Long live porches, terraces and decks

Spaces revitalized

to enjoy and connect with the outdoors

Depending on where you live, you may be in the first, second or even third wave of the pandemic, but either way you are surely looking for a way to spend as much time as possible outdoors.

The ability of cities to remain relevant models for the future will depend on their ability to adapt to these new needs. Restaurants and bars are currently closed to the public, offering only take away or delivery in Catalonia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom… I hope they can reopen soon and if I’m not mistaken exterior spaces will then become a priority. It is clear that creating cosy and safe terraces in the restaurant industry will be vital, and I believe that bars and restaurants  should definitively integrate the option of home delivery. I bring you the Rockwell Group Dine Out project, a modular design solution, free of charge, unified in its characteristics, with pre-designed elements, facilitating the future path of restaurateurs and creating an attractive visual language whilst complying with social regulations.

But this is something that goes beyond just one sector. In the residential sector, there is a clear trend of migration to small towns and people are also making second residences their primary homes. If we can implement projects like L’Arbre blanc, maximizing terraces for the majority of inhabitants, this could serve to reverse this trend.

Nendo’s intervention in the Stairway House is a more radical example, and only possible in large scale projects. Nevertheless, this use of an oversized staircase as a connecting element between heaven and earth, the focal point of the work, is masterful.

As for workspaces, much is being said of our motivation to return to offices. We can see evidence of this in projects like Second Home Hollywood, in which rather than going to work it appears we are venturing into a jungle.

In the hospitality sector, hotels that are close to nature or which have a versatile exterior space to facilitate the hosting of outdoor cultural activities will probably do better in the future, as is the case of Potato Head Studio.

Some might think that an open space is only possible with mild weather conditions, but here engineering can intervene, as in The Shed project at the end of the High Line in New York, which has an unfolding kinetic roof covering 18,500 m2. The idea here was to provide the city with a flexible space that could bring together all the arts. In the current situation, this would allow performances and concerts to be staged, as the capacity of the space can be expanded according to safe social distancing requirements.

Can technology provide us with a decent home?

Making social housing feasible

Zero cost would probably be difficult to achieve, but what about a reduction to both economic costs and carbon footprint?

We know that not all construction is wet construction, but if we take bricks as the standard, we will realize that high temperatures are needed for their production and that recycling is difficult following their useful life.

I believe that a winning formula would be a combination of the additive manufacturing process with advanced materials (imagine a base formula that would allow for local adaptation.)

The start-up ICON has carried out several projects in collaboration with non-profit entities in which it has tested out its 3D house printer. In 2018 it sought to provide community with 44 m2 homes, produced thanks to the VULCAN and later VULCAN II printer in collaboration with New Story Charity and ÉCHALE in Tabasco, Mexico. After 18 months of planning, the first two houses of a community of 50 in total were printed. At the same time, another step forward was taken at the end of December with the creation of the welcome centre for the second phase of Community First! Village, thus expanding the capacity for housing the homeless. The first domestic units arrived in March 2020. With each new version they have managed to improve on execution time. 3D printing is new to us, but while it has not yet been mass implemented, its use is becoming normalized in the construction market.

Indeed, one of the premises of ICON is to make decent homes accessible to everyone around the world. This is a major goal to reach and achieve, but the company is on the right track, making progress towards it. Whilst the Tabasco Mexico project encountered unforeseen events such as weather conditions, in the next phase they will surely progress further, taking on board the lessons learnt. In addition, this project has the particularity that it must be safe on a seismic level.

But for me the important thing is that they continue to progress, both internationally and locally, since this joint action in the city has led to the resolution of logistical issues, if not all the legal aspects.

Perhaps the limited space between the houses is surprising, but I think that, if we consider that these areas are not always serviced by electricity or water, there is some logic behind this. If anyone would like to assist these social projects to develop faster, it is in all our hands, since this work is funded by donations. It is true that the best way to secure a home is to have a job, but why not give this inverted formula a chance?

Photo credits Regan Morton Photography Community First Village, Josua Perez Tabasco. ICON

Source: https://www.esdesignbarcelona.com/es/expertos-diseno/puede-la-tecnologia-facilitarnos-un-hogar-digno

Jewel Changi, a green airport

From a non-place

to a space where citizens can breathe in nature.

Jewel at Changi Airport is a jewel for both the passengers who use it as a hub to fly to destinations around the world and for the citizens of Singapore. It is an extension carried out by the Safdie Architects team, also responsible for another iconic project, the Marina Bay Sands towers.

