This week, architects criticised Autodesk's BIM software

This week on Dezeen, a group of 17 of the UK's leading architecture studios wrote a letter to American software maker Autodesk criticising the cost and lack of development of its Revit application.

In the letter, the architecture studios, which included Zaha Hadid Architects, Grimshaw and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, stated that the rising cost of Building Information Modelling (BIM) software Revit was damaging their businesses.

"Where once Autodesk Revit was the industry enabler to smarter working, it increasingly finds itself a constraint and bottleneck," it said.

In response to the letter, Autodesk vowed that it would listen to the feedback from its customers and would make addressing their concerns its "top priority".

Diller Scofidio + Renfro wraps US Olympic and Paralympic Museum in diamond scales

Architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro's US Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado opened its door this week.

The museum is covered in diamond-shaped scales, while its galleries are arranged around a spiralling ramp to make it one of the most accessible museums in the world.

Seymourpowell designs Virgin Galactic spaceship cabin to maximise views of Earth

In transport news, London-based Seymourpowell revealed its design for a spaceship cabin that will be used by Virgin Galactic within its Virgin Spaceship Unity to six passengers on a sub-orbital flight into space. The cabin is designed to maximise views of Earth during the journey.

Transport designer PriestmanGoode also released its design for a cabin, but this time slightly closer to Earth. It envisioned how aircraft cabin interiors will look following the coronavirus pandemic.

ASICS creates face mask for exercising during the coronavirus pandemic

Also responding to the pandemic, Sportswear brand ASICS released a face mask that contains vents so that people can wear it while working out.

The coronavirus continued to impact events with the organisers of the Consumer Electronics Show making the decision to cancel next year's January event in Las Vegas and replaced it with an online version.

See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

World's tallest prefabricated skyscrapers set to be built in Singapore

In Singapore, local architecture studio ADDP has designed a pair of 56-storey skyscrapers that will be the tallest prefabricated buildings in the world when they complete in 2026.

The towers will be 60 metres taller than the previous tallest modular building, the 140-metre-high Clement Canopy built by Construction company Bouygues Bâtiment International, which is also in Singapore.

Zaha Hadid Architects unveils Roatán Próspera housing complex for Honduras

In other architecture news, Zaha Hadid Architects unveiled its design for a modular housing project that will be built on the Caribbean island of Roatán of the coast of Honduras.

In the UK, Twelve Architects designed 60 holiday home that will directly overlook the race track at Silverstone – home of the British Grand Prix.

Frankie Pappas threads skinny house through South African forest

Popular projects on Dezeen this week include a 3.3-metres-wide house that Frankie Pappas threaded through the forest in South Africa, a small studio in rural Ecuador with a straw roof and wood framing designed by architecture student David Guambo and a holiday home in New Zealand by Fearon Hay Architects concealed by black shutters and a concrete wall.

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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Ethereal Underwater Photographs by Elinleticia Högabo Glimpse the Subjects Below the Surface

All images © Elinleticia Högabo, shared with permission

As a child, Elinleticia Högabo had a troubled relationship with water. Despite a deep fascination with its dreamy qualities, she avoided swimming below the surface or in any areas of considerable depth after two traumatic experiences in which she almost drowned. When she was chosen for an exhibition that centered on rusalka—a female creature similar to a mermaid that’s found in Slavic folklore—Högabo tried to capture shots of her submerged subjects from above before realizing she had to plunge in. “But in search (of) better and better pictures, I finally got myself an underwater camera and went down in the silent world. The silent world concept is from the fact that under the water surface, it’s a silent world where you, as fully hearing people, hear as little (as) me,” says the photographer, who was born with a hearing impairment.

Today, Högabo gladly dives into lakes and other bodies with her camera in tow. She captures singular subjects or duos as they breach the water’s surface or descend to the algae-laden floor. Through ripples and small bubbles, the water disguises the models and their exact positions and gestures, which blurs any distinct features and perceptions of depth.

Based in southern Sweden, the photographer tells Colossal that she outlines the details of most photographs in advance, although she generally alters her plans in the moment. “The location, the water, the models, the bugs that might crawl by—all create conditions for the creation,” Högabo says. A multi-disciplinary artist, she styles and provides makeup artistry on-site, as well.

To follow Högabo’s shots that explore the perspective-altering abilities of water, head to Instagram. (via aint—bad)

 

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Two-storey bookshelf rises inside renovated Madrid house

Spanish architecture firm Zooco Estudio has covered the walls of this Madrid residence with bookshelves that span two levels.

