Natural tones and textures complement displays at museum of dried fish bladders

Glossy floors, rough-sawn wood and diffused natural light create a calming atmosphere inside this private museum in Chinese city Shoutou, designed to display a collection of aged fish bladders.

Local studio Jingu Phoenix Space Planning Organization, also known as JG Phoenix, designed the private fish maw museum for a client who spent decades gathering a collection of swim bladders.

The organs, known as maws, give fish their buoyancy and are considered a delicacy in China that is typically served in soups or stews.

The collector wanted to create a space where he could display the dried bladders and communicate their history and value. The museum is intended to celebrate the natural beauty of the objects, which are displayed in a setting designed to complement their unique physical properties.

"The designers deconstructed the spatial functions via architectural languages, and adopted grey as the main hue, so as to highlight the gold, aged fish maws that carry the memories of time," said JG Phoenix.

"In addition, they utilised old oak timber and gave it sawtooth grain through a special treatment," the studio added. "The aged texture and colour of oak wood coincide with those of fish maws, which generates dialogue between the materials and the collection."

Visitors enter the museum through an arched opening leading to a double-height space with an introductory text on the wall.

The space is traversed by an exposed concrete beam that expresses the building's original structure. It is intersected by a perpendicular wooden beam embellished with frosted-glass light fixtures.

A handmade iron sculpture in the shape of a fish is positioned on the wall opposite the entrance to help introduce the museum's theme.

The ground floor contains an exhibition hall and a pair of reception areas featuring furniture, display cases and vitrines made from oak.

The combination of dark, polished concrete flooring with white walls and wood produces what the architects described as an "austere texture within the space".

The main display hall is entered through a doorway off the foyer, where visitors are welcomed by a large abstract artwork depicting fish and a man on a boat.

A staircase made from sawn oak leads up to a first floor containing three further reception rooms, as well as utility and storage areas.

Natural illumination entering through translucent screens creates a calming atmosphere in these spaces and produces an interplay of light and shadows as it reflects off the white-painted walls.

Various sculptures dotted throughout the rooms introduce artistic details that are complemented by bubble-like lamps designed to symbolise "the water of life".

Other Chinese museums that have recently opened include Liyang Museum, which was designed to represent the sound made by a traditional musical instrument, and the pale brick Changjiang Art Museum.

Photography is by Yinxiang Arch Photography.

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Project credits:

Design firm: Jingu Phoenix Space Planning Organization
Chief designer: Ye Hui
Design team: Chen Jian, Lin Weibin, Chen Xuexian
Decoration team: Feng Qi Wu Tong
Construction firm: Wan You Yin Li

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Shortlist unveiled for AHEAD Asia 2020 hospitality awards

A Shigeru Ban-designed boutique hotel in Japan and a resort that hides amongst the Malaysian rainforest are among the projects to be shortlisted in this year's AHEAD Asia awards.

The AHEAD Asia awards honour exceptional hospitality projects that have been launched, opened or reopened on the continent between September 2018 and August 2019.

All submissions were first sorted into 15 categories, which acknowledge everything from a project's guestrooms to its lobby and public spaces.

A shortlist has then been compiled by a judging panel of industry experts. This year it includes figures such as founder partner of AvroKO, William Harris, managing director of Swire Hotels, Toby Smith, and curatorial director of BAR Studio, Rowena Hockin.

One of the projects to be shortlisted is Shishi-Iwa House, a boutique hotel designed by Pritzker prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban. It's has just 10 rooms, which are nestled amongst the forested woodlands of Karuizawa in Japan.

Another project in the running is Tokyo's one-room hotel Trunk House – it takes over a 70-year-old building that once served as living quarters for geishas, and even includes a miniature nightclub for guests.

Also on the shortlist is the Taj Rishikesh Resort & Spa, a high-end hideaway in India which lies at the foot of the Himalayas, and The Datai Langkawi, a contemporary hotel that's set against the dense rainforests of Malaysia.

In the 2019 edition of the AHEAD Asia awards, the much-sought-after Hotel of the Year title was ultimately awarded to Amanyangyun Shanghai: a guest property on the outskirts of Shanghai that occupies a couple of Ming and Qing dynasty-era buildings.

It was created by Kerry Hill Architects, which explained in a Dezeen-produced short film that the hotel is designed to be a "living museum" that celebrates Chinese culture.

This year's winners will be announced in a ceremony at the Andaz Singapore hotel on 12 March 2020, tickets for which can be purchased on AHEAD's website.

Asia is one of four regions covered by the AHEAD awards, which also considers projects from the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. Prize-takers from each region will go on to compete in a global biennale, where worldwide titles can be won.

