Culdesac designs coherent interiors for Consum supermarket in Benicàssim

Creative consultancy Culdesac has designed a store for supermarket chain Consum in Benicàssim, Spain, with simple, stripped-back interiors to make the shop's arrangement understandable.

Valencia-based Culdesac designed the arrangement, signage and furniture of the store, which will serve as a model for Consum's future shops, to be clearer and easier to understand than traditional supermarkets.

"Stores should be designed in order to make shopping easier," explained Borja Berna, senior creative architect at Culdesac. "To help people and to make them travel in store in a comfortable way."

To do this, Culdesac has simplified the store's interiors by removing "visual noise" such as aerial signage.

"This design was about figuring out which kind of elements were disturbing and deleting them, making only elements that were going to help shoppers," Berna told Dezeen.

"We deleted noise and focused on the essential issues. Colours, signage, lights and communication had to create a happy visit to the store and, at the same time, create the brand image."

Within the store the different sections have been arranged according to an organisation chart developed by Culdesac and Consum, within a strict geometric arrangement.

"We've created an organistional chart: most important areas, corridors and head places, perimeter, and cashier area," explained Berna.

"Each part has been assigned a graphic design according to the scale in space, but the most important is that all of them are in line with each other."

Throughout the interiors, natural tones have been combined with Consum's orange branding.

"Colour has also its own function," said Berna. "From a distance, it helps to define large areas and the cashier area. Orange is the brand colour, so the starting point is a welcome area in orange."

"An orange line connects the whole space, so this colour is never lost," continued Berna.

"White allows us to create a warm, clear and close space. Moving away from techno spaces and getting close to a familiar, friendly store and shopping experience. Black lettering is also the best way [for shoppers] to read."

The design implemented at the Benicàssim store will be used at future Consum stores and will begin to be implemented across the chain's 680 supermarkets in Spain.

Photography is by David Zarzoso.

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Frank Lloyd Wright sites offer virtual tours during pandemic

Fallingwater, Hollyhock House and Taliesin West are among the 12 Frank Lloyd Wright-designed properties opening their doors to virtual tours.

The initiative called #WrightVirtualVisits will see the sites share a video tour of another site. The short tours will be posted to their websites, and Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Established by Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation, the project launched on Thursday 2 April and will continue every Thursday for six weeks. The project is intended to provide access to these places while tours are postponed and offer light relief during the coronavirus pandemic.

"As social distancing and stay-at-home orders have swept the country, many Frank Lloyd Wright sites that are normally open to the public have had to close their doors, just when they were gearing up for the spring touring season to begin," said the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy.

"These measures are crucial to slowing the spread of Covid-19 and protecting the staff, volunteers, and visitors who usually fill these extraordinary spaces with life," it added. "It is precisely at this time, when so many are shut inside, that we need to experience beauty and inspiration."

So far, Hollyhock House and Taliesin West have swapped videos, as well as Unity Temple and Emil Bach House, and Fallingwater and The Westcott House. This Thursday, each site will trade with another involved in the series.

Ebsworth Park, Gordon House, Graycliff, Martin House, Willey House and Samara are among the other properties signed up to the initiative. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy expects others to join as the programme develops.

"Wright's works bring people together in harmony with the natural world, reminding us that we are all connected, even when we're apart," the conservancy continued.

Wright, who was born on 8 June 1867, designed over 1,000 buildings and completed over 500 during a career that lasted seven decades. Today, he is celebrated as one of the most important architects of the 20th century.

In 2017, Dezeen looked at some of Wright's most famous projects to mark what would have been the 150th anniversary of his birth. These include Robie House, his most "consummate expression" of Prairie style, and Hollyhock House, an early example of Mayan Revival architecture.

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Artist Ruth Asawa’s Mesh Wire Sculptures Adorn New Stamps from USPS

All images © United States Postal Service

Soon you’ll be able to mail a letter to a friend—or realistically, pay a bill—with a hint of art history. The United States Postal Service announced this week that it’ll be releasing 10 stamps inspired by renowned sculptor Ruth Asawa. The neutral-toned collection contains mostly her bulbous hanging pieces that appear to swell and contract in vertical lines.

Born in 1926, Asawa was forced into a Japanese internment camp by the U.S. government with her family during World War II. She learned to draw during her detainment, before eventually attending Black Mountain College, where she studied with Josef Albers and began to delve into wire weaving and sculpture. Later in her career, Asawa described her looped artworks as “a woven mesh not unlike medieval mail. A continuous piece of wire, forms envelop inner forms, yet all forms are visible (transparent). The shadow will reveal an exact image of the object.”

The forthcoming stamps feature photographs by Dan Bradica and Laurence Cuneo, with the selvage image taken by Nat Farbman for a 1954-issue of Life. To see more of Asawa’s wire works before you pick up the postal packet, check out the Instagram account that her estate manages. (via Artsy)

 

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Eight Modern Puzzles, Games, and Creative Kits to Keep You Busy and Offline

If you’re on the internet these days—since you’re reading this, we’ll guess you are—you’ve seen countless lists outlining shows to watch, books to read, and craft projects to undertake to distract yourself for an hour. You probably saw our Skillshare picks, too.