House 6 is a detached single-family home located in northern Madrid. Local studio Zooco Estudio overhauled the residence contrasting white interiors with pale wood cabinetry and herringbone patterned flooring.

The centrepiece of the design is a white shelving unit that extends two floors and wraps around the walls of the house's living room and dining area.

On the lower level, the volume comprises dozens of rectangular cases for storing books, movies and electronics, including a mounted television. A series of narrow cubbies also occupy the space between a glass dining table and entryway creating storage for hanging apparel.

"As a unifying element, a shelf rises colonising both living and lobby spaces," the studio said. "This way we integrate aesthetic and functionality in one single element."

The shelves continue on the upper level with a rectangular volume along a hallway. Pendant light fixtures hang from the ceiling to illuminate the floor below.

In the kitchen, pale oak fronts the cabinetry and details the base of a white kitchen island. White tiles form the splashback behind the sink and cover the rectangular range hood hanging above the island.

A spiral staircase with black metal steps is carved into the wall to create a sculptural focal point within the space.

Upstairs the bedroom and bathrooms are concealed by a wall of slender wooden slats lacquered white. The narrow strips separate the master bedroom from the bathroom. A section of the millwork is intentionally left open to expose the shower.

"A continuous view was required so you can see through the slats to the shower," the studio added. "However, the private areas of the bathroom are completely hidden."

In the bathroom the studio has covered the walls and floors with white tiles and blue grouting. A geometric counter clad with blue tiles snakes across the ground and up the wall to form a storage closet in the space.

Zooco Estudio is an architecture firm with offices in Madrid and Santander founded by Miguel Crespo Picot, Javier Guzmán Benito and Sixto Martín Martínez. The studio has also completed an art centre in Verín that comprises several granite buildings and a child play area built out of wood for a co-working office in Santa Monica, California.

Other renovation projects in Madrid include a house with a permeable metal sculpture designed by Beta Ø Architects and an apartment by Lucas y Hernández Gil with sliding wall partitions.

Photography is by Imagen Subliminal.

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Project credits:

Project manager: Miguel Crespo Picot, Javier Guzmán Benito, Sixto Martín Martínez
Construction: Nimbo Proyectos S L
Lighting: Zooco Estudio
Furniture design: Zooco Estudio

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Exquisite Digital Illustrations by Maxim Shkret Render Tousled Manes and Ruffled Feathers of Fantastical Creatures

All images © Maxim Shkret, shared with permission

Based in Moscow, artist Maxim Shkret (previously) renders animals’ coats with refined details, presenting a horse’s mane or crow’s feathers through distinct, sinuous pieces. Appearing three-dimensional, Shkret’s elegant renderings capture the flowing qualities of fur and feathers. Each digital illustration has a strict color palette, and although some creatures maintain realistic shades of browns and black, others take on a whimsical quality with blush and magenta features. To explore more of the illustrator’s digital projects, head to Behance and Instagram.

 

 

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New Affiliates' Testbeds project to build community buildings from discarded architecture models

New York City architecture studio New Affiliates has launched an initiative to reuse large-scale models for garden sheds and community spaces in the borough of Queens.

New Affiliates and architect and historian Samuel Stewart-Halevy created the Testbeds project to repurpose architecture models from luxury real estate projects in the city, which are often built of durable and high-end materials but soon discarded, and turn them into community projects like garden sheds and classrooms.

An architectural model envisioned for a narrow community garden in Manhattan  

The concept was developed after they realised the similar sizes between such mockup structures and existing sheds around New York. They wanted to reuse the designs that typically go to waste for projects in underserved communities.

"While mockups often consist of high-end and resilient materials, they are usually discarded after undergoing a series of reviews," the team said. "A significant amount of waste results."

Testbeds has launched a pilot programme with a gabled community centre in Queens

The programme is a way to funnel "architectural resources from New York's luxury real estate market to neighbourhoods in the outer boroughs that have been historically disinvested," it added.

A pilot programme is currently underway in Queens at Edgemere Coalition Community Garden with New York City Parks' GreenThumb division that supports over 550 gardens in the city.

The mockup model sourced from condominium building 30 Warren in Tribeca will be used to create a multipurpose building for the Queens centre.

Renderings of the design show a gabled building with corrugated concrete panel walls and covered outdoor walkways that link a greenhouse, community room and tool shed. A covered patio overlooks the garden, and a chain-link fence encloses the property.

One part of the building is clad in wood inside

"The idea that you could take a fragment from 100 feet up in the air in Tribeca and put it on the ground in the Far Rockaways and someone can actually walk up to it and access it and inhabit it is exciting to us," said New Affiliates.

