with delicate timber battens that conceal various services while in one corner, a geometric 1970s chandelier illuminates the space from above.

"Both nostalgic and futuristic, Koda is a majestic work of sculpt fiction," Arent & Pyke said.

"Four elongated windows crowned with coloured glass pool light from within, so the built spine intentionally reaches approximately half of the rear salon's 4.5-metre ceiling height, enabling appreciation of their beauty from every vantage point."

Brightly coloured accents were paired with burlwood mid-century furniture including a low-slung credenza topped with glossy cobalt-blue display shelving.

The studio aimed to rid the space of "transactional" clutter, replacing traditional tool trolleys with cylindrical styling stands with aged brass details designed by Arent & Pyke.

Curving light-hued timber cabinetry was also mounted to the blush-toned walls to create eclectic storage.

A translucent pale pink curtain was suspended from a rail to create a layer of privacy for the wash bay, which was positioned on a raised platform.

"Koda is a crafted tale of artisanal vision balancing angled poise with organic shapes and undulating forms," said Arent & Pyke.

Founded by Juliette Arent and Sarah-Jane Pyke in 2007, the studio previously renovated a 1930s Sydney home with a monochromatic interior.

Other notable hair salon interiors include a minimalist Swedish outlet finished in pastel colours and a US barbershop with a cavernous cork lounge.

The photography is by Prue Ruscoe. 

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Timber ceilings and a fireplace clad in mahogany tiles feature in this London house, which its owners have renovated to honour the dwelling's mid-century roots and nod to the colour palette of Stanley Kubrick films.

Located in north London's Stanmore, Zero House belongs to recording artists Ben Garrett and Rae Morris, whose former home in Primrose Hill is the Dezeen Award-winning Canyon House designed by Studio Hagen Hall.

Unlike their previous dwelling, Garrett and Morris updated Zero House themselves but adopted the same mid-century palette when creating its interiors.

"The house was built between 1959 and 1961 by a Hungarian architect," said Garrett, who explained that the original design was informed by Californian Case Study Houses such as Charles and Ray Eames's 1949 home and design studio.

"It's a great example of a number of imaginative mid-century domestic houses dotted around metro-land," he told Dezeen. "Our main aim was to freshen it up relatively in keeping with the time but not to feel like we were living in a total time capsule."

The pair maintained the matchbox timber ceilings that run throughout the two-storey home, which were stained with a dark reddish tone alongside stained wooden doors.

Slim mahogany tiles clad the floor-to-ceiling fireplace in the living room, which features the same micro-cement flooring found at Canyon House and opens out onto a lush garden.

Garrett and Morris also maintained the home's many exposed brick walls and inserted geometric timber shelving that displays eclectic ornaments including amorphous vases and a colourful set of nesting dolls.

Reeded 1970s-style glass was used to form various windows including a rectilinear opening in the kitchen that illuminates minimal timber cabinetry topped with grainy surfaces.

The pair transferred the tubular Marcel Breuer chairs and Tulip dining table by Eero Saarinen from their former home, as well as the same "heinous digital artwork" that decorated their previous living space.

Upstairs, a moody mahogany carpet darkens the main bedroom, which features the same timber wall and ceiling panels as the communal areas.

"There's a lot of dark reds and browns in the house," said Garrett.

"We leaned into the horror film slash Kubrick feel of the upstairs and made a few more austere choices this time," he added, referencing the late filmmaker, whose credits include the 1980 supernatural horror movie The Shining.

Coffee-hued cork was chosen to clad the exterior of the bathtub and the surrounding walls while another walk-in shower interrupts the dark wooden theme with bright orange tiles and deep white basins.

Zero House also holds a timber-panelled recording studio, which is located in a separate low-slung volume at the end of the garden and can be reached via a few stepping stones.

Garrett and Morris left the structure of the property largely untouched. Instead, the duo chose to focus on dressing its mid-century interior.

"We didn't have to be clever with this house as the space is abundant and the flow and design were incredibly well thought out in the early 60s," he said. "So it was more of a cosmetic thing."