Today, we’re inspired by Jackie Buddie over at Etsy to gather activities that require no internet connection because we know how it goes: you mean to listen to that audiobook you just downloaded, but all of a sudden, you’re back on Twitter devouring bad news and realizing that you need to plant a victory garden. In an effort to distract your hands and your mind, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite games, puzzles, and kits currently available on Etsy. Another perk? You’ll support artists with your purchases, too.

Part toy and part wildlife painting, these brightly colored puzzles from Saint-Paul based artist Megan Bakke are appropriate for small children and beautiful enough to be displayed once complete. Each set is divided into large chunks that form delicately feathered flamingos and emus and detailed portraits of gorillas and llamas.

 

We’re loving these modern dominoes and geometric puzzle pieces from Montreal-based Jonathan Dorthe. Using a series of lined shapes, the wooden puzzle doesn’t have a strict formation and can be arranged to create a rectangle, a house, or any of the other 36 combinations. On the dominoes, each concentric hexagon represents a dot. Finally learn the rules to the game or simply line them up and watch them tumble one-by-one.

 

Illustrated by Barbara Dziadosz, these colorful playing cards feature kings, queens, and jacks decked out in modern garb. A heads up if you’re in the U.S., though: the Germany-based artist says your shipment might be delayed due to the ongoing pandemic.

 

For those looking for a solitary activity, Dziadosz also creates these woodblock stamps designed to shape robots and other geometric creatures, depending on their combination.

 

An actual trip to the lake or woods—not to mention outer space—might not be feasible right now, but these model kits by the Portland-based shop Houha Designs provide a small escape. All you need is glue (the shop recommends Elmer’s) to fix each laser-cut piece to the next to create a fishing boat, fire tower lookout, or circular spaceship.

 

An impressive upcycle by Calgary-based designer Adrian Martinus, this cribbage board is made from old hardwood and repurposed skateboards. Detailed with chevron and stripes, the classic game comes with nine metal pegs that are stored separately.

 

Correctly assembling all 500 pieces of this varicolored, impressionist puzzle is sure to be meditative. Titled “Moonlight Over Euclid,” the abstract landscape jigsaw is based on a painting by Milwaukee-based artist Karen Williams-Brusubardis.

 

 

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Arched terracotta volume tops Delfino Lozano's Guadalajara apartment complex

Mexican architect Delfino Lozano has turned a family home in Guadalajara into four apartments detailed with blue-painted beams and arched doorways.

Lozano created four one-bedroom residences in a two-storey property located in the Santa Teresita neighbourhood of the Mexican city.

The architect said he designed the complex, called House B836, to follow as much of the existing layout as possible. Features include a pair of courtyards that allow for natural light to penetrate into each of the apartments and an internal staircase in the middle of the building.

"The original structure of the house was conserved, achieving the perfect distribution of the four studios and demolishing only the necessary elements to generate much more open spaces," he said.

The stair connects the four units and leads up to a small volume that Lozano erected on the roof to offer residents access to a rooftop patio. The structure has concrete and glass walls, and a curved brickwork roof that is covered in terracotta tiles.

The arched roof mirrors the numerous archways seen in the project, such as arched windows and doorways.

White walls feature both on the exterior and inside House B836, which was previously coloured a dark yellow outside. Lozano said the colour is a way to mix Mediterranean architecture with Mexican elements to create a new style he calls "Mexiterraneo".

Photograph by Erle Marec

"The design intentions reaffirm the searching of the office for picking up the line of the "Mexiterraneo", in which materiality was selected by its freshness and sobriety they provide in each of the spaces," he explained.

Lozano also used the term to describe his renovation of a 1970s house in the nearby city of Zapopan. Called Casa A690, it similarly includes a mix of Mediterranean and Mexican aesthetics.

At House B836, a rough stone wall in one of the courtyards offers a contrast to the texture of the smooth concrete floors inside the units.

The interiors combine the industrial quality of exposed steel beams and concrete, which is also used to create benches and tabletops, with softer surfaces. Plywood clads interior walls, forms built-ins for seating and serves as kitchen cabinetry.

Photograph by Erle Marec

Lozano has also painted a number of the doors and exposed beams blue to match the colours of windows and doorways.

"This way, using concrete, wood, blue-painted ironworks, and clay elements such as the vault that culminates on the top level of the building, honouring the range of local materials," Lozano said.

Photograph by Erle Marec

Details that round out the 250-square-metre project are woven rugs, globe light fixtures, pillows and potted plants.

Ample natural light is provided with different window shapes, from long rectangular portions to gridded, arched designs.

Photograph by Erle Marec

In addition to House B836, Lozano has modernised another home in Guadalajara. He has also built two new residences, Casa G and RR House in Zapopan.

Photography is by César Béjar unless stated otherwise.

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Project credits:

Collaborators: Daniel Villalba, Sebastián Aldrete, Gloria López, Jesús Sánchez, Fernanda Rodríguez
Ironwork: Franck Chamú
Electricity and plumbing: Juan Pablo de León
Woodwork: Alejandro Mena
Landscape: Petunia Landscaping
Painting: Antonio Cisneros
Construction: Delfino Lozano
Structural engineering: Delfino Lozano Armenta

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