It offers a wide variety of shops, a hotel where rooms can be rented by the hour, and even some indoor gardens in which to walk around. Seen from the outside it is shaped like a doughnut, a toroid; its centre, the Rain Vortex, has a waterfall five stories high. Singapore’s climate provides enough rain to ensure that supply is not an issue. What’s more, it has been awarded the Green Mark Gold Award, a sustainability certificate awarded by the government of Singapore; this seal is akin to BREEAM certification in the United Kingdom or the better-known LEED certification in the US. The water is collected and reused and its vapour is used to ventilate and cool the interior.

The team of architects and landscape designers were able to trial two hundred species of plants that inhabit the landscaped terraces, both in the Canopy park on the fifth floor by means of activities and in the Forest Valley on the ground floor. The layout, based around the terraces, allows you to “lose sight of” people and connect visually with the outside thanks to the glass façade, which disappears during the night and allows you to contemplate the “Green City”, as Singapore is known, from inside the airport. The aim is to entertain passengers, such as through the waterfall’s light show, and to showcase the country, even if just metaphorically, through these gardens.

But as well as being an attraction and a green lung it also works as a connector not only between three of the four terminals but also between the airport and the city, since it can be accessed by bus from Singapore.

According to Moshe Safdie, creator of the project, Jewel weaves an experience between nature and a marketplace for travellers, visitors and residents.

Please read the original post at ESdesign (spanish version)

Photo credits: Safdie Architects and Changi Airport Group

Haeckel's House: the sea center of proposal

Seaweed for the skin

Agar packaging

To propose beauty products whose main ingredient is algae shows passion for changing the world. Applying them in therapies and creating a place where you can feel the natural rhythm of things the next step. It all started when with the idea  that the same ingredient was considered a precious good in Asia and in Europe a dismiss.

First the store and then the extension to a therapy center on the upper floors was possible thanks to property owner’s commitment, who believed in Haeckel’s project from the start. They used a color palette that flees from what we would traditionally associate with the sea;

A chimney was chosen to frame a sculpture made of another dismissed material: polyurethane foam powder.

They decided to hang a picture that is almost an architectural textile composition instead of a pictorial work that competed with the real views.

The materiality of the project goes from the use of micelum in product displays to Agar extracted from algae´s cells for packaging; algae are also used to prepare baths, tea; they are cultivated in a circular way and with one of the two existing permits for this task. A proposal that goes beyond the uniforms originally working man clothes, reconverted for women.

Photocredits Jo Bridges

Haeckels

Please read the original post at ESdesign (spanish version)

Innovation in process, materials coming from DDW17

I am still trying to digest all that I saw at Dutch Design Week 2017, Eindhoven. I would dare to say that the focus goes behind design:  the world and humanity’s fragility, urns that contain our last remains and decompose (which help us think about the shortness of live) or new materials that are made by up cycling or 3d technology to personalise our projects.

Source Aectual web.

We could start with Aectual, that adds digital design to their flooring as a component; this allows them to produce on demand, heavily reducing waste and offering personalised design to the maximum detail.

Source Aectual web.

Source Aectual web.

Source Nienkehoogvliet Studio web.

Another project is Mourn, a new urn’ typology, that aims to solve human toxicity even after death. They combine ashes with PHA (Poly Hydroxy Alkanoate). This bioplastic slowly dissolves in nature, as wood; it could solve the problems we have by polluting soil where our beloved ones lay.

Source Nienkehoogvliet Studio web.

There is space to final career projects like Marjolein Stappers, Oesterplat, which combines waste oyster shells with concrete and marble. Collecting the oyster shells from the restaurants and turning them into a new material.

Marjolein Stappers facebook

Source Voges Paris web

Finally Lumiduct is a product which has already hit the market; it could be responsible of breaking the bad press that crystal facades have. They would stop being considered as high energy consumption, to become a source of capitation.

Find the full spanish version at Esdesign

Aectual

Mourn

Lumiduct

Champing and the other news uses during Clerkenwell design week

The new luxury will be to camp or live inside a church, the new trend camping; may be th inspiration to create a bedroom at St John’s Church, from the XVIII century , came from there. An installation made by Nulty Lighting design and the furniture company Michael Northcrofts during Clerknwell design week.

Another scenery occupied during the design festival were the dungeons under the street, a Victorian detention centre; this space gathered all the conditions to better value the quality of the Camila’s handcrafted loudspeakers and her stand: honesty with in design and materials. This neighbourhood has his history tangled around craftsmanship.