Other recent mid-century renovation projects saw Design Theory update a coastal home in Perth from the 1960s while Woods + Dangaran added a koi pond among other elements to a Los Angeles dwelling built by architect Craig Ellwood during the same decade.

The photography is by Mariell Lind Hansen.

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Multifaceted furniture pieces crafted to mirror the appearance of precious stones feature in this opulent Parisian apartment, which was renovated by local studio Uchronia for a pair of jewellery designers.

Located on Paris's Avenue Montaigne, the one-storey apartment is housed within a building designed as part of Georges-Eugène Haussmann's famed reconstruction of the French capital during the mid-19th century.

Uchronia maintained the apartment's original boiserie, mouldings, parquet flooring and tall ceilings, which are hallmarks of Haussmann-era architecture.

This quintessentially Parisian backdrop was updated to include bright and textured furnishings designed to mimic pieces of jewellery.

"The space had great bones – a classical Haussmanian layout," said Uchronia founder and architect Julien Sebban. "That being said, it felt cold, pretentious and beige."

"For a change, we avoided structural work and focussed on the decoration," he told Dezeen.

Created as a home for two jewellery designers, the apartment features an amorphous resin table in the dining room that is divided into seven modular parts and patterned with a motif informed by the green gemstone malachite.

"The table's custom-designed, beaten steel legs echo the principle of claws holding a solitaire diamond to its ring," explained Sebban.

Multicoloured light refracts from a squat stained-glass chair in the sizeable living room, which features a trapezoid lacquered cabinet and curvy jewel-like furniture finished in vivid hues and contrasting textures.

Uchronia suspended a milky blue Murano glass chandelier overhead and wrapped the room's floor-to-ceiling windows in sheer ombre curtains.

"The walls echo the curtains and are also treated – and this is a technical feat – in gradations of colour," the architect said.

Tucked into an alcove, towering silvery shelves display a selection of ornaments and were designed to give the impression of an open jewellery box.

"If the apartment's shapes are reminiscent of the jewellery world, its materials and colours are also borrowed from it," Sebban said.

In the single bedroom, the studio took cues from the undulating striations of onyx when creating a bespoke bed frame, finished in plush upholstery to blend in with the room's patterned carpet while alabaster lamps were positioned atop its two posts.

Elsewhere in the room, Uchronia paired a dramatically carved Ettore Sottsass dressing table in book-matched marquetry with an egg-shaped chair defined by gleaming red plastic and "space-age lines".

"It's very hard to pick a favourite place in this flat because each space has its own identity and colour," Sebban said. "But if there's one thing I really love about this apartment, it's the vitrail that leads to the kitchen."

The curving window was an existing feature of the apartment, which the studio customised with candy-coloured glass panes.

"It creates a place of passage that is quite timeless, like a little sanctuary," said the architect.

Coloured glass is a motif that appears throughout the apartment, including the asymmetrical pastel-hued wine and cocktail glasses that look like precious stones.

"Playful and contradicting combinations of colour, organic and geometric lines and a rich combination of textiles and glass come together to form a chromatic jewellery box filled with gems," said Sebban. "Every detail has been thought out, polished and cut."

Elsewhere in Paris, French architect Sophie Dries previously renovated a Haussmann-era apartment for clients who are "really into colour", while Hauvette & Madani added a sumptuous wine-red kitchen to a dwelling in the city's République area.

The photography is by Félix Dol Maillot. 

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Danish studio Spacon & X preserved "different layers of unique history" when designing the Folk Kombucha brewery, which is set within a listed building in Copenhagen's Meatpacking District.

The factory belongs to fermented-tea brand Folk Kombucha and features a production area for kombucha brewing overlooked by a mezzanine level used for workshops and other social events.

Local firm Spacon & X aimed to balance the history of the 1930s functionalist building with its contemporary needs when designing the interior, which is led by cobalt blue, orange and pink accents.

"The buildings in the Meatpacking District are from the 1930s and have a strong character," said architect Malene Hvidt.

"Our design team aimed to preserve different layers of unique history," she told Dezeen.