See the full shortlist below:

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Bar, Club or Lounge

Absinthe at Hôtel de la Coupole, Sapa, Vietnam
Lennon's at Rosewood Bangkok, Thailand
Manor Club at Rosewood Hong Kong, China
UNION at The Opposite House, Beijing, China

Event Spaces

Grand Ballroom and Junior Ballroom at Rosewood Hong Kong, China
Grand Hyatt Xi'an, China
The Great Room at Raffles Singapore
The PuXuan Hotel & Spa, Beijing, China

Guestrooms

Fairmont Maldives Sirru Fen Fushi, Shaviyani Atoll
Grand Hyatt Xi'an, China
Rosewood Bangkok, Thailand
Rosewood Hong Kong, China

Hotel Conversion

Moss Hotel, Hobart, Australia
Six Senses Maxwell, Singapore
Sunyata Hotel Meili, Yunnan, China
TRUNK(HOUSE), Tokyo, Japan

Hotel Newbuild

ENSO ANGO, Kyoto, Japan
Park Hyatt Shenzhen, China
Rosewood Hong Kong, China
The Thousand Kyoto, Japan

Hotel Renovation & Restoration

Grand Hyatt Seoul, South Korea
Hayman Island, Whitsunday Islands, Australia
Raffles Singapore
The Datai Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia

Landscaping & Outdoor Spaces

Alila Villas Koh Russey, Bamboo Island, Cambodia
Capella Sanya, China
Six Senses Bhutan
The Chedi Ninghai, China

Lobby & Public Spaces

Conrad Hangzhou, China
Grand Hyatt Xi'an, China
Hotel Kapok Shenzhen, China
JW Marriott Qufu, China

Lodges, Cabins & Tented Camps

Origin Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia
Shinta Mani Wild, Southern Cardamom National Park, Cambodia
The Hidden Valley Resort, Yunnan, China
The Lindis, Ahuriri Valley, North Otago, New Zealand

Resort Hotel

Mason, Pattaya, Thailand
Shishi-Iwa House, Karuizawa, Japan
Six Senses Bhutan
Taj Rishikesh Resort & Spa, Uttarakhand, Rishikesh, India

Restaurant

Nan Bei at Rosewood Bangkok, Thailand
Terra at Waldorf Astoria Maldives, Ithaafushi Island
The Legacy House at Rosewood Hong Kong, China
Yi by Jereme Leung at Raffles Singapore

Spa & Wellness

ANA InterContinental Beppu Resort & Spa, Japan
Hôtel de la Coupole, Sapa, Vietnam
Joali Maldives, Muravandhoo Island Raa Atoll
Rosewood Bangkok, Thailand

Suite

Grand Harbour Corner Suite at Rosewood Hong Kong, China
Presidential Suite at Grand Hyatt Seoul, South Korea
The Prestige Hotel, Penang, Malaysia
The St. Regis Hong Kong, China

Transport

Fenides Liveboard
Genting Dream
Oracle
Royal Caribbean Spectrum of the Seas

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New Goodies but Oldies furniture collection made from old tables

Designer Daniel Svahn's chairs for a town hall in Stockholm are made from upcycled unwanted tabletops that were destined for the dump.

The laminated MDF for the furniture collection, called New Goodies but Oldies, came from a conference room at Nacka town hall that was undergoing refurbishment.

Svahn approached the municipality of Nacka about a potential collaboration because it had previously demonstrated a progressive attitude towards sustainable development.

As part of its renovation of the city hall's conference facility, the tabletops made from laminated MDF were due to be scrapped.

Fourteen old tabletops were being replaced with new ones and were due to be disposed of, until Svahn intervened.

Svahn proposed that this material could instead be used to create three new seating products for use in the building's public spaces.

New Goodies but Oldies designs are informed by common types of activities and interactions he observed taking place in the city hall.

The first product is a simple seat with an elongated side section that offers privacy for users needing some quiet time to work or relax.

The other seats are designed to be shared. One is a playful design with a slightly curved underside that rocks gently when two people sit on either end.

The other object allows two colleagues to sit side by side and work together using a shared tabletop.

Svahn's designs aim to maximise usage of the available material by making as few alterations as possible. This involved working with the predetermined shapes of the tabletops, cutting and joining them to form three-dimensional objects.

The New Goodies but Oldies is a demonstration that materials from products that are no longer wanted can be salvaged and repurposed.

"It's basically cheaper and easier to bin and buy new things than to tend to the old," he told Dezeen. "Therefore a lot of good material is being binned and ultimately incinerated."

"[This is] a poor, flawed system and approach in this day and age. Particularly within the governmental and municipal arena, the ones who should lead by example."

The project is part of Svahn's studies at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. The designer hopes it highlights how much material is being wasted, particularly in the public sector.

Svahn's research identified that legislative and administrative obstacles in the public sector make reusing unwanted products more complicated and expensive than simply discarding them.