Fabric, the night club, was another space occupied by the exhibition; previously accommodated the old cold Smithfield’s market warehouse, with its impressive brick volts. Bang&Olufsen, sponsoring Icon House of culture couldn’t pick a better place to present their products; they created a light and music installation that empowered their brand.

On the other hand was the proposal of Artworks, half way between graphic design and acoustic solutions. They work with standard materials but putting added value.

Read this post at Esdesign Escuela Superior de diseño Barcelona

Nulty lighting

Michel Northcroft

Camilla Lee

Bang & Olufsen

Artworks

Video FINSA stand at architectatwork Barcelona

I am a teacher and space expert at ESdesign and I wanted to explain how we work on a project, based on a real case.

We listen to the client; create a concept and then develope it until the end. In this case two materials were presented at architect at work, first edition in Barcelona. Greenpannel is light but very resistant. Compacmel is also resistant to scratching and indoors stands high and persistent moisture levels throughout time. 

We actively listened to learn which clients they were targeting. They wanted to get to hospitality: restaurants and hotels. That is why we created this suspended sculpture that is hold only by two green panel boards. You can watch the video about how we built it!

We used the Compacmel material in their more luxurious finishes Vison and Moka chic, applied to geodesic, dodecahedron shapes. We wanted to trigger the clients imaginary with this diamond shapes.

FINSA, ESdesign, architectatwork

Ethereal succeeds at Milan Salone 2017

Source: designboom Nendo invisible outlines

Source Swine Studio

Milan has as many readings as people visit it. You only need to pay attention as you wonder to have a clue about the next trend, even without going to Fuori Salone or the Fair itself.

Source Swine Studio

Milan strengthens the ethereal message, that started this year Maison Objet, (jannuary 2017) with the silence as trend . COS installation by Swine Studio was design to be a experience. A sculptural tree made of aluminium where air, water, vapour bubble flourish; they only explode when they touch human skin. Azusa Murakami (architect) and Alexander Groves (artist) is a duet known for their sensibility and for their work with non conventional materials as human hair or plastic retrieved from the ocean.

Formafantasma

Formafantasma studio presented their work for Flos bare of ornaments. The installation explains the creation process, their research and focus on design with light, more than a product. Products, that behind their timelessness appearance, they try to leave the smaller waste as possible.

The borders between fashion and design seem to disappear at Nendo and Jil Sanders’s collaboration, if they ever existed. A forest made of polystyrene sculptures of 5mm, where we find Oki Sato creations.

Read this post at Esdesign Escuela Superior de diseño Barcelona

Studio Swine

Formafantasma

Nendo Jil Sanders

Source: designboom Nendo and Jill Sanders invisible outlines

The future is nearly here, houses that work for us

Source: Effekt Studio

Source: Effekt Studio

Based on the fact that 33% of our salary goes to our rent, energy expenses related to our home, would it be possible to design homes that produce clean energy, fresh food and water?

Effekt studio is already working on it. Technology is applied to create a community in Almere, half an hour train distance from Amsterdam. Community design, providing clean energy, water and food.

Their goal to use aquaponic farming to reduce the land used and freeing it to build family units that go from 80 sqm housing + 20 sqm greenhouse, up to 140 sqm housing + 50 sqm terrace and 10 sqm greenhouse.

Effekt Studio Infography

House-hold waste will be reused, the organic shall be used to get biogas, what remains will be used as compost, that will feed the flies that will follow the food chain up to the fish farm. The fishes’ waste will be used as plant fertilizer and so on.

25 housing units organised in a circle, food production facilities are placed in the centre: aquaponic farming, animal farm, communal spaces; the housing units are encasted in a glass envelope, to increase the greenhouses and 8 squares are connected to charge electric cars; they will also be used as drop off zone. A commitment to biodiversity and permaculture, since the free space up or better they don’t take it away from nature, reducing the footprint.

Read this post at ESdesign Escuela Superior de Diseño Barcelona

Effekt Studio

New uses: coworking at London Clerkenwell’s Church

Which urban tribe surrounded but did not go inside Saint James Church?

This London neighbourhood is rich in designers and creative people. Their strong commitment with design is not only because they have their own design week, but it has one of the higher densities of showrooms, architect studios per sqm.