Spacon & X maintained the building's "archetypal Meatpacking white-tile walls" as well as mustard-yellow and green marble floor tiles.

Translucent iridescent panels were placed behind the various stainless steel fermentation tanks to delineate spaces within the brewery.

Stainless steel was also used to form the extensive network of pipes connected to the tanks as well as custom tables and benches topped with bright blue rubber.

This tangle of tubes was echoed with the addition of spaghetti-shaped wire lighting.

"The buildings in the area are all known for their white facades with windows and panels painted in a strong cobalt blue colour," explained Hvidt. "Cobalt blue was chosen to pay tribute to the area itself."

Spacon & X created lounge tables by recycling plastic packaging salvaged from fish and other food waste, which was industrially produced at the site before it became the Folk Kombucha brewery.

"Instead of throwing out this long-lasting hygienic material, we transformed it into unique custom-made tables," Hvidt said.

Artwork made of scoby — a culture of yeast and bacteria that kickstarts the kombucha fermentation process — was used to decorate the interior alongside bespoke hand-hammered steel lamps.

Other spaces within the multipurpose building include offices, a separate lounge, a laboratory and various storage areas.

"The brewery's spatial design was created in a way that resembled and preserved the listed building's long history and strong character," said Hvidt.

"The design also incorporates subtle, organic and innovative spatial solutions with functionality and uses the building's industrial nature as a guiding principle."

Elsewhere in Copenhagen, Spacon & X previously created the interior for a burger restaurant filled with natural materials and plants.

The studio has also completed an Ace & Tate glasses store in the city, taking cues from colourful artists' studios.

The photography is by Hedda Rysstad.

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Interior designer Kelly Wearstler paired clay plaster walls with Moroccan cement tiles at this eclectic cocktail bar in the Downtown LA Proper hotel.

Named after Mexico's national flower, the Dahlia bar features a blushing interior that was designed to echo the rest of the hotel – also created by Wearstler.

The designer looked to the same Spanish, Mexican and Moroccan influences that define the wider Downtown LA Proper, such as terracotta Roman clay plaster walls and ceilings when conceptualising the bar.

"The warm, earthy tones of the lounge are in concert with the larger hotel while striking their own note entirely," said Wearstler.

"Dahlia feels like it has been there for ages," added the designer, who has been named as a judge for the inaugural Dezeen Awards China.

Visitors enter the bar through yellow-tinged stained glass doors that were custom-made for the venue by Los Angeles' historic Judson Studios, which claims to be the oldest family-run stained glass company in America.

Seating was created from a mix of built-in reddish banquettes and low-slung curved armchairs that hug circular timber tables, while a geometric chandelier draped in light-filtering silk was suspended overhead.

In one corner, an embossed and low-slung black cabinet supports two squat table lamps that look like oversized green olives.

Wearstler adorned the clay plaster walls with a mishmash of vintage and contemporary textural artwork, which was finished in ceramic and sand. Various local artists were included in the mix.

Defined by "saturated hues and dramatic lighting," the cocktail lounge also features a bar clad with lilac-hued Moroccan cement tiles and woven crimson rugs.

"This is the kind of space where you can entirely lose track of time," said the designer.

Known for her distinctively eclectic style, Wearstler has created interiors for various other destinations that are part of the Proper Hotel Group. The designer scoured vintage shops to source the furniture that decorates the living room-style lobby of a Santa Monica branch while an Austin location features a sculptural oak staircase that doubles as a plinth for Wearstler's own glazed earthenware pots and vases.

The photography is by The Ingalls.

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Materials can become a much bigger part of our everyday lives and the way we see the world if people are willing to give up mass production, Natural Material Studio founder Bonnie Hvillum tells Dezeen in this interview.

Hvillum and her Copenhagen-based design and research studio have been pushing at the boundaries of what's possible with different materials since 2018.

From charcoal-based garments to crockery made of surplus seafood shells, Natural Material Studio creates bespoke products using its own-developed biomaterials.

"Mass-produced materials are so homogenous"

"I prefer working from a 'leftover' kind of aspect," explained Hvillum, whose ethos revolves around a circular approach.