"The public sector is a huge material waste contributor because there are not enough rules, regulations or guidelines when it comes to tending to furniture that is considered to be old, obsolete or broken," the designer told Dezeen.

"Rules and laws need to be changed so that more sustainable and circular systems can be tried and established to a greater extent."

The designer explained that cutting the material efficiently was vital to keeping the time and costs involved low. He added that the shapes maintain a semblance of the original tables and support the project's central story about repurposing unwanted products.

The New Goodies but Oldies will be presented during the upcoming Stockholm Furniture Fair, with the outcomes displayed alongside diagrams depicting how the tabletops were sliced up to create the new components.

Svahn hopes that one of the project's outcomes will be an enhanced awareness of the issues surrounding reuse and the circular economy, which he feels could prompt a change in attitudes among consumers and policy makers.

"We really need to teach and emphasise the difference of cost versus value," he concluded.

"Even if the costs of buying new or upcycling and reusing are the same in the end, the value of doing the latter is greater because it saves material and with that emissions and other extraction and production footprints."

Other recent upcycled furniture projects include a bench made of old bicycles and coffee tables made from reclaimed windows.

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Shipping containers turned into mirrored architects' studio

Belgian practice TOOP Architectuur has designed two mobile architects' studios for its staff made of repurposed shipping containers clad in mirrors and timber.

One studio, called Cowes, is set within the rural landscape of Westouter, close to the French border.

The other, called Colok, sits at the end of an inner-city garden in Lokeren in East Flanders. Together the project is called Diptych.

"The starting point of the concept for our two offices is a low-budget shipping container," said TOOP Architectuur.

"These movable structures can easily be placed everywhere, have a strong formal identity and exist in varied sizes."

Cowes, surrounded by a green, hilly landscape has been covered almost entirely with mirrors.

A large, sliding opening at its centre and a full-height window at one end.

"On this beautiful plot we tried to create an office which is as invisible as possible and always lets the landscape speak at its maximum," said the practice.

"Precisely chosen openings for the interior create a connection to the landscape. One is oriented towards a nearby hill, and the other frames a small forest at the end of the plot."

Colok, which sits in the city centre surrounded by row houses, is clad in wood.

It opens out onto a garden through a glazed wall and sliding door.

The rear of this studio creates a boundary to the street. Its blank wooden elevation is entered through a hidden door.

Within each container, a run of desks is oriented looking out towards the landscape.

Full-height bookshelves sit behind the desks.

At the end of each container is a more informal seating area.

Interior finishes were chosen to create a strong visual identity that would bring consistency to the studios despite their differing sites.

Walls, floors and ceilings have been finished with standardised panels of red plywood, a material usually used for construction rather than as a finish.

Untreated steel ribbons placed between them and used to mount bookshelves.

"By using such a low-budget yet beautiful material we show visitors the possibility to doing interesting things with low-budget materials," TOOP Architectuur said.

Gallery-style lighting illuminates the desk areas.

While only two units have currently been completed, the concept is one that TOOP Architectuur believes could be rolled out across several sites.

"One could imagine another [studio] giving a different answer to another site but forming part of a triptych. Or even more becoming a polyptych," said the firm.

The practice recently completed a project for a home, also in Westouter, built using concrete and wood to frame views of the surrounding landscape.

Photography is by Tim Van de Velde.

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JR Reproduces Images of More Than 1,000 NYC Residents in Massive New Mural

“The Chronicles of New York City” (2020). Photos by Marc Azoulay. All images © JR-ART.net, shared with permission

French artist JR (previously) is back in New York, transforming pockets of the city with his latest work. Installed on stacked shipping containers, “The Chronicles of New York City” is a compilation of images depicting more than 1,000 New York residents, who the artist photographed and reproduced for the large-scale work. Created in Williamsburg’s Domino Park, the black-and-white mural is JR’s biggest public project to date in the city. It overlooks the East River and features people living in all five boroughs gathered in a public space that mimics the newly built park.

Since opening his exhibition “JR: Chronicles” in October of 2019, the artist has been transforming areas throughout the city, like a space at the Kings Theatre in Flatbush and the Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance in Bedford Stuyvesant. “The Chronicles of New York City” is the centerpiece of the exhibition, which is on view through May 3, 2020, at Brooklyn Museum, and is accompanied by audio recordings of those portrayed in the monochromatic mural. The public installation was a collaboration with architectural firm LOT-EK, which is known for its sustainable design and helped in creating the site.

“Working at the intersections of photography, social engagement, and street art, JR collaborates with communities by taking individual portraits, reproducing them at a monumental scale, and wheat pasting them—sometimes illegally—in nearby public spaces,” says a statement about the exhibition.  See where JR’s work pops up next by following him on Instagram and peek in his shop to check out what’s available for purchase.

 

 

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