Andrew Baughen, church vicar, found the inspiration as he was visiting New York public Library. The feeling of being welcome got him from the very first moment. An inspiring space, with history and a good wifi connection was provided.

The coworking’s phenomena is catching even in temples, sacred places, which also need to reinvent themselves. We celebrate this initiative that provides a space to work, meet and where different venues take place related to design and spirituality, which are not necessary on bad terms with each other.

Read this post at Esdesign Escuela Superior de Diseño Barcelona.

Tom dixon

Clerknwell church fridays cowork

3d weaving > Milan Design Week 2016

This year I decided to make my choices and choose a couple events in each Milano design quarter: obviously Fundazione Prada  and Rossana Orlandi were included! But I didn't miss Lambrate, and the new Dutch expansion in Isola; Brera, something from Tortona, visual merchandising at "Quadrillatero dela moda" and Salone Satelite.

Last year trend merging 3D and artisans has evolved into weaving technique: trying to blend intricrate crisscrossing with this new technology.

Studio Plott 

So at the end of Lambrate, via Private Oslavia I found Envisions. I have checked what it means at the dictionary and it says: "to picture in mind, imagine". That is what these 9 Dutch designers do; they try to foresee the future in industrial design, but focusing on the materials and process. Tijs Gilde investigates in Cored, what would happen if he changed the cord's core. He applies his experience in sailing; he got inspired and found new shapes, colors and ways of expressing with this material. Even he obtained new ways to fabricate joints.

Jim Chen-Hiang_Hu

Also in the same exhibition I discovered Studio Plott, Rudi Boiten and Mireille Burge, who try to incorporate a human touch to technology. They focused on weaving techniques and translate them into patterns. Their main goal is to devolope a material with both functional and aesthetic value.

In Brera I found the espectacular FRAME exhibition: "What's the matter? Design for phygital world",  where Jim Chen-Hsiang-Hu showed his XI collection. This Taipei born fashion designer has added 3d dimension to the planar porcess of weaving. Setting "bridges between the phyisical world and the digital one".

Nike exposition

Finally close to Fondazione Prada, Nike revelead all brand's conceptual projects at "The nature of Motion". All of them gave a twist, but working in the same direction as Envisions and Frame, Bertjan Pot pushed manufacturing boundaries and experienced with textile and weaving techniques. His main role character the wheel, that in our imaginery is associated to movement, was upholstered, attached to the earth with ropes, Nike laces and belts. 

Tijs Gilde

ENVISIONS

TIJS GILDE

STUDIO PLOTT

BERTJAN POT

White mediterranean interior photoshooting

Photography Joan Cabacés Alomar

I am glad I can start spring talking about the making of a very special shooting. I work with the most personal space, homes. I believe that interior designers, we need to listen to our clients and help them shape what they already have in mind. Some already come with a mood board, like Montse! It helps you a lot to find the way to express their personality. She is a red haired woman, curly hair and strong personality. So her apartment should reflect her character and the mixture of cultures born in Paris raised in Barcelona, philologist and exterior commerce; Montse is the Country Manager at Hans Boodt Mannequins for Spain and Portugal, so she travels a lot; she needed a space at home, that she could use some times as a home office, a canvas to pin ideas that inspire her,...

She offered us a white cube and the challenge to dress it without becoming overwhelming. She has a special gift to find treasures at markets, the street, family objects; so our job was to help her choose what to show, put some order, as if her home could be her vintage gallery. That's why we proposed String as the only possible storage/distribution solution. 

Photography Esther Rico

Photography Joan Cabacés Alomar

Photography Esther Rico

Photography Esther Rico

Clean lines that would strengthed the character of all the objects collected in different circumstances. But we always kept in mind her mantra: “I love the feeling of light, open space, freedom”. 

While we had a white canvas, she wanted a space with color brushtrockes, a mixture between nordic space filled with ethnical references and green.

Walls are not dividing the rooms so the use of it is defined by the furniture. The open area should have many functions, a livingroom that should also be dining room;

We will be publishing the whole shooting soon!

Design objects to remember: we are forms

Photo: weareforms

This year I couldn't assist to Nude16 but I consider them a talent source so I always have a look at what they are showing. This year I found Carlos and Helena who share designs and the way they understand life. Their inspiration comes from pure shapes that make an impact on you: Volcano and Eclipse.

Photo: weareforms

Our chaotic day to day makes us struggle with order, so why not create an object that can contain and even give peace to your mind. The VOLCANO shapes remind me of some Zen Japanese garden. WE ARE FORMS have combined ceramics and a light texturized wooden top. Beautiful and functional, because they have thought you will be holding your mobile on one hand while you try to put your keys without nearly looking inside VOLCANO.