"I want materials to play an active role in our way of understanding the world," she told Dezeen. "I feel like we have become too familiar and comfortable.

"It's become too convenient with mass production – mass-produced materials are so homogenous and so refined. Machinery textiles are just the same when they come out, there's no variation," the designer added.

"We've had an industrial process where materials have become quite neutral, in a way. I just feel like they have so much more to give and they can be part of shaping how we think, talk about and perceive the world."

Natural Material Studio uses a combination of simple mechanical machinery – such as a process similar to "whipping cream" when creating its biodegradable B-foam – and more manual techniques.

For example, Procel is a home-compostable, protein-based bioplastic of natural softener and pigments developed by the studio that is made into sheets using hand casting.

"It's the handcrafted aspects that make the materials so special," said Hvillum, referencing the random and unique patterns that emerge on the surface of the materials produced by the studio.

Hvillum's belief is that this approach to making things can highlight the inherent value in their materiality. Sustainable design, she said, should only be "a base point".

"I'm more curious to talk about what these materials actually do," she added.

"How they affect us, what they make us think and do and how they can be part of transforming the world instead of just [approaching design] with this linear thinking of replacing materials with existing ones – although of course that is also needed."

"I needed that connection with the physical world"

Educated primarily as an interaction designer, Hvillum previously founded a consultancy called Social Design Lab.

The now-defunct company assisted professional organisations, including political parties, with "how they could think more holistically, or 'circular', as we call it today, in all aspects of resources including human and material resources," according to the designer.

"I wasn't critical of things. It was very much facilitating processes and advising and strategies and stuff. I needed that connection with the physical world," reflected Hvillum, explaining her decision to launch Natural Material Studio.

Despite the shift, Hvillum stressed that human interaction is still at the core of her practice.

"I'm very curious about and absorbed in what we could almost call the cognitive aspects of these unconscious processes that we have in our brain. Like, why do we experience some materials in this way and others in that way?"

During the most recent edition of Milan design week, the studio showcased Brick Textiles – stretchy panels made from a combination of Procel and highly porous repurposed bricks that were classified as waste after demolition projects.

The project, which is defined by uncharacteristically "soft" bricks, proposes fresh ways of thinking about an existing resource, according to Hvillum.

Hvillum is optimistic that a change in the way consumers and designers think about materials is possible.

"It's so inspiring speaking to young people because they really see the world differently," she said.

"These changes that we're seeing around social equality – fluidness in terms of genders, for example – all these things are also very inspiring when we talk about design and architecture and art, because it makes us start to understand that these fields can be fluid and equal, too."

"I feel these movements that we're seeing on the more cultural and societal and social levels could actually inform us in ways within design and architecture – but only if we are listening."

The photography is courtesy of Natural Material Studio.

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Walnut burl and terrazzo accents are combined with chunky statement furniture in this apartment in Warsaw, which Polish studio Mistovia has renovated for an art director and her pet dachshund.

Located in the city's Praga Północ neighbourhood, the 45-square-metre flat is set within a 1950s estate designed by Polish architects Jerzy Gieysztor and Jerzy Kumelowski.

Mistovia devised an eclectic material and colour palette when updating the interior, which the studio describes as an "elaborate puzzle" of contrasting patterns.

"The apartment is based on several dominant 'cubes'," said Mistovia founder Marcin Czopek. "Each of them has a different function, accentuated by various patterns through the use of veneer or colour."

The living room is defined by a wall panelled in swirly grey wood veneer– originally designed by Memphis Group founder Ettore Sottsass for Alpi in the 1980s – while the bathroom is obscured behind a wall of glass blocks.

The kitchen is now connected to the lounge to create one open-plan space, filled with statement pieces including a misshapen vase and the molten-looking Plopp stool by Polish designer Oskar Zieta, set against the backdrop of floor-to-ceiling walnut-burl cabinets.

Terrazzo was used to form chunky black-and-white legs for the kitchen's window-side breakfast bar as well as an entire burnt-orange table in the dining area.