The team is currently raising funds for construction for later this fall and is also seeking help to discover more models and build the projects. Another site is proposed for a garden in the East Village neighbourhood of Manhattan with a proposal to create a small white volume in a garden between two apartment buildings.

A portion of the model will be a new greenhouse

The Testbeds project provides an example of how to save waste from architectural and design construction. In a similar project in Senegal, a school was built using test facades originally created for a hospital.

Based in Brooklyn, New Affiliates is led by Ivi Diamantopoulou and Jaffer Kolb and in 2020, the studio was awarded the American Institute of Architects' New York New Practices Award. In addition to this project, the studio has also renovated Brooklyn loft with a plywood mezzanine and built an asymmetric cabin in Vermont.

Images are courtersy of Testbeds.

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Perception-Twisting Miniatures by Artist Frank Kunert Transform the Mundane into the Surreal

All images © Frank Kunert, shared with permission

Frank Kunert (previously) is a Germany-based photographer and modelmaker who creates mind-stretching scenes that, from afar, appear like everyday urban environments with the same beige color palette and concrete walls that are common across the world. On closer inspection, though, Kunert’s work reveals itself to be a series of surreal scenarios—he takes viewers on a fantastical journey in which mundane objects are transformed and merged into unusual architectural scenes that explore the “absurdity of life.”

In one work, a cot is sandwiched in the middle of a desk and bookcases, while in another, two old stools sitting on a small carpet face a large window that resides high in the sky, with two minuscule glasses of rosy wine positioned beside them. Each piece of Kunert’s tiny, perception-twisting models takes him weeks to months to create, and afterward, he photographs them with a large-format, analog camera.

Kunert turns common objects into pieces of admiration, giving viewers the chance to reflect on redesigning old collectibles or waste items for new uses. Throughout this period, social distancing has influenced Kunert’s work and many of his designs reflect a new normal. For example, he redesigned an old wooden table, which he divided into individual booths for diners. 

You can view more of the artist’s projects on Instagram and in his book, Frank Kunert: Lifestyle, which is available on Bookshop.

 

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Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter creates red concrete house in Lillehammer

Oslo architecture studio Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter has designed a house from prefabricated concrete panels in Norway for a three-generational family that took part in its construction.

Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter's House in Red Concrete in the town of in Lillehammer was built with a facade made from repetitive, insulated-concrete elements in order to help keep costs down.

"The repetitive facade made it possible to use the same casting for the concrete elements many times," co-founder John Sanden told Dezeen.

"The cost is really low, which was possible because of the simple construction system, the repetitiveness and the work done by the client themselves."

To keep the project affordable, Sanden + Hodnekvam chose to use prefabricated, insulated concrete elements with a 50-millimetre outer layer of pigmented concrete for all the facades.

The studio also designed the house so that no inner walls are load-bearing. This was to save money in the future as it means the house can be adapted to the client's changing needs but also meant the owners could help build the house themselves.

"After the load-bearing part of the construction was in place, the clients have put up inner walls and finished large parts of the remaining work themselves," the studio said.

"This gave them a deeper understanding of the building, and it made them really love the house already long before they moved in," Sanden added.

As the house was built on a sloping site, with a height difference of about 10 metres across it, Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter dug it into the hilldside and aligned it at a diagonal angle to the fall of the terrain to create outdoor spaces and improves its views.

"A large part of the house is dug into the hillside in order to fit the programme to the compact site, and at the same time follow height regulations and maximise the view," the studio said.

The distinct red colour of the exterior was achieved by adding iron oxide to the concrete mix. "The pigment gives the house a different appearance than the grey, which gives the house its own character," Sanden said.

"The pigment, along with the wooden windows and the geometric pattern between the concrete elements, makes the building stand out as something different than just a concrete box."

Inside the house, the rough concrete walls and ceilings have been left exposed and are complemented by walls in knot-free pine panelling, which was also used for the ceilings in the kitchen and living room. Pine plywood furniture was built on site.

"A lot of the furniture is specific for each room, which creates a clean interior that is easier to keep tidy in the everyday life," Sanden said. "The furniture also helps to create an area-effective building."

Floors were covered in hardwearing cement screed. "It is a house that is built to last by adaption or re-appropriation," the studio concluded.

Norweigan studio Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter was founded in 2014 by John Sanden and Ingvild Hodnekvam. The studio also chose to work with concrete and wood when creating a cabin overlooking a Norwegian fjord.

Photography is by Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter.

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