Photo: weareforms

ECLIPSE was born while playing with light and how it attracts us. They were looking for a source of light that will catch your eye, but that you could look straight to it. Since it doesn't have a predefined position, the have design it with 360 personality. It has been manufactured with resins, marble powder and texturized metal.

WE ARE FORMS

NUDE

Discover London's Village Underground and Boxpark

Photo: Esther Rico

Once a month I visit London, since we are doing a renovation refurbishment project in Clerknewell. Fifteen minutes away I have discovered in Shoreditch two gems: Village Underground and Boxparx.

Let me explain why you shouldn't miss them. Underground village takes place in two spaces: a renovated turn of the century warehouse and on top four recycled Jubilee line train carriages. So they have created a space that can host shootings, performances, concerts, club nights. They have found the balance to operate as a self-sustainable cultural organisation and social enterprise. Incredible but true: an affordable, environmentally stable space for artist in East Central London.

In the same hood, some blocks away you can find BOXPARX,opened in 2011 as a pop-up unique shopping destination; it will be opened for the next four years, after the success they had.

They built this odd ephemeral street mall, with striped and refitted shipping containers. They are filled with global and local brands  packed with talent, innovation an attitude.  I found three of them very interesting Playn, frame and lenses, Decorum, homeware and furniture and Newcomerwines, Austrian wine revolution. On the upper floor, they have different dining concepts, and open terraces.

Photo: Monikerprojects

Photo: Esther Rico

Photo: Esther Rico

Village Underground

Boxpark

Photo: Esther Rico

Immcologne: starting 2016 with Germany design news

19th January, when Christmas's seems far away, I did a one day visit to start the tradeshow calendar. I focused on Halls 4, 3 and 2, since immcologne 2016 presented Pure Talents (emergent designers) in those halls. 

I was strocked by the great Zanat's roof, where wood was the star. Their added-value: they emphasize craftsmanship and they blend it into modern design.

Designers Tower

Designer's collective called my attention; they are poping up everywhere; it makes sense, independent designers are trying to get to their market and new technologies provide the tools to make it possible. But joining around a collective gives them more visibility and strengh;I would like to emphasize three of them: DESIGNERS TOWER, afilii and ISTANBUL'DAN; each one has a its own focus: first one on regions (Austria, Switzerland, Germany), second one in the market segment: kids; the last one in the collection's starting point: a tribute to Istanbul; products made by local craftsmanship and designed by German industrial designers.

Afilii

Istanbul'dan

What may happen is that these collective grow and become designer editorials, as Petit Friture and that immcologne will shine again as an Internation trade fair.

Petite Friture showroom

Zanat

Designers towers

Afilii

Istanbul'dan

Petite Friture

Croacia's Summer discovery: a window to paradise

Photo by Esther Rico

Tuesday, September 15th, the official return to schools and even with the good taste of summer trip. 

Imagine a Dominic monastery, partly converted into a boutique hotel; high ceilings, white, black and blue as minimalist color palette; they kept the orginal big windows which had this great sea view and cradled us  night and day

Our main holiday’s goal was to connect with nature, the sea; in a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, Bracc. We felt in love with Bol, a small town with direct ferry from Split. A treat for the senses, we were surrounded by olive trees, lavender; small coves connected by roads, unhurried and friendly people.

But how did we get there? Thanks to the invaluable help of Mireia Borderia , who runs her own travel agency, Zumba Viatges; she proposed destination and accommodation; she allowed us to travel to paradise with a two year old baby. I am so grateful.

Photo by Esther Rico

Photo by Esther Rico

Photo by Esther Rico

Zumba viatges

Furniture that embraces you: silla Revés

Let me ask you a question: what is the predominant sense nowadays? I would answer that we are mostly visual.

But imagine for a second that touch would recover the top position; what if it became trendy as vintage. 

Let's take it a step further, imagine yourself, first hour in the morning; you hear that horrible sound that everyday wakes you up; doesn't it feel as if your bed hugs you and asks you to stay? Now imagine that you could feel that coziness in an office, a hotel lobby. A  soft Gabriel fabric holds you. What else?

You can upright the chair's back, and it will become a cocoon; it will provide shelter and a private space; with a simple hand movement you can switch back to a talking or meeting way.

Silla Reves + Balea