"A muted base – bright, uniform micro cement flooring and walls with a delicate texture – allowed for the use of geometric forms, rich in interesting structures and bold patterns," Czopek said.

Designed for an art director and her dog, the apartment features a similarly striking bathroom.

Here, gridded monochrome tiles and glass-brick walls are paired with a statement standalone sink, featuring squat cobalt-blue legs that support a tortoiseshell cabinet crowned by a triptych mirror.

A purple wardrobe complements the rectilinear marble headboard in the apartment's singular bedroom, adding to the boxy geometry of the home.

Also in Warsaw, Polish studio Projekt Praga incorporated mid-century elements and pops of colour into a dumpling restaurant while local firm Noke Architects referenced the high waters of Venice in a bar complete with sea-green floors and skirting tiles.

The photography is by Oni Studio. 

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Multidisciplinary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei tells Dezeen why he thinks all objects have political significance in this exclusive interview.

Known worldwide for his use of art as a tool for activism, Ai has created decades' worth of projects spanning a range of media – from architecture and film to installations and performance art.

The artist recently presented his first design-focused exhibition, called Making Sense, at London's Design Museum. It featured vast collections of thousands of found objects, ranging from Stone Age weapons to crowd-sourced Lego bricks.

"Even daring to name anything is political"

"Every object, if it can be recognised or has a name or a definition, is a political work," Ai told Dezeen at the museum. "Because of our judgment about values, even daring to name anything is a political act."

The political energy of the object comes from the user or observer, who will respond to it differently based on their own lived experience, Ai explained.

"We see things differently," he said. "Someone from London may see something in a different way to someone from Africa or from Asia."

"We are products of given conditions – our practice, our ability, even our knowledge or definition of ourselves. And so it's really the reaction of a given condition."

Born in Beijing in 1957, Ai has created work with a consistent political angle throughout his career. In particular, the artist is openly critical of the Chinese government. He has often expressed his belief that the country's architecture is stagnating under its Chinese Communist Party leadership.

While Ai collaborated with architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron to create the National Stadium – the main arena for the 2008 Beijing Olympics – he later distanced himself from the project in direct protest against the Chinese state.

Among Ai's artworks that challenge his native country's government is Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn – a 1995 black-and-white photography series that shows the artist dropping and smashing a Han Dynasty-era urn, which was around 2,000 years old at the time. The project aims to criticise the destruction of countless antiques during China's Cultural Revolution that began in 1966.

Despite this political focus, Ai said that he is cautious about pigeonholing his own artwork – or anything else – into distinct categories, including art or design.

"The problem with categorising is [it is] trying to take a shortcut. When people like to use fixed ideas, those concepts become emptier and emptier. It is truly a problem."

He argued that categorising things in this way "is an issue of education first", particularly citing the limitations that can arise from a lack of multidisciplinary learning at institutions such as schools and universities.

"You're trying to quickly tell people that [only] certain vocabularies are safe to use. But very often you see people use empty words. Because [these terms don't] really relate to emotions, consciousness or self-interpretation under judgment," reflected Ai.

"So we are living in a fast food, plastic or AI [artificial intelligence] world," he added. "We become handicapped."

"We still know very little about humanity"

The artist highlights the plights of various marginalised people in his projects, having previously installed three cage-like structures in New York City in protest against then-president Donald Trump's strict border-control measures, and created a wall of 2,000 life jackets in Québec that were worn by Syrian refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

"Human environments are never really fully developed or protected," he said. "Most of the time [they are] ruined by education, even with all the good intentions."

"We still know very little about humanity," added the artist.

Ai expressed his interest in the process of creating artwork, rather than solely appreciating the physical end result.

"A process itself is to recognise yourself and to make judgments about your approach," he explained.

Considering the value of creativity, Ai argued that "we are all born with the same ability" to create art, but that "art can never really be taught but can only be untaught" by our education systems.

"To do art is very different to becoming an artist because artists as professionals are selling works to support themselves. And very often, they're all bad," he said.

"And of course, when they [the artists] become sophisticated that's when they have to find a new language to illustrate the complexity of their thinking. But the ones who call themselves artists very often relate to public assumptions. So, it's not so pure, it's very much informed by the market."

Despite this, Ai confirmed his faith in the communal benefits of using art as a form of self-expression.

"I think it's part of humanity. If anybody does not really care about that, I think that is probably the biggest waste."

The images are courtesy of the Design Museum unless otherwise stated. 

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As the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup takes place in New Zealand and Australia, human rights organisation Equidem has alleged that female workers producing official FIFA merchandise are being exploited.

According to a report published by global human and labour rights group Equidem, women who work in the factories in Bangladesh that source official merchandise for FIFA tournaments are being overworked and underpaid.

Supervisors alleged to "verbally abuse" workers

In a blog post explaining its findings, the organisation said that a range of one-on-one interviews were conducted with garment workers who reportedly told Equidem they are suffering what the organisation characterises as "rampant exploitation" at the hands of their employers.

Equidem has alleged that the women labourers earn 12 per cent of the national living wage, are forced into working significant overtime and are frequently verbally abused.

"We have a daily target to reach," read one of a number of anonymous testimonies from factory workers published by the human rights organisation.

"The supervisor fixes our daily target. I make 60-80 pieces per hour. I can only go to the restroom after finishing my hourly target. When a lot of work piles up, they don't let us go anywhere. They verbally abuse us. I work for 10-12 hours a day at my sewing machine."

"Today, my supervisor told me to give 80 pieces per hour, but it was quite difficult to make 80 pieces. I made 60 pieces per hour. He shouted at me several times."

Women denied paid maternity leave

Equidem also alleges that these women workers are illegally denied paid maternity leave and worksite childcare. In Bangladesh, working mothers are entitled to four months of paid maternity leave by law.

Various women also reported being told that they would lose their jobs if they became pregnant within the first two years of employment, according to the human rights organisation.

Workers are also being threatened with pay cuts and often work overtime, the report states.

"Our research found that workers' shifts last for a minimum of nine hours a day, six days a week, but they often work overtime, with threats of their pay being cut if targets were not met," said Equidem.

"FIFA has already failed workers in spaces predominantly taken up by men, and women are, as ever, left even further behind," added the organisation.

FIFA has the "resource to address this at the systemic level"

The allegations come after FIFA pledged to found a human rights subcommittee following last year's men's World Cup.

"After the Men's World Cup this past year in Qatar, FIFA pledged to set up a human rights subcommittee that would assess the legacy of the 2022 tournament, although there has been no further update as to the status of that assessment, nor its learnings," Equidem CEO Mustafa Qadri said.

"Equidem urges FIFA to extend its expressed commitment to improving working conditions to women workers in their apparel supply chains."

While merchandise for the Women's World Cup currently taking place in New Zealand and Australia has not been specifically implicated in the allegations, Equidem referenced the tournament to put pressure on FIFA to improve the conditions of women workers.

"The FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 brings with it many positive improvements for its players, and it is crucial that FIFA extends that progress to addressing the harms its women workers experience," Quadri said.

"FIFA has the power, money, and resource to address this at the systemic level, and we will keep monitoring their global supply chains until it does."

Equidem said it will continue to speak to staff and has requested a comment from FIFA.

"These findings have been shared with FIFA, and while a comment has been requested from FIFA and companies in its garment supply chain, Equidem continues to monitor the Women's World Cup by liaising with staff on the ground," the organisation said.

Dezeen has contacted FIFA for comment but did not receive a response before publishing.

The allegations follow the controversies surrounding last year's men's World Cup tournament, which was held in Qatar.

Human rights group Amnesty International accused Qatar of exploitative labour conditions for migrant workers who built the tournament's stadiums, while sports brand Hummel designed a football kit for Denmark's men's team as a "protest against Qatar and its human rights record".

The photography is by Equidem.

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The interior of London's most recent Aesop store in Marylebone was organised to reference a bookshop and features bespoke timber cabinetry by furniture designer Sebastian Cox.

Skincare brand Aesop's in-house design team created the concept for the Marylebone store, which recently relocated from its original home in the London neighbourhood to Marylebone High Street.

The team took "material references" from the British Library on Euston Road and attempted to emulate the layout of traditional bookshops by choosing warm timbers and towering piles of pale green books to decorate the interior.

Divided into a main shop and an area for personal skin consultations, the L-shaped store features handmade cabinetry by Cox throughout.

The shelving is defined by gently rounded edges, which Cox crafted from lime-washed oak and stained with linseed oil to enhance the timber's warm appearance.

He designed the cabinetry with flexible joinery that would allow the furniture to be disassembled and transferred elsewhere if needed.

Oversized rattan lampshades were also chosen for the main shop area, which displays uniform rows of Aesop products and includes large, metallic communal sinks built into the timber cabinetry.

The store's also features ceiling troughs with custom-made geometric frescos by artist Olivier Cousy.

Cousy was informed by Marylebone's many green squares when painting the designs, which are geometric arrangements of autumnal colours – compositions that take cues from expressionist artist Paul Klee's 1922 work Tower in Orange and Green.

"Architecturally, our design method is to connect to the context of the locale, weaving ourselves into its fabric," said Aesop chief customer officer Suzanne Santos.

In the skin consultation area, a sandy-hued, floor-to-ceiling curtain can be pulled to give customers privacy while geometric timber sinks were built into the space's cabinetry.

Known for its array of stores that pay homage to their individual locations, Aesop's other outlets include a branch in London's Piccadilly Arcade with marble fixtures that filmmaker Luca Guadagnino designed to reference the area's jewellery boutiques, and a Cambridge store by British studio JamesPlumb with hemp and bulrush accents that nod to the nearby River Cam.

The photography is by Alixe Lay. 

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This week on Dezeen, we unveiled architecture studio Morphogenesis's Surat Diamond Bourse in India, which has overtaken the Pentagon to become the world's biggest office building.

Spanning 660,000 square metres, the complex just outside of Surat includes various offices arranged around a central spine.

Designed as a "city within a city", the workplace for diamond traders has surpassed the size of America's Pentagon office, which has been the world's largest office building since it was completed in 1943.

Also in the news this week, US entrepreneur Elon Musk announced that he has renamed the social media platform Twitter as X to "embody the imperfections in us all".

Musk, who acquired Twitter last year, crowdsourced the imagery for X's new logo – an art deco-style black-and-white X with a single bar diagonally crossed with a double bar.

"Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we're just beginning to imagine," said Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino via the online platform.

A symmetrical recycled steel torch with a rippled texture was revealed by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur ahead of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.

Lehanneur was informed by the appearance of the city's River Seine when designing the torch, which will represent both tournaments – a decision that was made to promote equality and marks the first time that both games have shared a torch.

In other architecture news, Saudi Arabia has officially denied human rights abuses connected to the country's Neom mega project after the United Nations Human Rights Council issued a statement voicing its concerns in early May.

Addressed to the UN, a letter from the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia rejected that three men were sentenced to death for criticising evictions for the Neom project, which includes megacity The Line, and instead claimed that the men were terrorists linked to organisations Daesh and Al-Qaida.

Also in Saudi Arabia, British architecture studio Foster + Partners released designs for the Equinox Resort Amaala hotel, which is a 128-room luxury accommodation that will feature a "floating" canopy and take cues from traditional Saudi architecture.

Our AItopia series continued with our investigation into one of architecture's biggest contemporary questions – whether AI will end up taking architects' jobs.

We also interviewed Sony's global head of AI ethics, Alice Xiang, who warned that the rise of the technology could result in "a lot of people living as second-class citizens in a society of AI where, systematically, models might not work well for them or might be biased against them".

Popular projects this week included architect Joanne Koch's renovation of a 1970s Californian wood cabin that was converted into an Airbnb and a monolithic home near Belfast in Northern Ireland designed by local architecture firm McGonigle McGrath.

Our latest lookbooks featured interiors that take cues from the Japanese design philosophy of wabi-sabi and those that are characterised by a breezy and cooling Mediterranean style.

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